The 2G story for children

One day Bunty asked his father, “Papa, what is this 2G scam?”

Papa replied,” Well Bunty, let me tell you the story in such a way that you understand it. Once upon a time there was a school which was headed by a Principal called ‘Aam Admi’. They had appointed one Head mistress called Soni. There was a class teacher called Mannu. The class teacher always listened to the Head Mistress and did not do a single thing without her advice.

Let us focus our story on one particular class only. While there were many students in the class, we shall talk about three students named Prannu, Chiddu and Raju. Raju was a very naughty boy, who had the habit of stealing things. However, he was liked by the class teacher and Head mistress. They had a soft corner for him. Prannu was a sincere boy, who studied very well and worked hard. He always secured more marks than other students in the class. He was trusted by the class teacher and the Head Mistress. Chiddu was a very arrogant student, who believed that he had bought the copyrights of being intelligent in the class. He used to behave as though he was the most brilliant student in the class and all others were dumb. For some reasons, both Mannu and Soni liked Chiddu also.”

Bunty seemed interested in the story.

Papa continued,” Now that the characters are defined, let us go straight into the topic. Once, there was a function held in the school called, ‘Spectrum distribution ceremony’. It was a big function. When everyone was busy in attending that function, Raju stole the pencils, erasers, sharpeners etc from the bags of all students in his class.”

Bunty interrupted,” But Papa, this is wrong. One should not steal, right?”

Papa said,” Yes, One should never steal anything from anyone. But Raju did. Not just that, he also secretly informed the class teacher Mannu about it.”

Bunty looked puzzled. ”But shouldn’t he have stopped him, papa?”

“Yes Bunty. He should have stopped him. But for whatever reasons, he did not.”

Bunty was shocked.

Papa continued,” Soon, everyone came to know about this incident and they started investigation. They found out that Raju had done this. So, they punished him.”

Bunty said,” Good..! The guilty must be punished. The story ends?”

Papa said, “No Bunty that was interval. The Part II of the story continues. The story took an unexpected turn, when a class monitor was to be selected. Both Prannu and Chiddu wanted to be the class monitor.”

Bunty looked puzzled. “But papa, what that has to do about the stealing act?”

Papa said,” Well, actually nothing. But the competition between them was so strong, that to become the class monitor, they were willing to do anything, even spoiling other’s name if required.”

Bunty looked confused. “Still not clear, papa. What this has got to do with the steal? And were there any reasons for the enmity between?”

Papa said,” Bunty, they had developed enmity over last few months. Sometime back, Chiddu secretly planted some microphones under the desk of Prannu. That way he thought that he would know every discussion Prannu had with others. This irked Prannu very much. That is why, during the competition in the school called ‘Anna Hazare competition’ for ‘Crisis management’, Prannu allowed Chiddu to mess up things for himself and finally emerged winner in the competition. But his anger was still not pacified.”

Bunty exclaimed,” Oh, I see…!”

Papa continued, “So, in a startling revelation, Prannu informed the class teacher Mannu in front of all others that Chiddu was well aware about Raju’s plans of stealing the items from classroom. He also speculated that Chiddu also could have received some of the stolen items.

Bunty said,”What a masterstroke by Prannu..! Then what happened?”

Papa said,” Since Prannu said this in front of all others; Mannu had to take some action against Chiddu. But he liked Chiddu as much as he liked Prannu. There had to be a way out, by which Chiddu could be saved from punishment and Prannu also kept happy.”

Bunty said,” But that is very difficult. How did Mannu do that?”

Papa said,” Well Bunty, he first called both of them and informed them that their personal fight could land everyone in trouble. So, he postponed the class monitor elections and suggested that both of them first become friends.”

However, by that time, the principal (aam admi) had got the news and called the class teacher Mannu, Prannu and Chiddu.

There, in front of him they made following statements...

Mannu said,” I have full confidence in Chiddu. He has not stolen anything.”

Prannu said,” I only speculated that he has stolen something, these were not my views. Chiddu is my very good friend.”

Chiddu said,” I am satisfied with what Prannu is saying. The case is closed.”

