O P I N I O N S

fifty fifty
An accusation a day keeps the voter at bay?
Kejriwal is pushing to keep AAP in the headlines. One must admire him for it because if the media gaze is turned away from him, there is little doubt that the campaign will  fizzle out.
Kishwar Desai
LIKE many others, I have had very high hopes from the Aam Aadmi Party thinking it was going to be different and much more transparent and responsible. One also hoped that it would not get carried away by rhetoric and short-term gains. But troublingly, in recent days its leaders seem to be obsessed by hurling accusation upon accusation — offering little in terms of real proof, apart from a series of ‘sting operations’.

last word
Been there, done that, now for LS
From Infosys to Aadhaar, Bangalore has loved its IT hero, now it’s time to see if they put their vote where the mouth is.
Nandan Nilekani, former UIDAI chief and Congress candidate in Bangalore
By Shubhadeep Choudhury
THE IT honchos are the rock stars of Bangalore. And just as the Aamir Khans of Bollywood have an opinion on everything from poverty to India’s foreign policy, the top geeks in Bangalore are also liberal with their views on issues far removed from their industry.

GROUND ZERO
The old versus new in City Beautiful
The old-timers want Chandigarh to remain horizontal and leisurely. The new would like it to grow vertically and bustle with development. The Lok Sabha candidates will need to address the conflicting expectations.
Raj Chengappa
For me, walking at Chandigarh’s Sukhna Lake is among the invigorating ways to usher in the morning. If you are a frequent morning walker, as I am, you are likely to encounter at least two of the candidates contesting the Lok Sabha seat for the Union Territory. There is the striking Gul Panag, who like her party, AAP, is a first-timer in the poll fray. She usually jogs on the track but these days is seen stopping and shaking hands with walkers, requesting them to vote for her.

fifty fifty
An accusation a day keeps the voter at bay?
Kejriwal is pushing to keep AAP in the headlines. One must admire him for it because if the media gaze is turned away from him, there is little doubt that the campaign will fizzle out.
Kishwar Desai

LIKE many others, I have had very high hopes from the Aam Aadmi Party thinking it was going to be different and much more transparent and responsible. One also hoped that it would not get carried away by rhetoric and short-term gains. But troublingly, in recent days its leaders seem to be obsessed by hurling accusation upon accusation — offering little in terms of real proof, apart from a series of ‘sting operations’. The latest is the accusation against a section of the media, saying it has been paid to promote Narendra Modi. As someone who has worked in the media, let me state that not all sting operations, etc. are ‘proof’ within themselves. They can also be cut and paste jobs or planted stories by rival organisations. ‘Sting’ operators can also be ‘paid’!

Should we, therefore, as voters and (supporters of AAP perhaps?) think that this ‘shoot and scoot’ strategy has any value? Haven’t these accusations been raised by others in the past, and is there anything new about what he is saying? Is this a serious problem, which for some reason everyone (except Kejriwal) wants to ignore? Or is it just a case of Kejriwal crying foul when the media is no longer presenting him as a messiah, but simply just another wannabe leading a disgruntled mob?

Is Kejriwal more comfortable as an agitator?

The fact is that even without accepting hard cash most media individuals themselves have a bias or a prejudice which often comes out in their reportage, or sometimes this is the given standpoint of the organisation that they work for. This subjectivity is often unavoidable and even in the UK, despite every effort to remain balanced, right leaning newspapers like The Times might differ sharply from a left leaning paper like The Guardian. That does not mean that there is rampant corruption.

Yet, even if this bias did not exist, the recent actions of Kejriwal could be criticised by both — those who support AAP and those who oppose it. Nor can anyone deny that the party is seen as an alternative only in a few urban areas of the country. Does that mean everyone has been bought by Modi, Adnani, Ambani, etc? Of course, like any other shrewd politician, Kejriwal might be saying all this in order to stay in the news and increase AAP’s vote share.

That would disappoint people like me who had even joined AAP a few months ago, just as an ordinary member, hoping to work as volunteer, post elections. Obviously this was a long-term plan as the system cannot be changed overnight, and we all need to collectively chip away at it.

But now questions are being raised whether AAP seems to be losing sight of its goal and is too focused on the Lok Sabha elections for which it desperately needs a national recognition factor. This, by itself is not a bad plan since unhappy voters are likely to be attracted by a loud and noisy party, with most of its newbie candidates as yet untainted by corruption. The fact that some of them have no prior experience of working in politics, or even running an organisation of any kind is flaunted as a plus point. But many of these individuals are unknown, and perhaps to counter that anonymity, the former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, is now pushing to keep AAP in the headlines every day.

And one must admire him for this because if the media gaze is turned away from him, there is little doubt that the campaign will fizzle out. The free publicity gives AAP oxygen and keeps our hope of a ‘changemaker’ alive. But undeniably the publicity has been mixed. For many in the media typecasting Kejriwal as a stuntman is a reality, and they dismiss his words as just more election propaganda.

