India

Trying to spin up some froth – putting in the name of PA Sangma as the Presidential candidate

Politics is a very strange game. Just a couple of months back, there was a lot of debate over the political weakness of the UPA Government, and how the Congress is being tormented by its allies. It was unable to pass any major reform due to opposition from some of its allies, and the biggest problem was likely to be that of getting its candidate elected for the President of India. This was compounded by the meetings (usually of some law which the center needed to pass) where the state Chief Ministers used to be present, and most of them would be opposing some law or the other, presenting a united front that seems to portray that power is passing to the states. Now, some of that still remains true, and the allies of the Congress still needle the Congress over issues and over the various laws that the Congress wants to pass. The major reform bills that the Congress would want to pass to portray that there is no paralysis are all in limbo, unable to get clearance from allies, and the Congress does not seem to have the political will or strength to get the allies in line.
However, one major exception to this is the election for President. The Congress sees this as a major point in the political arena and has done all the negotiation with its allies to get the support. The Congress does not have the necessary strength to get the President elected on the basis of their own strength, and needed the support of its allies. And it looks like enough negotiation has gone on to get the required support, with the selection of candidates who are not likely to cause offense to anyone and make it easier to get support from allies and others. And of course, except for Mamta Banerjee, everybody of the others have given the Congress enough ammunition to get pressure piled on them, with the CBI having cases against every leader of the political spectrum (mostly on the basis of disproportionate assets or some kind of scams).
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Rising levels of intolerance among our politicians – at a time when their actions make them more open to ridicule

For some time now, there is a rising level of intolerance in our society. Actions that were seen as innocent earlier are now vociferously objected to, and there is a sort of mob mentality when it comes to various slights that politicians feel. This was exhibited in the various objections that politicians had when they were referred to adversely, but was most exhibited when an icon was apparently exhibited. So consider the latest controversy over the cartoon in a history textbook issues by NCERT. Cartoons are meant to amuse somebody, but cartoons (atleast the political kind) are not meant to be kind of full of praise, rather they are meant to make people think by using sharp humour. Politicians the world over (in non-dictatorships) have recognized that if you don’t like a cartoon, grin and bear it, else you will have to feel the impact of more cartoons.
So what was in the cartoon ? Well, this was a cartoon created in the year 1949, at a time when India had just become independent, and there was a Constituent Assembly (overseen by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar) that was creating a new constitution for India (through studies of the best elements of many constitutions of different nations and then debating them). This activity of the constituent assembly was required to happen and to complete in order to start the process of declaring India a republic and vote in the first Government. So, the cartoon was actually lampooning the process, calling it slow and where Nehru was wielding a whip on a snail (on which was sitting BR Ambedkar). Now, when Shankar created this cartoon, there was no furor, and it was accepted by both Nehru and Ambedkar as an expression of humor.
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Air India and Indian Airlines – sucking in public funds without any end

The Indian airline industry is going through a period of losses, where the competition between the various airline companies has led to severe losses for many of those involved. So, for example, Kingfisher is facing huge problems in running a full service network, and was unable to run the low cost converted Air Deccan. However, a lot of this is also due to the management and decision making within an organization, and if you consider the performance of the others such as Jet, Indigo and GoAir, you would start to think that the power of good management is key. Both Indigo and GoAir are seen as great performers and even in this loss making industry, they have turned in profits in the past.
The airline industry is a very strange industry, where there are huge capital investments in terms of buying new planes, the pilots to fly these planes are also typically very well paid compared to other industries, the portion of fuel in terms of expenses is very high, and you need to keep on flying planes in a tight turnaround to ensure that you are making more money than you are spending. Further, you need to keep your costs down without compromising on the many regulations necessary to ensure the safety of passengers.
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