Rajesh Jain

Born to Lose?

“Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.” ― Anais Nin

June 2020 brings to mind another June. The year was 1757. June 23, 1757 was the turning point in Indian history, the Battle of Plassey. A nation betrayed by its own. A freedom lost to a foreign power. It didn’t all happen on that day, but that was the start. We weakened ourselves. If it had not been the British, any of the other European powers would have taken us over. Because we refused to fight, we did not unite, we did not stand up for what was right.

Starting in May 2020, China’s Xi Jinping threw down the gauntlet. The land may be some rocks and mountains. But it is our land. The blood that has been shed is Indian blood. Xi is showing us that we are so weak that we cannot even protect our homeland’s borders. The Battle of Galwan was lost – both in 1962 and 2020. History does repeat itself. We as a nation were too weak to fight back in 1757. We were still weak in 1962. We are still weak in 2020. Xi Jinping has shown us where we stand as a nation. “We will take your land. We will kill your soldiers. What will you do? Ban some apps? Make colour TVs more expensive for your own people? And keep weakening your economy by locking it up? And keep lying to your own people? You will become a superpower one day?”

The only question that matters as a nation now is how we respond. To become stronger than China will require the people to unite and act because we have a political and economic leadership that is weakening us every day.  Those whom we trusted to tell us the truth and act decisively have let us down – repeatedly through the decades. For one generation, we need to set aside everything that divides us. We need to show the solidarity that is enshrined in the first three words of the Preamble of the Constitution. “We the people.” We are Indians first. We have a duty as citizens of our nation, as sons and daughters of the soil. When the leaders fail in every responsibility repeatedly, we need to rise as one to take on the evils that surround us.

This is the defining moment of our lives. We needed a wake-up call. Xi has done it. He has held a mirror to us and shown us how weak we are, how divided we are, how poor we are, how lied to we are. We need to now look past our leaders. We have to come together as Indians to rebuild our nation and our inner selves. We need to free ourselves from the belief that the government is our God. We need to decide that we will not let our children suffer the humiliation of helplessness. It will not be an easy path. No freedom is won without sacrifice.

Tomorrow: Part 12

We The People

“Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.” ― Sara Raasch

Rarely in the life of a nation has the political and economic leadership let down its people so much as we have seen in India over the past few months. A lockdown gone wrong with no sign of ending, an economy that lies battered with little hope of immediate recovery, a border penetrated with not even an acknowledgement. And we had thought that India would be a superpower one day. When our own leaders are pushing us down an abyss so deep that it will take many years for us to recover, how should we respond? Do we stay silent and accept the reality as meekly as we did when we let the British rule over us? Or do we do something? What is our responsibility as a people when our own elected leaders are letting us down and weakening the edifice of our nation?

Does the answer lie in announcing lockdown after lockdown under the guise of Unlock X? What will change a month later or two months later that the lockdowns will end? We know that the virus is not as virulent as we once thought it was. And yet, we are shuttering many parts of the country because no one wants to tell the truth that we need to learn to live with it and get on with daily activities. The bureaucrats have unleashed their own virus with rules that hamper daily life.

How long will this go on? If it is the virus today because we fear, why not lock the roads of the country because they too can kill people? There are two solutions and we are not prepared to face up to both: the need to create more healthcare infrastructure to face up to the increased caseload, and the necessity of getting life back to normal with masks and care. The fear instilled in late March needs to be removed – but no politician in the country is willing to do it because they are all old and worry about their own lives. And so, we will suffer as a nation.

The economic damage is not visible in the stock markets and balance sheets of a few companies. But it is everywhere else. Just because small and medium businesses have no organised voice does not mean that they don’t feel the pain. Just because migrants have gone back and are now getting free food and field work it does not mean that their futures are bright. Just because there are loan moratoriums doesn’t mean that tomorrow will be better than today. Are we ready to accept the 85% economy as the new normal? Do we even understand what the implications of that are on livelihoods?

And then there is China. For the first time in nearly 60 years, we have foreign occupation of our land. But do we care? We let the British rule us. We let the Mughals in. And we went about our daily lives. When we cannot even truthfully acknowledge the presence of the Chinese in our territory, why should we worry? Ban some apps. Impose some tariffs. Make some noisy statements about the one-who-will-not-be-named. And begin the daily distraction show with a new sequence of events.

Is this our India? When the political and economic leadership abdicates its responsibility, should we be idle bystanders? The Preamble of the Constitution starts with “We, the People.”  It does not begin with “It, the Government.” What should We, the People, do? Or has the virus eaten away our ability to feel angry and act? Are there no Indians who are willing to put the nation above self? What can we do? If we don’t win today’s battles, what freedom will we have left to celebrate tomorrow? Are We even a People? Or just sheep controlled by a pack of wolves?

