EXPRESS

NEVER thought I would ever feel sad for Mamata Banerjees plight. Her every move in the Presidential race was ill-timed and ill-thought-out. A month ago, she thought she would capture the initiative by getting together with Mulayam Singh Yadav and proposing APJ Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh and Somnath Chatterjee as Presidential candidates. As a bargaining ploy, this exploded within 24 hours when Mulayam Singh defected to UPA-II and declared his preference for its candidate. Mulayam Singh knew what he was doing and secured several thousand crores for UP (I presume so that the various Samajwadi Party workers can go around shooting innocent citizens happily with their fast guns). Mamata, on the other hand, flirted with NDA, gave false hopes to Sangma and then capitulated. But she was sour faced in her manner of conceding. If she still gets the money she badly needs for West Bengal, she

OPINION 11
would have Sonia Gandhi to thank for it. Politics is a dirty game in which there are no permanent friends or foes, just compatible interests. Mulayam Singh and Sonia Gandhi have been in a complex relationship these many years and he has reneged on her before. Yet he has a lot to teach Mamata about how to thrive in Indian politics where you are as powerful as your next big dole out from the Centre. Yet, the manner of electing the President has shown that the process is somewhat demeaning to the public. The idea is that the President is elected by the peoples representatives since each MP or MLA vote has a weight equal to his or her electorate. Yet, in reality, this election is not by individual legislators as an electoral college but by parties and their leaders doing deals. Legislators are just puppets

JULY 22, 2012

Final reckonings
out of my

MIND

Meghnad Desai
and despite the secret ballot, they will do what their party tells them to do. Indeed since the anti-defection law was put into the Constitution, individual legislators in India have less freedom than anywhere else I can think of. The Election Commission has certain rules about what an incumbent can or cannot do once elections are announced. Such a stricture does not seem to apply in the case of Presidential elections. The party in power thus has enormous resources to bribe other parties to vote the way they choose. Hence

the smart moves by Mulayam Singh Yadav and his just rewards. Of course, it will be argued that this is all proper and done through the Planning Commission but no one is fooled by all that. Congress has been its usual risk-averse self and gone for overkill. Its aim was to secure not just a majority but an overwhelming vote for its candidate. This is because the Presidential election is rehearsal for gauging party strength in forming winning coalitions in 2014. Hence the desire to include in as many as possible and the delicacy with which Mamata Banerjee was treated despite her tantrums all these weeks. This strategy is obviously a winning one as far as the election of Pranab Mukherjee is concerned. Yet, it does not give us any guidance as to what will happen at the next

general election. UPA-II was put together very late in the day after the Congress surprised itself by winning 200 plus seats. In 2014, we will have a new situation. If, as one hopes the Prime Minister is successful in speeding up economic reforms, tackling the deficit and increasing the GDP growth rate, Congress may yet lose no more than 50 seats. One consolation that the PM has is that he has been abandoned by all his previous admirers. Things can only get better from here on since everyone has lost all hope. But Congress is in suicidal mode. The calls yet again for Rahul to take over are a sure sign that as far as Congress veterans are concerned, the strategy will be to ditch reforms, return to old style socialism and try to do an Indira Gandhi election in 2014. The Presidential election will give a sense of euphoria. If so, good luck and good bye Congress in 2014 and for a generation after.

