Uttar Pradesh : Developments after Yogi ji...

Some statistics, before I start writing on the subject:

2014: General elections with BJP winning 51.9% seats (securing 31% of total winning votes in country) sets the precedent of a full fledged government at Centre.

2017: UP state elections with BJP winning 77.4% seats (securing 41.35% of total winning votes in state), sets the precedents of a full fledged government in India's largest State.

With power, comes responsibilities. With position, comes enemies and hence the growth path becomes difficult. Difficulty level increases when your opposition (say enemy!) is a veteran in Politics, and who has ruled the country over 60 years and knows every thick and thin of political skin.

With this input, I'd start my blog, on Uttar Pradesh and more specifically on Yogi ji. The 'Japanese Fever' has made him come in lime light again, albeit in negative. UP & Bihar has always been close to me. Bihar has given me birth and reason to live. UP where I studied my engineering, and surprisingly, my Sasural (I happen to be daamad ji of Yogi ji's constituency)

In my recent trip to Gorakhpur, I read the 13 point agenda set-up by Yogi ji, for UP. I'll give my input against most points, that I could witness in my 3 day stay at GKP.

1. Ease of Doing Business. : Government intent is yet to be seen. The sugarcane research Institute has been shifted to accomodate AIIMS. Till date, only 10% of boundary of AIIMS campus is complete, there are still land used for agriculture!

I am yet to see any development on Professional Airport at Kushinagar. I doubt if it shall be operational by 2021-22, with this rate of speed.

2. Promoting employment of SC/ST/Women/BPL/Differently abled persons. : I found people crying for jobs, but I understand it takes time to recruit and place people at right jobs.

3. Power for All. Gorakhpur has 16-18 hours of power which is a good sign. More to go, but consistency of power in all locations, is a good start.

4. Towards better healthcare. The Japanese fever has opened the worm box. You had been MP since last 5 times (25 years!), well aware of this epidemic, however did only lip talk? Your first priority post taking position would have been to give Siddharth Nath Singh the top assignment of no casualty this year, due to Japanese Fever. Alas, we'll had to wait for 500+ of kids in/around Gorakhpur to wake up and do the cover ups. Still awaiting the right diagnostics and total care of this disease and protection to kids.

Also, may I request you to kindly instruct Doctors (private practitioners!) to treat patients and take diseases as challenge, and not patients and his/her relatives pocket as challenge. There are large pool of doctors who are making fortune with patients monies, but patient doesn't get cured completely.

5. Relief to farmers. You announced a big fat package. Hope it has reached to ground level. I could not meet any farmer to cross check.

6. Taking care of education. Still to see if any development has happened. Kejriwal is more close to perfecting better education for all. He has started acquiring private schools under his ambit to teach each kid (personally!) with no financial load on parents.

7. Industrialization. Directly related to point-1.

8. Efficient and Fast transportation. Lucknow was also cramped and crowded. I could not drive the car on 3rd gear in Gorakhpur. Driving in 4th gear (70+ is a dream that may come true in my this life!)

No. of autos have increased a lot, for private ferrying. Ola has come to Gorakhpur, for my rescue, at least. Buses, continue to be in pathetic shape. Hope your "Bhagwaa bus" brings some relaxation.

9. Transparency in Administration. I could not get a chance to interact with any government official. So I may not comment. But, I'd request you to put right guy on right job. Performers should be on field and boot lickers should be in secretariat, doing what they do best.

10. Rule of Law. Interesting one, I found at least 6-7 policemen on Mahua mor, looking for licence and helmet of bikers. First I thought, they are trying to educate people and after moral talks, may be releasing them. But after careful examination I realized 2 guys were holding the "Paauti" and threatening all guy.. and matter was getting 'solved' anything between 100-500 bucks. Including other policemen, were a Sr. Inspector (3* batch on shoulder). Similar to the cases in Mumbai, where matters are 'settled' between 1000 - 2000 bucks (Mumbai is rich, you know!)

May be it was evening time, and they wanted to buy Chicken/Mutton for families, and had no monies to buy the same, hence they may have decided to raid.

A lot to do Yogi ji. Corruption is in the blood and flows in veins of every official. Unless you remove the blood out of body, it would be impossible to curb it. Try your best.

11. Women empowerment. Indirectly related to above points, specifically 2, 4, 6, 7 and may be 1 also, in case you encourage small scale industries of home made businesses. Yet to see light.

Evening and Nights are still painful for ladies/women in Gorakhpur area, if they want to travel alone.

12. Benefiting Pilgrims. The whole world is waiting for Ram Mandir. Please do it. Moreover, please ensure cleanliness of temples and Good priests. I hate pundits asking for money for Pooja or Darshan.