Tomorrow: Part 11

Tech to Transform

“Stop using your phones and laptops as toys and use them to start a revolution.” – Van Jones

To bring about political change, we need to leverage technology. Here is an excerpt from a column I had written in September 2018 (edited lightly for the current context):

Technology has changed how we live, work, buy, sell, communicate and entertain. Internet and mobile technology is what we have used for the past 25 years. And now we can use technology to help us break the chains that bind us.

Just consider the example of Ola.

Earlier, the taxi drivers were hostage to the car owners and fleet owners. Now, with Ola, the drivers have control over their work and their lives.

The same technology has done much more for the passengers. Competition has kept prices low and ensured continuous improvements in services. There is complete transparency in pricing. Passengers also have the ability to give instant feedback on the driver.

In short, it’s a win-win change – for the drivers and the passengers. That is the power of platform technology.

We need to do the same in politics. We need to use platform technology to break free from the chains that the political parties have used to bind us.

Just like Ola connects drivers with passengers, we need a platform that will connect us with those who want to contest elections as independents.

For those among you wanting to contest – this is a new way to enter public life, without the need for money power or political godfathers. All you need is the support of the people.

We, the voters, will choose from among ourselves who will represent us. We will do that through internal elections we organise using our mobile phones and the tech platform.

It will be our choice, and the people we choose will be accountable to us, not to the leaders of political parties.

The people we rate, review and finally choose through our internal elections will contest the general elections as independent candidates who will be answerable to the people of the constituency, not to political bosses.

By electing these independent members of parliament, Lok Sabha will mean what its name says — an assembly of independent people.

Over the years, India has become a dictatorship with total power concentrated in one or two people at the top.

With the tech platform and with a Lok Sabha of Independent MPs who are not puppets in the hands of the political party bosses, we will finally be able to implement true democracy — the rule of the people, by the people, for the people.

In the general elections if we all vote for the candidate we have ourselves chosen through internal elections via the Dhan Vapasi platform, our independent candidate is sure to win. Our mission therefore is to get 543 independent candidates elected to the Lok Sabha. Your mission is to get your independent candidate to win in your constituency.

These are not pipe dreams. If enough of us decide and come together, we can make it happen.

Many of us have lived the better part of our lives. Our parents suffered under onerous rules which limited opportunities. A small window of opportunities was opened in 1991 by Narasimha Rao, and then Vajpayee during 1998-2004. That has been slowly closing for many years – so slowly that we have failed to notice. We owe it to our children to see the writing on the wall. And do something about it. Because if one day in the future they question our inaction, what will we answer them? Why did we destroy their future with our silence? Why did we not do something when we could?

Each of us has to invoke our inner Vishnu. Together and united, we can be Vishnu’s Kalki Avatar. We can destroy the modern day Asuras who have created our dismal plight. We have the power to end the Kalyug of slavery, ignorance and poverty, and put India on an irreversible path to freedom, knowledge and prosperity.

Are we ready? Because this time we are not only faced with the internal evils that our politicians have unleashed on us through the powers they hold in government, but also because of the external threat we face in the form of Xi Jinping’s aggressive and determined China.

Tomorrow: Part 10

“Our masters have not heard the people’s voice for generations and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.” ― Alan Moore

I wrote about the power and working of the political class in a column in September 2018 when I was working to push the idea of Dhan Vapasi:

The leaders of the political parties have all the power and control. They choose who is going to represent us. We the people have no say in who will represent us. We are only allowed to press a button in the voting booth. And the political parties spend enormous amounts in bribing people to vote for them. Too many people fall for this scam every election and we get bad governance.

With our votes we give them the power to rule us. They gain massive wealth and unquestioned power. India’s democracy exists in name only – we are voting for the masters who make us work like their slaves, and force us to dutifully pay whatever taxes they impose on us.

India has become less of a democracy and more of a kakistocracy — a system in which the governments are run by the least qualified and the most corrupt.

We cannot expect those who benefit so unfairly from the power they have to make any change that reduces their power.

We have to use our power to change the system so that it becomes more accountable, more transparent, and a relationship of equals instead of a master-slave relationship. We have to use our vote to change the system.

We need to change the old way of politics –we need to replace old power by new power.

Old Power is held by a few, is pushed down, is commanded, is closed and is transactional. Using Old Power, political parties have stolen our freedom and our wealth.

New Power is made by many, pulled in, shared, open and based on relationships. New Power does not need a political party, it needs a technology platform to connect us all together.

