CHIRU: The NEWSMAKER of 2008

Desaraju Surya

Hyderabad: “Who’s the newsmaker of 2008 in Andhra Pradesh?” The answer is not too hard to guess. Mega Star Chiranjeevi should easily be voted as the Newsmaker of 2008. From a “daring, dashing and dynamic hero” who began his filmy career in 1978, Konidela Siva Sankara Varaprasad – alias Chiranjeevi – has always hit the headlines as he rose steadily in his 30-year-long career in the tinsel town. Year 2008 pushed him into the limelight yet again, for a different reason though. The Telugu Mega Star virtually bid adieu to the film world -- that earned him name, fame and fortune -- to jump onto the political bandwagon, thus becoming the Newsmaker of 2008. On August 17, 2008 he formally announced to the world his decision to join politics, after having kept everyone guessing for over 10 months. And, on August 26, Chiranjeevi launched his Praja Rajyam Party with a lot of fanfare in the temple town of Tirupati, marking the second innings of his life. “I shall usher in the change that people of Andhra Pradesh have been longing for and turn the state into ‘Santoshaandhra Pradesh’ (the state of happiness),” Chiranjeevi vowed while inaugurating Praja Rajyam Party. It took over 15 years for 53-year-old Chiranjeevi to take a political plunge, for, there had been anticipation of his political foray since 1993 when he was at the pinnacle of glory in the film industry delivering one mighty hit after the other. He, however, preferred the celluloid greasepaint to the political sleaze and went on to don a variety of roles in a total of 148 films in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Hindi. Incidentally, he donned the role of a politician in only one film – Mutha Mestri (labour leader) – way back in 1993, when the first call for his political debut was heard. Year 2006 saw Chiranjeevi bask in additional glory as the Government of India conferred the Padma Bhushan on him and the Andhra University an honorary doctorate. The next year, however, remained rather turbulent for him due to some disturbances in personal life. But at the same time, calls for his political entry from a cross section of people across the state had also increased. Having endeared himself to the audience as an actor-par-excellence and a great dancer, Chiranjeevi permanently sealed his place in the Telugu people’s hearts through his social service activities – notably eye and blood donation – through the Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust for over a decade. With his only son Ramcharan Tej stepping into his shoes as an actor, Chiranjeevi was in a way left with no other option except to accept the wishes of crores of his admirers – don the politician’s role in real life after having enacted the role only once in reel life. “Former President A P J Abdul Kalam was the driving force behind my decision to enter politics. It would have been a historic blunder had I shied away from taking the political plunge,” Chiranjeevi said while announcing his decision to join politics, adding that the late N T Rama Rao too had inspired him to take up public service.“I am entering the political field with the only objective of serving the people and not with any ambition of securing power,” the Mega Star had declared. The “shift” (from the glamour-filled tinsel town to the murky world of politics) also gave him “self-satisfaction.” Whether or not he will be able to ride to power, Chiranjeevi, however, has certainly emerged as the key factor in Andhra Pradesh politics now who could make or mar the prospects of the existing players. The Chiranjeevi mystique unravels only in April\May 2009 when elections in the state end.

