Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 66 Date: 24.06.2011

Contents:
1. The Bugged & The Bugger
2. The J Dey Case Takes A Twist
3. The Dichotomy in Libya & The Middle East
4. Rollback Petroleum Fuel Prices
5. Wind Up Air India
6. Two Yards of Land!

The Bugged & The Bugger

The ‘bugging’ incident at the Finance Ministry is a serious issue and it is not that finding the adhesive or ‘chewing gum’ at multiple places in the Ministry is a harmless matter. One should have a serious investigation into the issue and see whether any bugs were actually installed prior to the adhesives were found out or were proposed to be installed on the adhesive gum afterwards. One need not remind the government that the Finance Ministry handles matters sensitive to the country’s economic policies and not only that the present incumbent, Pranab Mukherjee in his position as a very important functionary of the UPA-2 government heads many EGOM’s which handle many important and critical issues related to this government’s policies which are of interest to specific groups within the country like other political parties, corporates and even foreign countries for which meetings may have been held at the Finance Ministry. The investigation into the ‘bugging’ incident therefore assumes importance in this context. The attempt first by Pranab Mukherjee to trivialize the incident saying - ‘there is nothing to it’, and then the Home Minister, P Chidambaran calling it a ‘non-event’ are only examples of this government being in denial mode. Ambika Soni, the Minister responsible added a Kafkaesque dimension to this when in her press briefing she said that the Finance Minister has said that he was not ‘bugged’ and there the matter ends. In a bugging issue do you take the opinion of the ‘bugged’ or that of the ‘bugger’ to come to any sort of conclusion on the matter. Then the Home Minister on television publicly stated that though the matter was referred to the IB which department comes under him, he was not informed about it which shows that either this government is not functioning properly or as claimed by the Opposition political parties there is a certain element of intrigue in the incident. Therefore it is in the interest of this UPA-2 government to come clean on this matter.

The J Dey Case Takes A Twist

The manner in which the investigations into the J Dey gunning-down recently are being conducted by the Mumbai police smacks of complete inefficiency and a breakdown in the apparatus by which the police are expected to protect common citizens who go about their daily lives. The police have with the intention of seeking more information into the killed crime journalist’s recent activities are understood have got into his email accounts and are scanning the same for clues. Email accounts tend to be very personal which the Mumbai police are looking at because of their inability to crack the case through their normal methodology. But the continued pressure on the Mumbai police to solve the case will mean that there will be a tendency to malign J Dey from the information the police will glean from his email accounts. Since once the victim is discredited and which a crime reporter’s email accounts will have ample information to twist and turn against the him, the general public will loose interest in the case thinking that the victim full well deserved his punishment. This is precisely what is going on now where the Mumbai police are changing their stance from the killing being a ‘hit’ job to a case of ‘personal enmity’ by the Chota Rajan gang with whom J Dey was ‘close to in the past and had recently fallen out’. This effectively puts a seal on the case and makes the lives of everyone in the police force comfortable.

The Dichotomy in Libya & The Middle East

The NATO bombing of Tripoli is getting more and more horrific with increasing number of civilian killings. However, the perspective on this taken by the NATO senior officials is rather disturbing since the same yardstick is not seemingly followed. In the case of human rights abuses done by the Libyan leader, Gaddhafi, the West of which NATO is presumed to be a part are willing to take testimony of Libyan individuals while when it comes to Libyan civilian killings arising out of their bombings, they are unwilling to take the advice of other Libyan individuals and are responding by saying that NATO has to check before it can confirm the killings. What is this double dealing all about? The bombed people can tell how many were killed and injured and not the other way around where the bombers will determine and tell you how many were killed. Is this not what we do when it comes to terrorist action when a body count is taken at the site or do we wait for the terrorists to tell us how many they have killed? Similarly when a terrorist executes a bombing, we condemn not only him but also the organization he is purported to belong and go after him and the terror organization seeking revenge. But when a group of nations like NATO gets together and attacks another country be it Libya or Afghanistan, how do we accept that their action is just and legitimate and is in the interest of civilized society? Is the process not the same and is NATO not killing innocent civilians? How can they do that? Is it because they have the fig leaf of a UN resolution to protect their shame? Something is surely wrong somewhere. Again in the same manner the NATO action in Libya as stated by their spokesmen recently is to get Gaddhafi out, start normalizing civilian life and then commence on humanitarian relief. Note that humanitarian relief in a strife-torn area is one of the objectives of NATO which is laudable but then why in a similar circumstance the naval blockade of Gaza where flotillas of relief ships are being prevented from bringing humanitarian relief to the Gaza residents. Even Hilary Clinton, the US Secretary of State has stated that the currently planned flotilla of ships planned to leave from Greece with relief material for Gaza will be stopped. Such is the double-dealing of the West where there clearly seems to be one rule for the goose and another for the gander. Why can we not remain single-minded and have a level playing field?

Rollback Petroleum Fuel Prices

The UPA government has gone and done it again. When international oil prices are falling, the prices of oil for Indian consumers are being hiked. The hike in diesel, kerosene and LPG prices announced is badly timed and clearly shows up this government as only giving excuses for putting up prices without any rational basis. Otherwise when 60 million barrels of oil is released by the Western economies, mostly the US, over the next 30 days to stabilize world oil prices which consequently have already fallen close to US$ 90 a barrel, where was the need to hike Indian oil prices? The standard plea of the government has always been the financial burden on the oil Cos. which cannot hold any water (or should we say oil!) any more since it is a well-worn excuse and the common man is tired of it. The hike in diesel prices will again fuel higher inflation which problem RBI has been battling and just last week food prices have again soared by close to more than 9%. On this aspect the government seems not to know what its different arms are doing since while one arm claims inflation is a serious problem the other arm hikes oil prices which is not only counter-productive and will only increase inflation making it all the more difficult for the economy. The hike in prices of LPG by Rs. 50/- is going to hit the home budget very badly which has been under severe pressure on account of the rising prices for food and other commodities. Thus it is time that the government rolls back the prices for LPG and have the States also cut their sales tax on diesel and kerosene so that the consumer sees no hike in their prices.

Wind Up Air India

It is time that Air India is closed down since over the years it has got involved in serious management problems which have peaked lately with every conceivable agency that they work with having a problem with them including its own staff. Like the oil Cos. not being paid their dues for which the Aviation Minister had to go beg with the Petroleum Minister to give Air India grace period of 3 months when the oil Cos. will continue supplying fuel to Air India without insisting on payment. What will happen after 3 months, the same leeway will have to be extended indefinitely since there does not seem any light at the end of the tunnel for Air India in relation to its financial problems. The Airport Authority has also not been paid along with its pilots and cabin crew as also all staff who are understood not to have got their salaries for the last 2 months. How long will Air India prolong the pain for itself? It is best to call it a day and have the Maharajah retire since he is already past 60! Air India is a burden on the tax payer and this kind of free-loading cannot be tolerated any longer. The private airlines with better management skill and access to larger resources should be allowed to take over the business. Even the position of national flag courier which is of some sentimental value but not necessarily in these modern times can be passed on to the private national airlines in a competitive manner determined by efficiency in operations and services and a sash which the successful airline will carry for three years when it is again up for grabs by any of the other airlines. Thus with this competition the services of the private national airlines are bound to improve and the tax-payer will be freed from the burden of carrying an inefficient Air India on his shoulders. It is time therefore we took a decision about winding up Air India and the time for that is now.

Two Yards of Land!

S M Krishna and Nirupama Rao on their recent visit to Burma visited the tomb of the last Moghul Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar who is reported to have penned a couplet regretting that at the time of his death he could not get even two yards of land in India. In recent times the same thing happened to the great artist, M F Hussain who straddled the Indian art scene no less than an Emperor but at the time of his death for various circumstances could not get even two yards of land in India for his burial.

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VOX POPULI

by
Aam Admi

Issue: 65 Date: 18.06.2011

Contents:
1. Of Cash Hoards & Godmen
2. Italy Drops Nuclear
3. Hark The Emergency Days Are Likely To Be Back
4. Let Not The Lok Pal Bill Constitution Committee Fail
5. 'The Unelected and Unelectable'

Of Cash Hoards & Godmen

The gold and silver and cash hoard unearthed from Sathya Sai Baba's personal quarters at Puttaparthi is stupefying. Why a self-professed godman should be surrounded by such liquid wealth is not understandable? Added to that are stories now about people who are running away by all modes of transport with lakhs and crores of cash stuffed into gunny bags from the ashram premises. All this adds up to the fact that the facade of all these godmen is but a hoax and all they are interested is material wealth and temptations. Some of these godmen succumb early into their careers falling prey to the sex urge which has been their nemesis while others are long distance marathon runners who have an eye into the future. However, it is the blind and irrational faith of the people that all these godmen exploit and that is where after these stories as above people should be wary of the promises that these godmen make. It is actually God who makes men, but funnily it is the people who make 'godmen' or 'God men'.

Italy Drops Nuclear

Following the lead of Germany to stop pursuing nuclear energy Italy in a referendum has also decided not to go in for nuclear energy which the government there will be honor bound to accept. This is in the light of the Fukushima tragedy in Japan and with the understanding that the risks of nuclear far outweigh the benefits. These are lessons that our government in India should learn and drop the pursuit of generation of power through nuclear energy. More governments abroad are likely to follow Germany and Italy including maybe the US and then we will have this anachronistic situation of buying nuclear plants from a country which does not use any for its own needs. That will be a diplomatic coup for the US which the world will applaud and at the same time congratulate India on its wisdom.


Hark The Emergency Days Are Likely To Be Back

We seem to be harking back to the days of the Emergency. What with a close look being given to Anna Hazare's trusts just because he has been able to orchestrate protests against the government over its functioning and approach towards corruption. Earlier Baba Ramdev's affairs were pounced upon when he recanted from giving up his fast for unearthing black money here and abroad. There is nothing wrong in putting any of these people under the scanner since they should know that before they raise their fingers at others, they should be clean themselves. In this regard Baba Ramdev to his chagrin found that his financial managers were not up to the mark in trying to explain his assets. Apart from that the government should play fair in this and should investigate others also involved in similar activities. This will avoid them being labelled as having gone after someone, be it Anna Hazare or Baba Ramdev. Initially the manner in which Baba Ramdev's fast at the Ramlila grounds was disbanded, was actually welcomed by the right minded citizens since we cannot have disruption of public life due to these kind of activities. Further it was necessary to show that the government would not be a silent spectator and was willing to take action when required. However, now in the background of news that further inspection of Anna Hazare's trusts are being carried out after the earlier ones in March/April,the intransigence of government and its ministers to back out from their confirmed commitment to formulation of the Lok Pal bill, the increasing mocking and derisory language being used by senior ministers against the common people, the continued silence of both the head of the Congress party and PM Manmohan Singh, one would tend to get the impression that we are being ruled by a coterie or oligarch of elected and Congress party individuals like Kapil Sibal, Pranab Mukherji, P Chidambaran, Digvijay Singh and others. Political debate had been degenerating in manner and content over the last decade or so but the level to which it has now sunk with ministers tending to use gutter language and resorting to deliberate lies in covering up the flaws of this government, mocking senior women political leaders about dancing to patriotic songs and other similar incidents leads one to believe that these people have had power go to their heads and are thus doing these things in the feeling of being secure and entrenched in their positions of power. Thus these are ripe times to consider imposing an Emergency on the nation by a weak and ineffective leadership in government on the plea of increasing public protests that it is unable to manage.

Let Not The Lok Pal Bill Constitution Committee Fail

The fact that there is emerging a great deal of divergence between the representatives of civil society on one side and the government ministers on the other side in the Lok Pal bill constitution committee is sad news. This also speaks volumes on the confrontational position taken by both parties and consequently on their lack of a broader vision in relation to their perceived responsibilities while functioning as committee members. While Anna Hazare and his team should realise that there has been considerable debate as to why only the five chosen are to be considered as representing the civil society of India which demands that they understand the validity of this premise and smoothen ruffled feathers among civil society by doing a good and emulational job on the committee. Further they should not be carried away by the fact that since the government has buckled to their initial demands, they can continue to be adamant on their positions and rub people the wrong way. The art of negotiation is in the give and take and at the end if you have more 'take' than 'give' you can consider yourself having won. Otherwise Anna Hazare and his team should realise that there was no need for the Lok Pal bill committee to have been formed since civil society could have given their draft of the Lok Pal bill and that would have become law. The very fact that a committee was formed and the Anna Hazare team joined it implies that they are willing to negotiate. Further we all know that the Lok Pal bill has been hanging fire for the last 40 years or more primarily due to the politicians, their parties and the elected members of our legislatures. Thus Anna Hazare and his team should have clearly anticipated problems while negotiating on the Committee and devised strategies to tackle these problems. This is something which they do not seem to have done. The other fact is that some of the civil society members have to rise above themselves if they have at all to understand the other perspective since activists and lawyers tend to create more problems than they solve and being in the thick of unaddressed grievances tend to develop a grievance prone attitude. This is as far as the civil society side is concerned. Now for comments on the government approach until now as far as the working of the Lok Pal bill committee is concerned. Firstly a Gazzette notification regarding the committee was issued which requires that the government give this notification the respect it deserves. And that is by ensuring that some concrete results come out of the committee deliberations. This government should understand that it has more of a stake in ensuring that a draft Lok Pal bill presentable to Parliament comes out of these deliberations since in the background of the scams and corruption scenario unveiled in the last few months, its very credibility is at stake if it at all sabotages this committee proceedings. Not only that during the fast undertaken by Anna Hazare both Sonia Gandhi and our PM Manmohan Singh have confirmed their continued intention to fight corruption and have sought to draft a strong Lok Pall bill. Where are they now? Why are they not acting to moderate the position firstly of their ministers in the committee and through them on the civil society members to arrive at a consensus? If the committee arrives at two drafts of the Lok Pall bill then it clearly shows up this government and its inability to work through conflicting views which precedent we have seen in Parliament over the last 2 years or more. This will firmly establish the suspicion that the Congress and the UPA government in the background of the midnight attack on Baba Ramdev's fast at the Ramlila grounds is not interested at all in any semblance of a democracy. Lastly, the manner in which some of the Ministers in the Lok Pal bill committee particularly Kapil Sibal have been behaving is something which does not behove the conduct of an elected representative of the people. To put it simply he should learn how to hold his tongue or someone has to compulsorily tell him to do that. It is lucky for him that our Parliamentary procedure does not have the 'call-back option' since otherwise he would have been one of the first MP's to be called back. Concluding the Lok Pal bill committee members should show a greater degree of maturity and the higher echelons of government and the Congress party leadership should intervene at proper times so that something constructive comes out of these deliberations. And the time to do that is now!

'The Unelected and Unelectable'

While going on the offensive against Anna Hazare and his team, the Congress senior leaders including Pranab Mukherji have used the phrase - 'tyranny of the unelected and unelectable'. This response can be analysed in one of two ways. The first is that the very fact that the Congress led UPA government gave in not once but twice to 'the unelected and unelectable' in the last three months means that there is either some merit in the issues taken up by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev or the Congress party particularly, since most of their UPA allies have deserted them in handling the recent agitations, must have gone soft to allow themselves to be pressurised. The second aspect is that in recent times most of the politicians by their behaviour and actions have isolated themselves from the common man so much that people have been looking for alternate leadership. Going by the recent Assembly elections particularly in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, it does not take much time for a politician to make the transition from his present status to that of 'the unelected and unelectable'. Therefore it is important that a certain amount of humility is desired from the politicians if they want to at all continue in their positions of power. As regards the Lok Pal committee constituted by the UPA government with civil society members, it is important that the government ensures that the process of consultation carries on until a satisfactory outcome is obtained since inasmuch as the civil society members will be blamed for failure of the process, the government will also be equally blamed for the debacle. The Congress and the UPA government cannot afford at this time any further erosion of its credibility and therefore it is in its interest to get a common Lok Pal bill drafted by the Committee before it is presented to Parliament.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 64 Date: 11.06.2011

Contents:

1. Agitations, Fasts, Democracy Et Al
2. Baba Ramdev’s Me-Too Fast
3. The 'Fast' Charade
4. People Who Stay In Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones At Others


Agitations, Fasts, Democracy Et Al

If one sees the drama in the national capital lately on fasting and the programs against corruption and black money led by an activist and a yoga teacher, one feels somewhat that the politicians deserve what they have got or are getting now. For sixty long years or more these politicians have been manipulating the uneducated vote and ensuring that they remain in power and also become fat on their ill-gotten gains obtained by fooling these same uneducated masses. Now two uneducated men have brought the incumbent government to heel not once but twice in the space of two months. Not only that with the crusades these people have started on corruption and black money, they have raised the hackles of the politicians. Though the government has taken action to ensure that in future they do not capitulate to fasts by disbanding Baba Ramdev’s fast, the vulnerability of this government and the politicians remain to what is perceived as people power. These are the silver linings to the dark clouds of public agitation that people should recognize. But in all this where are the educated, the majority of the middle class and the intelligentsia. They are again left out and standing on the sidelines clapping at each twist and turn of the soap operas being played out. This has been the situation ever since our democracy took shape and that is the educated middle class has been left out in the election process and in every sphere of governmental action though through the tax net it is they who contribute the majority of resources to government. Simply put the educated middle class vote does not matter and that is why they have been consistently ignored bu our political class. There are many comments about how and where this present agitation methodology will lead us. These are but the initial and tentative steps of making common citizens involved in the process of governance where earlier they were being taken for granted and therefore we should not get carried away by the euphoria. It is important that we remain rooted to the ground since the foundations of this country are in Parliamentary democracy and we cannot sacrifice it for anything. Thus the Lok Pal authority has to work within that system. Therefore the heads of the three arms of our democracy that is Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary and also the President should be kept away from the authority of the Lok Pal. In fact the Lok Pal should be given an equivalent constitutional authority as these five heads i.e. The President, Vice-President as head of the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. We should not erode the sanctity of these posts by asking questions like what would happen if A Raja or a Khoda became the Prime Minister. We can see about this as we go along since there are enough checks and balances to ensure that such things do not happen. In fact one can ask in reverse, what would happen if we get A Raja or a Khoda become the Lok Pal? Thus there is scope for endless frivolous debate. Again the Lok Pal should be accountable to someone within our system of democracy which should be ensured. Hence, let us not be obstructive and aim too high in our first approaches to formulating the Lok Pal bill with the involvement of civil society since the risks of exceeding with this process are far too large for this country and its citizens.


Baba Ramdev’s Me-Too Fast

If one compares the two fasts, that is the one that Anna Hazare did in April and Baba Ramdev’s in May 2011, there is a clear distinction between the approaches of the two. Anna Hazare has always been simplicity personified though he can be acerbic at times and was supported by professionals and intellectuals who had their own credibility. Baba Ramdev for all his popularity remains a yoga teacher out to do business and lacks the ability to reach the intellectual higher ground. His followers are a motley crowd who can be easily targeted as trouble makers like Sadhvi Rithamabara and others. Ramdev’s inner circle also lacks the ability to handle matters in a professional manner to the extent of organizing the fast with the stated objective of tackling the black money menace in the country. Firstly, with the permission taken for a yoga shibir from the Delhi Police, Baba Ramdev holds a fast. Why was the objective for the meeting not clearly spelt out? While Anna Hazare’s fast was well known to the police as a fast at Jantar Mantar and people from many walks of life looking at the simplicity joined in. Secondly, Baba Ramdev’s fast venue at Ram Lila Grounds had a 2 lakh square meter rainproof pandal with CCTV etc. along with the related sanitation and catering facilities. Who was paying for all this? Thirdly, Baba Ramdev is known to fly in an executive jet around the country and is known to run an empire extending to thousands of crores, which details have come out in the open now. In contrast Anna Hazare comes from his village in Maharasthra which stands as a testimonial to what he believes in and the trusts that he runs are nowhere in the same financial league as Baba Ramdev’s. Thus Baba Ramdev’s fast smacked of a me-too kind of routine to emulate Anna Hazare in his objectives of eradicating corruption and formulating the Lok Pal bill while Ramdev chose to campaign against black money. However, it lacked the credibility with the general public since it was perceived as an empty campaign of black money as described above chasing black money in the country with maybe the underlying intention to protect his personal black money. After that there was the immaturity of coming out with his own personal army once the fast was broken up by the government in the Ram Lila grounds. This kind of comment was unwise but it was consistent with the kind of people around him. And as far as the dispersal of Baba Ramdev and his cohorts from the Ram Lila grounds, the government had no choice since allowing Ramdev to go ahead would have meant more me-too fasts by one or the other activist resulting in more nuisance for the government. Moreover the presence of Sadhvi Rithamabara at the fast site in the first few days along with the RSS calling their members to support and join the site, gave the government enough of an excuse to disband it on the plea of law and order. Baba Ramdev continued on his fast at Haridwar where it is understood that going into the seventh day he has been taken unwell. We pray to God that he recovers but the question emerges that either yoga and fasting do not go together or that Baba Ramdev’s constitution is not strong enough since both Anna Hazare and Medha Patkar fast for days on end and definitely much more than what Ramdev did with less complications. Therefore it is best that Baba Ramdev carry on what he is good at and that is teaching yoga and build his own empires while desisting from any political and governmental ambitions.

The 'Fast' Charade

The fast charade in Delhi during these past few months is ‘fast’ turning into a pantomime routine. First it was Anna Hazare who deservedly with the support of people like Kiran Bedi, Kejriwal, Santosh Hegde and the Bhushan father-son duo announced a campaign against corruption and for the formulation of the Lok Pal bill. Not only Anna Hazare but his team members who now represent civil society in the committee which was formed to draft the bill have proven credentials in their own field. They are therefore competent to take up the ground breaking task of getting involved for the first time in independent India to draft a new legislation. These opportunities come rarely and one must also commend the government to have capitulated to the right people and at the right time in this formulation process. It has been highlighted in different forums all over India as to how are these five representing the civil society, what was the process of choosing them etc. etc. These are valid questions of propriety which the government also grappled with before coming out with the notification of the committee to draft the Lok Pal bill. Thus Anna Hazare and his committee members from civil society have an onerous job to do the right thing. If only they perform well will there be more such opportunities for civil society to get involved directly with amending the system of governance. Thus this effort should not be frittered away. It was and is known that the government and the political class as such would not be cooperative since otherwise the Lok Pal bill would not have been hanging fire for so many years now. Even Anna Hazare had mentioned this while ending his fast that this involvement in the Lok Pal bill committee is just the beginning. So Anna Hazare and his team members have to take the broader view here and not get bogged down with narrow technicalities or get perched upon some assumed hurdles. They are doing this for posterity and therefore ensuring that this process goes through is equally important as what comes out of it. We also need to remember that the draft Bill has to be piloted through Parliament where a disparate bunch of political parties and politicians will get involved to dissect it. These are necessary processes since by no means can we subvert our parliamentary democracy. Hence tremendous amount of sagacity, maturity and negotiating skills will be called upon from the members of civil society in the Lok Pal bill committee and it is the interest of the common citizens that they find these attributes within themselves at this time. After Anna Hazare’s fast we had Baba Ramdev wanting to stage a fast since he probably thought he was upstaged in this by Anna Hazare. But that me-too fast was more comical than constructive which the common man in India in any case will not accept. So let us do the Lok Pal bill first and everything else later including listening to self-styled gurus.

People Who Stay In Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones At Others

The column of Nicholas D Kristof in your edition of 3rd June 2011 is a bit insensitive to the citizens of India. To take one incident or one story and blow it up in a tasteless manner is something which is completely unacceptable. Most foreign correspondents know that in countries like India where the milieu is different sometimes stories are made up to curry sympathy and the NGO’s involved, more often than not take such advantage so that their funding is assured by overseas agencies. Thus Kristof was probably fooled into believing this story or like some foreign correspondents do, he may not be averse to concocting this out of his own imagination. But given by the fact that has been described in the story, nothing has happened yet in relation to the 10 year old girl being sold into prostitution and with a NGO already involved in it there is some action that is likely to be taken. The story mentions that the victim is a 10 year old and is at the top of her class in the 4th grade and wants to become a doctor. These are again details which go to boost the emotional content of such stories and make them more readable. To highlight this fact, we should ask ourselves how many of the children who are 10 year old end up achieving their dreams whether it is in India or the US since at both places the fees are prohibitive like in this instance of a doctor? In fact you can ask Kristof himself whether he has been able to achieve what he dreamed of as a 10 year old? Most probably he developed his liking for journalism much later.

Now as far as prostitution is concerned, we all know that it is the ‘oldest’ profession and irrespective of what you do, it is not going to go away. It is also a known fact that like in other professions where there tends to be a tradition of the baton being passed on to their progeny so also it is with prostitution. Proof of this you can get in Montmartre or the Latin Quarter in Paris, Knightsbridge and Shaftesbury Avenue in London, along the canals in Amsterdam and in every red-light district in every metropolis in this world. So what is happening in Kolkata and India is nothing new and cannot be any different from the rest of the world. But the fact that the victim in the story has been identified and there is a NGO already working on it in India, are the redeeming aspects which factor probably does not happen very often in the rest of the world like Europe and the US. As for the title of the column it is universal and could apply anywhere. In fact that there are probably more girls in the 10 -16 year old age group who take to prostitution and drugs in the US among particularly blacks than in India. In fact among girls in the US in the age group specified, it is a major problem where they run away from home either with a man or because of abuse at home or broken families. They then find themselves at the mercy of pimps who drug them and make them work as prostitutes. This then leads them downhill where ultimately the only solution is to take their own lives. The story is similar in Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and every country in the Americas and all these girls aspire to reach the US where they can earn the greenbacks. Thus is there no woman trafficking in the United States and the rest of the Americas? Even in Europe it is a major problem with girls from behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain being trafficked to European countries and the US to work as prostitutes. In fact in Goa, India we have Russian and Uzbek girls involved in prostitution. If one takes the percentage of the number of such women against the population then in India and the sub-continent the problem is much less than in the Americas or in Europe.

What is disappointing about the column is that it has a voyeuristic streak in it and a tendency to derive pleasure and to salivate at the cost of the victim, the community and the nation - India. This is what is wrong. Moreover in all such news that the Western media touches upon from the developing world there is also a tendency to feel puritanical by the West and get a strange joy in seeing the filth, the poverty and the varied values that are practiced in this part of the world. One wonders why Western media does not touch upon this problem in their home countries the region they are in as also their allies in Europe rather than come across and do a piece on India and South Asia. Thus it would be best that Western media channels set their house in order before training their sights to other parts of the world where there are more compelling reasons like poverty which is the main reason why this kind of thing happens. Given below are a number of incidents from the West in the last few months which actually horrify the people living in India and this part of the world about the moral values and culture of people who call themselves civilized but continue to act like savages. Therefore it is best that people like Kristof and his kind concentrate according to the old adage that – People who Stay In Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones At Others, and set their house in order first before looking elsewhere. In fact doing such stories nearer their home base will serve a dual purpose of reforming their own society and also be more cost effective for their employers.

List of Sexual Indiscretions From The West As Reported In The International Press In The Last Few Months:

- Anthony Weiner, US Democratic Congressman promotes his underwear and what lies beneath to multiple young women.

- Arnold schwarznegger (Arnie) fathers a child by his housekeeper obviously a compensation for services demanded and rendered.

- Dominique Straus Kahn (DSK) on the rampage in a New York downtown hotel and while trying to abscond from the US kept groping women right from the hotel to the NY airport and onto the Air France plane until the NY police detectives picked him up. He is is reported to be an old and experienced offender. It is learnt from reliable sources, that he has been at it for more than a decade, like the saying - The Leopard Never Changes Its Spots.

- Child Abuse in Austria and Belgium covering incest, pedophilia and murder.

- Catholic Church abuses by clergy covering the entire world but more in Belgium, Ireland and in the US.

- 2 children locked in, one in a car in Italy who died and the other in a cupboard in a UK hospital because it was crying! Reported in the last two weeks in the press.

- The West, notably the US has the largest adult porn industry which even in times of recession has been growing. Showing that fornicating during times of stress and in the face of unknown danger (like in the months after 9/11 the US adult porn industry growth rocketed) is good for a healthy body and psyche.

- If you want more like the above, please feel free to ask and I will be happy to provide the same.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 63 Date: 04.06.2011

Contents:

1. The Developing World Is the Testing Ground for the West’s Armaments
2. Respect Nature & It Will Respect You
3. Lopsided US Foreign Policy & Unnecessary Intervention
4. Emulate Germany's Example of Saying No to Nuclear Energy
5. Effective Use of Non-Conventional Energy

The Developing World Is the Testing Ground for the West’s Armaments

In Libya the British have deployed their new Apache attack helicopters to try these out against a real enemy. In the same way for a ‘good’ cause the US used their new stealth helicopters in Operation Geronimo to kill Osama Bin Laden. With one of the helicopters developing a problem the Navy Seals destroyed it in the Abbottabad compound not wanting it to get into Pakistan and thus China or other nation’s hands. The number, thus of new weapons, equipment and armaments, that have been experimented with, in the successive military interventions of Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya by the West has been stupendous. In fact these battle zones have been the proving grounds not only for war equipment but also for soldiers since a turn of duty in these countries makes them war-ready which they will probably never see in their home countries. Thus there is an underlying vested interest among the developed nations like the US, UK and the NATO alliance to have wars sustaining in any part of the world, mostly the developing world, so that they can be the proving grounds for their men and equipment. And what do these men and equipment kill but soldiers who are not even one-third as well equipped as them or unarmed civilians in the war-zone countries. And inspite of this superiority the West remains in these war-stricken countries decades at a time showing that training and equipment are not the stuff that wins wars but what is inside the head, morale and commitment, and knowledge of topography and local conditions which makes the difference to a winning combination. Supporting this underlying vested interest is the military-industrial conglomerates of the West which design and engineer conflicts and ensure that they sustain so that they can reap profits year by year irrespective of the human cost that these conflicts entail.

Respect Nature & It Will Respect You

The current E-coli problem in Germany where the situation has got so confused whether the problem is relating to cucumbers or bean sprouts or in the hygiene of some restaurant is a clear sign of how nature hits back at you for interfering in its mechanisms which are more often than not self-balancing. If one analyses then it is only in the developed world that you see these problems surfacing and then expanding in its severity and coverage in a short span of time and also leading to delays in finding a solution to the problem. The latest in this charade is that the E-coli outbreak is being blamed as a terror strike. This kind of thing has been seen earlier with the mad cow disease which originated in the UK and spread around the world leading to banning off beef exports from the UK and from each country which successively got involved in the disease chain. Finally the problem was found related to the feed of the cattle which was being boosted by certain ingredients which caused the mad cow disease. The desire to engineer livestock to obtain better yields like of milk or higher weight in the case of cattle or pigs or other birds and livestock is at the root of this problem. In France liver ‘pate’ is a delicacy and the ducks or goose are given feed which leads to enlarged livers thus assuring bountiful ‘pate’! One wonders whether the French or those who partake of this delicacy ever think of the condition of the birds? Thus the E-coli strain in Germany has gone similarly out of hand since the attempt has probably been to engineer nature. In contrast if one sees of any of these problems in the rest of the world, the impact on the human population is comparatively much less be it from avian flu or H1N1 which the West claims originated in Asia more specifically China. This argument is true except for China where again akin to the West there is a practice to engineer feeds for not only livestock and birds but also for sea food which are also injected with antibiotics to make them proof of any disease but which upon ingestion affects humans. Thus mankind should respect nature and not play around with it since one way or another or at some time or another or at some place or another it will hit back at mankind. This is precisely why we have global warming and a little care at the proper time could have gone a long way to saving this planet for posterity.

