Austria...Bohemian forests, eclectic vineyards, Baroque architecture and the Denube

Thinking of Central Europe one cannot miss on Vienna, the beautiful, mesmerizing capital of Austria. A country with immense and bountiful natural beauty characterized by its mountain villages, imperial history with palaces like Schonbrunn and Hofburg, the famous Danube that we have mastered both in geography and history classes, amazing city architecture, along with the northern Bohemian Forest, Lake Traun and eastern hillside vineyards which are so special of Austria.

Austria is socially, politically and economically unique also as it has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, it is the second richest within the European Union and enjoys higher growth rates than most of the other European Union member states. It managed to overcome the financial crisis of 2008/09 rather quickly. For the eclectic, Austrian wine, Grüner Veltliner, is world famous for its quality and richness of flavor.

What is it in Austria that would interests Indians? Instantly its Moazzart, Strauss, Sigmund Freud, Austrian tourism, culture, would be of common interest. Surely not the economy or politics. Though Austria is leader in many 'unsexy' expertise like manufacturing of high end state of the art rail tracks, rope way engineering, cable cars, ski lifts, gondolas, water technology company.......surprisingly there are not much takers in India yet. With Indian government open to more and more technology transfer, investments, digital advancements and industrial tieups we haven't explored the Austrian potential to the hilt and vis-e-versa. Austria has coalition government and politics which India looks up to. Surprisingly GDP of Austria is higher than Germany. Industry in green technology is what Austria is working on.    

Talking to Cornelia Vospernik, a renowned Austrian radio journalist and broadcaster reporting on foreign affairs, on her umpteenth visit to India we got an insight into a lot of information and feelers about how the world is shaping up, what are the impressions that affect the geopolitics of our part of the world and specially how media works in Austria.  

News doesn't make money, it costs money, says Cornelia Vospernik, Austrian journalist.

Quite similar to our Prasar Bharati, Austria's state broadcaster called ORF, is a tad different in the sense that it caters to a huge audience across the central European nation and adjoining countries. Austria being a German speaking country the broadcasters cater majorly to German listening audience. ORF has 2 radio channels and a TV channel. Interestingly ORF 1 has younger listeners age bracket of 18-40 yrs and ORF 2 is heard by the older generation ie above 49 years. They are hugely popular radio channels which Cornelia Vospernik says are popular because it offers its listeners popular music interspersed with news though sparsely and lots of commercials in between.

Addressing mainly a German speaking audience of the region ORF is a popular broadcaster in the region. Austrian audience are more interested in stories about people, human interest. It is very difficult to sell foreign news out here. ORF pursues its foreign news programme to educate their audience about what is happening in the world. Following up stories is necessary. And here radio does more relevant news. ORF's foreign office in Asia is in Beijing, China which covers Asia. They create interest for stories.

Vospernik speaks as the voice of Austria and when asked how are India and Austria able to strike a common ground, she says India is very relevant for Austria. In the South East Asia region China and India are two countries that are the most relevant as they are the booming, bubbling and growing countries of this century and region. India more so as it has a young population compared to the aging population of China, which is also India's advantage over China. People of Vienna are highly interested in culture and tourism. ORF covers India from China. Vienna is also the seat of some international offices.Its a great meeting place of central Europe.

Revenue module of ORF is basically the license fee and commercials. Small broadcaster have TV channels. Not many private channels and private funding like in India. Radio channels are h popular in Austria. They relay music non stop which is why they are so popular. There are no English Channels.

Print media in Europe is in crisis, Vospernik says. Electronic, TV and online are blending. Internet and TV are also merging. The trend is moving away from print and TV to online. For major events like 9/11 the relevance of TV is undisputed as they have an upper hand with their live telecast and instant reach to viewers with live visuals. But Radio will be always there. It has changed communication like never. It has made news simple as the medium is getting modern.

There is no information that is protected, around the world. Radio Channel 'Austria 3' is most popular in Austria. Interestingly here Radio generates money for TV. In Austria public broadcasters are the mouth of the government. Private investors do not invest in media. News doesn't make money, it costs money even though German broadcasters have got big money.

Vospernik says Islam is an serious issue in South Asia. Immigration is another big issue in Europe. We have been accepting refugees from Syria, Africa. They come through Italy to Europe and then into Austria. Austria cannot accommodate any more. The govt is putting up tents to provide them with shelter and basic human conditions.

Jihadism is a matter of concern in Austria as some young people have reported to have gone joining Islamic militants. There is the problem of radicalization. Then there are Chechen revolutionaries. What young people see in media about jihadists is what drives them to the point of glamorizing it and that's important. It is considered fashionable now among the younger generation, Vospernik feels.

News sometimes also means market share

Doing journalism since a very early age Vospernik says journalism across the world is changing. There is a thin line between reporting and opinion and its blurring day by day, she feels. Everybody can be a journalist. With blogging rising Bloggers in Iran are real journalists, she says. News sometimes also means market share. One is never completely objective. Its sensationalism v/s açtual reporting. Tabloids have forced govt of Austria to move the government.There is more direct reporting in Austria.

In contemporary political talk, environment is mainstream politics. She says there are strange anti smoking laws in Austria. Print media in Austria started a campaign. Surprisingly in Austria most of the reforms are print media driven.

Have Wiki Leaks affected anyways Austria or Europe! Vospernik does not think it has actually changed anything and also hasn't meant much.

