Deal With Diplomacy

When I skimmed through the editorial in the newspaper, I glanced this word called “DIPLOMACY”; the writer repeatedly used this word to stress on “something” between India and Pakistan. This word was used a plethora of times in the article, so I decided to find the exact meaning of it .When I browsed through the dictionary, there were two meanings pertaining to diplomacy, one is “activity of managing relationship between two countries and skill in doing this” and the second one which caught my attention was “skill in dealing with people in difficult situations without upsetting or offending them”. Once I comprehended the latter ,the former looked a trivial information to me because this was the one I looked for to describe my job at its best, this is what every manager would do while dealing difficult situations and the quality that a HR person would seek for a manager for his or her firm.
  In today’s scenario with IT boom world, many professionals are engaged in their job with computers, hardly finding time to confront situations or problems that are caused by human nature .Of course there are levels such as Team leader, Project manager and so on….but still the opportunities to show their diplomatic skills are rather less when compared to a manufacturing guy whose primary job is to handle people. Many of my friends got placed in IT sector soon after their graduation, though their primary education was mechanical. But to a gifted person (or a poor soul -according to my friends) like me who started the work as a production engineer, unlike my contemporaries who work in IT, worked as a manager handling five different areas in the shop floor and forty five odd people under my belt with an average age of forty two which was twice that of mine, having experience that equaled to my age that too in the same company. Production engineer is responsible for all the areas under his control, all the goals that the management would give and the safety of the operators. I was given a task of producing twelve lakhs worth products a day. It was a new experience for me, as I have come out fresh from seventeen years of education, right from my kinder garden to my graduation. All I knew were ideal situations with theoretical solutions supported by practical experiments. For example ,If I had been asked a question, in my production papers ,that what are all the possible causes for the production line stoppage, I would write stories like some technical problems in production line ,material unavailability , quality problems and so on. Who would have imagined as if there was a production line stoppage for serving bad tea and late arrival of rice cakes (idllies) in the canteen and so the operators stopped the line producing worth of twelve lacks per day. Funny isn’t it. But that is what really happened during my reign. Or if I had been  asked for any production increase, I would use the equations of time and work and easily do the paper work but when it comes to implementation it is not as easy as you think because it not only involves you but also the operators who work under you. Though you facilitate the production with some latest technologies and make ease their industrious work, they would still find faults and will not co-operate with the production increase. I would reckon that the hardest thing in the world is to change a man’s mind from his age-long practices. There comes your skill of persuasion and that is where your meetings work and mind it these things will not be taught in your engineering courses. As a manager, you will face lot of problems and will be responsible to solve each and every problem that you encounter, after all that is why you are paid and you cannot bail out of the situation expecting serendipity.
The problems we confront are much bigger than the bugging and de-bugging that we confront with computers and all we need to do is to approach the problems pragmatically. I remember one of the weird problems I faced, when my boss heavily fired me for not utilising my resources (operators) properly as they were loitering around the shop floor and gossiping around the corridors. For the first time I lost my temper and in turn showed the same heat to my subordinates .I upbraided them and asked them if they have a brain. Though I was known as a cool headed person, my reaction at that time came on the spur of the moment purely emotional and led to a controversy and commotion, when twenty odd people clouded me and almost flayed( criticized) me asking a reason for my action. I appologised immediately before the situation became an apple of discord. The thing that I learnt from the happening was not to take any thing to the heart that too when you are in a corporate world. After all you do your work and there is no point of being vindictive. So to deal with diplomacy, the prerequisite is patience.
Though these are my own ideas about diplomacy, I will not say that the concept of diplomacy always works well. At times your decisions may not be pleasing and convincing for all, but still you have to take it irrespective of whether it is right or wrong. Of course you cannot expect diplomacy when you are a soldier fighting against your enemies in the battlefield or you don’t want diplomacy like the one between Pakistan and SWAT valley Taliban. The best example of a consummate diplomat is the Indian politician who jumps from one party to another. 

All that we mean with diplomacy is a Win-Win situation. In today’s business scenario no one is your foe, every one is seen as a lucrative asset. So all the negotiations, persuasions etc. are all centered on profitable conclusions and to clinch mutually rewarding accord. 

Who Moved My Vote?