Political scene in Andhra Pradesh in 2008

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Two things remained conspicuous on the political scene in Andhra Pradesh in the year 2008: one, the birth of Telugu Mega Star Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party and two, the re-alignment of the Left parties with the Telugu Desam Party. By any measure, these two noteworthy developments on the political scene have become the key factors that will determine the outcome of Elections-2009 in the state, due in April. More significantly, the state politics have started revolving round the Telugu film industry with parties vying to showcase their "star" might for the first time than ever before. With Chiranjeevi launching his own party, the principal opposition TD has roped in film stars from the Nandamuri clan for party service while the ruling Congress too tried to enlist star support in equal measure. While TDP founder-president and legendary Telugu actor N T Rama Rao's son Balakrishna – one of the top Telugu film heroes – was the main draw for the party, NTR's grandsons Kalyan Ram, Taraka Ratna and NTR (Junior) too have jumped into the political field to "resurrect" the TDP and make Nara Chandrababu Naidu the Chief Minister again. Chiranjeevi's youngest brother and film hero Pavan Kalyan has been made chief of Yuva Rajyam, the youth wing of Praja Rajyam Party, with the main objective of attracting youths towards the party. For the Congress, the star attractions were hero Rajasekhar and his actress-turned-director wife Jeevita. Yesteryear 'Super Star' of Telugu films Krishna, former heroine Jayasudha and character artiste Srihari too have sided with the Congress. Krishna, of course, was elected to Lok Sabha from Eluru in 1996 on behalf of Congress but stayed away from politics for a long time. The Congress desperately tried to rope in Krishna's son and the current heartthrob Mahesh Babu but the young actor evinced no interest. A consolation for the ruling party, however, has been the endorsement of the state government's welfare programmes through a visual advertisement campaign by another top hero Akkineni Nagarjuna. But the Congress has been totally isolated with all its allies of 2004 – the Left parties and the TRS – completely deserting it. The ruling party thus faces a formidable task of contesting the 2009 elections all alone against the backdrop of a perceived anti-incumbency factor. The TDP too is plagued by its own set of problems with many a senior leader quitting the party and joining the Chiranjeevi bandwagon. TDP heavyweights like Kotagiri Vidyadher Rao, C Ramachandraiah, Tammineni Seetaram, Bhuma Nagi Reddy and his wife Sobha Nagi Reddy, besides a couple of MLAs and former MLAs quit their parent party and joined the Praja Rajyam Party. Congress too saw many of its senior leaders parting ways and walking into the Chiranjeevi camp, notable among them being former Union ministers P Shiv Shanker, P Upendra, former MPs Ch Harirama Jogaiah and K S R Murthy. With Nandamuri Balakrishna taking an active role in TDP, seniors who quit the party previously have started returning. While Congress MLA Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu quit his post and the party to rejoin his parent party, an independent MLA K Laxmaiah Naidu too returned to the TDP fold. Still, troubles are not yet over for the TDP as many senior leaders are sulking and preparing ground to leave the party ahead of the ensuing elections. Many Congress MLAs too are said to be in line to join the Chiranjeevi party owing to their caste connections. The political crossovers will continue till the elections in April. Yet another separatist party has taken birth in Andhra Pradesh in 2008 with former home minister T Devender Goud quitting the Telugu Desam Party and setting up his own Nava Telangana Praja Party. It had to be later rechristened as Nava Telangana Party following a technical glitch over its registration with the Election Commission. Everybody thought the pro-Telangana parties will join hands for a common cause but that did not happen. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, that had been the sole torch-bearer of the pro-Telangana movement since 2001, has not yet chalked out its future course after having severed its ties with the Congress in 2007. Both the TDP-Left combine and the Praja Rajyam Party have been wooing the TRS to forge an alliance but the wily K Chandrasekhar Rao, the TRS boss, has been cleverly playing his cards. In fact, the Congress too is desperate to restore its friendship with the separatist party, in whose company it fought the 2004 elections, and prevent a rout in the Telangana region. Even as the pro-integrated state party like the TDP reversed its stand on the demand for a separate state, going by the "wishes" of the people of the region, the Congress that rode to power on the promise of carving out Telangana still remained indecisive. The Bharatiya Janata Party, that has of late taken a strong pro-Telangana stand and promised to create the separate state in three months if voted to power at the Centre, has not yet consolidated its position. It spent time trying to make friends with pro-Telangana parties like NTP and also the newly-formed Praja Rajyam Party, which is also favourably-inclined towards a separate state. Its efforts, however, did not bear fruit in 2008. Spurred by the tremendous success of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)-model of Dalit-upper caste alignment, some fringe players and caste groups in the state sought to set up platforms for all and sundry to proclaim their political ambitions in 2007. In 2008, all such elements have virtually sunk without a trace.

