Indian Team for Australia Test Series - My View

The team that has been selected MS Dhoni (capt), Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha, Naman Ojha*, R Ashwin, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron

*Ojha has been included only for the first Test.

Up front - 18 members for a 4 test series is utter stupidity. Not sure why we need that many in the team. 

Openers - We have Shikhar, Vijay and Rahul in the team as openers. Vijay and Shikhar should be opening in Brisbane and Adelaide (also probably Melbourne). Don't expect Rahul to get a chance unless they fail big time in the first 2 (or 3 tests) or one of them gets injured. He is more going for the experience than anything else. Rahul is selected because of the wonderful season he had last year in the domestic series(scored over 1000 runs with 3 centuries) and the 2 centuries he scored in Duleep trophy final. 

Middle Order - Pujara, Virat, Jinx and Rohit have been settled middle order for a while now. Rohit is coming out of the injury and unless he scores big in the 2 one days against SL might sit out. Raina who seems to have the backing of the current big man (Ravi Shastri) might get a chance again in the whites. 

Fast Bowlers - Bhuvi, Shami, Ishant, Umesh, Varun. We will be playing Umesh, Bhuvi and Ishant in the first 2 tests. Varun limped out of the first ODI against SL. Shami is not also playing the SL series due to injury. Ishant is also down with a stiff back. Bhuvi is on his well-earned rest and hopefully he comes charged. Bhuvi was in the last few matches being very flat. He has to get back his swing. Varun might get one match, don't think Shami will be lucky. Out of the 5 selected 3 are down with injuries - that shows how vacant our bench strength is when it comes to fast bowlers. 

Spinners - Why do we need 3? We should play 1 or max 2 (at SCG). Dhoni is known to be soft on Jadeja and that might make us play 2 spinners which is not ideal. Ashwin did a good job in the 2 tests that he played in England and seem to have learnt lessons from his earlier trip down under and should be our first choice. I would have preferred if Kuldeep was selected over Karn. Now that we have Karn in the mix, he should get a chance in Sydney as the second choice. Jadeja is ok for ODIs but it is high time we stop picking him up for tests. Someone should put their foot down when MSD asks for his inclusion. 

Wicket Keepers - Saha has established himself as the second choice and Ojha is selected as backup only for the first test where MSD is not available. 

We should have selected a 16 member team - Shami and Jadeja are over kill. 

I feel that in certain cases the selectors go primarily by the IPL (Karn) and the recent effect (Rahul). Hopefully they do well if they get chances. Gone are the days when unless a player wont be picked unless he performs consistently in 3 or 4 series. 

PS - On the ODI front - Happy that Uthappa is back in the mix and he being picked as the keeper might give him a chance to go to Australia for the world cup. 

Modi's Cabinet Expansion - My View

First and foremost, really happy that the Prime Minister has realized that minimum government does not mean having minimum number of ministers. Not sure if he realizes that it means minimum number of ministries. 

Also good that some of the ministers are divested multiple portfolios so they can concentrate on key work - Like Arun Jaitley moving out of Defense, Nitin Gadkari moving out of Rural development and Nirmala Seetaraman moving out of Finance and Corporate affairs. I don't think any of these are punishments. Arun Jaitley getting I&B is funny though. 

Suresh Prabhu and Manohar Parrikar joining the cabinet, clearly shows the dearth of talent in the 325(282 in LS and 43 in RS) BJP MP pool. Which really is a sad state of affairs. 

Manohar Parrikar - Has built a image of a clean no-nonsense administrator. He gets an important Defense portfolio. There is lots of defense procurement that is planned and his clean image and good administration capabilities will come to use (hopefully this will be a welcome change over the "very clean to the extent of not doing anything style" of Antony). 

Suresh Prabhu - He was well respected and was thought to be a no-brainer in the initial cabinet itself. However, he has not been in good books of Udhav which let to him not being part of the original cabinet. He gets the railways ministry which was going nowhere under Sadanand Gowda. 

Birendar Singh - More to appease the Jat community of Haryana where BJP has positioned the first non-jat CM. 

JP Nadda - Rewarded for his work in UP where BJP did exceptionally well to win 73 seats. Even though it is open secret that he pressurized Harsh Vardan to get rid of AIIMS Vigilance officer. This also shows the audacity of the government in having scant regard for all such things with Nadda now becoming the Health minister in charge of AIIMS also (he can get rid of anyone he wants now - doesn't have to pressurize anyone else). 

