Murder of Democracy

Leaders and the ideologies they propound ask a fundamental question, 'Is Humanity basically good or bad?'

Those who believe that Humanity is basically bad, unabashedly seek to concentrate power in their hands and dominate the masses with the help of a relatively small group of loyalists and supporters. It is usually centred around an ideology and a few personalities.

However whenever one entity tries to dominate another, conflict will naturally occur, as Theocracies, Dictatorships, Monarchs and Communists have discovered. 

Each type of domination has its advantages and disadvantages. The more overt the domination more the hostility. When domination is covert and subtle, the less the opposition by the dominated. 

Democracy has the unique distinction of the masses to choose who will dominate them, if even for a short while. Naturally  the people are more accepting of democracy than any other form of rule. 

Democracy is not a new concept it has existed in various forms for thousands of years. An interesting note is available on Wikipedia What is Democracy?

Though I quote American President John Adams, America is not the originator of democracy, though it is the loudest proponent of its own kind of democracy.

Known Western Democracy originated in Europe with Athens 508 -507 B.C.E. and then other City states and across Greece then Roman empire. It then spread across Europe and finally through post Colonial efforts it spread across the world.

In a democracy the politicians have to woo the electorate. This is relatively easy. They break up the electorate into tribes, religions, genders, race, caste, and then grant each group in the electorate with favours and privileges. With passage of time the tail increasingly wags the dog.

Wooing the electorate with the wealth of the state is easy. The politicians don't have to spend their own money, they just take it out of the State treasury and distribute it. 

As appeasement grows, which it will always do so in a democracy, more and more power and privileges flow to certain groups and the drain on the exchequer deepens. 

This is because in a democracy wealth flows from the producers to the non producers in the name of 'equality'. As a result the State sinks deeper and deeper spiritually, financially, socially, morally and culturally.

Naturally a State weakened by the burden of unsustainable load can no longer indulge the people. When governments cannot afford to indulge and bribe the electorate, restrictions are placed on the people and sacrifices are demanded of them.  First the people will grow angry, then furious and finally riots and violent protests will break out and one day democracy will collapse.

When this happens another form of government will step in, promising  to try and set things right. This new form of government will be very centralised and highly authoritative. The people will have lost their freedom and democratic rights. 

This calamity of the death of democracy may be delayed by a wise population but its death is inevitable. That too, only if the people exercise their electoral and citizenship rights with responsibility as long as they can.

While on the topic one must look at a different kind of Socialistic Democracy that was practiced in India for 2000 years until the Muslim invaders tampered with it and the British completely dismantled it. 

Until this invasion on India's civilisational political structure India had a different kind of vibrant democracy. A system where every village was a Republic. 

In the Indian democratic system called the 'Asiatic Model' the people in society held much their resources in a common pool. The villagers themselves decided upon everything that impacted their lives through their Panchayat system (reintroduced in 1992). They paid their taxes to the ruler but otherwise they just minded their own affairs without any significant interference from a government bureaucracy and the ruling elites at the capitals.

The Cholas in South India had a well documented democratic electoral system in 920 C.E.  I am not sure there was any comparable system elsewhere in the world at that time.

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What is Democracy?

I want to be a politician

My friend Jaiprakash Singh, runs the 'Sujata School' in Hyderabad and Moinabad. 

During my visit to the school he requested me to speak to and motivate the young students in class 10, who were shortly due to leave school for college. The easiest thing to do in the world is, to lecture others especially the young and dole out unsolicited advice. Rather than lecture I prefer to have a dialogue with the young, for they never fail to surprise me with amazing new perspectives and their boundless enthusiasm and energy.


We spoke about several things and then a quick poll of the students revealed a great surprise. Several boys and girls said their career choice was to become politicians.

Wow! I never saw that coming.
I later realised that, we often ask what, but rarely why?
I have no definitive answers but yes a theory. 

Most people dream of being powerful, rich or famous. In India all these three things are possible in one profession represented by the Indian politicians of today. Politicians are a force that is not dependent on any other group in society. They are just one step below God in social standing.
All they need is a fig leaf of concern and service. 

Politics is the only profession in which no pre-qualification, formal training, skill acquisition or training is mandated or required. Politics is open for admission to all, and it seems to require no study or hard work.

Traditional Indian society had four classes. 
1. The warrior class who held the muscle power. 
2. The priestly class who were custodians of society's knowledge and wisdom. 
3. The traders who had most of  the money and controlled commerce. 
4. The working class, who had the skills to provide products and services and also those who tilled the land, the farmers.  

This arrangement ensured that no one group controlled more than one lever of power. This provided balance in society because each group was interdependent on the others. The is why India was an economic success and social stability, and there was no social unrest or revolution for over 5000 years.