Lopsided US Foreign Policy & Unnecessary Intervention

The Yemeni President Saleh after being wounded in last week’s rebel attack was taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment just like ex-President Mubarak after the revolution in Egypt. It was Saudi Arabian troops, trained in the UK, that marched into Bahrain to quell the rebellion there. It was Saudi Arabia also from where Osama Bin Laden sowed the seeds of Al Qaeda and from where it is rumoured that he got the maximum funds. Saudi Arabia is again a strong ally of the US. Hosni Mubarak with a US$ 70 Billion stash from his tenure as Egypt’s President was a strong ally of the US until they found the revolution in Tahrir Square something that they could not ignore and switched sides to ‘promote democracy’. The US was giving US$ 3 Billion annually to Egypt in aid while Mubarak was around which has now been reduced to US$ 1 Billion with the interim military government in charge. Thus if you see it is the US and Saudi Arabia which have continued to patronize dictatorial and repressive regimes in the Arab region and the ret of the world. The reason that the US is doing this in the Middle East is to humour Saudi Arabia their largest assured supplier of oil in the region and therefore it seems there is no consistent policy of the US towards this region. In Libya under the shelter of a UN resolution the US & NATO support armed intervention where the number of people killed in the rebellion does not exceed very much those that have died or are dying in similar circumstances in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain but the US & NATO do not intervene in these countries. One needs to ask also where the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon is hiding now when the turmoil is peaking in Syria and Yemen since he was hyperactive when it came to Libya and went all out, undoubtedly prodded by the West, to protect innocent Libyans! In Libya, however, the NATO forces have been bombing the city of Tripoli on one pretext or another and razing it to the ground along with raids on Brega as well as Misrata . The achievement of the objective of protecting civilians as mandated by the UN resolution seems to be by ‘bombing’ them. In the same manner the strife in Libya has caused a great amount of difficulty to both sides, Gadhafi’s as well as the rebels, and there are problems related to medical services, food availability as reported in the visual and print media. In the meanwhile the rebels in Libya have started fragmenting into small groups among themselves which do not speak in one voice and have also been forming vendetta gangs to take revenge against those employed in Gaddhafi’s government and particularly the security and police apparatus. These have been notably in the rebel held city of Benghazi where these vendetta killings have been reported. Thus where an internal problem within Libya could have been allowed to be sorted out by themselves, we have had the deliberate involvement of multiple nations and military alliances like NATO getting involved which have only aggravated and complicated the crisis. This has also resulted in a higher loss of human life than if it were to be handled as an internal problem. Will the West learn from these lessons and cease and desist from interfering in the affairs particularly of weaker nations?

Emulate Germany's Example of Saying No to Nuclear Energy

The German government’s plan to close down all nuclear power generation by 2022 is a very progressive step for the benefit of that country’s citizens and is a beacon for the rest of the world to emulate. As Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor put it – ‘We want the electricity of the future to be safe, reliable and economically viable. The events in Japan have shown us that even things that seem all but impossible scientifically can in fact happen.’ These are the words of a stateswoman who is conscious of her responsibility towards her citizens. These are the words that we in India should heed. If Germany can look at shutting its 17 nuclear reactors and depend upon the savings that they can obtain by better managing the wastage from electricity generation by conventional means and from generating electricity by non-conventional methods, what stops India from following in the same footsteps and keeping the safety of its citizens paramount. India surely wastes more power through its transmission and distribution systems than Germany and therefore the scope to save in India is more. By current estimates close to 25 – 30% of electrical power by national average is wasted through our networks. Does that not then dwarf the existing 3% of nuclear power generation in the country and make the target of having 20% of electrical power by nuclear power achievable just by savings from conventional power generation alone? But our Prime Minister does not seem to understand this and still harps on backing the nuclear power option. In addition he asks the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to develop the ‘best’ protection systems in the world. Now this is a technology area and does India have the resources and the technology to build the ‘best’ protection systems in the world? Did Japan not build by their standards the best protection systems for their nuclear plants like at Fukushima which were proved fruitless against the humungous forces of nature? Have we in India built any ‘best’ practice systems in the world in any area that we should now believe the PM that in the nuclear area we will have the ‘best’ protection systems in the world? These are only hyperbole that the PM is resorting to so that our citizens are hoodwinked. Then the measures to tackle a radiation accident in the event it occurs in India are indeed laughable. This involves providing 1000 police stations radiation monitoring devices since the police are the first agency to be informed about accidents. Now without belittling our police in any way, where is the training for them to understand and use such equipment? This will be required before they can even recommend any protective action to our citizens in the event of an accident. Do they have the requisite education or even the capacity to understand such mattes? What is the track record of our police stations in storing equipment to ensure that they remain functional when required at the time of accidents? These radiation meters at the police station will be rusted and non-functional by the time we have an accident. More importantly what our leaders and nuclear policy makers do not understand is that radiation is something that you cannot see. If you can see something like even a poisonous gas cloud you can think of taking avoidance measures. But with radiation since the danger is invisible there is no way that our citizens will even know why they are dying. And what will the police or the NDMA teams do equipped with radiation meters except tell our people – Now because the reading on this is so high, you will certainly die. It will only bring the certainty of death that much more nearer and that is precisely the reason why India should give up nuclear energy. We have had Chernobyl, we have had Three Mile Island and now we have had Fukushima and we do not want to have another Jaitapur or another Kaiga or another Rana Pratapsagar or what have you. We should not pay any heed to our nuclear fraternity of technocrats since they are an interested party and will only plug for nuclear power by hiding its shortcomings. Even for another of the nuclear power plants proposed near Bhavnagar people have risen in protest since fertile lands are being taken away to build the plant which was not what was stated sometime back when it was said that farmer’s livelihoods would not be destroyed for the sake of projects. Will the government keep its word on this and desist from nuclear power generation entirely?

Effective Use of Non-Conventional Energy

There are latest techniques for generation of solar power by having the panels float on water. For countries like India this technique should be interesting since it would allow less of water evaporation and also not have valuable land being wasted with the solar panels sitting on them. If we cover our dam reservoirs with solar panels we can have power generation both by hydel as well as solar power at the same place and make better use of the power transmission system that are already in place at the dam sites. Even for localized generation of power where lakes or rivers are available proximate to human settlements and are not being used for other purposes like river traffic or for ferries, the water surface can be covered by solar panels and thus generate electricity. Another important finding that is coming out now in relation to non-conventional energy is that natural gas which was thought to have a lower pollution footprint than coal and oil is shown to have a higher footprint when overall aspects are considered meaning from the extraction of natural gas to its final use at gas burning power plants or at end user locations like households in the West where it is being used for heating purposes. The reason for this is that natural gas consists of methane mostly which leads to more global warming than carbon dioxide when it is released in the atmosphere since though its dissipation capacities are higher than carbon dioxide, it tends to trap more heat than carbon dioxide. Additionally when methane gets mixed with some of the aerosol chemicals in the atmosphere then these properties contributing to higher heat trapping multiply. In the extraction process it is unavoidable to stop gas leaks from the shale/gas fields and thereafter in its process of extraction, then piping it to finally burning it at the power plants. The overall carbon footprint of natural gas is seen to be thus much higher than even for conventional coal burning power plants. Therefore natural gas as a fuel source is being looked at seriously and whether it should be continued to be focused upon as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels like coal or oil.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 62 Date: 28.05.2011

Contents:

1. A Tale of Misplaced Libido
2. Taking Care of Children
3. Stand Up To The Americans
4. FDI In Retail Will Not Solve Inflation Woes
5. PM's Wasted Sojourn To Africa
6. Barkha Dutt Continues On NDTV!


A Tale of Misplaced Libido

The beleaguered ex- head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK) is understood to be getting a high profile defence team ready to get him out of the hole that he has managed to get himself into in sexually attacking a chambermaid at the New York hotel that he was staying at. The basis of the defence is rumored to be that the sex with the maid was consensual. However, this does not seem to be the story coming from the victim. And neither are the various stories coming out about DSK extraordinary attempts in the past to satisfy his libido. Given the powerful and privileged person that DSK is, the attempt will be to browbeat the chambermaid to accept the defence’s plea and say that the act was consensual. But this must not go the way just like one of DSK’s juniors at the IMF with whom he is rumoured to have had an affair and which fact was overlooked by the IMF board while appointing DSK to the post and who has recently come out with the charge that she was forced into the affair given the authority that DSK wielded within the IMF organisation. In a similar manner the chambermaid should not get overawed by the position that DSK used to enjoy and which she has now become aware after the incident and let the man pay for his indiscretions. Justice in this case should be shown to have been done by the US courts. Thus in this context getting a high-profile defence team may not be the answer for DSK’s problems while plea bargaining could save him a lot of money. Concluding, it is reliable learnt that the female contender for the head of the IMF again from France has stipulated a mandatory condition to her accepting the post and that is that she would stay only in hotels with male housekeeping staff! Viva Libido! Viva la France!

Taking Care of Children

There have been three instances in the last two weeks of children mostly of toddler age and below which have resulted in the deaths of two of these children. In both these cases which ended in fatalities, one in Italy and the other in Selangor in Malaysia, the children were left in cars the first for three days and in the other case a few hours in the blazing sun while the father went to attend a funeral. In the third case an attendant in a hospital in the UK shut a crying child into a cupboard to shut it up and was made to release the child in a reasonably short time which probably prevented the child from choking to death. Such is the track record of how children are treated in foreign countries and these are the countries which lecture us on how to handle our children on issues related to abuse and child labor. At least in our countries children are free to the extent that their parents can afford to allow them and are looked after to the best of their ability by their parents. It is very rare that in India children are neglected since the concept of family remains at the root of our culture which abroad is an alien thought.

Stand Up To The Americans

Prithviraj Chavan, the Maharasthra CM in his interaction with the US Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano during her visit to Mumbai is understood to have been seeking assistance in security for the city. What makes our politicians start begging for favours the moment they see their white-skinned counterparts is something that one can never fathom? We have been an independent nation for more than sixty long years and by all reasonable estimates we should be able to take care of ourselves. In fact given the manner we handle or do not handle our security would shock US officials that we as a country proximate to the most active terror node in the world in Pakistan remain active and functional. This has to be particularly said for Mumbai city which has seen three major terror incidents in the last fifteen years. If it were to be handled by the US or any of their Western allies Mumbai would have been shut down for months and life for the ordinary citizen would have been made intolerable with very restrictive security. This is what Homeland Security has done for the US post 9/11 and many people are just keeping quiet about the restrictions since it is the interest of the country. In being resilient and tough one must doff one’s hat to the people of Mumbai who have bounced back each time they have faced insurmountable challenges. That is what has to be complimented by our leaders and those coming from abroad. And that precisely is what the West should learn from us and not we from them when it comes to living with terror. Janet Napolitano should have been asked for services support in the event of terror like handling and analyzing forensic evidence and the like, support with access to information related to international operators like David Headley etc. It was not only Prithviraj Chavan but also our Home Minister, P Chidambaran who tended to speak obliquely while saying – ‘We live in the neighbourhood of the epicenter of terror’. Face the situation squarely, Mr Chidambaran, call it Pakistan like they across the border do not pussy-foot but call India all kinds of names whenever a terror incident happens It is only when you face a situation face to face are you able to solve a problem. Also with Janet Napolitano the matter of the two-facedness of the US with regard to sharing information relating to terror should have been taken up. David Headley has been known to the US for quite some time now to have been involved with the Mumbai 26/11 terror incident but despite promises right up to the level of President Obama that India would get access to him, the access to Headley for India law enforcement authorities has been quite limited. That is the reason why both Chidambaran and Pranab Mukherji in their meetings with Janet Napolitano had to again seek access to him which has been once again ‘promised’ after the ongoing Rana trial in Chicago. The US plays multiple games when it comes to such situations with Headley being rumoured to have been a DEA agent and then a CIA double agent and having turned approver in the Rana trial being entitled to witness protection under which he will be given a completely different identity and post-trial we may not even know where Headley has been hidden by the US authorities. Again the US in the sub-continent has got into the habit of dealing in a double and triple-bluff manner with its interactions with Pakistan and tends to look at India also through the same lens without realizing that we tend to be more honest and open and maybe also dumb in our interactions. That precisely is another area where we need to play hard-ball with the US so that we can extract what we need to keep our country and our citizens safe.

FDI In Retail Will Not Solve Inflation Woes

Kaushik Basu, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India is on a sabbatical from a US university, probably Cornell, while performing his duties in India. It is unfortunate that he is unable to forget his US links while deciding or formulating economic policy for India. Whatever he proposes has some link to favouring US interests. Like the current statement of his that unless FDI comes into multi-product/brand retail, inflation may be difficult to control. He has gone completely bonkers and where the focus should be on the supply side to manage things better like improving production, storing it better, reducing wastage and spoilage when it comes to perishable products like fruits and vegetables, he concentrates on downstream activities like retail which has no ability to control prices and in fact, has vested interests to keep the inflation flag flying more vigorously since then it makes more money. Whether this profit is made by the corner commodity shop or kirana store or by the departmental store, the attitudes in this regard remain the same. Why is he doing this? Because retail giants like Walmart are waiting in the wings to get a share of the Indian citizen’s throat. There are many of the local retailing chains, like Subiksha, Vishal and others, which have fallen by the wayside for one or the other constraints which chains like Walmart should note and factor in before coming in to India. Organised retailing in India has suffered from the bad reputation of selling shoddy products, products at close to their expiry dates, lack of friendliness when it comes to exchange etc. while the only clear advantage that they offer is multi-product/brand availability under a single roof. Moreover it is understood that the committee which went into the above did not have representatives from all interest groups. Yet another instance of the government and Basu telling us that we know what is good for you. As for Kaushik Basu another problem that he has is lack of familiarity with the Indian way of doing things. Some time back he came up with yet another wrong focus and that related to corruption where he wanted to make the bribe receiver only liable to criminal action while exempting the bribe giver as is prevailing currently in our laws. This he thought will make more people report bribe takers which is not necessarily true since in fact it will work the other way and corruption will only increase since bribe giving will increase now that it is exempt and the bribe taker is in any case taking the risk of going to prison being in the nature of a man-eating tiger, once having had the taste of blood will continue to be rapacious. The manner to tackle corruption is not by playing around with it on a legal basis or by amending laws but by extracting it from its roots and throwing it out. That is what Kaushik Basu should understand apart from the fact that India is different, complex and difficult to handle than the US.

PM's Wasted Sojourn To Africa

The PM’s Africa sojourn should recognize that China has been very active in this region and it is their sphere of influence now. While India is talking presently of US$ 5 Billion in terms of aid for all the African nations on her list, China happens to give that kind of money to just one country where it has economic interests be it in oil or mining. Thus India’s situation is like that we see near a temple where you have taken your small change to give alms when a Mercedes Benz comes and stops at the temple gates and all the beggars run towards the car leaving you wondering whether your compassion is well placed. Thus India has for various reasons squandered the legacy of goodwill that it had built in Africa over the years. Today India is no longer regarded as a power-house be it in economic or moral terms and even Africa has been changing and therefore it is best that we attempt helping it only where the nations there actively seek our help. Otherwise the resources that we allocate them now are better spent in promoting and stabilizing our products in the developed world.

Barkha Dutt Continues On NDTV!

When the 2G scam first broke and the Ratan Tata – Neera Radia tapes had surfaced, there was talk that Barkha Dutt of NDTV was also involved in the behind the curtain machinations in the cabinet making process of the UPA-2 coalition government. While Neera Radia was hauled up before the JPC and there is news of her being investigated by the ED for money laundering relating to some foreign investments in the Cos. she runs, no action seems to have been taken by the authorities or by her employers in the case of Barkha Dutt. In the same category Veer Sanghvi lost his status as a respected and influential columnist and was summarily removed from his position as the editor of a leading national daily for having put out editorials which smacked of the ‘paid news’ malady since his employers felt that their reputation would be sullied with his continuance. It is surprising that no such sentiments were felt by Barkha Dutt’s employers and though she was off air for some time after the scandal broke, she is coming back with her programs more and more now that her ‘lying low period’ is over. Does she still carry the same credibility that she used to carry before her involvement in the above matters is something that NDTV needs to assess after looking at the TRP ratings of her programs? NDTV will not have any problem it is felt without Barkha Dutt in their line-up.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 61 Date: 21.05.2011

Contents:
1. If you pay peanuts, you will only get monkeys!
2. Review Petrol Price Hike
3. Leave Pakistan Alone, Let It Self-Destruct
4. Demonstrations are A Healthy Sign of Dissent
5. Our Pakistan Policy
6. The Squint Eyed Approach Of Western Media While Looking at The Developing
World
7. The Iqbal Kaskar Shooting Case In Mumbai

If you pay peanuts, you will only get monkeys!

There is a tendency in India to dumb down debates and feel very elevated about it. This is being said in the context of Jairam Ramesh’s comments that teachers at our IIT’s and IIM’s are not world-class but our students at these institutions are world class. The repartee has been to ask Jairam Ramesh whether our politicians are world class. There can be nothing more dumber than that since world over the politician’s are the same class or breed like here of trying ways and means to fill their pockets any which way they can. Cases relating to the UK politicians making money on their second homes and on other expenses where even our eminent Lord Swraj Paul was caught with his hand in the till are examples. The Illinois Governor removed from office for corruption having asked for money to fill Barrack Obama’s empty Senator seat after he became President. In France you have had even Prime Ministers hauled up in court for corruption like Jacques Chirac. Thus we should look at what Jairam Ramesh’s comment implies rather than dismiss it off-handedly with a retort. The fact remains that IIT and IIM teachers are paid less even after the last raise compared to what they deserve or can get in private industry if they look for other jobs. Because the salaries are low the IIT and IIM’s are not able to attract good teachers and therefore all these institutions are heavily short staffed as on date. The teachers who remain are those who stay put for reasons other than salary. Thus the point is hike the salaries of the teachers to world class and then you will get world class teachers. If you pay peanuts, you will only get monkeys!

Review Petrol Price Hike

Pranab Mukherji has ruled out a roll-back of the hike in petrol prices which saw a rise of Rs. 5/- per litre. This was done at a time when world prices after scaling a peak about a month back were on the way down. On the back of the price rise the margins for the petrol pumps was increased resulting in a further small increase of the price to the consumer. We all know that taxes and duties comprise the major component of the price of petrol and diesel that we see at the petrol pump outlets amounting in some States to as high as 54%. With prices for fossil fuels expected to keep rising the government should start reviewing the taxes and duties it charges so that the burden on the end consumer is lessened. Since the taxes and duties are charged on ad valorem or % basis each time the petrol prices goes up the government automatically earns more revenue. Moreover fossil fuel prices will continue to keep rising over the long term considering it is a depleting resource. This breaks the back of the ordinary citizen already at the receiving end of an all-round increase in prices of all items of daily use. The rise in petrol prices will again spur a further price rise. Therefore there is an immediate need to cut down on the excise and customs duties on fossil fuels and its related products and at the same time have the States reduce the sales tax that is charged on petrol and diesel. This will bring the prices of fuel to at least close to what is prevailing internationally. Since the prices are so high in India compared to that in the rest of the world we have people smuggling in diesel through oil tankers which lie off the Mumbai coast and sell this diesel to petrol pumps in Mumbai at Rs. 25 – 30 a litre after buying it at Rs. 8 – 12 per litre from incoming ships. Considering the price of diesel in Mumbai the pumps and the diesel mafia all stand to make a lot of money. The Mumbai police are aware of this and have raided one of these tankers in the last week. Thus the government should at least adopt an approach to cap its revenue recovery, any international price rise of oil after that benchmark should be revenue neutral to the government and only the marginal increase should be passed on to the end consumer. This way at least the burden on the common citizen for an item of daily use will be lessened. Though a long term position would be preferable where the government reduces its taxes/duties on fossil fuels to the bare minimum targeting that we should supply Indian consumers at prevailing international prices. It would also be in the interest of transparency indicate a multiplier to arrive at domestic fuel prices for the prevailing international price of oil. A leading national daily had come out with a suggestion on similar lines which can be at least seriously looked at by this government which makes it a habit of saying – No more often than it has said – Yes, unless it is forced to.

Leave Pakistan Alone, Let It Self-Destruct

The escalations of terror attacks post-OBL killing in Pakistan are on the rise which was expected considering the retaliation of the terror groups owing allegiance to Osama Bin Laden (OBL) and the Al Qaeda. Apart from this there were other terror groups within Pakistan which were upset with the fact that the US conducted an operation within the country without telling the authorities and were construing this as a need to up the tempo of anti-US activities and also against the incumbent government in Pakistan perceiving it as weak and/or a US collaborator. Even beyond that Pakistan is known to be the home of terror and there have been, even other than revenge against the OBL operation, many terror attacks over the last few months. The increased tempo of these attacks now is the wave which will take Pakistan into achieving criticality and self-destruct itself on the altar of terror. Thus this situation in Pakistan has serious implications for India. The reason for this is that for anything that happens in Pakistan which is not to their liking, they blame India for it. Even the latest terror attack on the Pak naval base PNS Mehran near Karachi was thought to be engineered by India in initial reactions and even the OBL operation by the US was thought to be at first an Indian attack. Elevating thoughts for India’s military ego indeed but we should not get carried away with it. While Pakistan is going through this self-destruct phase, we should have our alert on our borders increased and try to seal them as much as possible. The reason for this is that the only way Pakistan can divert its citizens and the world from its problems is by launching an attack against India which has also given it a ‘no-first use’ assurance for its nuclear weapons. Thus you have a compliant enemy like India amenable to be attacked. So which country like Pakistan will let go of this opportunity. The other thing is that while our government and its intelligence agencies (that is if any intelligence is still left in them going by recent happenings!) are keeping a watch on Pakistan our media should adopt a ‘business-as-usual’ approach with Pakistan and not give too much coverage to the incidents there and particularly not have panel discussions with one or the other Pakistani leader/NGO/scribe or whatever. The reason for this is one thinks that we are giving too much importance to Pakistan and if we ignore them through our media they will be put in their place. More than that is whichever Pakistani comes onto Indian TV seeks some concessions or resorts to posturing while at the same time hiding the real facts in their home turf. Let Pakistan perish without our meddling into it and mind you they are also capable of that and it will be a good thing for India and the rest of the world.

Demonstrations Are A Healthy Sign of Dissent

There have been over the last week street demonstrations in Spain and the Czech Republic against the economic policies of their respective governments. The streets in Madrid and Prague were overfull of people venting their ire against the policies which has led to rising unemployment, less economic opportunities and a dismal future. Similar demonstrations were held over the last year many times in Greece which also has had an economic collapse and had to seek a bail-out for their overspending policies from the EU and the IMF. These people eruptions in Greece have at times turned violent and the police have had to resort to caning and also use tear gas. Does all this not show that democracy is not working? Does this not show that the existing government system is failing the people? Why then are we not declaring these countries as failures? Why are we not sending the posse of Western cowboys and dislodge their present leaders since clearly they have lost their mandate to rule? We do not do that, why? Because the protests are ublicizi the government are ublicizi and with ublicizi means they will arrive at a co-operative solution to make the system work. Now consider the case of the Arab uprisings be it in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Tunisia or Egypt, we have seen various degrees of protest and also various methods in dealing with it. While some had their soldiers shoot at the demonstrators, others had their armoured carriers and tanks in force to mow down the opposition/rebels who also were carrying arms. While still others like in Libya where in the perception of the rulers things had gone out of hand and there were more areas of the country under the demonstrators or rebel control, they had the heavy artillery try to eliminate opposition. Thus each country according to its leadership, the extent of the problem at hand will use methods as known to them. There is nothing wrong with this since appropriate to their culture this is what both the government authorities and the demonstrators expect to happen. The problem comes when the West starts feeling that we know what’s wrong in your country and we will tell you the solution! That is when people in the problem country start taking sides and the West utilizes this opportunity to split the country wide open and encourage dissent. Not only that the West then layers its own cultural yardsticks and standards on the problem country and finds everything wrong which is more than enough justification to persist with the interference. This is when the problems in the disturbed country escalate and you have complete chaos and eruptions which go completely out of hand like we see now in Libya and Syria. Thus the best way is to respect the sensibilities of each nation around this world understand their culture and work within that to find a solution. More importantly give time to the problem country for a solution to emerge and not give meaningless deadlines as the West tends to give without knowing the complexity of the background and the ground reality. Take the recent example of Sudan where the people of the country under a referendum decided to split the country in a North South orientation. But the problem was that an oil rich region in South Sudan was near this new border and for control of which there is likelihood of a war between the newly formed nations. Thus just belligerently pushing for referendums, elections and elected governments which the West professes will bring in democracy are sometimes not always the route to take since they will not be sustaining unless there is some understanding of the underlying framework within the country and whether this new democratic arrangement or system would work there. Therefore patience is a watchword even in international relations and the adage of – Haste Makes Waste, also applies in this sphere.

Our Pakistan Policy

The Pakistani fixation in the Indian psyche is so entrenched that it has always led to contradictory and self-defeating postures that are taken by our Indian governments. This is more so with the current government where the last words they know are probably consistency and steadfastness. Post 26/11 the very correct stand was taken vis a vis Pakistan that all contact would be curtailed until Pakistan plays ball on the 26/11 investigations. This was followed one must say with great purpose until the Sharm Al Sheikh meeting between the two countries where Manmohan Singh allowed Gilani to get away with the insertion of Balochistan in the joint communiqué. Then at various stages particularly in the last six months India has been blowing hot and cold on the relationship with Pakistan. At Thimphu, one does not know for what reason but both PM’s agreed to resume the bilateral dialogue though they recognized that 26/11 would continue to be a thorn unless it was not satisfactorily addressed. This was followed by the cricket diplomacy at Mohali when again Gilani came for the World Cup semi-final match. Why these initiatives are taken when there is no corresponding response from the Pakistani side is something that cannot be understood? Pakistan continued to play its normal abrasive character while at the same time extracting whatever concessions it could from India in these named initiatives. Then came the US Navy Seal operation at Abbottabad where Osama Bin Laden was killed. Immediately after that we had our Army Chief of Staff, Gen. V K Singh blurt out that India was capable of such action which was nothing but a comment akin to rattling empty scabbards. This got a retort from the Pakistan Army that if India even attempted such action they were more than capable of responding with attacks against denominated Indian targets which were not only pre-decided but that they had run trials on this plan. Now you will see that what was essentially a US-Pak issue became converted to a Pak-India issue allowing the ever agile Pakistani chameleon to slither away from being a US target. Did Gen. V K Singh not have the understanding to expect this? Has he also not heard about the idiom that – Let Barking Dogs Lie? Has he not also heard that sometimes – Silence is Golden? Does he not know that any inopportune or hasty action against Pakistan would lead to a nuclear conflagaration in South Asia? Thus once again we showed clearly a lack of maturity to unnecessarily incite Pakistan and gave them the opportunity to escape from getting drawn and quartered by the US. Surprisingly immediately after the Abbottabad incident our Foreign Ministry and the PM were strangely silent though the PM later welcomed the killing of Osama. And then we complain that Pakistan is acting acerbic to us. It is because it knows that we are very much muddle headed in our response to them and they can, like they say, get away with murder. We followed all this up with asking firstly for Dawood Ibrahim and the 26/11 planners to be extradited and then gave Pakistan a flawed list of 50 criminals/terrorists hiding in Pakistan. This is a very much a confused strategy of playing tough after the thaws at Thimpu and Mohali and smacks of a rushed ‘me-too’ approach on the back of the US’ pressure on Pakistan to come clear on its having sheltered terrorists like Osama Bin Laden. That Pakistan is a haven for terrorists is well known and by their own admission where they say that the maximum number of terrorist have been killed in their country since that is where they grow and take shelter. Almost every single terror act in the world has a person of Pakistani origin involved in it. Thus India has to take a tough stand and maintain it with Pakistan irrespective of SAARC or cricket or whatever since we also know that the political establishment has no weight in Pakistan and it is the Army who calls the shots and which is inimical to India. Will we learn from this? God only knows and only time will tell.

The Squint Eyed Approach Of Western Media While Looking at The Developing World

Last week one of the segments covered in the CNN news program – The Brief, covered the issue of woman trafficking in India and the sub-continent specifically Nepal. This is not to negate that nothing like this exists in India but surely not to the extent as portrayed by the reporters and the anchors of the program. Prostitution has been the oldest profession and will remain like that irrespective of whichever way the governments manage it. These urges are reflected in the incidents that have recently rocked the media in the US where Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF has been accused of assaulting and raping a chambermaid at his New York hotel and was apprehended while trying to flee the country. The other incident is that of Arnold Schwarznegger, who had to separate from his wife of 25 years over fathering a love child, a boy of 14 years, with one of his housemaids who just left employment last year from their household. If at this level you have such incidents, and these are not the only ones, then where poverty is rampant and the sexual urges are the same and partners are difficult to get, men will try to work out every stratagem in the book. That is where prostitution and woman trafficking is a major problem in India and the sub-continent particularly in Nepal and is being combated in our own way. What is disappointing is that the program had a voyeuristic streak in it which combines the satiation of sexual urges with the pleasure of being an incognito spectator. This is what was wrong. Moreover in all such news that the Western media touches upon from the developing world there is also a tendency to feel puritanical by the West and get a strange joy in seeing the filth, the poverty and the varied values that are practiced in this part of the world. Is there no woman trafficking in the United States and the rest of the Americas? In fact among 12 – 16 year old girls in the US it is a major problem where girls run away from home either with a man or because of abuse at home or broken families and find themselves at the mercy of pimps who drug them and make them work as prostitutes which leads them downhill where ultimately the only solution is to take their own lives. The story is similar in Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and every country in the Americas and all these girls aspire to reach the US where they can earn the greenbacks. Even in Europe it is a major problem with girls from behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain being trafficked to European countries and the US to work as prostitutes. Thus why does CNN not do a program on this problem which affects its home country and the region it is in as also its allies in Europe rather than come across and do a piece on India and South Asia. If one takes the percentage of the number of such women against the population then in India and the sub-continent the problem is much less than in the Americas or in Europe. Thus it is best that CNN and other media channels set their house in order before training their cameras to other parts of the world where there are more compelling reasons like poverty which is the main reason why this happens.

The Iqbal Kaskar Shooting Case In Mumbai

The Iqbal Kaskar shooting case over the last few days in Mumbai where his driver was shot is getting curiouser and curiouser. Initially it was attributed to gang wars between the Dawood and Chota Rajan gangs. But then over yesterday(19th) it is reported that an IB spokesman has claimed that they had engineered this encounter to get a trace on the whereabouts of Dawood Ibrahim expecting him to call in the event his brother gets shot. This news has to be verified whether it was the IB spokesman or someone doing this for cheap publicity. The way our intelligence agencies have been operating lately like the CBI, such kind of questions naturally come to one’s mind. If the IB has actually done this then it is completely wrong since India cannot have someone killed just so that we can have a trace on a most wanted criminal. This is in the nature of encounters which our police have been famous in conducting right from the time of the Naxalite problem in the ‘70’s in West Bengal, then in Mumbai to kill gangsters, the Ishrat Jahan case in Gujarat and similar sundry cases all over the country. Such encounters are indulged in by our law enforcement agencies to show bravado and where they get tired of our long judicial process. These have been rightly castigated since they fall into the category of human rights abuses. The same applies for this case by the IB who are supposed to be a cloak and dagger agency and even this if they were actually involved in this case they should have kept it under wraps. Do they not ublici that by ublicizing their involvement, they are closing the options of trying similar options in the future? The concerned ministry under which the IB functions presumably the Home Ministry should give them proper guidelines in such matters. Yet another thing for P Chidambaran to brood upon after the CBI gaffes lately on the terrorist list submitted to Pakistan.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 60 Date: 14.05.2011

Contents:
1. Is Rahul Gandhi Wet Behind The Ears?
2. Non-Recognised ICC Slaps Concocted Charges On Gaddhafi
3. Woman Power To The Fore In India
4. Equivalence of Libya & Syria In The Context of Western Military Action
5. Post OBL Killing : South Asia Situation.
6. Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project In The Light Of Fukushima Rehabilitation


Is Rahul Gandhi Wet Behind The Ears?

Rahul Gandhi upon clandestinely getting into the farmers disturbed area of Greater NOIDA and after returning to Delhi had made a statement that seeing the atrocities committed by the police and the Mayawati’s government on the farmers, he was ashamed to call himself an Indian. Such statements do not add to the stature of a wannabe leader like Rahul Gandhi. Such statements are also available only to those who have an alternative to one’s nationality which option most of us do not have. People who aspire for political leadership and want to represent the aam admi of this country should be proud to be an Indian irrespective of whatever tragedies and difficulties they face. These are some of the lessons that Rahul Gandhi should learn and quickly. This is also not the first comment from him of this nature where he has shown less of political maturity and a tendency to shoot from the hip. This problem is also shown when he has given to the media some photos purported to be taken of the atrocities and killings (claimed to be mass murders) by Mayawati’s goons in the disturbed areas of Greater NOIDA. In this exercise he should have gone about it in a proper manner with enough substantiation rather than like a lame duck show some photos and claim that all this is happening in UP! Rahul Gandhi, even your credibility cannot make people believe that this is the truth. It will only bring on him the epthet of ‘wet behind the ears’ indicating his lack of experience in the cut and thrust of Indian politics. There is thus a long way for the scion of the Gandhi clan to mature into a leader and we are witnessing the learning pains of yet another Gandhi.