Inspite of the dissimilarities and diversities in both our countries and their societies India and Austria have a great potential to march into a bright and mutually beneficial future.

Interview with Deputy Chief of Israeli Mission in India Dana Kursh

 Interview was published in July 2016

Israel cautious of its technology getting into wrong hands; no war crimes on Palestine, UNHRC has double standards: Dana Kursh

By Priti Prakash | PUBLISHED: 17, Jul 2016, 13:41 pm IST | UPDATED: 18, Jul 2016, 21:42 pm IST, www.facenfacts.com

  Dana Kursh, Deputy Chief of Israel mission in India is a distinguished career diplomat with a diversified experience of working in social and technology sector. She has been Captain in the Israeli Army as a Liaison officer for bereaved families of Israel's Northern Command. With a Degree in International Relations and PG in Public Policy from Hebrew University she was Deputy Consul General of Israel to the Southwest of the USA, based in Houston Texas, Policy Advisor to the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel, and Director of the Cadets Training Department, training and supervising the programs of new diplomats as future Ministry’s management.

Dana Kursh talks to Priti Prakash on a range of issues relating India Israel relations, Israel Palestine flare ups, IS menace, Defence cooperation, Jews, Brexit, among others

Excerpts from an interview with Dana Kursh:

Q. India Israel relations have witnessed a bonhomie & upward trajectory since BJP lead government has taken over. PM, President, External Affairs minister Sushma Swraj have visited Israel that has been reciprocated. Your logo ‘Land of creation’ resonates in our ‘Make in India’. How do you think India and Israel have come closer with common objectives?

A. India and Israel have very strong and multifaceted relations, from security cooperation to food security cooperation in agriculture, water management, academia collaboration, sharing technology and innovations etc. We touch upon government to government connection and people to people connection. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the BJP or Congress government in India or Left or Right in Israel, there’s a unique bond between both our people. President Mukherjee’s visit in October last year followed by Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj meeting with our PM, Energy and Water minister, Deputy Foreign minister and Defence Minister opened up a basket of amazing potential of expanding cooperation, opportunities and partnership that can be explored. Prime Minister Modi had visited us when he was CM Gujarat in 2004.

We look forward for the continuation of leaders coming both ways. In January 2015 our agriculture minister visited India as part of vibrant Gujarat. It was amazing display of the influence of India in gathering of leaders from all over the globe…(Mr Kerry, leaders of Asia and leaders from our cultural ministry participated). In February 2015 our Defence minister came to India which had not happened in many years. In  April 2016 Israel minister of agriculture came to inaugurate together with Hon’ble Minister water resources (WR, RD & GR) the ‘water week’  in Delhi, as Israel was a partner country for this event. Now visit of our minister of water resources is in pipeline.

Q. When we talk of relations I mean both trade and diplomatic relations. Apart from cooperation in agriculture, pharma, water management, energy, air space, homeland security, counter terrorism,  Defence cooperation with Israel is something that has ruffled feathers of some countries. Nuclear technology collaboration may be a headache for Pakistan and China. How do you view the future of the region with China hand in hand with Pakistan that harbors terrorism.

A. We look with fascination at the leadership of PM Modi and we see how your unique democracy works in a very shrewd and wise way. In a recent interview Prime Minister Modi on Pakistan said keeping on the track of negotiation we will keep defending our people and the national interests of India. In many ways our leader, Prime Minister Netanyahu back home is working in the similar way- Keep striving for peace with our neighbors alongside defending the Israeli citizen. We will keep on exploring amazing opportunities in our region and beyond.

As an observer here I can say that Israel has a unique relationship with India. We are also outreaching to other nations in Asia including China, Philippines and Singapore etc in areas of education, technology and beyond. Our aim, our foreign policy and strategy is to outreach the world and in order to a have a better and safer world for our children we need to unite and at the same time be cautious of adversaries.

We share the same challenge of terror. Just past week we have seen the murder of a young 13 year old girl in Jerusalem. India and Israel are both facing terrorism. In 2008 Mumbai attack, it was the Jewish house that was targeted too. But we can find in every country the ways to cooperate that will not hamper other relationships. Israel is taking care of its national interest by exploring ways of cooperation in Defence or Agriculture or other avenues. Our Defence cooperation is more about the cutting edge technology sharing. Its about how to better safeguard our boundaries and citizens. But of course Israel is cautious of this cutting edge technology going to wrong sources mainly terrorist organizations, non government actors that exist across the globe. We have a mechanism of connection between the governments and private companies for check and balance about who are we selling to, what kind of infrastructure do they have and other resources. And because of the challenges that we are facing we ensure that our cutting edge technology does not get into wrong hands, also seeing that we in our area also share it in a way that we are primarily defending our people. So I don’t see any apprehension.

But India and Israel are very good friends and they know to enhance relationship, do R&D together in areas of Defence and beyond in a way that can better safeguard our people. Even we are highly impacted by the complicated situation in our- neighborhood- the middle east. for example Syria situation- which is a grave concern to the entire world. We have a peace treaty with Egypt since 1978 and with Jordan since 1994. We have collaboration with them to face joint terrorism. We have renewed our alliance with Turkey. We think that terrorism is a global challenge and India and Israel are suffering it, tackling them through Defence technologies, Counter Terrorism while balancing between law and order. Just a few days ago in UN there was an initiative of India to discuss counter terrorism which was an eye opener.    