Now in post independent India there has been a convergence. The people with muscle power now also have financial and administrative power. They are the politicians. Sadly they have made irrelevant religion and education by subjugating and corrupting them.

Though there are exceptions, it is generally believed that politicians exist only to serve themselves. 

During their team as elected officials, they are magically transformed into business and property tycoons. Their wealth grows by leaps and bounds sometimes a thousand fold in 5 years.They usually live in palatial homes and estates, and are surrounded by incredible luxury.  If you smell an incredible amount of money, you can be pretty sure a politician is nearby. 


Politicians are extraconstitutional authorities. Yes I know about that humbug, that everyone is equal under the law and as per the constitution. Politicians are not under the law, they are above it. The entire government administrative machinery is at their disposal. Their power comes by controlling criminal elements, the law and order machinery, the keys to the vault etc. Politicians withhold funds from opponents and those who do not pay, while granting favours and projects usually to cronies, themselves, their kith and kin through front men or to others for a fee. They usually misdirect tax and regulatory authorities to harass and destroy any voice that speaks or even contemplates speaking against them. They are powerful and they have no qualms about demonstrating it, and flexing their muscles often.

Famous, they are. Other than film stars and cricketeers media reports primarily on politicians. They cover almost every action, and expression. They hang on to every word politicians utter, as if it were holy gospel. This encourages more useless and often harmful verbal diarrhea. The media uses this 'info-tainment' to often fake concern for the people and affairs of the nation to make money while irresponsibility abounds

Kids are impressionable and they learn quickly, particularly fast the things that are not good. Is it any any wonder that politics is the preferred profession for many youngsters?

Isn't it wonderful that India is the worlds's largest democracy?

125 years of Jawaharlal Nehru

125 years of Jawaharlal Nehru

This Nov 14 marked the 125th birth anniversary of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. India's first prime minster. He was a towering personality and his contribution to our freedom struggle and to the formative years of India's development and growth is significant if not immense.

Like all great men he had his shortcomings and weaknesses, and there were many. So what? Which person does not have his or her failings?

Humans have a tendency to commoditise everything. If God, heaven and hell  can be sold by people why not a colourful former prime minister of India? We have and continue to shamelessly dehumanised Mr. Nehru. We use, misuse, and abuse him and his contribution.

There are two ways to dehumanise someone: By either  dismissing them or by idolising them.

The Congress party dehumanised Mr. Nehru over 60 years by endlessly glorifying and idolising him. Every thing possible, be they monuments, infrastructure,  populist social welfare schemes,  designed to garner votes were named after Mr. Nehru. The Congress party has been for quite a long while a party dominated by sycophants. They could hardly care for Mr. Nehru or his beliefs. It was only important for the party to see how to exploit 'Brand Nehru', and to appease Nehru's descendants now called the Gandhi family. 

The Gandhi family's only claim to fame is that they are blood descendants of Mr. Nehru. Having achieved little by their own efforts, they need brand Nehru to remain relevant so they too encouraged and overused Mr. Nehru's name. As a result few people care about Nehru or his achievements. What a shame.

The current BJP led NDA government wish to dismantle all things that can help the Congress party and its brand value. 

The NDA government by acts of omission and commission have created  so much negativity on this exceptional man who devoted his life to India and her people.  
They too are guilty of dehumanising Mr. Nehru but by dismissing him. What a shame. 

That Mr. Nehru led India in his own dictatorial style within a democracy his contribution cannot be simply dismissed. If India today is an emerging superpower, and amongst the only post colonial country to have never had a military coup, a lot of credit goes to Mr. Nehru and his guiding hand.

It is easy to be judgemental of someone 46 years after he has passed away. Does it seem worthy of the people of this great land which has taught tolerance to the whole world to be so critical and disrespectful of so exceptional a man? Like him or hate him, Mr. Nehru cannot be ignored and should not be dehumanised.


By praising him excessively or by judging him too harshly, by crediting him with all our successes or placing blame on him for all of India's current problems, we achieve nothing except to be undignified and wasting resources on a fruitless debate. Life moves forward not backwards. Let us build a new and better world for our children. 

Let us on this day say a small prayer for this man in appreciation for his immense contribution and a big prayer to find the wisdom to learn from his mistakes and to forgive him for his blunders.

Indian Democracy - You have a choice

We are often reminded that India is the largest democracy, and we have the freedom to choose.

In the din of psuedo-secularism, psuedo-nationalism, and psuedo-honesty, there is unfortunately little to choose from.

I am an optimist and will therefore choose to vote for change. 
With change there is hope but without change we are doomed. 

This may the only time in 5 years, I can make my political choice felt by the politicians. 

I am going to vote, will you?

