Another Rape in Delhi and Gun Violence in US conclude an 'Outright Depressing' 2012

2012 has been an outright disappointing year. A latest event each in the two countries I am physically and emotionally affiliated with sum up the disappointment and outrage I have felt many times during the course of the year.

A young woman got raped, beaten and thrown out of a moving bus to die on the sidewalks with her boyfriend who too was physically crushed in the city I call home, Delhi. This was not an isolated incident. This was the 10^th such instance of rape in a moving vehicle and one of 550 rape cases that are reported in Delhi each year. We have seen a medical school student raped in broad day light and we have seen several working women raped on their way back home from work. Response of police and politicians remains the same - the victim must have done something to invite the brutality upon herself.

Our three term Chief Minister (CM), most likely to be fourth term, has made outrageous comments every time a case is reported. This time, her reaction was to proudly report cancellation of the bus license and direct further queries to police. Public outrage forced her to dispassionately suggest several policy actions and constitution of a committee to recommend action. In past, she blamed the murder of a female journalist upon the murdered victim  herself as she was being too adventurous to be out at 3 in the morning. Her idea of instilling a sense of security among women in Delhi – women should not work; if they necessarily need to, to make ends meet then they must be home before dark; they should preferably have a male escort and not use public transport. 

I would however be naive to suggest better enforcement can eradicate Delhi’s rape problem. Rot runs much deeper into Delhi's society. Lack of empathy, widespread incivility, pompous mindset, an undeserved sense of superiority and omnipresent political and bureaucratic corruption that has driven people to stop fearing the law, are as much to blame for the rape problem.

Unlike Mumbai where a hard working lower middle class incumbent is content in the surrounding of mega rich, his Delhi counterpart harbors a feeling of contempt and envy towards the affluent. While working harder is key to success for this Mumbai man, his Delhi counterpart sees it as a zero sum game, trying to push someone down to rise up. While people in Mumbai appear cold and indifferent on the outside, they have a genuine sense of compassion. People in Delhi appear warm and friendly on the outside but are often found lacking genuineness. One thinks before committing a crime in Mumbai for the fear of the parallel justice system that I believe runs stronger than police. In Delhi no system exists except the system of corrupt connections everyone happily flaunts. This is a very broad generalization but having lived in both the cities, the differences stand out and reflect in each city's status as the safest and most unsafe city for women in India.  

Delhi is my home, a city I so much love for the history, food, diversity, open spaces and several top universities. It hurts me that Delhi is firmly acknowledged as the rape capital of India. The disturbing lack of empathy from the executive class and police coupled with the deep societal flaws hurt me even more as there does not appear to be a near term fix to this most inhumane of all crimes.

Second event took place a week back in the country I currently live in. A mentally ill young man with easy access to guns rampaged his way through an elementary school killing 20 innocent children and 6 adults. This again was not an isolated incidence. A few weeks back, a pro football player shot his girlfriend and then shot himself. Before that, there was the Colorado shooting in a movie theater killing 12 and injuring 58. There was the 2011 Tucson shooting where congresswoman Giffords was shot. 

There are over 32,000 deaths each year due to gun violence in the US. 40% of the gun sales take place without background checks. There is easy access to those denied legitimate sale in the second hand and black market. Web sites and blogs promoted by the gun industry provide assembling manuals for those ineligible to buy guns so that they can rather by spare parts and assemble one themselves. Gun markets are organized just like Christmas and Halloween costume markets. Civilians have access to automatic weapons. 

Everyone knows what needs to be done but a small minority of gun fanatics (aprx 4 million members pay monthly membership to the NRA) and their collective lobbying power outweighs the collective conscience and will of the rest of America and her politicians.

NRA brazenly held a press conference today to make a pitch for even more guns in the street, recommending the country be transformed into a curfew-ed war zone to protect children and innocent civilians. President Obama arrogantly responded to a reporter who asked, ‘where you have been on this issue’ as I have been the President of the United States overseeing the worse economic recession since the Great depression. Quite clearly human lives matter less than economy.  He conveniently forgot to mention he was busy campaigning for more than a year to get reelected and is still campaigning rather than get his hands dirty and try solving many issues this great country faces.

Republicans quite shamelessly continue to beat their trumpet of protecting the constitutional right to bear firearms no matter what. Their key argument being guns don't kill people but people kill people. That way, even weapons of mass destruction (WMD) don’t kill people but people who operate those WMDs kill people.  Sounds ridiculous enough I know but tune into fox news or read gun right blogs for the most outrageously ridiculous arguments in favor of guns.

I can only hope with my sincerest of wishes that 2013 be a better year.