Let us be AUSTERE

Desaraju Surya
I can’t be lazy this night. I have to put down in words what has been running down through my mind since this afternoon. Since the date has changed by the time I started typing this piece out, I should say yesterday afternoon.
One of my dearest friends Masthipuram Ramesh is a genius. Ramesh is a man of high wisdom, but totally down-to-earth in demeanor. As we sat down for about 15 minutes for our regular discussions on a variety of issues, he suddenly broached a subject – austerity.
Unlike me, he may probably be coming from a well-to-do family but still he suggested that “we” stick to an austere lifestyle at least for the next four or five years.
“Let us use ordinary footwear and normal clothes. Let us walk where a motorbike is required, use a bike where a car is needed. Use a fan where an air-conditioner is required and use the ventilation where a fan is needed. Most importantly, let us not waste food at any cost. What if we eat a little less in a particular day? Why should we cook extra food for some “unanticipated” guest and throw it away when none turns up? It is so sad to see lot of food being wasted in pompous marriages and other parties. So, let’s not indulge in such pomp and let’s remain austere.”
He went on to add that to make the future generations comfortable, we have to conserve the environment by reducing pollution.
Weren’t these absolutely golden words! Ramesh planted a thought in my mind and made me ponder. And, despite spending the day with some heavy work and job-related anxiety, his words did not get deleted from my mind.
In fact, it was Ramesh who suggested that I write a blog on austerity and I promised to do so. Hence, I could not “put off” this piece for another day.
Ramesh was probably the first parent in Hyderabad to think of a great initiative – “Car pooling.” He not only thought of it but implemented it himself by arranging common conveyance for his son Adyanth and his classmates to school.
I have seen not even a handful of police officers who have a concern for the society and its wellbeing. Ramesh is one of such caring and conscientious officers.
His words of wisdom are well taken and I shall try to follow the austerity measures to the extent possible. I know the value of money, though I am, at times, a spendthrift. My indulgence, of late, has been the needless spending on mobile phones. Somehow, I developed a fascination for these gadgets and so far spent (lost) a fortune on these pieces that ultimately didn’t last. So, all of it was a waste. At least now, I should strictly learn to resist my temptations and stop indulging in wasteful expenditure, particularly on electronic gadgets. I never make any resolutions but, hopefully, the dawn of a New Year – 2009 – would bring about that change in me and make me austere. Dear ones like Ramesh and Mamidi Harikrishna will always be there to keep a tab on me. I pray.

Police encounters and public sympathy

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: Police "encounters" are commonplace in Andhra Pradesh but two such encounters, including the one near Warangal on December 13, 2008, stand out for the widespread public sympathy they have evoked. Barring a few political leaders and some self-styled human rights activists, the general public have widely "welcomed" the killing of three youths by police in an alleged encounter near Warangal. The youths were involved in the most heinous acid attack on their fellow engineering girl students three days ago, leaving one of them battling for life while virtually blinding the other. Students burst crackers in Warangal while in Bhongir in Nalgonda district they formed a human chain hailing the police action. Students, particularly girls, spoke out in the open saying the encounter killing of three youths involved in the acid attack would act as a major deterrent against such attacks in future. "Right from MCA student Sri Laxmi's murder by her classmate Manohar in 2004 to the latest acid attack in Warangal, there have been at least eight major incidents of deadly attack on women. With no strong visible action against the guilty, such incidents continue to recur. At least now, this encounter will send a strong message to such rogue elements," was the general feeling expressed by the students. Following the sharp reaction from the students, political leaders were caught on the back foot and had to mince their words in condemning the police encounter. It was the second major encounter in Warangal in the last 12 months in which a total of six youths – three of them hardcore criminals – were gunned down. In both the instances, police received a pat on their back for "delivering justice" and handing over the "deserved punishment" for the criminals. In the first case, three youths with a criminal background, abducted a nine-year-old girl Manisha and murdered her to settle scores with her father. After a long hunt, police arrested them but were immediately killed in an "encounter" when they attacked police personnel while collecting the evidence. Though, as usual, the so-called human rights activists sought to raise a hue and cry over the incident, the common people welcomed it and lauded the police action. Two Telugu satellite news channels conducted an instant opinion poll on the encounter and got 97 per cent and 94 per cent positive response respectively in favour of the police."The killing of an innocent nine-year-old girl for no reason has spurred an emotional reaction from the people who felt relieved when her murderers met with the same fate," a top police official involved with the encounter recalled. Incidents like the acid attack on girl students immediately evoke strong reactions from all quarters and everyone demands "stringent action" against the guilty. However, in many such grave cases, the prosecution has been failing to take the cases to the "logical, deserving and justified end" often enabling the accused to virtually go scot free.

