REQUIEM OR RESURGENCE FOR THE CONGRESS PARTY ?

It all began in 1885 when some 70 odd delegates of eminence came together in Bombay (now Mumbai) to form a movement by name Indian National Congress (INC) against the British imperialism that the people of the country had been undergoing so badly. It included men from all over india such as Dadhabhai Naoroji, Ramaswami Mudaliar, WC Bonnerji, Badruddin Tyabji, and a former British Civil servant AO Hume. Though history credited the founding to Mr Hume, the underlying ethos were simply Indian who were suffering the British Raj. 

In more than 135 plus years of its existence, the Congress, the name it got stuck with (unofficially it never got addressed as INC or National Congress), became the leading political party and the main exponent of country’s freedom struggle. In the 30’s and 40’s of the last century, the party could not prevent the emergence of Muslim League and the partition of the nation. After independence, Congress party ruled the country for close to 6 decades. It wouldn’t be out of place to say that the party really endeavoured to progress the nation which was left plundered by the colonial rulers.  

In the 70’s, deep fissures appeared within Congress, in addition to serious opposition build up against it from outside. The declaration of National Emergency in 1975 will remain as a major black mark in the party’s conscience.

Though started as a socialist party, it became the ‘adda’ of feudal lords, erstwhile kings, aspirational businessmen, caste chauvinists and of course, corrupt politicians. Over a period of time, many separate factions came out of it and these splinter party’s started playing lead role in regional and state politics. In effect, the mother congress party was slowly weakening as time progressed. The arrival of Narendra Modi into the national scenario and the hegemony that BJP brought to the national polity disrupted Congress further. In the last National election, the party’s numbers in Loksabha diminished to 53 MPs which didn’t entail it to get even an official ‘leader of opposition’ position. 

The first generation in the Congress party was patriots who having suffered slavery for long, wanted to get freedom and take country to a better shape. The next generation were mostly corrupt and feudalist opportunists who’s only interest was WIIIFM. People welfare, thus took back seat. Presently it has so many career politicians, (no other employment for them), their skills only being apple polishing the higher ups and reaching power, only to amass wealth. 

The fundamental reason for the party’s present plight is the hereditary politics that it followed. The Nehru clan, controls the party even today and is deemed as the “mai baap” of the party, called as ‘high command’! Sonia Gandhi, by virtue of being the wife of slain Rajiv Gandhi who was the son of Mrs. Indira Gandhi who happened to be the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, (the architect of free India) is at the apex of the party. How much is she connected to reality and how she understands the voter/citizen’s plight are major questions on her. She sits up there in the ivory tower, surrounded by ‘yes’ men who actualise as being tiny part of the high command. To add to her agony is the son, on whom the mantle of leadership was bestowed many times. For several ambivalent reasons, he drifts around, allowing opposition to caricature him as ‘irresponsible’, ‘immature’ etc. Her daughter Priyanka’s husband is embroiled in real estate scams plenty. To add to the agony, related to the sale of the huge assets of the party’s mouthpiece, National Herald, the Enforcement Directorate is troubling the mother, son and daughter.  

Some of the party’s top leaders, called Group of 23, rebelled against the leadership for the stalemate that has been continuing for 4/5 years now. Three/four of them are now out of the party and others are simply loitering. Nothing is exciting in the congress party and party-men are not amused either.

It is at his stage that decision to elect Congress President (other than the mother/son) is taken. It is obvious that the ‘high command’ will want to have a stooge of a person as the new party president, a la Manmohan Singh who was PM with Mrs Gandhi as the back seat driver. The Group of 23 finds it as an opportunity to get one of them to contest for the party president post and get elected (The Thiruvananthapuram MP’s name frequently heard as one). But there are many in the kitchen cabinet who are trying to block it. 

From 2014, with the formation of Modi government, BJP’s shenanigans not only took it to high acceptance among voters but also decimated the Congress party. Lack of strategic thinking, indecisiveness, nepotism, cronyism, WIIIFM politics and all had resulted in Congress party losing its grip on national politics. A genuine changeover and creation and execution of long term people-centric strategy can revive the party. Within the current geopolitics inside the party, it is not sure whether congress would soon have a requiem or a resurgence. 