Meaningless Reforms that Distract, bring out yet again the Ineptitude of UPA Govt.

We are probably the most innocently naive subjects of a contemporary democracy. Last week Prime Minister Singh announced a few policy actions disguised as major reforms. These reforms were widely hailed by the media as the second inning of Prime Minister Singh. Commentators across the media networks and intellectual community decided to forget the ineptitude and corrupt governance choosing instead to re-brand him as a courageous leader who is not afraid to fight with the firebrand and errant Mamata and put his government to risk. Media narrative and discussions shifted to whether Congress would be able to retain majority, if these reforms were good or bad and if this meant UPA was back in action after years of slumber. We conveniently chose to shrug aside a report from the UN that India is home to the highest number of infant deaths in the world due to lack of healthcare and nutrition. We forgot Coalgate which had made us forget 2G which in turn had made us forget CWG which in its own very recent era made us forget cash for votes and the list can go on.

Let us examine the much praised reforms for their practical utility:

Petroleum pricing - I discussed this particular issue in details in earlier post (Read here). Rationing of LPG is an intellectually bankrupt decision and would create a black market for corrupt politicians and dealers. Diesel price hike and excise cut on petrol were good steps that had to be taken out of necessity. No action on Kerosene was yet again a clear signal this government has no intent to reform petroleum pricing and it wont let go of its legitimate black money machine.

FDI in Retail - I am a supporter of FDI in retail. BJP is both wrong and hypocritical in opposing FDI in retail when the party itself proposed this when in power.

40% of fresh produce goes waste in India due to supply chain bottlenecks. Farmers get a fraction of retail price while middlemen pocket all the profits. Retail labor productivity in India is 6% that of the US. In food retailing, it is 14% that of Brazil. Modern trade and an integrated supply chain is the solution to both lower prices at retail end and better incomes to the farmers and producers. As far as fears of jobs is concerned; firstly Big Bazaar, Spencers, Pentaloons, Shoppers Stop and otters are now present in all major cities and I have not seen any report that quantifies job losses or destruction of local communities as is widely propagated by the critics, secondly every change naturally leads to a disruption to the status quo and therefore there is no argument to protect the status quo that promotes inefficient subsistence retailing and illegal hawkers.

In all the developed and majoremerging nations, big box hypermarkets, supermarkets, specialty retailers and mom and pop stores have learned to coexist and I see no reason why it wont be the case in India.

So I should be all praise for this reform except that it comes with a caveat that renders it meaningless. UPA government has conveniently left final approval of opening a store owned by a foreign investor to concerned states!. This condition makes this reform meaningless. No retailer would invest in India knowing very well that it may very well end up with a holding company approved by the central government but no scale as State Government hold on to approvals. Congress led Kerala has already rejected FDI in retail in addition to opposition ruled states. There are a number of other ludicrous restrictions and conditions that raise more questions on the policy than answers (Read here). I need not mention this same government had launched this reform in Nov 11 and took it back under protest from its allies and that Congress had dubbed FDI in retail as 'Anti National' when BJP proposed FDI in retail. So this particular reform is not only half hearted aimed to fool people but also hypocritical.

FDI in aviation - A welcome step indeed. Who would invest is a question we all know the answer of - no one!. Aviation industry globally is in a turmoil. Japan Airlines just came out of recession. Most of American airlines are either coming out of bankruptcy or going through bankruptcy. Qantas is struggling. If one needs to invest in the Aviation sector, there are many lucrative destinations. Air India is a mess that cant be cleaned up. Jet, Spicejet and Indigo are fighting the battle to make money and be sustainable. Kingfisher is bankrupt and I doubt if anyone would invest there. A real reform in aviation would have been the decision to shut down Air India, auction its assets and save taxpayers the promised $ 5 bn bailout over next few years. Second reform would have been to mandate state government standardize sales tax on aviation fuel and reduce taxes that treat air travel as a luxury.

In conclusion, policy announcement of last week mean practically nothing. When someone with an average level of intelligence knows that, I am sure our technocrat economist PM knows it. But the reforms serve a great deal of political purpose. It has taken the focus away from corruption, once again given people who view Prime Minister Singh as a person of integrity a reason to believe in him and positioned the UPA as taking a step to reform in challenging times while BJP keeps whining as aggrieved opposition.

In truth, it has once again brought to the forefront the ugly face of out parliamentary democracy where majorities can be cobbled together by promising special favors to opportunistic regional leaders. Regional leaders whose only interest lies in keeping power in their respective states, who do not even remotely share ideology or style of governance with the government they choose to support and are often the worse of the lot up for grabs either for money or concessions.