The other day I did a check on my cards and identities.
I own a voter ID card, the PAN card issued by the income tax department, passport for foreign travel, an old irrelevant ration card, driving license, credit cards, two hotel loyalty cards, individual shopping cards from grocers, lifestyle stores, club membership card, one free parking card from a local mall…Depending on where I am headed, my wallet can get quite thick.
But, this is not the end of it.
In some time I should be the owner of one more card, touted by the government as the most important one that will finally and clearly define who I am and will also definitively pin down each individual in the country for fake or real.
New Delhi has appointed Nandan Nilekani, till recently head of software giant Infosys, as Minister to oversee the issue of this ultimate card that will form the basis of social security and poverty alleviation doles, free insurance and many more services that the government has failed to deliver so far.
Nilekani, who has since base shifted from Bangalore to Delhi and provided perks of power such as red beacon cars, accommodation in South Delhi and personal security guards, is to oversee the massive single identity card program and accompanying unique number that will cover the 1.2 billion Indian population.
As he is a professional, I expect Nilekani to do a good job, though the task is humongous, budget is in billion of rupees, cost estimated over Rs 100 billion and not at all easy to implement.
Take the example of Voter ID card.
One day, without appointment or warning, a government official (probably a school teacher) arrived at my house.
She said she was in a hurry and would not come again, following which she handed blank forms with many pages for me and my family to be filled out instantly, with photographs and other details.
As she waited, she complained incessantly about the delays being caused to her as she had to cover many more houses and seemed unhappy that I had agreed to fill the form.
Probably, it would have been easier to mark off one more household as not available for details sought.
I somehow managed to fill the forms, by ensuring the servant kept her plied with tea and other eatables, expecting nothing to follow, but the Voted ID cards did arrive in some time.
Others have not been so lucky, if they did not happen to be home when the government official arrived or asked for a later date.
Those who have tried to apply on their own have faced severe red tape, shunted around like secret files from one jurisdiction to another, between offices, desks and clerks.
Even worse off are those who have had their details filled in incorrectly.
I know people who have been recorded as male for female and vice versa with no redress despite several appeals.
Once a Voter ID card is made, that is it, whether for the right or wrong.
On the other hand, my experience with the PAN card has been quite good.
As suggested, I applied online and the card was delivered within a fortnight. Incorrect details can also be rectified via the Internet.
I am impressed by such efficiency by a government department.
However, there can be no such online short cuts for Nilekani. There are barely 50 million active Internet users in India.
A huge portion of the population will have to be accounted for offline, manually as the Voter ID process, in a country where long dead government employees continue to be paid salaries and pensions, while others own multiple passports and some more are listed as the wrong sex.
Speaking of passports, the system continues to be awkward, despite several announcements of reforms. There is an online system of filling forms, but the actual application needs to be offline --- through touts or individually.
Although it took me the full day in a queue at the very crowded passport office, the document did get re-issued.
The officer at the desk was clearly harassed by the work load.
Indians can be difficult customers at times --- one argued why the government needed information about neighbors, with whom his family did not enjoy good relations, when the concerned passport was his?
Another gentleman, who too had spent the day in the queue, turned out to be from Agra.
On being told that he was not eligible to apply in Delhi, he retorted that he had come to the Capital city as the passport office in Agra was more chaotic.
Driving licenses and ration cards are an even bigger mess.
No sane or honest person can procure them unless one works through touts (with links with officials whose palms need to be greased) who swarm the offices.
This means that innumerable drivers on Indian roads, with the highest number of accidents in the world, are quite ineligible to handle any vehicle.
Indeed, Nilekani has a big task to avoid pilferage, misuse and a-corrupt machinery spouting around the new card.
I have worked out credit cards though, the ones that are lifetime free and delivered at home.
I have a pack of them --- each offering different utilities --- holiday, hotel, movie, restaurants (could be different for separate cards), air line, golf course discounts or freebies.
The catch here is not to keep any balance pending as the interest is usurious.
I find the loyalty cards also useful if one patronizes a particular place often. The do get you some good deals sometimes and keep you abreast with the latest sales and offers.
But government cards, they need to get it right.
(Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached at sidsri@yahoo.com)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Why I kicked Facebook? (August 2009)
I have been on Facebook for sometime now. Others keep up with Twitter and Orkut too.
Not too long back I followed the numbers on my friend’s list as closely as stock quotes, while keeping track of others rising figures. It was competitive.
Some mentioned to me, ``you have so many (friends) only, I have many more.’’ There were egos involved.
