Congress MP Vithal Radadiya’s open letter to Smt Sonia Gandhi

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Congress MP Vithal Radadiya today was caught on camera pulling out a rifle, brandishing it and threatening employees at a toll plaza near Vadorara. Congress party has taken objection to this inexplicable behavior from his MP and sought an explanation from him. Mr. Vithal Radadiya has replied to the notice as follows:

Dear Madam Sonia Gandhi G,

I know you are pretty upset about what happened today in Vadodara. I have been asked an explanation on why I behaved in that manner.

I am absolutely aware that the Congress party has set some high standards in various scams off late and has a rich history also. Since we are out of power in Gujarat for almost a decade I couldn’t get involved in any scams. With Gujarat elections round the corner, I was thinking how I can be in the limelight. Mr. Arvind Kejriwal targets our party members only if they indulge in corruption.  I was in total confusion on how to carry forward this legacy.

We had 1.72 lak crore 2G scam. This was followed by Coal (G)ate scam which surpassed the 2G scam by a good margin. Then there is also Common Wealth (G)ames scam. I was looking at the similarities among these scams and suddenly had a eureka moment. I realized that a G is the common factor in all the 3 scams. I thought of doing something which involves G. Madam you see, Gujarat also has a G. I decided to do something on Toll (G)ate. This also has a G. I was very sure that once I did what I did today the G will ensure publicity for me. My intention of taking out the gun was taken out of context by the media persons. They say I threatened but I do not have so much courage. I went to toll gate to show the guy issuing slips to ask whether I can carry my gun or not. But the media persons have interpreted it differently. Madam G the funny part is the gun also has a G.

I deeply regret that I could not live up to the standards set up by the Congress party. I know I have not lived up to the expectations of lakhs of crores of scam but have ensured that Congress gets publicity. Any publicity whether it is positive or negative is good.

I hope this explanation is sufficient enough for me to get a plum post in any standing committee Madam G. I am aware that Raja and Kalmadi G have been appointed to two separate standing committees.

I am sure Mr Arnab (G)oswami will call me tonight for his show on Times Now. His name also has a G madam :)

Yours Sincerely,

Vithal Radadiya

Disclaimer: All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. 

When 'Bharath' never saw its 'Ratna' - Tribute to Dr Verghese Kurien

My cousin S Nandagopal posted a thought provoking article on the Father of White Revolution in India Dr Verghese Kurien in his FB account. The article is written by Raja Bose and the views expressed by him compelled me instantly to present it to a larger audience. Hence I thought of reproducing the same in my blog.

Here are the thoughts on Dr Verghese Kurien by Raja Bose.

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When 'Bharath' never saw its 'Ratna'

Dr. Verghese Kurien- Death of a Milkman

"I came to Anand on Friday the 13th." That was what Verghese Kurien would tell people who visited him.

The date or the day never mattered. What most consider evil, turned out to be India's good fortune. Over six decades since he reached Anand in 1948, a small village then in Central Gujarat, India's history of milk production has been as "utterly, butterly delicious" as the legendary slogan – It is the world's largest milk producer today and the farmers' co-operative movement he founded is worth $ 2.5 billion.

But, why did this man die such a silent death? At 90, he breathed his last early on Sunday morning in a hospital in Nadiad – close to the karmabhoomi he never left. All these years, as he toiled to put India on the world map, making it flex its muscles in the dairy sector and creating a brand with the help of farmers that took on the might of MNCs, nobody thought of conferring him the greatest prize for an Indian. Bharat forgot its prized "ratna."

Even the institutions he created did not leave him quite happy in his last days. He was unceremoniously removed from a great institution he built much ahead of its time, the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) to create managers to help the farmers. Earlier, a difference of opinion with his protégé, NDDB chairman Amrita Patel, over the issue of going into joint ventures with the private sector, left a bad taste in the mouth.

And, when he quit Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketting Federation in 2006 – which he created and headed to promote and market the Amul brand – it was a sad day in Anand's history. "I have been the Chairman of GCMMF for five decades since its inception in 1973. Do I deserve this kind of treatment?," he said.

Not that milk production dipped drastically after his leaving, or Amul brand equity taking a beating. The way he quit indicated a nation's indifference to a doer, a visionary.

The indifference is still evident in the fact that he never got the Bharat Ratna. Just three days before Kurien breathed his last, the Economic Times reported Infosys chairman emeritus NR Narayamurthy as saying: "A civilised society must show gratitude when people can sense it, or it is no gratitude at all and if our country does not stand and salute Dr Verghese Kurien with a Bharat Ratna, I don't know who else deserves it."