With New Power, we can make political parties irrelevant.

Until this political system is uprooted, no change is possible. The solution does not consist of replacing one party with another — because once in power, they will do exactly what their predecessors did once in power. We need to bypass the political parties and return power genuinely where it belongs – to the people. This is the first phase of the revolution India needs. And it is not as impossible as it seems.

Tomorrow: Part 9

British Raj 2.0

“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” ― Emma Goldman

Before we discuss how, when and where Vishnu’s Kalki Avatar can arrive, we need to first understand how we reached our present state in India where the evils of the political party system and the mai baap sarkar have divided a once united nation, impoverished a once rich people, and weakened the borders of a once mighty power.

After the British left in 1947, another evil force took over that has continuously weakened us – Indian politicians. And today, we are faced with the greatest crisis in the past many generations: a pandemic that has overturned daily life, policies that have displaced people and hurt livelihoods and a polity that has bowed down to the enemy at our door. None of this was created overnight. It was reinforced by every government – that we voted for. It was done in front of our eyes – because we refused to see the obvious. It was done with our tacit consent – for we stayed silent.

Our politicians have all felt blessed by the modern day boon that had once been bestowed on  Hiranyakashipu: “No leader, male or female, young or old, from centre or the states, from this party or that, can defeat you.” Thus emboldened, every political leader has gone on a destructive rampage that has left Indians poor, weak and helpless. Just like what the Asuras once did. Just like what the Mughals and British once did. Just because the present day rulers share our skin colour and win our votes does not make it right. Without freedom, equality and justice, there can be no prosperity. What we have instead is perpetually planned poverty.

It is important to understand how the political system in India really works, and how the leaders of the political parties have concentrated power with themselves reducing all the elected representatives to rubberstamps. The will of the people has been completely subverted. The citizen of India, the voter, the “We” of the Constitution Preamble – silenced, suppressed, subjugated.

Tomorrow: Part 8

“Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” – US Declaration of Independence

Dasha Avatar, the comic book, ends with a reference to Vishnu’s Kalki Avatar – the yet-to-come tenth incarnations. There is just a single page at the end:

As it says: “For when the age reaches its nadir and its worst forces have well nigh spent themselves, Vishnu will appear amongst mortals in this Sattvic form as Kalki. Riding his celestial horse, he will exterminate, but the millions, corrupt robbers who bear high positions in life and will reinforce moral sense and humanitarian views in all good people, till town and countryside will again enjoy peace and security.”

From Wikipedia: “Kalki…is the prophesied tenth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. His birth will be the end of the Kali Yuga, the final of the four eras (Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga), in the endless cycle of existence within the Sanatan Dharma. This will subsequently start a new cycle with Satya Yuga… He is described in the Puranas as the avatar who rejuvenates existence by ending the darkest and destructive period to remove adharma and ushering in the Satya Yuga.”

For a thousand years, Indians have suffered – first under foreign rulers and then under their very own. A fifth of humanity, with a legacy as old as human civilization itself, has struggled to find its rightful place in the world. Prosperity has long eluded Indians – as those in power have consistently used institutions of the past to colonise the people and deny them the basic freedoms that are the foundations for a happy and prosperous life.

The twin evils in modern India are the political party system and the mai-baap sarkar. India needs Vishnu’s next avatar to destroy these contemporary dark forces and enable the flourishing of India.  India needs Vishnu’s Kalki Avatar – not the ones the political leaders think they are, but one constructed by the people themselves.

Tomorrow: Part 7

Vishnu’s Narasimha Avatar

“Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The story of Vishnu’s Narasimha Avatar is perhaps well-known, but is worth recapping. Hiranyakashipu is an Asura (demon) king. His elder brother is killed by Vishnu in one of his previous avatars. This angers Hiranyakashipu who undertakes penance and gets a boon from Brahma that made him almost invincible – he could not be killed during the day or night, inside or outside, neither on earth nor in the sky, by any weapon, and by man or animal. True to the Asura operating procedure, he goes on a rampage. Among those affected is Prahlad, his own son, who is a devotee of Vishnu – much to Hiranyakashipu’s frustrations. Multiple attempts are made to kill Prahlad, but he survives them all.

TemplePurohit’s website takes up the story: “[Hiranyakashipu] dragged Prahlad and asked him if his Lord Vishnu was present in the room with them. Prahlad told him that the Lord was everywhere, and in frustration Hiranyakashipu mocked Prahlad and asked him if his Lord was present in a pillar next to them. Prahlad told him that he was. In rage, Hiranyakashipu kicked the pillar, and out came a ferocious being who was half man and half lion.”