I believe actor Ashton Kutcher has more than a million-list and keeps his fans humored by anecdotes and private pictures of his wife Demi Moore, sometimes in her underwear. My wife would kill me.
For me touching the 100 friends mark was a big day, even as I remain logged now with 250 odd people comprising extended family, close friends, others regurgitated from the past, many cousins, faint acquaintances, some I might have bumped into anywhere, including bank relationship managers and more I just don’t know.
Till some time back, I kept digging for more people I could know.
Today, I am bored of FB as the novelty has worn out. I would prefer to wash my car any day without uploading pictures of me washing the car.
In the past, I grew out of pornography as it is no use watching others having all the fun.
And, I have grown out of FB as I felt it limited my mind, my life – thinking process, work and creativity – which instead focused on buttressing my FB profile.
Perhaps it works fine for big people such as Ashton and other celebrities who need to be in the glare due to marketing and sales needs.
I felt like a vacuous Page 3 party person flashing a funny pose or wearing a short skirt on skinny legs to somehow get pass the editor’s muster and onto the papers the next day.
Except on FB you are your own boss --- and people get to see what you want them to see.
So, I took pictures of places visited subconsciously keeping FB in mind, faking a big smile once on a trip to desert state Rajasthan in height of summer, even as my brain boiled inside.
I perhaps took a holiday or two extra to keep up with the photo updates
In FB everybody has to be having good time like the P3 people, otherwise, he/she would not be on FB. You don’t see too many hospital pictures except for newborns, all very cute, as long as the parents get to do the potty washing.
My ideas also brimmed to keep the new status messages exciting to elicit instant reactions. I was disappointed if they did not.
I even grew a mustache and put up the pictures. I socialized more and met new people to get them onto my FB list.
I took and re-took innumerable quizzes until my smile or sex appeal matched as closest to Tom Cruise and IQ Einstein.
There was even a brief period when I avoided some friends as they could no longer add to the friend list numbers, while I already knew whatever I might have wanted to know about them, courtesy FB.
I requested those who did not FB to begin an account right away. Ideally, I should have been paid by the FB promoters for the free branding.
Today I FB barely five minutes a day, if I do log in. The only comment I have made in the last few weeks is clicking the Like button. Even this is more infrequent.
The whole world seems to be doing the same things --- holding a drink, in the Jacuzzi or at the beach, catching the standard FB moment.
I am sick of looking at pictures of holidays, marriages, the always adorable kids, birthdays, official functions, foreign visits, mum and dad when they were young and grandparents in their youth.
All of this was, of course very exciting at one time as it unfolded the world of so many I had interacted in the past.
To begin with, it was good to know about them until it became all too predictable. It was like a reality show on TV that had lost its punch.
At the same time the curiosity about catching up with an old school mate in real was lost.
Many of them, ex-colleagues, classmates, might have formed part of my daily routine at some point. But, life moves on and a new bunch of relationships develop that takes precedence.
As a matter of fact, I have knocked off a couple of good friends from my list as there was not much to speak about after debating an issue the whole day on FB.
Today, my FB account is more like an online diary which gets automatically updated, should the need arise to get in touch with somebody. This is useful.
But, I don’t look out for names I may or may not know or send out requests to add to my friend list or take off on an exotic holiday to put up the pictures.
I prefer to wash my car any day.
(Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached as sidsri@yahoo.com)
Not too long back I followed the numbers on my friend’s list as closely as stock quotes, while keeping track of others rising figures. It was competitive.
Some mentioned to me, ``you have so many (friends) only, I have many more.’’ There were egos involved.
I believe actor Ashton Kutcher has more than a million-list and keeps his fans humored by anecdotes and private pictures of his wife Demi Moore, sometimes in her underwear. My wife would kill me.
For me touching the 100 friends mark was a big day, even as I remain logged now with 250 odd people comprising extended family, close friends, others regurgitated from the past, many cousins, faint acquaintances, some I might have bumped into anywhere, including bank relationship managers and more I just don’t know.
Till some time back, I kept digging for more people I could know.
Today, I am bored of FB as the novelty has worn out. I would prefer to wash my car any day without uploading pictures of me washing the car.
In the past, I grew out of pornography as it is no use watching others having all the fun.
And, I have grown out of FB as I felt it limited my mind, my life – thinking process, work and creativity – which instead focused on buttressing my FB profile.
Perhaps it works fine for big people such as Ashton and other celebrities who need to be in the glare due to marketing and sales needs.