  Indian Political parties’ alliances almost reached its culmination in Election 2009 and there were many twists and turns too. There is a triangular contest this year with UPA (United progressive Alliance) led by Congress, NDA (National Democratic Alliance) led by BJP and Third front (allegedly led by CPI(M)).Each of the parties has its own electoral strategies to cover the vote banks let it be the communal biased strategy by the NDA ,the defensive strategy by UPA or the Third front ‘s coalition strategy in the end one who covers the plebeian mass will be the victorious. This has been proved twice, earlier from the last Loksabha election in 2004 where BJP claimed the INDIA SHINING campaign which back fired them during the election results and one in Andhra where the TDP president and erstwhile Andra pradesh Chief minister Chandrababunaidu exposed Hyderabad as the biggest Hi-tech city with all the computerised facilities and shown a glorifying Andra but miserably failed to become CM in the election that followed as he has completely forgotten the rural mass of the society which had an abyss in the whole plan.
The National Democratic Alliance led by 80 year old BJP leader L.K.Advani, has taken its straight forward decision of covering the majority of votes in India and establishing the Hindutva .They deliberately tried to show themselves as a secular one during the last election, taking a completely different strategy than they used to and paid the price. And now they have turned to their true colours which are ineffaceable. If you think they do not have any scientific strategies, change your mind as they are following the Parreto’s principle of 80-20 which says that 80 % of the probems lies on 20% causes or the maximum benefits can be achieved by attacking the first 80 %.”So who cares about the 13% minority population, what we want is just the majority” is the intention of BJP. The bellicose rhetoric by L.K.Advani with Mr.Manmohansingh emulating the US pattern of election went to the peak of comedies. But some thing that greatly differs between US and India starts right from the number of parties (they have two major parties but in India there are so called two major national parties, heavily depending on infinite number of minor or state parties) to the language and communal diversification.
The current ruling party CONGRESS had made strenuous efforts to keep the coalition intact but all its efforts ended in vain when RJD, SP, PMK and some more parties came out of the alliance. But still there is every possibility to get them back, once the results are announced. After the series of bomb blasts in different parts of India and the 26/11 Mumbai attack, Congress seems quite defensive in its approach. The beleaguered Congress party, in its reign, could not give a comprehensive solution to the terrorism. Right from the start of this year, it is poll wary in all the moves it stepped in and this could be clearly visible after saying no to the IPL league in India. This decision cannot be criticized as the security to the country’s election is far more important than that of the game but still a nagging question in every Indian’s mind is that are we just too submissive to the fear of terrorism thereby assuring the West’s opinion about us. The achievements in their tenure and their strong Prime ministerial candidate (described as the weakest Prime minister by BJP leader L.K.Advani) are their clout to sweep the votes.

Third Front constitutes of CPI (M), CPI, and all the state parties BSP, AIADMK, TDP,PMK…and the list goes endlessly. Forming group of alliances and there by securing the state votes is what their strategy .BSP president Mayawati has shown clear interests in PM post and no one else had publicly stated their opinions but they all have it in their minds awaiting for the results. If the Third front wins, I presume that the government formed by them would be the weakest, unreliable and vulnerable one and one can expect a high level drama for the PM post. Once again the CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat has started his notion of Secularism and Foreign policy of India but still not worth enough to attract people’s attention. Third front’s election campaign obsessed with criticism on the ruling party and the BJP, hardly stating their initiatives for the economic growth and common welfare. By and large, I prophesy that the Third front forming a government seems bleak but still the parties in the Third front will heavily bargain when any of the two National parties tries to form the government.
The Election Commission’s stand is quite neutral. Though there were controversies between current CEC Gopalaswami and his successor Navin Chawla, their stand in this election is unanimous. This could be clearly seen by their obstinate decision against Varun Gandhi over his inflammatory speech against the minorities. This time they will go for video shooting of the election booths and lot more stunts can be expected from the Election Commission.
The candidates, nominated by the parties, were basically nominated based on four things -Cast or Religion, Political and financial clout in the area, Celebrity status and Unions. Normally the caste based nomination in the area is mandatory to cover the majority of the community votes in that area .Even the Parties those who claim themselves as secularists have nominated their candidates based on the caste. With this kind of act, the parties should not claim themselves as secularists, as it demoralises secularist principles.

Despite the growing urbanaisation , India is still covered mostly by the rural masses .Study says every fourth Indian is a city dweller ,which means still 3/4th contributes rural mass .So the magnanimous altruistic political leaders try to persuade them and the demagogic politicians try to deceive and bait them through their campaigns .The government is in their hands and it is they who have to decide.