At this juncture, Bunty said,” Papa, but what has been achieved is only that the fight between Prannu and Chiddu is resolved. What about being a conspirator in stealing with Raju?

Papa said,” Well Bunty, this is the shortsightedness of Mannu and Soni. They felt that by resolving this fight, the problem would be solved.”

“What will happen next?” Bunty asked thoughtfully.

Papa said, “Bunty, the principal is powerful person. He has noticed that there is allegation against Chiddu. He will investigate this further and if Chiddu is found guilty, he will be punished as well.”

Bunty seemed to remember something and interrupted,” But Papa, I remember you said that Mannu was also aware that Raju had stolen something. Would he be punished as well?”

Papa thought for while and said philosophically,” My son, the principal called Aam Admi believes that truth will ultimately prevail and also that the guilty will be always be punished.”

Bunty said cheerfully,” Yes Papa that is what we always believe in… SATYAMEVA JAYATE…”

Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantri 2014?

India is currently going through a very crucial phase, when the ruling alliance led by Congress party has lost all its credibility while the main opposition party, BJP, is not really prepared to capitalize on this situation. This is a classic case of both parties helping each other by virtue of their gross inefficiencies. It is also very much like a cricket match, where both teams have ‘fixed’ the match and losing becomes more difficult than winning.    

Few times in history of Independent India, a run up to a general election has thrown up possibilities of more than 3 candidates having potential to become Prime Minister. While it may be good to have a wider choice, unfortunately, in 2014, the Prime Minister shall be selected out of mere political compulsions rather than the convictions. There is not one among these wannabes, who is convincing as an outright winner.

Also, for the first time, any ruling party has embroiled itself neck deep in troubles with half a dozen of its ministers sitting inside the jail for most part of its term on charges of corruption running into several thousand crores of rupees. The opposition is putting up an excellent display of disarray among its rank and file, thereby wasting the platinum opportunity offered to it on a platter.

In this fluid situation, let us look at some of the potential candidates for the post of Prime Minister in 2014 elections. These are only potential choices across the party lines and not in the order of preference or rating.

Manmohan Singh

 He has been the Prime minister for two terms. Not an impressive record in second term. He had won many accolades as the revolutionary Finance Minister in 1991 which put India on the fast track of growth and development. However, much of the goodwill gained over the years has been washed away in last two years because of mega scams happening right under his nose. He may be innocent, but is that a sufficient criterion for a Prime Minister? He needs to take and appear taking action against those found guilty of swindling the taxpayer’s money. This is where he lost his credibility badly.

His good image as an innocent politician has been replaced by that of an incompetent old man obeying high command’s instructions. His inept handling of the Anna Hazare’s agitation further proved that he does not have the acumen of a shrewd politician.

A popular joke doing rounds during Sonia’s mysterious absence for 5 weeks say that once he went to a hotel for a dinner and came back without eating anything. Reason? The waiter asked him whether he would like to have soup first or the starters first. And since he could not take decision, he finally came out without eating anything…

Rider: He would be the choice of PM ONLY if Rahul Gandhi is not ready to take on the post.

Rahul Gandhi

 He is undoubtedly the most pampered personality in contemporary period that is looked upon with reverence by the true (read sycophant) congressmen. Even Google cannot search the achievements of Rahul Gandhi, because they do not exist. Recently, he has READ OUT one powerful ‘game-changer’ speech during the zero hour in the parliament, when the members are not expected to read out rehearsed speeches. Unfortunately, this speech took every congress member (including the Prime minister) by surprise because it was singing a different tune than what they all were singing.

He has done everything wrong a person can do, WHILE being in the brightest limelight. When Anna Hazare’s agitation was raging across India, he went to console the families of farmers died in police firing in Pune. He even went to the ceremony of inducting Chiranjeevi in Congress, but openly avoided taking any questions on Anna Hazare.

He mentioned after the recent Bombay blast that the intelligence services of India are successfully preventing 99% of the bomb explosions. So, what we are seeing is just 1%? Can someone please share with the Aam admi the details of the conspirators of the 99% attempts and what punishment has been given to them?