I felt like a vacuous Page 3 party person flashing a funny pose or wearing a short skirt on skinny legs to somehow get pass the editor’s muster and onto the papers the next day.
Except on FB you are your own boss --- and people get to see what you want them to see.
So, I took pictures of places visited subconsciously keeping FB in mind, faking a big smile once on a trip to desert state Rajasthan in height of summer, even as my brain boiled inside.
I perhaps took a holiday or two extra to keep up with the photo updates
In FB everybody has to be having good time like the P3 people, otherwise, he/she would not be on FB. You don’t see too many hospital pictures except for newborns, all very cute, as long as the parents get to do the potty washing.
My ideas also brimmed to keep the new status messages exciting to elicit instant reactions. I was disappointed if they did not.
I even grew a mustache and put up the pictures. I socialized more and met new people to get them onto my FB list.
I took and re-took innumerable quizzes until my smile or sex appeal matched as closest to Tom Cruise and IQ Einstein.
There was even a brief period when I avoided some friends as they could no longer add to the friend list numbers, while I already knew whatever I might have wanted to know about them, courtesy FB.
I requested those who did not FB to begin an account right away. Ideally, I should have been paid by the FB promoters for the free branding.
Today I FB barely five minutes a day, if I do log in. The only comment I have made in the last few weeks is clicking the Like button. Even this is more infrequent.
The whole world seems to be doing the same things --- holding a drink, in the Jacuzzi or at the beach, catching the standard FB moment.
I am sick of looking at pictures of holidays, marriages, the always adorable kids, birthdays, official functions, foreign visits, mum and dad when they were young and grandparents in their youth.
All of this was, of course very exciting at one time as it unfolded the world of so many I had interacted in the past.
To begin with, it was good to know about them until it became all too predictable. It was like a reality show on TV that had lost its punch.
At the same time the curiosity about catching up with an old school mate in real was lost.
Many of them, ex-colleagues, classmates, might have formed part of my daily routine at some point. But, life moves on and a new bunch of relationships develop that takes precedence.
As a matter of fact, I have knocked off a couple of good friends from my list as there was not much to speak about after debating an issue the whole day on FB.
Today, my FB account is more like an online diary which gets automatically updated, should the need arise to get in touch with somebody. This is useful.
But, I don’t look out for names I may or may not know or send out requests to add to my friend list or take off on an exotic holiday to put up the pictures.
I prefer to wash my car any day.
(Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached as sidsri@yahoo.com)
To be Frisked or not to be Frisked (July, 2009)
When officials of America’s Continental Airlines recently frisked India’s former President APJ Abdul Kalam, it touched a raw nerve.
Despite protests by Indian security men, Kalam, also referred as India’s missile man for his contribution in the field, was made to take off his footwear and physically checked in New Delhi before he could embark on his journey to America.
Kalam, known for his down to earth demeanor went through the security process without much ado.
An-uproar followed in Parliament with demands that the concerned American carrier be banned, India’s civil aviation minister has called on the Prime Minister to brief him on the issue while a police report has been lodged to investigate the matter.
Some said that as a response to such overbearing attitude by an American carrier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to India, should be put through security checks.
This, however, is not the first time that the issue of an important person, referred in Indian security parlance as Very Very Important Person (VVIP), being bodily frisked has caught attention.
In the past, New Delhi reacted angrily to then federal defense minister George Fernandes being searched (he had to take off his shoes and socks) by security officials in America in a post-September 11, 2001, security check.
Fernandes, known for his anti-US tirades, was apparently "disrobed", according to former deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott, not once but twice.
Talbott, in a book chronicling the events, says Fernandes was angered by the incidents.
Last year, New Delhi took offense to Russian security officials insisting on searching Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was on a visit to the country.
Though the search statutes exist on paper, in most instances ministers are not actually frisked, accompanied as they are by an entourage of officials and bodyguards, who usher them through.
In Mukherjee’s case, it was apparent that Moscow wanted to convey its unhappiness with New Delhi's new found bonhomie with the US that translated into more defense deals and the civilian nuclear pact.
A feel-up was one way of conveying the irritation as Moscow does know a bit about Indian politicians' aversion to being body searched.
In the recent past, an offended junior minister Anand Sharma created a furor by arguing with officials at the New Delhi airport and eventually got the rule book changed to exclude him self from being searched for bombs.
Somnath Chatterjee, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India’s Parliament, is known to particularly squeamish about being searched by airport security officials.
He cancelled a trip to London, to follow up on a similar instance in 2005 to Sydney, even as frenzied diplomatic efforts by the Indian High Commission for an exemption failed.
