Bt Brinjal ka Bhartha !

Watching Jairam Ramesh go hyper over Bt Brinjal and then seeing him retract his stance later, I was forced to feel pity: for Bt Brinjal.

Why feel pity for Bt. Brinjal?

Well, Bt Brinjal almost lost a “purple” opportunity to get named as the “National Vegetable of India”!

Yeah, just come to think of it: Brinjal is native to India since pre-civilization times; India produces over 3500 varieties of this vegetable that is called Baingan in Hindi & Begun in Bangla. Also, India is the world’s second largest producer of this vegetable that is called Eggplant in the US. And by these statistics, Brinjal – Bt or no Bt! – deserves to enjoy the “national” status!

However, here, I am curious about our over eager MoS for Environment’s contemplation of granting regulatory approval for Bt Brinjal’s cultivation in India – all in solidarity with India’s “poor” farmers and the even more “poor” public – ever hungry for Brinjals!

Because, like Brinjals, people are in abundance in India! And, honestly, I can understand the Monsanto’s strategy of “testing” Bt Brinjal on Indians in India!

So, did we get saved by the minister’s “moratorium” on Bt Brinjal post severe protests? Well, the minister stated that the “moratorium” on Bt Brinjals would last for as long as it is needed to establish public trust and confidence.

Mr. Minister, how about indulging into “Brinjal diplomacy”? You can organize – in coordination with Monsanto, of course – free Bt Brinjal ka Bhartha camps for the “poor” and gain janta’s confidence for your Bt Brinjal agenda!

Or, if you want to go more professionally, appoint a PR agency to popularize Bt Brinjals through media campaigns besides camps and turn the “Brinjal Tide” in your favour!

Or, may be, you could take your campaign to the Net and have a facebook page dedicated or have a twitter account opened or a linkedin link established or a blog space created for Bt Brinjal! You could successfully kick start your crusade by urging a few twitter-happy colleagues in the Parliament to tweet a “controversial” 140-lettered opinion on Bt Brinjal and you could witness the whole world – India included – going “purple” in the debate: “Bt Brinjal - Bad or Not-so-Bad for humanity”!

Mr. Minister, do I make sense? ... Then say na, “what an Idea, madamji!”

P.S.: Picture of latest Amul Ad courtesy amul.com

Frankly, Shashi Tharoor deserves better!

Frankly, Shashi Tharoor deserves better! I simply couldn't understand the media-created brouhaha. Also, I feel that there was no need for him to exhibit his anger in the press conference. He could have simply given journalists a copy of his brilliant “Nehru: The Invention of India" and had asked them to come back with questions, if any, only post reading the book! (Wonderful platform for advertisement! The sales of the book would have skyrocketed! ... Just joking :) ... I took out his "Nehru" from my almirah last night and re-read the preface and the concluding chapter in order to refresh my memory with the beautiful journey of "Re-invention of India" before writing my opinion here.

It is sad to see Shashi Tharoor get into unnecessary controversies repeatedly and then spend his time and energy in explanations and apologies. The fault is not entirely his. However, he is himself to be blamed a great deal.

Shashi Tharoor should understand that he has an enviable status and people, especially Media, would be ever eager to exploit that for their own benefits. In today's 24x7 news environment and mushrooming news channels, all vying to grab the eyeballs in order to increase/maintain their TRP, a personality like his becomes a favourite fodder! And his tweets have satisfied their appetite regularly! He is their latest and the current TG - Target Group - if I may use the popular corporate parlance! They have got a replacement for their erstwhile favourite TV-friendly personalities like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rakhi Sawant. (I do not mean to demean him by associating his name in the same context as that of Rakhi Sawant's but I am just trying to explain my viewpoint.) … The best thing for him to do would be to maintain a respectable distance from the otherwise highly alluring media as it is a double-edged sword!

Though I found his "cattle class" remark a bit arrogant and also did not agree with his attitude of tweeting his “difference” of opinion on an official matter on a social networking site (the entire world will collapse if everybody started exercising their democratic rights on Twitter or Facebook!), but I wholeheartedly support him on this "Nehru" controversy. I repeat: frankly, Shashi Tharoor deserves better!