Non-Recognised ICC Slaps Concocted Charges On Gaddhafi

The release of arrest warrants against Gaddhafi and some of his family and officials by the International Court of Justice is yet another weak and rotten stick with which the West is trying to browbeat the Libyan leader. The International Court of Justice has no credibility and is even now not recognized by the principal and only superpower in the world and one of the members of the coalition attacking Libya and that is the USA. If so what is this warrant worth not even the cost of the paper it is written upon. The International Court of Justice is another EU creation to satisfy and apply salve to their conscience that they are conscious of what is happening around the world and their pronounced intent to take some action. Even the official who came out to announce the arrest warrants against Gaddhafi and his cohorts was fumbling to define what exactly are the charges against Gaddhafi on human rights abuses and substantiate the intelligence on which these charges are being made. When NATO themselves are not having proper intelligence to bombard Tripoli and are continually hitting people’s houses claiming that these are command and control centres then how is the International Court of Justice getting evidence on the crimes committed by Gaddhafi? There is clearly some kind of a problem there and the smell of a dead mouse is stinking to high heaven. Clearly the charges are concocted and can have no viable basis if the agency involved in compiling the charges are not recognized by the principal ally of the Western coalition attacking Libya and that is the USA. NATO is trying to expand the scope of their bombing attacks on Libya to include Libya’s infrastructure with the intention of wanting to cripple Gaddhafi’s ability to fight the rebels. How depriving the citizens of Libya from essential needs like power, water and the like will end up in ‘protecting’ them is what the UN, the West and NATO only can explain to us? Are they operating according to the UN Resolution 1973 on Libya? Like they say when things go wrong and horribly wrong like in Iraq the West has always used very flimsy reasons to stay in the war and this is precisely what is happening again in Libya. The military industrial conglomerates in the West desire war so that they have a sustainable business and a real testing ground for their latest weapons, both equipment and machinery. Following them are the infrastructure conglomerates of the West who come with proposals to rebuild the power houses, the dams, the airports, the roads etc. that the Western armed forces destroyed. Who said war is not good for business?

Woman Power To The Fore In India

The recent assembly election results has shown the resurgence of woman power in India. In the East Mamata Banerji overthrew the Left and the CPM from power in a resounding manner and will have to now prove her mettle in running a government in as much a manner as she was good in opposing it. Jayalalithaa in the South in Tamil Nadu gave a sound thrashing to the DMK at the hustings and will bring to the people her own brand and scale of corruption which the people of Tamil Nadu are now quite used to. The people’s approach there is that include us also in the money train and then all is well. Mayawati is safely ensconced in UP and has completed four years in office inspite of many trying to dislodge her on one pretext or the other. And then we have Sonia Gandhi in Delhi overseeing governance over the whole of India. So it is Mamata, Jaya, Maya and above all of them Sonia to carry India forward. In one of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s terms as Prime Minister he had to contend with three women Mamata, Jaya and Maya while now Manmohan Singh has to handle four with the heavyweight Sonia added to the list. We have to see whether one more woman will tip and overturn the PM’s basket. Only time will tell. With news coming that women having done very well in the IAS exams and the two toppers being women along with the fact that a Muslim woman from Kashmir has finally made the grade in the IAS, is very heartening news for the women of India indeed. Let them collectively make this year the Year of the Indian Woman.

Equivalence of Libya & Syria In The Context of Western Military Action

The NATO jets continue to pound Tripoli and other 'military' targets in Libya. At last count they say that they have conducted more than 600 bombing missions over Libya! The 'military' targets in Libya that NATO are targeting seems to suffer from the malaise of not having sufficient intelligence on the ground and after killing the son of Gaddhafi and his three grandchildren the last time around they have over the last few days attacked a people's shelter where further civilian casualties around 45 have occurred. Their explanation in both cases has been the same that they believed these targets were 'command and control centres'. Who can tell NATO that they believed wrong? Who can tell that NATO does not learn from past mistakes and will continue to bomb civilian houses calling them 'command and control centres'? In all this the fatalities caused due to the turmoil in Libya is not more than 1000 a majority of which has been lately from the NATO bombings while across the Mediterranean in Syria Assad has been killing the same number of people systematically using his tanks and artillery against a motley crowd of protesters moving from town to town, city to city where the demonstrations are occurring. But somehow the Western countries are not looking at Syria and are singlemindedly pursuing Libya. One needs to know why? Because there is a UN resolution on Libya? So a dictator and second-generation tyrant like Assad can get away with murder in Syria while you attack Gaddhafi with everything that you have got. Not only that the Western coalition arraigned against Libya claim that their bombing target is not Gaddhafi but each time Gaddhafi comes on TV after the bombing runs the Western coalitions are despondent! Why? It is accepted that Gaddhafi should go and as Western journalists are claiming more than 99.9% of Libyans do not like him, then take him out by all means by using sympathetic Libyans trained by Western army tutors who are already on the ground in Libya or in a US Seals type operation like that conducted against Osama Bin Laden. But for a lack of a clarity of purpose do not go around bombing Libya left, right and centre and kill innocent civilians.

Post OBL Killing : South Asia Situation

What President Obama ordered and the US Navy Seals implemented in killing Osama Bin Laden and then disposing off his body was very correct. That man deserved no mercy and should have been and was treated as he had treated the thousands of his hapless terror victims. In all this Pakistan’s credibility is at a nadir with the US after the Osama Bin Laden (OBL) killing. This is more so since there are serious doubts that the Pakistani authorities were really not aware of OBL being in Pakistan where as reported by his wife that since 2003 he has been ensconced comfortably very near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad at Haripur first and then Abbottabad. In this context the claim by the Pak PM Gilani that it is a world intelligence failure with regard to OBL’s presence in Pak is completely baseless and an attempt to confuse the issue. One should ask Mr Gilani that if his ally who has been hiding a most wanted fugitive, tells him that the fugitive is not in his country then would Mr Gilani not believe that person and keep looking elsewhere while the fugitive is all the time hiding in the ally country with the full knowledge of the ally. Thus world intelligencies believed Pak when they said that OBL is not in their country and now Mr Gilani calls it a world intelligence failure and not the inherent unreliability and double-dealing by Pakistan. The other thing is that Pakistani intelligence agencies and the armed forces have been shown to be completely incapable in their ability to be firstly aware of the US Seal’s operation and then intercept a number of helicopters flying in and out after conducting the OBL operation. The lax and technically incapable Pakistan armed forces ability was brought to the fore in this regard. Additionally the Pak economy has been in a shambles and tit is well-known that they desperately need US aid to stay afloat. With OBL's killing on Pak soil that US aid will be in doubt. They were carefully managing OBL being alive to milk the US of money as much as possible. Now that option is closed. Again Pakistan are not needed in Afghanistan any more by the US since the old Russian involvement is not there and the Taliban is not as powerful as it was and even Karzai does not want them in Afghanistan. Thus Pakistan has to come up with some magic to get back into the US' good books and that is if they can produce Zawahiri of the Al Qaeda or Mullah Omar of the Afghan Taliban on a platter for the US. Producing Zawahiri may be difficult but Mullah Omar is said to be under the control of the ISI and he may end up as the scapegoat. This will reinstate them in the US good books as a confirmed ally in the war against terror. The last scenario is if they fail on producing either of these persons, they can resort to what Pakistan knows best and that is to create nuisance. With whom can they do that? The answer is with India and in Kashmir where we need to expect more of the LeT and the HM (Hizbul Mujahideen) attacks. Thus to restore lost pride what would Pakistan do but would take revenge on its Public Enemy No. 1 and a war in about 5 years at the outside limit is not unlikely with Pak on Kashmir.

Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project In The Light Of Fukushima Rehabilitation

The unfolding Fukushima nuclear plant tragedy has some lessons for countries like India who are considering going in for nuclear power in a major way for its future needs. Specifically for the Jaitapur nuclear power project which is currently in the centre of controversy many are the comments made by this government and interested politicians. None of these are to be debated or contradicted but the problem lies much beyond that and that is if there is a nuclear accident are we geared to take care of it? Are we as a society conscious of the kind of support that the accident victims may need? Does our history like that in the Bhopal gas tragedy give us any comfort that we will support the affected people in a sympathetic and humane manner? Even the Supreme Court in its most recent judgment has refused to re-open the Bhopal case to pursue Warren Andersen and others stating that the CBI has been sleeping over the case for the last 14 year and is thus showing its disinterest in the matter. And the gas escaped from the Union Carbide plant many years before this and the victims are still knocking on the doors of government and the courts for relief and succour for the last 25 years. The answer unfortunately to all these questions is an emphatic – NO. Examples of what to expect in the light of the Fukushima tragedy are as follows. Are we as a technology conscious country aware of how to deal with the technical ramifications of a nuclear tragedy like maybe Fukushima? The TEPCO, the owner of the Fukushima plant, is still struggling to control the temperatures within two of the reactors and says that it may take another 6-9 months for both these reactors to a safe shut-down. Mind you this is an estimate and TEPCO has failed in all its technical commitments and self-set deadlines related to this tragedy up until now. In the context of the French Areva reactors which are yet unproven and that are proposed for the Jaitapur project, will we be able to tackle safety and manage an accident if at all it happens? At Fukushima some 80,000 people have been impacted living in a 30 KM. radius of the plant. These people have not been able to return to their homes or whatever is left of them after the tsunami for 9 months or more. It is only now after 2 months that some 100 people are being allowed back to their homes in the tragedy struck area to pick up some personal effects. The latest news coming from Fukushima is that over the 20KM radius no-entry zone TEPCO and the Japanese government have decided to cull all grazing animals like cattle etc. numbering into thousands and with the radiated water leak into the sea continuing TEPCO and the Japanese government has apologized to its neighbouring countries for the increased radiation in the sea. Almost all houses, factories and livelihood of these people in North East Japan near Fukushima have been completely destroyed. Considering this trauma a majority of the people involved are expected to need psychological support and treatment which is what the Japanese government is gearing up to provide. Now imagine if a similar tragedy strikes India at any of its existing or future power plants like at Jaitapur. The number of people impacted in a 30 KM. radius will be much more than Fukushima’s 80,000. What track record do we have in our ability to handle rehabilitation at the level of around a lakh of people if struck by a nuclear accident? Does the handling of the Bhopal gas tragedy or the Sardar Sarovar dam or those affected on a similar scale of rehabilitation and even on a smaller scale like the slum rehabilitation projects in Mumbai give us any confidence to believe that we can handle such tragedies? The answer again is a NO. This is because our officials do not look at individuals but are more concerned about compliant paperwork to show that they have done their job rather than have actual relief delivered to those affected. Have we have ever thought of psychiatric attention to accident victims be it any accident major or minor on our roads, railways or to again repeat ad nauseum, those affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy? Never! Our support starts and ends with declaring the monetary compensation of those affected by the accidents and does not go to see whether the compensation has been given to the victims and whether they need any other support to come back and lead normal lives. Thus it is not for the fear of an accident that we must stop from implementing Jaitapur or any other new nuclear project in India but because we as a country are just not geared to comprehend and handle the relief and rehabilitation in the event of an accident occurring and the severe impact on the population of radiation exposure which cannot be even seen by the victims and avoided, if possible. Taking the example of Japan again though after the Fukushima tragedy their government re-iterated that nuclear power would continue to be pursued for electrical power generation, it is this same government which has advised another power utility to shut down its nuclear plant in another area considering the possibility of an earthquake in that area based on recent predictions. Would we do that? More often than not we would keep this prediction confidential and continue with as-usual policy hoping that the earthquake would not strike. That is precisely the position vis a vis Jaitapur and that again is precisely why we should not go ahead with it or any other nuclear plants in India. Pursue conventional means of power generation like coal and hydroelectric by all means which are all available with low carbon footprint technology these days and non-conventional energy sources like solar, bio-gas etc. which are at least visible in their ability to impact people in the event of accidents and measures of avoidance are possible. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh while speaking recently at a function at TISS Mumbai has tried to alleviate the risks of nuclear power generation and Jaitapur as such by saying that nuclear will be within 5-8% of India’s total power generation and will over 50 years time when fossil fuels will become scarce be the major power generation option for India. This is no way addresses the risk of a single nuclear accident and its impact on the Indian population and it is also only saying that as time goes by we will be increasing the risk of nuclear accidents by having more nuclear power plants. This is surely is not acceptable in any manner.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 59 Date: 07.05.2011

Contents:

1. We Are Likely To Hike Oil Prices Now When World Prices Are Going Down!
2. Making Inopportune Comments Against Pakistan
3. Girl Beheaded in Jharkhand
4. V K Singh Cannot Remember The Year Of His Birth & He Is Army Chief Of Staff?
5. Thank God, Osama Is Dead!
6. Time To Wind Up Air India


We Are Likely To Hike Oil Prices Now When World Prices Are Going Down!

There is talk of an imminent hike in petroleum based fuel i.e. diesel and petrol rates ranging from Rs. 3 - 6 per litre. This when the prices for oil in the international market are falling! World market prices over the last week have dropped from US$108 a barrel to US$ 100 now and is expected to continue following this downward trend for some time to come. This is the problem in India where there is always the lag between taking a decision and its implementation. It was expected that with the deregulation of petrol prices and giving the freedom to the OMC's (Oil Marketing Cos.) to handle its prices, the process of these changes would be faster. However, it was not to be. What explanation will the OMC's and the government give to the public to hike prices when the international prices are going down? The official machinery in this country because of its indecisiveness and lethargy makes everything for implementation difficult and a hard sell. The best way out of this is to deregulate all petroleum fuels including diesel and have a formula announced indicating a multiplier using which domestic fuel prices will be fixed based on international oil prices which will operate on a fortnightly or monthly cycle. That a way both the OMC's and the common man will know what they are likely to get and both have an option then of managing this depleting resource properly by way of economizing or whatever. As for now the OMC's who have held off for so long should hold on for some more time and implement the price increase the next time international oil prices shoot up.

Making Inopportune Comments Against Pakistan

In connection with Pakistan’s response to India post - Osama Bin Laden killing, we invite these kind of responses from Pakistan out of our own senior leaders and officials making inopportune statements. The world knows that Paksitan has been acutely embarrassed by the fact that firstly, Osama Bin Laden was found on their soil and secondly, that the US conducted the operation without informing Pakistan. Then we have our Gen V K Singh, who as reported does not know the year he was born, Chief of Army staff commenting that India is capable of such a surgical operation. This when we have been talking ad nauseum for the last ten years or more about ‘hot pursuits’ into Pak territory chasing cross-border terrorists and we have the example of the 26/11 attacks where a handful of terrorists created mayhem for a clear 5 days without the armed forces having a clue on how to tackle them and involving themselves in turf wars with the local police authorities while innocent civilian victims were getting killed. Gen. Singh’s about the capability of India launching a US Seal kind of strike against Pakistan were in bad taste and clearly ill-timed and in the nature of when you catch a pickpocket in our public transport system everybody would like to come and give a blow to the petty thief who is already down. It was necessary for India to wait and then talk appropriate to the protocol at the level of the PM or the foreign ministry. While the PM has been consistent in being strangely silent whenever an exceptional occurrence takes place we have people like the Chief of Army Staff shooting off his gun with blanks in it. Such statements give Pakistan the opportunity to get off the hook and/or alleviate the tension related to the incident with the US and the Western world and heap opprobrium on India. We need not repeat here that Pakistan will use this opportunity to divert attention to the hilt. Thus such situations are completely avoidable which common sense our officials do not seem to have. Bravado can be expressed like Gen. Singh indulged at a later time after Pakistan has been drawn and quartered on sheltering Osama Bin Laden and the complicity in hiding him by the Pakistani intelligence authorities if not by the Pakistani government. Along with people like Gen. V K Singh we have Digvijay Singh, the ‘loose cannon’ in the Congress party who had to again put his foot in his mouth vis a vis Osama Bin Laden’s funeral at sea by saying it was inappropriate. Now what business does Digvijay Singh have to make a comment like that is something which no normal Indian can understand. Osama Bin Laden is dead and gone and that is important than giving him any courtesies which he never gave any of his victims around the world who were killed in cold blood which is the precise reason why he does nor deserve any mercy. Concluding the Govt. of India should apart from having a pecking order on who will comment on such events relating particular to portentous world affairs and should also ask the political parties to delay their comments until the official response from the Govt. of India has been released. This presumes that the Govt. of India will not sleep on the job and get out a response as quickly as is possible.

Girl Beheaded in Jharkhand

There have been two incidents again recently of young women being mercilessly killed, one in Jharkhand where she was beheaded coming out of an examination hall at a reputed college in Ranchi in the presence of her mother, and the other in Andhra Pradesh where a spurned lover killed this young lady and buried her on the college grounds which fact came to light after 6 days when the decomposed body was dug out. Do these crimes deserve any mercy? No. Our protagonists against the death penalty who talk of the situation where society cannot become the killer need to assess their stand in the context of such remorseless murders. These deserve nothing but the death penalty and preferably by hanging in a public place so that all similar people who contemplate such crimes will pause before they commit such actions. Not only that the punishment should be quick and at most within six months of having committed the act since then only it has some sanctity or emotional value for the victim’s family who deservedly seek justice. Recently one of the judges in the Delhi court ha commented that those involved in crimes of child rape should be castrated. While one may not be wanting to support such action which smacks of the shariat form of justice, we need to seriously review the quantum of sentences for such crimes. Currently sending offenders in such instances to jail for a maximum of 10 years while actually sentencing is done just for a couple of years is just not enough for the offenders to understand the seriousness of the crime and not repeat it once they come out of jail after serving the sentence. This can be highlighted by the case in Mumbai of the nurse Shanbhogue who has been in a coma for more than 34 years now while the rapist who committed the crime was out of jail within 7 years and for all you know may have been re-employed at the same hospital again. He deserved the death sentence for his crime but our antiquated IPC has no provisions for that at all.

V K Singh Cannot Remember The Year Of His Birth & He Is Army Chief Of Staff?

The controversy of the birth date of Chief of Army Staff, General V K Singh whether the year is 1950 or 1951 is something which the nation surely does not want too much to know about. Coming on the top of so many scams which have come out lately in the open particularly about the Army with people of the level of Lt. General getting named in one or the other misdeed, we have finally the Chief of Army Staff not knowing which year he was born! To add further insult to injury claiming that someone else filled his joining report in which the year of birth was given in error and finally not correcting it within the stipulated period per the Army rule book is something that does not behove of good conduct for a person of Gen. Singh’s stature. The simple question that needs to be asked here is that if a lowly jawan had committed the same mistake how would the Army have dealt with him. The same treatment should be handed over to Gen. Singh and he be asked to retire forthwith irrespective of which year he was born or what is said on his birth certificate and/or joining report since this should be handled in a manner akin to disciplinary proceedings. People like Gen. Singh who claim to be concerned about army morale etc. etc. should realize that by allowing such controversies to subsist impacts the morale of the forces under him. And therefore he should have closed the matter by himself as soon as it had surfaced by completing his term and vacating office per birth year of 1950. Allowing it to hang fire is not doing anything elevating to his reputation and integrity and also leading to multiple birth certificates of Gen. Singh called forgeries which are surfacing which is not bringing any credit to him and the Army. If Gen Singh wants to continue in office for petty gains of retiring in a particular grade for enhanced pension benefits which is the normal done thing in the armed forces then he should in all fairness forsake such objectives and quit before not sullying the name of himself, the Army and its officers any further.

Thank God, Osama Is Dead!

The taking out of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in Pakistan is welcome news. Hopefully this will simmer down the international terror scenario and bring more normalcy into our lives. The fact that Osama was killed in a US led operation on Pakistani soil without informing the incumbent Pakistani government speaks volumes for the initiative and the daring taken by President Obama and the Navy Seals who actually conducted the operation. The complicity of Pakistan in terror has again been proved beyond doubt with Osama being finally intercepted in a ‘safe’ house, as claimed by many sources, of the Pakistani intelligence authorities. The trump card of Osama bin Laden that Pakistan was using to blackmail the US authorities with a continued feed off the gravy train of financial and military assistance will hopefully stop with the US at least now seeing through the complex game that Pakistan was playing in relation to the Al Qaeda and the Taliban. India’s position vis a vis the terror scene related to Pakistan will remain tenuous since the ISI and their other agencies along with the LeT will have more time to involve themselves with Kashmir ratcheting up the tension between the two countries.

Time To Wind Up Air India

There was a time when air travel was the preserve of the rich and powerful until Capt. Gopinath with his Deccan Aviation brought it within the scope of every single Indian. However from the way things are going lately with the airline industry one cannot escape drawing parallels about travel by air with bus travel. The ills and/or practices of bus travel have impacted air travel with it adopting the mass market model. Consider the fake pilot licences scam that has surfaced in the past few months, the bus industry is also plagued with it and more than 50% of the bus drivers in our country probably do not have the proper licence to drive a bus. Similarly if one goes by the pilot strike currently on at Air India, the national carrier the situation is again similar since the bus drivers would strike at the drop of a coin for petty issues like being assaulted after an accident done by them, for wearing of uniforms, issuing of tickets etc. Thus the pilots situation is no more different and this is also not the first time that we are seeing strikes in the airline industry. As for Air India, at the rate at which it is haemorrhaging it is best closed down. The staff particularly with Air India that flies abroad whether it is management, pilots or cabin crew, they are all a pampered lot and postings to Air India by our bureaucracy are considered to be a feathered posting so that they can exploit their urge to travel to foreign destination to their heart’s content. While being a national carrier and funded by the government the losses are only to be explained away and not acted upon to improve operations. How any airplane manufacturers accept the orders of Air India where recently they ordered out some 111 planes is something very surprising considering its balance sheets have been draining money at an amazing rate? Therefore the best option would be to shut down Air India’s foreign operations and progressively the Indian operations which would be in overall terms beneficial to this country and save money. For the issue then that we would not have a national flag carrier, what can be done that competition can be encouraged between the private carriers to attain this status for a rotating 3 year period which is based on acceptable airline indices of a good airline. In this manner all Indian airlines will be pulled up in terms of efficiency and service to international standards.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 58 Date: 30.04.2011

Contents:

1. The West & The UN Hobbling Themselves By Precipitate Action
2. The PAC Fiasco
3. The Politician’s Approach to Corruption
4. BCCI Going Overboard
5. Ex-CJI Balakrishnan Should Come Clean
6. New Age Dynasty Politics
7. The West Should Gradually Pull Out of Libya


The West & The UN Hobbling Themselves By Precipitate Action

The inability of the UN Security Council to deal with the Syria problem is an indicator of what happens when irresponsible and precipitate action is taken and the council members go against the dictates of the Council resolutions as we have seen in Libya. Russia rightly put its foot down on the Syria debate saying that it is an internal problem and for the sovereign country to handle and the UN had no business getting into it. This inspite of Assad using his military force against the rebels. In Libya Gaddhafi had done much less in action but had spoken much more in words for which over more than a month now the Western forces including NATO have been battering his compound and country. Thus where valid intervention is desirable the civilised(?) world will not be able to act and remain hobbled for reasons of some of the nations going out of their way to take revenge. Thus whether it was Iraq where the Bushes did not like Saddam Hussein’s face and could not tolerate to see him in office and now Libya where Gaddhafi is Public Enemy No. 1 for the US and the UK where David Cameron wants to get back some of the prestige after the Scots having released the prime Lockerbie bomber from Libya due to frail health, the West have gone out of their way to create trouble and in the process have also got themselves into a mess. Otherwise while in Tunisia and Egypt the democracy movement is taking those tentative first steps to set up their own democracy, there was some kind of an insatiable urge for the West to teach Gaddhafi a lesson by installing democracy there and going for all-out support of a motley bunch of rebels. Again the West and the UN cannot hope to intervene in each and every country around the world where nascent democratic movements are taking shape. Let these movements pick up steam on their own and in that way they will be more enduring. The West’s penchant to be picky and choosy about which democratic movements are acceptable and which not is leading to doubts among people’s minds about the rationality of the West’s ability to take decision in these matters since Bahrain, Saudi Arabia’s movements are not democratic and hence the West would support the autocratic rulers while those in Yemen, Syria, Tunisia, Egypt (after much persuasion) and Libya are democratic and hence the rulers need to go? Postscript: Since this was written NATO aircraft conducted a bombing raid on Tripoli with their military objective of a command and communication centre which turned out to be the residence of one of Gaddhafi’s sons who died in the attack along with three of Gaddhafi’s grandchildren. These wanton killings could easily have been avoided particularly of children instead of debating after the event about the nature of the target, bombing errors and other issues since those that have been killed will never come back. Even after this incident we have the NATO Secretary General piously mouthing the same inanities that their bombing raids are to protect civilians. Which ones is what we should ask him? Are Gaddhafi’s grandchildren not civilians? Does the NATO not then have the mandate for protecting them? The problem with Libya is similar to what the US faced in Iraq since both were closed countries for quite some time before military action became necessary for which reason there is no intelligence worth its name of military locations and therefore bombing targets and when you operate targeting from satellite images, you will only end up bombing the wrong buildings and this will result in more collateral damage and civilian killings as we have seen all along.


The PAC Fiasco

The PAC fracas on the 2G scam was completely undesirable. Many are the institutions of our democracy that are our current breed of politicians dismantling and this is another one of them which has been brought crashing to the ground. The Congress and DMK members of the PAC should have realized that the committee is a body above politics and was expected to show how our politicians can play a multi-partisan role and rise to the occasion by coming out with an impartial and unbiased report. In this all the committee members including Murli Manohar Joshi have miserably failed by even suggesting that the PAC report should be put to ‘vote’. Murli Manohar Joshi had just recently won the exemplary Parliamentarian award which seems to be clearly unjustified if one sees the present context and clearly he was going by his internal fights within his own party, the BJP, which had criticized him at the beginning by stating that he was overly inclined to the UPA and the PM. To counteract this he has clearly gone the other way tending to be over critical of the PM and his office as also passing comments on the then Finance Minister P Chidambaran’s advice to the PM to overlook the matter. If you judge impartially the PM himself has admitted to be driven by coalition compulsions which if you read between the lines clearly outlines that they let Raja have his way. As for Chidambaran’s comment this is exactly what Kapil Sibal said later when the full blown scam was made public by insulting the intelligence of the people and stating that there was no scam – Where is the scam? There is no scam. On their part the Congress and the DMK members of the committee have shown less maturity by performing precisely how the BJP did in Parliament and which they had long been criticizing as undermining the ground rules of democracy by stalling Parliament and when in a smaller matter like in the PAC committee when they are expected to show higher enlightenment, they go ahead and do the same thing by holding the PAC to ransom. Thus what was expected of the PAC on the 2G scam and that nothing would be achieved has come to pass which may be the indications of what we can also expect from the JPC. Thus the country is safe to expect that since the Supreme Court is seized of the matter of the 2G scam at least we will see some parts of it unravel. The PAC fiasco has shown the extent like they say we can trust our politicians and that is to sabotage the democratic institutions in this country.

The Politician’s Approach to Corruption

What is disturbing is the approach to corruption that is being taken by our politicians inspite of the succession of scams that have been unveiled in the last 6 months or so. They seem to be unconcerned about the long arm of the law catching up with them or even if they are apprehended worried about the process of justice being imposed upon them. That is the extent to which our society has been afflicted by the virus of corruption. This is apparent once again in the manner the PAC has been sabotaged by the Congress and the DMK. It is well known that the Congress and the PM”s office including the PM himself are chary about having to face the corruption squarely in the face. And if Murli Manohar Joshi, the PAC Chairman has found any information in support of this with regard to the 2G scam by all rights the matter http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifneeds to be looked into and not sidelined as the Congress and DMK MP’s on the committee are intending to do. The Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu have also thrown up very clearly the fact that money power is extensively used in our election process with the Election Commission confiscating some Rs. 50 crores from that State alone. This has been objected to by the DMK supreme leaders and not only that you have had supposedly eminent people writing in the press as to how the distribution of freebies during elections like consumer durables is part of the redistribution of wealth process and also gets people to have access to these products which otherwise they may not be able to possess until some time in the future when they are able to afford them. While there is nothing wrong with this logic what these people, however, forget is the purpose behind giving these freebies and that is to secure a vote. Is this not akin to corruption? Or has corruption become so ingrained into our society that it is not perceived anymore as something wrong and that every person according to their capacity and level in society is entitled to make some amount of money by corruption. This seems to be the logic when Karunanidhi said just before the Assembly elections and when A Raja had been arrested for the 2G scam that all this would not affect the elections in Tamil Nadu in any way. Shows you how much inured the people of Tamil Nadu are to their leades making money hand over fist. Not only that when the 2G scam chargesheet was filed last week and his daughter, Kanimozhi was named as co-conspirator along with A Raja, Karunanidhi was supposedly seething with anger against the Congress for not saving her from the ignominy of figuring on the chargesheet. Why he should be upset when essentially it does not matter is something that one cannot really understand?

BCCI Going Overboard

The fact that BCCI has decided to give another crore to the Indian cricketers in the World Cup winning squad taking the total prize money to Rs. 2 crores each was not given much publicity and was mostly carried in very fine print by most newspapers. It is reported that this was given at the instance of some of the senior cricketers indicating to the BCCI that the Rs. 1 crore given earlier was not enough. This is rather shameful since another crore is tipping the scales of the largesse given to the cricketers from generous to obscene. No one complained when they were showered money and gifts though it was felt that some amount of moderation was desirable but now it is pushing the envelope too far. The BCCI had contracted the players to play for India for which they were paid money and they were given the substantial prize for winning the World Cup then what more should they ask for? The cricketers who pursued the increase with BCCI should remember that a crore is a lot of money and in a poor country like ours it can benefit millions. With the kind of money that cricketers are making through BCCI, advertisement sponsorships and the IPL they are becoming more greedy and avaricious. This is not becoming of them as our youth icons. Therefore if the BCCI has not disbursed the additional crore to them then it could still be donated to charity in the name of the World Cup winning squad and even to the charities that some of the players themselves sponsor or have in mind.

Ex-CJI Balakrishnan Should Come Clean

With ex-CJI K G Balakrishnan not disclosing assets and still continuing as NHRC Chairman is yet another thing that this UPA Govt. is condoning. When so much has come into the public domain about the ex-CJI’s family and relations acquiring assets coincidentally synchronizing with the CJI’s term in office at the Supreme Court, it is in the fitness of things that Justice Balakrishnan should have clarified the matter. Further at one time stating that he would declare his assets in whichever way and then backtracking and at the same time while diluting the earlier commitment is something that this country does not expect from an ex- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This reflects on his judgment even at the NHRC since it is but expected that when a judge says something he is expected to stick to it. Again when you hold public office there is a need to clarify the allegations like in this case acquisition of property by close family members which are also much above their known source of income. By keeping quiet and hoping that the storm would pass Justice Balakrishnan is only making it worse in the manner as exhibited by ex-CVC appointee P J Thomas. Therefore either he himself or this UPA Govt. should tell him to comply with the necessities in whatever manner to satisfy the public query. In the absence of this and in the fitness of things Justice Balakrishnan himself should step down from the office of the Chairman, NHRC.

New Age Dynasty Politics

Dynasty politics in India with the Gandhis, the Pawars, the Karunanidhis, the Yadavs – Lallu Prasad as well as Mulayam Singh and among them the lesser mortals like the Pilots, the Sharda Prasads, the Deoras etc. decorating our political scene in India have been pointed out as being a healthy practice for our democracy. But if you see the candidates for the recent and ongoing Assembly elections that are being held, you have even the TMC and lesser parties carrying with the tradition of bringing their progeny to contest elections. The greatest surprise was when Pranab Mukherjee decided to induct his son also to contest elections in WB. This is probably just insurance considering the number of scams that have been exposed with unfailing regularity in the recent past and the big wickets of the Congress also that have fallen by the wayside. Getting the family into politics by our politicians is to get that Teflon coating against prosecution for any of their misdeeds since on one hand they have the immunity that is accorded elected leaders and being active in the system makes them privy for information that is useful for them to take protective measures for their ill-gotten gains.


