2014 Gen Elections: Politics of Anger Management

Bharat experienced slow economic & social progress, often described as a Hindu rate of growth, for most periods since 1947, when the British left India, until the present PM of India Dr Manmohan Singh, an economist, was discovered by distraught political leaders & handed over the critical task of managing economy.  Since 47, the caste-religion minded political class in India thought it imprudent to hand over the important ministries in union cabinet to professionals on merit alone without factoring in their social class.

The Chalta-hai & Aya-Ram-Gaya- Ram approach to politics in Bharat pushed it into turmoil by a staccato fix it style handling of economic policies. The trial & error attitude adopted by ruling elite led to chaos and brought it on the verge of exploding internally due to poverty, hunger & slow haphazard growth, as if the socio-political leaders had no choice available in front of them in operation in the West & Asia. Since the political elite were busy managing vote banks, the three other pillars of democracy decided to serve their own selfish interests than that of the citizens.

Bharat experienced rapid economic development much later than even south-Asian countries, due to reforms introduced by Dr Manmohan Singh & emulated by others. But this growth has tapered once again & may soon degenerate into pre-Manmohan- Singh- era level. Growth by itself is useless unless it is in right direction.  Cancerous growth looks amazing, in color pictures. A growth movement without direction does serious long term damage to a society because it can’t help one arrive at the desired destination.

The world has long accepted & imbibed the truth of best man for the job approach but Bharat continues to live by the rank opposite philosophy of any adult can do every job. That’s why you see exponents of yoga, a traditional physiotherapy regimen, lecture seasoned economists & industrialists on how to run economy & industry.  That is sure recipe for a long period of directionless Hindu rate of growth in Bharat.  Never been to school brand of swamis are not the major reason for chaos in Bharat. It’s the lack of right quantity of quality leaders that hurts most.

Though INC would have preferred to have another PM in 2009, in place of Dr Manmohan Singh, to balance various religious identities for compulsions of electoral politics, but Sonia Gandhi perhaps had limited choice to replace Dr Singh. But the second term as Prime Minister to a humble honest clean scholar from Sikh community has not helped political fortunes of Congress Party in mainly Hindu-heartland states in Bharat.

Political parties In Bharat seems to have divided along secular versus communal chasm. But this divide is facile as most political players keep trotting to either side as per convenience. The Congress party often calls its opponent BJP a communal party, but the majority population doesn't see much difference between the two. Bhajpa became a formidable political force by leveraging the Hindu pride. LK Advani led movement for construction of Hindu temple at the place of Mosque bore sweet fruits in India that prided itself of being a secular state different from religion based Pakistan & Nepal.  Advani & Vajpaye didn’t spend a single day in jail for leading the Hindu pride movement of Ram Temple and were rewarded by top leadership positions in the secular republic of Bharat. On the contrary, Shiromani Akali Dal, a party of Sikhs in Punjab, has not been lucky, as its leaders had to suffer a lot in the politics of Sikh pride.  

It is incorrect to credit BJP for resurrection of Hindu pride movement. The seeds of it were sown much earlier during the British raj. If triumvirate of Gandhi, Nehru & Patel had shown foresight by refusing to undertake construction of Somnath temple on priority in newly independent India and focused on economic matters alone perhaps India would have been a super power by now ahead of China? It confounds many why they took such a step when Europe & Asia were into thick of anti-religious sentiment fuelled by socialist revolution? Did India err in anger management of Hindus who were forced to live under non-Hindu empires for thousands of years?

Hindu supremacist organizations like RSS [Sangh] don’t condemn demolition of Babri mosque, Operation Bluestar, major riots of 84, 92 & 2002 etc in which minorities of Bharat suffered enormously. Most often such incidents are justified by Hindu political class as genuine acceptable reactions to atrocities inflicted on majority Hindus by minority Sikhs & Muslims. No Hindu politician has ever gone to jail for participating in such tragic carefully planned attacks on minorities in Bharat, though leaders & professionals from minorities have been routinely punished by various courts or mere suspicion alone. Chief Minister Punjab S Parkash Singh Badal has spent 17 years in jails as political prisoner, second only to Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.