Q. West Asia is in turmoil. There’s a huge refugee crisis . Brexit has given its vote against immigrants. Europe is  smelling a danger in it. What does Israel think of this problem and a solution to the thousands of humans suffering. Does Israel support Brexit?

A. Its again one of the challenges of the 21st century and in this interdependent world with no boundaries, I look at it as a humanitarian crisis. Stories of people crossing by boats and dying on the way to find new destination are gut wrenching. I think the EU leadership is trying to balance between outreaching, aiding humanitarian needs while protecting their citizens. I think the world is addressing the problem but more needs to be done on that.

As for immigration I can say that ours is an amazing story of absorbing refugees. Creation of the state of Israel is an great success story. How Israel 68 years ago was formed with around 600,000 inhabitants, after 68 years we are 8 million, absorbing people from all over the globe, providing a homeland for jews who were refugees from different countries (at the year of our independence), many of them were survivors of the Holocaust and refugees from Arab countries. In 1990’s we were 5 million Israeli’s and we absorbed 1 million jews who came from former Soviet union. There was a unique mechanism with providing everybody a common ground. We found ways to connect and unify them by teaching them Hebrew language. Even army was an absorption way of giving sense of patriotism and safeguarding the country. The contribution of 1 million Jews who came from all over the former Soviet Union contributed to our economy. Our Defence minister is a former Soviet Union immigrant. So it can be a huge opportunity to receive new people but the immigration from our region to Europe is different and much more complicated. The need is to help uniting international efforts to help the refugees and the forces for countering terrorism.

On Brexit, its not for me to judge whether it is right or wrong but I hear that the jury is still on it. They still don’t know when will it happen, what is the democratic procedure within Britain, how will EU react, what’s going on in UK…what about its impact on India, its economy, I think it’s the manifestation of the complexities of the world.

Israel relations with EU are diverse. They are big trade partners for us alongside research cooperation etc. We also have a unique relationship with UK. I am sure and hope that whatever the judgement will be will not affect us as we do not want to land up in another turmoil.  

Q. Violence has picked up in your region as well. Why have talks always failed- there’s an underlying trust deficit between both countries. Innocent people are reciprocally attacked on both sides. There was a report that radical islamists are taking advantage and inciting Palestinians to kill Jews this side. On the other hand Israel has always been blamed for war crimes in UNHRC. Can there be a peaceful solution to Israel Palestinian conflict? Also what is Israel’s stand on Kashmir issue.

A. Yes, we keep on hoping for peace with the Palestinians people’ but nowadays there is a lot of mistrust between both Israelis and Palestinians, negotiations have not been so fruitful. We want peace with our neighbors. When I was a child I used to go with my father to homes of my Palestinian neighbors. People 2 People connection does exist but there are ups and downs. There was a wonderful optimism of 1993 when we reached an understanding with the Palestinians on how peace could be attained, how we could put aside the mistrust but unfortunately there have been lots of setbacks.

There’s a saying that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Their leadership did not take advantage of any opportunity to sit and negotiate with us. Our Prime Minister and our leadership in every international forum invited negotiations every time with no preliminary conditions. Issue of terrorism is one of the setbacks similar to India. Whenever there is progress some of them choose terrorism, wherever, it can be in the heart of Tel Aviv, or a new upscale area like Sarona, like Hauz Khas area of Delhi. Suddenly 2 Palestinian gunmen shoot all the diners in the restaurant. Some of my friends they say we will come to visit me in Israel only when peace returns. I say you must come-not surrender to the fear, otherwise this is how terror wins. Day after the attack on Israel’s Hauz Khas some foreign diplomats choose to visit the same place for dinner. This is the way to overcome terror.

Israel similarly like India is living a normal life in abnormal situation. I can imagine the plight of the parents of this 13 year old child, but I know we will keep on striving for peace with Palestinians and other nations.

As for UNHRC, with due respect to it I say that it is politics that’s hijacking the essence. The role of UN and UNHRC is to protect the world from atrocities, but this organization instead of dealing with the influx of refugees from Syria, keeps accusing us and allocating their votes on this issue. They have double standards on this issue. If there is, god forbid, any wrong doing in Israel the legal system and our leadership will investigate every so called crime. Any soldier, politicians or citizen who commits a crime will be sentenced. We are doing a lot of self scrutiny but this organization is dealing with issues hypocritically. They should address what’s going on in the Middle East and on IS and their ramifications by recognizing the fact that we are losing lives of people in this wave of terrorism. Hamas launched rockets just last week. This is not being discussed in UNHRC.

I will say that there are no war crimes. There is no pounding of any kind. No. Israeli defence forces only target specific terrorist areas. The orders are given by the government, not by an individuals and in that process if there are casualties we investigate. Israel’s moral ground is to defend our citizens and never hurt other people. Unfortunately Hamas is choosing their targets using human shield of Palestinian children and families, placing themselves in hospitals and schools because they know that our morals and values will not let us launch a missiles on these places.

We are a democratic country and our policy is trying to balance between defending our people and to see that we are not hijacked by those trying to pull us into traps of killing our people.

As regards Kashmir problem it is for the federal leadership and the state leadership of Jammu Kashmir to solve the issue as we handle our problems back home.

Q. How do you view the menace of IS spreading around the globe. It is in your neighborhood. Its at the doorsteps of India. Youths from across the globe are joining them and coming back to their country to carry out attacks. How can India Israel strategize to counter them apart from intelligence sharing.