He was inaugurating the authorised audio book Kurien's memoirs "I Too Had A Dream" called "The Man Who Made The Elephant Dance".

Yes, the man was pompous. In the early part of the first decade of the new millennium, when I – as a reporter with The Times of India's Vadoadara bureau – met him for an interview, he invited me to join him in his car. "I will take you around Anand," he said. Soon, we stopped near a locality and he pointed his finger at a huge board. "Verghese Kurien Enclave," it read. The pride was evident on his face.

While showing his house, he would narrate how he hosted a number of Prime Ministers. And, he would say with lot of roide, how, during the high noon of Operation Flood, the then PM came to him for advice. "Mohammad doesn't go to the mountain, the mountain comes to him," he had said.

He was also known to speak his mind. When NDDB's Amrita Patel wanted to sign JVs with private players, as she felt it was the only way to remain competitive in the market, he said: "JVs will spell doom for co-operatives."

"This would lead to the movement succumbing to market forces that may lead to farmers losing control over the brand and marketing. World over, India's progress in dairy farming is perceived as a threat as we are self-reliant now and we are helping other countries replicate our model. MNCs may consider this as losing their stake in the world," Kurien has said in an interview.

"The co-operatives he created have become powerful agents of social change .. and in embedding democracy at the grassroots level in the country," Ratan Tata wrote in the foreword to 'I Too Had A Dream.'

Kurien's concern was the farmer. Doing the tango with private players will take away farmers' right, which is totally against the spirit of the co-operative movement.

And, this man should know. For, he has sowed and lived the great co-operative dream. A dream caleld the 'Anand model' that the world reveres, and even fears, now.

It was a time when the milkmen of Kaira (now Kheda district of Gujarat) were revolting, refusing to send milk to Mumbai. India had just attained Independence, but rumblings of discontent rocked the region. It was during those turbulent times that Verghese Kurien reached Anand reluctantly, as a young dairy engineer.

His first job was at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, natural for an Engineer in Metallurgy (from Michigan University), which he quit. His aim was to specialize in nuclear physics.

But Kurien says that during an interview by a government panel for a scholarship, he was asked: "What is pasteurization?"

"I answered – It's something to do with milk", he would say and then break into a laughter – "The others did not even know this. And, I got the job."

But, he called it "bonded labour" when he was compelled to go to Anand and work in a government-run dairy research centre as he was not in a position to return the Rs 30,000 that the government spent on his studies abroad. But, Kurien said he would wait for an opportunity to "flee" Anand.

"I was single and a non-vegetarian in Gujarat. Nobody would let me say in their house. I would spend days in a garage," he would say and show the garage where he began his life in Anand. He would mention how, one night, a dog ran away with his pair of shoes that he had to keep outside the garage.

But, he did not flee. For, history overtook him.

Kurien was soon drawn into a movement that was to change the course of his life. And, with it, the lives of thousands of milkmen in Anand. And almost the whole Indian countryside.

For the young man, it was difficult not to be drawn into the struggle as trouble was brewing nearby, with the first co-operative union Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited now famous as Amul, inspired by Sardar Patel and led by Tribhuvandas Patel, being formed.

Kurien then revived an old dairy and there began a great association of Kurien and Patel.

While the fledgling co-operative union took on the might of Polson Dairy, it worked wonders, spawning the White Revolution that changed the face of dairying in India. It also gave cooperatives the power they never thought they could have.

For, it was Operation Flood the largest dairy development programme in the world designed by Kurien that was replicated across the country as the Anand Model. It also propelled India towards sufficiency in milk-production and made it the largest producer of milk in the world.

He created Amul at a time when brands were hardly known and not only turned it into the 'Taste of India' but its 'utterly, butterly, delicious' force gave multinationals and private Indian brands a run for its money.

Anand, now called the "milk capital of India," became his home.

And, it is in Anand that a museum stands in his name, built when he turned 80 in 2001.

"Men have museums in their memory after they die. I had mine while I am very much alive," he had said while it was being built.

Verghese Kurien will certainly be remembered – as we butter our bread and our children sip milk.

Our government and our politicians may not have seen a votebank emerging in conferring the Bharat Ratna on him, but Kurien will remain, always, the "toast of India."