Bandaru Dattatreya -  He becomes the first Union minister from the new state of Telengana. He was also a minister in the earlier NDA governments. This is more for coverage than anything else. 

Giriraj Singh - He is the guy who asked everyone opposing Modi to go to Pakistan. He was also recently in controversy over the 1 crore rupees found in his residence. He is selected along with Ram Kripal Yadav from Bihar for getting the Bhumihar and Yadav votes from which they both come from respectively. Bihar goes to elections next year. 

UP also get 4 new ministers which shows the focus that BJP has in another state which goes to election next year. 

Vijay Sampla - The plumber turned minister. He is brought in to garner the dalit votes in Punjab. It also clearly sends a message to Akalis (who didn't get any additional ministers) that BJP is moving into consolidate its position in Punjab. 

Same is the case with Babul Supriyo - BJP wants to establish themselves in West Bengal. With TMC on the decline and Congress not seizing the opportunity there is lots of space for them. 

Naqvi - Joins as MOS of minority affairs. Understand that BJP wanted to improve their Muslim representation but he could have been given another ministry - what with both muslim ministers in the cabinet being in charge of minority affairs. 

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Harsh Vardan, VK Singh and  Sadanand Gowda all have their wings clipped. Unless they get their act together won't be surprised if they are dropped completely. Harsh Vardan alone could be a case of prepping him for Delhi elections but others are clear cases of being warned. 

Ravi Shankar Prasad lost Law and Justice - that should really hurt. This guy who shows up in all TV programs with a book shelf filled with law books should feel really bad about losing the law ministry. Sadanand Gowda - his time in the ministry looked numbered. Not sure if he can be any successful in this ministry. This should be a huge set back for him dropping from Railways to Law. 

VK Singh - He has been removed from the NE affairs ministry and given statistics. Saw a funny tweet that this was more to finalize his date of birth :)

Shiv Sena - They must be fuming - Their request for minister posts in Maharashtra is not considered at all, their requests for having the new minister Anil Desai as a cabinet post rather than MOS is not considered. On top of it they had Suresh Prabhu join BJP just before the swearing in after resigning from Shiv Sena. This clearly shows where they stand in the current scheme of things. It is high time they reconcile to that fact and see how to survive and re-establish themselves (if at all they want to). 

The next post will be on my take on what can really be done to achieve minimum government.  

Madras - A Movie Review

Was intrigued by some of the interviews and news articles that came up in the last few days about this movie. 

This movie released about 3 weeks back and I read some good reviews about the movie but somehow didn't get to watch it. After reading the recent spate of views watched this movie over the weekend. 

The director mentioned about some of the aspects that he had used like the color blue - associated with the ambedkarite parties - used extensively in many frames and also the book the the hero reads in a particular scene. That's when I realized how I miss such minute details when watching a film and how each element is there to convey something. I still didn't catch the book in the movie though :(

The casts include Karthi(Kaali), Catherine(Kalaiarasi), Kalaiarasan(Anbu), Johnny(Hari). The music is by Santosh Narayanan. This is Pa. Ranjith's second movie after critically acclaimed Attakathi. 

The story takes place in North Madras. The main issue is about a wall (a pretty large wall in a housing board flat) and how two political parties want to reserve it for them. Anbu is in a party and he wants to take over the wall which is used by another party. Kaali is his friend and he works in an office. 

Kaali falls for Kalai and the usual things happen before they fall for each other - Does such movies need a love angle? And secondly Catherine definitely doesn't look the part. Ritwika who plays Anbu's wife looks the part and could have even played the role of the heroine (if one is really needed)

The first half is breezy and before you realize you are at intermission. Once the movie starts we know that Anbu will get killed and I was surprised that he was not when the first half ended. However, he gets killed in the beginning of the second half. When it comes to North Madras there has to be a gaana - unwritten rule of tamil cinema. Could have been avoided. 

Second half is a bit of a drag with the director trying to include some of the commercial elements like gaana (mentioned above), love, etc. Movie would have been much better if these could have been avoided. 

The second half is about how Kaali takes revenge for Anbu's killing and what happens to the Wall. 

This is a good movie. 

Music is by Santosh Narayanan. Songs are good - Naan Nee, Enga ooru Madras, Kakitha kappal are good. BGM is also good. 

In terms of acting everyone has done a good job. You don't get to see the usual Saranya or JP as parents - which is a welcome move. 