Vishnu then comes to rescue the world in the Narasimha Avatar to kill Hiranyakashipu – in twilight (neither day nor night), on the threshold of a courtyard (neither inside nor outside), with his own hands (no weapons used), in his lap (neither earth nor sky), and in the form of a creature who is half-man and half-lion (neither man nor animal).

What fascinated me as a young kid was the creativity demonstrated by Vishnu to get around the boon given by Brahma to Hiranyakashipu. It reinforced the idea that no one is invincible. I have used the Narasimha avatar metaphor many times in business to demonstrate the point that out-of-the-box thinking can be used to defeat a strong incumbent, however unlikely that may seem. (Of course, Vishnu’s Narasimha was no ordinary startup!)

The other key theme that resonated with me was that good triumphs over evil. What Dashavatar demonstrated was that whenever things seemed lost, Vishnu would come to the rescue of the world.

Similar thoughts came into my mind in the past few months as I started thinking about India’s future. 1.3 billion people living in one of the world’s oldest, and yet cursed to live without freedom for the past millennium. It started with the invaders from Afghanistan, followed by the rule of the Mughals and then the British. We thought we had become free in 1947, but then our very own politicians enslaved us. This has been the hardest – because we all think we are free, little realising that all we have is the illusion of freedom. Our political parties and their leaders are the modern day Asuras.

The question that I started thinking: what would Vishnu do seeing the plight of his people –  denied freedom by their own leaders, distanced from prosperity, and cornered by an expansionist neighbour? If ever there was a time for Vishnu’s next avatar, this was it.

Tomorrow: Part 6

Dasha Avatar

“All revolutions are impossible until they happen. Then they become inevitable.” – Albie Sachs

I grew up with Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) comics – like many in the 1970s and 1980s. I remember going out with my parents and buying every new comic when it was released. They brought history and mythology to life. Until the TV serials came along, the Gods were as depicted in the ACK comics.

One of my favourite comics was Dasha Avatar. It came out in the late 1970s. It brought to life the ten avatars of Vishnu. From the description in the comic:

The Avatar concept is the very cornerstone of Hindu theology. According to it, the Supreme Power manifests itself in animal or human forms on earth, with the divine mission of cleansing it of the periodically increasing evil. The Avatar concept is closely related to the measurement of time in Hindu theology which has its basis on one working day of Brahma. According to the Bhagwat Purana, Brahma, the creator, is the causal effect of the predetermined periodic creation and dissolution of the universe. Each creation or Kalpa is equal to one day and each dissolution or Pralaya is equal to one night in the life of Brahma. A Kalpa and a Pralaya last for 4,320 million human years each. Every Kalpa has 1000 cycles of 4 Yugas (ages). Each cycle of 4 Yugas is completed in 4,320,000 human years. The Yugas are called Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali. The Avatars which are considered most significant are ten in number and they form the ‘Dasha Avatar’. These ten avatars start with the form of a lowly fish and work up to the noble man, cast in the image of God. The fanciful find a parallel to Darwin’s theory of evolution in the progression of these Avatars. The Avatars enable the common folk to speak of or listen to stories of divine doings which is a simple way of proceeding towards Godhead; particularly in our Kali Yuga with its ‘sick hurry and divided aims’.

In each case, Vishnu takes on different forms to fight against evil and restore order. Here is a brief from Wikipedia:

The Dashavatara refers to the ten primary (i.e. full or complete) incarnations (avatars) of Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation which has Rigvedic origins. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara derives from daśa, meaning ‘ten’, and avatar (avatāra), roughly equivalent to ‘incarnation’…Most draw from the following set of figures, in this order: Matsya; Kurma; Varaha; Narasimha; Vamana; Parashurama; Rama; Krishna or Balarama; Buddha or Krishna; and Kalki…All avatars have appeared except Kalki, who will appear at the end of the Kali Yuga. The order of the ancient concept of Dashavataras has been interpreted to be reflective of modern Darwinian evolution.

I read Dasha Avatar many times. Each avatar was covered in a few pages and showed Vishnu in different forms creatively taking on wrongdoers and winning. Among all the avatars, the one I was most fascinated by was Vishnu’s Narasimha Avatar.

Tomorrow: Part 5

Divide and Rule

“The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.” ― Thomas Jefferson

India’s pre-1947 poverty was crafted by the British and their invading predecessors. India’s post-1947 poverty was handcrafted by the composers of the 1950 Constitution. A Constituent Assembly of elitist Leftists led by their patron saint Jawaharlal Nehru concentrated powers in a Central government – exactly as the 1935 Government of India Act passed by the UK Parliament did. 242 of 395 Articles in the 1950 Constitution were copied verbatim from the 1935 Act which was designed to subjugate the people and deny them freedom. The fate of Indians – and those unborn – was decided in those crucial years between 1947 and 1950.