 A: IS is a grave threat to the world. We are all united together in this fight with the different coalitions trying to tackle with them and it is best done with G2G collaboration. In 2014 a treaty was signed between India & Israel on the issue of homeland security. India’s home minister visited Israel and based on the talks 4 different working groups were made for tackling this issue. One working group eg is on the issue of how to safeguard the border, another working group is police modernization…how to build our forces better to be able to face the challenges of terrorism from within & also counter terrorism. This infrastructure is for G2G umbrella, from that trickles down the impact of sharing the expertise, the knowledge for both of our nations. There is collaboration in R&D, in developing technologies, and as we speak now a batch of almost 150 policemen from Hyderabad academy will be in Israel for training.

In Israel, terrorist organizations down south are using tunnels to get to Israel and bomb our nurseries and schools. We are finding ways to have more technological solutions to counter that too but its very complicated. There’s no magic way of solving the issue. Whenever Israel comes out with a solution to counter Palestinian rockets in the south of Israel they come with underground tunnels, planning 1 step ahead. The fight can be countered by having cutting edge technology on the one hand and collaboration and sharing intelligence. It is happening between India and Israel and in all the likeminded democratic countries including US, EU.

Q.  Israel is predominantly a Jews country. What challenges do Jews face demographically, semitically, culturally in other parts of the world or in India?

A. Israel is a jewish democratic state. We have 80 % jews population, 20% christains, muslims and other people. Jewish people had suffered the holocaust. Eli Wiesel, who just passed away, was one of the leaders who tried to tell the amazing story of the holocaust - 6 million Jews who lost their lives just because they were Jewish, together with 5 million non-jews.  

We have a rich history. Let’s look at the present. In India we are not facing any anti Semitism. There’s a unique Jewish community here that still lives in Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi and sustain their heritage and see themselves as Indians first.

This year we just lost Gen Jacob, your hero, which we can call our hero as well because he was a jew. He was first and foremost Indian. That’s the quality of democracy, of giving minorities the freedom to reach the highest ranks whether its in the military or in the political avenues. I myself am a jew and happy to be part of a democracy back home and here that gives the freedom of practicing any religion with a unique system of check and balances.

However there are places on the globe that unfortunately face anti-Semitism, like in Iran, denying of the holocaust, denying the rights to Jewish people in the homeland, Israel. . For example, in May this year, Iran convened a special Holocaust-denial cartoon contest. Unfortunately there is in Europe of 2016 and in other places, manifestation of anti-Semitism. I am happy that in India its not an issue. We call all the nation on the globe to fight it because today its about jewish, about xenophobia and hatred for the people who are different from you. Its a source of evil, the essence of hatred, its something that should be obsolete. I am happy that we, since 3000 years of the people of Israel, were able to go back to Israel, to the land of jewish people to build democratic nation which gives the right to jews and non-jews to enjoy freedom of religious in our state of Israel. 

    

Q. India Israel tourism has a lot of potential. Not many Israeli’s visit India and vis versa. Tourism is the best way to popularize a country’s culture, people and boost economy and job opportunities. Jerusalem is ‘Start up’ city, India too ‘Start Up’ nation. How can both promote tourism start ups mutually? Does Israel government and ministry plan a tourism awareness campaign to enhance tourism?

A. Both countries need to do much more in tourism sector. I, as a diplomat bring Israel to India and on many occasions take India to Israel. Both countries have so much to offer. A little more than 40,000 tourists visit from both side probably. The fact that leaders are going back and forth is a good sign. We have a tourism attaché in Mumbai to promote tourism. Connectivity is an issue. We wish we have more flights and more airlines. Also there is no direct connectivity from Tel Aviv to Delhi (there is a direct flight from Tel Aviv to Mumbai) . Air India is not coming directly to Israel, hope that will come one day. I do think that both nations can promote tourism more to enhance the connections between our nations- which is amazing. When I walk in Jerusalem I feel that I can touch history, and also here living in India- I feel the same

As a start up nation you can see the ancient history as well as the modern cutting edge technologies. I call on Indians to come and visit Israel. Israel is the jewel of the crown. Nowdays we are conducting a competition among Indian women entrepreneur. The winner will go to share her expertise with Israeli entrepreneurs back home.

Israel is an amazing destination to come. It’s a small state that can be visited from north to south in 8 hours time. Its a walk in the history of different ancient religions. Only when I went on a posting as a younger diplomat both in the US and in here I learnt to appreciate what my country has to offer, in the fact that you can walk in history and modernity together. In the north there is snow and sea of Galilee, a tiny lake, the Bahai gardens, the centre of Bahai religion. In Tel Aviv there are beaches. The young generation who party in the bars at night work in the high tech industry in the day time. Climb up to Jerusalem, in an area of 1 km you can see everything, the holy sites to the 3 monotheistic religions, including Indian nuns that are working there, worshipping their religion. There is Nazarth the birthplace of Jesus family. Go down south to the Negev desert, make desert bloom and share experiences of water shortage. Eilat, a leisure site, the gorgeous Dead sea. In 10 days you are seeing everything.

Q. Israel is a country that being a democracy where a youth, man or woman, have to compulsorily enroll in the military for a said number of years, how has it affected the society, culture, women liberation, traditions.