While India was busy managing the Hindu-angst, China raced ahead to become a global power of enormous magnitude. Despite huge population, equal to China, Bharat wins far few Olympic medals, Nobel awards and Oscars etc.  Wonder why don’t Bharat use available fora to stamp its strength on global scene?   The industry, with exception of few, still find it difficult to inculcate competencies required for success despite decades of protection, catalyzed further by liberalization ushered in by Dr Manmohan Singh. Failure of domestic industry majors, despite protections against global competition, in organized retail is clear proof of their lack of managerial strengths.

History is not created by those students who want stars on each page they write from every teacher no matter what. But by those who study very hard & work harder. Narendra Modi, CM Gujarat, a representative of RSS-BJP Hindu philosophy wants to be next PM of India in 2014 to, as he says so loudly and repeatedly, to rid India of economic mess created by Dr Manmohan Singh led government & put an end to pseudo-secular politics in India. He wants to make India like Gujarat that he claims is a model state in the world.

But is he the best man for the job or an average guy who will ask others to work for him & produce excellence? Can a good administrator be a great inventor or economist or engineer? Media has projected N Modi as a control freak, certainly not known for giving freedom to the team, a prerequisite for germination & nurture of excellence. Will Bharat once again opt for placating ‘outraged Hindus’ looking for suitable route for anger management by electing N. Modi? Could emergence of Aam Admi Party provide an alternative to India to vent its frustrations and take India forward towards a respectable image of a global democracy?  Perhaps the Congress party understands that India & Bharat are angry but it doesn't seem to appreciate who is more & why. 

Why no Amul from Punjab? Verka & Food brands !

Punjabis are known for hard work and entrepreneurial nature. They happily venture out on paths where few dare to trot. Punjab has considerable expertise in manufacturing as some punjabis have done quite well at the global and domestic level. When we discuss cycles, milk products, yarn, hosiery, knitwear, hand tools, sports goods there are some sparkling stories. But why do we not have a 'brand' like Amul, Dettol, Britania etc ?Punjabis are popular for thier appetite and fine eating, what stops us from creating a brand ? Lassi has market potential, why not have a branded lassi ?

As consumers are becoming more demanding the food companies have to work  overtime to convince the buyers to depend on them for offering nutrition combined with pleasure. Therefore food companies are taking fatty foods off the shelves and replacing them with the healthier foods. You may segment the food along four benefits; Nutrition, Taste, Health and Pleasure. What are the alternatives with the Cola majors like Pepsi & Coke? Would they be able to sustain a strategic attack on their consumption? Could they survive by asking consumers to go for cola drinks for pure pleasure? Or could they pass off as the tastier water available? They would find it very scary to go for a pleasure tag. Certainly they would never imagine killing their market by hawking Cola as a health drink. How the future is going to play out is a million dollar question.Snack food market in India is dominated by the unorganized sector.

Future may be different. The organized retail revolution unleashed in India would change the contours in no time. Most retailers have or are in the process of launching their own snack food brands. The local small snack food players would be edged out from the market and would remain in business as vendors of the large stores.

The evolution of biotechnology would also upgrade the snack food portfolio.The sweet snack food segment dominated by biscuits is experiencing real tremors with entry of new competition from within and global market. Players in biscuit market are planning to launch biscuits as a healthy snack food. We are all convinced with cereals and dalia etc as a healthy food. But a snack is a snack.

How can you force fit a biscuit to pass of as a health food? Surely a snack food product positioned on health benefit segmentation is in nothing but a horrendous idea here in India.

Hope no snack food player would like to present their products on the lines ofChawanprass or some Churan. If they do how would the packaging look like? Would it look like a health product, a medicine or some happy pleasurable packaging? How many snack food players have we got in the Punjab region? Not many! Why is it so when there is huge market available in the region? When you shop for a snacks all you see if Frito lay, Haldiram, and 2-3 local players.

We know that being a developing country that has recently come out of a total regulatory regime, our entrepreneurs are more comfortable with production than being adept in marketing their produce. Every big small town in the region has 1-2 famous snack food player. How we all miss the great retail effort undertook by Lovely Sweets from Jalandhar.Gopal from Patiala has also flexed its muscles but have not taken a real shot at becoming an established player. Dhoda sweets may have shifted base to Ludhiana but their product line is woeful short.Cremica has opened up into this domain but they seem to be satisfied with organic growth only.

