Big Fish Slipping Through Mathrubhumi’s Net

Kerala is a small state on the south-western coast of India which can boast of a social awareness incommensurate with its size. It always provided a fertile bed for foreign ideas to be tested. Socialist ideals arrived at the right time during the second quarter of the 20^th century, when Kerala was on the cusp of a great social reformation. Though no one realized it at the time, nor they do it now, socialism painted the collective mind a deep red hue and shifted public opinion to the left. All political parties in Kerala display leftist objectives and at least pay lip service to them. Political observers could laugh their hearts out when they see the captains of Kerala Congress, which is a communal party of rich landlords and industrialists, waxes eloquent on social control of industry through state-owned enterprises. Such a heightened awareness of socio-political issues has resulted in the state having the largest per-capita share of newspapers and other journals. Television was a new entrant with at least six full-time news channels in Malayalam catering to 32 million people. All of them are leftist in nature, and the irony that all of these privately owned channels came into being after the Indian government’s liberalization drive which began in 1991 is lost on society. Where else in the world can you see a private industrialist making a movie on a storyline extolling the virtues of communism and reaped a huge profit out of it? Anyone tending to dispute this may do better watching films like Ningalenne Communistakki, Lal Salaam, or numerous other films.

Unfortunate for the horde of news channels, Kerala is not a ‘happening’ place. Marginalized on the industrial front due to excessive politicization and militant trade unionism, its industrial landscape is stagnant. The media makes a feast out of an occasional political scoop, a gruesome traffic mishap or a sensational sexual escapade. The channels have teething troubles and need an incredible story to get itself established on the imagination of society. Mathrubhumi, a venerable news paper company with nearly a century of exemplary service behind it started a full-time news channel barely a month ago in a bid to ape its main competitor Malayala Manorama. Mathrubhumi’s television incarnation was scouting for something to turn viewers’ heads and make a mark for itself.

Their right moment came on March 5^th. Weaving out a sting operation on the model of Tehelka, they targeted and successfully trapped three middle-ranking officials of the Commercial Taxes department. Accepting the baits of Rs. 10,000 in cash and a liquor bottle, the officials walked into the net, boasting of their powers. All of them were immediately suspended pending enquiry.

So far, so good. There need to be no sympathy to the corrupt officials. But there appears to be a glaring omission in Mathrubhumi’s operation. The journalists were led to other officials based on hints from those already in the net. One such person is seen to comment that anything could be carried through the Finance minister’s office, if the minister’s son and M.P, Shri. Jose K Mani could be made to support their case. The official clearly indicated that corruption prevails at all offices, including the minister’s. We sit back and gaze with incredulity that Mathrubhumi didn’t follow through the lead. If they practiced what they professed, they would’ve carried the sting operation to Jose K Mani’s office too, who stoutly denied the allegations, and in fact praised the channel for exposing the unscrupulous elements in government.

Frankly, we don’t know whether Jose K Mani would or would not have fallen before the camera. If they had the willpower to carry the operation to its logical conclusion, the episode with the minister’s son would’ve created wonders for the channel and a glorious lesson on how a responsible media should respond to corruption.

But, expecting Mathrubhumi to stay the course would be pure naivete. The channel and newspaper is controlled by Shri. M P Veerendra Kumar, who is a prominent leader in the ruling coalition of which Jose K Mani is also a part. What more can we expect from a paper or channel controlled by a politician against another politician who is his own colleague? In the end, the three officials will be charged for corruption, but as it is sure that the channel won’t follow up the case, they’ll most probably be returned to office with full wages for the period under suspension.

When will this country open its eyes?

National Pastime - Strikes

All strike calls get total support in Kerala

Another 2-day extravaganza finally wound down in Kerala. The 48-hour strike called by national labour unions found active support in the state which is notorious for its militant unions and active participation in any agitation proposed by organised interests. The sanctity or relevance of the demands for which the strike is called for is nobody's concern. If a political party or an organization with sufficient muscle power to impose its whims announces a hartal (strike), that is automatically taken to heart by everyone, including the rival parties. Everybody takes rest on the day and quietly enjoy it in their own ways. Those who are working in organized sectors like government/PSU/large private-sector companies usually get their leaves sanctioned, ensuring payment of wages for the day. Those in the unorganized sector, like head-load workers, taxi drivers and traders have no such luxury. If they don't ply their trade, there'll be no income at the end of the day.