The real problem is that when the people of Delhi voted him in (including me) we expected that he would actually deliver on the anti-corruption agenda. That was the plank on which we saw his meteoric rise — a young and determined avenger who would grab our money back from the corrupt politicians who were ruling Delhi. For far too long, vituperative accusations had been hurled by him on the previous Chief Minister of Delhi, Shiela Dixit. The drip-drip effect of innuendo worked and an AAP government was handed charge. But was Kejriwal more comfortable as an agitator? Ultimately, after a lot of pavement bashing and chest thumping AAP quit Delhi. And Ms Dixit became the Governor of Kerala, immune from all investigation. Was the whole AAP government experiment and anti-Congress campaign then just a huge waste of public money? Was it ‘shoot and scoot’ once more? Those of us who would like AAP to flourish would also like Kejriwal to answer that, instead of bombarding us with fresh allegations on a daily basis.

last word
Been there, done that, now for LS
From Infosys to Aadhaar, Bangalore has loved its IT hero, now it’s time to see if they put their vote where the mouth is.
Nandan Nilekani, former UIDAI chief and Congress candidate in Bangalore
By Shubhadeep Choudhury

THE IT honchos are the rock stars of Bangalore. And just as the Aamir Khans of Bollywood have an opinion on everything from poverty to India’s foreign policy, the top geeks in Bangalore are also liberal with their views on issues far removed from their industry.

So it was only a matter of time before IT bigwigs of Bangalore made a claim to the electoral cake too. City-based entrepreneur Rajeev Chandrasekhar is already a parliamentarian, but he is a member of the Rajya Sabha. It is thus not a surprise that Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys — a company that played a key role in establishing Bangalore’s reputation as an IT hub — has become the first techie from the city to throw his hat in the ring to represent it in the Lok Sabha. He will contest from Bangalore (South).

Though not exactly as revered as Infosys patriarch Narayana Murthy, Nilekani is a close second in terms of celebrity. His name did the rounds even when the presidential election took place.

Mohandas Pai, who was Infosys’ highest paid employee till he resigned in 2011, was another IT industry honcho suspected of harbouring political ambitions. The bearded Pai is considered a sympathiser of the BJP, though it’s not clear on what basis. Both Murthy and Pai are associated with the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B Pac). Wipro boss Azim Premji is yet another Bangalore-based industrialist who does not shy away from airing his views on political and social issues.

Another Infosys top executive, V Balakrishnan, is contesting the Lok Sabha election from the Bangalore (Central) constituency on the AAP ticket. “Bala”, as the former Infosys CFO is known, seems still heavily wrapped by his corporate past. Nilekani, on the other hand, is relatively free of any such hangover. Listed in the Forbes magazine among the richest Indians, Nilekani recently took a ride in a city bus. A photograph of him standing alone at the bus stop posted in his blog makes for an endearing picture.

The 58-year-old Nandan, an electrical engineering graduate from IIT-Bombay, started his career with Patni Computers, where Narayana Murthy was his senior. Murthy, Nandan and five others had left Patni to set up Infosys. The rest, as they say, is history. Nilekani took another bold decision 28 years later when he resigned from all his positions in Infosys and became head of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) with the status of Cabinet Minister. That was in 2009.

Son of a textile mill manager, the suave and affable Nilekani spearheaded Infosys operations in the crucial North America market in the initial days and was based in the US. In 2002, he took over as CEO from Murthy when the industry was struggling post the dot-com bust. It was under his leadership that the company crossed a billion dollars in revenue for the first time.

In 2007, the Infosys CEO’s baton was handed over to another co-founder, Gopalakrishnan. As co-chairman, Nilekani remained involved in providing strategic inputs to further the company’s growth. Before he quit the company in 2009, he was travelling across the globe to meet large customers of Infosys, drum up new business and to strengthen the company’s brand.

Interestingly, after Nilekani’s resignation no one was given the responsibilities that were specifically handled by him at Infosys. This gave rise to the joke that Nilekani actually had nothing to do in Infosys when he finally left the company.

Nilekani next made a mark in government. The UIDAI under his stewardship is said to have given identity cards to 60 crore Indians. He considers it a commendable achievement.

While in the western countries business leaders accepting appointments in the government is not uncommon, few Indian CEOs go on to work for the government. Though businessmen such as Vijay Mallya, Naveen Jindal, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, etc, have entered politics and become parliamentarians, few have worked as a bureaucrat. Nilekani is considered a path-breaker in that respect.

Nilekani’s candidature from the Congress has rattled his rival Ananth Kumar of the BJP, who has likened their electoral fight to the competition between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. According to Nandan, this shows that Ananth Kumar has no personal achievement despite having had five stints in the Lok Sabha from the constituency.

Writer of bestseller “Imagining India” and a reputed philanthropist, Nandan is married to Rohini Nilekani. Their two children have both studied at Yale University, US.

Whether people accept the IT star as their political leader, too, will be decided soon.