Let us wait and watch……

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UNICORNS & HEAVENLY VALUATION

There is something brewing up in Byju’s. The news is not authenticated yet by the company or auditors or the investors. If rumours are true, it will not only hit Byju’s badly but tarnish the shaky Indian ‘edtech’ sector. We have also been reading such news about Vedantu, Unacademy etc.

Byju’s’ has an expensive edtech course which is sold to customers who cannot afford to purchase it by onetime payment. Therefore, it ties the customers with financing companies to facilitate a loan, to be repaid trough EMIs.

In Byju’s case, due to variety of reasons, there are huge EMI default by its customers. Normally lenders, who finance customers to buy products, try to validate the capability of the individual to pay back the loan. For risky loans, they make stringent approval criteria or raise the interest rates. But if the company that sells the product guarantees to repay some or all of the loan in case its customers default, the financing company would loosen its terms, thus facilitating  more sales. This guarantee is called the first loss default guarantee or FLDG.

Byju’s (and its Indian peers) gained immensely from this arrangements. This drove the company’s sales in India northward.

The challenge has been that the households that are barely making ends meet, have often not been to repay the loans. And there are hundreds of thousands of defaulters now that were compensated by Byju’s to the financiers. 

Byju’s has a challenge to show these refunds in the book and due to this, Deloitte, the auditors of the company is not signing its 2020-21 balance sheet (it is more than 15 months now). This has now triggered panic amongst the edtech’s investors and rival edtech leaders.

It is for these reasons that RBI wants to clamp down on FLDGs. If that happens, lots of edtech loans might come on the radar. That is the major risk for Byju’s. This also would affect the impending IPO of Byju’s, and that can have serious ramifications for the investing companies. 

Apparently, FLDG has the same characteristics of the Sub Prime Lending of 2008 that started a global economic collapse. 

One tend to argue that like most of the Unicorns is in the country, Byju's is also a flawed case of valuation. It is  not different from what happened during dot com bubble. Our penchant for "Unicorns" is heading us for another financial disaster. One is still wondering how some of the Indian startups could become a unicorn in just 6 months. 

The astonishing figures of losses these companies make are often shoved under the carpet and VCs make merry by selling them among each other and finally selling to unsuspected primary market investors to their peril ! In fact in Kerala, we are criticised for not having "valuable" unicorns but only profitable companies. It is hoped that proponents of startup ecosystem will soon come out of the mythical world of heavenly unicorns, most of whom are nothing but lame donkeys with an artificial overgrowth

LIFE IS A RIVER

Who said the river flows smoothly? Seldom it does. When it rains, it goes into spate. On its way, there are thousands of rapids trying to break its flow and tear its body into pieces and then, there are deep falls that it is forced to jump. Yes, the river has a lot to tell about its journey, the ups and the downs. In spite of it all, it flows and reaches its destiny, of dissolving into the sea. 

Life is also like that. Who said life is a bed of roses? At best it is a sinusoidal wave and at its worst, it is like a river in spate facing multiple rapids and forced to jump! Like an all in one! 

There are good times in life that we enjoy and there are bad times too that we hate to face. Often when it is bad, many struggles come together to test  our strength, our patience and our life. People with weak mind start wilting. Too bad! 

We all want to be hale & hearty and successful. But our best learnings come from our failures, our setbacks and our challenges. Theses  learnings stand in good stead for us to face the next of bad times with a peaceful thought, ‘this too will pass’. 

When we have difficulties, we start blaming others and the situations. We think the world has come together to kick us on the butt. Just realise this, there are things in our control and there are things out of our control. We can only address things in our control which let us do. The rapids, the falls are out of control, let us face them. But let us not yield to those. Let us face them with grit and win over it. There are so many examples of that. 

The advice here is, do not give up fast. Sometimes you may say, ‘it is coming repeatedly’. Let me assure you, it will not stay long, it may be there a while but it would go way. Transience, that is the law of nature. It comes, it goes. Guaranteed that it will. 

Strengthen your mind. Pray, meditate or reflect. Find some exclusive time for yourself. Let the happening go though your mind as a trailer but PLEASE DO NOT BE JUDGEMENTAL. That is the key. By itself, it is an inside oriented therapy. It soothes, it cools, not only that, it removes ambivalence, it brings better clarity and above all, it consolidates relationship with near and dear. Try it out, please. 