When would we see a snack food brand leveraging the worldwide appeal of PUNJABIDHABHA and SHER-E-PUNJAB? Is someone listening!

Will India Change in 2014, for better or worse?

India is a unique country in some ways than the rest of the world, despite many similarities. Most differentiating features of India that make it unique are the population, film industry, cricket and the Hindu way of life.  Besides these four, India is an average country.

Many economists & leaders have debated the challenge of massive population and have either saw it as an impediment to growth or a demographic dividend. If you have no preconceived socio-political agenda, then you can’t see huge unskilled population of India as a beneficial positive factor?

Besides population explosion the other arena where India is undisputed, but dubious, leader is the so called film industry.  Indian films are exactly similar to Indian people, well few exceptions to the rule can’t be denied. Indian people fail to win at Nobel & Olympics, two main global events that recognizes the power of the intellect & physical strength, respectively. And Indian movies too, like the Indians, fail to get recognition at the Oscars.

Besides filmed entertainment the other most pervasive entertainment that India is known for is the game of cricket. Despite more population than any other country on Earth, India fails to compete with nations with 1/100^th of population, at the Olympics and the FIFA world cup. India’s neighbor, PR China, is home to as many people as India but it wins way more medals at Olympics. Cricket, like Indian films, keep people lost in the make believe world to escape the realities of life.

Let's examine how the controversial issue of how a Hindu way of life could impact the future of India. Descartes said ‘I think therefore I am’.  People become what they believe in & form groups with the other like-minded individuals.  People are different from each other more at the psychological level than the physical. India is a large diverse place united by foreign invaders from came from afar & sometimes from other continents. Many Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, & Muslim kings have ruled some small parts of India from time to time in history but none could ever succeeded in uniting all Indians under one umbrella. Therefore when the British decided to leave India, post WWII, local political leaders could not keep it united and India was divided in 1947.

One part of India became Pakistan in 1947. Religion divided India. The founders of Pakistan followed Islam but were Indians by nature & culture. They certainly were not the descendants of Turkish or Persian Kings. The largely Hindu India, many Hindus leaders say Sikhs are part of Hindus but no Sikh leader agrees, decided not to make India follow a Hindu way of life. India in 1947 naturally & wisely chose to be a secular country surrounded by Hindu Nepal & Muslim Pakistan in 1947.

Since India failed to tackle twin challenges of poverty & population due to the culture & character of people, the Hindu religious lobby is projecting the utopia of ramrajya as panacea for better governance. The clamour for running India according to the Hindu way of life is growing by the day. And, this has led to emergence and popularity of Narendra Modi. Indian media is largely in Hindu hands, so it has chosen to promote Modi, than question him for 2002, and his unknown agenda for governance. If a religion based Hindu state of Nepal & Islamic republic of Pakistan could not do better than secular India till today, why alter India’s character by imposing Hindutva? India doesn't need to return to Hindu roots as that would hurt its economic & social fabric. India needs to become a modern scientific nation.

Hinduism can’t solve the problem of poverty. India need to change from a Hindu way of life & leave behind asphyxiating caste system that divides people & subjugate the majority of skilled workers. The caste system creates an unequal social order that stigmatizes people and rob them of their dreams of achievement & growth.  Whenever in past a part of India broke away from a Hindu way of life, it benefited with exponential growth. Rise of Sikhism in Punjab is proof of this thesis.  Punjab has mostly been an area under influence of Sikh culture of equality since 17^th century. Sikh gurus preached a message of universal brotherhood and condemned the caste system that divides & subjugates the skilled people in society. Punjab has remained most progressive state in India despite small size & geographical bottlenecks.  

If anything needs to be changed asap in 2014, so that Indians could have better economic & social future, make Hinduism free of the caste bias. Once most of India feels free & equal, it would find the way to progress. 

Another Election Season in India. 2013-2014.

A republic is based on equality of citizens rather than domination of majority over minority or vice a versa.  

Modi campaign strategy of direct attack, commonly used in American electioneering, doesn’t suit a developing country with a diverse & fractured society. It may win over many semi-educated urban middle class voters, but it would surely aggravate the fissures in society. Besides it lacks the potential to benefit the rural voters.

