The Benefit of Hindsight

May be 'it' is human nature and therefore pervades this globe but I am sure that 'it' is present in large parts of India. This 'it' is the tendency of Indians to pass judgements with the benefit of hindsight. You may do well to remember how people were hell bent upon castigating M S Dhoni over his decision to promote Ravindra Jadeja. Now we all are admiring M S Dhoni for his captaincy in finals of Compaq cup. Virtually every bowling change he made worked (even listless R P Singh got Jayasuriya to cut one straight to Virat Kohli). Not just in cricket but look at any other walk of life. People were critical of the UPA before the elections, criticizing their failures to get partners in UP and Bihar. Rahul Gandhi was said to be too involved in Amethi and not venturing out in other areas of Uttar Pradesh. Now he is being credited with wooing voters from all sections of society. It may well be the case that Rahal was active in other areas or that the candidates won it on their own but no; we will pass our judgement because we have the benefit of hindsight.

Before the elections Advani, Modi and even Varun Gandhi were charismatic. Now, even the BJP holds them responsible for this debacle. The Indian government was a butt of ridicule for going slow on deregulation. Now we see all the virtues in this policy after India escaped the global financial crisis to a large extent. More recently a national newspaper carried an article on 'shifting political wind' in Gujarat. Now that the BJP has done very well in just conclude bypolls I want to look at their analysis.

Hindsight offers us more information to analyze situations but we should be magnanimous enough to acknowledge our shortcomings while passing judgements.

Simplicity in Indian Politics

Recently, there was a furore when two ministers of the UPA government were asked to vacate their five star 'abode' (they stayed there > 3 months). The minsiters claimed they were living on their own expenses. They have their declared assets in crores and it is not beyond their reach to stay in five star hotels and of course they should have right to do what they want with their own money just like we have.

But there is some difference between us and them. We are not public figures. We are not accountable to public. We can be extravagant. We can spend our money on expensive parties. We can purchase expensive watches, cameras, laptops, cars, clothings etc. We are not bound by any accountability to public or have to be a role model for public. We pay entertainment tax and that ends our responsibility towards nation. Although Gandhiji would have expected us to be austere in all walks of life when 40% of our population lives hand to mouth, who cares for his thoughts now. Not even government.

So much for self evaluation. These two are public figures who could have shown example to others by spending this money in a better cause. They can learn something from their party icon. However, to buy their argument of expenditure of self earned money we should be given access to their bills. Is it not highly likely that hotels who earn a lot by hosting foreign dignitaries will subsidise stay of External Affairs ministers?

"Chandrayaan-1 is dead, long live Chandrayaan"

The ISRO has formally announced 'loss' of India's maiden and ambitious Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-1. However, all is not gloomy about this. Considering many firsts it achieved by its launch itself and the probe which landed India's flag on moon, we should be proud of what it achieved. Add to it the fact that it was completed without any overrun of cost or time which is achievement in itself considering India's past record. May be we were over-ambitious with this project but then this is something which I am saying with benefit of hindsight. Only when final scientific report is out can we be sure of the causes. The ISRO team has done great job in this mission and expectations are high for the next mission in Chandrayaan-2. Lets hope that it turns out to be complete success. Amen.

Jinnah and the Pseudo Secularists

Last few days we have seen a huge interest in media about Jinnah. This interest has been triggered because of the contents of a book written by Jaswant Singh, who used to be a prominent leader of the BJP which is seen as the right wing party of India.

I am surprised at two things: first, why did Jaswant Singh is so eloquent in praise of Jinnah. I am not talking of his book because I have not read it but of his interviews. Second, why some sections of media are hell bent upon showing Jinnah as a moderate Muslim who was secular and would have never approved of the atrocities meted out to minorities in Pakistan.

Of many ghettos surrounding the Muslim community in India one is that they admire Jinnah or for that matter Pervez Musharraf. Do you remember that Bus during 2004 elections with painting of Vajpayee and Musharraf on it? That was also the time when we had uproar over Advani's remark on Jinnah. This was ostensibly done to win good will of Indian Muslims for the BJP. What happened in that election is history now. My personal experience (because I had interactions with a lot of Muslims in my school days and with some in college days) is that there is no admiration for Jinnah in majority of Muslims. But people like Jaswant Singh think otherwise. And for the second thing I will say so called 'liberals' or more appropriately the 'pseudo secularists' of India think that they are being progressive by showing Jinnah in 'true' light. I want to know if Jinnah did only one thing wrong in instigating partition riots and so is a secularist because of of what he did rest of his life why do this same section castigates Narendra Modi? Mr. Modi has done nothing wrong other than not controlling Gujarat riots. Is he a secularist?

The Great Indian Hype about Swine Flu

I wanted to write about this for quite sometime but found ignition in this article of Soutik Biswas. He talks about the attention swine flu is receiving these days in the Indian media. It is very scary to watch or read media reports about this 'epidemic'. Soutik Biswas also mentions the case of 1145 people infected of Japanese Encephalitis in Uttar Pradesh of which about 300 succumbed to this dreaded disease. Do you remember the attention given to this disease? No because as Soutik puts it "Apart from its name, there was nothing remotely global about this outbreak".

In a way it is good that media is making people aware of this disease but it is more terrifying rather than informative. An image in the same article shows masked girls sweating out in a gym. This is ludicrous if you ask any physio about it. One should be careful but not be intimidated by this disease. And why is it that media never gives same attention to other diseases which claim a lot more lives every year. Malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis require much more attention than swine flu. Are we in an age where even ailments are glamorized?

IIT Bombay : Choice or Craze

I recently read an article on the choices of this year's JEE qualified candidates. And the break-up of top 100 was startling. 69 of top 100 rankers have opted for IIT Bombay. This is a highly skewed distribution of top 100, considering the fact that there are at least 4 other IITs which are comparable to IIT Bombay. I thought of some plausible explanation for this phenomenon.

One factor is the number of selections from Kota. One of my friends told me that the coaching classes there paint a rosy picture of IITB and IITD at the expense of IITK and IITKGP. This time however, even Delhi has witnessed decline. May be that has something to do with placement performance of IITD in last two years.

Other factor of course is location. Candidates prefer cities like Mumbai and New Delhi to Kanpur. IITM takes a beating here because it is in South India. Most of selections from South India are from Andhra and students from that state are in considerable number even in IITK, so I suppose the number would be even more in IITB.

The third factor is the placement record. Clearly the placements are best in IITB.

That is what I could think of right now as reasons for this skewed distribution. However, JEE chairman of IITB offered the reason to be introduction of "minors". Minors were already in existence in Kgp and IITM and still Kgp could not get a single student in top 100. In my opinion this trend is very bad for other IITs. Each IIT has its own fort. Like CS department of IITK is best and same is the perception about Chemical of IITB. Civil is best in Roorkee. So anyone must consider his interest before deciding on any IIT and not the craze which these coaching wallahs create without having any experience of either industry or research.

P.S. : These are my own views expressed on the basis of perception and information from some of my fellow students. If you feel these are not correct feel free to drop a comment.

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