thinking ALOUD
Sudheendra Kulkarni

Mother Gangas hahakaar

SOMETHING akin to an environmental and spiritual genocide is taking place along the course of the Ganga, Indias most sacred river. Yet, very little is being done to stop the crime. Why? One reason is the citizens ignorance, apathy and helplessness. A bigger reason is corruption in governments and the political establishment. A still bigger reason is the consumerism-driven model of development that India has followed, in which the environment is dispensable and its destruction inevitable. This is especially evident in Dev Bhoomi Uttarakhand, the state where the Ganga originates and where some of the holiest places of Hindu pilgrimageGangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Uttarkashi, Rishikesh, Hardwarare located. There is a mad rush to build dams of various sizes across the Ganga and its tributaries, to generate power. The number is mindnumbing, some 600 of them. Once these are built, long stretches of the river and its tributaries will simply dry up, an alarming phenomenon that is already visible at many places. This is because the river is being forced to flow through a series of tunnels and artificial reservoirs. This has endangered the flora and fauna in one of the most God-blessed regions in India in terms of beauty and biodiversity. It has also threatened the unique quality of Ganga jal, deemed holy by Hindus all over the world. If this is Ganga Matas plight in Uttarakhand, it gets worse as it flows through UP and Bihar, before merging into the sea at Ganga Sagar in Bengal. At many places, it either disappears or is reduced to a mucky trickle in summer months. Gathering municipal sewage and toxic industrial effluents all along the way, its water becomes unfit for drinking, bathing or any other use. Nearly 300 crore litres of untreated sewage is being discharged into the river daily. This was stated by none other than Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, when he chaired the third meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in April. No further proof is needed to know that the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), launched by the late Rajiv Gandhi with a lot of fanfare in 1985, was a total failure. NGRBA, too, will fail if it doesnt correct past mistakes. Lets not forget: Ganga is Indias longest river, 2,526 km in length. Directly or indirectly, it affects the lives of nearly 50 crore people living in its basin that covers 11 northern and eastern states. In reality, the Ganga belongs to all of India, like no other river does. In my childhood in Karnataka, a person used to come every year with a pitcher of Ganga jal, which he would devotedly distribute to numerous eager families in my village. When I visited Kanpur recently, I couldnt believe how dirty the jal in Ganga has become. In January-February next year, crores of devotees will come to the sangam at Prayag (Allahabad) for the Maha Kumbh. I shudder to think how they can take a holy dip in the unimaginably polluted waters there. True, the pilgrims piety often disregards pollutionbut for how long? If the Ganga dries up, disappears or gets even more ecologically degraded, will it mean to our future generations what it meant even to someone like Jawaharlal Nehru who wasnt overtly religious? The Ganga, he poetically wrote in his will and testament, is the river of India, beloved of her people, round which are intertwined her memories, her hopes and her fears, her songs of triumph, her victories and her defeats. She has been a symbol of Indias age-long culture and civilisation, ever changing, ever flowing and yet ever the same Ganga. Sadly, the Ganga is no longer the same. The Ganga is ailing. Today its a symbol of our sick civilisation. Bhupen Hazarika, Assams legendary artist who passed away last year, sang a popular protest song on the Ganga. It describes the poverty, illiteracy, ill-health and misery of the people living in the river basin. Bemoaning the corruption in politics and the erosion of moral values in society, it asks: Vistar hai apar, praja dono par, kare hahakaar, nisabd sada, Oh Ganga tum, Oh Ganga behti ho kyun? (The people who live along vast stretches on your two banks are screaming in anguish. Yet, O Ganga, why do you flow silently, without a protest? Why?) If Bhupenda were to sing his song today, I think hed probably describe Mother Gangas own hahakaar, and ask why the people of India have become so silent and uncaring towards her misery. Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan recently said that India needed a National Commission to Prevent Atrocities against the Ganga. Brave and welcome words. However, deeds must follow, NOW. Scrap or review all under-construction and proposed dams. Make the rest of India take care of a substantial part of Uttarakhands power needsif necessary, by giving adequate compensation. Implement the national solar mission, which targets generation of 20,000 MW of power, on a war footing. Wage a war on theft of power and also on massive T&D losses. Stop the colossal wastage of irrigation waters, which are diverted from the Ganga. Mandate panchayats, municipalities, and industriesthrough a policy of empowerment, incentives, disincentives, accountability norms and innovative business modelsnot to discharge any sewage or effluents into the river. Lets resolve to make the Ganga, and also all other rivers in India, nirmal (clean) and aviral (free and perennially flowing). We are forewarned: India is doomed if we do not make prudent, responsible, equitable and sustainable use of natural resources our national dharma.
sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com

