What does Anna Hazare want?

I want a continuous state of protest in the country. I have no trust in politics. Politics makes people selfish. How do I want the country to be run? Without any institutions. It should be run in a kangaroo court on the streets. Activists who enter politics may not be trusted as they themselves become corrupt. Of course I have the privilege of staying out and criticizing the establishment.

When Kejriwal finally takes the plunge I will mercilessly pull the carpet from under his feet. My aim is no different from the communists who advocate a perpetual state of revolution. All the laws, be it nuclear bill or FDI or education, however complex they may be will be agitated upon in the street and only if I like shall they be passed.

We will undertake fast after fast till the government and the nation fall on their knees to appease me. I will have an opinion on price rise, inflation, diesel subsidy, nuclear reactors, FDI, alcohol consumption and any other issue that might ever come up in the future. Dare you not ignore my opinion. I will forever drum up talk of revolution, second freedom struggle and so on.

I may or may not talk to Ramdev. I may or may not support him. I may or may not fast with him. I will praise Facebook, and media as long as I like. How dare Arvind flash some Facebook polls at my face to support his entry into politics. Facebook is surely not the real peoples voice. Facebook is for those who hyperventilate about corruption and then don't bat an eyelid to bribe the cop, the clerk and the attender to bend the rules in their favour.

If I have my way all rules will be made and enforced on the street. I might even team up with Thackeray and use the army to clean up the country in 100 days. Don't you people go asking me about freedoms and rule of law then. I know what is good for you and the society more than you do. Trust me and join me. Lets bring the rule of the street to India. Jai Hind!

Bias against 'organic' religions

Nytimes ran an article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/world/middleeast/muslims-rage-over-film-fueled-by-culture-divide.html?pagewanted=all about the cultural clash that fueled the rage against the Innocence video.

A protester claims “We never insult any prophet — not Moses, not Jesus — so why can’t we demand that Muhammad be respected?” He needs a lesson if not in history at least of contemporary events. Look back no longer than 10 years and you will remember how Taliban destroyed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan. But then Buddha or Rama were not prophets of the revealed Abrahamic religions! So they are fair game. Also it needs to be pointed out that Islam considers Moses and Jesus as prophets and of course they would not insult them.

The author of the piece chips in with a helpful "the right of a community, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, to be free from grave insult to its identity and values." Organic religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, paganism or no-ism don't seem to figure in this at all. You can depict their holy symbols in whatsoever manner you like. After all they were not revealed.

Merkel's Euro dilemmas

"Suddenly Europe is speaking German," Volker Kauder a German conservative politician claimed. He was referring to Chancellor Angela Merkel's leadership to tackle the Eurozone crisis. What are the dilemmas she faces as she leads, albeit reluctantly, a debt laden Europe?

Merkel, the chemist turned Chancellor, was a protégé of the former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Kohl was the architect of German reunification, the European Union and the Maastricht Treaty that set up the framework for the common currency. Merkel now commands the battle to save the Euro that her mentor was instrumental in building.

One of the underlying ideas of EU has always been to lock Germany into European treaties and negate the repetition of the terrible wars. During the early attempts at integration, Germany was more than willing to let France take the lead. It did not want to be seen in a leadership role and was content with being a junior partner in the Franco-German alliance. It quietly pumped up its economic muscle based on exports and reconstruction making Germans immensely proud of their strong Deutsche Mark.

Hyperinflation is seared into the German consciousness. In the aftermath of the World War I, on 1st November 1923, 1 pound of bread cost 3 billion marks. This eventually led to National Socialism and the rest as they say is history. It is for this reason that they had a strict inflation rate criteria included for the entry of new members into Eurozone. It also explains Merkel's “Nein” to print Europe's way out of the debt crisis.

Merkel has been criticized for playing the fiddle while Euro was burning. She steadfastly refused calls for pledging more German money to bail out Greece or for common Euro bonds. The German tax payers were against giving their hard saved money to what they saw as the squandering, tax-evading and forever-holidaying Mediterranean southerners. Germans underwent lot of restructuring and pain after the dot com recession. They made productivity gains and accepted wage stagnation to turn around their economy. As a person who lived in Germany during this period, I was amazed at their “spar” (savings) ethic. A shop that accepted credit cards was very rare. The concept of spending what one did not already have was anathema. Merkel had to balance this voter disdain with the need to save the Euro.

As the crisis prolonged, France's credit rating and influence waned propelling Germany as the lender and leader of last resort. It was a chance to remodel Europe in Germany's image of fiscal prudence. Merkel preached that only strict budget controls and austerity can resolve the crisis. Germany's brinkmanship at the negotiating table has forced and enabled the ailing PIIGS to pass more cuts, which would have been otherwise not possible. This has led to a groundswell of public anger in those countries against Germany. Merkel has been blamed for promoting austerity sans growth in the Eurozone as a whole generation stare into the abyss. Germany's fears of hyperinflation tie it down from mapping a rescue path via the currency presses.

The essence of leadership is not just to follow Vox populi but to shape their voice based on a vision, a dream. Will Merkel speak to the German public about how Euro has increased their competitiveness in the export markets? Will she tie Germany's success to euro’s success? Will she be able to convince the Greek public that more austerity is good for them in the long run? Will she be hailed as the saviour of Euro and European Union or blamed for presiding over their collapse. 2012 holds the answers.