Marketing strategists in India often sing the paeans of how an upstart Nirma took on mighty MNC brand Surf and took away a large market from right under its feet. To drive the point succinctly & with more emphasis, the citation is followed by another case that of Kwality -Walls vs the rest of India.  The audience & students feel motivated to know the outcome, though a little bewildered. The victory of home grown brands over the European empires on Indian soil or anywhere else is a rarity. Both the cases depict defeat of the behemoth HUL, which continues to be market leader in fmcg sector in India.

Political marketing borrows concepts, tools and strategies from commercial marketing and apply them to field of politics.  Cornerstone of political strategy is the campaign theme & communication strategy. The incumbent & challengers need to craft the political strategy in a manner that it could attain strategic balance between discrediting the opponents & creating positive image and goodwill for its programs and leadership. It looks easy on paper but its complex to design and implement with success.

Campaign theme must be designed keeping in focus the political agenda and profile of the citizen voters.  In a large diverse country like India, one theme doesn’t fit all, so a political player would do well to segment carefully and then make a suitable promise to convince the citizen voters to come out and vote. A great strategy would also require assessment of position of a player in the total market. A rank outsider can gain by adopting frontal attack strategy aimed at the market leader or the incumbent political party. But close competitors must avoid a direct confrontation because usually the lower positioned guy would lose more naturally. So what can number two do to become the leader? Go the Avis way, work hard & promise less. 

Education, Life & Change.

When a student from Chandigarh won Singapore Airlines Youth scholarship, few years back, it made a news.Many other bright Punjabis head abroad in search of good higher education as well as to escape the cut throat competition in India. You would agree that many Punjabis go to study abroad with an aim of completing education in the place they wish to work & live. Many bright Indians who enroll in IITs also head for foreign shores for further studies or employment. It would not be out of place to mention that none of Indian higher education universities figure of world's top 200 anymore. Perhaps the decay in India is not limited to quality of education only.

Education has long been considered as the most potent elixir for social mobility in a hierarchical society of India. Therefore middle class Indians, spend huge sums on higher education with hope to improve their employment prospects and consequent standing in the society. Almost 15 percent Indians go for higher education, part of that, a small section, head abroad to all sorts of countries & universities. The reasons could be rational, emotional or social for deciding upon the country or university one may chose to attend abroad.

As a child i recall visiting uncles & aunties to our home as an annual feature. It would be joyous occasion for all children as every visitors would bring some gifts that were not available in India. Although visiting relatives from Europe would bring more gifts than those from Africa. Punjab may geographically lie in India & Pakistan but Punjabis are found in almost every nook & corner of the world, including fastest growing country on Earth, Mongolia. You would be amused to know people from a couple of villages near Phagwara Punjab go to Philippines in large numbers to work as Money lenders. Many of them have been killed due to the nature of business and other social factors.

Most Punjabi boys want to go abroad for studies & work and the girls prefer to marry such men over the ones left behind to sit idle in Punjab. Actually most Punjabi boys who head abroad for studies join nondescript courses in unknown colleges. People don't go abroad for education, neither the join colleges here for sake of studies. Most would prefer to avoid the 'burden' of studies if they could. Visits any college in Punjab and you would know the sorry state of education here. Private colleges & universities particularly prefer to entertain the students than give them an opportunity to master a field of study.

So most Punjabi youth end up wasting their education years in useless colleges within India and abroad. This has led to creation of huge unskilled work force in India with fancy diplomas & degrees in their name. Those who head abroad, struggle there, for long years before finding their feet and majority of those who remain here end up on menial call center or front end sales jobs. Govt of India has launched an ambitious Skill Development scheme to arm the youth with necessary skills need for work but such initiatives would also fall flat like the Industrial Training Institutes set up earlier.

Education has the power to open the human mind and make a person lead a purposeful life so that s/he could change the world in which we live.  But absence of good education leads to perpetuation of status quo and decay of a nation. Can the call for changes in education system become top priority for India? Can political parties make it an issue of national survival? Well my guess is as good as yours. India faces more challenges from within that externally and good solid education can save it.

BJP- The Baggage Party !

2014 would be a watershed year for the BJP. Not for the RSS. Rival Congress may also escape unaffected by any outcome of 2014 elections too, as it has had a long tryst with India. If BJP wins 2014 national elections it may turn to hardcore Hindutva agenda and shower its proud parents with many gifts including a Grand Temple at Babri Mosque site. But if it loses the election then it may disintegrate before emerging into a new avatar.