Still, it is amazing to note that it is the people working in unorganized areas who are participating in the protest movements without any demur. They don't seem to mind the financial loss caused by such disruptions which may take place 8-10 times a year. On the other hand, such hartals, even if called on a national basis, don't attract such a total response outside Kerala. Not only the calls are much less, but people generally ignore them unless any burning local issue is involved. Why such a huge difference between two peoples separated by only a mountain chain?

It is definitely true that awareness to social issues are more in Kerala where the society has placed itself on the leftist platform. Not only the LDF, the centrist UDF and even the right-wing BJP assume leftist posture on issues on which they might be at variance with their own national leaderships. The wonder and hope imparted by the establishment of a Communist regime in Soviet Union has still not completely worn off even though that regime lost track of its goals and was consequently consigned to the dustbin of history. In this respect, we may conclude that Communism has done more damage to Kerala than it did in the USSR, who could successfully shake off the yoke in 1991. The burden which weigh on the collective mind of Kerala's society still hangs on.

But ideology alone is not sufficient to understand the nature of the problem in its entirety. There is some other factor which prompts Keralites to stay at home without work at the drop of a hat. The real reason, as usual, might be economic. The unorganized-sector workers in Kerala obtain a higher wage for lesser work than anywhere in India. On the other hand, the organized-sector workers get equal wages as compared to other states at rates prevailing all over India. Putting aside all 'socialist' mumbo-jumbo, we may deduce that Malayalis enjoy the highest pay-to-work ratio which I think must be comparable even to developed nations. A worker generally gets double the wage in the Middle-East, but he works longer hours, resulting in the same pay-to-work ratio. As a result, the labourers are financially better off than their fellows in other states and so they can afford to lose income for a few days every year. Ours is a consumerist society thriving on the huge remittances from expatriates. The habit of savings has not percolated down to the lower income group with the conclusion that they are not interested nor bothered about any kind of savings other than a bank deposit. The aversion to share market is palpable and those who invest in equity are looked down with the same contempt meted out to gamblers. This causes the low-income group to handle easy money which is not invested in a fruitful way. Such disposable income contributes to the complacency to work.

Reading all this, one must not mistake this post as a manifesto against labour nor a propaganda item for mindless capitalism. The economic well-being of the working class is an essential milestone on the road to progress. What is noted is the community's failure to invest the surplus money in an effective way rather than making it as a cushion for hartal days.

Force, Acceleration and Physicists Vs Engineers

Isaac Newton - the greatest scientist of all time

Most of us are familiar with Newton’s laws of motion. The three fundamental laws which govern all aspects of movement in the universe, but lay hidden in darkness until god said ‘Let Newton Be’ and all was light (a famous quote by Alexander Pope). Even people who haven’t studied any science is familiar with the third law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction), but we are looking into the second law here, which, in Newton’s own words when he published it in the Principia Mathematica in 1687 ran thus – “The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impress'd; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impress'd”. Or, in modern terms, change to “The acceleration a of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force F acting on the body, is in the direction of the net force, and is inversely proportional to the mass m of the body, i.e., F = ma”. Yes, the magic equation jumps out at the end, F = ma.

Every school child knows that the force (F) applied on a body is equal to the product of its mass (m) and the acceleration (a) induced by the force. So much is simple. I was so inured to the formula when Hans C Ohanian, the author of Einstein’s Mistakes shook me to the core with the following pronouncement. “You may have been taught in some high school or college physics course that Newton’s second law is F=ma. If so, you were taught by an engineer, not by a real physicist. Newton himself stated that the acceleration (or what he termed ‘the change of motion’) is proportional to the force, not that the force is proportional to the acceleration. Of course, both statements are true, but they differ in emphasis. For Newton, and for most physicists, the second law expresses how the force causes an acceleration, that is, the force is the known quantity and the acceleration is the unknown quantity. Accordingly, physicists prefer to write ma=F. Engineers prefer the opposite way of writing the second law, F=ma, because for them the force is often the unknown quantity, whereas the acceleration is the known quantity (for instance, an engineer may want to calculate what force will be exerted on the wheels of a car when it is racing around a curve at a known, high speed)”. (p.66 in the 2009 Norton paperback edition). Well, it’s a lengthy tirade against engineers since we know that engineers don’t teach school or college physics. The scale of the attack becomes evident when we see his remarks about a prominent magazine which praised Einstein as the engineer of the universe, in salutation to his General Theory of Relativity which forms the basis of gravitation and the fundamentals of space-time. Ohanian don’t let the comment go scot-free. He immediately states that calling a physicist an engineer is no compliment!