The West Should Gradually Pull Out of Libya

The sheer cacophony among the Western coalition partners on who should do what, who should lead the coalition, whether they should supply arms to the rebels or whether they should supply trainers, whether they should let the rebels use the frozen oil revenues of Libya etc.etc. are the many voices that can be heard akin to the Tower of Babel emerging out of Libya. This confused state of affairs has come to be because when they went in there was no clear plan neither on what was to be done as also on the ultimate objective to be achieved. The stated objective which even the sidelined UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon believes is to ‘protect the civilians’ but if the Western coalition also is coordinating its action aligned to this objective then why are they sending in military trainers there. Surely this must be to train civilians to become soldiers and thus put them to greater risk when they come because of their military training into the direct line of fire of the Libyan army. Thus is this strategy not being counter-productive since instead of protecting civilians it is ultimately going to put them at greater risk. In any case the rebels are not to be counted since with no command structure among them, they are nothing but common criminals who are to be dealt as per local law. If you had similar people come out on the streets of Western cities as it had happened during the Iraq war and in US cities as late as a few months ago with the Tea Party movement and in London with the protest over the UK Govt.’s budget cuts, then the way to deal with them is to verify if at the first level, they have taken permission to hold a protest from the authorities, and secondly, if it is a peaceful protest. In case the public peace is disturbed then the authorities take action as in a law and order problem in its various stages of evolution by trying to stop the demonstration, by resorting to caning, teargas, stun guns, in that order depending on the severity. The same applies to Libya or any other Arab country where there have been demonstrations against the incumbent governments. Why we should attribute any higher order motives to these demonstrators just because the Western people would want us to believe so, is something which is beyond the comprehension of observers from the remaining part of the world. The other aspect in this is the regime change agenda which the leaders of the US, UK and France are sticking to as against the stated objective of the UN that no regime change was conceived. Thus are these three Western governments not going against the UN Resolution 1973? Therefore should not all military action be stopped in Libya by the Western coalition since it is contrary to the UN resolution? Gaddhafi’s compound has again been attacked by aircraft and missiles which is now thrice over the last one month. Are there no civilians in this compound? Is there no need to protect them? Kill Gaddhafi and his sons involved in the Libyan government by all means but for God’s sake do not attack his family particularly the womenfolk. As is usual in a strife situation we have different opinions on the status of Misrata which the coalition and the rebels claim is under their control while the official Libyan position is that they are pulling out of Misrata and letting the tribes favourably inclined to Gaddhafi take care of the rebels in Misrata. This will have the coalition in further dilemma as to whom to strike against since everyone would appear to be civilians. This is the deviousness of the Islamic mind that the West is up against and has been proven in numerous occasions in Afghanistan, Iraq and more notably in Pakistan where the US has been led by the nose for close to three decades now. The US decision to also allow use of predator drones in Libya is going to add to civilian casualties as has been proven in other war theaters. This has to be withdrawn on a most immediate basis and not contribute to further mayhem in Libya. In overall terms, for the Western minds getting into parts of the world like Libya is in a sense an experience of touring a completely different world. On this unknown world the West tries to layer on the framework and yardsticks of society as they know it. There will obviously be a mismatch which in some cases is seen as a mistake or error while actually the locals are just doing things differently. Some examples to this are as we all know, that if we have military action, then there will be bloodshed and the casualties will need medical assistance. The higher and longer the military action the casualties will also multiply stressing the existing medical care system. In countries like Libya the medical care facilities will not be as extensive and as good as the West has and therefore we have to learn to expect that there will be more difficulties for those injured and there will also be more fatalities. You cannot do anything about that. The same way when the official Libyan government in one of their propaganda efforts wants to show that nothing is going wrong in Misrata or display the damage caused by Western bombing to civilian sites in Tripoli, there will be many a slip, like they say, between the cup and the lip, and there is nothing to be critical about the disjointed coordination, since it is again just a fact of life. The Libyans are just learning and getting used to western media. About the two Western journalists killed in Libya last week, it is the contingent risks associated with their job and nothing can be done about it. If they valued their lives they should have taken more precautions or just not gone to Libya. The suggestion therefore is that we should use a common yardstick to evaluate situations, issues and thinking and adapt them to specific local conditions and not be in hurry to jump to conclusions. As for Libya or in any other Arab nation where the gentle breezes like the zephyr of democracy have been blowing, let them take wind without outside interference, kill the dictators like Gaddhafi by all means but let not precipitate action be taken which will aggravate and/or prolong the conflict since that will only end up in more human losses and ultimately undermine the system of democracy and from it taking root.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 57 Date: 23.04.2011

Contents:

1. Review Necessity of Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project
2. Set Up Separate Tribunal To Track Black Money
3. Caesar's Wife Idiom for Lok Pal Committee
4. Tree Trimming Exercises Before The Monsoon
5. Bring Child Labour Into The Open
6. Increase Penalties For Driving Accidents
7. Ban Spitting And Keep TB At Bay

Review Necessity of Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project

With the multiplying problems at the Fukushima nuclear reactors where radioactive water was leaking into the sea, the decision by the Japanese government to ban people from entering the 20 KM. zone of exclusion around the plant for another 3 – 9 months that TEPCO have said it will take them to bring the nuclear reactors to a safe shutdown with its attendant dislocation and related trauma for the people living in the area, India should seriously review its approach to going in for any more nuclear power plants. If Japanese society known for its discipline, stoicness and honesty go through so many problems and trauma to obtain control of the evolving tragedy then one can imagine what would happen if a similar accident would happen in India. Just like with a nuclear tragedy the radioactive rays turn out to be silent killers so also we had the Bhopal gas tragedy where thousands of people died and many more thousands were immobilized for life by one or the other ailments by virtue of exposure to the poisonous gas. We all know how well our government took action in providing relief and assistance to those affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy and surely we do not want a repeat of that kind of disaster in other parts of the country. The emphasis in India has been in relation to any such tragedies to see how well we do on paper to prove that we have done our best, whether it be negotiating with Union Carbide for damages or providing monetary assistance to those gas affected or provide sustaining health support to those impacted. Thus we loose sight of the individual at a personal level who has got affected and who needs relief and support and we tend to quote figures at him/her while the poor individual will tell the officials that they still have problems with one or the other thing which the officials believe is signed, sealed and delivered. From the Bhopal gas tragedy example we have to make sure that this does not recur in this country and therefore nuclear power should be avoided. In this context Jaitapur should be viewed in a different light and the people heard for their valid or invalid concerns and an attempt made to convince them. The present attempt by the government has been to brazen it out and adopt a ‘we know better than you’ and ‘what’s good for you’ attitude which will not do. In the recent demonstrations against the plant at Jaitapur one individual has already lost his life in police firing which by itself brings no credit to the Maharasthra government. Further it will be difficult to justify the Jaitpapur coastal based nuclear plant, with unproven reactors, at an area prone to earthquake risk and with our over-secretive atomic energy department particularly in the light of the Fukushima tragedy, yet unfolding.

Set Up Separate Tribunal To Track Black Money

The government’s position on having only the Income Tax (IT) Dept. pursue black money need to be changed in the interest of accelerating the process of combating this menace. The IT Dept. is already well known to be overloaded and none too honest in its dealings. Therefore it is best to have a separate department or a tribunal which will have its own staff to intercept black money offenders. This will introduce in this process an improved earnestness and seriousness rather than take it up as yet another assessment and appeal case if handled by the IT Dept. The Supreme Court can be within its rights to make this suggestion since the Court has been none too happy with the tardiness that the government has shown with regard to tackling the black money menace and has just recently asked for a SIT to be set up to track black money offenders.

Caesar's Wife Idiom for Lok Pal Committee

The Bhushans position on the Jan Lok Pal committee is becoming more and more indefensible. For those of civil society in the committee we should surely adopt higher standards than what politicians follow and that is – hold on to office until proven guilty. There is a point, well-taken, when people say that there will be a smear campaign to discredit those on the committee from Anna Hazare’s side. But then like we know there can never be smoke without fire and that is where the Bhushans have to recuse themselves from the committee. Moreover if the Bhushans were well aware that a smear campaign would have been indulged in then they being intelligent enough and given their experience in their profession should, they should not have given two different sets of CD’s containing their purported conversation with Amar Singh/Mulayam Singh, one that they gave for private testing from their end and the other that they gave to the Delhi Police. The two conflicting reports on the CD testing should have been avoided considering their position on the committee and to indicate their enlightened understanding to be better than those that they may well sit on judgment, the corrupt politicians. Even more than a week after the CD’s came to light they are still debating its genuineness and adding to the nuisance. In a contrary sense maybe having the Bhushans continuing on the committee is a good thing since apart from their professional competence, like it is said – Set a thief to catch a thief. The tirade being conducted by Digvijay Singh, the Congress General Secretary against Anna Hazare and the committee members can be ignored since he is known to be a loose cannon, which once it runs out of ammunition shuts up or after some time turns its attention elsewhere.

Tree Trimming Exercises Before The Monsoon

The ritual tree trimming exercises that the Electricity Dept. regularly resorts to and particularly more so during the period leading up to the monsoon is a murderous onslaught on the trees with their sharp shears and machetes. At the end of it all the trees are left as mute spectators of man’s folly and look like as having been given a haircut by a novice barber on his first day at work. One cannot say anything to this trimming of trees since the larger good of the community is involved and we will have to bear with this as long as we have overhead wires bearing the electricity. Thus the project for moving the electricity cables to underground is a welcome move which will at least save the trees in the long run. In the meantime the Electricity Dept. could impart training to their linemen and other staff involved in this exercise to cut only that which is essential and not completely denude the trees. In Porvorim where we live the electricity department personnel completed the exercise yesterday (21st) and all the trees which had blossomed with the yellow summer blooms had their branches cut. They also cut a mango tree branch which was overladen with the fruit not looking at whether it was affecting the electricity wires or not! Note: This will be a common problem wherever underground power cables have not been laid.


Bring Child Labour Into The Open

We have this unfortunate incident in Delhi of the 10 year old boy Moin having died after being beaten up by the employer. The relations of the boy have not even collected the body for cremation and it is lying unclaimed with the police. The boy is believed to have been working in one of the thousands of sweat shops which dot Delhi involved in bindi work, embroidery and the like. Some half a million young boys work in these units it is estimated which have appalling working conditions where the boys are made to work for long hours without any rest. The 10 year old’s death has brought the issue to the fore again though a couple of years ago a similar story had been broken of some scores of boys rescued from these sweat-shops. What happened to those boys is not known? The NGO’s involved who are again at the forefront speaking to TV cameras have forgotten about those cases. So also the media. Why? Because the boys have served the purpose of both the NGO’s and the media and then are a burden to both. The rescued boys after a well deserved holiday at home would have found their way back to the same sweat-shops in Delhi and it is not unlikely that the boy who has now died may have been part of those rescued then. The point is we, all of us, are hypocritical about such issues. When convenient we will shout from the roof tops and when our footage is safely in our cameras which get the NGO’s their funding and the TV media their TRIPS ratings, then it is time to move on. The way to correct this is to look at child labour differently in India. Whether you like it or not child labour exists in India and will exist. There are no two things about it. Where 63% of the country’s people are below the poverty line not expecting available hands to do some productive work and bring in some money home is nothing but being foolhardy and even downright stupid. Thus we need not ape the West and parrot that the children should go to school and then only start working after they cross into adulthood. By that time the mortality rates among our rural and urban poor will skyrocket and maybe that is a good thing since those below the poverty line will reduce. It is a fact of life that children have to work both in our rural and urban areas to improve the economic condition of the family. Thus we need to recognise this and find a unique solution within the framework of our society. And this is to run schools in the evening or night like our adult literacy programs some decades back. These classes can be run in the same village or government schools where other children attend during the day. Let the NGO’s who are doing only breast beating today participate in this exercise of the upliftment of our children who because of economic necessity have to compulsorily work. Wherever these children are working like in Delhi or even Dharavi in Mumbai the employers need to ensure that the children are released to attend these schools and can be given monetary incentives which should also be given to the children for having a good attendance at the school. This outreach program can factor in medical testing of the children on a regular basis at the school so that the aspect of health of the children is also taken care of. The last thing is that our high society prides itself on wearing zardosi and the highly embroidered outfits which the children’s little fingers and sharp eyesight are capable of doing. Can our high fashion pundits and high society not shun the wearing of zardosi and the highly embroidered outfits which will help the children get away from this slave labour? It is like abroad the carpets coming from Iran, Pakistan and India were banned by GATT for some time because of child labour being used in their manufacture. The above measures will allow this child labour to come out in the open and thus become manageable while our approach in ignoring the problem or putting the wrong emphasis on it is helping this whole matter to go underground allowing the Fagins to exploit the children. For any matter we need to understand the problem and then find a solution rather than operate by rote or mechanically which supports vested interests to protect their own and make money on the backs of our little children.

Increase Penalties For Driving Accidents

Given the two accidents in 24 hours in south Mumbai it is time that we reviewed the CrPC and the Motor Vehicles Act to make accidents that are caused by rash driving or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs and which result in serious injuries and/or death of people as manslaughter and/or culpable homicide. We need to change these outdated laws that we have in this matter and recognize that given the congestion of our roads, the increasing number of vehicles coming onto them, the issue of deliberate intent under which accident perpetrators get away with low jail sentences and bail amounts has to be changed since a vehicle weighing close to a tonne driving even at 40 Kmph is like a weapon when it impacts on the human body. And the accidents like above are happening at speeds which exceed 80 Kmph where the impact results are more horrific as we have all seen from media pictures of the accident sites. Accidents like the above have been on the rise in cities particularly Mumbai and Delhi where younger people unable to control the new high power vehicles end up hitting others on the road or cause injuries/fatalities to pedestrians. This apart there are accidents caused by heavy motor vehicles like tankers, lorries and the like who for the sake of incentives given by the owners for faster deliveries tend to end up speeding on the roads and in that process cause problems for other road users. Thus while there may be no intent to kill but there surely is no intent for disciplined driving and that is where the above amendments to the law will be useful. This is good enough cause to put errant drivers behind bars such that they are more careful in the future. For all drivers there should be a process by which the driving licences are confiscated for multiple traffic offences and temporary bans after first and second offences. This will at least help to get dangerous drivers off our congested roads and improving safety. This is what is done in every developed country and why we cannot introduce something similar is beyond anyone’s comprehension.

Ban Spitting And Keep TB At Bay

Tuberculosis (TB) has been on the rise all over the country and more so in Mumbai. The disease is now more resistant to the current range of antibiotics and thus is becoming more difficult to cure. As highlighted in Mumbai one of the methods of transmission of the TB disease is through sputum. In Mumbai and also the rest of India there is a large amount of spitting on to the roads after chewing paan, supari and gutkha which leads to children picking up the infection when they play on the street or in open grounds close to where they stay. Thus it was estimated that more than 60% of the children below 10 years in Mumbai suffer from TB. We all have a similar problem as above in cities that we live in of people spitting on the ground all over particular near our markets and bus stands. It is time that we looked into putting out a public awareness campaign encouraging people not to spit in the open which apart from the above problem is also good civic sense. Should our Health Dept. not look into this matter and do something about it?

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 56 Date: 16.04.2011

Contents:
1. Government Approaches to Corruption
2. Libya Turning Into A Quagmire of Strife
3. We Need To Pull Together On The Lokpal Bill
4. Slaves To The English Language

Government Approaches to Corruption

Recently Pranab Mukerjee, the indispensable member of the UPA-2 government gave an interview on television to one of the leading English news channels. When asked about corruption, in his characteristic bluff manner he said that no government in free India has done so much to fight corruption than the present one. Seeing this program one could not help but be reminded of the three monkeys’ made famous by Mahatma Gandhi wherein – They see no evil, hear no evil or speak no evil. In the same manner Pranab Mukherjee approach was that he would see no corruption, hear no corruption and speak no corruption, while citing the announcement of the constitution of the JPC on the 2G scam and the sacking of Ashok Chavan on the Adarsh building scam in Mumbai. He did not, of course, say that the JPC was constituted with almost a gun to the head of his government by the Opposition notably the BJP and there was no alternative as far as the sacking of the previous Maharasthra CM was concerned. In any case, in the monkey’s cited above the ones of Gandhiji, it does not mean that evil does not exist; so also, in Pranab Mukerjee’s case it does not mean that corruption does not exist or has been eradicated. Such statements by a senior minister of this UPA-2 government in the face of close to some Rs. 54 crore seized by the Election Commission in the lead-up to the polls in Tamil Nadu, points to a very permissive reminiscent of laizzez faire approach when it comes to corruption. It also reflects the isolation that this government, its leaders and generally politicians at large have the common man of this country who is buffeted by corruption in almost every aspect of his day to day life mostly by government agencies. This was natural to happen since our democracy today has to be operated behind multiple layers of security and needs to be ‘protected’ from the very people to whom it is expected to enjoin freedom. When democracy is held captive by our leaders and put behind bars then what further hope does this country and its common man have. This is precisely where the Lok Pal bill being pursued by Anna Hazare and his group on behalf of the common people and civil society of India is expected to make a difference. Democracy today in India has become elitist and its meanings, interpretation and actions are required to be explained to the common citizens by these politicians who are self-serving blood-sucking leeches. Thus when Digvijay Singh of the Congress sought clarification that when Anna Hazare and his group are claimed to represent civil society then does it mean that politicians are ‘uncivil’, he indirectly and unintentionally hit the nail on the head! Otherwise in the lead up to the constitution of the committee to draft the Lok Pal where it was first said that this committee would have no legal basis, it would be sabotaging democracy where elected leaders of the people are being sidelined, and that if civil society members are to be in the Committee then Ministers could not be in it and that they would be replaced by officials of the government etc. etc. which would be reinstating once again the elitist nature of the politicians and elected members of our legislatures. In the same context you would have ministers telling us that there was no real scam in the 2G case insulting the intelligence of the lay people or taking people for granted who would swallow whatever these ministers would say. Or take the case of the cash-for-votes scam which came up, where for lack of evidence the entire case was planned to be hushed up and swept under the carpet. Even in the similar case of Shibu Soren during the Narasimha Rao government it was made out that nothing could be done since any act which has its origins in the floor of the House is beyond the purview of our judiciary. The current cash for votes scam will surely also meet a similar fate. This is precisely why we have political dynasties in our country like the Gandhis, the Pawars, the Karunanidhis etc. since they have a vested interest in protecting their ill gotten gains and if there is no family member in the legislatures then they loose the early warning system to detect any likely action against them and secondly, the protection and the immunity that our laws ensure to them. Concluding we have Manmohan Singh again setting a wrong example by not voting in the Assam elections and rushing post-haste to attend the BRICS summit in China. The leading member of our Executive not voting is not giving our youth who are likely to shape the future of democracy the right message. Just because Modi brought it up does not mean that the error has not been made since Manmohan Singh has firstly gone to Assam and sought a seat from that State into the Rajya Sabha and to prove his credentials does not even exercise his franchise from there. Was it difficult to get his plane to stop over for a few hours at Gauhati for giving his vote since in any case it was in the flight path to China! These are the small signals that our PM overlooks which will cost him very dearly one day.

Libya Turning Into A Quagmire of Strife

We are getting close to a month since the Western coalitions airstrikes began in Libya. The situation is not changed since then but for the hardening of positions on both sides in Libya, that of the Gaddhafi regime and the rebels. Meanwhile the Western coalition are in disarray not knowing whom to declare as the leader of the strike force and therefore choosing NATO who has threatened to bomb anything that moves in Libya as a consequence of which the rebels are not moving out of their dug-outs! Strange allies these, are the comments among rebels who bomb us to prove that they are effective! In the meanwhile the leaders of the Western world that is the Presidents of the US and France and the Prime Minister of the UK have resorted to fighting the war through the release of letters to the newspapers of the Western world little realizing that these newspapers have little or no circulation within Libya. The letter released by them over the last weekend does not say anything new but that they are ‘protecting civilians’ in Libya and will continue to do so. How they are doing this is anybody’s guess? Gaddhafi is a megalomaniac and is delusionary is what the West has been constantly saying to reiterate their need to get him out in Libya. The final trigger for the UN resolution 1973 and the beginning of military action by the West in Libya is centering among other things upon Gaddhafi’s statement that rivers of blood would run in Benghazi when Gaddhafi was able to catch the rebels. Though there may be precedents of Gaddhafi’s excesses against his own people in the past, in the present context how stupid is it of Western leaders and Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General and particularly men of the mental acumen of Barrack Obama to go on the basis of a psychotic’s statement and commit your country to war? Do these Western leaders ever sit back and analyse their actions? Overall the Libyan problem is an internal problem which the local government has to resolve within the framework of a law and order issue. No foreign government’s interference in this was desirable. In fact there is still time for them to move out with what little is left of their dignity. The number of civilian deaths will only escalate beyond what would have happened if Gaddhafi had been allowed to handle his problem and the more protracted the war gets, the more civilians will die at the hands of the opposing forces and their allies as we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Another aspect is that the Western coalition airstrikes are taking out Gaddhafi’s air defences and airports so that the no-fly zone is strictly implemented and the Western coalition planes are not at risk. But hang on a moment who will ultimately benefit out of this action? Not the Libyan people but the military industrial establishments of the Western world. The present military action is only to create a market for themselves in terms of military hardware in an oil rich country like Libya. So much for noble thoughts about protecting civilians in Libya; those who have died already are lucky in that for them death was merciful and quick while those who remain will have to go through hell of the Western world’s making before they reach Allah in Paradise in the footsteps of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq!

We Need To Pull Together On The Lokpal Bill

The activists hue and cry on the off the cuff statement made by Anna Hazare praising Modi in Gujarat for his rural development initiatives is completely unwarranted. We need to remember that even Ravana for all his misdeeds was highly regarded as a very learned Brahmin by even Lord Rama. Thus Modi has his faults and Anna Hazare is not to be blamed for that. By pursuing these agendas including Baba Ramdev’s comment on the inclusion of the Bhushan father-son duo, since thankfully retracted, the activists are only dividing themselves and these are exactly the cracks which the incumbent government will try to exploit. This is the time to pull together since Anna Hazare and his colleagues have got us thus far on the Lokpal Bill and we have to see how far this ‘experiment’ as Pranab Mukherjee put it, will work. The government is already trying to blow holes in this arrangement with Kapil Sibal trying to mock it and Abhishek Singhvi, the Congress spokesman, saying that there can be no pre-conditions on Anna Hazare’s comment about transparency and videographing the committee’s meetings and putting them in the public domain. These are all the methods which the politicians will use to sabotage the committee’s working and which Anna Hazare was expecting. They will try to protect their turf and on the civil society side, we should protect ours. This is just the beginning of the battle since both sides in the constituting the members in the committee have committed lapses by not making it broad based. The fault here is more with the government since they have included only the Congress party members and that too only Ministers and seeing the names you can say it is ‘heavyweight’. This can be taken in two ways. One is that the government is serious in trying to make this ‘experiment’ work or secondly, like they say in Navy parlance the intention is to train all their heavy artillery on Anna Hazare and his team and ‘blow them out of the water’. As mentioned earlier some of the other parties are sore about their non-inclusion in the committee, some have given their support to Anna Hazare rather grudgingly sensing the public mood and all will have their say when the Lok Pal bill is introduced in Parliament. There are others in civil society, the so-called armchair theorists, who have called this process a sabotage of Parliamentary democracy and snatching away the right to enact legislation from elected members of Parliament, forgetting that our democracy has become infested to the core by these pests called politicians and it is time to seek change. Salman Khurshid the persuasive voice in the committee has also commented that the position of Anna Hazare and others from civil society is confrontational and in tarnishing all politicians with the corruption brush will lead to men of integrity not coming into politics. This is a later analysis that can be done once the Lok pal bill is out of the way and surely we need not put the cart before the horse. Anna Hazare’s methods are the first precursors of this change and if it works will form a model for other legislation to follow which will rid us from corruption as much as possible from our society. Thus like they say we have to start somewhere and that is exactly the start that has been made with Anna Hazare’s initiative on the Lok Pal bill. If we try to do everything at the same time we will not get anywhere and end up as the starving man who in his greediness tries to eat everything from the repast put before him and ends up getting a stomach upset or in cricket analogy we will not have a second innings. As said earlier the government has a vested interest in making sure that this civil society interference in legislation or in government not work and we are only playing into their hands by criticizing Anna Hazare for his presumed omissions and commissions. At the time of writing this there is news that the first meeting of the Lok Pal committee went off well which should be seen as a sign that augurs well for the future.

Slaves To The English Language

There has been vociferous debate lately in Goa on the need for using English as the medium of instruction for education at the primary level as apart from Konkani that is existing, at least in government run schools. This controversy will be across the country where the clamour to use English will reverberate on the plea by parents that it secures a better life in future for their children. In this process the regional languages like Konkani in Goa and others in their home states are getting progressively decimated. This writing highlights the situation for Konkani but is also relevant in emphasizing the general issues which affects all our other regional languages. Most people are happy to pay lip service to Konkani in Goa but when it comes to doing something for her, everyone backs off and more often than not she is forsaken by her own children. The analogy used here has been that while we have been becoming more ‘shrimant’ – prosperous, we have kept Konkani outside the door of our house. The clamour for use of English is not limited to Goa alone but is a general demand around the country. The usage of English is widespread in our country which pervades our daily activities and is the de facto language in all walks of life and business. In fact the undersigned and all of us by using English are also offenders in that sense. In a broader sense the use of English highlights the notion of bondage that we carry in our minds. All things foreign are supposed to be better for us Indians even if the same things are made here and deliver equivalent if not enhanced performance. These are the indicators of this malaise – the ‘phoren’ craze. Thus carrying the argument to the extreme one can ask why did we let the British or the Portuguese go? We could have continued to have them rule over us. Then we would not have been burdened with the need to choose a national language. This is precisely why UNESCO mentions where there may be a problem or difficulty in teaching in the mother tongue, since in a colonized country you have to use the language of your rulers like Portuguese when Goa was still not liberated. Why can we not understand that once a country has chosen a national language, a home grown one like Hindi, we need to accept it for all our needs? Could we not have continued to speak in our mother tongues at home and had one official language – Hindi for the country? Anyone watching the India – Pak semi-final in the recently concluded World Cup would have noticed that the Pakistani PM Gilani spoke in Hindustani or Urdu (whatever you may call it) but our Manmohan Singh spoke in English! Why is it beneath him to speak in Hindi or Gurmukhi or what have you? And mind you he had enough time to translate his thoughts from English into any Indian language during the entire match of some 8 hours duration. Do you not feel it insulting when our leaders when they speak around the world at different forums, speak in English while even the smallest African newly independent nation speaks in its own mother tongue. The French, Russians, Koreans, Japanese among many other nations are proud of their language and all their education, including that at higher levels, is conducted in their own language. And these are prosperous countries whom we have always desired to emulate in terms of their economic development and also seek assistance from. Can we say that about ourselves? The argument that we have so many languages in India and therefore English is the language of choice is a very average and convenient argument. It lacks the basic conviction and the determination to claim that we have a national language and we will use it. Our earlier leaders and forefathers are at fault for having given this burden of heritage of the English language to carry on our shoulders which we now cannot unload in a hurry. We have to live with English whether we like it or not. Concluding in this context, there is much credit being expressed about the turn-out for the rally which met in the recent past at Azad Maidan in Panaji, Goa to demand for English as the medium of instruction. At a first level, one can say that the Queen of England would have been very happy if she was aware of the rally and the content of its demands. Secondly, the people who collected at that rally may well have added to their demand, the need to accede to the United Kingdom and restore the status quo as it then prevailed prior to August 1947. Why do we continue to remain slaves of the mind to the British and or the Portuguese?

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 55 Date: 09.04.2011

Contents:

1. Congratulations Anna Hazare!
2. The West Should Review Operations In Libya
3. Gifting Within Reasonable Limits
4. CBI Throws Up Its Hands
5. 2G Scam Lost Between Committees
6. Sibal Needs To Be Muzzled & Taught Proper Decorum

Congratulations Anna Hazare!

Anna Hazare’s agitation for citizen involvement in the drafting of the Lokpal Bill has been successful is a good thing. All’s well that ends well. But there are a few issues related to it that we all need to take note. And that is that Kapil Sibal has gone and done it again. Put his foot in his mouth that is. While talking to the press as shown on TV news channels he said that as far as the negotiations with Anna Hazare and his people on the Lokpal Bill are concerned, the government cannot issue a notification but the relevant department or ministry, maybe the Law ministry, can issue a letter and as far as formation of the committee is concerned if the people from civil life are nominated by Anna Hazare then ministers will not be part of the committee and will be replaced by officials. The first issue about the notification is understandable since these are matters of legality and legislation where people from civilian life to be mentioned could become a burdensome precedent for the government. But the fact that ministers cannot be part of a committee with other people from civil life is an incorrect stand to take. This more so when people of the stature of ex-Supreme Court judges like Santhosh Hegde and J S Verma are being suggested by Anna Hazare. Are we not a democracy? Is this government not of the people, by the people and for the people? Why make a distinction between ministers and people from civil life? Are the ministers any way different from ordinary citizens? Are they not people just like you and me? This has been the problem with democracy in India and the manner it has evolved with the people who represent the common citizens being considered a different category? The politicians believe that they are a privileged class entitled to apart from other things immunity for prosecution, dynastic succession, preferential treatment for all facilities and services in the country etc. etc.!! This is precisely, in a general sense, is what Anna Hazare is campaigning against. Our democracy runs protected by security when it meets in its legislative halls be it the Assemblies in the States or Parliament at the Centre. It is almost as if democracy is held captive and there is no freedom for it or to the citizens on which it enjoins rights and responsibilities. Again when our representatives come out in public they have to be ‘protected’ by Z-class security! What are these people afraid of? Obviously of their misdeeds otherwise in the more general sense they should have been hobnobbing with the people freely. Or is this ministers vs. officials ploy by Kapil Sibal to have an option for retreat so that if the Bill is not passed in the format approved by this committee then the ministers and the government have the chance to either modify or reject it. Anyway this has all been sorted out now. As far as Manmohan Singh ‘s role in this matter of Anna Hazare is concerned. Why was he again hiding? Whenever there is a major issue at stake we have our PM go into a shell not knowing what to do? Both he and Anna Hazare are of the same age group. Anna Hazare is a man of stature which fact has been again proved over the last 3 days, so what stopped Manmohan Singh to go to Jantar Mantar, meet Anna Hazare and request him to give up his fast and not send people like Kapil Sibal whose brains are addled with intrigue to handle such sensitive matters. These are the grand gestures of leadership that the country expects from its Prime Ministers and not hide behind the doors of conference rooms stating that meetings are being held and issue statements.

The West Should Review Operations In Libya

The situation in Libya is rather amusing with the West as the aggressors against a country which according to their premise is not treating its civilians right. In times past if a country instigated such armed aggression against another then we would have the West step in as defenders of the attacked country. Many are the instances like this around the world where the US & the West would be up in arms and support the attacked country at all forums including the UN when the erstwhile Soviet Union interfered in Hungary or Yugoslavia or Czechoslavkia. Such interferences also occurred in the Panama region, South America as well as Africa and Asia where the West would hasten to protect the underdog or a country having a system akin to democracy or where its interests suited it to oppose the attacker or to obtain access to resources. Now times seem to have changed and it the West is taking the position of the instigator or interfering country albeit with backing of a more than willing UN. The US is able to do this since there is no counterbalancing power in the world and it is the only superpower today. The situation in Libya is fast turning into what the old adage states – Act in haste, repent at leisure.

With the situation inside Libya none too happy for the West, their scribes are giving themselves a halo of stopping a humanitarian crisis in Libya. Contrary to their claim, it is the West which is generating a humanitarian crisis. Again some of the Western correspondent’s pompousness while handling the Libya matter is stunning. In interviews on the BBC their correspondents seem to assume that they know more than the Gaddhafi government about the situation in Libya after being just 2 weeks in the country. Though it is expected that the Libyan spokesmen will try to cover up their problems the viewers would be able to discount these claims and judge for themselves what the actual situation is rather than take a biased and transitory version from the foreign correspondents. One of the BBC correspondents was almost posturing as if he wanted the Libyans to negotiate through him. The West is trying to rummage their bag of tricks to try and make something stick on Gaddhafi even things like having supplied Semtex to the IRA in the 70’s and the Lockerbie bombings which are long gone and dead affairs. Even the comment that triggered this wave of sympathy for Libyan civilians made ostensibly by Gaddhafi about the rebels in Bengazi where he said – We will catch them in their houses, bring them out and slaughter them. This led the West to imagine that rivers of blood would flow in Benghazi rather than factor in the Arab hyperbole which is built into every public utterance that an arab makes.