inside

TRACK

Coomi Kapoor

ARJUN Singhs posthumous autobiography has thrown up yet another controversy. Arjun Singh claimed in the book that K C Singh, as joint secretary to former President Zail Singh, had met him in mid-87 and offered him the post of prime minister in place of Rajiv Gandhi. K C Singh, on the other hand, claims that Arjun Singh was trying to entrap him in order to earn brownie points with Gandhi. At that point in time, Arjun Singh had lost the Punjab governorship and was without a post. K C Singh, a former IFS officer, who, incidentally is planning to write his own memoirs, recalls that the meeting with Arjun Singh was at the instance of the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister. Arjun Singh claimed to be disillusioned with the Congress. K C Singh fell into the trap, declaring that if the Congress split, the President would have to swear in whoever commanded a majority. (VP Singh had left the party by this time and the Bofors scandal was in the news). Singh took this to mean that Zail Singh had offered him prime ministership and rushed to tell Rajiv Gandhi who asked him to keep him informed of the developments. When K C Singh relayed his conversation to Zail Singh, the President predicted shrewdly that Arjun Singh was a seasoned player who was bound to have taped the conversation and used it to his advantage. Forewarned, K C Singh spoke more circumspectly to Arjun Singh at the second meeting. In fact, Arjun Singh and Zail Singh, who disliked each other intensely, never met during this period. When Arjun Singh realised his sting operation had fizzled out, he leaked a recording of the first meeting to a periodical, claiming it was an IB tape. ALL presidents when they demit office have their portraits done, which are displayed in the Rashtrapati Bhavan Banquet Hall. Although the artists are usually chosen by a committee of experts, several of the presidential paintings look amateurish, perhaps because they are sketched on the basis of photographs. President Pratibha Patils painting is being done by R N Singh, an artist selected by the Lalit Kala Akademi. THE presidential elections have made the BJP uneasily aware that it is going to be a tough struggle to secure allies in the 2014 general

Of Singhs and stings

election. In the presidential election, the JD(U) and Shiv Sena deserted the NDA without a qualm. Though BJP president Nitin Gadkari had his reservations, at L K Advanis prodding, the party backed P A Sangma, largely because it wanted to be on the same page as J Jayalalithaa and Naveen Patnaik who had proposed Sangmas name. But to the disappointment of the BJP, Jayalalithaa later lost her enthusiasm and even suggested that Sangma withdraw from the race. She departed for a long holiday at Kodanad in the Nilgiris and left the BJP to almost single-handedly manage the campaign. Patnaik, after making his grand gesture of supporting a tribal, did not exert himself to canvass votes. Nor did Advanis effort to use Sudheendra Kulkarnis services as an emissary to Mamata Banerjee bear fruit. THERE are several qualified pilots in Parliament, including Baijayant Jay Panda, Naveen Jindal and Dinesh Trivedi, but only BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy is a qualified commercial pilot. In fact, Rudy has made it to the Limca Book of Records for this distinction. Rudy, who has logged some 800 hours on an A 320 aircraft, flies as an honorary co-pilot for IndiGo whenever he has to travel within the country. AFTER promising to host a conference in Tamil Nadu where the creation of Tamil Eelam would be the main subject of discussion, DMK leader M Karunanidhi has changed his tune and said the conference will only debate the welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils and not discuss a Tamil movement. Karunanidhi seems to have made a U-turn after a meeting with Home Minister P Chidambaram. However, Karunanidhis turnaround has not gone down well with some of the party cadres. A recent poster chides the anti-Brahmin party for agreeing to vote for Pranab Mukherjee, a Brahmin. THERE may be several reasons for Sharad Pawars annoyance with the Congress but two incidents last week added to his anxiety of being sidelined. On Thursday, the Cabinet once again failed to take up the issue of forward trading in agricultural commodities on the grounds that Railway Minister Mukul Roy could not attend the meeting. But the NCP did not see why Roys presence was necessary in the first place for taking a decision on this issue. The final straw was at the filing of the nomination papers for Hamid Ansari as Vice President. Just as Pawar was getting ready to sit down next to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Lalu Yadav pushed his way through and took his chair.