Forgetting about the finer shades of distinction between the two classes of professionals, if we take Ohanian’s suggested equation ma=F for a deeper inspection, we wonder whether his arguments would hold against common sense. To solve an algebraic equation, you need to have the unknown quantity alone on the left-hand-side, which is not true in this case. So, to make it ready for calculations, we have to rephrase it as a=F/m or in a more general form as a=kF where k=1/m, the inverse of mass – which is a meaningless physical quantity.

So what point does Ohanian try to establish by this little trick of erudition?

Divine Duty of Judges

Attended a training program on 'Disciplinary Procedures' by Mr. Benny P Thomas, a leading lawyer practicing at the High Court of Kerala, today. The presentation was somewhat okay, if you factor in considerations like this was not his principal job. True to the custom followed by judges and leading lawyers of the High Court, he came dressed in a three-piece suit and was quite an object to behold behind our simple lectern.

While going on with the program, which was aimed at imparting some knowledge about conducting internal enquiries as part of imposing disciplinary proceedings against delinquent employees of our organisation, Mr. Thomas suddenly turned excited and exhorted the participants to think hard about the divine duty they're going to perform while deciding whether the person was guilty or not. In a tremulous voice he declared that judgment is not an easy matter and he personally knew many judges who couldn't eat or sleep well before pronouncing verdicts in some cases involving murder. We didn't understand what piqued our gentle instructor to suddenly come down so heavily against the hapless trainees. 

While at it, it struck me as odd that whether jurisprudence can indeed be termed divine. Judging (no pun intended) from past experiences, we see many instances where the presiding judges turned out verdicts challenging common sense. A recent one is the decree outlawing application of sun-control films on car windscreens. In a literal interpretation of the relevant law, the court decided the practice which actually saved fuel by reflecting some of the heat back. At the same time, it allowed the use of curtains which would ensure privacy but no fuel efficiency. India, which imports most of the oil it burns in its cars, is the net sufferer in the form of fuel wastage incurred due to the additional load on car air-conditioners. So what did the court gain in banning sun-control film and allowing curtains in its place? So much for divine duty.

If you look at the huge number of verdicts set aside by a higher court on appeal, you'd wonder whether some kind of accountability measures need to be implemented for judges in lower courts. There can be no argument if the higher court tones down or up the sentence a bit. Every judge may be swayed a little by human emotions which is quite understandable. But in many of the cases, even the findings are totally reversed leaving the public doubtful about the prudence of the trial judge. Once again, we doubt whether he has discharged his divine duty in a responsible way.

So, before boasting about the godly duty they have to perform, the judicial officers may think twice about the impact of their pronouncements on the society and common man.

Sukumaran Nair on Mission Resuscitation

Social transformation has a curious history in Kerala. The state had practised some of the meanest and most barbaric traditions in the form of untouchability which quickly degenerated into unapproachability, where people of lower castes were grouped into hierarchical levels according to the distance they had had to keep themselves away from people of upper castes. Any breach of the rule resulted in ceremonial impurity, so the lower castes were not even allowed to walk on public roads for fear of polluting people of higher status. The rules were so elaborate and so brutally enforced that Swami Vivekananda once remarked that Kerala resembled a lunatic asylum. The darkest hour was probably early 19^th century, and it was the moment at which a switchover from feudal economy founded on barter system began to give way to a financial system founded on money introduced by the British. This helped a few lower caste people to amass a fortune by diligent use of the means of production at their disposal. When that century was drawing to a close, we find social reformers, most notably Sree Narayana Guru, emerging from the depressed classes, supported by the numerical strength of the poor majority and financial muscle of the affluent minority of those communities. The uprising came at the right moment since all parts of Kerala were under British dominance for at least a half-century before. Malabar directly under them after Tipu’s defeat in 1799, with Travancore and Cochin under their sphere of influence soon after.

The demands of the downtrodden were just, timely and pragmatic. No enlightened individual could have ignored them. So we find most of their requests being met with surprisingly little opposition. They were given representation in legislative assemblies, reservation in government jobs and the right to temple entry. However imperfect, land reform measures redistributed surplus land among the landless. The backward castes undoubtedly benefited the most from this reform. With the rapid spread of education and socialist ideals emulated from the erstwhile Soviet Union, interdining made a quick entry in the social milieu. Intermarriage was the only thing not practised, which continues still.