Remember, TOUGH TIMES DON’T LAST, TOUGH PEOPLE DO. 

A NATION SUFFERS A SURREAL FAMILY LEADERSHIP

Sri Lanka has everything going against it. Its economy has melted down. Its money earner, the tourism industry, had collapsed due to the Covid-19 & the country is about to default the loans. It is now seriously thinking of an IMF bailout. And above all, the ‘no love lost’ situation between the Sinhalese and the Tamils still continues! 

The country is fully under the control of one family, the Rajapaksa’s. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is its President, his elder brother Mahindra (formerly country’s President) is the Prime minister, younger brother Basil is the finance minister, eldest brother Chamal is Irrigation minister, Mahinda’s son, Namal is the Sports minister and Chamal’s son, Shasheendra is the minister for Organic fertiliser production, vegetable cultivation and advanced agri technology!

That is not all, Mahinda’s second son Yoshita is the PM’s Chief of Staff on ministerial rank and the nephew of the President, Nipuna Ranawaka is the member of Parliament. 

The Rajapasa family holds 9 ministerial berths that includes 7 cabinet posts. It is estimated that about 75 % of the Country’s budget is under their control, a feat not even the monarchs of Saudi Arabia could claim! 

The first thing that President did after coming to power was passing the 20th amendment of the Country’s constitution that gave the President unlimited powers, an act that was nationally (by the namesake opposition) and internationally condemned. But who bothers? 

The huge debt that the country has with China, taken for building the Hambantota port and other infrastructure projects, had resulted in China taking over the port and at this rate, no one will be surprised if China monopolises the sea cargo movement of Sri Lanka by controlling its ports.  

Post the civil war and the military (excess) action, the Tamils are still demanding a fair deal from the Government and there is no progress made on it, getting the attention of the world bodies, including the United Nations, all cajoling the government to do something for the Tamil minority at the earliest. 

The collapse of tourism industry, something which Sri Lanka ever depended on progress and forex, had struck the last nail to the country’s economic meltdown. It confirms the adage that ‘when somethings start going wrong, everything goes wrong with it‘

Added to that are the challenges brought in by the agriculture reform by the government, advising organic farming and withdrawing fertilisers and chemicals from paddy (Lankan staple diet) & vegetable cultivation, resulting in considerably reduced agricultural output, thereby taking the country into a famine situation. 

A famished country, unabated Covid, inflation shooting up, internal ethnic strife, unemployment and; ruled by the thumb of an autocratic family, everything is taking Sri Lanka, our neighbors, down the road.

It is Thomas Jefferson who said, “the government you elect is the government you deserve”!

WHAT WOULD BE XI JINPING'S NEXT MOVE?

Now that he had consolidated his position as President for life (almost), he would be working on:

1. Annexing more land to China (Arunachal Pradesh of India, Taiwan, Some of the islands belonging to Philippines, the north east side of Bhutan, most of the Pangong lake valley in Ladak etc.)
2. Completely re-energising the Chinese army and building higher capacities within it
3. Fighting indirect wars with USA (at times spilling over to sea skirmishes with USA and allies, in South China Sea)
4. Trying to take full control of WTO
5. Completely localising Hong Kong & Macau, may be, cancelling the ‘one country, 2 system’ mode
6. Acting brutally on the those satellite countries that had availed huge Chinese loans but unable to pay back (remember, China's  Belt and Road initiatives) in the past for infrastructure and facilities and makng them Chinese stooges on world scene.
7. Taking cutting edge leadership in technology, engineering, electronics, IOT, 5G, space & missile technologies, nuclear technology, healthcare technology etc., even outdoing USA & Europe
8. Controlling Chinese billionaire entrepreneurs and to a large extent, taking over/ managing their enterprises.
9. Doing everything possible to make the Xi thought on ‘common prosperity’ successful, in order to manage the citizens, by making them happy.
10. Increasing the gap between him and next in line in CCP thus making sure that no alternative leader to him emerge within It.

However at all points in time, he may have to watch over his shoulder as 1. world opinion can shift, 2. the Islamic word can go against him in support of Uighur muslims, 3. some smart Alec can come up in CCP politburo gaining support from majority with in it and 4. social media technology oriented denizens catching him in his act.