A. I myself was in the army and a captain in the unique role of a captain for bereaved families for the northern command. These are forces allocated to keep in connect with the families who have lost their soldiers. The army allocates resources for the welfare of its people and that’s an important component of our society. We have women in high ranking position in defence and beyond. We also have combative pilots. It’s a manifestation of democracy and women have equal rights in every democracy.

Youngsters under the age of 18 are enrolled, women for 2 yrs and men for 3 yrs. From a teenager one suddenly becomes an adult. It inculcates morals and ethics which we then learn from protecting our country and safeguarding each other. In the same breath I do hope to have peace soon and no need of the military stint, god willing. I do think that for the kind of challenge that Israel is facing in the region it is necessary. I see it benefits our society and makes it resilient with the right moral ethics and learning leadership

Travelogue: South Korea: The Jewel of East Asia

South Korea: The Jewel of East Asia

By Priti Prakash | PUBLISHED: 16, Mar 2016, 17:53 pm IST | UPDATED: 25, Mar 2016, 15:42 pm IST

Seoul: If its only Psy’s 'Gangam Style' that makes you think of Korea, you are mistaken. Though the K Pop culture set the young population grooving feverishly on the streets and in discos across the globe snatching Guinness World Record for the most liked YouTube video, Korea has a lot more to its credit that puts it in the category of world leaders.

Technologically advanced to the hilt, Korea’s story of resurgence and development is unparalleled in the world.

South Korea, a nation that rose like the mythical phoenix after 1945 surprisingly shares a similar history with India. Feudalistic society, foreign invasions, a country raised totally and abysmally 60 years back is now an example of the most modern, industrially advanced countries of the world. The entire Korean peninsula one fifteenth the size of India, almost the size of United Kingdom, with sheer grit, nationalism and the will to become a developed country its people planned and worked hard to bring their nation to a point of becoming a country that can showcase itself to the world at par with the most developed countries on this globe. With a rich culture and history behind them South Korea is an exemplary mix of modernity and traditional ethics. The food, the mannerisms, the language and culture has kept their originality alive and kicking.

Words go amiss as I describe the city of Seoul. Colorfully lit up market places, glassy vertiginous skyscrapers, glitzy malls, amusements parks, I had heard a lot about South Korea. My journey from Incheon international airport, a newly built structure covering miles, to Seoul city was something of a dream come true.

‘Anneyeong Haseyo,’ meaning ‘Halo’, I was greeted by my guide Viven, a beautiful Korean girl as she and her friend Su received me at the Incheon airport.  I sensed the warmth in the air and felt assured of a comfortable stay for the next few days that I would be spending in Seoul, the capital. It took us about an hour to reach our destination 'Shilla Stay', an upend property in the heart of the capital, cruising by the most luxurious of coaches that criss cross the city. Meticulously clean and smooth roads laced with brown leafless trees as it was winter in early March seemed warmly welcoming in their unique grandeur. Landscaped beauty of the symmetrical withered trees as if  come out straight from some Hollywood flick. We crossed the big Hangang river, on a kilometer and a half long bridge. 'Gamsa Hamnida', (Thank you in Korean) I said as they departed for the day leaving me at the hotel to be with me next morning.

South Korea is a country that is glass and granite. Capitalist economy, consumerism speaks aloud. Korea is synonymous to Samsung, LG and Hyundai. How we take pride in flaunting a latest version of a Samsung  or LG mobile phone. Their TVs and range of home appliances can be spotted in every home in India. Every second home has a Hyundai brand of car. POSCO is Korea’s steel major that is making inroads into India. In 2018 Korea is going to host a sporting extravaganza, the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Korean currency ‘won’ is 1170 a dollar (rates keep changing) and driving is right.

Cosmetic industry of this far eastern state is a million dollar turnaround. Every woman’s dream to look beautiful needs a Korea makeover. The upscale market of Insadong and Dongdaemun among others are flooded with all types of skin treatment and glow enhancing creams, packs, masks, lotions and what not. No wonder Korean girls look like dolls, the phrase ‘dolled up’ seems to come straight from here. The glass like skins tell all. Cosmetic is a big industry here and Korean products are hugely coveted and used the world over.

Koreans have a lot to be the first ones in the world. They proudly boost of reviving the Cheongechon river, quite akin to Delhi’s Yamuna, a unique project to make a dead river come alive, then hosting the 2002 Korea Japan FIFA World Cup Soccer Game and a one of its kind, a Landfill resource project.

Though their major success stories are those of their resurgence from a totally destroyed state in 1910 and a Japanese rule till 1945 to a one that is a most modern society, and now still living under the shadow of constant threats from neighbor North Korea (striking similarity with India), the country has the most heavily militarized and volatile borders in the world.

Hangong river, a river that was once dead with slums around it and filled with dirt and garbage is now a clean stream flowing through the city of Seoul with designed boulevards on both side and walking ramps. Way back in 1988 when Seoul hosted the Olympic games the river sides were made as paths for athletes and visitors for practice sessions.  Cheonggyecheon, now a thriving landscaped stream is a great tourist attraction. Its called the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project. There’s a whole museum dedicated to it. 

Something that makes you sit back and watch is the World Cup Park which is also called the Sky Park. It is an artificially created land to make a landfill stable rather than letting it be a ecological disaster. We would call it a landfill site. Can you think of a landfill park as a stadium of National Sports venue! Koreans have done it. A whole landfill site was conceptualized as their FIFA World Cup venue and with precision planning and hard work made it a showcase of Korean development to the world.