The West by bombing Libya, are putting civilians at risk of life. These are the self-same people that they claim to be trying to protect. There have been already 2 incidents of the NATO attacking the rebel forces with their missiles and airstrikes resulting in a total of about 30 dead. This clearly exposes the lie that the airstrikes will not kill civilians. If there are cases of mis-targeting the rebels by the Western coalition then there is bound to be mis-targeting when they attack the Libyan armed forces and thus kill innocent Libyan civilians which they are bound by UN mandate to ‘protect’! There seems to be also a move on by the Western media to spread the canard that the rebel casualties were not through a NATO missile strike but inflicted by the Libyan armed forces so that in the world’s eye they can get NATO off the hook. In any case nothing will happen of this and it will be pushed under the broad umbrella of ‘collateral damage’. Where in Libya under ordinary circumstances the army and the rebels would have fought and the casualties would have been limited to this fighting amongst them, we now have the Western airstrikes additionally killing both the Libyan army personnel and the rebels. Thus are casualties not being multiplied by the Western action. So in what way are the West ‘protecting civilians’ and bringing democracy to Libya.? There has also been intelligence reports of the US indicating tracers of Al Qaeda and Hezbollah involvement among the rebels. We are reproducing the Iraq tangle all over again with this.

Why is the West not allowing negotiation to bring in a ceasefire in Libya? Why cannot the UN start this process? Why is Ban Ki Moon acting like a referee in a football game to whom no one is listening to? The African Union is willing to talk with Libya. The Arab League connection can still be explored.

Gifting Within Reasonable Limits

When it comes to celebrating anything Indians are prone to excess but when it comes to cricket then the excess crosses all boundaries. The manner in which crores are being bandied about while congratulating and gifting our cricketers after their World Cup triumph is something which is crossing all reasonable norms. We should remember that we are a poor country and many are the projects which are not able to command resources and with the kind of money being given to the team at least some of these projects could have been completed. It is not that anyone minds giving them congratulatory gifts but remain within reason and decorum and maybe the cricketers will respect these gifts more. Here it is almost as if every body and State government is trying to out-do one another in seeing who can go higher in the quantum of the gifts. No wonder that some well meaning citizens have pointed out that when State governments are giving these gifts they are taking out of the exchequer which is funded by the taxpayer and some amount of restraint is required to be shown.

CBI Throws Up Its Hands

The drug mafia and police nexus case was to have been handed by the Goa government to the CBI for investigation. It has been reported that Mumbai office of the CBI have come back and told the High Court in Goa that they are overloaded with cases and do not have the manpower to allocate to this case. This is rather surprising for the prime investigation agency of the country to say since with all kinds of crime and corruption on the rise, the CBI should have been up to the job in tackling this rising trend of crime. Instead of that we have them throwing up their hands. Why are they not planning to add on more staff since there are more than an adequate number of graduates remaining unemployed in the country who can be trained as investigators to be led by the IPS personnel within the CBI? Or is it that this UPA – 2 government at the Centre is not up to allocating resources to investigate crime and corruption since they have an inherent interest in not having these cases tackled. It is finally understood that the CBI have told the High Court in Goa that they are willing to take up the case and we hope that they will pursue it seriously and not end up doing just a face-saving job.

2G Scam Lost Between Committees

The reluctance of this UPA-2 government to appoint the JPC to probe the 2G scam was apparent. Now that the JPC has been announced, there is an ongoing turf war between it and the PAC led by the BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi which was already seized of the 2G scam matter through the submission of the CAG report to it. With a Congressman leading the JPC and the BJP leader heading the PAC, it looks like nothing will come out of either the probes. This seems to be the deliberate plan of the UPA-2 government to confuse the issue and make sure that the probe in the 2G scam reaches nowhere. As for the JPC there is no timeline for it to complete its investigations and since the PAC comments have never been taken seriously by our polity in the past, any hope for the 2G scam to be unraveled and laid bare before the nation is a forlorn hope. Thus the Supreme Court case based on the PIL filed with it on the 2G scam in which the eminent judges are assuming the position of drillmasters is the only chance that those involved in the scam will be brought to justice. The UPA-2 government or for that matter any government once in office has never been serious in pursuing corruption since everyone’s hands in politics are equally soiled. That is why a senior leader like Anna Hazare has even after a meeting with the PM in early March has to resort to a hunger strike to bring the attention of the PM and his government to get serious about this malaise that has been affecting the nation. This reluctance of the UPA-2 government to tackle corruption was again apparent in the black money case involving Hassan Alii Khan which again without the involvement of the Supreme Court would have been shelved by now.

Sibal Needs To Be Muzzled & Taught Proper Decorum

We need to have the UPA-2 government’s ministers like Kabil Sibal understand that when they talk of leaders like Anna Hazare they should talk with some respect and not treat him as one of Sibal’s kind of politicians which Sibal is used to. Anna Hazare is an elderly, eminent person deserving of respect and it is best that Sibal knows that. The fact that Anna Hazare has had to sit on hunger strike highlights that every citizen in this country is sick and tired of this government and its ministers saying that they are looking it and that they will take action. The naked truth is that once a matter is off the public eye nothing is done about it. There are numerous instances of such things happening. It is time now that this government operates on the timelines set by the people and that is precisely what Anna Hazare is doing. If people like Sibal cannot take it, it is time they shipped out. Further when a suggestion is made to the government it should try and see whether that suggestion can be accommodated and not reject it outright. This is being said in the context of Sibal stating that Anna Hazare and his group’s suggestion that in the drafting of the Lokpal Bill there should be the involvement of eminent persons from the lay people which cannot be accepted. Sibal’s job is to try and find a way to get this to be accepted and not negative a suggestion. What is wrong in telling Anna Hazare and his people that per procedure they cannot be opted onto the government committee but asking this lay citizen’s eminent group to give their points or draft and see whether it can be accommodated? Does Kibal not have this much comprehension or the experience of dealing with such matters to find a way through? Or is he deliberately being obtuse? Sibal has made enough gaffes in relation to the 2G scam and let him not be the most consistent person in the Congress to put his foot in his mouth all the time.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 54 Date: 02.04.2011

Contents:
1. Kudos to Dhoni and the Team India for Lifting the World Cup.
2. Get Out of Libya
3. Learn To Negotiate From Pakistan
4. The West Should Get Out Of Libya Before It Burns Its Fingers
5. Tackling The Black Money Menace
6. UN Needs To Play An Impartial Role



Kudos to Dhoni and the Team India for Lifting the World Cup

The World Cup victory scripted by Dhoni and his team was tremendous. They deserve all the credit that you can give them. But if one sees the photographs after the wonderful 6 that Dhoni sent into the stands, you cannot spot him at all in the celebratory rounds that the team, coach and support staff took around the stadium until the presentation ceremony when he re-appears again. He must surely have been savouring the triumph privately. But the Indian cricket team for all their indifferent performances in the early stages of the tournament, where either the bowling was not up to the mark, or the batting failed and the fielding was inconsistent right through, pulled together from the quarterfinal stages as a powerful combination. Like Dhoni had said that they were peaking at the right time, great insight that! The tie with England, the loss to South Africa set the priorities for higher achievement in front of Team India who responded with back to back wins over Australia, Pakistan and then Sri Lanka in the final stages of the tournament to take the World Cup. Overall this World Cup was wonderful and brought back the 50 over format back into the limelight since there was fear that with the T-20 format dominating the ODI would be consigned to history. The smaller teams like Canada, Holland, Ireland and Kenya made the best use of the tournament and proved that they were no pushovers by pulling off some remarkable victories and close matches. These countries need to be a part of the World Cup, there is no doubt about that and they also need to play more cricket with the top countries on a regular basis and only then will their standard improve. Just think what New Zealand was some forty years ago, Sri Lanka some thirty years ago and Bangladesh some ten years ago. These countries and their players have come up and we can see world class talent among them because they kept playing more and more cricket. As regards the timing of the tournament it is best held in the sub-continent during the winter months since we do not want to see exhausted players at the end of a game because obviously we do not get to see the best from them. The pictures of Dhoni struggling in the finals and Yuvraj in the semi-finals are more than evidence of this need. Also where the World Cup is inspirational particularly for Indian children and youth with India winning it, you hold it smack in the middle of the run-up to their exams or right in the middle of their exams. This is not right! We need to reschedule it in line not with sponsors and advertising but for the children of India to see and give us more Tendulkars, Dhonis, Yuvarajs, Zaheers and Rainas. All in all it was a great victory for Team India and Dhoni and his men should keep up the good work.

Get Out of Libya

The situation in Libya is deteriorating rapidly as indicated by media reports. The US position as delineated by Obama is getting more and more alarming. President Obama claims he prevented a massacre in Libya consequent of his airstrikes in support of the rebels in the context of the Libyan forces moving towards Benghazi. What he does not realize is that he only postponed the massacre? Once Gaddhafi gets ahead of the rebels you cannot expect him to give any mercy to them. Similarly David Cameron claims that under UN Resolution 1973 they can supply arms to the rebels to ‘protect civilians’. What convoluted logic is this? Obama seems to share the same stand though he is still dillydallying over the decision. With this Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary General will realize that he was sold a dummy by the West in terms of the Security Council resolution. Under the umbrella clause of ‘protecting civilians’, the West have the liberty to interpret it any which way they like. This debate within the US and the UK whether they should be supplying arms to the rag tag bunch of rebels is for the consumption of the rest of the world. The UK seems to be the more willing party inclined to go ahead in this matter. In this the US and the West are treading the well worn path they had done in Afghanistan by arming the rebels which later became the Taliban. Seems like the US will never learn and will be hell bent in creating another bogey in the Muslim world like the Taliban and the Al Qaeda. President Obama has further authorized the CIA to fight against the rebels, though we know that this is just to legitimize their already existing presence in Libya. Additionally Special Forces from the UK are already in Libya working alongside the rebels. Thus instead of fighting a proxy war the West might as well as invade Libya. They can throw pretence aside since by their logic, the Libyan civilians are in dire need of ‘protection’! Moreover all kinds of persons are coming back to Libya claiming themselves as long lost patriots but again in the precedent of Iraq these people are all likely to be the vultures who come calling when the carrion is there to be had. Much again is being made out in the news of the Foreign Minister of Libya deserting Gaddhafi in Libya and making it all the way to London. The newsreaders on BBC and CNN are making it out that with close people deserting Gaddhafi the Libyan government will ‘implode’ is their estimate. Gaddhafi as any military strategist will vouch for can loose all his ministers right now but what he needs currently is for his army commanders and riflemen to be in place. Again much is being made out of what this Foreign Minister will tell the West about Gaddhafi’s present position. But then will he not tell them what the West wants to hear? The world will recall the then US Secretary of State, Colin Powell making presentations in the UN Security Council of the formations of flat-bed truck trailers in an Iraqi compound near a factory shed like building and claiming that this was the location where Saddam Hussein was building his WMD’s which formed one of the basis for invading Iraq. It has now been revealed that these pictures were obtained from a close aide of Saddam and by his own admission these were all fake and manufactured to improve his credibility with the US and cut a good deal for himself. Thus the Foreign Minister may lead the UK down the garden path on which they will follow happily since he will be telling them only what the UK wants to hear. It is the UK’s turn to be fooled now and their first time! The Western media are also making out Gaddhafi to be a dangerous and malevolent person and stating that he has lost the confidence of his people. They are desperate to paint Gaddhafi as black as possible to cover up the fact that they are already in a mess on the quicksands of Libya and are sinking deeper by the day. Gaddhafi is the man the West now loves to hate and they will go to any extent to do that as luridly as possible. Please remember that the above is not really to support Gaddhafi but to forcefully object that the West cannot unilaterally take military action against another sovereign country. There are other methods to deal with Gaddhafi who everyone accepts has to go but in a civilized world methods like negotiation are more appropriate. Why is the West loosing patience so soon? Concluding, one would like to wonder what President Obama would tell his daughter, if she came and asked him – ‘Daddy, why are we fighting a war in Libya? You always said that we should work for peace in this world. Why have you changed now? Is it true that one of our earlier Presidents, like you, authorized a missile strike against Gaddhafi’s compound some years ago and in that his 12 year old daughter was killed?’

Learn To Negotiate From Pakistan

The Raymond Davis case in Pakistan clearly establishes the tough negotiation that Pakistan is capable off. Irrespective of the pressures by the US in many ways the Pakistan authorities stuck to their guns and did not buckle down under pressure. The diplomatic immunity issue for Davis was refused and it is reported that Pakistan wanted to trade off Davis’ release with the release of the lady Pakistani nuclear scientist who has been recently sentenced in the US for terrorist activities. Failing on this with the US they wanted to get ISI chief Pasha deleted from the list of respondents on the 26/11 terror incident in Mumbai for which some of the families of the Americans killed in the incident, have filed a case in the US courts for damages. Pasha as per law will have to shortly appear in the US court to answer the charges, failing which the US may seek deportation of Pasha. This was also refused by the US when Pakistan and the US agreed to Saudi Arabia’s mediation. By this time the relations between the US and Pakistan had sunk to the lowest level possible. Saudi Arabia found a way out through the shariat law procedure of paying blood money and that is how Davis was finally released. By the time of his release he had spent more than six weeks in Pakistani jails and was produced in different courts as any ordinary prisoner and without any special privileges. Will we be able to do anything like this faced with a similar situation? Surely not. We tend to bend down to foreigners at the first instance and lately the US seems to be the hot favourite to whom we play supplicant to. Apart from the many indignities that our VIP’s have been subjected to while entering the US on the pretext of security for all of which we kept unusually quiet, there was an incident about 6-8 months ago at Mumbai where a plane load of some 200 US commandos returning home after their term of mission in Iraq was completed had their aircraft while passing through Indian airspace near Mumbai developing engine problems and requested permission to land. Not only did we allow them to land but the US commandos were almost accorded VIP treatment and put up in a 5-star hotel near the Mumbai airport and they were allowed to have the free run of the city for two whole days while their aircraft was getting repaired. Would the US accord the same kind of treatment to any of our contingent of soldiers caught in a similar predicament in US airspace? The simple question here is that this was just after the 26/11 incident where we had the unfortunate experience of foreign terrorists sneaking into Mumbai. And these were 200 armed commandos? They could have been representing anybody since the aircraft they were using was a chartered aircraft and not of the US Air Force. Why were they not quarantined at the Mumbai airport until their aircraft was repaired? Why were they given the free run of the city over the two days that they were stranded here. It is almost as if they were given a stopover on their way home by the Indian government. These are instances where we can learn to act tough, and stay tough while strictly following quid pro quo reciprocal arrangements when dealing with any foreign nationals on our soil.

The West Should Get Out Of Libya Before It Burns Its Fingers

Just as in Libya the governments of Yemen, Syria and Bahrain have turned their guns on their ‘own’ civilians. The Bahrainis have further compounded the issue by asking for tanks to come across from Saudi Arabia to help them quell the civil unrest. Will the US, UK and France now send in their Wild West posses into these countries and call in airstrikes to ‘protect’ the civilians? How many countries and their governments will the West ‘protect’ against their own people? In the above named countries the West are surely not going to send in any forces since they are all friendly dictators but for Syria. We will give Assad a few more days and after the hullabaloo on Libya dies down, we will get to him? President Obama is talking that the US has a moral right to attack Libya. What kind of morality is he talking about that requires his country to attack another? These are immature and cooked-up reasons to justify a blatant attack on another nation’s sovereignty. Just two days back there were public protests against the budget cutbacks in London, 200 are reported to have been arrested. Does this mean that the UK has a government which is not acceptable to its people? Will the other Western countries call for a regime change in the UK and have David Cameron booted out of office and country? These are normal protests and the UK have tackled it according to their societal mores and arrested quite a large number of people who will be dealt with according to local law? The same applies for Libya where the people are dealing with the public unrest according to their society’s customs and rules. Libya being dominated by tribes have their justice system maybe decided by a gun. Let them handle it their way. The public protesters first picked up their guns against Gaddhafi’s forces. Now then what do you expect Gaddhafi’s forces to do, give them jasmine flowers? Each according to the weapon he chooses and therefore the Libyan army had no alternative but to shoot at the protesters. This is exactly what has happened in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria where in some places the protesters did not have guns and were shot at but here the West is looking the other way. And let us see whom is the West supporting but a rag-tag bunch of irregulars who have no leader, who have no plan, who have no idea of how to run a government and whose sole aim is to go get Gaddhafi. And this is the bunch of people that the West is supporting and in gung-ho fashion saying – Saddle up! Let’s go get Gaddhafi. This leaderless nature of the rebels in Libya is being highlighted since going by the example of what happened in Egypt where El Baradei, the former head of the IAEA who had tried to become the public face of the revolution against Hosni Mubarak, was summarily rejected and from what is reported in the press, not even allowed to vote in the recently held elections in Egypt. Libya would then be much worse off and no one knows what clout the self-styled leader of the Libyan rebels has with them. France and Sarkozy in true Gallic style has gone ahead and recognized the rebels just to be the first off the block. In any case, the mini-summit in London on Libya is all about where it is said that 40 countries (the number suspiciously seems to be exactly the same that George W Bush had famously said that constitute his coalition in the early days of the Iraq war) have got together to try and find out what they are doing in Libya? Among these countries there are some willing, some unwilling, some who have had to be dragged to the table, some coerced, some blackmailed and where it is said that the Arab League would prefer to have observer status. It will be a long summer in Libya for the Western coalition forces and that will add to their military misadventures that have dotted the globe in the recent past.

Tackling The Black Money Menace

The amount of focus that we are giving to the case of Hasan Ali Khan for avoidance of income tax and for having stashed away billions of dollars in foreign banks gives one the feeling that he seems to be the only one involved in this nefarious activity. Even the pursuit of Hasan Ali Khan with proper application and vigour by the IT & ED has been after being swatted on the back (equivalent word for ‘behind’ in some contexts as given by the Oxford English Dictionary) by the Supreme Court. In the absence of this prodding the case would as well have been lying in one of the crumbling cupboards of the ED offices in Delhi. But let us get real. What will be the result of this case? One man may admit to his sins and somehow manage to pay the back-taxes and the penalty, but does it get us out of this perennial scourge of black money. To admit frankly, the answer is – No. In fact even the Hasan Ali Khan case may after the Supreme Court looses interest in it after some time will be forgotten just like the last large scale offender of similar offences, Harshad Mehta. Another basic point that we have to recognize here is whether the process of apprehending black money offenders is only through the income tax route? Is the avoidance of income tax by individuals the only indication of black money offenders? My answer is not necessarily. Again are those who stash money abroad only those who generate black money? Again the answer is, not necessarily! Therefore we have to understand the process of generation of black money and attack it from its roots. If one goes by common experience then eighty per cent of real estate industry operates on black money, the same applies to trade where forty per cent easily operates with unaccounted money. The government construction industry of PWD contractors fifty per cent or more operate on a strictly cash only basis, and that too black. It is widely known that the black money in India is like a parallel economy and at various times, its size is said to be almost twice the size of the legal economy. This was somewhat corroborated by an international finance agency which put out figures for unauthorized transfers of funds to outside the country where among many India easily topped with some $ 1500 billion since the 1950’s. And surprise of surprises more than half of those transfers happened after the 1990’s. This is when India embarked on its liberalization process of progressively integrating its economy with the world. Therefore the liberalization process involved was to make it easier for people to transfer their wealth abroad! This raises the question whether it was advisable for India to embark upon the road of liberalization. But like they say, that is another story and we will tackle it some other time. We will restrict ourselves to talking only about black money here. Thus like we have outlined the black money issue is much bigger than Hassan Ali Khan and it is important that we move away from that focus and tackle the whole matter since otherwise we will be missing the forests by tackling just the trees. Let us for a moment look back on our government irrespective of the shade that is in current favour, and its continued reluctance to tackle the black money issue. Simply put it will throw out a lot of skeletons from each politician and party’s closet. That is precisely the reason why Hassan Ali Khan was not pushed to the wall and not interrogated in judicial custody until the Supreme Court stepped in, since the current political power dispensation across the ideological divides are afraid of what names he may throw up. That is precisely the reason why the other 17 names given by the Liechtenstein bank are not being made public officially. And the government is playing hide and seek behind confidentiality agreements on the DTA’s it has signed with many nations as the reason for protecting the names. The reason is simple when it protects those names, it protects themselves and wraps all their connections with the political establishment under a mantle of secrecy. Otherwise as most of the nations like the Swiss have said that if any of those people, foreign nationals that is, who have accounts with them are proved for criminality then the Swiss according to their laws have no problem in freezing the accounts and sharing whatever information that countries like India want. Over the years and lately the Swiss particularly have relaxed their rules in terms of giving information on such suspect accounts and where they insisted earlier on a full name and address of the account holder, now they are willing to cooperate if just the account number is given to them and proof of criminality. Based on this the US and the UK have got their unauthorized money transactions sorted out with the Swiss banks and have been able to tackle the conduits of funding drugs, prostitution and terrorism. What stops India from passing a law declaring all Indians having unauthorized foreign bank accounts as criminal offenders and tackling the issue head on rather than resort to these ifs and buts, we are looking into the matter kind of dialogue which is not getting us anywhere. The Supreme Court was very correct when it asked the government for a time bound plan to tackle the black money menace. And what has the government done about it? Nothing! Simply put the will is lacking. And why is that? For fear of disclosure and the fact that it will besmirch the majority of who are in power currently, be it in politics or business or otherwise. As far as black money within the country, the PM himself has mentioned recently that to sort out the issue relating to real estate, the stamp duty on property purchases and sale should be reduced since then there would be more compliance and less of black money would be involved. All transactions should be backed by a bill or invoice which fact is being promoted as part of the consumer awareness programs and as much as possible all transactions should be routed through banks. Just like the stamp duty on property needs to be rationalized so also should income tax rates on which some effort has been made recently and direct tax revenues are rising which is indicative of more compliance. So also are the indirect taxes particularly sales tax which with the GST bill introduction sometime next year will see more friendly tax levels and hopefully lesser avoidance. The need to have PAN Nos. to be declared for all transactions above Rs. 50,000/- through banks is also a proper measure to track regular high value cash transactions. Thus we have or are going to have our systems in place to tackle black money but then someone at the political and governmental level has to give the signal to go for it. That is where the crux of the problem lies. Who will break the Gordian Knot? But we need to recognize that of paramount importance is the necessity to bring back our money that is stashed abroad and for which our government should act with more interest, enthusiasm and alacrity. Just like the US and UK got most of their unauthorized money issues sorted out so also should India. The amount involved is not small and will help India to boost its resources to meet development agendas. The foreign countries and their banks like we have seen recently in the Libyan or the Egyptian context are willing to freeze resources as long as they are pursued sincerely and with logic. Let us hope our government would act accordingly.

UN Needs To Play An Impartial Role

The West in claiming to save civilians by protecting people with guns and arms that they are raising against their ruler which is turning the democracy logic upside down. The contradiction in addition is that the West is attacking the Libyan army forces for carrying guns and considers them as legitimate targets but denying the same logic when these same forces attack the rebels for carrying guns. Thus is the West not supporting armed rebellion in Libya? The manner in which the UN Secretary General is also playing footsie with the US, France and the UK on the Libya issue is almost as if he is a lapdog of the Western powers. What efforts did he or the West make to open a dialogue with Gaddhafi when the first protests in Libya surfaced? Can you explain by bombing Gaddhafi’s defence infrastructure how are you protecting Libyan civilians? When Gaddhafi made the unilateral ceasefire offer on the eve of the UN resolution, why did you not take any action to study it and hold back the Western airstrikes? Even now why is the UN Secretary General acting as a puppet of the Western powers by claiming that Gaddhafi is himself breaking his ceasefire offer to justify the continued airstrikes by the West? What alternative does any ruler have in the face of unauthorized air attacks against his country but to defend himself? Is he expected to sit quietly and watch his country be smashed to smithereens? Why did Ban Ki Moon not accept the request of the Libyan government to convene the Security Council and discuss the Libyan matter after the UN resolution was passed and the first airstrikes were over? Would that not have been the process of democracy to educate those unknown to it like Libya? Ban Ki Moon needs to realize that he is being used by the US, UK and France to legitimize their attacks on Libya and to give it a fig leaf of credibility. The UN and its Secretary General should wake up to this reality and call for an immediate ceasefire in Libya. The African Union has offered to mediate and the Arab League should also be able to have whatever little access to Gaddhafi which it has not squandered by now, to bring some sort of peace in the strife torn country. Now you have the public unrest spreading from Bahrain to Syria to Yemen and other countries which are just waiting to get into the act. How many of these countries will the West support by their military power encourage to walk the path of democracy? Is it not better that these countries walk independently on their own and generate whatever political system that they want for themselves which will be surely more sustaining and durable.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 53 Date: 26.03.2011

Contents:

1. India's Alternate Energy Source: Solar
2. The Duality of Approach in Libya
3. Pursue Cash for Votes Scam Investigation to Its Logical Conclusion
4. Misinterpreting the UN No-Fly Zone Resolution on Libya
5. Point Counter-Point In Indian Politics


India's Alternate Energy Source: Solar

With the evolving tragedy at the Fukushima nuclear plant and the continuing risks it is putting in exposing the people not only in Japan but around the world to nuclear radiation, many of the responsible governments like Switzerland and Germany have decided not to pursue nuclear power as an option to meet their energy needs. Even the US is mulling over whether it should proceed apace with the nuclear energy option. The reason for their doing this is that it exposes the citizens of the country to unimaginable risks and thus is best avoided. India should follow suit in this exercise and not pursue the nuclear option for its energy needs. It is another matter that our ministers continue to talk otherwise since the full import of the Fukushima disaster has probably not sunk into them yet. In the recent past in terms of fuels that primarily support humanity’s energy needs, that is coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear, we have had major accidents which have highlighted the risks in their extraction and use. Like for coal there have been accidents in coal mines with regularity around the world and most recently in China and even in the USA in the States of Carolina as also in Australia. For oil and natural gas the major blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico of BP and its consequent cost in terms of safely plugging it and related environmental disaster has brought a halt to all off-shore drilling at least in the US. On the backs of Chernobyl and the Three Mile accidents you have now Fukushima added to the list for nuclear plant accidents which puts a big cautionary question mark on the use of the nuclear option to meet humanity’s energy needs since that was the most environmentally friendly among all the above four listed above. Thus India should seriously review its options for using nuclear energy to generate electrical power. Why India is not considering more seriously the solar energy option being a sunshine-rich country is something that begs comprehension? Solar energy technology is developing very fast and today you have plastic sheet solar cell arrays which make them amenable for mass production. With these developments in technology solar energy will leapfrog on the cost per unit energy scale and become dramatically economic. This is where early adoption of solar energy by sunshine-rich countries like India will accelerate the breakpoint where cost drops will happen. It is not that India is not adopting solar energy but what is needed is to make it come to the forefront and not remain consigned to the also-ran option among other energy generation methods. Solar energy in its conventional format requires very large areas of land per MW of electricity generated to accommodate what are called array farms compared to the other options. But India need not tread this well-worn path but decentralize generation to every household, apartment complex, industrial units, institutions educational or otherwise and have solar arrays on each rooftop in India. Not only will these generate electricity for local needs but will be connected to the electrical grid so that when they have surplus they can supply to the grid and when they have more energy needs draw from the grid. The supply and drawing from the grid will be costed and the consumer will be credited or debited according to his consumption. In these days of computerized meters all this can be automatically done and the consumer given immediate credit or debit. The government to promote solar energy can pass a legislation to make it mandatory and also subsidise the installation cost of the solar arrays as it is now doing. With individual consumer arrays connected to the grid power generation becomes decentralized and the consumer has the incentive to save electricity as explained above. The centralised electricity plants will become of lesser capacity and will be more of a back-up and supply emergency needs. Thus there will be fewer of them around the country giving the environment a boost. Thus it is best that we bet on solar energy than anything else as a primary source for energy to supplement our coal and hydel generation and cap nuclear power at the existing level.

The Duality of Approach in Libya

One of the more popular sayings of the late Chinese leader, Mao Tse Tung was – Political Power Flows from the Barrel of a Gun. In the 21st century the interpretation of this by the Western powers in the context of the military interventions into Iraq, Afghanistan and lately Libya seems to be that - Democracy Flows from the Barrel of a Gun. The military action continues now unabated for the fifth day running by the Western powers, though they have no idea who will keep maintain it until some conclusion is reached. Therefore it is clear that the action against Libya is like a ‘hit and run’ action and finally no one will take responsibility. Reminds us of an analogy in India where if a pickpocket is caught while pursuing his profession, then he is beaten up by the public and even passers-by get into the act and give him a blow since they know that they need not accept any responsibility for the consequence of their actions. In relation to the casualties arising out of the military action, Western television channels are talking of civilian casualties in the shelling by Gaddhafi’s forces of the town of Misrata held by the rebels while the bombarding with missiles and other firepower by Western planes are not repeat not leading to any civilian casualties. The pictures also shown on Western TV news channels of Libyan TV are carefully edited to show only the carnage of buildings and equipment but not the human casualties. While the coverage of Misrata shelling concentrates only on human casualties. Is this not hypocritical? Further the Western leaders are talking in cacophonic voices over the Libya mission objectives. While initially it was said that there was no plan for ‘regime change’, President Obama has recently said that Gaddhafi has to go. While it has been reiterated that Libya will not have Western ground forces land there, we have pictures of Western paratroopers practising in Italy being carried by newspapers and one never knows like the UK Special Forces operation that went wrong at the beginning of the crisis in trying to rescue some UK nationals and/or contact the rebels, we have the Western special forces already active in Libya fighting shoulder to shoulder with the rebels. The passion with which the Western powers want to introduce democracy around the world and particularly among the countries in the Middle East does not seem to have dimmed after Chalabi in Iraq and Karzai in Afghanistan have led them by the nose, getting them to spend enormous sums of money which has mostly gone to feather their own nests. Whether it is in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya as well other hot-spots in this part of the world where nascent rebellion has been blooming, the Western powers will again realize that they have been led down the garden path and have been hand-holding the formation of purely authoritarian Islamic regimes albeit of a different flavour.

Pursue Cash for Votes Scam Investigation to Its Logical Conclusion

Listening to the debate in Parliament over today (23rd) on the cash-for-votes scam has been a very disappointing affair. Our politicians irrespective of their political colour should remember that Parliament is not a forum to do what one calls – tu tu mein mein. One expects serious debate in Parliament and the ability to resolve important issues which may be contentious at times like corruption etc. And our politicians should note that the citizens of this country are an audience now that Parliamentary proceedings are being telecast and form the third force which gets influenced by what the representatives of the people do in Parliament. As a feedback to our esteemed MP’s who spoke on the scam, the undersigned’s advice is that no one should vote for them in ensuing elections and thus boot them out of public office. The Congress party by its admission at the level of the PM that there was insufficient evidence after the Singh Deo committee had gone into the scam and therefore it put it into the freezer is showing complete irresponsibility. Like this how many matters have been consigned to the cold chambers because nobody pursued it? Moreover if the Congress party is now accusing the BJP or other parties to have been instrumental in the making of the scam, why did the Congress not pursue this? It would then have had the weapons to completely demolish the opposition parties. But it did not do that. Why? If so does it not prove that the Congress is not fit to govern this country since it neither has the backbone or the will to conclude issues which need to be tackled with vigour? On this count and this count alone should the PM and this UPA-2 government quit office since it has completely let down its supporters in this country. The nation needs to be told about who was complicit in the scam and what action has this government taken on it. If the BJP at the highest levels have been involved in this scam as alleged by the Congress party, then is it not an insult on their intelligence and political sagacity to ask for a discussion on this issue in Parliament? Therefore on the cash for votes scam something is definitely not smelling right. There is an attempt by the Congress party in this matter to pull wool over the common man’s eyes. The Congress party should come clean on this issue and this can be only done by pursuing the Singh Deo committee recommended investigation to its logical conclusion, as said earlier. Postscript: Where has the money gone that was displayed in Parliament? Has that Rs. 1 crore been confiscated or have we given it back to the MP’s to take it home? The country has a right to know. The MP involved with the bringing of money into Parliament has said after the above debate that no investigative agency has contacted since that day for finding out about the cash, its source and the purpose. While Home Minister Chidambaram has said on the floor of Parliament that the investigations on the matter are concluding and shortly will be presented to Parliament. Is the investigation being completed without questioning one of the main actors? How is this possible? If not, then who is bluffing? The concerned MP or the Home Minister. The nation would again like to know.