The British Foreign office was clear about international security guidelines that “only Heads of States are exempted.”
However, Chatterjee was equally adamant, explaining that he cancelled the trip “because it involves the honor of the constitutional office”.
In 2005 Chatterjee canceled his visit to Australia following a verbal war of words in the media on the issue. He also has had big problems with his wife being required to walk through a scanner while traveling within India.
Most ordinary citizens know about the rigors of security checks, including a physical rub-down, in times when terrorism is at an ugliest.
However, some seek to be above this process, as a measure of their importance and image.
Even as foreign security drills are more difficult to tamper, the list of those eligible to forego domestic airport checks has been drastically amended to suit individual interests, in the game of political patronage, where outward show of power matters a bit.
In the 1980s, there were only five exemptions: president, vice president, prime minister, chief justice of the Supreme Court, speaker of the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Parliament) and state governors. Today it includes cabinet ministers, ministers of state, bureaucrats and sundry others with access to the powers-that-be.
Yet, there was some sympathy late last year when it came to the fore that India’s military chiefs are by statute required to be frisked at domestic airports.
This was a reflection of the unflattering status of the defense forces in India's civilian democratic setup, unlike in a country such as Pakistan.
On paper, the heads of the three armed forces, navy, air force and army, were supposed to be treated like civilians and required to be searched by security personnel before they could board a passenger flight.
The service chiefs are otherwise responsible for the security of the nation, protect the borders against incursions, command the second-largest army in the world and sophisticated arsenal.
While nobody argues for the overbearing primacy of the military in civil society, what pinched was the list of exemptions that had been granted.
It was an irony that a private businessman Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, and husband of Priyanka Gandhi, was exempt, as were some senior bureaucrats outranked by the service chiefs.
Following a bit of media furor, defense minister A K Antony took up the matter with the federal civil aviation ministry, at the behest of the three service chiefs who had previously written a letter requesting an exemption.
Initially, the aviation ministry refused Antony’s proposal.
The reasoning was that other authorities, mostly civil servants who head ministries and are referred to as secretaries, would voice similar demands.
Thankfully, the list now stands amended and the Generals do not have to line up even if on paper.
The near obsession about freedom from airport frisking, however, is just at the tip of the exemptions and perks that are sought by India’s power holders who still carry a colonial mindset and see themselves as above the rule of law.
One hot tag is threat perception, especially from known terror groups such as al-Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Toiba. The highest Z-plus category accompanies the star label, VVIP.
There is always a rush of supposedly important people wanting to include themselves in a higher risk category that entitles them to personal commandos (referred to as Black Cats due their attire and skill) and escort vehicles.
The commandos mostly function as bouncers fending off private citizens, while the red-beacon, siren-fitted escort vehicles specialize in jumping traffic lights and shooing away nearby vehicles. Anybody driving in Delhi can vouch for this nuisance done in the name of ``security.’’
Another sought after perquisite is allotments at the prime New Delhi bungalow area which are always very reluctantly vacated.
If a minister or political leader dies, families insist (taking even legal recourse) on converting the accommodation into a memorial or museum, while continuing to occupy the same.
Sometimes former Members of Parliament, ministers, retired officials have to be physically evicted along with belongings. Bureaucrats are in a constant wrangle for dual postings to retain official apartments in the national capital.
Indeed, this power list can go on.
Not being touched up, however, remains a high priority. Even if a humble Kalam did not mind, there are others who do.
It is a question of high prestige, after all.
(Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached at sidsri@yahoo.com)
Despite protests by Indian security men, Kalam, also referred as India’s missile man for his contribution in the field, was made to take off his footwear and physically checked in New Delhi before he could embark on his journey to America.
Kalam, known for his down to earth demeanor went through the security process without much ado.
An-uproar followed in Parliament with demands that the concerned American carrier be banned, India’s civil aviation minister has called on the Prime Minister to brief him on the issue while a police report has been lodged to investigate the matter.
Some said that as a response to such overbearing attitude by an American carrier, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to India, should be put through security checks.
This, however, is not the first time that the issue of an important person, referred in Indian security parlance as Very Very Important Person (VVIP), being bodily frisked has caught attention.
In the past, New Delhi reacted angrily to then federal defense minister George Fernandes being searched (he had to take off his shoes and socks) by security officials in America in a post-September 11, 2001, security check.
Fernandes, known for his anti-US tirades, was apparently "disrobed", according to former deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott, not once but twice.
Talbott, in a book chronicling the events, says Fernandes was angered by the incidents.