He recently said that he was ashamed of being an Indian when police atrocities were reported from UP. However, his exact feelings of pride are not known about the series of multi-crore scams unleashed by the Congress ministers in last two years.

Rider: There is a strong possibility that he could enact the drama of ‘sacrifice’ played by his mother to hide his incompetency.

Narendra Modi

 He is the most controversial figure in the list of probable candidates. He was never really in the fray till his name surprisingly appeared in a US congressional research report which indicated a direct fight between him and Rahul Gandhi in 2014. That report bolstered his spirits to unimaginable heights and he started believing that he has already been declared a winner. His sadbhavana Upvaas was dubbed by many as a desperate attempt to cleanse his sins, committed in 2002. But then, will people forget those horrible moments when the entire state machinery was (ALLEGEDLY) utilized to monitor and guide the massacre of some people?

Yes, agreed that Narendra Modi has made lot of progress and development in Gujarat during last decade. It is also comprehended by some analysts that the growth of Gujarat was driving the growth of India. However, it remains to be seen whether people are prepared to forgive the past of a sinner who promises to be a saint in future.

Rider: He faces a severe image issue and a stiff challenge from Nitish Kumar.

Lal Krishna Advani

 Even though recently he announced (forcibly, after meeting RSS) that he is not in the fray for PM, he continues to silently working on his secret agenda. He is probably the only candidate who has been nurturing a dream of becoming a Prime Minister for the longest period. Ever since BJP gained the national party status in 80s, he has been fondly wishing to become PM someday. His dream was always scuttled by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayee, due to his moderate image, was always acceptable to the allies compared to the hardliner image created by Advani. And Vajpayee demonstrated his excellent accommodative skills during the brief BJP rule, putting Advani in a permanent second place.

Now that Vajpayee is out of the race because of his old age, Advani was feeling happy that his dream might come true, finally. And then appeared the report suggesting Modi’s candidature for the coveted post. Again Advani is left in a lurch. Age is fast catching up with him. Whatever meager chances he has of becoming the PM, can be realized only in 2014, because in next elections, he would be in his nineties.

Rider: The only factor which weighs in favor of Advani is Modi. Ironically, the same Advani who appeared a hardliner in comparison with Vajpayee appears a Sacred Saint in comparison with Modi. On any given day, the NDA allies are more likely to accept Advani as their leader compared to Modi.

Nitish Kumar

 He is the politician whose graph has seen a sudden upswing in last few years. He is by far the most uncontroversial candidate among all the contenders. His only credentials are good governance in Bihar which brought him in power for second consecutive term with overwhelming majority, thereby pushing Laloo raj forever on back burner.

He has dared to openly challenge Modi earlier and always keeps a long distance from him to avoid any communal flavor sticking to his image. He has support of all classes and section in Bihar. The state is living a civilized life after decades of jungle raj. The anti social elements are being pushed into jails in hordes and corrupt official’s properties are confiscated and converted into primary schools. The number of girl children attending schools is highest ever in the state, thanks to free bicycles distributed to them for travelling to school.

His image is that of a leader who means business with no bias towards any caste or community. He would be the most acceptable choice for most of the allies in the crucial hour of selection of a consensus candidate.

Rider: His party shall have too small numbers in the parliament to stake the claim for top position.

Pranab Mukharjee

 He shall be the reserve candidate of Congress in exigencies. After all, he is the only trusted and proven person who has saved Congress from many difficult situations, the latest one being Anna Hazare fiasco. The entire congress top brass has mismanaged the case to such an extent that it required Pranab da to step in and work out a compromise formula. Before he entered the scene, it was hara-kiri, with every leader damaging the case worse than others. It is unimaginable as to what would have happened, if he had not stepped in for a few more days. The country had already reached a boiling point where the passion had overtaken logic across the cities, towns and villages.

His current fight with Chidambaram is only making him stronger by the day. If Chdambaram had tried to put secret microphones in Pranab da’s office, Pranab is ensuring that Chdambaram will be thickly embroiled in the 2G scam. 