Misinterpreting the UN No-Fly Zone Resolution on Libya

We are back again to jingoistic times like before the Iraq war where because a person is not liked by the West, in this instance Gaddafi in Libya, the political leaders of the UK, France and the US are trying to justify their actions in commencing airstrikes against the defenceless country and interpret the UN no-fly zone resolution any which way they want. These leaders are holding summit meetings on this matter which is not of overriding importance at all to each of their countries. Like in the US a cash-strapped economy because of the overspend in the Iraq and Afghanistan war commitments is getting involved in another unknown war which one never knows will lead them to what depths of economic crisis while the domestic need of the hour is to get more jobs going in the US to plug the rising unemployment rate. It has been disappointing to see President Obama justifying the military action in Libya to ‘save civilian lives’. By using airstrikes and Tomahawk missiles which his own commanders have categorically said will lead to civilian deaths called ‘collateral damage’ in military parlance, how is Obama ‘saving civilian lives’. Already it has been reported that 58 civilians have died in the Western airstrikes which the West’s propaganda machine akin to Goebbel’s in WWII times, has said that the veracity of these claims are required to be verified. Over 24 hours of the airstrikes the civilian deaths have gone from 58 to nil; the latter figure being quoted with the euphemism that ‘none were reported’. In the UK after the economic budget reductions the industrial and trade sentiment is yet to recover and it moves into yet another unnecessary war. As far as France is concerned Sarkozy is bent upon flexing his Gallic muscle since more in an egoistic flourish since he and France did not have much of a role to play in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and with France now leading the EEC there is a need for Sarkozy to show that he is still capable of leadership material and play boss-man. Frankly, Carla Bruni would be more happy to have Sarkozy play boss-man at home and flex his muscle there! To perform the UN no-fly zone resolution the Western leaders had said that they would want the Arab countries on board and fly the Arab flag when they commence action in Libya. After the initial murmurs of assent the Arab League has backed out after seeing the effect of the initial airstrikes and its impact on civilian lives. Thus essentially any action against Libya implemented over the last 2-3 days has been out of the West’s own volition and has no support from the Arab world. The UK has been talking that Gaddafi has been in contravention of international law and therefore the West is correct in taking military action against Libya. One cannot understand what international law Cameron and Miliband are talking of since their major partner in this hastily cobbled coalition, the US does not recognize any international law included the court in the Hague. So those who are against institutions of international law will lecture us about being complaint with international law. Moreover the issue is about an internal matter of a sovereign country called Libya which has a government (of whatever shade it may be!) and this government was having a honeymoon of thawing relations with the West until recently and with great fanfare even the principal planner of the Lockerbie bombing serving a jail term was released by the Scottish Parliament and returned to Libya, and then suddenly everything has gone sour with Gaddhafi and Libya. Why, nobody knows? Is it because of the Jasmine Revolution in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt? If so, let it run the way it did in these countries and let the revolution run from internal motivation not supported by external aggression. Even the manner in which Ban e Moon, the diminutive and self-effacing UN Secretary General, has capitulated to the shenanigans of the West is a shame and proves that the UN Body is not representative of the world’s interests but only of that of the West. Why did the UN not send an emissary to discuss with Gaddhafi in Libya before passing the Security Council resolution? Is it not necessary that a member country should be consulted before precipitate action is launched against it? Even the no-fly zone could it not have been implemented differently. The West has overwhelmingly technological superiority in air power and it could have ensured that no Libyan air force aircraft fly over Libya. If any planes took to the air they could have threatened to be shot down. Instead of that the West has gone ahead and bombed the air bases and taken out the planes on the ground and has even used Cruise missiles to take out a 3-storied Libyan command center. How is all this action consistent with enforcing a no-fly zone? Going further the West has attacked the Libyan Army on its move to the east to take back the city of Benghazi from the rebels and is also threatening to attack the supply lines for these forces and is planning to isolate them on their eastward journey. Thus the manner in which the West has been interpreting the ‘no-fly zone to save civilian lives’ will make the UN Secretary General cringe just like the Arab League has realized quite quickly. Thus immediately international public opinion and also public opinion in the West should be generated to summarily stop military action by the West in Libya, otherwise there will be no credibility for any democratic movements that the West will support hereafter.

Point Counter-Point In Indian Politics

We have had this situation persisting in our politics where the game is played by what one calls - point and counter-point. This is where if any one side raises an issue then the other side brings up the other side as a bigger culprit on the same issue. An example of this is the issue of corruption of which there has been a spate of cases in recent times against the UPA-2 government which need not beg repeating. Thus when after the Wikileaks exposure on the cash-for-votes scam, it was suggested that there should be a debate on this in Parliament then the Treasury Benches were more than ready for this indicating that they would pin the BJP down on the same issue with the enumeration of the misdeeds of Chief Minister Yediyurappa in Karnataka. This is disappointing since both the Congress and Yediyurappa are in the wrong and two wrongs do not make a right. The issue of corruption is a national issue and should be tackled as such by all parties and not score points over one anotherto determine who is the bigger offender. For his part Yediyurappa during the last time he was pulled onto the mat by the BJP High Command and hauled up to Delhi pleaded that in terms of de-notification of land for the benefit of his close family members he has done what the other Chief Ministers in Karnataka had done in the past but even in that he has done less, to indicate that he has restrained himself! Now corruption, whatever extent it may be, cannot be the birthright of a high office like that of a Chief Ministers is what should be drilled into the likes of Yediyurappa. In the same manner the UPA-2 government and the Congress party should not paper over the corruption scams and push them under the carpet. In the cash-for-votes scam the PM in Parliament has said that he has not been involved in it and is not aware if there was any money paid at all by him or the Congress party. The nation cannot accept this stand and the truth has to come out. If the PM’s stand is correct then why was the Singh Deo Committee report not pursued to its logical conclusion and the source of money established, the errant MP’s on both sides – the giver as well as the takers, suitably punished both for form, that is to bring to in such large amounts of money into Parliament, and the criminality of the issue. By each corruption case not being tackled fully the UPA-2 government is clearly giving the perpetrators of such incidents a wink and a pat on the back and at the same time bluffing the common man and attempting to distract him from the primary problem of corruption. This latter aspect is highlighted by the PM himself stating that the cash-for-votes scam pertained to the 14th Lok Sabha and with its completion the matter ends there. Adding fuel to the fire he further added that since then there have been elections and with the citizens of India giving the Congress and the UPA a stronger mandate there is no further need to open the issue. One cannot understand this logic since the mandate has got nothing to do with the criminality of the issue and that the perpetrators need to be punished for their crimes and that is what essentially the mandate was for and that is for the UPA to run a cleaner government. How big a misunderstanding there has been! Or how conveniently is the PM interpreting an event to his advantage to get out of a corner! Thus this country demands and needs to get a clear action plan to tackle corruption and a white paper on each scam that has rocked the UPA government in its two innings at the helm of this country.
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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 52 Date: 19.03.2011

Contents:


1. Leave Libya Alone
2. Wikileaks On The Cash-for-Votes Scam
3. Attacks Against Women
4. Review India Nuclear Energy Plans
5. Corruption & Governance: Try Out Panchayati Raj
6. The Deliberate Disinclination To Pursue Corruption

Leave Libya Alone!

The double standards that the West is adopting over the Libya impasse are to say the least shocking. The West claims that Gaddhafi is killing civilians in Libya and is also using his air force to strafe and bomb positions and cities held by the opposition in the recent rebellion which is ongoing. Gaddhafi on his part says that these are not rebels but criminals. Now Gaddhafi has been in charge of Libya with an acceptable government for quite some time now and he has every right to ensure that he remains in office. Thus he is taking action which any incumbent right-minded government would be doing. We can look at the equivalent to when both the US and UK faced peace protestors over the Iraq war, did Libya send in their troops or move the UN to authorize a no-fly zone over these countries? One can maybe argue that the peace protestors were not carrying arms as in Libya and therefore Libya’s or any others action as above would have been unwarranted. But carrying arms and using them as a means of protest is a function of culture for which we should not blame Libya since then countries like India can blame the US for its gun-laws which has resulted in so many human killings most of them students. But then the Libyan rebels being armed makes them more of a logical target by government forces to quell the rebellion or criminality as Gaddhafi calls it. Further the UN without even talking to Gaddhafi and upon the prompting of the Western powers has thought it fit to get the UN Security Council to authorize a no-fly zone over Libya. With this there has been talk of a pre-emptive strike by the Western and NATO planes to take out the Libyan airforce and to make the Libyan airfields inoperable. This pre-emptive strike if it happens will be initiating another attack against a relatively poorer and defencless country by Western powers in line with the military adventurism that we have seen over the last decade in both Afghanistan and Iraq. This is incorrect and completely against the principles of democratic functioning where you incite and/or encourage locals against their leaders and then militarily support them to dislodge the leader. Any democracy promoted by such means will not be sustaining and will only be to the satisfaction of the instigator that they have propped up a ‘democratic’ government and are willing to provide it crutches like we have seen in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Thus the West should not interfere in Libya or any of the disturbed countries in the Middle East and North African region and let the home grown winds of democracy assume hailstorm proportions and drive out the dictatorial rulers like it happened in Tunisia first and then Egypt. Why is the West impatient? If Libya needs some more time then so be it.

Wikileaks On The Cash-for-Votes Scam

The Wikileaks instigated matter led to an eruption in Parliament when the leaked cables showed the extent of interference by the US Embassy staffers in India’s internal affairs. For this reason the staffers in the event that they still are in the US Embassy should be summarily repatriated from this country and sent back home. As regards the action that we need to take in the comment that the embassy staffer was shown bundles of cash to be given to some of the MP’s to secure their votes in saving the UPA government, on an independent basis there needs to be no action since the cables are unsubstantiated and it is all hearsay. But in the context of there being corroborative circumstantial evidence around the same time of the MP’s showing on the floor of the House cash bundles which they had purportedly received to vote for the UPA government during the no-trust motion, indicates that there is more to the cable comment as well as the cash shown in the House. Therefore this needs to be investigated thoroughly. In this context, one can argue that the cables were supposed to be secret and therefore any comment made therein has to have a grain of truth. Further on the cash-for-votes scam the Singh Deo committee report was not pursued to its logical conclusion and as usual was papered over. Thus the same body should be given the task to verify the claims made in the cable leaked by Wikileaks and bring the guilty to book. This will at least have the nation and its people satisfied that the matter is being investigated in totality. On the BJP and Left claim that the PM should resign on the matter, it is a bit premature and it is akin to putting the cart before the horse. Let the investigations be over and that is the time when if culpability is found the PM should consider action as he and his party deems fit. The PM by just making a bland statement in Parliament that there was no cash involved in the cash-for-votes scam will not get away from the responsibility of facing up to the music if any complicity of his and that of the Congress party is found. The Congress defence that this matter pertains to the earlier Lok Sabha is not valid since the issue of the no-trust motion is not being revived but the matter of morality, which subsists since it relates to the individual and the party, is raised and whether the leader of this UPA government will acceptresponsibility. One lesson that this UPA government and in effect all governments should learn in India is that they should expedite and complete any process that they have initiated or taken up, like in this instance, the investigation into the cash-for-votes scam which if it had been completed fully then there was no or less likelihood that the matter of the leaked cables would have reached such proportions. Concluding, the PM once he had acceded to the JPC probe on the 2G scam must have thought that he could breathe in peace now at least for some time but in the very same session he has another mini-explosion in the nature of this Wikileaks expose on his head! It would be therefore be best that in the time-tested manner of true-blooded politicians he should have his horoscope checked to see if there are more troubles lurking for him around the corner and he could maybe make some trips to any of the Sikh places of pilgrimage to ward off the evil eye!

Attacks Against Women

Up until a few years ago, women particularly young women, were subjected to rape then over the last few months it was rape and maim, and now with the Tanwar girl and the other college going girl in Nagpur it is kill or as we will probably see later, rape and kill. That way like they say the dead tell no stories so the rapists have a better chance of going scot-free. But seriously something needs to be done to protect our young girls and women from the depredations of sex-starved men. This particularly so in the NCR region where day by day the situation is going from bad to worse, inspite of having a woman CM in Delhi. The best way would be to have the student population in the colleges and universities handle the matters themselves by forming vigilante groups which will soundly thrash any persons trying to take advantage of their girl classmates near the campus. This is not necessarily a logical method but given the situation probably the only way for the short-term since the girls will at least be safe in the vicinity of their educational institutions.

Review India Nuclear Energy Plans

The nuclear tragedy unfolding in Japan at the Fukushima plant has lessons for all countries around the world, including India, who are wanting to rely on nuclear power to meet their energy needs. Germany, the US and the UK have already announced their plans to check the safety of their existing plants. The seriousness of the tragedy at Fukushima is highlighting that if a country like Japan which is at the forefront of technology and also a very disciplined nation is facing these kind of problems with dealing with a nuclear tragedy then what are the options for a technologically dependent and populous country like India in terms of considering to use nuclear power. At the Fukushima plant anticipating radiation leaks as the central core of the nuclear plant approached meltdown, the Japanese government announced evacuation of the population that was living near the plant initially upto 10 KM. radius and then 20 KM. radius and further asked those living with a 30KM. radius to remain indoors and shut themselves in their houses. Consider the population that is involved in this instance at Japan and if a similar tragedy, God forbid, would unfold in India. Lakhs or maybe millions of people would be exposed to radiation exposure in India. Thus with any of the nuclear plants planned here, we have a Union Carbide Bhopal kind of tragedy waiting to happen. Moreover our ability to react to disasters in a timely and effective manner is suspect as we have seen in the case of the 2004 tsunami tragedy, and then in numerous flood disasters which regularly visit India’s north and east every year. Even when major train accidents happen the response time for relief to reach the victims is very much delayed and even for a terror incident like 26/11 it took the NSG commandos three days to reach Mumbai because they could not get onto the flights! Thus in complex disasters like nuclear accidents where immediate and time-bound relief is of the utmost importance, India will be found sadly lacking and the seriousness of injuries to the affected population will mount and may also result in increased fatalities. We need to also realize that disasters whether natural or manmade in India are looked at largely as a money-making opportunity by government officials and those that remain unaffected by the tragedy and the fact that the affected do not get relief and the responsibility for that is bandied about among agencies playing the blame game. Again, in situations where you have complex disasters like nuclear accidents, there is a need to be up front and explain to the general population about the same. Lack of information leads to escalating fears among the people who firstly do not understand the issues involved and tend to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Here again the Indian nuclear fraternity, the Dept. of Atomic Energy and the NPCIL have been less than up front about accidents in their operations in the last few years. The roof collapse at the Kaiga nuclear power plant comes to mind as also of isotope pilferage at the same plant, then the fire at the BARC Mod Labs, the detection of uranium ore randomly at different places in the country in the context of a ‘dirty bomb’ concept have not been adequately explained to the country. The tendency of the user departments has been to draw an iron curtain on the issue after the initial media interest has waned. This is a less than forthright approach. When the advanced countries in the context of the Fukushima accident are reviewing their nuclear energy operations, we have our people saying off the cuff that our nuclear operations are safe. Have these people conducted a review before they make these pronouncements? Can they give one example of a nuclear drill having been enacted to review safety measures in the case of an unforeseen accident? Further after the Fukushima tragedy came to light we have some of our nuclear experts saying that the latest nuclear plant to be located at Jaitapur is safe (when it has not come up at all!) and it is proof against tsunamis because it is located on a plateau and that being in Zone 3, it is unlikely that earthquakes will affect it. Now these comments are in the nature of a soothsayer who dreams that everything will be all right when one cannot really predict nature’s fury. Did the Fukushima plant not take precautions? They did. Have they not been in operation all these years? Yes, without any problem. But when nature struck they got a double whammy, the earthquake of 9 on the Richter scale and a tsunami of 10 metres height which created a black-out for the plant which is not ‘supposed’ to happen since the nuclear plants have multiple power back-ups. But the fact is it did leading to the uranium rods remaining in the central core which triggered the melt-down process and the possibility of leak of radiation. The point is that will this nuclear expert who is vouching for the Jaitapur plant safety and of others that are likely to come up in different parts of India, will he be around when an accident takes place? Therefore some amount of humility is desirable and in cases like nuclear energy the added caution may save the country and its people from untold misery like we have seen in Bhopal with Union Carbide? Thus for India there is no point in taking a risk to install nuclear power except where there is no chance at all of earthquakes and the plants are located 50KM. away from any human habitation so that loss of life can be almost completely minimized. Postscript: Kazumi Saeki, a Japanese author living in Sendai and writing on the Japanese earthquake and tsunami tragedy in the New York Times says – ‘People have acquired a desire for technology that surpasses human comprehension. Yet the bill that has come due for that desire is all too dear. It is true that faced with this calamity, the people of Sendai have maintained a sense of calm. This is perhaps due less to the emotional restraint that is particular to the people of the northern countryside, and more to the hollowing of their emotions. In the vortex of an unimaginable disaster, they have not yet had the time to feel grief, sadness and anger.’

Corruption & Governance: Try Out Panchayati Raj

The malaise of corruption stalks India, flows through its veins and makes its appearance in every sphere of activity that the aam admi has to be involved in like a virus. It has made our society and particularly the body politic diseased from which there seems to be no escape and also no way forward. If anything has to be done about corruption then everyone in this country has to join in with concerted effort and determination to cleanse our system from this dreaded malaise of corruption. At the first level we need to remember that those who pay a bribe are as much guilty as those who accept a bribe. Therefore the aam admi should eschew this temptation to pay the bribe asked for to get his work done. There may be many cogent and urgent reasons why for an individual paying the bribe may be critical since it gets him rid of the onerous and sometimes difficult responsibility of getting something done. But then as we have all seen as time goes up by just like we are all affected by inflation impacting our cost of living so also the bribe is affected and it only goes higher and higher. Therefore the time to stop this is now. If the bribe is not paid then the aam admi 's work may not get done or he may have to visit the particular government office day in and day out, which problem is aggravated in the rural areas given the distances that people have to travel to reach government offices. But then this sacrifice has to be done and that is for a larger cause – a corruption free society. Another reason why we need to act now on corruption is that there is a consciousness that it has risen beyond any limits with so many scams that have been exposed lately and it is hoped that there will be more public support against corruption at this time. Moreover there are tools like RTI available today which give more power in the hands of the aam admi and there is also talk of more teeth being put into the Prevention of Corruption Act. Corruption is like a tiger drawing blood. Once it has tasted blood it will keep going after it and killing as many living beings to try and satiate its unending thirst. So also with corruption, the taste for easy money once imbibed by any official or budding politician will make him go back to that ‘Water of India’ as in P C Sorcar’s magic show day in and day out to try and satisfy himself. The satiation level will never be reached. And today we have all sections of our society including the judiciary and the defence forces, hitherto believed to be far removed from corruption particularly at the higher levels, who have all fallen prey to the vice of corruption. The essential psycho-social mechanism in the process of corruption at the demanding level is the fact that the victim is not known to the official and therefore is an easy prey. Therefore the victim from whom money is demanded does not constitute any threat to the official or the politician. In this process and in the divide of being unknown to each other, corruption thrives. The only solution that comes to mind which can in the long term sort out this issue is the vision of Mahatma Gandhi and Panchayati Raj. The thinking here is that governance should be as close to the grassroots as possible. Thus if the process of governance is devolved as much as possible to the panchayat then there is every chance of people being happy and that governance will also function effectively. Apart from that one expects that corruption will reduce dramatically since there is always a certain amount of shame with being accused by your villager who may have been a classmate, relative or friend. This visibility by itself of corrupt people will lead to lesser number of people practicing it. With powers devolved to the panchayat it is not that corruption will disappear but it will definitely reduce. Governance thus will also improve. But this will not happen with the current bunch of panchas who to a large extent have as explained earlier like the tiger tasted blood and will find it difficult to change their bad habits. But you will have new leaders emerging as we can see from most of the vociferous gram sabhas that we have in Goa and who will have the interests of the people at heart. This has to be attempted since a structural change is required to address both issues, governance as well as corruption. The existing system will not be able to tackle these matters as we have seen over the last 64 years since Independence and the existing system has been given a fair trial and we have all seen that it is dragging us more and more into the mire of calumny. For urban areas we need to make smaller city councils with one or two suburbs as in Mumbai or localities as in New Delhi and have these councils function as panchayats to whom powers can be delegated. Just like the exercise of de-limitation has resulted in re-drawing the boundaries of constituencies so also do a similar exercise and name these mini-councils based on geographical demarcation or on aggregation of population. The gram sabhas or the general body of the mini-council in the urban areas will be superior and have the authority to pull up the panchayat or council management body. This system proposes dispensing the unit of government at the town and city municipal council and corporation level to be replaced by the new bodies as explained above but the State assembly and parliament will remain the way it is but they will have less to do in the new system. Just like in management we talk of a flatter organization to get more effectiveness, flexibility and improved response time to issues so also a flatter organization of governance will result in the improved advantages as mentioned above. In fact going one step ahead on this premise one would believe that this system should be tried out on a ‘pilot’ basis in any small State like Goa or Mizoram or any other which is free from insurgency and also has less of a law and order problem. Once we have the Panchayat Raj instituted in the ‘pilot’ State as a trial measure we can see how it would work for the rest of the country. This Panchayati Raj plan for the country as well as the trial in the ‘pilot’ State will be resisted by vested interests who are mainly the politicians who will get automatically cut off from their sources of income and also will loose importance, recognition etc. But that is the only way to go, if we are to tackle the two primary issues that we have before us and that is: corruption, first and then governance.

The Deliberate Disinclination To Pursue Corruption

If you notice the manner in which this government is taking up the investigations of the various scams which have surfaced over the last six months or so, there seems to be a clear strategy to allow the culprits to cover their tracks. Start chronologically with the CWG scam where Kalmadi and his Organising Committee (OC) members were accused of corruption, the case went off the public radar for almost 2 months allowing the accused to ensure that files went missing, computers could be wiped clean, contents of bank lockers could be transferred etc. etc. At around the same time the scam related to the CWG Village where a private builder had used sub-standard material came to the fore in the media where government officials from the NBCC and the Delhi government were involved. But once the Games Village was occupied the scam died down on its own. Why has this not been pursued? Anyway coming back to the reason for the CWG scam going off the public radar was that the Adarsh C.H.S. scam in Mumbai surfaced with salacious news of political and defence officers complicity in obtaining allotment for flats in the building reserved for Kargil war widows! With the Maharasthra CM quitting his job over the Adarsh scam, the matter became less of interest allowing all others involved to wipe their slates clean. Nothing further is known on the matter as on date. At this juncture with Parliament in session, the A Raja resignation demand took centre-stage and every other scam went off the news horizon. This dominated all public interest allowing the persons involved in the CWG, Adarsh and even CVC Thomas to sit back and lick their wounds so far sustained and work out strategies for how best to extricate themselves. With Telecom Minister A Raja having resigned and subsequently arrested with sundry other officials the attention shifted to Hassan Ali Khan and his black money issue. In the middle there were sundry other arrests of those involved in the CWG scam and a perfunctory raid on Suresh Kalmadi’s houses in Pune and other places apart from scanning his bank lockers. All this while the Adarsh scam matteris dying a silent death. Thereafter the CVC Thomas issue had hit the ceiling since again Parliament and the Supreme Court became seized in the matter. In the meanwhile again the CWG scam scope was expanded to cover other officials apart from those in the OC and thus people from the government and CPWD are finding themselves at the hot end of the burning rod. Moreover if you analyse the Hassan Ali Khan case it is almost as if the Supreme Court is running the investigation telling the CBI when they should arrest him, that they should interrogate him while in custody etc. etc. Why should this be? Does the CBI not know their job? Further the manner in which the government led by our irrepressible FM Pranab Mukherjee is approaching the black money problem is that it starts and ends with tax evasion and that is not necessarily true. Again while the CBI is pursuing Hassan Ali Khan the other 17 names on the Liechtenstein Bank list have only been served notices and no one is aware of what further action is being taken against them. This gives them adequate time to move their monies in the bank elsewhere. Even in the case of Hassan Ali Khan the CBI seems to be the ‘reluctant investigator’ and that is precisely why the accused has been able to get bail and the way things are going by finding out that the accused got his passport from the Patna passport office giving a fake address in Motihari, we may have the CBI come back and tell us that Hassan Ali Khan does not exist and therefore the case has to be closed! Will the government and its investigative agencies pursue all these cases with deliberate intent, aggressiveness and effort so that these guilty persons are brought to book?

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 51 Date: 12.03.2011

Contents:
1. India A Nett Exporter of Food Next Year.
2. Attacks on RTI Activists Increasing
3. Wrong Focus Leading to Runaway Food Inflation
4. US Dumping Outdated Defence Equipment In India


India A Nett Exporter of Food Next Year

Western economists and columnists have been painting a picture wherein they claim that countries like India and China with larger populations have been consuming more foodgrains leading to rising international food prices. This is not necessarily true and is the tendency of the Western world to blame others for their misdeeds. The rise in food prices has been because of the West’s folly wherein in any sector that you take, they have always taken one step ahead but have retraced two steps in a short period of time thus leading to no progress. Take the case of food, with the zeal to convert fossil fuels to agro-based fuels the West started apart from moving corn to producing ethanol from the production on their agricultural land, they went ahead and contracted large tracts of land in Brazil and other places mostly in Africa for growing corn on a large scale which would be again used to produce ethanol. This put pressure on food supplies around the world already wracked with freak weather patterns like we have seen last year with the drought in Russia and recently in China resulting in supply side problems. Added to this were the derivative markets or futures trading in agricultural commodities which led to speculative increases in food prices which had no link with reality. Lately we have the added liquidity in world markets which is pushing food prices up which has the simple logic of a lot of money chasing smaller food harvests. This has also been the reason why all commodity prices have been rising over the last year or so. Thus it seems that the West has to have a scapegoat and they find India and China convenient to carry the cross for them since the logic of feeding a large population running to billions of people and with increasing money in their hands makes for incontrovertible logic. Added to this with the West floating listlessly in the windless seas of recession, seeing China and India grow their economies at the rates of 8-12% has more than its share of envy. As indicated earlier the land that was put under corn cultivation particularly in Brazil after the soya boom, was obtained after clearing virgin forest some in the Amazon region. Thus while the West keeps talking of climate change and tries to force environmental protection on the developing countries, agents within their economies sabotage these efforts by getting the countries to destroy green cover to support the ill-conceived policies of the West. It is not necessary to state here that lately the ethanol generation from corn has been de-emphasised in the West with the realization that the carbon signature of the whole process has been more than if ethanol is obtained from other traditional sources like sugar molasses and thus has been more or less disbanded. The same kind of situation has been happening in relation to GM food. After the initial promotion as breakthrough scientific advancements GM food has been rejected in the West by the people since their side effects not only for agriculture but also to animal and people who eat it has not been assessed fully. The people in the West now prefer to have organic food which has the least intervention in terms of fertilizers and pesticides. This is where the rest of the world particularly the developing countries have remained all the while. Now that GM food has been discarded in the West the multinational Cos., the principal propagators of this technology, wanting to get obvious returns on it, has been trying to spread the use of it in countries like Brazil, Africa, India and the like with governmental help from the Western nations. The main plank for promotion of GM wheat or corn or brinjal has been that hunger the major scourge which will hit the earth in a few decades time with production of food unable to keep pace with the growing population of people on this planet and that this can only be combated by GM food which promises multiplication of productivity levels that cannot be obtained from traditional agriculture. However, the question is all this at what cost. Of destroying plant life around fields that grow GM produce, of propagating certain strains of plant life which will grow to become a scourge in places which use GM crops, of unknown problems that could affect animal and human life which consume GM food leading to disease and nuisance which has the chance of spiraling out of control. In short, GM food is not tested fully to establish its ability to replace regular crops without any concurrent risks both to nature and to life on this planet. Examples of related diseases which have spread out of similar experimentation are there with mad cow disease, swine flu, avian flu and the like where animals have been in the interest of increasing output been fed with food apart from GM also with medicines like steroids resulting in the above named diseases. The impact of the ingestion of meat from these animals on human life is yet to be understood. Then there are very laughable contradictions that the West puts out time and again. A few examples of these are. Milk is bad for health though from time immemorial it has been good for health. Consumption of coconut oil is bad for health though for generations countries abutting the Equator have been consuming coconut oil with life expectancies which beat most nations of the Western world. All this while most Western nations have been combating obesity even among children, heart disease and other life style diseases. One recognises that these pronouncements as mentioned earlier about milk or coconut oil are driven by the pharmaceutical Cos. and maxims for them change with the bottom-lines on their balance sheets but then there is no reason for the rest of the world to swallow this contrived logic.Thus Western economies should desist from making irresponsible statements at least in relation to India since we do not have a habit of not being a responsible partner in world affairs and as far as food goes, India has the greatest credit in buying at the highest prices (!) commodities like wheat and sugar for which imports have been resorted off and on to support irregular local harvests for these items. With blessings of a good monsoon last year India has had a good harvest for both rice and wheat and but for pulses India is self-sufficient in food for at least a year and will not foray into world markets if that is the concern of Western economic thinkers and policy makers. It could contrarily be a nett exporter of food in the next year.

Attacks on RTI Activists Increasing

The number of attacks on RTI activists and the killing of some of them have reached alarming proportions. The cause for this alarm has been that the attacks have been coming from almost all parts of India with more of a concentration in the west and north of the country and have been quite frequent. To protect the people seeking RTI there needs to be a mechanism instituted by which their identities are protected until the information they seek is delivered to them. This will at least ensure that they are not attacked just for seeking information about any die-hard and committed offenders like politicians and the like who have a vested interest in protecting the information from coming out in the public domain for fear of being hauled up in the courts of law. Once the RTI seeker has been given the information then it is up that person to do with the information as he deems fit. Then there is no need of the RTI machinery or the government to protect the person since it is up to his discretion and what risks he perceives in making the information public. At the same time there is an attitudinal problem with RTI activists, note the distinction between RTI seekers and activists, like the noted RTI activist Kejriwal and others who believe for all practical purposes that the system is always at fault. This is not necessarily the case and this prejudice should be avoided. Once this is done then the number of frivolous RTI applications will also come down. This will then ensure that the RTI works in the spirit it was conceived to bring transparency in the work of government.

Wrong Focus Leading to Runaway Food Inflation

The RBI Governor Subbarao speaking at a public function recently blamed the rural folk for consuming more with larger purchasing power in their hands thus reducing the amount of food available to sell to urban areas. He was trying to explain the runaway food inflation that has been plaguing this country for the last 2 years or more. This is nothing but painting the same picture that Western economists have been painting wherein they claim that countries like India and China with larger populations have been consuming more foodgrains leading to rising international food prices. Even structurally the phenomena of the price rise does not support the RBI Governor’s theory since as we had seen for onions and tomatoes as well as sugar the price rise was very sharp while if the rise were to be attributed to consumption pattern changes then it would have been more of a trend line increase in prices over a period of time, however short that could be even down to a few months. While we saw the prices of onions and tomatoes jumping overnight very sharply and continuing to rise over a few days to peak at unimaginable levels. Finally it was established that the price rises for onions and sugar was due to hoarders orchestrating the increase and thereafter cornering the stock to reap windfall gains. Let us look for a moment at average rural families intake which has been traditionally dependent on what they grow in their field and near their homes. Thus if wheat or rice is grown in the fields dependent on which part of the country we are talking about, there would be vegetables that would be grown near the house which would be part of their diet. The surplus in rice and wheat dependent on the harvest would be sold while the vegetables or fruit that was grown would be for their own consumption and rarely sold. We are not talking here of the mango and apple growing regions of the country where the farmer would depend on his produce surplus to get him the staple food that he needed for his diet. The same applies to farmers who would be producing vegetables where the produce is grown to earn money for the farmers to buy other things like food etc. for their subsistence. This therefore establishes that the average farmer never had any available surplus to sell. Thus again where farmers have been killing themselves in almost all parts of the country where is the question of more money in farmer’s hands and their aspirations for a better diet of vegetables, meat and fruit. Thus this logic is completely flawed. Thus parroting by the RBI Governor the logic of the West is to say the least, is very surprising. This was even done by Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser sometime in the recent past. This shows that there is no clear application of mind by these officials to tackle the problem and ascribe it to a theory propounded by some so-called foreign pundits and thus setting the stage to blame Indian food inflation on world food inflation. This washes their hands clean from taking any action. That precisely has been the reason why the Govt. has been missing deadlines consistently over the last 2 years for taming inflation particularly that of food. It is more the will that is missing to tackle the problem.