Also, if you can, remove small road side encroachments, in the name of Temples, Dargah and Ritual Places.

13. People friendly policies. It is as ambiguous as Indian Weathermen forecasting Rains and climate conditions. May I request your concerned Ministry to be more specific and action oriented activities to ensure application of friendly policies at grass root level.

Yogi ji, Lucknow is in centre of Uttar Pradesh. I shall be measuring the effectiveness of these 13 points from farthest locations from Lucknow, may be Gorakhpur/Kushi Nagar, Shahganj/Renukoot, Mauranipur, Lalitpur, Pali, Sadhumal. Your good works must reach these locations. 

Well, needless to say kindly also take care of Rampur, and Rai Bareli. People have lot of hope from you and your governance. Let people not be feel cheated again.

Shree Arvind Kejriwal – a successful entrepreneur?

I always wanted to write about ‘Sri Sri 1008 Yugpurush Baba’ since long. But due to paucity of time, I couldn’t gather much information. It so occurred to me that though he is a ‘nautanki’ and the U turn specialist, what is in him that makes him visible, non ignorable. The MBA lecture on ‘Creating New Ventures’ by Prof. M Suresh Rao came for my rescue and inputs on being entrepreneur, penning down for Him. 

Walter Kuemmerle, Professor of Harvard Business School analyzed over 50 start-ups in twenty countries and across industries. His analysis brought following characteristics to be a successful entrepreneurs:

1.       Are you comfortable stretching rules? : Kejriwal makes rules, Kejriwal break rules. He does what 'he thinks' best for common man (Aam aadmi!). He is least worried of what actually a common man thinks.

2.       Are you prepared to make powerful enemies? : Clashing directly with powerful enemies, like Chief Minister and her cabinet in Delhi, the ruling Government (initially Congress, later BJP, and eventually Narendra Modi) made him popular in short run. He dared to show them eyes when it was desired. They also successfully managed to change his enemy and make frenimies.

3.       Do you have patience to start small? : His target remaining fixed, he started with missionaries, social services, India against Corruption, sleeping with homeless, poor and farmers made him do his ground work, and test the patience to wait for right time.

4.       Are you willing to change strategy quickly? : I call him chameleon for obvious reasons. The same rule has different meaning for him, when it comes to different people. Take extensive support of media when desired. Throw them out of office, when they are not desired. Cry foul and bring some paid media to show to the world that they are not heard when media doesn’t give due footage to his tantrums. Set up 'Throwing Chappal on self", Wearing bathroom slippers in public events, crumbled shirts when delivering speeches (where media is!), other wise remain in best of attires with family.

5.       Do you know how to close a deal? : An expert is finding a middle path, which gains him better profit. He has taken no action against anyone he was firing canon while starting his party. Make noise so high that the whole world listens. Re-direct the discussion to other topics to avoid mis-actions, non-actions to some other tangent. It’s my way or highway for him.

This brings to further analyzing the Muffler man on the 10 principles of setting-up a start-up, which are:

1.            Come to work each day willing to be fired
2.            Circumvent any orders aimed at stopping your dream
3.            Do any job needed to make your project work, regardless of Job Description
4.            Find People to help you
5.            Follow your intuition about people you choose, and work only with the best.
6.           Work underground, as long as you can, publicity triggers the corporate immune mechanism
7.           Never bet on race, unless you are running in it
8.           Remember, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission
9.          Be true to your goals, but be realistic about the ways to achieve them.
10.          Honor your sponsors.

Think of his actions and initiatives, he'll give sufficient examples of above 10 points.

Passion-Conviction-Tenacity – without these three traits only few entrepreneurs could endure the challenges, the setbacks, the twists in the road that lie between their often path-breaking ideas – opportunities, as they call them – and the fulfillment of their entrepreneurial dream. Muffler man has all these three traits making him a successful entrepreneur and his start-up “India Against Corruption” to culminate into full grown organization “Aam Aadmi Party”.

I’ll close the discussion with these lines of William P Egan-II: You may have capital and a talented management team, but if you are fundamentally in a lousy business, you won’t get the kind of results you would in a good business. All businesses aren’t created equal. 

He started his organization with A-grade team, but the desire to remain the 'only powerful man', only king and king-maker made him kill his opponents and rivals who were part of A-team, including Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, made him create and run the show with B-team.

He has proven himself as a successful entrepreneur but his mettle to be a successful leader and new generation Politician is it to be proven. Only time shall tell if he shall become another common cadre people in the list of CM’s/PM’s or shall emerge out a true nationalist, shaping country in a forward direction. Currently, he seems to be lost in the hunger of Power and Political ambitions.

With all craps in his cabinet, and ample blots on his career, it looks very likely that he'll revive. But let's see.