Link to original article 

India.. The myth of Super Power

Image Source:  http://sanhati.com/excerpted/4697/

“A slower-growing India will be more financially vulnerable, poorer, full of frustrated young people and taken less seriously by the rest of the world”

This quote from the Economist (source mentioned below) should send warning signals to people who play a major role in shaping the destiny of our country.  I began to dig deep on this subject and found quite a good number of sources which gave me an insight into the problem. The three major book/articles which motivated me to write this post are:

1) I started reading Breakout Nations by RuchirSharma – In search of Next Economic Miracles a few days back. He talks about nations which could flourish or disappoint in the era of diverging economic prospects. He gives a perspective on many countries and identifies certain indicators which will determine where a nation is headed towards.

2) An article which appeared in the Economist titled India’s economy – Losing itsmagic

3) An article by Harshwardhan Gupta titled 40Years of "Innovation" in India

Over the last few years, India has often been touted as the next big super power, emerging nation, will go past China and so many other good adjectives. We all get elated with these tags.

All of a sudden, some have started raising serious doubts about India. Reasons attributed for this are many: number of scams surfacing day in day out across the nation, coalition politics, lack of decision making ability at the top and many more.

But I am going to focus on something more fundamental – the lack of investment on core Research and Development (R&D) by Indian firms.  

Wikipedia defines 2 models for R&D. In one model, the primary function of an R&D group is to develop new products; in the other model, the primary function of an R&D group is to discover and create new knowledge about scientific and technological topics for the purpose of uncovering and enabling development of valuable new products, processes, and services.

Are we spending enough on R&D? Answer is straight “No”. Let us look at the numbers. 

We are just spending 0.9% of GDP on R&D and are in 8^th position among all countries. The global R&D total for 2011 was $1.2 trillion. United States leads all countries by funding one-third of global R&D in 2011. US spends about 405  billion $, China 153 billion $, Japan 144 billion $, South Korea 45 billion $ and India 36 billion $. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_research_and_development_spending )

Harshwardhan Gupta in his article 40Years of "Innovation" in India says that Pre-Liberalization (prior to 1991) was better than post-liberalization in terms of R&D scenario in our country. Earlier we could not import industrial machinery. This forced us to engage in large amount of real engineering design and innovation, especially in smaller companies; and usually they grew much faster. But when Liberalization arrived, all these small companies and entrepreneurs started importing machines at the cost of indigenous design and innovation.

The other Asian giants like China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea initially also imported these technologies from the west but they quickly learned the underlying engineering and design philosophies behind these sophisticated machines. They then started improving upon the originals and started mass manufacturing them at a low cost. Within a couple of decades, many of the Eastern companies overtook their Western counterparts.

But most of the Indian companies did not follow this. We imported and started using it. Majority of them where not ready to invest in R&D to understand what goes behind the design. We are becoming increasingly dependent on imported technology and machinery, losing entire vital indigenous industries in the process.

Take the case of Indian IT companies. We pride ourselves in IT field but there is hardly a notable global product from our IT companies. The revenues from IT are from services sector and if any other country can emulate our achievements, we will struggle to maintain the growth in this sector.

Let us consider the case of South Korea. They have so many global brands in the world market. Samsung & LG in consumer electronics sector, Hyundai & Kia in automobile sector, POSCO and many more. They are global players in everything ranging from cars, steel, industrial machinery, robotics, aerospace, biotech, rechargeable batteries and so on.  They are the world's largest and best shipbuilder.

Let us focus on Indian global brands. If you look at the Indian brands in top 500 global brands in 2012 (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2012/countries/India.html ), there are 8 Indian companies. Among them 5 companies (ONGC, HP, BP, RIL and Indian Oil) are in the oil and energy sector which is making huge losses presently. The other three are Tata Motors, Tata Steel and SBI.

Fact is we hardly have any global brands in the world. We are a nation of billion plus population who are just consumers of the global brands of other companies. Everything from TV, washing machine, computers, industrial machinery is of brands of other nations.

I do not see this trend changing in the near future unless companies start investing in core R&D. We need to invest in research to build future technologies. If Indian companies do not take this risk we can never ever hope to be a Super Power.  

A message to younger generation

During my marriage reception, an elderly person (70+) who stayed in U.S for a good number of years and is presently engaged in doing philanthropic work in Karkala, whom I have known since few years wished me as follows: " I request you to have at least 3 kids so that when you retire, the probability of any one of them taking care of you will be high". Presently he stays alone with his wife in Karkala. His wish is the motivation for this post.

Let me jump to the topic of this post. The title is quite broad enough making it difficult to interpret what I want to convey.  It's always a tough task to convey a message to the younger generation. I am referring to the role ok kids in taking care of parents. I am aware that it's a controversial topic and I would like to put forth my views on it.