Perhaps because of the ease and peace with which revolutionary transformations such as the above materialized with so little effort must have caused a sense of complacency among the lower castes and a feeling of resignation to the inevitable in the upper castes. The reform process lost steam around the middle of 20^th century, after running full throttle for about five decades. After a cooling off period of 20-25 years, we find retrograde practises raising their ugly heads again in society. By 1980, almost all sections of society eagerly sought astrologers for fixing such innocuous moments like the time of marriage, house-warming and other auspicious times. Horoscopes began to be cast as soon as a child is born. In extreme cases, child birth was delayed or preponed by medical means so that it is born at the most propitious instant. Such practises which were common among the higher castes were imitated slavishly by the lower castes in a vain bid to upward social mobility. Offerings to temples and costly symbols of belonging to the temple multiplied many times among the backward communities. Often they cheerfully sunk to the depths of ridiculousness in proclaiming their devotion to Hindu deities, in a curious case of being more loyal than the king.

Kerala relapsed into a great slumber as far as social reforms were concerned. Muslims and Christians didn’t lag behind at all – with introduction of purdah with a vengeance, charismatic renewals and meditational healing. The state seemed to be limping back to be worthy of Swami Vivekananda’s depreciatory epithet again.

Enter Shri. G Sukumaran Nair, General Secretary of the Nair Service Society (NSS) with his proclamation that people of his own caste will be employed as officiating priests in temples run by their own organisation. In fact, there was nothing fundamentally new in this – the temples instituted by SNDP Yogam, the leading lower caste organisation had routinely employed people of all castes as priests right from the beginning. But the idea hadn’t gained momentum since Nairs, the most populous and influential upper caste didn’t support it and stoutly held on to the age old custom of availing the services of Brahmin priests only. It is the last ramparts of orthodoxy that is cracking under the thunderous declaration by Sukumaran Nair. Though sure to be opposed with tooth and nail by Brahmin sympathisers, the move is assured of wholehearted support from the lower castes. The only thing we eagerly look forward to is whether Shri. Nair would hold fast or buckle under pressure from regressive circles in his own society and from the uppermost castes like Brahmins. We also hope that Sukumaran Nair would not renege on his historic opportunity to resuscitate Kerala’s reform movement which is in limbo and is bringing out laboured breaths as the first symptoms of imminent death.

A Saving Face for All

She finally succumbed to injuries in Singapore. The woman who was gang raped in Delhi and hogged the national media's attention the entire last week just couldn’t step back to dear life she clinged so hopefully for. We thought she would make it and be an icon of resistance and will power, but it was not to be.

But this outcome is the least troublesome for the time being for all concerned. The government and agitators who held the national capital in an orgy of protests can now save breath for the while. Ever since the girl’s condition grew worse, the government was determined not to take the blame of death on its shoulders. Not a moment later when it was clear that she is going to die, the administration flew her to Singapore ostensibly to seek better medical care, but in fact, with hindsight, it becomes clear that it was a desperate attempt to escape the fingers of accusation on the medical establishment which failed to rescue the girl from the pitiable condition she was in.

The protesters also need to feel vindicated now. The courts can prescribe capital punishment for the accused now, as the victim has died. The demands of death warrant for rape was simply outrageous which no society could accept at face value. If the assaulter knew that he would be punished with the gallows, will any of them let go of their victims alive? When the country has started the debate on whether to scrap the death penalty itself, setting it down afresh for another crime is simply blowing the issue out of all proportion.

At the end of the day, the episode should serve as a lesson for the whole country. Even after 65 years of independence and millenia of cultural heritage later, we are still unable to guarantee freedom of movement to half of the population at night. We accept the notion as taken for granted that it is not safe for women to venture out after dark, when the powers of evil are exalted (as in Baskervilles!). However, this is not an issue that will be addressed by legislation alone – however, draconian you can make them out. The society need to allow greater freedom to a new generation which is more than they are willing to grant them at present. And also, the old generation need to move out of the theatre in its entirety. So, for at least three more decades, nothing fundamental is going to change, even if the seeds of change are sown today.

So, for the time being, let’s pay heed to what the Andhra transport minister advised women. The country obtained its freedom from the British at midnight, but it doesn’t mean that its okay to roam around at midnight in skimpy cloths.