Cyber-security: The growing threat

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The Internet has been expanding thick and fast across the world and so is the threat to the cyber-security. In India, for example, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has reported about 800 new electronic vulnerabilities during 2007 in the country, a 20-fold increase compared to 2001. The total number of attacks -- including viruses, worms and cyber frauds in organisations -- are rising by about 15 per cent annually, with many types of attacks doubling in number, according to Gulshan Rai, director-general of CERT in the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Quoting a report prepared by Symantec, Rai pointed out that spam mails accounted for about 80 per cent of the total email traffic in the world. "The situation in India is not much different," he said, at the Internet Governance Forum conference at Hyderabad International Convention Centre. Taking part in a discussion on "Dimensions of Cyber-Security and Cyber-Crime", Rai said a survey conducted by CERT and PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that 57 per cent of the organizations providing one or other type of services experienced compromised systems in 2007, which was almost double compared to 2000. "Technology-oriented indicators clearly reflect that the monthly percentage of personal computers infected by a virus in the country has grown from just one per cent in 2001 to 17 per cent in 2007," the IT director-general noted. Information-stealing through social network sites was also on the rise, he added. Another worrying factor was the growing number of phishing cases, particularly among the Indian banks. "On an average, 7 to 8 cases of phishing are being reported per day in the country. Most of the phishing cases are hosted and registered in another country causing a problem in disabling them," Rai said.The most disturbing fact, according to Rai, was the increase in the number of cases of cyber incidents pertaining to domain name registry. "The registrars, the Internet Protocol address as well as the address of the registrants are found to be fake in many cases. We require a strategy to counter this as it involves cyber-security," Rai said. "Today, the computing systems control the management of power plants, air traffic control systems, energy distribution and the financial systems, to name a few. Banks, for example, rely on extensive distributed communication network and information services, both for customer interaction and inter-bank operations. The reliance of these installations and processes on the IT infrastructure makes that infrastructure itself extra critical and it is essential to safeguard it in the nation's interest," the IT authority observed.

India to amend IT law with clear definitions

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The Government of India will amend the Information Technology Act, 2000 to effectively deal with online data security, data privacy, identity theft, cyber-terrorism, child pornography, Spam, phishing and other online frauds. The amendment Bill, which has been pending for two years now, will finally be taken up by Parliament in this winter session. For the first time, the Government of India has tried to define cyber terrorism, child pornography, spam, phishing and online frauds through this new legislation. The amended legal framework will be in line with all the provisions of the European Cyber Convention. Once in place, the new legal framework would address emerging issues in cyberspace. The body corporates would have to implement best security practices to secure data collected by them while providing services and any leakage of data would result in payment of compensation to the victims. The government was working in co-operation with the Asia-Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team on cyber-security initiatives. Besides, the Data Security Council of India was also established as a government-industry initiative to create awareness and ensure compliance with the best security practices among IT and ITES organisations. "The challenge is huge for us to train our police and judicial officers to collect, analyse and present digital evidence in courts. We are working in this direction under the public-private partnership model," Gulshan Rai, a top IT official in the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said. The Information Technology department was also working with public and private sector organisations to train manpower to deal with cyber-security issues. India is also sending people abroad for getting trained in implementation of best security practices. While assuring that the Union Communications and Information Technology Ministry would collaborate with "any agency in the world" for providing a safe and secure cyberspace to the citizens, Gulshan Rai called upon lawyers, judges, academia, industry and citizens to work together to evolve a mechanism for effective collaboration and co-operation in this regard.

TV news channels: DISGUSTING AND DISGRACEFUL

Desaraju Surya
I am herewith reproducing views and feelings of my dear friend, an Indian Administrative Service officer, on the media coverage of the Mumbai terror strikes. Being a journalist, I have no hestitation in endorsing what all he said in his blog post. The conduct of the electronic (visual) medium journalists was utterly disgusting and disgraceful, to put it mildly. Shame on their part.
I have many examples to illustrate how the visual medium is proving to be a bane to the society. The Telugu television news channels have become obnoxious. I shall putforth my views on the subject sometime later. But now, read my IAS friend's anguish.