As South Korea has capitalist economy business houses contribute towards the upkeep and building up of city infrastructure, business centers, commercial centers along with entertainment parks for people. Lotte Amusement park just took off my breath. It made me wish my childhood back. It would give the Disney world a run for its money. You call it is an amusement park or an Urban Theme Park, it is composed of Asia’s biggest indoor theme park and outdoor park magic island. Merry go rounds, hot air balloon rides, mask pageant, animated fairy tales, joy rides and other endless entertainment. Lotte World Park has Asia’s largest Ice Rink for ice skaters. 

A Buddhist monastery called Jinkwasa monastery was a one time experience. It is unique as it is a monastery run by women monks. Visited by world leaders in look out for peace and tranquillity it teaches you meditation practiced by Buddhists as a way of life. It follows the Jogye order of Korean Buddhism.  

Not to miss the Korean food with its myriad flavors. Its a healthy blend of taste and tradition. Its not just the noodle country, the cuisine springs surprise made of rice, fresh vegetables soaked in sauces and vinegar. Kimchi, Bulgogi, Makgeolli are the most common dishes that accompany your lunches and dinner, more akin to our Indian ‘acchar’. Koreans street food is something that is to be experienced.

Something that came across very unique about their society as I talked to Viven, my guide, was about their faith. In Korean society other than the four religious beliefs of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, the fourth category gives you the liberty of 'no religion'. A lot of Koreans follow no religion. Cheondogyo is a homegrown religion.

Interestingly there is an ages old Korea India connection too. Historically, around 2000 years ago, Indian princess, Suriratna from Ayodhya travelled to South Korea and married a Korean King Kim Suro. Suriratna known as Queen Huh from the Gaya dynasty, traveled for three months by sea, following a divine signal by her father, to marry the founder of Karak kingdom.At present, six million Koreans with surnames Kim and Huh from Gimhae, and Lee from Incheon, trace their ancestry back to the royal Indo-Korean couple.

Talk to a Koreans and they believe that their tomorrow is into today. Their vision and will to make a star of their nation has really made their today an image of tomorrow.

tera taal video

LOTTE World video

Political Oped: Hindutva, Jobs or Farmers, whats the deal this season

Its just few months before the 2019 general elections will be declared. Political parties have sounded prefatory bugle. Opposition parties are cosying up once again for a faceoff with their ever most formidable opponent BJP more particularly PM Modi. Congress the main opposition has sharpened its attack strategy. The ‘Jan Akrosh rally’ at Ramlila Ground, their first big rally to set the pitch for national elections has mustered huge crowd of party workers in a show of strength, anger and feeling of deception by the Modi sarkar. The narrative of Congress has all been around Modi and Modi. Is Rahul Gandhi hitting the right chord! This, as we have seen by example that in elections, its the positives rather than negatives that do the work.    

As for the country it would not be audacious to say that India has moved forward as much as backward since the saffron party was voted in office astoundingly in 2014 general elections. Not to forget it was a vote against corruption, inflation, policy paralysis and social insecurity. Voting in every elections is affected more on the basis of contemporary issues as public memory is short. Health of economy, society, nation at large, security, employment etc decide who the voter will vote for. If India has acquired a reinvented reinvigorated status at the international forum we have moved two steps back on the social security matrix. At the end of the fourth year of BJP lead NDA, bank scams have grown larger by the day, agrarian crisis has taken threatening proportions, growth figures don’t seem to be optimistic, jobs are hard to find and the moral police ensures people live, eat, wear and pray as per their dictates.

Invincibility Factor

The saffron party shed the invincibility factor when it lost elections of Gorakhpur, Phulpur in UP, Araria in Bihar and by elections in Rajasthan and MP. With elections coming up in Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chattisgarh the Amit Shah bandwagon will be up for some tests. Although with a difficult fight in Gujarat in 2018, Himachal, Tripura and Meghalaya were great gains. So the BJP now boosts of unprecedented presence in 23 states, more than what Indira Gandhi did.

On the other hand the opposition has just accelerated to the third gear with the energized Congress behind Rahul. The 84th Plenary session of the Congress failed to chalk out an effective strategy to counter the BJP which was the need of the hour. Instead it choose to take the attack mode. Congress President Rahul Gandhi would have done good by spelling out Congress’s road ahead to a corruption free India, how he will get jobs and uplift growth rate. Despite Rahul Gandhi trying to give a new face to the party by bringing the youth in its forefront, major latent flaws are more than apparent for the phoenix to rise. Also that the party is not drawing upon its capabilities and strengths for providing a better alternative in term of deliverance and bettering peoples’ lives in the runup to 2019 elections.  

There’s a serious reason to think why BJP is here to stay unless something really goes wrong. The initially media hating Modi and Amit Shah are often seen on television channels exuding confidence of a much larger numerical win to the lower house of Parliament. Media has been tamed and government machinery is instructed to only sings peons of the dispensation’s achievements.  