US Dumping Outdated Defence Equipment In India

One of the quid pro quo deals when India and the US signed the nuclear deal was the unwritten understanding that India would open up its defence equipment market to US manufacturers. Thereafter to paper over this initiative, it was touted that India would get the state-of-the-art equipment supplies from the US thus making the Indian defence forces one of the best and technologically advanced fighting forces in the world. But for all this hyperbole what did India get but 6 outdated, end of airframe life helicopters that India would have to refurbish at their cost after paying hundreds of millions of dollars for this trash. Apart from this there is a billion dollar deal in the pipeline for replacements of the infamous Bofors guns (which though made infamous by our politicians and defence purchase hierarchy worked famously including during the Kargil war). Then there is the tender for the advanced fighter that the IAF has tendered for, which is a hundreds of billion dollars deal with Boeing and Lockheed Martin competing for it among other European vendors. There may be other deals in the pipeline which we the lay people will never know until the deals are made and outdated equipment delivered. Thus the Indo-US nuclear deal has surely opened the access for the US armaments industry to the very large Indian market but the question is that whether all this is advantageous to us and if we are getting the best of equipment. This is for our defence forces to stand up and fearlessly judge for themselves when they assess the equipment.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 50 Date: 05.03.2011

Contents:

1. PM Falling Short Again
2. Supreme Court's Landmark Ruling in CVC Case
3. Ignore Pakistan’s Match Fixing Allegations
4. Nilekani The Laundryman's Donkey
5. The West Fanning The Jasmine Revolution
6. Dalmia Should Concentrate On Getting Eden Gardens Ready
7. The Seam of Venality Running Through India


PM Falling Short Again

There was a time when our leaders would set examples for the nation particularly the youth. Nowadays our leaders are a pale shadow of people like Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, S Radhakrishnan among others who had dominated our political firmament in the past. An example of dispiriting leadership was again Manmohan Singh who in Parliament over the last week blamed the commercial arm of ISRO, Antrix Corporation for the Devas Multimedia S Band scam and A Raja for the 2G scam. He was clearly looking to personally bail himself out from any criticism. This when the Dept. of Space comes directly under him as Minister-in-charge. In days gone by the leaders after clarifying the matter with their subordinates or concerned ministry would have taken the responsibility for their charges faults. But sadly those days are long gone. In addition Manmohan Singh has been criticizing the media in the manner they have been giving coverage to the various scams saying the country’s image is getting tarnished and FDI is likely to get affected. The distorted priority is again clearly visible here. Should we not put our house in order first before we think of what opinions the international institutions and agencies will have of us? What we need is not an apologetic PM but somebody who can lead aggressively a strong and vibrant India. Interestingly the headline of a national newspaper after the PM’s speeches in Parliament read – Nothing we won’t do to clean up public life: PM, which could easily have meant or read as - We won’t do nothing to clean up public life: PM. Was this a case of double entendre by the paper!

Supreme Court's Landmark Ruling in CVC Case

The Supreme Court’s decision on the CVC case is a landmark ruling and which any incumbent government will remember not to cross to their disadvantage for a long while. P J Thomas is understood to be thinking of filing a review petition which will only add to the opprobrium that he has already earned by continuing to pursue the case. After all the man for all the respectability that he claims knows clearly that he is not fit for the CVC’s post, then why mess around with it. It is better for him to slink away with some shred of self-respect that he still retains. In terms of the UPA-2 government the CVC issue is the crowning event of the nadir that this government has reached. It is still fumbling around and in its intention to protect the PM and the HM they are trying to find a scapegoat in this case with the DOPT for failing to bring to the notice of the high power appointments committee the various infarctions that P J Thomas supposedly committed. Apart from this the tendency of the PM trying to get away from primary responsibility for any of his actions is rather disappointing. If you have made an error admit and be done with it and this great country has the grace to pardon you. Do not try to fool us all the time. Finally, the PM has realized this it seems and has accepted responsibility for the CVC appointment fiasco and has promised to make a statement in Parliament. From internal sources what is understood that the gameplan for the CVC appointment was something like this. The PM and HM would try to overawe the Leader of the Opposition, Sushma Swaraj in the high power appointments committee to push through P J Thomas’s appointment. The HM, the shrewd cat that he is, was not convinced that this would work but then decided to play along since either way he wins since how else would he get such a golden chance to discredit the PM. These are wheels within the wheels that are playing within the UPA-2 and the Congress party. What both the PM and HM overlooked was the spunky lady, Sushma Swaraj, who not only told them about P J Thomas’s lack of credentials and put her dissent note in writing on the minutes.How the PM & HM can claim that they did not know that P J Thomas was involved in the palmolein scandal is surpriing because it has been in all the papers? Or maybe they do not read the papers? This again is something that the media can work on and promote their readership. The spanner that Sushma Swaraj threw in the works required the UPA-2 to say that a majority decision by the committee was acceptable and no unanimity was required. This is where the whole thing started unraveling. The PIL was filed by the NGO including ex-CEC Lyngdoh and Shanti Bhushan among others in the Supreme Court which was again not expected leading to a cornered PM to state at an international law conference in Delhi that the judiciary should not over-extend its reach into areas of the executive. But by this time the damage was done. And when at this juncture the 2G scam was threatening to break, P J Thomas when asked to resign as CVC to reduce the embarrassment to the government decided to play hard ball and refused to resign. More mud on the face for the UPA-2. But we are moving too fast. Let us backtrack a bit. P J Thomas’s CVC appointment was primarily to hide the 2G scam since after the CAG report it was planned to push the case to the CVC and P J Thomas would give the case a decent burial. But because the gameplan was coming apart P J Thomas could not but recuse himself from the 2G case stating that he was Telecom Secretary for some part of the time that the 2G scam was taking place and his immediate last appointment was as Telecom Secretary. The shit by that time had hit the ceiling which you are now seeing playing out in front of you as the last act of a sordid drama of bureaucratic intrigue, political amateurishness, coalition mollycoddling which will cost the UPA-2 dearly. Manmohan Singh must now be feeling that everything was going on so well but then what hit him so suddenly and so hard.

Ignore Pakistan’s Match Fixing Allegations

Pakistan has to play spoilsport in everything. Not having been able to play on home ground or host any of the matches of the World Cup 2011 in progress, Rashid Latif, himself one of those who was investigated in the past and then suspended for his involvement in match fixing, has brought the bogey of match fixing to roost in the ongoing competition. If you see, and one has to admit this, is that the Pakistani mind the convoluted way it works is probably the most ideal one to look at the most devious ways to derail the sport. It was they who taught us to graduate from match fixing to spot fixing, sensing the money to be made there. They have been past masters to invent the art of ball tampering and out of which emerged the new ‘reverse swing’. And then Afridi famously went and showed us to do ball biting in Australia. He probably had a grouse against the ball not having got his team a wicket but then a captain biting a ball is going more than a bit overboard or more truly it could be that he had forgotten to have breakfast in the morning! Therefore the ICC and the media should not give any credence to what Rashid Latif says and let the World Cup run its course. The best way is to ignore Rashid Latif and have the ICC run the match fixing investigations on their own steam. The head of Pakistan Cricket Board has joined the chorus about match fixing citing Shane Warne's prediction that the India-England match would end in a tie and asking the ICC to investigate. Should he not ask Shane Warne directly rather than have the ICC chase shadows? He has also cited India as the centre for all kinds of match fixing and illegal betting. That we know is the common enough Paki rant. With Pakistan it is a clear case of sour grapes since they are not able to host any of the World Cup matches in their own country given the security scenario there. Let Pakistan put their house in order and they would definitely have international cricket coming back to their home grounds.


Nilekani The Laundryman's Donkey

As is the habit of government Nandan Nilekani apart from his UID project is being saddled with this new responsibility of coming out with a mechanism of transferring subsidies directly to the end beneficiary in the wake of the Sonawane burning by the oil mafia in Maharasthra. This new project will cover, as is understood, all subsidies that the government gives to individuals, farmers and the like. It is said that Nilekani was given this assignment since he is a man of impeccable integrity. While we agree with that reading should we not assess whether he is the best man for the job in terms of having the knowledge to deliver on the assignment? Being in the corporate sector and not familiar with the manner that the subsidies are ingeniously defalcated will probably restrict him from coming out with a foolproof system. Not only that he is already struggling with the UID project where apart from his existing problem with finding manpower to support him and answer some of the flaws pointed out in the UID project, he has to contend with the Planning Commission slashing his budget allocation. Thus Nilekani may find himself being snowed under with this new subsidy project. Once he had delivered on the UID project, giving him something more was very much correct but now we do not know whether we will get either the UID project or the subsidy project done professionally or none at all. A similar situation had occurred during Rajiv Gandhi’s regime with Sam Pitroda who after making a success of C-DOT and Telecom was in the manner of – A Man For All Seasons – made by Rajiv as the – The Man of All Solutions, and put in charge of all kinds of National Missions like Drinking Water, Oil Seeds etc. etc. One does not recall if Pitroda failed or Rajiv’s term ended which cut short all the National Missions from whom not a single report saw the light of day. This kind of thing is common with government which dumps all kinds of related and unrelated products on their PSU’s apart from their regular product line making them unwieldy and then blames the PSU’s for not being profitable and ultimately failing without realizing there is so much of a load that anyone can take and beyond that like the laundry man’s proverbial donkey will end up flat on the ground with its legs splayed out.

The West Fanning The Jasmine Revolution

The West has been taking a very correct stand that Gaddhafi should step down from power in Libya. There are no two things about it and the dictator has been past his time for quite some years now. But the logic with which the West is driving this point home is flawed. If public outcry in the hundreds of thousands or millions is the measure why the dictators in the Middle East should step down, then the leaders like George W Bush and also Tony Blair and Gordon Brown should have relinquished office and slunk away to exile. This is because since the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars there have been many a time that crowds had collected in most of the Western capitals of the world most notably Washington and London protesting against the conduct of these wars. These crowds sometimes far exceeded anything seen in Tahrir Square in Cairo. But nothing happened to the Western autocrats so why should the build-up of public protest be a reason for the Middle East dictators to relinquish their cosy seats. The other logic has been that these dictators notably Gaddhafi in the Middle East have been turning their guns on their own people. There is nothing strange with that since each society according to its level of civilization, culture and tradition will choose the weapons that it prefers to quell protest. Just like rifles were aimed at the public in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and Bahrain, was caning not resorted to in Western capitals notably in London where even one man died because of the physical force used by the police. More often than not water cannon and tear gas is used in the cities of the Western world to quell Greenpeace and World Trade protestors. Therefore let the Western press and media not unnecessarily use hyperbole to justify their actions in support of the nascent democracy movements in the world. Each of the dictators in the Middle East need to be removed since they do not allow freedom to their people while at the same time stashing away their ill-gotten wealth for their luxury and comfort. But then the question to be asked is why does the US support these kind of dictators. Whether it was Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, the Sheikh in Bahrain, the King in Jordan all are allies, some military allies, of the US. Why did the US pamper these dictators in the first place and now when the chips are down the US is playing turncoat! The same thing about the ill-gotten wealth of these dictators which is deposited with the Western banks most notably in Switzerland and London. Why should the West use this money for their needs and only now realize that the colour of this money is not acceptable to them? Even now the biggest repressor of human rights in the Persian Gulf region which is Saudi Arabia continues to be pampered by the US because of its oil wealth which the US so desperately needs and today after China, Saudi Arabia is possibly the largest investor in the US Govt. bonds market and in US industry and trade. Thus it is matter of unabashed discretion that the West discovers its morals at opportune times while at other times it plays the convenience game. Concluding, remove Gaddhafi by all means but tell him you are doing so and if required shoot him in the face. That is the way it should be done. The other thing that the West has not woken up in fanning the Jasmine Revolution in the Gulf and the Middle East is that with democracy settling in here, there will be more Islamic dominance of the area and Israel will have a tough time as the future comes along. Therefore this region will become more volatile than it now is.

Jagmohan Dalmia Continues To Gripe

Jagmohan Dalmia is now doing what he is best at and that is conspiracies. When it was quite clear that the Eden Gardens was not ready by the set deadline of the ICC and even after one extension could not be got ready for the India-England tie where is the question that the ICC has the knife out for him and the CAB? When he should have put in the effort to get the historic ground ready with all the credentials that he has been now touting, he was found wanting on the job and now he is questioning why the Wankede stadium got clearance. Dalmia should remember that he is an Indian and the Wankhede stadium is in India and not make out a case against it as if he does not belong to this country. His complaints in this regard are making him out to be a sore looser. Mr. Dalmia, hitch up your suspenders and get down to doing a good job handling the other matches of the World Cup allotted to the Eden Gardens which will go a long way in keeping up India’s reputation.

The Seam of Venality Running Through India

The latest news showing up the seam of venality running though Indian society was the NALCO CMD Shrivastava and his wife arrested for corruption when the wife was caught red-handed with three 1Kg. bricks of gold being received from the wife of a contractor. The raids on their lockers found another seven such 1 Kg. bricks of gold along with unaccounted cash. The NALCO CMD’s wife while being arrested had Rupees five lakhs of unaccounted cash in her purse. This arrest highlights that at the topmost level of our PSU corporate structure there is something seriously wrong. The NALCO CMD is selected by the PSU Board, the PESB which is similar in vetting and the processes that need to be undergone and thereafter the Cabinet Committee on Appointments approves the candidate for the post, with that of the board selecting government level secretaries and the like. And we have had the recent experience of the CVC P J Thomas arguing in the Supreme Court that once an appointee is vetted by such appointment boards, he need not be vetted again for appointment for a similar post. How wrong he was, apart from ex- Secretary Behura languishing in jail without bail after being arrested in the 2G scam case with Telecom Minister A Raja, this case will obviously tell him. Then we have the Income Tax (IT) authorities making a statement that ex-CJI Balakrishnan’s kith and kin accused in making money during the named justice’s tenure as CJI have black money while they remained silent when asked about the ex-CJI’s possessing himself black money, shows you that even at the highest levels of the judiciary this virus of corruption has reached. At the High Court levels that corruption exists was known a few years when a judge hailing from Tamil Nadu but officiating in the Punjab High Court was known to have made petty money by overcharging on furniture for his official residence and the like. Again the Calcutta High Court Judge who blithely contested a case when he was seen to have used for his personal advantage monies deposited with him in cases in his officiating role as Custodian for the court. Though he later claimed that all monies thus used were returned in full to the Custodian account. The fact that in the lower courts of the judiciary cases are taken up for hearing and judgments are delivered for money is well known around the country. The excessive usage of these cosy arrangements was commented even by the Supreme Court with regard to the Allahabad High Court where lawyers having near relations on the Bench were seen to have got suddenly very rich even though they had put in relatively few years in wearing out their shoe-soles in climbing the steps of the courts. The IT Dept. themselves are not averse to helping themselves on the side to some money for assessments, refund orders, relaxations and the like and many are the cases where senior IT officers of the level of Commissioner have been arrested in the past from around the country but particularly from the cities of Mumbai and Delhi. The celebrated case of this cadre about eight years ago was that of a member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes being arrested with large sums of money at his residence and in bank lockers from Mumbai. The recent case of a relatively junior level woman IT officer in Mumbai who made crores hit the headlines in which just like the NALCO case she was using her spouse to pick up the ill-gotten money. The IAS is not above in being cast with the slur of being corrupt as again the recent case again in Maharasthra a wife-husband couple in the service was arrested and it was found that their assets beyond their known sources of income was a stunning Rs. 380 crores approximately. The IAS in recent times has lost its reputation making one believe that the sky-high dowries that the officers command particularly in north India is related to their ‘earning power’ or maybe because of the lack of it! The armed forces are also not averse to putting their hand in the till with the earlier hoary reputation of the Canteen Stores Dept. which has lately spread to the higher echelons reaching up to the levels of Lt. General making money of all things on purchase of coffins – the scam appropriately christened ‘Coffingate’, on rations which are sent to our soldiers stationed in Siachen, to giving off land near Siliguri for building an educational institution without the authorization of superior staff (after all it was for a good cause!). And then it is rumoured that in the Adarsh C.H.S building scam in Mumbai two retired heads of the armed services had given at the time of application, when they were in service, false income certificates. So where does the ‘black buck’ stop – not at Salman Khan’s door but at the doors of a retired army chief and the other that of a naval chief. This my friend is the state of the country from a snapshot of only the celebrated cases. How deep and extensive is this rot? Your guess is as good as mine. Have any of the cases mentioned here that were exposed in the past have had the perpetrators sent to jail? No one knows since after the case sees the light of day, it goes into the dark recesses of the night never to emerge again. It is like the Karnataka Lok ayukta had said recently that whoever was indicted by him and penalized found ways to get themselves absolved and even reinstated by their political masters. The same statement was made by the highest police authorities in Maharasthra and Mumbai that those that they had recommended for disciplinary action after being found to be complicit with drugs, crime etc. find through the Maharasthra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) ways to be brought back into service sometimes in the same posts from which they had been removed. Mind you we are not even touching the most corrupt class among us and that is the politicians. Here people like Lallu have made us sit up and take notice when he could even make money from cattle fodder. And in places where we thought that resources for development never reach like in the North East we have scams where the amounts defalcated are in the region of hundreds of crores in places like the North Cachar hills and in other parts of Assam. If this is so then where resources flow in larger measure to other parts of the country the amounts being siphoned off is possibly in the thousands of crores. You may able to add to the above list of our corruption gallery from your own knowledge and experience. But in any case this is your India, my friend, where people in high office mumble when asked why they are not tackling corruption that wherever and whenever we have ‘tangible’ evidence we will act against them. In the meanwhile India makes merry on easy money while the poor remain poor or maybe become poorer and the scale of the monies in corruption which used to be in lakhs earlier multiplies hundred-fold to crores.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 49 Date: 26.02.2011


Contents:
1. Rahat’s 'Rahat'
2. Arabs Caught Between The Devil & The Deep Sea
3. Bangalore Caning of Cricket Fans Is a Shame
4. DOT/TRAI Hyperactive After 2G Scam
5. The JPC Announced Finally!
6. The Army Should Pull Out Of Civilian Kashmir


Rahat’s 'Rahat'

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was deservedly released after paying the Rs. 15 Lakh fine by both him and his manager and after forfeiting the foreign currency amounting to some Rs. 60 Lakhs that had originally been confiscated. But did the DRI query him on the source of this Rs. 15 Lakh fine since the amount is not small and for a foreigner to raise such an amount locally must have been with a little effort. The point is that our DRI should not do things by half measures and if they go after someone who has broken the law, they should go whole hog and not do things by half measures. That Rahat has been released has been mentioned in the media but what about the event management Co. owned by Aadesh Shrivastava's brother in Mumbai who were also raided in this matter. There is no news about the progress of the case against them. One hopes that the DRI does not give them the grace on the assumption that they are after all our own people.


Arabs Caught Between The Devil & The Deep Sea

The Al Qaeda started in Saudi Arabia with Osama Bin Laden protesting against the rigid and repressive Saudi royal family with the intention to bring in change. Close to two decades later the recent 'Jasmine Revolution' commenced in Tunisia, moved then to Egypt and now taking shape in Libya apart from other parts of the Arab world is initiating that change what Osama bin Laden had wanted. The trigger for this was the relatively innocent rise in food prices which sparked off riots in Tunisia and then with the killing of innocent citizens by the police and army, the revolution spiraled out of control taking in its wake Egypt with Hosni Mubarak having literally to bite dust or is it sand. It is all fine for the average citizen in these countries going through the heady feeling of the revolution which brings them the aroma of freedom for now but in the long term they may fall into the hands of the Islamic fundamentalists and the de-facto Al Qaeda. So essentially these citizens are caught between the devil, Osama Bin Laden, and the deep sea, being the existing repressive regimes. What this means to Western policy planners is for them to analyse but the US State Dept. seemed to want to continue dealing with the repressive regimes like Hosni Mubarak's in Egypt until in desperation they pulled the plug, the royal families in Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which speaks volumes for the pursuit of democracy by the US around the world.

Bangalore Caning of Cricket Fans Is a Shame

The Bangalore World Cup cricket ticket fiasco enacted on national TV y/day(24th) wherein fans seeking tickets were brutally caned is a shame for the nation and specifically to Srinath and Kumble who have taken over the reins of the KSCA recently. Apart from the caning going by the pictures shown on TV there seemed to be no semblance of crowd control implemented by the local police and if the gates of the KSCA stadium had given way there would have been a stampede and a greater tragedy would have been enacted. Why the KSCA when they know about the cricket-mad public in Bangalore cannot do a proper police bandobast is something which we will never understand. Adding insult to injury Srinath comes on national TV in the evening and says that such things happen and this is a tradition in Bangalore. What kind of a crass statement is that from a person like Srinath who is respected by all of us as a great-hearted cricketer? These are the same fans which gave him the stature of a cricketer and when he is now an office bearer of the KSCA, he turns around and criticises them. Srinath & Kumble being given the reins of the KSCA raised the expectation that apart from the game being given importance they would also be sympathetic to spectator interests. Also disappointing was that there was no peep from Kumble after the above incident. As for tickets for the matches one cannot understand why the cricket public cannot be allocated more tickets. Giving just 8000 tickets only for the public and reserving the rest for the VIP's, KSCA affiliates etc. is a shame. The public need be given a large number of tickets since otherwise make the game of cricket like a private club and see how much value goes out of the sport in a short span of time. The same ticket fiasco of low allocation to the public is reported from the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai where the finals are scheduled where it is understood that just 4000 tickets are allocated to the public. Like they say, this is just not cricket!

DOT/TRAI Hyperactive After 2G Scam

It is only after the 2G scam broke are the various authorities like the Dept. of Telecom (DOT) , TRAI etc. are waking up to the fact that they have slept while the licensees have made merry. Once the authorities have now woken up they are trying to move fast so that no one criticizes them for not even acting even after the scam had broken. Therefore you see the spate of news reports that one or the other telecom related agency is proposing a penalty for those Cos. which have not rolled out the 2G services. That they will now charge for ‘extra’ spectrum given to those Cos. which are in operation. That henceforth they will only auction the spectrum for all telecom services. And in future they will close their eyes to any new mechanism of allocating the spectrum even though it may fetch larger revenue to the state exchequer. The manner in which all this is happening is very amusing. One Raja can shake up the kingdom which is very true, with his good as well as bad deeds, is what our Panchatantra tells us! That is what we are seeing playing out before our eyes now. Such eminent people up to the level of secretaries to the government cannot handle a resource like the spectrum is something which comes as a shock to many of us. The situation as related to the spectrum is very simple. The bare facts are that an international agency allots the spectrum to a country in different frequency bands which are by convention reserved for certain applications like the military, government, private etc. This allotment of spectrum by country is then transferred to the users or operators, which both have the same meaning except that users are those related to government while operators are both government and private operators. If we talk of telecom then BSNL, MTNL etc. are in the category of government operators while Airtel, Reliance etc. are the private operators. These operators are all using the spectrum or need a spectrum for exploiting it on a commercial basis. Thus all of them have to pay. Now spectrum not being unlimited in nature comes at a price and because of the number of operators involved is a competitive commodity. Therefore it makes eminent sense to auction it since then only the government will get the optimum revenue. You can as our government did in its wisdom in the initial stages give out the spectrum on first cum first served basis, which as our government has argued was to roll out the services. There is no quarrel with that since it is government policy but very short-sighted policy, all the same. But the risk of this approach is what we have seen that people obtain the spectrum and then sell to the highest bidder which gets them a windfall and the government is left sucking its thumb, as it has now happened. Remember in all of this the spectrum is given to the operators for use only. The ownership of the spectrum remains with the country only. It is akin to renting a house. Because you have the right to use the house does not enjoin with you the right to sell it and make a profit since obviously the owner will not agree to it and secondly, you are depriving the owner of the profit. Therefore what should have been done or is done by simple logic is that at the first instance, the spectrum is auctioned and whenever there is change in the corporate entity using the spectrum then whatever premium that the original licensee gets for this change in ownership or constitution should be shared with the government. This then respects the government right of ownership for the spectrum and also ensures that it gains with each transfer of the spectrum to newer parties. Why should government complicate such a simple matter? For no reason but because of the crores of rupees involved for the spectrum for which everybody wants to pitch into the fray for thier share of the pie rightfully or wrongfully. Thus the moral of this story is that firstly, we have to act keeping the interests of the country foremost and secondly, each agency should like in this case the DOT & the TRAI do their jobs assigned to them and not wake up to reality after the horses have bolted from the stable. There is also no meaning in charging the 2G operators for the extra spectrum that the government doled out to them since it will become a matter of litigation. What the government can now do to optimize revenues is that for 2G for those operators that have not rolled out the services, they should take back the spectrum and hereafter all 2G spectrum should be auctioned (unless any other new mechanism of optimising revenue comes up) so that the government gains its lawful revenue.


The JPC Announced Finally!

Finally the UPA-2 government has agreed to a JPC on the 2G scam as demanded by the Opposition. One wonders why this was delayed at the cost of one whole session of Parliament which was wasted. If the JPC could be announced now, could it not have been announced during the last session saving at least part of the proceedings? Neither did any of the top brass of the Congress or UPA-2 get involved to save the session at that point in time. This clearly shows the complete lack of political maturity and responsibility towards its citizens by the UPA-2 government. Even when the PM announced the JPC y/day (22nd) he was churlish in blaming the Opposition for holding up Parliament. Sometimes, Mr Manmohan Singh, statesmanship is required and one should understand not to sow the seeds of discord when you want something to happen in a certain way like in this case getting Parliament to function. Not that the JPC is going to get any results since it will go the way of earlier JPC's without any conclusion. It would have been better if the Supreme Court had pursued the matter to its logical conclusion based on the PIL and the ongoing CBI investigation, which we are sure it will. Here again the PM has been accusing our judiciary of overreach and misplaced enthusiasm while speaking at an international law conference in Delhi a few weeks back. But the Indian citizen wants the judiciary to function the way it is doing now since otherwise none of the major problems relating to governance like the 2G scam and others would have seen the light of day. Giving one or the other reason the incumbent government would have papered these over. The Congress party again is failing to rein in their MP's with Suresh Kalamdi asking for a JPC for the CWG scam. This is in tune with L K Advani's original demand. Kalmadi's blowing his mouth could make him eligible for a BJP Working Committee membership, now that his Congress career is effectively ended!


The Army Should Pull Out Of Civilian Kashmir

After the recent killing of a Kashmiri youth by the Indian Army because he did not stop when challenged is yet another blot on the Army’s scroll. Where the Indian Army takes pride in being one of the top ten fighting forces in the world, not able to intercept and stop a young lad from escaping by physically bringing him to the ground is a shame. The Indian Army in this case clearly took the easiest alternative – Shoot to Kill. Irrespective of the Chief of Army Staff explaining on national TV that this is standard procedure, something does not seem at all right. The Chief of Army Staff may quote these standard operating procedures (SOP’s) which are valid in wartime but not when faced with a hostile local population in your own country. Some dilution of the SOP’s is surely warranted. Such actions add fuel to the fire that India considers Kashmir foreign territory inspite of touting to the world that it is an integral part of the country. Moreover to all those who are critical to the Army’s operations in Kashmir you are giving them material, like in this instance the family of the youth killed, was claiming again on national TV that the Army did not shoot below the waist but shot to kill. Not only that they claimed that one of the legs of the youth killed had been broken in many parts apart from other wounds lending suspicion that the youth was apprehended, then tortured and finally shot. The Army can do without such allegations and therefore it has to take utmost care in its operations not to be unfairly criticized. The Chief of Army Staff in the above interview seeking legal support for their operations within the country and volunteering for operations against the Maoists is again out of place since what he should be actually suggesting is that they will have nothing to do within the country except in extreme cases where law and order has been completely disrupted and concentrate on defending the country’s borders. This applies to Kashmir as well where it is time that apart from the forces guarding the border with Pakistan all military personnel should return back to their cantonments.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 48 Date: 19.02.2011

Contents:

1. UPA-2 Reacts Only When It Is Caught In The Act
2. The Fall & Fall of Manmohan Singh
3. Phone Tapping Figures Show Our Democracy Is Not Working
4. Learn From Dhaka

UPA-2 Reacts Only When It Is Caught In The Act

The Devas-ISRO deal scrapping has been a good thing. But what is surprising that if the government can act so fast when it has been caught in the act then why did they not act with the same alacrity when ISRO had advised the PMO to cancel the deal in the middle of 2010. These unexplained delays gives rise to the suspicion that the government acts only when it is found out of being in the wrong and not otherwise. The further take on that is that the best interests of the aam admi are not at the heart of any action of this government but it looks after only a coterie of vested interests who are close to the powers-that-be. If you see the reasons given for canceling the Devas-ISRO deal in the press conference addressed by Law Minister, Shri Veerappa Moily and subsequently reported in the papers, there is nothing new since the S-band uses for the railways, defence and other infrastructural ministries was known when the deal was signed and therefore parting with the spectrum to Devas which had on its board a number of people who were with and/or close to ISRO in the past raising the clear stink of complicity in the deal. Apart from that this government has the tendency to bluff and save itself when it is caught in tight corners. Failing this they tend to blame the Opposition notably the BJP. Take the case of the 2G scam, where the PM in his press conference the other day said that once the Telecom and Finance ministry, secretary level officials, had a look on the allotment papers, he felt that he had no reason to again look into it. To this the PAC has now come out with the statement that as per the deposition of the RBI Governor and ex-Finance Secretary at that time, the Finance Ministry had differed with the Telecom Ministry on the method of allotment of the spectrum. The PAC further says that it has letters in its possession from P Chidambaram, Finance Minister at that time suggesting that the auction of the spectrum was the way to go and not allot it on first come-first served basis. Thus the PM has misled the citizens of India. Is this deliberate? There are suspicions that it may be so if you look at the track record of this government. Just on the 2G issue Kapil Sibal the moment he took over as Telecom Minister came out with a major announcement that there is no 2G scam at all and what the CAG has estimated is a presumptive loss and not an actual one. The argument of ‘presumptive loss’ being valid, the accusation was that the government could have gone one better and if it had auctioned the spectrum that is the kind of money it would have fetched. Days after this press conference the Telecom Minister, A Raja was arrested. If there was no 2G scam then where was the need to arrest Raja? Thus Kapil Sibal was like one of the clowns who comes before the main act in a circus to divert attention from the preparations and to get a few laughs to ease the expectation of the main act. Thus whether it is Adarsh or the CWG this government’s approach is to try and get away with it and if they are caught in the act then they will try to bluster through the accusations or blame the previous NDA government. This is no way to run a government and in the process of doing this, the UPA-2 is suffering a severe credibility problem. While during the debates on the Indo-US nuclear deal the Opposition was responsible for blowing holes in the government’s plans and programs, lately the UPA-2 is committing hara-kiri and coming with a tattered garment of scams and giving the Opposition the opportunity to enlarge these holes. These will cost it early in any of the upcoming elections.

The Fall & Fall of Manmohan Singh

The PM’s press conference y/day (16th) has rung the final bell on his position as the leader of this nation. Like they say, the writing is on the wall. It is just a matter of months before we will have a new PM. The unfortunate part for Manmohan Singh was that Rahul Gandhi is not a little bit older and not able to show a larger sense of maturity, in which case Manmohan Singh would have been able to retire from his post and active politics long ago. Be that as it may the PM’s horrendous admissions on corruption particularly on the 2G issue that A Raja had assured him that he would be ‘transparent’ on the matter and that once the Telecom & Finance Ministry officials had gone through the files related to the policy for allotment, he felt there was no need for him to further apply his mind on the matter, are shocking. Raja was transparent to the extent of ensuring that his pockets were always open. While the PM’s statement that once the officials had looked at the papers there was no need for him to look at it, speaks of the misplaced confidence that the PM has inspite of manifold instances of collusion at all levels of the bureaucracy to foster corruption. This is also the approach of a bureaucrat which the PM is by training and not of a leader, more so a political one. Further, the PM admitted that appointing A Raja as the Telecom Minister in UPA-2 was a compulsion because of coalition pressures which also indicates that condoning the 2G scam while it was taking shape was also a part of the same pressure. Thus how can we accept a PM who blames coalition pressures in helping people loot the nation. We do not need a helpless PM but someone who has the ability to lay down the Laxman Rekha to his ministers and enforce it. The problem with Manmohan Singh is not lack of stature but an unexplainable diffidence in implementing anything strongly and with the necessary emphasis. Overall at the PM’s press conference what came out is someone who was blaming others and the system, not that of a leader who would have said that we have to take these things in our stride, this is what we are going to do about the various scams unearthed in the last few months and the timeline to bring the culprits to justice and give a vision for the way forward. That would have inspired confidence in the people of the country. Even on controlling food inflation, the PM instead of suggesting vigorous steps to monitor and control prices through the existing channels with coordinated measures and in cooperation with the States, threw up his hands. If the PM does this then to whom will the millions of common citizens of this country go to. Not only that this is a year when we have had a bumper harvest of rice and wheat, thanks to a good monsoon, which should have encouraged the PM to outline a broad policy for agriculture to make us self-sufficient in almost every commodity that we need for human consumption. We have the land available and all that we need are the measures that will motivate our farmers to grow what we need. So why was the PM harping on the fact that worldwide food prices are on a high and which we need to recognize. Actually we do not need to depend on the world at all to make us self-sufficient on food, if we apply ourselves to bring more land under cultivation and at the same time improve crop productivity, for which our agriculture scientists are more than capable. Here again the lack of leadership with the PM was clearly showing. Actually, the turn of Manmohan Singh’s political career came with the Indo-US nuclear deal. In this ala Jawaharlal Nehru, the PM went about pleasing the world rather than his own people. Where the PM should have concentrated on domestic issues making for a stronger and more confident India, the message coming out during the nuclear deal was that the PM was more than keen to benefit the foreign countries particularly the US. The alienation caused in passing the deal through Parliament is at the root of the schism which has divided the political parties and accentuated the aggressiveness among them. After that there was one scam after another starting from the Shashi Tharoor incident, the 2G scam, the Adarsh scam, the CWG scam, the Devas-ISRO S Band scam et al. There was no respite for the PM and before he could deal with one there was a new one rising on the horizon. The Opposition parties and those critical of the PM have jumped on these scams as if it were manna from heaven and started drumbeating them to discredit the PM. Manmohan Singh has suffered all this stoically and as he mentioned during the press conference he is uncomfortable as an individual with the manner of how these matters are being raised and how to deal with them. Thus the best option then is to quit since India needs someone who can lead it, who can confront the problems and find solutions, who is effective and who can carry the people with him, not someone who will give one or the other excuse about each and every matter.