Rider: His chances are very bleak as of now, and are depending on following circumstances: a) Congress comes back to power; b) Manmohan refuses to take on the mantle (because of some leftover self respect) and c) Rahul has a late realization that he has to be strictly away from the power, for people to continue to think of him as a genius.  

Well, these elections are different because people are forced to choose the one who is less evil, who is less damaging, and who is less unstable.

The aam admi is only left to say Amitabh Bachchan’s dialogue, “Kaun Banega Pradhan Mantri…”

The Overshadowed Stars…

Many times a person excelling in his field fails to get due recognition and rewards because of some one performing even better during the same times. History is full of such people, who deserved more from life than just the occasional praise which they received from some passionate critics and admirers.

The world usually appreciates and admires only the number 1 in every race. Be it the race for stardom, some sports, acting, politics or any such field. The people who participated in the race and stood 2^nd, 3^rd … will be forgotten very soon. That is if they get recognized in the first place. This phenomenon may be a true motivator for the successful ones, but is too harsh for others.

Rahul Dravid is one such cricket player, who did not get due recognition for his contribution to cricket. He has saved several matches from clutches of defeat at various times during his career. He has also got several records to his credit. Let us not go into the long list of his records, as they are readily available on the Cricinfo and Wikipedia. But these achievements have not given him the stardom given to Sachin Tendulkar.  The world always favored and talked about Sachin only.

Even at the beginning of the now infamous England tour of 2011, people were speculating Sachin’s 100^th century. Sadly, it never came. But silently, Dravid hit a few centuries in the meantime. Those centuries at least helped India in reducing the intensity of defeats and rightfully earned him the ‘Man of the Series’ award.

He has been a true gentleman of the game, never appearing in any controversies. He played the game with a passion and in its true spirit. He did not attempt at any time to build up personal records for himself. As the management gurus point out, make your work your passion and the success and records follow themselves. There were times, when he was down and out. At such moments, instead of getting demoralized and dejected, he worked hard and bounced back with his performance. Again, in management lingo, the greatness does not lie in ‘not falling’ but in ‘rising every time we fall’. 

He was fondly referred to as ‘The wall’, ‘Mr. Dependable’ by the English media while Hindi media often referred to him as ‘Sriman Bharosemand’. These titles do not come in a day and are not conferred on anyone just like that. One has to strive for that.

Today that he has announced his retirement; India is losing an unsung hero in the game of cricket. The nation has got more from him than what he got from the nation. Had he been born in a different era, maybe he might have received more acclaim and praise from the Indian cricket fans.

Asha Bhosle is one singer who has suffered under the success of her sister Lata Mangeshkar. No one disputes the supremacy of Lata Mangeshkar in singing. She is conferred with several awards and liked by many. However, there are some reports which suggest that the means adopted by her to attain this position were not truly fair. In her peak period, she used to pressurize the music directors to sign her only otherwise she would never sing for them again. That has put the other singers of that period at a great disadvantage, as they could not demonstrate their talent fully for lack of opportunity.

In male category, Udit Narayan and Kumar Shanu started almost at the same time. Because of multiple reasons including the meritorious ones, Kumar Shanu got much fanfare than Udit Narayan. That put Udit Narayan in an ‘also ran’ category. However, in a rare gesture of greatness, Kumar Shanu declined to be nominated for Filmfare awards, as he had won it for incredible 5 consecutive years. Of these 5 years, on two occasions, all the 5 nominations were songs sung by Kumar Shanu. Now that Kumar Shanu has faded out, Udit Narayan is finding some moments of appreciation. 

In politics, I would say, LK Advani is a big victim of this phenomenon. He always had to work under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership. Apart from the plus and minus of both these leaders, the fact always remains that if he was in politics in some other era, he would have definitely got more opportunities than what he has got till now. And now he has become too old, to be considered for the top position, what with Narendra Modi being mentioned in a US congressional report as likely candidate for the Prime ministerial position in 2014.

Dharmendra was one such personality who had to be always under the shadow of Amitabh Bachchan. Ever since Zanjeer was released in 1973, Big B got the tag of Angry young man, which snatched the stardom from other stars like Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna etc. They were reduced to playing a second fiddle to him in the multi starrer movies.