Gone are the days of joint family. We all have debated for long on the pros and cons of joint family over a nuclear family. The reality is nuclear family is here to stay because of various reasons. I do not want to discuss them in this post.

We are in a generation where a parent will have at the most 3 children. It's almost down to one child these days. Let me discuss how things are panning out with such families.

Parents reside in villages or small cities. Children more often than not work in big cities like Bangalore. They might be employed in IT industry or any other company. I am specifically referring to IT industry since its one of the largest employer in the last decade. Parents are proud about the fact that their son or daughter works in some x company and earns y salary. Are they really happy is the question? Happiness is a subjective question but I will make an attempt to generalize what happiness means from their perspective. This is derived from the fact that I have interacted with quite a good number of parents on what they really expect from their children.

Let me pose a question. Assume your age is 60+. Would you prefer to stay alone with your spouse or would you prefer to stay with any of your children and grandchildren (if any)? My choice would be the latter one. I guess most of them would choose the latter one over the former.

What's happening right now is contrary to what parents really need. They are happy that their children are working and earning well but given a choice they would love to be with you. I do agree that few parents might differ but majority of them would love to stay with their children.

Parents are solely responsible for what we are today. They sacrifice a lot to ensure that we get proper education. Once they retire how fair is it on our part to let them lead a life all alone. Don't they deserve to be taken special care? Is it sufficient to send them more than required money once in a month? Can money act as a substitute for their real needs?

I am sure that we won't be able to repay the sacrifices which our parents have made in our upbringing. What children can do is to at least take care of them by being with them. My message is pretty clear:

Once you get a job in a new city, work there for 3-5 years alone. Youngsters also need to enjoy their new lifestyle independently. Once you are settled in your job, the next thing which you need to do is to convince your parents ( probably retired from their services) to stay with you. I know some parents would be hesitant to move to a new city but make an effort to convince them to join you. There will be some exceptions where it is practically impossible for them to move with you. That's fine but do make an effort. One more sincere request to girls is not to insist on staying separate with your husband.

I know many would  say that my views on this are conservative in nature. But I do not mind. I have seen a good number of parents undergoing the pain of living alone. They present a pretty happy statement to the outer world but internally its a different thing.

( Image source:http://bit.ly/LZ7VIt )

A Short Story

This is my first attempt at writing a short story. An incident which took place during my travel from Bangalore to Delhi made me write this.

I boarded the Bangalore-New Delhi early morning flight at 5.30 AM. I had chosen a window seat as usual. Next to me a kid of around 6-7 years age and his mother were seated. The father had got a seat at the rear end of the plane.

This kid started throwing tantrums. He started speaking loudly as though he was at home. His mother tried to calm him down but he didn’t listen one bit. Then the kid opened a tablet kind of device. I realized that this kid was pampered to the core. He started playing Cricket with high volume. His mother asked him to mute and play but as usual he didn’t listen. He kept playing for a while. Breakfast was served. He was grumping about something or the other all the time. Way he sat on his seat was unique as well. He stretched his legs and sat almost in diagonal kind of way. He refused to wear seat belts initially but later was forced to wear by the flight attendant.

We reached Delhi and there was another surprise in store. He had his skating shoes and both the parents were helping him to skate. The kid again was grumpy. He asked his mother to hold him properly. It had reached heights as far as I was concerned. A 6-7 year old kid with latest gadget, skating shoes and add to this is his erratic behavior in not even listening her mother’s instructions.

I felt parents as directly responsible for whatever the kid is now. They might have fulfilled all his wishes - bought the things which he desired, never scold him for his irrational behavior and so on.

I had a connecting flight to Kanpur and made my way into domestic transfer section. Completed my security check and was collecting my laptop bag. I looked back and there was this same kid who was undergoing security check. He had his skating shoes on and his parents standing beside him. The security guard enquired why is he wearing this kind of shoes. The father replied that the kid has been diagnosed with an ailment where he cannot walk properly and has to be escorted by someone all the time with the skates on. 

I was stunned when I heard it. All my earlier interpretations about the parents and kid were completely one-sided. I just imagined certain things and came to a conclusion. I had painted a bad image of kid and parents. I had done a mistake. I just didn’t have the courage to even look at the kid or parents face.

I had learnt a very big lesson of jumping to conclusions without giving it a good thought. We do it many a times in our life. We interpret others based on some perception which is highly subjective. We tend to become judgmental and end up branding the person as bad.