That’s about it. Let us keep watching China.........

RESOLVE YOUR CONFLICTS BEFORE YOU GO AWAY

Someone sent me a short video on Kashi Labh Mukti Bhavan (KLMB), Varanasi; commented by Deepak Ramola, a young TED speaker who speaks on life lessons learnt. 

Kashi Labh Mukti Bhavan, existing since the 1950s, built by the Dalmias, is a place for people to go, stay and die (of course, naturally) when it is time for it, such as old age, terminal illness etc. Since dying in Varanasi, the most sacred city of India, is believed to give eternal deliverance to the soul, many people come to stay here during their final days and as per records, more than 15000 people’s life had ended in this very building!

Much more interesting is the life lessons learnt from the manager of KLMB that is expressed in the video. Citing many cases that occurred there, the  major lesson delivered was about ‘resolving the conflicts before one ends the life’. I found it very interesting. 

Practically all of us may have undergone conflicts with others in life, be it kith, kin or someone. Often our big ego does not allow us to take the initiative to resolve the conflicts and we carry it inside and instead of going away, it grows inside, often boiling inside us. While we would not accept it to others that it is killing us and we deny its existence, in reality, we are seriously affected by it. Carrying such a pain inside, how peacefully can you prepare to die, even when the time has come? And, if we die carrying the painful burn of conflict inside, do we really think the soul that leaves our body will be eternally liberated?

So if it is liberation (moksh) of the soul is that we seek, it is important that we take the initiative to meet the person/s with whom we have the conflict and resolve it before we leave the earth. The manager poignantly explains a particular case of an elder brother on deathbed there passing away with peace on his face immediately after resolving his long-standing conflict with the younger one. Let us realise this, CARRYING A PAINFUL CONFLICT INSIDE, NO ONE CAN DIE IN PEACE!

At the end of the video the commentator makes a statement and I would like end this post with with it. “Resolve your conflicts today because the good news is, you are alive today to do it and the bad news is, no one knows, for how long will you live

PAY ATTENTION TO THINGS AROUND YOU, YOU COULD PROBABLY SAVE A LIFE

I read and and commented on a post about a person in USA suddenly having a heart attack in a car and a stranger attending to him and saving him from an instant death.

In the post he mentions that one major takeaway from the incident is about paying attention to things around you, in his some stranger paying attention to him, to save him from the brink of death.

This kindled my memory and brought out an an incident that happened in my life, of saving a life. I haven’t chest thumped it by telling it to the world, but I explain it below so that any of the reader may get a motivation to pay attention to things around, to the extent of a saving a dear life.

The members of an internationally affiliated social club of Cochin where I was a member & an office bearer, were doing a pleasure ride cum family dinner on a cruze boat on the backwaters of Cochin. It started by late evening and we concluded the official meeting in the first hour. Later by about 7.30 pm, the boat was brought and anchored at the Fine Arts Hall jetty to load the dinner from a reputed restaurant in the city and after that, the boat was about to resume the journey. Along with the club President and two three other office bearers, I too alighted from the boat and volunteered to get the food inside. One by one everyone from outside boarded the boat back and the president and I were the last to board. Without us realising, by then, the boat was moving off slowly (probably the carelessness of the boat driver)

One must admit that we were a little tipsy with the beer intake during the trip and as our president tried to jump into the boat, the boat having moved off, he went straight into the deep water (indeed deeper as this jetty was used by big cruze and cargo boats) and being dark already, no one watching to raise an alarm!

Having seen him falling into water, at that moment, from out of the blue, it dawned on me that a person who falls into deep water like this, will come up in a few seconds before going down again and calling the attention of the people on this side, standing on the steps, I waited for his body to come up and I wasn’t disappointed. As he came up,I grabbed him by the hair and pulled him up. All these happened in a few seconds. After the first aid and all, we resumed the journey.

People later told me that if he wasn’t pulled out then, his would have been a gone case.

It had happened in his midlife and our then president, after having a full career, including that in GCC nations, is now living a peaceful retired life in Cochin. May be at times, he would remembering the accident. Initially around the date, I used to get his mail/call.

Yes, paying attention on things around you helps and by virtue of it, you could probably be saving someone’s life too