Happy to have watched a good movie. Watch it if you get a chance. 

You might also want to read some of the articles that I referred at 

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/impure-tamilians/article6490030.ece

Best line in the above article is Roja reminding Paakku thool to KB :)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/madras-a-critique-of-dalit-politics/article6507818.ece

What next for TN

Following on from my previous post (http://dailykaruthu.blogspot.in/2014/09/jayalalithas-conviction-lesson-for-all.html).

As expected O Panneerselvam has been elected as the leader of the Legislature and took oath as the Chief Minister for the second time. Also there are rumors that Sheela Balakrishnan, who is currently the Advisor the Government of Tamil Nadu (after her superannuation as Chief Secretary) and R Natraj, who is a member of the ADMK party was the Commissioner of Chennai Police and Chairman of TNPSC will be actively involved in guiding the Tamil Nadu Government.

As expected the violence that occurred on the day of the verdict ended the same day. Things came back to normalcy the next day. There were people who were baying for blood and asking for Presidents rule. Which is the most opportunistic that they can get. Things have changed after the Bommai verdict where dismissing the Government is not an easy task. The principal opposition party was wise to say they don’t want elections as they are not in shape to fight an election after two consecutive drubbings in the 2011 Assembly election and 2014 Parliamentary election.

Jayalalitha has moved the Karnataka High Court seeking bail, suspension of the conviction and quashing of the same. With the High Court in Pooja Holidays as expected the hearing is pushed to next week. She has to stay in Jail at least till October 6^th when the hearing will be taken up. There are some views that the fine is not in conformance with the Prevention of Corruption Act which states that the fine can be a maximum of the corruption amount. Will wait to see how the lawyers (including Ram Jethmalani) handle the case in the High Court.

The Chief Minister in his last term was not even sitting in the CM chair. The key difference between the last time and this time is that the appeal process was on going and it was a matter of time before a decision was made by the High Court to acquit her of the charges. This time not sure how long it will take for the appeal to get to a stage of verdict. The original cast took 18 years in the lower courts. Not sure Jayalalitha can allow the appeal to go on for 18 more years. Supreme Court has also ruled that the higher court cannot suspend the verdict when in appeal especially in such cases of prominent people. That being the case should be handled quickly.

In the worse-case for her that the appeal doesn’t progress at a fast pace, the state cannot afford to have a non performing Chief Minister. Even if Jayalalitha comes out on bail (which will definitely happen in a short duration) she will not be able to ask votes for a non performing Chief Minister. People will not vote for the person that she shows if they don’t see him working. The Chief Minister unlike last time cannot go to Poes Garden daily morning and act based on suggestion by Jayalalitha. He has to take his own decisions. He also needs to be even more proactive in all aspects. He has to show the people of the state that he can work only then the next election ADMK will come back to power. Not sure if Jayalalitha is ready to accept that.

Jayalalitha has to understand that she doesn’t have an option but to have an effective Government in place. That is what will be to her benefit in the long run. O Panneerselvam is not a person with high ambitions so she should not have a problem with him becoming over ambitious (that is highly unlikely to happen). He is not a mass leader and cannot become one also in such a short period of time. It is in everyone’s best interest that he performs effectively till the next election (I don’t think the appeal will get decided before then). 

Jayalalitha's Conviction - The Lesson for all of us

Yesterday Jayalalitha was convicted in the Disproportionate Assets case by the Bangalore Special court. The case was filed in 1996 and it has taken 18 years for it to reach a conviction stage in the lowest court. This case was moved to Bangalore 2003 and even there it has taken 11 years. That’s how slow the judicial process works in India. Obviously, the case will now move to the High Court and even to the Supreme court if the High court doesn’t over turn the conviction. She becomes the first sitting Chief Minister to be convicted.

The sentence of 4 years rules her out from contesting elections effectively for 10 years (4 years now and another 6 years of disqualification). With the conviction she loses her MLA seat and effectively the Chief Ministership immediately. She has also been fined 100 crores – at this point of time it is not clear how she will pay the 100 crores when her assets as per her affidavit during the election shows her net worth as 51 crores. Heard that some of the fine will be adjusted against some of the property already attached. Not sure how much fine will be pending still.