Last year, New Delhi took offense to Russian security officials insisting on searching Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was on a visit to the country.
Though the search statutes exist on paper, in most instances ministers are not actually frisked, accompanied as they are by an entourage of officials and bodyguards, who usher them through.
In Mukherjee’s case, it was apparent that Moscow wanted to convey its unhappiness with New Delhi's new found bonhomie with the US that translated into more defense deals and the civilian nuclear pact.
A feel-up was one way of conveying the irritation as Moscow does know a bit about Indian politicians' aversion to being body searched.
In the recent past, an offended junior minister Anand Sharma created a furor by arguing with officials at the New Delhi airport and eventually got the rule book changed to exclude him self from being searched for bombs.
Somnath Chatterjee, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Lower House of India’s Parliament, is known to particularly squeamish about being searched by airport security officials.
He cancelled a trip to London, to follow up on a similar instance in 2005 to Sydney, even as frenzied diplomatic efforts by the Indian High Commission for an exemption failed.
The British Foreign office was clear about international security guidelines that “only Heads of States are exempted.”
However, Chatterjee was equally adamant, explaining that he cancelled the trip “because it involves the honor of the constitutional office”.
In 2005 Chatterjee canceled his visit to Australia following a verbal war of words in the media on the issue. He also has had big problems with his wife being required to walk through a scanner while traveling within India.
Most ordinary citizens know about the rigors of security checks, including a physical rub-down, in times when terrorism is at an ugliest.
However, some seek to be above this process, as a measure of their importance and image.
Even as foreign security drills are more difficult to tamper, the list of those eligible to forego domestic airport checks has been drastically amended to suit individual interests, in the game of political patronage, where outward show of power matters a bit.
In the 1980s, there were only five exemptions: president, vice president, prime minister, chief justice of the Supreme Court, speaker of the Lok Sabha (the Lower House of Parliament) and state governors. Today it includes cabinet ministers, ministers of state, bureaucrats and sundry others with access to the powers-that-be.
Yet, there was some sympathy late last year when it came to the fore that India’s military chiefs are by statute required to be frisked at domestic airports.
This was a reflection of the unflattering status of the defense forces in India's civilian democratic setup, unlike in a country such as Pakistan.
On paper, the heads of the three armed forces, navy, air force and army, were supposed to be treated like civilians and required to be searched by security personnel before they could board a passenger flight.
The service chiefs are otherwise responsible for the security of the nation, protect the borders against incursions, command the second-largest army in the world and sophisticated arsenal.
While nobody argues for the overbearing primacy of the military in civil society, what pinched was the list of exemptions that had been granted.
It was an irony that a private businessman Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, and husband of Priyanka Gandhi, was exempt, as were some senior bureaucrats outranked by the service chiefs.
Following a bit of media furor, defense minister A K Antony took up the matter with the federal civil aviation ministry, at the behest of the three service chiefs who had previously written a letter requesting an exemption.
Initially, the aviation ministry refused Antony’s proposal.
The reasoning was that other authorities, mostly civil servants who head ministries and are referred to as secretaries, would voice similar demands.
Thankfully, the list now stands amended and the Generals do not have to line up even if on paper.
The near obsession about freedom from airport frisking, however, is just at the tip of the exemptions and perks that are sought by India’s power holders who still carry a colonial mindset and see themselves as above the rule of law.
One hot tag is threat perception, especially from known terror groups such as al-Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Toiba. The highest Z-plus category accompanies the star label, VVIP.
There is always a rush of supposedly important people wanting to include themselves in a higher risk category that entitles them to personal commandos (referred to as Black Cats due their attire and skill) and escort vehicles.
The commandos mostly function as bouncers fending off private citizens, while the red-beacon, siren-fitted escort vehicles specialize in jumping traffic lights and shooing away nearby vehicles. Anybody driving in Delhi can vouch for this nuisance done in the name of ``security.’’
Another sought after perquisite is allotments at the prime New Delhi bungalow area which are always very reluctantly vacated.
If a minister or political leader dies, families insist (taking even legal recourse) on converting the accommodation into a memorial or museum, while continuing to occupy the same.
Sometimes former Members of Parliament, ministers, retired officials have to be physically evicted along with belongings. Bureaucrats are in a constant wrangle for dual postings to retain official apartments in the national capital.
Indeed, this power list can go on.
Not being touched up, however, remains a high priority. Even if a humble Kalam did not mind, there are others who do.
It is a question of high prestige, after all.
(Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist. He can be reached at sidsri@yahoo.com)
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