In Tennis, Mahesh Bhoopathi has always been considered as second to Leander paes, while the fact remains that he had been almost equal or even better than him. But being active in same period, there is bound to be a comparison and the first individual Olympic medal has put Leander ahead of Mahesh.

In this regard, all the Congress veteran leaders are perennially under a curse. They are never considered for a Party President or Prime Ministerial positions, as these positions are strictly reserved for the Gandhi family. However, there is no sympathy for them, as they have brought this situation upon themselves by their own actions of unparalleled acts of sycophancy and hypocrisy.   

10 Management lessons from Anna's Andolan

The modern India witnessed a sort of miracle last month when every city, Town and village swayed to the magic of Anna Hazare for nonstop 12 days. Every news channel carried minute to minute detail of the developments; and the newspaper editorials were filled with various aspects of the movement. Many senior citizens recalled the popular JP movement of 1977 and still old citizens fondly remembered India’s independence struggle.

It is indeed a matter of great surprise as to how this movement gathered so much popularity when there was neither a star attraction nor it was funded heavily by any big houses. What made the common man to hit the street and be voluntarily a part of this agitation? According to some reports, XLRI and some other management institutes have already included this entire movement as a case study for their courses.

We look at 10 most significant management lessons one can learn, which made this movement successful.

Management Lesson # 1

Keep right people around you if you want to succeed.

Anna Hazare had formed a team around him who were consulting him at every step and taking directions from him. This team comprised of Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan. None of them have any criminal record or any cases of corruption against them. Their lives are mostly transparent and they all have a righteous past. Notable among them are Arvind Kejriwal, who left IRS and started voluntary organizations to uproot corruption from the society and Kiran Bedi, who earned appreciation of all Indians in 80s by fearlessly exercising legitimate and constitutional power against the high profile offenders. There were some important players behind the scenes too, handling the logistics, IT campaign, statutory approvals etc, who did not get much media exposure.

On this point, Baba Ramdev scored very low, as his aide, Acharya Balkrishna is neck deep in trouble over various issues starting with his passport and qualifications.

Management Lesson # 2

A clear strategy with well defined objective yields results.

Anna Hazare had a clear strategy keeping in mind the end objective. His objective was the passing of Jan Lokpal bill by Parliament. He knew that people of India were fed up with corruption. The mega scams reported during last 2 years had already put the government in a very embarrassing position in the eyes of people. This was the right time to strike. Also, from the April adventure, he knew that he enjoyed the support of common man across India. So, he decided to go on fast following all the rules. His strategy was only to follow the rules and still pursue his objective. It required extraordinary kind of thinking to stay put in jail even after he was released few hours after his arrest, due to mounting pressure from the people. This ensured that the tempo continued to build up outside. The government crumbled in those 3 days and accepted all his demands of fast which they had denied in the beginning.

Management Lesson # 3

A good plan, with mechanism to review, monitor and amend it periodically ensures success.

The core committee around Anna was planning every minute detail during the entire period starting morning of 16^th August. In fact the actual planning started much before that. It was a part of the clever planning due to which Anna could shoot the video of his message to the country about his arrest even before he was arrested. The planning was reviewed several times in a day to take feedback on the actual happenings and make amendments to plan. A plan is needed to start the process but it needs to be reviewed and monitored continuously to proceed further. This is what the Anna team did best.

Management Lesson # 4

A proper delegation of responsibilities coupled with sincerity of team members in doing their tasks without interfering in other’s work ensures success.

The tasks were cut out for each and every member of Anna team from very beginning. While Anna remained firmly grounded in Ramlila maidan, all his team members went around performing their own tasks. Arvind Kejriwal was in charge of media management, Kiran Bedi was in touch with Delhi police to get a feel of their actions in advance, Prashant Bhushan was analyzing the legal consequences of the offerings made by govt during negotiations. The beauty is that everyone had a complete faith and trust in other team members and no one interfered in other’s domain. There was one person who went around getting approvals for fasting from govt bodies, while there was one more with full quota of sher and shayari related to Anna movement entertaining and inspiring the crowds throughout the day.