The continuing Colonial Constitution (with its 100+ amendments which chipped away the few remaining  freedoms that Indians enjoyed) has concentrated ever-increasing power in the hands of a few at the top of government – just the way the British ruled and controlled Indians. If we did not have freedom before 1947, it is impossible to argue that we have freedom now – because the rules have not changed.

With a government that had supreme powers, it was little surprise that with the passage of time the merely incompetent leaders gave way to the totally corrupt. This is the way power works, as Lord Acton put it so well, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” With absolute power concentrated in the political leaders, it created the incentives for the rise of those willing to do anything to get to the top – because of the huge treasure they could capture. Politics was not about serving the people but serving oneself – even if that meant imposing costs on others. The political party system became the route to extracting wealth from the nation. And thus, India morphed from a democracy to a kakistocracy — a government of the least qualified and the most corrupt.

To stay in power in a first-past-the-post electoral system with universal suffrage, it became quickly obvious that dividing voters to target the ‘selectorate’ was the way to acquire and retain power. Voting blocs were identified and pandered to. Muslims and the poor-fed-on-freebies were the largest votebanks, until the BJP decided that the Hindu vote was bigger than all of them. It perfected the art of winning elections with the triad of pro-Hindu, pro-poor and pro-India (read: anti-Pakistan) slogans. For every leader, the key was winning. And after winning, doing whatever it took to stay in power. Which meant more of the same tricks. Candidates had no party allegiance since all parties were the same – what mattered was being on the winning side because only then could one get a share of the spoils.

With every election, the size of the government and its powers grew. Business people realised that to succeed they had to befriend the politicians. Licences and permissions were in the hands of the political class (aided by the cunning bureaucrats). Indian politics became the newest industry – with the greatest riches at stake. Cronyism grew with every election as politicians depended on their own accumulated war chest and those from greedy, favour-seeking business people – this was a perfect alliance.

The poor were silenced with handouts and freebies and kept poor because they were the golden goose – the single largest chunk of voters without any skin in the game who could be easily bribed. The thin middle class was kept busy slogging it out so they could eke out just enough to keep their aspirations going. They had no way and no time to self-organise and demand a better future. The elite didn’t care – they created their private islands of opulence. Indians lost their freedom and their future.

If we are to reclaim our nation from the imposters who rule over us, we will need to unite against our real enemies – the politicians and their political parties. The Dasha Avatar can inspire us.

Tomorrow: Part 4

Transformation not Tweaks

Revolution only needs good dreamers who remember their dreams.” – Tennessee Williams

I will argue that India needs a revolution because incremental change in our political and economic system is not possible. The existing rot is too deep in our politics, and the resulting policies that emphasise wealth redistribution over wealth creation cannot be tweaked for better outcomes. The economic policies India needs will not come without a new political leadership, which in turn requires a radical change in the political system.

What is a revolution? From Wikipedia: “In political science, a revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due to perceived oppression (political, social, economic) or political incompetence.”

Oppression and political incompetence are not new in India. The people lived through it in voluntary servitude under the British, and continued it after 1947 under leaders they voted for. The particular people in power changed, the oppression and incompetence continued. India should have ousted the British with a Revolution, but we chose a peaceful transition of power that kept the rules the same – and therefore the outcomes did not change.

We can still continue with the same. Those who can create their cocoons will do so, while some others will escape to the West. The others will stay and continue to suffer. The pandemic and its aftermath will heighten the pain. Even though Indians are known for their immense tolerance of pain (what else explains our willingness to live through British Raj 1.0 and then British Raj 2.0 inflicted by our own politicians), the coming years will test even the most patient. The pandemic may have been the immediate cause, but the lasting damage is being inflicted by our politicians and bureaucrats. Will we sleep through this or will we finally wake up? If we do awaken from our slumber, we will see the need for a revolution.

A revolution might sound disruptive and violent. It is not. Just as technology is helping us buy, learn, connect and communicate, it can help us change our nation. For this a few of us need to first understand that the change is really needed. This is the job of political entrepreneurs. They have to change minds. Only then will the votes change.

The pandemic has shown us how a virus can spread itself from person to person. We need to apply similar thinking about the rules of contagion to spread ideas from person to person. We need to get past the belief that India was, is and will be great. We were not, are not and will not be great – unless we the people actively work to bring about the needed political and economic transformations. This is the revolution India needs – and what some of us have to deliver.

Tomorrow: Part 3