India has definitely changed since 2009, but is it any different now than what it was in 2009? Though some vehemently would like us to believe that, but the facts need examination. According to the BJP, & opposition camp political parties, the UPA2 has failed to manage India completely. BJP want everyone to agree & approve their thesis that India is poor & faltering whereas Gujarat is rich and exponentially growing.  Well a part of body can’t be declared healthy if the heart & brains stop functioning. The heart & brains of an economy lie with the union government in Delhi.  Few strings pulled wrongly in Delhi could ruin any or all states’ economies.

BJP has to carry the load of its founding ideology, unlike Congress which has no such burden. BJP is an ideological party that exists to promote Hindutva agenda of RSS. Its core values of Hindutva simultaneously propel it forward and also obstruct its way to make an acceptable set of appeals to all sections of society in India. But the BJP hasn’t changed much over the years. BJP don’t have the freedom to micromanage & customize its core appeal at constituency level. Wise ABV knew the solution so he ruled India for a longtime by customizing the core ideology of RSS.

BJP steadfastly believe in strong leaders & leadership style. BJP behaves like a right wing masculine outfit and such behavior satisfies the emotional need of its loyal cadres. But such an appeal has limited scope only.  Some believe that passing on the baton from LK Advani to N Modi is a distinct change. But actually there is not real difference between LKA & NM, except the age gap. Ask any political marketing analyst to know that majority India feels threatened by Strong leaders & would like to avoid them.

INC, on the other hand, does not carry any burden to promote one ideology over the other. Congress is free to leverage even the Hindutva agenda, if it suits a situation in some constituencies.  Actually Congress uses many different appeals in various constituencies spread over length & breadth of India to enhance its prospects of grabbing power in each particular constituency. Congress under Sonia Gandhi is a different party than what it was under previous leaders. Moreover Sonia Gandhi cautiously avoids projecting Congress as a dominating & strong political force, which the INC actually is.

A political party with market orientation has greater chance of success in a democracy.  Selling and product oriented parties find it difficult to adjust their ‘offer’ to the dynamic needs of the citizen voters as they have to carry the burden of ideology & fixed image. If BJP could rebrand itself like Tony Blair's rebrand of Britain's Labour Party then it can reap the benefits. 

No Skills despite High Marks - Incredible India !

Who would believe that some undergraduate colleges in Delhi, don't accept students without almost 100 percent marks. How could students score such high marks? And how the teachers establish the fact that someone deserves 90 percent plus marks? Is it for real or just another mythological tale from an incredible India, the most mysterious country on the face of Earth.

In the real world a genius drops out of formal education system to blaze a trail. Steve jobs didn't like the taste of fruits served to him in college, so he left the formal system to cultivate his own Macintosh Apple.  Naturally why in the world someone with 100 percent marks in 12 the year of education be need to seek admission in some formal college? S/he could pretty much be on her/his own. But in India, innocent young people go around flashing their 'percentage prize' like a designer accessory, simultaneously, pray to god for mercy to help them get admission in a branded college. So the education in India is all about marks alone.

Though more students obtain significantly higher marks today than a decade ago but employers are complaining about poor quality of training & absence of skills in the fresh youth. How could rise in marks be indirectly proportional to skill creation in India? Govt of India has already committed itself to skill creation in India. In this direction, India signed an MOU with the US govt for setting up of community colleges in India during the recent visit of Secretary John kerry. High marks are like Himalayan peaks, very attractive but difficult to scale.

But the deluge of high marks in India is leading to more chaos on the ground than presenting a pretty picture on the canvas of economic development & industrialization of India.The absence of skills in not limited to technical & professional sector alone. India is not producing great quality managers, actors, academicians, writers, administrators and politicians.  So the education system is unable to improve on existing quality and take it to next higher level. How can India become a global power with low quality human resources?

Its time India wakes up and take steps to upgrade the quality of its citizens through formal & non-formal education. Let us end this note with an anecdote. Decade ago HUL used to invite all- India CA (accounts) topper to join its executive team. A gentleman, Mr Gupta CA topper, was invited by HUL to join its management team but the interview lasted only one minute. Later this gentleman joined a state financial corporation and has retired this year on superannuation.