Management Lesson # 5

Follow the rules at all times – it helps.

The entire Anna movement was centered on one broad principle – not to break any rules. The team Anna never wanted to be seen on the wrong side of law at any time. That is why they took seriously the approvals given by Delhi police initially for observing fast at JP Park. That approval had 22 conditions, which were difficult to follow. The intense negotiations in Tihar jail for three days demonstrate how the team Anna wanted to make sure that what they start is a long term legally compliant movement and not end in a whimper because of violating laws. (Failure to adhere to the rules weakened the Baba Ramdev movement and Delhi police had some justifiable excuses for their actions, even though the way they acted was not correct.)

Management lesson # 6

When you have sincerity in your approach, you draw support from all quarters in your endeavors.  

The guiding light of this movement was Anna Hazare, who has a clean and spotless character. He lives in a small town in a room inside a temple. His assets are his principles. When such person starts an agitation against corruption, people believe in him and follow him. (If ever Laloo Prasad starts such an agitation, how many would support him? Or say Chidambaram starts an academy in ethical behavior how many would join it? Or say, if Kapil Sibbal gives a discourse on how to speak humbly, how many would attend it?) People knew that Anna practices what he preaches. His past reflects that he has always said what he believes in and does exactly what his conscience says. He is not political figure, who change colors with time. This was perhaps the biggest factor resulting in Indian masses following him blindly.

Management Lesson # 7

A genuine cause will attract much more support than a fake cause.

Team Anna has started the agitation for a cause, which has affected the aam admi of India for several years now. Last two years have been worst in terms of corruption in high offices. The inflation has already hit the middle classes hard. So, when they were presented a rosy picture of a system in which there would be minimum corruption, they were bound to support it wholeheartedly. Again, while the cancer of corruption had been existing in the system for quite some time now, it required someone who could take it up genuinely and not for any personal benefits. Even all religious scriptures suggest that the prayers are likely to be answered, if they are for a genuine cause, which helps the society in general.

Management Lesson # 8

A confidant approach is necessary for any endeavor to succeed.

Anna Hazare had a confidence that his movement will be successful. His every statement made to the media was filled with confidence. He is not a great orator. He is not well qualified either. But his confidence in himself was simply too much. When he said ‘Jail Bharo’ to his followers, they filled jails. When he said ‘Gherao the MP’s houses’ they did it for MPs across the political parties. For few days, he was the imagination of the nation. He overpowered people’s political affiliations. Had he displayed any doubts in his intentions or in his own words, the following would not have been so much.

Management Lesson # 9

When you lead from front, people have faith in you and follow.

Anna Hazare sat at the centre stage managing the entire agitation throughout the 12 days. Not just that, he was fasting too. It requires enormous amount of will power and dedication for an individual to survive only on water for so many days. In today’s world, this was a rare example of a person sacrificing his health for a social cause. The enactment of Janlokpal bill would not have helped him personally in any way whatsoever. Doctors had informed him on 9^th day that his kidneys were getting slowly affected. He bravely said there were so many people out there who would give him their kidney, if required. At one point, Shiv sena also commented that Anna Hazare should give up his fast and instead his team members should fast. However, he wanted to lead the movement.

What is also remarkable is that he did not give publicity to himself throughout the campaign. The van which carried him from Tihar Jail to Ramlila maidan did not have his poster. Also, the stage in Ramlila maidan was adorned with one big photo of Mahatma Gandhi on the backdrop. This is in stark contrast to the rallies / events of political leaders, whose posters are displayed everywhere by their supporters to appease them.

Management Lesson # 10

Positive thinking is a necessary ingredient for success.   

At no time during the entire 12 days, did Anna ever say what would happen, if his agitation failed. He was going all out. He made it clear several times that whether he remains or not the agitation should continue. That showed a steel resolve beyond normal thinking of an ordinary person. In spite of stoic government stand during first six days and then a super fluctuating stand during next few days, he continued to think that he would succeed. These were not the traits of an ordinary man. His self belief and positive attitude had already made him a national hero hitting international headlines.