In pilots seat

Changing his tune

Portrait gallery

Kissa kursi ka

Lonely for the BJP

THE hardest thing to understand about Rahul Gandhis declaration last week that he plans to play a larger role in politics and government is his timing. Why now? He could have become prime minister in 2009 had he wanted but chose instead to wait till he had won his political spurs with victorious campaigns in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Things did not work out as he may have hoped. If Rahul has been reluctant to play the role of a real leader, the electorate has shown itself to be even more reluctant to hand him a real mandate. When his energetic campaigning in the Bihar assembly elections two years ago brought the Congress Partys seats down from 13 to four, his cohorts said it was because he had not really campaigned in Bihar. Wait till you see what happens in UP, one of his toadies told me last November. So I did and watched carefully as Rahul put his heart and soul into the campaign. To no avail, alas, so he did one of his vanishing tricks. He is given to disappearing every now and then but this time the vanishing act lasted so long that even a certified loyalist of the Gandhi family like Salman Khurshid had to admit in this newspaper, two weeks ago, that Rahuls political role has been mostly a series of cameos. Was it this that prompted Rahul to suddenly assert himself? Was it a little lecture from Mummy? Was it the economic slowdown? Was it the growing strains in the United Progressive Alliance? Whatever it was, his timing could not be worse. Not just because the political fallout could have dangerous consequences but because the Indian econ-

Bad Timing Rahul

fifth

COLUMN
Tavleen Singh
omy has been left in such bad shape by the man who will now be President. The Prime Minister cannot be absolved of all blame but, as the western media has suddenly discovered, his role was more that of Rahuls regent than Indias prime minister so he had limited political authority. So very limited that ministers supposedly close to Sonia Gandhi (or Rahul) openly defied him. It has only been in recent weeks, since Pranab Mukherjee moved out of North Block, that the Prime Minister has shown signs of asserting himself once more. Nothing has happened yet by way of definite measures to stop Indias investment climate from sliding towards junk status, or the rupees ominous slide against the dollar, but there have been some reassuring noises from the Prime Ministers office. This is why Rahuls timing is so bad. If the economic downturn is to be halted, the Prime Minister is going to need to use all the time he has available to concentrate on pushing through urgently needed economic reforms. He will not be able to do this if he is pushed back once more into the role of being Rahuls regent and this is exactly what will happen when Rahul steps into a larger role. Even without playing a larger role, Rahul, in the dynastic traditions of the Congress Party, is already the second most important leader in the country. So imagine what will happen if he decides to become a minister or deputy prime minister?

When he speaks of playing a larger role, it has to mean in government and not in the party because he already plays as large a role as possible in Congress affairs. Whenever there are elections he is personally involved in selecting candidates. In election campaigns, he is the star campaigner. And, as for strengthening the partys organisational structure, he has very clearly been the person in charge of this task albeit without making a visible difference. Besides, there is little room for an expanded role in a political party that has long been the Gandhi familys private limited company. As courtier-in-chief, Mani Shankar Aiyar, recently admitted, the Gandhi family is the Congress Party. If this is fine for the Congress Party, it should be fine for us but my humble suggestion to Rahul is that since he has waited so long to claim his political inheritance, he should wait a little longer. If the economy goes any further downhill, there could be no political inheritance left to claim by 2014. The only man who can stem the rot is the Prime Minister because he knows exactly what needs to be done. He will not be able to do anything if Rahul joins his government. His mere presence in the Cabinet will establish an alternative power centre and further diminish the Prime Ministers powers in the eyes of his ministers. Rahul must know that as the Congress Partys heir apparent he can hardly be seen in a secondary role to the man who has acted as his regent. If he wants a larger role, he must be prepared to be king. Is he prepared?
Follow Tavleen on Twitter @ tavleen _singh

from the discomfort

ZONE
ITALIAN companies in India sell high quality mens shoes that lace up elegantly through 16 small eye-holes. If inevitable wear-and-tear breaks the metal edges of these stylish, rounded laces, youd be hard pressed to locate laces this long and thin, as I found out the hard way. In Italy on work last week, my first agenda was buying such shoe-laces. Store after shoe-&-accessories store I trudged in Rome to ultimately find a pair in a lingerie shop. The shopkeeper hesitated, then emerged with tightly-sealed, dark blue, flat cotton laces. I had no choice but to spend two euros for the trial. I forced in the new laces, but bad luck! They were too short. The shopkeeper shrugged. I struggled to weave back my old edgeless laces, but again no luck. On the street again in this awkward condition, a Bangladeshi small grocery retailer pointed out a Chinese store. It was a veritable Ali Babas treasure trove, with baubles, perfumes, skipping