Voluntary Cessation of Life - An Idea

It took a pretty, young Indian dentist’s life to reveal the ridiculousness of allowing religion to dictate terms to a modern, civilized society. Savita Halappanavar would still have been alive, had she stayed back in India or emigrated to some other place than nutty Ireland. Such gruesome incidents bring to focus the incompatibility of false beliefs which should have been exorcised long ago, clinging on to social fabric with such a tenacity characteristic to religion alone. What difference is there, we may ask, between Iran and Ireland? The West demonizes the former, heaping choicest abuses on her, for the inflexibility of its ruling elite's religious dogma. True, but what can we make of Ireland? Just because it is in Europe, won’t make it progressive as compared to Iran. If the clerics or mullahs don the mantle of a doctor and takes decisions on his behalf, as it so happened in Savita’s case, there is not an iota of gap which separates the supposedly ‘modern’ European nation with Bush’s infamous ‘Axis of Evil’. On the other hand, Iran has millennia of civilization behind its back while Ireland has nothing but potato peels, and that too, only for the last two centuries.

While on the subject, it is high time to ask whether a person should be allowed to die of his own volition. At present, the only option available to him is suicide, which is messy, illegal if you failed in the attempt and attaches stigma to the person’s memory and to his relatives and/or friends. It is incomprehensible why the society do not allow an individual to quietly retire from life, when he decides he can no longer endure? The argument most often raised is the exact same one which countries like Ireland raise in favour of ban on abortion, that life is precious, it is a gift from god, we should not extinguish it, blah, blah, blah…But, on sanguine analysis, we understand that while performing abortion, you are killing a human being against his/her wish, while if you allow a person to die, you have the conscience clear, in the full knowledge that he had a choice but preferred to end his own life.

So, I think the argument for Voluntary Cessation of Life, VCL in short (anything noteworthy must have an impressive title and an acronym!) is unassailable. In a nutshell, if you permit abortion to kill a child against its wish, you have no moral high ground not to allow a mentally healthy adult to die of his own choice. Sooner or later, society has to accede to this perfectly justifiable demand. When that time comes, I recommend the following mechanism to regulate its administration.

1. A person aspiring to end his life notifies a magistrate designated for the purpose through a lawyer. The magistrate checks whether he is of legal age as the first step.

2. The magistrate assigns the person to psychiatric counseling to determine whether he is mentally sound and asks to report back after a cooling off period (preferably a month) to see that he is determined.

3. Even after one month, if the person is desirous of ending his life, he approaches the magistrate again with the counseling report and proof that he has properly relinquished his duties and responsibilities in the case of a public servant.

4. The magistrate then issues a decree directing the administrator of a designated hospital to end the petitioner’s life by palliative sedation.

5. The person approaches the hospital and submits consent for donating his organs such as eyes, kidneys and liver to needy patients in a public-administered waiting list and his body for medical research. This should be mandatory.

6. The hospital authorities then put him to eternal sleep by palliative sedation, taking care that internal organs are not damaged.

Sounds cruel, right? But think about what’s happening now. What do we expect of soldiers marching on to the battle field? We hope and sometimes demand that they lay down their lives (a convenient euphemism for asking them to die) for the society’s sake, confronting the enemy. And, the expectations are not much different when coal workers are sent underground in mines having shafts running several kilometers long, which may cave in or may be flooded with water, turning the mine into a mass grave in a matter of minutes. Coal is a precious commodity essential to the well being of a society, so we don’t mind risking the lives of a few individuals. These two examples, which are not exclusive illustrations of such occurrences illuminatingly convey the idea that we are willing to let some of us die or be killed (to make it more precise) if that act is going to accrue some benefit to the society as a whole. Then why should we shy away from the demand that a person’s genuine wish to die should not be satisfied in a legal framework? Remember the advantages – his body and organs will be donated! One who thinks rationally does not find even a single point to be raised against it.

Some minor issues which may be postulated against the notion of voluntary death is the plight of that person’s dependents. True, after their breadwinner’s demise, they are left to fend for themselves, which might not be easy, always. If they are to become beneficiaries of the state’s welfare measures, the whole purpose of benefit to society is defeated. There is some reality here and it must be addressed. When the person who is trying to die appears before the court for the second and final time, the magistrate can demand that he furnish satisfactory proof of providing for his dependents in the event of his death. This measure will turn out to be a deterrent for people who want to die in order to escape financial problems. If you have no money to care for your dependents, you will not be allowed to die – as simple as that. This helps to filter out unwanted flotsam and end up with people who have done their duties well, are content with the life they lived and only want to end it in a smooth way, without bothering anyone. The satisfaction of knowing that their organs live on is an added sweetener.

We may conclude that it is time to think about voluntary cessation of life in a serious way. Life is a complex process with two definite points – the beginning and the end. The former is not under our control, so let the latter is!