Shashi Tharoor is the most suitable person to handle the ministry of external affairs. His 3 decades of rich international diplomacy experience (he should recall his lessons fast in order to survive in the murky political landscape of India!) will come handy to him in redefining India's otherwise archaic foreign policy. He has the capabilities to soon reach to the status of a few able ministers like P. Chidambaram. He just needs to get his perspective right.

I use my blog page to suggest him something at the cost of making him even very angry with me.

The time Mr. Tharoor spends on reading his half a million plus followers' tweets and posting his own, he should utilize the available time to write a book. He is amongst the select few rare Indian authors in English who are worth reading! In fact I strongly believe that if he gave enough time to writing, his books could be in the league of Nobel laureates! There is a purpose in his books (I especially liked India, Nehru, Great Indian Novel and Riot). Rest all authors are a complete waste of time and I feel that their books should be sold with a "money back guarantee"! Shashi Tharoor’s admirers will be really happy to be able to read a "real" book of his (not compilations of newspaper articles as in "Elephant..." or a hasty job in "Shadows...")! ... At the same time I wish him all the success in his political career, as well! Best of Luck!

Hope NOT to see him in news any time soon for any further controversy!

P.S.: Pl ignore my blog if you found it preachy and a running moralistic commentary on complete nonsense.

How long will India let Australia wear its blinkers?

Wish India had an answer from its government and its ministry of external affairs.

Seeing the state of affairs in Australia against Indians, I am sure, Rabindranath Tagore would have erased his famous “freedom” lines from his Gitanjali: “Where the Mind is without Fear and the Head is held High!” … Indians cannot claim to be “free”, not in Australia, at least!

Because, India is still suffering from its “slavery” hangover! The “please-all” and “do-not-offend” self-inflicted syndrome will always be an insurmountable barrier in its global superpowerdom aspirations!

You think I am being unnecessarily critical of India’s global ambitions? Just take a look at the adverse events continuing with Indians in Australia!

Indians are being harassed and beaten and tortured, and, now even being killed, but India is not yet ready to wake up from its slumber! It’s been almost more than a year and half since Indians are being subjected to serious kinds of racial abuse and assaults but our esteemed government has decided to keep mum! Worse, the Ministry of External Affairs is almost non-functional in spite of having a minister and two minister-of-state!

It is a sad reflection of the fact that the MEA members, though in news almost everyday, are too busy “asserting” their claims to Bossism and pursuing their hobbies – Tweeting for sure is a hobby! – infighting and complete lack of coordination & pervasive confusion. But never in all these months since its formation have we heard the MEA doing anything worthwhile in the arena of foreign policy or fulfilling its responsibilities abroad! The assertiveness with which S.M. Krishna proclaimed, “I am the Boss!” and the time Shashi Tharoor – immensely talented but perhaps a bit lost, thus, wasting his time in trivial things like Twitter - spends tweeting, (Preneet Kaur? Do we still remember her?), if only a portion of the time and energy these ministers had devoted to their “actual” work, we wouldn’t have been witnessing Indians being battered and bruised and beaten, and, now even being butchered in Australia!

The “reason” some experts like to give for continuing Australian barbarism against Indians that the Australians are being “jealous” of Indians for their growing economic clout and prowess, and thus, their hatred, they have to accept that how hollow their analysis is of this highly unfortunate situation down under! If only “this” was the case, then the wealthy Indians would have been on the target and not the students! And why isn’t the racist Australia even attempting attacks on the huge population of Chinese residents? Also, these flawed minds have to understand that in spite of escalating anti-Americanism in the world, no one – absolutely no one! – can ever dare to touch an American anywhere on this earth! Because, everybody knows only too well that their “action” would entail severe reaction from the US!