Ineptocracy

Power hungry people always find a way to get to the top of the pyramid of power or die trying. They know how to use and discard people and manipulate levers of power effectively. Power is so intoxicating that people who acquire it become insatiable and typically want more and more until they themselves are consumed by power itself.

Democracy as it was born gave relief to the masses and a good shot at changing their means of survival and progress. It however requires that the people exercise wisdom in the choices they make. Democracy is unfortunately under siege. Instead of providing a better world and India, it has in fact mutated into something toxic called an 'ineptocracy'.

People are made to believe that democracy provides a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Nothing can be further from the truth. Leaving aside the rhetoric, the press briefings and speeches, it is now 'a government of the evil, by the cunning and power hungry for the benefit of a select few.'

History clearly shows that across the world across nearly all time that a group of people representing a marginal percentage of  the population are the 'haves' and the vast majority are the 'have nots'. The politician needs the money and resources of the haves and the voting numbers of the 'have nots', while promising to protect each group from the other.

Our current model of government evolved a long time ago and the result is INEPTOCRACY, which can be defined as; 

A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

When a state reaches a position where approximately 50% of it's citizens rely on the largess of the state for their continued sustenance, the form of government becomes one of ineptocracy.

The least capable to lead are not fools, they are extremely intelligent and cunning with questionable morals. They just know how to game the system and devote their whole lives in manipulating the system. The only consolation for Indians is that this disease is not restricted to our country but even to most of the developed countries.

People making choices on careers and electing their leaders should do a bit of homework and then make informed choices on how to proceed. I for one, am not going to vote for people that will push us further towards an ineptocracy. 

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What are the management lessons I can share with you?

An outcome of my many years of teaching and consulting with organisations and families, it is observed that there are 3 possible types of leaders, based on rewards and punishments. 

The first is the briber. This person is normally an incompetent person and has no other choice but to keep bribing the people to support him or her. This is not difficult to implement because one can always be gracious with someone else's money and resources. This is why the government of India under the UPA leadership has been compelled to spend Rs 11 trillion in past decade in programs of highly questionable value. The follower or employee gladly takes the bribes but often feels offended and alienated. When the sops dry up the followers leave and seek other alternatives.  A problem for bribers is that the followers or dependents become addicted to sops and soon grow dissatisfied and they need even larger doses of bribes. Such leaders are initially lauded but soon despised, and they are almost always never respected. 

The second type are the slave drivers or 'intimidators', the primary tool they use is fear. They so intimidate the followers that they do not dare disobey. They work towards crushing the individuality and collective identity of people. Once implemented this approach delivers very fast results and impact of change can be rapid. This is possibly what is happening in China. Unfortunately gains tend to reverse as soon as the fear factor diminishes. The performance of followers is also just above bare minimum so that they escape punishment. Many school teachers and administrations also use this approach. Such leaders are often hated. They demand respect but almost never get it. 

The third type are the true leaders, they use a blend of positive reinforcement while wielding a big stick.  They normally have a well thought out strategy which is communicated and excites their followers. The leader's dream becomes the dream and vision of the followers. This is based on educating, facilitating, supporting and encouraging followers. Performers are suitably rewarded after evaluation by a transparent system, and non performers are encouraged to perform better after due dialogue and analysis. The laggards are often cast aside and supported to survive but fall behind the main group.  This approach is the foundation and builds a meritocracy. Typically leaders adopting this style of leadership are hated and loved at the same time, but always command respect.

Law and Disorder

                                                  LAW and DISORDER

India has always been an enigma not only to the world but even to us Indians

We are drowning in a sea of corruption, dysfunctional institutions, pathetic government and exhausted citizens.

How can there be so many problems and yet the country continues to be the second fastest growing economy in the world?

My theory of 'Law and Disorder' could help explain. The first part is given below.

We swear by democracy and feel proud that we are the largest one, but is our pride justified?  Why are we as a nation making rapid material progress and yet in plummeting morals?

One only has to take a look at the nation’s leaders; the composition of the 543 member ‘Lok Sabha’ the lower house of the Indian Parliament to get an idea;

• 6  members are currently lodged in jail.
• 29 members have been charged with spouse abuse.
• 7 members have been arrested for fraud.
• 19 members have more than three criminal cases pending against them.
• 119 members have been charged and being investigated for serious cases pending against them, these include, rape, murder, extortion and robbery.
• 71 members cannot get credit or loans due to bad credit histories.
• 21 members are currently defendants in various lawsuits.
• 84 members have been involved in serious offenses and have paid fines

More than 27% of our elected leaders are suspected or out on bail for major criminal offences. As per Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) an NGO 150 of the 543 parliamentarians have criminal charges against them. The leaders of the masses who have the responsibility for leading the country and for enforcing the law are themselves highly suspect.

It is a known fact that just as the family follows the head so do the masses follow the leaders. What the leaders project in terms of values and conduct is what the masses emulate.


