VOX POPULI by S Kamat as Aam Admi  Issue: 235                          Date: 11.06.2018 Visit: aamadmi.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   There was no issue of the Vox Populi after the last one (Issue 234) of 21st May 2018 since I was busy watching films at the National Award Winning Film Festival 2018 25th May - 7th June and thereafter the Goa Marathi Film Festival from 8 - 10 June 2018. 29 films in 17 days. My head is still spinning and have the feeling that I am in a darkened auditorium all the time. There is a small piece on the film festivals below.    Contents: 1. Trump's Trumped Up Diplomacy & The Corporatisation of The US Presidency 2. Transgender Issue In 2018 National Award Winning​ Films 3. Health Jinx In Goan Cabinet 4. Manohar Parrikar's Dilemma 5. Why Is Manohar Parrikar Bluffing?     Trump's Trumped Up Diplomacy & The Corporatisation of The US Presidency   When news first came out about the North Korean detente and the possibility of Donald Trump meeting theIr leader Kim, one felt that for all the criticism that Trump had been facing in his Presidency, there was something in his head. Not only that the fast paced developments since the two Koreas meeting and then finalising the date and  venue of the Trump-Kim meeting, one felt that the Korean Peninsula would be de- nuclearised and finally there would be a de-escalation of tension in the region and peace would be ushered in for the Korean people. The culmination of all this was the very successful Trump-Kim meeting at Singapore on 12th June 2018. One must say here that the South Korean leader, Moon must also be given credit here for the meeting to happen. Critics have made little of the meeting calling the joint declaration very vague and short on specifics, but then these people very well know that more goes on behind the scenes at such meetings than what is disclosed publicly. Not only that for sworn enemies who were cursing each other until recently, the manner in which the meeting was conducted and that a joint declaration was at all released is a great achievement. In this summit, Trump was the one who had everything to lose if things did not turn out the way it was expected. While for Kim either way he would win since sharing the world stage with Trump and the legitimacy it implied to the North Korean government were his major takeaways whether a joint declaration was made or not or a commitment to denuclearise the Korean peninsula was made or not was immaterial. But what is to be admired is the confrontational style that Trump maintained with Kim and which finally worked. Trump has been using this style with other countries too. China has had a taste of it and under pressure was forced to open up more farm imports from the US. The G-7 too were at the receiving end recently of Trump's bare knuckled style which resulted in no joint declaration at the end of that summit and with Trump vowing to levy duties on European cars coming into the US among many other issues. This is the corporate style that Trump has brought to the US Presidency. Whether it is good or bad only time will tell. That it is unusual, there is no doubt. That it is different from the staid and rigid governmental diplomatic rigmarole is definitely true. But it seems to be working nonetheless. Shades of brinkmanship can be seen in this style reminiscent of the Cold War era to see who blinks first and winner takes all attitude. For a man slighted during the Presidential campaign of being dumb on international affairs to which Donald Trump also contributed no little with numerous gaffes, the man is turning international diplomacy on its head. He is winning upto now, let's see what the future brings in. Congratulations, Donald Trump and keep it up.   Transgender Issue In 2018 National Award Winning Films  In the recently concluded National Award Winning Film Festival 2018 25th May - 7th June here in Goa the first two days showed two films - Nagarkirtan in Bengali and Aalorukkam in Malayalam. Both films were exceptional but touched upon the transgender issue. One had thus the feeling whether this trend would continue in the subsequent films. Thankfully it was not and the later films touched upon their own regionalistic themes which were well told and presented. At one point of time the choice of these two films for the awards by Shekhar Kapoor, the head of the jury this time for the National Awards, one tended to suspect his proclivities. Also one tended to muse whether President Kovind's refusal to give away only some of the awards this year citing time issues was linked to the transgender themes since these has-been RSS shakhapramukhs are known to have strong feelings in these matters. Transgenders deserve sympathy since they are an aberration of nature but bringing them to the mainstream of society is a difficult proposition. Not only that Aalorukkam portrayed that the man after reaching 22 years recognises his dormant feminine feelings and traits and then decides to change leaving his family. This one thought was a bit far-fetched. While the Bengali movie Nagarkirtan showed that the boy from a young age knew the feminity in him and pursued that path.    ​Health Jinx In Goan Cabinet  The political scenario in Goa as we all know has been very much diseased, but apart from metaphor over the last year, the disease in reality has affected our leaders. First, it was Vishnu Wagh, who was felled by a stroke and yet to recover fully, then Manohar Parrikar, suffering from some major affliction obviously if he has to be away in the US for close to more than 3 months now, then Pandurang Madkaikar who was also a victim of a stroke and convalescing in a Mumbai hospital as we are told and lastly Shantaram Naik who succumbed to a heart attack last week. None of these persons can be called old by Indian political standards since even 40-45 year olds are called Young Turks and people in their 50’s lead the youth wings of political parties. Thus one would have to conclude that over the last year Goan politics has been jinxed on health issues, more so the present Cabinet where   it is 3 down and 9 to go. With this would any of the leaders be willing to join this Cabinet is the question uppermost in people's minds? Postscript: Come to think of it, over the last twelve months the BJP Central Cabinet has also been afflicted with major health problems. Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, senior Ministers, both underwent kidney transplants. So is there a virus affecting BJP governments? The effect that this has been having on governance is there for all to see. The banking sector crisis and its tackling one can attribute to the fact that Jaitley has not been at the helm of affairs or has not been able to give it the attention it deserves because of health issues. Recognising Sushma Swaraj's health condition, is it that Modi decided to take over the foreign affairs portfolio or is it because he has a penchant for it? Sushma Swaraj has been a cypher in the ministry dealing mostly with th3 soft issues.  Like they say, we have a government in convalescence.                                                     Manohar Parrikar's Dilemma Manohar Parrikar's dilemma in naming an interim Chief Minister are two-fold. One personal and the other political. The personal is that public figures in any field find it difficult to move away or give up their pedestals because of the ego factor, public adulation and the money. We have seen this in politics but the examples in sport are more striking like in cricket Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar were well past their Use By Date but continued to cling on to their positions until they had to be literally kicked out. The same thing is seizing Parrikar's mind now. The other thing is politically Parrikar cannot name an interim Chief Minister since he will only bring about the fall of his make-do coalition. If the BJP loses power in Goa then nationally the party's position will become weaker on the back of the inability to form a government in Karnataka and thereafter the loss in the recent bye-elections. So Parrikar is caught between the devil and the deep sea on his Saat Samundar Paar sojourn. But for a man who prides himself on taking tough decisions when it comes to issues affecting others, he seems to be chary to taking a tough decision when it comes to himself. The issue is about Goa not having anyone in charge for almost four months now and one leg of the three member Committee of Ministers absconding to Portugal for a month long vacation, the situation for the State is becoming more precarious. ​                                              Why Is Manohar Parrikar Bluffing? The newspapers last week carried news that Manohar Parrikar is in constant touch with the government and is managing his work through email and phone. Now email is a method which as someone pointed out does not confirm the identity of the sender, in the sense that it is possible for someone else to use the email account. Another thing is that email accounts are prone to hacking and this can be easily done particularly now that it is declared that email is being used by the CM. So first, should affairs of government be handled through email? Do we not have an Official Secrets Act which defines the protocol for handling government papers? Also all of us have some time or other asked the government for some information or some papers and at that time we have been told that government matters cannot be informed to all even if we are the affected party. An issue of privilege is claimed at these times. But now you share government matters through email that can be easily compromised. The other thing is that Manohar Parrikar when in Goa as CM had no time throughout the day and found 24 hours inadequate for his official work. So it is obvious now that with his resorting to only phone and email his work must be suffering or while as CM in Goa he was posturing all along, posing that he was busy! Why is there a need for all this bluff? There was also no need for the above newspaper report that everything's fine with the CM's office and not a single file is pending.  One could even say that no file is pending since all files go to the Committee of Ministers who is looking after the CM’s work. In one of my early interactions in 2003 with Manohar Parrikar he had told me that I do not understand how government works. I had responded then that I know that his government does not work. The situation it seems is continuing. Goa deserves an interim CM and if Manohar Parrikar loves Goa he should nominate someone to run the government.                                               *************************************