"I am on a holiday. Without access to reliable internet connection, blogging was naturally intermittent. However, the rivetting events of the past few days kept me tuned on to the television channels. A few observations from the coverage. Even as the NSG commando were fighting the terrorists holed up inside the Taj, Trident and Nariman House, another battle was being fought outside by the television news media channels to capture the media space. While the commandos acquitted themseleves with distinction, the same cannot be said of the ultra-competitive media channels. To put it bluntly, the actions of large sections of television channels were disgraceful, insensitive and indecent. Many of them came out as undignified and greedy vultures swooping down on hapless victims of the tragedy. I had been under the impression that a reporter was meant to report events and even illustrate possibilities, which were then to be analyzed by editors and external analysts. But the events in Mumbai saw reporters throwing all such distinctions to the wind, elevating themselves as self-appointed analysts and media pundits, spraying "wisdom" in all directions. Some of them had even become self-appointed flag-bearers of nationalism and patriotism. Ironically enough, the anchors and editors who were vituperative in criticising (rightly so) the politicians for using the tragedy to score brownie points, were culpable of falling prey to the same disease. Many of them, with a few honourable exceptions, saw this as an one-time opportunity to make and enhance reputations, and flagellate as popular opinion makers. What spouted out as informed analysis was the routine denuciations of the usual suspects - Politicians and Pakistan - and simplified band-aid solutions to a complex challenge. Traumatized victims (especially foreigners) released from the clutches of terrorists were hounded for soundbites (despite polite refusals), and politicians (like spokespersons of political parties) were accused (even abused) of being responsible for the tragedy in a manner bereft of any dignity. The middle class sentiments were sought to be aroused by playing to the galleries through a brazenly artificial exposition of the courage and bravery of the soldiers and commandos and public catharsis of the released victims and their relatives. If there was poignancy, it certainly was not evoked by most of these journalists, including the superstar ones (who even professed to conveying poignancy), reporting on it. The ruthless and insensitive nosing for news was disgraceful, to say the least. If this was an attempt to whip up national pride and stand up for our armed forces, please, don't ask us to be subtle about it!I vividly recollect a bewildered Chinese looking chef of the Taj, who was hardly able to scramble through the fusillade of questions hurled at him by one of our superstar television journalists, apart from sticking to the safe, if monotonous, "no" to whether he had seen or heard anything. Questions on issues as weighty as who was responsible for the terrorist attacks and how many were killed and injured (something which even the intelligence agencies of the government were yet to figure out!) were thrust on the poor man who had just escaped the hotel. The poor lad was relegated to the backstage, even without as much as a sympathetic remark for the difficult ordeal he had been through, and obvious obscurity for even "not having heard a bomb explosion". This particular "superstar" also "distinguished" himself in his other reports by constantly bombarding his "victims" with his non-stop barrage of questions which appeared to have the objective of eliciting a particular answer than the correct answer. Some of the antics of our popular television news anchors were clearly cheap attempts at imitating western media personalities like John Simpson and Christian Amanpour.The most garish omission obviously was the near total lack of sympathy or coverage of hapless victims, who being lesser mortals" lost their lives in the oblivion of the not so "iconic" CST. So skewed was the coverage that a viewer could be excused for not knowing that the largest number of casualties and biggest "human tragedy" took place at the crowded railway station. The last straw that broke the camel's back was undoubtedly the injured claim on the last day on how "the shocked victims would hardly speak to the journalists who had been patiently waiting for them outside.""

Cyber-world and the family of Netizens

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: India has been ranked fourth among the top ten nations in the world with 81 million internet users even as the world aggregate touched 134,85,72,040 by the end of 2007.
United States leads the chart with 220 million internet users followed by China (210 million) and Japan (88.1 million).
Brazil comes next to India with 53.1 million users, UK 40.2 million, Germany 39.1 million, Republic of Korea 35.5 million, Italy 32 million and France 31.5 million.
The Internet Governance Forum has released these statistics on the eve of its third global conference that begins at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre on December 3.
From about 70 million people (1.7 per cent of the world population) who had access to the Internet at the end of 2007, the figure crossed 134.8 crore by 2007. Asia has the highest number of Internet users with an estimated 568.7 million people followed by the Americas with 377.9 million.
Europe ranks third in this list with 335.9 million users and Africa and Oceania close the rank with 51.8 million and 14 million users respectively, according to the IGF.
India, however, does not find place among the top ten nations in terms of broadband connections where too the US stands first with 73.2 million connections.
China has 66.4 million, Japan 28.28 million, Germany 19.6 million, UK 15.6 million, France 15.5 million, Republic of Korea 14. 7 million, Italy 10.8 million, Canada 9 million and Spain 8 mil lion broadband connections. While there were a total of 13.5 million internet subscribers in India, representing 1.15 per 100 people, broadband subscribers accounted for five million among them.
However, the number of users, who have online access but do not themselves subscribe, is a whopping 81 million or 6.93 users per people.
"Internet is the platform through which we are trying to bridge the digital divide in the country," joint secretary in the Union Information Technology Ministry, Ravi Shankar, said.
The National E-governance Plan envisaged provision of internet access to six lakh villages through one lakh Common Service Centres (Internet kiosks) by the end of 2009. Of the total proposed, 20,000 kiosks have been rolled out so far, he added.
"The essence is to bring about a modicum of e-readiness through the National e-governance Plan. The Department of Information Technology is also working on a plan to build the National Knowledge Network under which 10,000 institutions of higher learning and research will be connected through a 1-GB net work and provide e-learning solutions," Ravi Shankar said.
With the number of mobile phone users touching a staggering 300 million and growing by about eight million per month, the Government of India sees mobile-internet as a further exponential growth platform.