This is what a large majority of our political leadership has done and continues to do. 
Why rob a nation when you can hijack it ? Increasing criminalisation of politics has permitted many unsavoury characters to hijack the nation and become the law unto themselves. Worse they have now perched themselves above the law and largely protected from investigation and prosecution, because they now control the law and order machinery.

Here are some reasons;

The political parties have sold out.

It is well known that the nominations for each candidate fielded for elections by each political party is made mainly on the basis of the highest bidder in closed auctions. This is the rule rather than the exception. As per the statement made by the chief election commissioner the average price to be paid by a candidate for securing a party nomination is Rs 5 Crores (US$ 1.1Million)

If huge money has to be spent to just get into the race for elected office, then what chance does an ordinary citizen without deep pockets or gang of goons have? Some brave or foolhardy individuals who do try to buck the system and dare to contest are threatened and sometimes killed for daring to enter the fray.

Here is a shameful example; After the Supreme Court passes embarrassing strictures against a serving union minister on a serious offence, the prime minister elevates these indicted people from rank of minister of state to full cabinet minister.

The 'Democratic' political process

On an average voting turnout is only 50% with the winning candidate securing no more than 17% of the total votes.  Majority of the middle class people do not vote.

The politicians and elected leaders.

Votes are purchased by spending obscene amounts of money and on an average each candidate has to spend Rs 10 Cr or US$s 2.25 Million).

If one is not particular about things like ethics, integrity, patriotism etc then becoming a successful politician is the most promising career nowadays. The return on investment can be phenomenal.

These elected leaders do not view their office as that of serving the people but to enrich themselves using whatever means available to them in the shortest possible time. After all elected office is an unstable position. Many elected representatives have borrowed heavily or have demanding backers and supporters whose expectations must be met.

These investor politicians set out to recoup and seek a return on the investments they or their supporters have made.

Many of the top winners of the aggressive and often violent race to office become ministers etc and head the various ministries. Starting with the Secretary all staff downwards are expected to generate a fixed target of money to be paid to the minister.


Here targets are strict and while rewards can be a plum posting and an opportunity to earn more illicit money. Any failure to achieve the targets means a punishment posting or worse framed or entrapped on grounds of some trumped up charges. A promising career of a bureaucrat can be destroyed by a mere whim or snap of the fingers.


Here management is tight and practices followed results will put many management gurus to shame. The results almost always exceed targets.

Unfortunately these management practices are not to provide good governance, or enhance the quality of life of the citizens but to merely make the entire chain of government management starting with the honourable minister or other elected representative right down to the not so lowly clerk /peon rich. They can get their share only by getting the protection and patronage of their political master or organisational senior.


Now if all these people which represent our elected leaders, appointed officers and majority of the government are engaged in all this hard work of generating money for the predators higher in the food chain, do you honestly believe they have time for governance.


It is only when a colleague is deprived of his perceived share or cut of the loot, or someone else wants to muscle in and demand some share of the spoils is that the truth is allowed to emerge. A political liability is sometimes put up for the slaughter.

We cannot all politicans and bureaucrats with the same colour. There are also good people, however the environment is too inhospitable for such good people and their percentage in the total population is shrinking rather alarmingly.

The media thrives on sensationalism and will briefly headline the crimes only to relegate them to the inner pages within a few days and forget all about it in a couple of weeks. They then jump on the next scandal of which there are umpteen, all waiting to be exposed by rival politicians and leaders at the right time. These disclosures or leaks are not to serve the cause of justice but to finish off rivals.

Democracy is the act of ruling oneself so as not to be ruled by others.


It is your solemn duty to understand your rights and responsibilities and to exercise them judiciously if you want a better future for yourself and your children. Awaken and become socially and politically active. Support good, competent and capable people who will put our nation’s interests above their own.

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If you  do not wish to belong to the hordes who merely grumble. Then you may consider joining one of several new political parties that seek to rebuild India on a clean plank.

One such party is ‘ Professionals Party of India’ www.ppi.net.in   hoping to woo large numbers of the 250 million middle class who reside mainly in urban India. As per Asian development bank projections based on current trends India's middle class will grow to 840 million people by the year 2026. PPI is betting on it's value based clean politics approach to attract this hitherto politically dormant base.

PPI is already present and active in 10 cities.  Candidates do not have to pay any money to get nominated if they are found to possess the right moral fibre with good capability and commitment.

Since candidates will attract mainly middle class votes on basis of merit they will not need obscene amounts of money and their low cost high impact campaign will be funded by PPI.
Candidates will be educated and groomed  by a group of eminent experts in a number of fields over a minimum period of 3 years. This will prepare the chosen candidates to discharge their role as responsible members of the Indian parliament of a new India.