Rewind to 2004 when BJP was in power at the centre with their ‘India Shining’ campaign, the question in the masses that stayed was ‘What did the common man get’. So regardless of what BJP slogan in 2019 will be, Modi’s stand will be that a lot of work has been left, of continuing journey, delivering by 2022 what has been promised in 2014, 2019. Modi will yet have to answer a lot of questions not just from the media but the voter too. From soaring unemployment and job losses, stifling of mnegra forcing rural labour to migrate to cities, not raising the minimum support prices for farmers, the voter at the end of the day will ask what did I get. Conscious of this fact the govt and PM Modi keep actively publicizing projects like LPG scheme and bank accounts is to show that people are getting something tangible in their hand. Abstract notions (like black money being fought or India becoming cleaner) do not get votes.

Reasons for BJP success in 2014 had 4-5 strands to it. First was the prime minister’s image consciously reinvented in the past decade from a strong a hindu leader in 2002, to a ‘development man’ from 2007-14 promising jobs and development. A third image of the PM seen emerging since last 2 years is of ‘garibon ka neta’. His speeches now emphasizes on rural india, poor Indians, agriculture, poor farmers. Thats a conscious imagery development because in 2014 they lost Delhi and Bihar because of their image as a party of the well to do, the upper middle class, of corporates. Through demonetization and sharper welfare delivery Modi was able to carve out a multi class appeal and alliance.

Second strand to their success was Amit Shah’s organizational work. BJP today is the most formidable election apparatus that any political party has had in india at any point of time. Congress is a mass based party has never relied on organizational aspects what Rahul Gandhi is now looking at. India has had regional variance like Left in West Bengal, DMK in Tamil Nadu with strong organisations. BJP today is a party at the national level having many components like quantitative expansion of the membership base (claims to be the largest political party larger than the Chinese communist party), qualitative change in the relationship between the party high command and the party grassroots, emphasis on booth level management and activating booth level workers, frequent mass contact, propaganda blitzkrieg, resource mobilization in an unprecedented scale. Then the RSS provides the organizational support with a high degree of convergence between the sangh, a source of their world view and their personnel with its network of pracharaks and a lot of sympathisers to build its opinion for the BJP and mobilize voters on the final polling day.

Third component, that the BJP which used to be an upper caste party today, is a somewhat more inclusive party, has made a conscious effort to attract the subaltern into the hindu fold and carve out this multi caste coalition by including sub castes and backward castes.
Finally there is a strong element of communal polarization. BJP is a party that stokes hatred on the ground, uses lies, deception, propaganda to make the hindu voter angry, bitter, resentful of the muslims and all other parties and portray them as sympathetic to only muslim interests which helps them construct a majority vote. The reason they succeed is because secularism is dead on the ground particularly in the hindi heartland ie north, west and central India.

Will this last.

The invincibility factor is rising by the day as the realization of slowdown in growth has sunk in the masses. Whether it will have electoral consequence will have to be seen but it has made them vulnerable. Modi’s multiclass alliance rests on growth, on jobs and welfare and as the government has not able to deliver on any of these 3 they are going to face challenges.

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman says India’s growth story could be derailed by lack of jobs. The economist says India has made rapid progress but economic inequality in the country remains elusive. He has compared India’s corruption to neighboring China. ‘You cannot become Denmark with Chinese levels of corruption’ he says. 

There has been a drop in the narrative from the government in the past few months. Nirav Modi and related Bank scams have dented the government’s image beyond repair as much as the GDP data, demonetization and its adverse economic effects manifested over unhappiness over GST. Although it is too early to suggest that the moment of dominance is over, the BJP still remains India’s hegemonic party, waiting for a sweep in other 4 election bound states at the year end. The economic narrative will hurt the party.   

Congress which is the main opposition has not been able to make an impact in its criticism of the government. Moreover the Indian media has largely become the mouth piece of the govt. Also partly unlike congress, BJP knows how to use words and write an oped that makes an impact. They know how to use media, give interviews which Rahul Gandhi is yet to master. But its also seen that when BJP meets a strong challenger like the earlier Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Arvind Kejriwal in 2015 in Delhi, it does not appear invincible. As Nitish has committed political suicide and AK in Delhi is struggling hard to save his flock, RG and Congress don’t look so bad with their consolidation of all opposition parties to face the BJP giant in 2019. Gujarat elections has turned RG into a politician, although the vacuum of strong qualitative opposition is more than palpable.

Projecting the inevitability of victory is half the battle won in Indian elections. Indian voter does not want to be seen as voting for the losing side, which is seen as a wasted vote and BJP has successfully projected that. For BJP, winning elections is like an automatic process, depends on managing people, on manipulation, on keeping the opposition weak, more about innovative social engineering and party organization.

Agrarian factor

The biggest impact of the economy has perhaps been on the agriculture policy including not raising the MSP for the farmers leading to farmers distress. Rural distress is a greater challenge to this government than demonetization or GST. The rural voter is also unhappy with the government’s economic policies. In 2004-05  when for issues like farmers suicide, rural distress, lot of farm loan wavers happened and mnrega came to alleviate it. The recent farmers agitation spoke all about the deep angst in them. The government now is into dole mode with the eye on 2019 elections.  

What will BJP go to 2019 with?

PM Modi is a deft hand at politics. Man Friday Amit Shah has proved his mettle in UP, Tripura, Himachal, Nagaland, Meghalaya. Political pandits identify four issues. One nationalism, strong India, for which they will use surgical strike example, India’s strong image internationally. Second hindu consolidation that encompasses issue of cow protection which has descended into outright crime, then Ayodhya temple issue depending on the SC verdict, all of it in the heartland, third will be a clean government where people are willing to wait for Modi to deliver. The fourth is welfare, where the tangible things delivered will be bank accts, LPG’s, toilets as part of Swatch Bharat. Power is what they will talk about next. Earlier they had promised that they will electrify 18000 villages now we see that Modi say that all households will be electrified by 2020.