This is the second time that she is being forced to step down from Chief Ministership. Last time she tried to use a loophole in the law – Law states that you cannot contest an election if there is a conviction but it didn’t state you cannot become a Chief Minister. This is what the Supreme Court didn’t accept in 2001 and she was forced to step down. That time she brought in O Panneerselvam as the CM.

Jayalalitha has been convicted by lower courts in two other cases – Pleasant Stay case and Tansi Land case. She got both of them over turned. She would hope that she will be able to do the same in this case as well.

In case the sentencing was less than 3 years the convicting court itself could have issued the bail. In this case with her being sentenced for 4 years she has to go to the High Court for bail. With the Karnataka courts going off for Dussera holiday from Monday, the earliest her lawyers can file for bail in the High court is October 6^th.

The ADMK cadres as expected have gone on a rampage yesterday immediately after the verdict was announced. Buses were off the road yesterday and most commercial establishments were shut down. It was more of immediate reaction and I am sure things will be back to normal today. Any politician will definitely try to get some sympathy going for them, I am sure she will also do the same. However, for that the situation should be kept under control. The former CM has sent a letter to all saying the law and order situation has gone out of control trying to show the world that his party is still around. I am pretty sure the administration (yesterday itself the police have issued a stern warning to everyone) will bring the situation to normal this morning.

The major problem for Jayalalitha in this case is that she has been convicted in Karnataka and her appeals should only go the the Karnataka High Court and not here in TN. She is also going to be in Karnataka jail and not TN. There are no major elections for next 19 months , which should give her time to at least get  a stay on the conviction. In case she doesn’t get a stay or in a worse situation she doesn’t even get bail by then, then there is a bigger problem. As with many other strong woman leaders (and our PM) like Mamata and Mayawati, Jayalalitha hasn’t allowed any strong second layer to be formed.

She has to ensure she is able to come to Tamil Nadu before the elections. With absolutely no second layer, I am not sure if people will vote for the party without her at the helm.

A leader’s main role is to create a strong second layer who can take care of things when they are not there.  There was a nice article in the Times of India some time back (Does India Inc have a drop dead plan). This should apply to our politicians also. That to me is the lesson for every one of us. Not the clichéd – No one is above the law. 

Book Buying - How things have changed

I am still a book buyer. Haven't really migrated to kindle or reading using my tablet. 

When I started buying novels, I used to buy them from the road side shop. These are poor quality pirated copies which were available for less than 50 rupees. I used to buy regularly from a shop in Pondy Bazaar. Then after few years (rather many years) of buying fake I became conscious of the fact that I am buying pirated books. 

That is when I moved on to Landmark - That was one of the first book stores in Chennai. The books in this store are priced at MRP. Even then started buying books from there (but kept going back to my pirated store as there were no deals at Landmark). 

Once every year Landmark has a sale (around September) and I make a list of books that I want to buy through the year and buy during the sale. Slowly migrated to Landmark website which had good deals - we used to get 30-40% off through the year. 

Now I have moved onto Flipkart which offers better deals than Landmark. Landmark deals have reduced to 25% max for all books on the net and they still sell at MRP in their stores. Flipkart offers at least 33% off on most books. Now a days it is mostly Flipkart where I buy my books. 

I still go to yearly sales of Landmark. Make it a point to visit all Landmark stores in the city during that time. This sale generally goes on for a month. 

For the first time with the Chetan Bhagat book Flipkart is offering an exclusive sale of the same for first 1 month. The book is also priced at only 15% discount of MRP which was a surprise but expected with the exclusivity. Book is releasing only mid October but it is available for pre-order now. I am not a great fan of his but his books are a decent time pass. My wife loves his books though. 

Will I pre-order now? The answer is NO. I have many books that I have not read so I can definitely wait for the price to fall after the 1 month exclusive period. Not that his books are expensive. You generally get only paperback.

One thing is true for all big Retailers(Flipkart is a big retailer now) they kill the competition by giving discounts but once there is no competition they will start pricing at MRP. You end up spending more than what you used to. 

PS : Landmark closed it's first book store in Chennai recently, felt bad about it.  

Why the negativity?

I wrote a positive blog on the Indian performance in the just concluded Commonwealth games.. Look what Hindu and TOI wrote

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-hindu-editorial-for-india-a-mixed-bag/article6281130.ece

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-editorials/lacklustre-showing-indias-performance-at-glasgow-games-is-an-indictment-of-the-countrys-sports-system/


We need to take into perspective that nearly 15 events in which we won gold medals in 2010 was removed in this edition.