The Indian government, the Prime Minister included and of course its Ministry of External Affairs, does not have the necessary guts to speak strongly against the callous attitude of the Australia government and its failure in tackling escalating incidents of racial violence against Indian students. Why cannot Manmohan Singh simply pick up the phone and talk to Kevin Rudd in a tough manner that “enough is enough” and sternly ask him and his political colleagues with absurd mindsets to remove their blinkers fast? Why cannot the Foreign Minister (or even MOS) immediately go to Australia to make India’s anger expressed well to the establishment there? And, also show solidarity and support to the victims, who, by the way, are our own citizens?! Why has the Indian government still not issued a travel alert against Australia? …

How long will India take to realize the fact that a meek and mute country cannot – and should not – dream of global political position or power? To be heard – and respected – on the world’s high table, a nations needs to be assertive enough! India has to understand that the geopolitical game can be played only by the strong and self-assured.

To sum it up: I wish India had a P. Chidambaram as the Minister of External Affairs. He would have ensured India’s head was held high – globally and in the down under as well!

Minister Twitter's Tweet-22

To Tweet or Not Tweet?!

I start with stating a fact: I am a great fan of Shashi Tharoor! Therefore, my views as an individual on the recent Twitter controversies is an honest attempt to understand the whole thing comprehensively, which also has expressions of concern embedded for him – all done as his sincere and selfless admirer - and nothing more.

“To Tweet or Not Tweet” will apparently become a dilemma with Shashi Tharoor as he lands himself in difficulty quite frequently with his tweets! As an individual I fully support his rights to indulge in his hobby. However, what I do not approve of – again, my personal opinion as an Indian citizen; remember he is our minister-of-state for External Affairs – is his obsession with tweeting! He seems to have got carried away with the number of “followers” on his twitter page which has crossed half a million mark, the highest for an Indian. I too am his “follower” in that sense of the term! And so is his Boss, SM Krishna, and here, on the Twitter site, they both are on the “same page”, at least!

As a hobby if Shashi Tharoor uses twitter for posting his views on myriad and mundane subjects of the world including his personal life, that should not be anyone’s concern. But it looks like he has got a bit disillusioned: he often treats his tweets as a tool to “remain in touch” with the aam aadmi! He forgets he is a minister and that he cannot – and should not - conduct his ministerial work in a public forum. He is not a newspaper columnist, anymore! He is a responsible member of the council of union ministers!

Imagine, if in the name of “democratic rights” – inspired by Shashi Tharoor, of course - every member of the UPA government – ministers, MPs – starts using numerous social networking sites – Twitter is one such site – to express views on government’s policies etc., what will happen to the overall functioning of the Indian administration? I also wonder if Shashi Tharoor will ever exercise his “democratic rights” – as his “followers” would like to put it – against the Prime Minister or his party’s President? I am sure he must be having many points of disagreements with them too. I already see Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi reach out for Saridon!

Or, for that matter - just stretching my horizon of imagination a bit in the hindsight – would Shashi Tharoor have used Twitter to comment on his UN boss Kofi Annan or the colossal body’s mostly controversial functioning? No, I am sure of that.

Therefore, I wonder why our highly competent minister has forgotten all his diplomatic lessons. He is after all an accomplished international diplomat. No one can understand it better that politics, like diplomacy, is a sensitive subject, which needs to be conducted in a matured manner. And a ministerial post is equally sensitive, and responsible. I do not blame SM Krishna for using the media – a public forum – to reprimand his deputy; he was clearly hugely miffed. Any Boss, in every field, would get wild at the “wild” acts of his junior! (The world will collapse if everybody started using Twitter to conduct business!) Shashi Tharoor himself will not like any of his staff member adopt such ways.

Moreover, he has just started out in the field of politics. He has to establish his credentials here too; his fan following from his author days or his “followers” will not help him much in the long run. Media attention to his tweets should not blind him. After all, he has enjoyed – and continues to – the “limelight” for ages. Also, his party superiors may find difficult to defend him every time. As a minister he should concentrate more on his actual work rather than get distracted by a trivial thing as Twitter. He has all the necessary skills to get counted as the best ever foreign minister; he simply has to reapply himself in his job, fulltime. I am sure, even SM Krishna realizes Shashi Tharoor’s worth. Otherwise, with anybody else, for similar “transgressions”, he would have acted really tough. And so would have the Congress.

Therefore, tweet Mr. Minister as much as you like, but remember that you are capable of being much more than just a “Minister Twitter”; do not let those 140 alphabets control you, or get you “out of control”, as your Boss would like to say!

Happy Tweeting :)