Integrity platform was a major point with Modi with which he always thrashed UPA 2. In 2011 Kejriwal did him great service by launching a movement making them aware of cleanliness in politics. With a cynical Congress, BJP and Modi had the machine to take advantage of it. Even now there is a lot of faith in the integrity and the intent of the PM which he will play with and package all that he has done from demonetization to GST to efforts to formalize the economy as a part of this anti corruption movement. 

Shivam Vij of Washington Post says ‘Inflation and inflation is the only thing that matters in elections. An interesting survey says that inflation is generally seen going up in the last 2 yrs of every govt. Modi’s economic policy has been to control inflation, the reason why GST was implemented in a hurry in the middle of the financial year was to give it time because GST is known to drive away inflation a bit and historic changes were made for controlling inflation. Demonetization brought down inflation because there was no economic activity to raise inflation.’ Although its intuitive to speak of GST and demonetization in the same breath, but rightly put, ‘Demo was bad economics, good politics but GST is good politics bad economics.’

In many states its seen that BJP polarizes not only the muslim votes and the dominant upper caste but in Haryana they impossibly won by polarizing everyone against jats. Contrary to popular expectation Haryana voted a non jat CM, Khattar. Perhaps its not a coincidence that the President of India is a koli. In Gujarat they succeeded despite Patels. The whole caste thing boiled down to be a jobs issue the other way round. Political analyst Prashant Jha  says, ‘Jobs really won’t be a major issue unless Modi does something that provokes people. Jobs do affect voter behavior and lack of creation of private jobs has been a failure of the government which got reflected in the widespread violence for the reservation policy across India, from Haryana to Karnataka. In Gujarat the whole Patel issue was basically a jobs issue, articulating itself as a reservation issue.’

The problem that this government is facing is that there have been job losses. Its not a failure of generating jobs but the failure of a policy that has triggered job losses across industries which has affected not just the upper middle class and the middle class professionals in the job market but the labor too. But it is more likely that they will try to take away the narrative from jobs and talk more about social engineering and some other issues. Its only if the opposition rakes it up properly in 2019. But nothing can trump how much money does one get at the end of the day in his pocket. If suddenly we have an inflation in 2019, nothing can save BJP.

Hindu consolidation factor 

Electorally BJP will sharpen the rhetoric with new narratives that this is a hindu country with a pretence of victimhood, that hindus have not got their fair share and others have only pandered to the minority which is seen through Babri masjid, love jihad, through claiming that electricity was distributed during Eid and not Diwali, by alleging that laptops were distributed on the basis of religion, by suggesting that muslims were thrown out by hindu villagers, by talking of forced migration from western UP or suggesting the image of a muslim as a cow slaughterers, the larger objective being constructing that vote for unifying hindu society through caste lines. 

However 2009 elections were very interesting. 6 months before the election 26/11 happened. Advani fought the election on the issue of national security, face of the election was Afzal guru, the muslim that the congress was not hanging because of its muslim leanings and yet the BJP lost very badly. So even though hindutva matters to a lot of hindu voters, with its appeal and charisma, nationalism equally touches the chord.
Congress is not able to exploit the situation election after election even with a lot of anger against BJP. The grand old party has an anti hindu image which they are trying to change but however Rahul Gandhi may visit temples he does not have the body language of Modi as a hindu.

Modi strategy

Unprecedentedly Modi is expanding his base. BJP is out to appeal the larger demographics of poor voter of India. In demonetization Modi has totally copied the ‘Garibi hatao’ of Congress. It’s a proven fact that schemes have never resulted in votes. Bajpai’s golden quadrilateral, Akhilesh’s Agra Expressway did not translate in votes and Modi really understands this. As he said in Gujarat elections in 2014, ‘justice should not only be done but should be seen to be done’. So development in politics should essentially be seems to be done and to show that Modi has planned to make 400 railway stations of India look dazzling new making development visible.

As for Ayodhya Modi is not really doing anything. There’s just symbolism around it. The courts verdict by 2019 and bringing Modi in elections will polarize the electorate (like in UP elections 2012). So it will be naive to underestimate the ability of Modi to come up with something new tomorrow morning by 2019.

Also they have burdened the country with schemes. Every ministry has 3 new schemes or reinvention of old schemes so now they will just be narrowing down to 4-5 big ticket items which will resonate with the electorate like Ujjwala did in UP, which is what Power will do. They will focus on them, on social engineering of OBC’s to win all the 4 big elections by the year end in MP, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Chattisgarh.

What BJP will do nobody knows but political pandits say what they will surely do is put lot of opposition leaders in jail on corruption charges which has seen Lalu Yadav behind bars, 2018 should see some big arrests like Robert Vadra, lots of litigations, cases, for the purpose of scaring them down or making them sit down highlighting the contrast with raids, corruption cases and the arrests that will follow. This for the larger consumption that even though Modi was not able to deliver at least he was not corrupt.

Modi’s plan A was economy which has bombed for reasons of demonetization and GST shocks so plan B is going to be hindutva which we are already seeing in Karnataka and will see in other poll bound states. It was not coincidental that yogi Adityanath was appointed after the failure of demonetization.