Opportunities awaiting drivers

sophisticated franchisee level business, also exporting shoe repair material to 50 countries. Even in Frances consumer society, Topy has made it a habit with people to keep their expensive leather shoes for 10-15 years through repair. Full or half soles can be changed, heel height adjusted. Topy organised retails throughout the country give customers the exceptional comfort and guarantee of an expert service they 100 per cent need. Similarly theres Speedy for car tyre replacement, servicing, air conditioning, mechanical or electronic problems, accessories or glass. For driving 600 km from Paris to Grenoble, I recently rented an almost new German car, then got a tyre puncture. The rental agency directed me to any of Speedys 450 car repairing centres in France. You can take an appointment through phone or their website or just drive in unannounced, as I did. I was surprised how Speedy, a noncompany owned garage, has tie-ups with car rentals, insurance companies and different manufacturers for servicing even during the guarantee period. For customers like me stuck mid-journey, Speedy brings a sigh of relief. In a jiffy Speedy replaced the tyre and sent me on my way. I was curious about the mechanics here who have complete knowledge of so many vehicle makes and asked them how they keep pace with technology. Speedy franchisees have access to a training centre. We regularly send our mechanics to acquire skill and knowledge, said the in-charge. Whats incredible in this service available in most cities is that customer expectations are met in the same way everywhere, and it costs less than a normal company garage. Topy and Speedy saw the gaps in customer requirement and plunged into the opportunity to create businesses that have prospered. Do our young professionals or companies spot such grassroots-type opportunities? Perhaps Indias rote learning education system does not adequately equip them to understand beyond the generic. India has millions of garages and skilled mechanics that can enable a Speedy-type of auto repair business. The obvious opportunity of a bonafide garage charging lower than auto company garages would benefit everyone involved in delivering and receiving the service. But do MBA professionals who study entrepreneurship see it as such? On the other hand, Indian companies always consider cost as the strategic factor rather than transferring opportunity into business reality. Indias corrugated diversity does throw up unusual opportunities. These can be spotted and converted, not by sitting in air conditioned offices, but on the roadside, in social living spaces, in traditional work practices. In the same way, look at our cobblers (mochis) who get no dignity in society. Everybody requires shoe repairs, yet where in a city can you find a trained mochi when you need one? Most mochis are itinerant craftsmen with no access to technology beyond knowhow handed down from their fathers. Wont it be great if such requirements and opportunities can be translated to uplift the life of working class people, create great business and attain high customer satisfaction? India has so many other unseen, untapped domains that are real opportunities to drive businesses. If only our young generation and corporate houses practice disruptive ideas, they can grab such opportunities. The crux in delivery is that consistent coherency is required for all-time execution excellence.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at www.shiningconsulting.com

Shombit Sengupta
ropes and shoe-laces. A blisterpack had four different colour and size laces for 80 cents. The point of this story is how the Chinese are on their toes to deliver customer satisfaction and connect to local requirements in different countries. Taking an obvious market gap and making it your specific business opportunity is the way to go. Young professionals, mostly MBAs, often come to me to bounce ideas about opportunities and their future. They talk of opportunities, are fascinated by foreign players, the lifestyle and luxury market which actually touches just 2-3.5 per cent of our population. Its often difficult to suggest to them that opportunity is not readymade like fish in a pond where you just lower a net for your catch. This opportunity jargon has no concrete base in reality until identified and meticulously converted to business. Take Topy, for example, a French shoe repair shop set up 77 years ago. Today Topy is a

ROUGHCUT

E. P. UNNY