18th March

Hope Regained

The article expresses hope that the recent victory of lawyers in reinstating Iftikhar Chawdhry as CJ points to the willingness of Pakistanis towards the rule of law and remove autocracy altogether.

The victory all the more significant since it involves lawyers and general public, not military, asserts that the public will no longer tolerate dictatorial behavior of President. The current President has only invited notoriety with his actions. However, the vulnerable Pakistani polity is still prone to further crisis considering the fact that present resolution comes as a result of ‘deal’ cut between big players, which mean that Pakistani feudal political class still lacks consensus on issues of national importance. Zardari’s autocratic tendencies can be harmful to PPP at large but the same goes for Nawaz Sharif, who just might intend to take the battle further against his political rival. 

Post-Musharraf regime that was expected to prevent further institutional erosion has failed. That hope is now resurrected and given the current problems surrounding the nation and its impact on neighbors, one should expect no further decline in near future.

Premature NREGS verdict

The article thrashes the recent World Development Report 2009 which stated that concentration of economic activity should be limited to limited pockets and should not spread geographically. WB’s recommendation of the same to NREGS is highly flawed and should not be considered. 

The report stated that schemes like NREGS blocks free movement of labor and encourages people to stay back in villages with far less concentration of economic activity. In a country like India, where 65% of the population is living in rural areas, it is not possible to concentrate the entire population in one pocket. The success of NREGS reveals that people do prefer to work nearby their homes and if given an option would definitely move to urban areas. Bank’s one-size-fits-all strategy certainly doesn’t work here. Its experiments in Africa also didn’t yield much result except of more migration of millions to poverty. 

It should be understood that schemes like NREGS which is actually intended to improve rural infrastructure in some states like UP and Bihar, would certainly not harm healthy migration to cities. People would continue to move to places where they can find work and where there is shortage of labor. 

Top slot candidates 

The article talks about a long list of candidates India presently has for its top job, the PM hot seat. 

Among the two major national parties, Congress and BJP, former is trying to balance obviousness with little uncertainty through various means while the latter has redefined the term loh purush. For others it’s not so subtle to go for the top job. There are people from various states who want their local man to ascend for the top spot which, if fulfilled, we can see that in future there might be a rotational policy for PM from each of the state. There is Czarina from a crucial state which is believed to be our answer of Obama phenomenon. She is believed to be upfront with her allies, which is a reason to believe that she might make it to the top job one day. Left has vowed not to repeat its historic blunder. Then there is a lady from South who is known to keep her options open. There is also a former PM who is famous for caste based politics but still aspires to reach the top post.

So, in the crux, this election would see a long list of applicants for the PM job, far richer then those twin-choice countries.