Phone Tapping Figures Show Our Democracy Is Not Working

Reliance Infocomm has declared that it was asked to tap, close to 1.5 lakh phones in the period 2006 to 2010 – 5 years. This figure being significant by itself is just the tip of the iceberg since Reliance is just one out of a dozen or more telecom operators and by any measure they are not one of the biggest since BSNL, MTNL and Airtel account for a major portion of the subscriber pie. Considering that in a democracy the measure of its effectiveness as also the attitude of its governance is indicated by having the least number of phones that need to be tapped, this fact of close to 30,000 phones tapped in one year by just one operator which over 12 operators could easily exceed 2 lakh phones in a year, is a sad reminder that our democracy is clearly not working. We are more akin to a communist or police state or a tin-pot dictatorship where the incumbent governments feel the need to eavesdrop on the telephonic conversations of such a large number of people. Mind you if we look at this statistic, we need to analyse this in the number of phones in the country and not on the existing population since all people do not have phones. This will make the % figure substantial. Security and crime issues aside where our law enforcement agencies have been found sadly lacking if such random authorizations for tapping phones are given then every Ram, Lakshman, Sita, Mary, Amar, Akbar and Anthony should be wary since his or her phone may be tapped. It is time that the government came out with a policy on this and acted in this matter in a transparent manner. The fact as reported that the police take shelter under forged authorizations for phone tapping, as quoted in the Reliance case, is rather alarming and we can judge from this the alacrity of cutting corners by our law enforcement who as we all know operate on the principle that let us go ahead and do it and if we get caught we will see what we have to do.

Learn From Dhaka

The World Cup inaugural at Dhaka showcased the cycle-rickshaw which is the most common mode of transport in that city and also in Bangladesh. The rickshaws were decked up to highlight the novelty when the participating captains were wheeled into the Bangabandhu stadium on them. The country clearly was proud of the humble cycle-rickshaw and saw no problem in displaying it. While what do we do, like at the last concuded Commonwealth Games at Delhi, but displace our people and try to hide everything behind massive hoardings. Additionally all the Bangladeshi dignitaries and officials including Sheikh Hasina, their Prime Minister, spoke in Bengali at least for some time. This included our eminent Agriculture Minister and incumbent President of the ICC, Shri Sharad Pawar, who also spoke a few lines in broken Bengali. But what do we do in India is give our own language the go-by and try to show our prowess in English. We should change and show pride in our own language and in our own unique things.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 47 Date: 12.02.2011

CONTENTS:

1. Crimes Against Women
2. Gaffes, Gaffes And More Gaffes (And More And More Gaffes)
3. The CVC Appointee Should Be Like Caesar’s Wife
4. Scams, Scams & More Scams
5. Do Not Chase Growth, But Chase Happiness Index
6. Organised Retail Should Be Kept Out Of Vegetables & Other Perishable Trade

Crimes Against Women

The number of ghastly crimes against women over the last few weeks in this country is shocking. From the girl who was thrown out of a train in Kerala and then raped who later succumbed to her injuries, to the CRPF jawan who shot the upcoming kabaddi player in Patna and the other similar cases in UP where the girls were not only raped but one was maimed for life, we need to take stock of our moral fibre and ensure that such things do not happen. Though we are believed to be a country where women along with the cow are respected, this is not really true since older women are given the grace in most parts of the countries and the younger women are considered a target open to the perverted minds of men. We need therefore to bring in stronger and more foolproof laws and ensure that justice is dispense quicker so that it ats as a deterrent to potential future offenders. At the same time for rape we should bring in longer sentences and like in the two cases mentioned, the one in Kerala and the other in UP where the girl was maimed, maybe bring in the death penalty for such dastardly offences.

Gaffes, Gaffes And More Gaffes (And More And More Gaffes)

M R Krishna's gaffe at the UN in reading the Portuguese Minister's speech is surely embarrassing irrespective of what the official line issued by our Foreign Ministry says. One would believe it is time that we set a cut-off limit like 65 or maybe even 70 for Ministers by which time they should retire and maybe continue as functionaries of their party but not hold responsible posts with the government. This is not only said because of the Krishna incident but also the full scale denial by the PMO, and not by the PM, in the face of the statement by Arun Shourie who said that he had talked to the PM in the corridors of Parliament about the developing 2G scam and that he had also taken it up with the Cabinet Secretary and the PMO. It is natural for the PM to not 'remember' this interaction with Arun Shourie given his age and the pre-occupation of Parliament and other pressing issues that were demanding his attention at that point in time. At the present moment Arun Shourie surely has more credibility that the PM when he makes a claim. In terms of the conduct of our foreign policy we need to take stock since it has been found to be lacking at most times. Like we have this situation with Pakistan where during the SAARC meeting at Thimpu we announce full fledged talks when we know that their Cabinet was likely to be reshuffled and (coincidence of coincidences) their Foreign Minister was dropped during the reshuffle. Even resumption of talks is felt was not really necessary considering the stand we have taken vis a vis Pakistan's complicity in the 26/11 incident for which they have done anything to investigate the matter or rein in the individual who India believes to be the brain behind 26/11 and who continues to rail against India in the most vile terms. Even if we had planned to announce the resumption of the full fledged talks with Pakistan at Thimphu, in the face of news of a cabinet reshuffle in that country we could have held it back until the new Foreign Minister was in place. We need not explain this nuance to our Foreign Ministry officials since where we could have opened with the new Pakistan FM in a grand gesture, we are now in a position that he will also take India for granted like his other previous colleagues. Inspite of numerous such inconsistencies during her tenure as Foreign Secretary, we still gave Nirupama Rao an extension beyond retirement in the same post!

The CVC Appointee Should Be Like Caesar’s Wife

P J Thomas’ defence in the Supreme Court citing the issue of criminality of a large number of our MP’s should automatically disqualify him from being even considered for the post of the CVC. Though the point is valid and well-taken as an independent issue but taking it to justify his appointment as the CVC by contending that the case against him in the palmolein scandal is yet to be proven is no point at all. The CVC, to use a phrase which surprisingly is getting popular in India in recent times, should be like Caesar’s wife who apart from being pure should also appear to be pure. India cannot have a CVC with war medals of one criminal case after another being pinned to his chest which shows the status of cases against him stating : pending, case in court, not guilty until proven guilty and last but not the least, case filed due to political rivalry. The importance of the CVC post and India’s reputation gets besmirched in this manner which P J Thomas should very well understand and not pursue his case any further. Moreover the manner in which he is trying to stick on to the post by citing one principle or another is not a good example for officialdom and other officers who citing this case will try to stick on to the post that they have been appointed to, by hook or by crook. Particularly for the high post of the CVC, once the taint on the palmolein case was cited P J Thomas should himself have resigned clarifying his position and not dragged this matter so far. That would have got more admiration for P J Thomas as a person. These days with an ineffective PM we have all and sundry making merry with scams, cutting corners and what have you, so the true values of respect, admiration and ethics are completely negotiable in contemporary India.

Scams, Scams & More Scams

We have all kinds of scams coming out with the latest being the ISRO-Devas S-band spectrum scam. One does not understand why contracts are drafted such that the licensees like ISRO cannot trade in or sell what is not its own. The spectrum is given to the country and the licensee should be able to only use it and even in the case of cellular Cos. which are privately owned, if the ownership changes they should come back to the government each time and seek approval for transfer. The other thing is that it is said for every one scam that sees the light of day, a hundred scams remain unveiled. This is definitely true for India and with scams tumbling out like the proverbial skeletons out of a closet, this government is seeing a complete erosion of credibility by the governance deficit it is showing. It is not enough for the PMO to say that in the ISRO-Devas case there was no scam and we will now cancel the contract. The question now uppermost in the aam admi 's mind is that if this had not come out would the PMO have canceled the contract and then would the country have lost that much money, Rs. 2 Lakh crore, at last estimates. Postscript: V K Chaturvedi, ex-Cabinet Secretary and now members of the Planning Commission, has been named as one of the persons in the Committee to investigate this scam and who was the Secretary, Dept. of Space at the time the contract between Devas & ISRO was finalized. This is reminiscent of a cartoon that appeared the other day in a leading national daily which depicted a person advising the PM that so-and-so would be the best person to investigate the matter since the matter happened on his watch and he would be knowing the ins and outs of the matter. The PM seems to have taken this cartoon literally!

Do Not Chase Growth, But Chase Happiness Index

The latest figures to come out from the government on the economic front is the growth rate for the year which after various estimates ranging from 8 - 8.5% has finally settled for a forecast of 8.6%. With the inflation forecasts consistently being missed and in effect moving the opposite way, one will have to take the growth estimates with a pinch of salt. There is nothing new or wrong on our economists missing out on forecasts since even an eminent economist as the Late John Kenneth Galbraith had once said - Economic forecasting , particularly of the long-term, would put the science of astrology to shame. Economic forecasts be it what it may be, we have to look for all-inclusive growth. We cannot move India on the path of development without carrying the poor along. The current economic policies do not factor in any serious effort to improve the lot of the poor and the farmers. Therefore we need to change and bring in the reforms to ensure that our highly publicised schemes like the NREGA, the Gram Sadak Yojana, the RTE and others function in the manner they were conceived and not serve only to line the pockets of the administrative chain and vested interests. The recent decisions by the Congress not to associate the Nehru family name with any of these schemes in the future and the fact that our Home Minister had to go out and speak in a foreign country (at Davos) that 50% of the money allocated for building roads in the country, is defalcated is symptomatic of the malaise we are talking about. Thus what the PM should do is instead of chasing growth he should get his ministries to chase delivery of existing schemes to the intended target segments which will lead to a resurgent and happier India. Maybe it would make more economic sense to pursue a better Happiness Index.

Organised Retail Should Be Kept Out Of Vegetables & Other Perishable Trade

We need to understand that the solution to handling the vegetables price rise issue is not dismantling the existing systems of the mandis and the APMC and transferring the whole thing to private ownership in the wholesale and retail trade which the government including the PM seems to be suggesting. This will be like abdicating this government’s responsibility in the matter but what they need to do is that they have to put their shoulder to the wheel and make the existing system work. If it has worked for fifty odd years or more, give or take a few instances here and there where it has failed, what it needs is improving and upgrading and not discarding. This government’s approach has been to move away from any situation that it is not able to manage and pass it on to the private sector with the hope that things would improve. In a country like India where there exist so much disparity of income levels, there needs to be individual markets for different sections of our society. Examples of this are our cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata among others where a person of every income level can survive since there is a privately owned vegetable vendor and a provision shop which knows exactly what his customer wants and also provides him credit and other services. This is what something that organized retail will not be able to do and neither can it be proximate to the lowest class of customer. In the proposal to pass the wholesale and retail trade to the private sector, there is also an element of vested interests and corruption which the private ownership can afford to pay but the mandis and the APMC’s cannot. We need to avoid this at all cost. People are warned not to believe that at this time the private sector malls are probably giving vegetables at prices lower than in the neighbourhood markets but then we need to remember that the current vegetables prices are artificially inflated and this situation is not going to sustain. When things turn around the open market will be able to give vegetables at lower prices and more fresher than the private malls. Here again one needs to mention that this government has this kind of a tacit approach to maintain higher prices as a signal to the trade. Take the case of the recent spurt in onion prices, the government got involved in supplying the item at ‘reasonable’ prices and now there is a consensus in government that prices of onions having reached at Rs. 25/- it is OK . Thus when the price of onions should drop to a close to a normal of Rs. 10 – 15 a Kg. at this time, the trade gets a signal that it is OK to keep the price at Rs. 25 and the prices will then never drop.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 46 Date: 05.02.2011


Need For Proper Planning, Govt. Should Not Wake Up After The Event

In the recent measures announced on controlling food inflation, we have had action recommended not to export our commodities when there is a shortage in the domestic market or when prices in the local market are riding high. On such matters we need to learn from Pakistan during the recent onion price crisis after the initial supplies they had considered stopping the export of onions to India since the export volumes would affect their domestic consumers. While in similar situations in the past we have continued export of items like sugar when our local prices were rising on the plea that either export prices were higher allowing greater revenue recovery or that we have a contractual commitment. It is only India which wants to please the world by depriving its own citizens. Regarding prices of vegetables having gone up because of demand outstripping supply and logistical imbalances between the areas of demand and growth centres of vegetables, the measures announced to combat this is that these growth centres for vegetables will be created near populated areas so that access to these items is easier particularly considering that these are highly perishable items. Is this some great economic insight that the Committee is expressing? The logic is pure common sense. Further we have been proud of a growing and more comfortable India with more money in people’s hands for quite some time now and our economists and planners surely know that this will lead to an increase in demand as diets of these people will change to more meat, fish, fruits and vegetables. So why have we not planned for it? And now we waking up to the fact that the rural people with more money in their hands are consuming more, where the fruits and vegetables are grown and therefore it is not reaching urban centres. This lower supply has been putting price pressures on these items in metropolitan markets. This is rather sad and is giving the meaning that one part of the population is snatching what is required by the other for an item like food which is a common necessity. As far as vegetables are concerned they do not need more than at most a year to stabilize volumes and it is more of a household activity around India. So clearly this basic approach to plan ahead was lacking. Even now we need to realize that the factor of spoilage and wastage in the transport chain for vegetables and fruits is about 40% which if controlled can contribute to short-term support for demand until long term production kicks in. On the plea of supply side shortages we should not bring in the organized sector into the distribution chain for vegetables and fruits which is what some of the government economists are suggesting. The organized sector once it comes in will bring the MNC chain’s behind them and after the initial incentive with reduced prices will pull the market up by the scruff of the neck and we will end up paying for all items in dollar terms. The same applies to the measure relating to warehouses suggested by the Committee to store rice and wheat in years of bumper harvests. Why have we not built them? We talk of aiming at self-sufficiency in food but then we do not create the storage capacities to temporarily hold these food stocks until they reach the aam admi! This is the situation, folks, and we hope that Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser to this government as head of this Committee will be now able to deliver the goods on reasonable prices for food items as we go along.

AG, Vahanvati Going In Circles

The AG, Vahanvati in the Supreme Court is continuing to go in circles in trying to justify P J Thomas’ appointment as the CVC. By saying that once a person has been vetted as Secretary to government there is no further need for vetting again for other appointments including that of the CVC. This defies logic and any common sense procedure. Between the vetting and the appointment to government there will always be an intervening period and like they say anything could happen in this intervening period. The other thing is that the office of the CVC is an important office unless this government wants to trivialize it and therefore at least for appointment to the office of the CVC P J Thomas’ bio-data should have been updated. The AG’s arguments convey the impression of a lackadaisical and slipshod government, which in any case, we know it is. The AG should have read the morning newspapers before he went to the SC to present his arguments and then he would have known that the then Secretary, Telecom , Behura was arrested along with A Raja the Telecom Minister to show that even Secretaries after being vetted by the government are still capable of acting criminally.

Create A Vegetables Ministry

Food inflation has risen again to 17% on the back of increase in vegetable prices. Now everybody is seized of the matter as regards inflation with even the PM now saying it is a matter of concern. But the interesting thing is that vegetables seems to be an orphan child with even the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar throwing up his hands and disowning responsibility for it. That in any case has been his habit since whenever there is a problem he is the first to say that he has nothing to do with it, like in the case of the public distribution ministry which he wanted to give up when news of foodgrains rotting in the godowns and while stored in the open was flashed on nationwide TV. It is time he quit his Ministry and devoted his full time attention to cricket. This is being said given the fact that the Agriculture Minister says he is responsible only for rice, wheat, pulses and sugar. Then one wonders why Sharad Pawar would always be the one to speak first whenever the prices of milk, onions and vegetables came up. It is only now when there is a major problem he is shrugging off his shoulders of these items. On the issue of the spurt in vegetable prices, we have this saying that the crying child gets the attention first, but for this government when a matter needs crying attention there seems to be nobody to stand up and be counted so that the problem could be solved. Is it not surprising that after 60 odd years of Independence we do not have a ministry looking after vegetables for essentially a vegetarian country? Fruits have the Horticulture or Food Processing Ministry to go to but the poor cousin, leafy and other greens, has no one to go to. Therefore, it is best that this government form a separate ministry for nutrition and put vegetables under it apart from other interesting suggestions that Prof M S Swaminathan keeps making of giving our people a nutritive diet.

Have Pranab Concentrate On His Ministry

Pranab Mukherjee has been yet again nominated to head the GoM on coal mines. Given the number of GoM's that he is heading and with inflation rampant it is quite clear that he is unable to do justice to his portfolio of Finance Minister. Therefore for the rest of 2011 it is suggested that Pranab Mukherjee be divested of all his other involvements in this government except to those related with his ministry. This is being written in the context of his latest comment that he does not have a 'magic wand' to bring down inflation. We cannot give him a 'magic wand' but the least we can do is to request the PM and Sonia Gandhi not to bother about other things until he has brought our economy back on the rails.

Is Our Navy Competence & Preparedness Up To The Mark?‏

In the INS Vindhyagiri case, which after the collision with the foreign container vessel in Mumbai bay sank at the Naval Dockyard, one needs to look at the preparedness and competence of the Naval personnel and authorities. The first thing is that in peacetime if the Indian Navy is unable to save their ships from collision then what will they do during a war? A Rs. 400 crore ship and loaded with Naval officers and their families, which surely is precious cargo considering the training that the officers are put through, and recently re-furbished not being handled with proper care is something that a Naval court of enquiry can only bring out. The second issue, is that as reported in the newspapers, after the collision the Naval personnel’s attention was diverted to the fire rather than to the gaping hole in its hull after the collision. Again, while fighting the fire at the Dockyard water was used rather than fire extinguishers or other means, which again as reported in the newspapers, leading to the water collecting in the ships chambers and the ship then listing leading to water coming through the hole in the hull for which reason the ship finally sank. Why was water used and was this eventuality of possibility of the ship sinking not anticipated? Moreover if there was a fire on board why was the ship brought into the Naval Dockyard where there was a chance of other ships of high strategic importance being damaged, instead of fighting the fire in the Mumbai Bay channel? These are some of the questions which surely the top echelon of the Indian Navy and the nation will be looking for answers and in the absence of which one would have to express serious doubts on the capabilities of our Navy. Postscript: It is now coming out that INS Godavari which was leading the Navy convoy was the vessel which gave confusing instructions to the foreign container vessel and though the INS Godavari escaped the INS Vindhyagiri got hit. The Navy thus seems to have a problem of working with co-ordination and in consort.

ICICI At It Again

There is yet another indiscretion by ICICI in getting hauled up by a court in Delhi and strictures being passed on them for submitting false information and wasting the Court’s time in the case of a person who had taken a vehicle loan from ICICI and had defaulted. ICICI had already taken possession of the vehicle consequent of the default but went ahead and filed a case in the court. There were earlier reports also about ICICI using strong-arm methods for loan recoveries in which two of those who had taken the loans had died because of the mental pressure inflicted by the Bank. For these incidents the Bank had been hauled up both by the Govt. and the RBI. With such operating systems how do we give the head of the Bank, Chanda Kochar a Padma Bhushan. What are we doing with the Padma awards, celebrating sloth, inefficiency and wrong-doing?

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 45 Date: 29.01.2011

Gaffes After Gaffes After Gaffes

The situation with Manmohan Singh is getting curiouser and curiouser. Take the instance of the P J Thomas case before the Supreme Court where the Attorney General of India makes a statement that the High Power Committee consisting of the PM, Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha was not aware that Thomas had a criminal case pending against him. Adding fuel to fire he said that the bio-data of P J Thomas submitted by him did not specify that he was an accused in the palmolein case in Kerala. What credibility does this government have after this saying the two highest persons in our Executive were not told about the background information of the candidates. This leaves all high level appointments made by this government in doubt. Not only that, by saying that they went by the bio-data submitted by Thomas, is also irresponsible since which candidate will give a bio-data which has anything to discredit him. Thus the AG making such a statement before the Supreme Court speaks of complete naivete and a very narrow approach of – Let’s get off the hook now and we will see what happens later without considering the ramifications of the impact of the statement on the government and on the persons involved, the PM & the HM. There can be only two things to this. One is that the AG like other ministers and other officials of this government care two hoots about the PM and go ahead and do what they like. A variation of this option could be that the AG has been coached to say what he did to discredit the PM which is court intrigue which may not be necessarily the fact. The second is that Manmohan Singh has become sick and tired of all this politics and wants out. The easiest way to commit political suicide is to commit gaffes like this, step down from the PM’s post and return to academics. Sushma Swaraj reacting to this said that the AG was saying an untruth. Yet again the Congress had played into the BJP’s hands giving them more material to attack the PM, the Congress party and this government. As far as P J Thomas is concerned he has dug in his heels and refused to resign a la the High Court judge in Calcutta convicted by the Courts waiting to be removed from the post by Parliament, then Kalmadi who has said that only the IOC general body can remove him and not any minister. These are indications of insolence and with every intention to bring down the reputation of the high offices to which these people were nominated. Thomas thinks he has all the right to do what he is doing and also vouch for himself that he is a man of ‘impeccable character’ since it is this same government which told the SC in earlier hearings that they will not have Thomas vacate his post of CVC since they thought he was the best man for the job. Reminds us of the old adage – Appoint a thief to catch a thief!

Withdraw Padma Awards To Montek Singh Ahluwalia & Chanda Kochar

Giving the Padma Vibhushan to Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a complete shocker. He holds no accountable position as the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission and but for an arithmetic increase in the annual budget allocation to the States he has effectively no work in the over-staffed Commission. That is why some of the senior Ministers in the UPA Cabinet last year had asked for the disbanding of the Planning Commission. Given that he is an economist of repute what position are we in vis a vis the state of the economy where runaway inflation has been the order of the day with both the government and the Planning Commission having no clue on what's going on. Apart from that Montek Singh Ahluwalia has been a proponent of pursuing economic growth at any cost model hoping that the trickle-down benefits would improve the lot of the common man as most Western economists tend to pursue. This clearly does not work in a country with a social structure like India and has resulted in the extreme polarisation of wealth with the number of billionaires joining the Forbes' List increasing year by year and simultaneously at the other end, more and more people going below the poverty line, 63% of the population under BPL at last count. Even as on date the economic policies pursued are oriented towards benefiting 5% of the population in our urban centres while in the rural areas poverty rules the roost and farmers commit suicide at the rate of a dime a dozen. Specific to Montek Singh Ahluwalia's comments, he has spoken at various times with his voluntary and sometimes elicited comments against regulating of petroleum prices to cushion the impact on the common citizen and not fuel inflation, stating that food prices should reflect international trends and lately siding with Kabil Sibal on pressing the DELETE button on the size of the Rs. 1,76,000 crore to NIL by suggesting that the method of estimating the loss was incorrect. Thus giving him firstly the Padma award and specifically at this juncture smacks of cronyism. His name, therefore, should be immediately struck off the list before the awards are presented. Similar is the case with Chanda Kochar being given the Padma Bhushan. Even she would have been surprised when she heard the news of the award but then who does not like getting the Padma award and particularly the Padma Bhushan. What has her contribution been to our society as such? Moreover she has recently taken over the reins at ICICI Bank, let her prove her worth and show the orientation of the bank towards improvement of our society particularly those who are not well off. Even in terms of the services at the ICICI Bank the Padma award committee should scrutinise the Customer Complaints Book at the Bank and will find find numerous instances of inefficient and irresponsible services. Moreover this has been the Bank which while aggressively pursuing collection of personal loans against its customers through agents resulted in the deaths of people at Hyderabad and Mumbai over the last two years or so. Thus do we give Padma awards to heads of such institutions who tend to assist in aggregation of wealth among the rich and at the same time callously deal with the common citizens. Therefore the Padma Bhushan to Chanda Kochar should also be withdrawn.

Congress In Reactive Mode

The Congress led UPA -2 government ever since the Shashi Tharoor scandal surfaced has been buffeted by one or the other scandal or scam. It has been a succession of these embarrassing and often shocking details which have seriously eroded the credibility of this government and its ability to govern. While these scams were being exposed some of the parties involved in the scams like Suresh Kalmadi & Co. and P J Thomas were happy that bigger scams were keeping them rather sheltered and giving them the breathing space to either dwell upon a better defence of their positions or like Kalmadi & Co did to sabotage the investigations into their actions. The biggest of the scams is the 2G scam which if Saddam Hussein, were he alive would have called the ‘mother of all scams’ at Rs. 1,60,000 crore. Even here the main protagonist A Raja though having demitted office of Telecom Minister found some escape from the harsh spotlight when the debate shifted to questioning the extent of the scam and whether it was Rs. 1,60,000 crore or ‘nil’ and procedural issues within the CAG, PAC, JPC et al and who could speak when and about what. A Raja is understood to have told his cronies in Chennai that the least they could have done is ask me and I would have told them exactly how much I made but the deal would be – Get me off the hook! After the 2G it was the turn of the black money issue with the Swiss & Liechtenstein banks saying that the names of the Indian account holders could be informed to the Indian government but not thereafter disclosed to the Indian public. To this spice was added by the Cayman Islands banker telling Wikileaks that out of the 2000 accounts that were exposed by him of supposed tax evaders with the Swiss Bank that employed him, there were some Indian names. On the black money issue the UPA -2 government has not made its position clear whether it will at all take any action against those whose names are disclosed by the Swiss banks of having stashed money with them. The dust was just settling on these matters when the Tiranga yatra issue was raised by the BJP making it a very emotive plea to the nation about raising the Indian flag in Lal Chowk at Srinagar on Republic day. Having to counter these many faceted matters the PM Manmohan Singh and his tribe in the Cabinet have been at their wit’s end to deal with these matters. Their action is akin to fighting a forest fire where you douse a small fire only to see another fire start elsewhere. This has led to them to make very irresponsible and immature statements which also is an indicator of their state of mind. Like the PM on the Tiranga yatra, called it as a divisive agenda pursued by the BJP which is unfathomable since when is raising a flag on a day like Republic Day in any part of India, a divisive agenda. Here it is assumed that the UPA -2 government believes that Kashmir is a part of India. And then the usually correct and proper at least in his statements, Pranab Mukherjee goes and blows his mouth in West Bengal that those who stall institutions like Parliament are irresponsible and if they want to continue like this, they better join the Maoists. Now, this is rather extreme when he should explain what efforts the Congress took to explain the matters which led to stalling of Parliament within the House since most of the time the Congress preferred to address the same issues outside Parliament. It was actually the Congress party which has for the last year or so been taking Parliament for granted and ignoring it altogether. In all this the BJP as is the practice of the Opposition particularly in India been ringing rings around the Congress party keeping it occupied in firefighting rather involve themselves with governance. And the Congress like in the manner of shooing off a persistent and bothersome dog has been getting increasingly irritated and saying all kinds of things from the top of their mind which is complicating their life further. With such highly qualified and experienced people in the Congress at least in the issues named above, why is the Congress behaving the way it is and constantly getting outflanked by the Opposition? Will we see things change or is all this a precursor of an imminent fall of the UPA -2 government?

Lower Growth Triggered Govt. Action To Tackle Inflation

The event that shook the UPA-2 government to seriously look at combating the runaway inflation and form a task force for it was the publication of the IIP figures which showed that growth had slowed to 2.7% or so. Without growth revenue for the government would get affected and necessitate government spending to be curtailed. With a runaway budget and fiscal deficit, these were ominous indications for the economy. Coupled with inflation the government also realized that we are on the brink of stagflation which would have a severe impact on the economy making it more difficult to control it on the long run and lead to a loss of jobs. With food inflation rampant and with no purchasing power in the hands of the larger number of jobless, the government with its stellar cast of economists would have faced the added stigma of mismanaging the economy apart from possibly fueling law and order problems. Otherwise you had task forces and GoM’s for almost everything in the last two years but not on the crying need to counter food inflation. It was only when growth stalled that the government woke up. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser has been nominated to head this task force and to monitor food inflation, has himself to move away from elitist analysis of the economic forces that have been pushing up prices. The first is that we cannot and should not equate our food prices with those prevailing around the world, particularly the Western nations. Our prices for food should be based on our costs and our ability to produce them. This applies to home grown food items where we have sufficient availability to meet demand. However, where we have to resort to imports like in the case of pulses and edible oils where local production is insufficient or when emergent circumstances like drought, bad harvests etc. make it necessary, we should allow these to come in with the least import duty and administrative costs so that the item reaches the aam admi at close to the costs that we would be able to produce it at. We do hope that the UPA -2 government gets a proper perspective on things and gives priority to home consumption at regular prices rather than resort to exports, as in sugar and onions, when prices are rising for the same item locally and importing at the highest possible prices, as in wheat some 2 years ago. More importantly the lethargy in tackling prices of essential commodities and food distribution should be eliminated so that the common citizen at least gets what we have available.

Republic Day 2011

The lead up to this Republic Day has been through a series of scams outlining the extent of blatant corruption that is dogging this country along with the cancer of black money on which issue the UPA-2 government in its wisdom is refusing to declare the names of the offenders to the nation and neither is it announcing what action, if at all, it is planning against the offenders. To top this has been the law and order issue which is more less in the same mess across the nation and on the eve of Republic Day we have had these instances of Addl. DM, Sonawane being burnt alive at Malegaon (what more shocking death can a human being be given or how heinous are these people who perform such acts) and Dr Ramesh Talwar, Aarushi's father, (this needs to be condemned, irrespective of the fact that some of us may believe that he deserves it) being slashed with a meat cleaver as he came out of the Ghaziabad court. Are these not signs that our law and order machinery has completely collapsed. If so what are we celebrating on Republic Day? The delivery of platitudes and empty assurances like the President on her Republic Day eve address parroting the PM's statements that there should be systemic changes to tackle corruption. One wonders whether she knows what she is talking about or just reading off content that has been delivered to her by the PM's office. Should somebody not tell us, common citizens, as to when corruption will be tackled and not how.

BJP Plan To Raise Flag In Lal Chowk Mishandled - II

This UPA-2 government is carrying on this thing of the BJP's plan to hoist the Indian flag at Srinagar a bit too far. Sending back trains in the middle of the night and holding in quarantine the Leaders of the Opposition of both Houses of Parliament at Jammu airport is going to splatter mud more on the government's face and not on the BJP. They are basking in the attention that the nation is giving them thanks to the Congress party. Moreover such action harks back to the days of the Emergency which surely the Congress party does not want to remind the nation about. What was a small issue has been converted to a national issue because of the Congress' immaturity. Granted that the BJP is unnecessarily raising the issue but why should the Congress walk into the trap that the BJP has so cunningly laid out? The BJP may have no brains but then the Congress by their actions are showing that they also are in the same boat. This is going to cost them more so because they are the incumbent government. On his part Omar Abdullah should not have objected and allowed this plan of hoisting the Indian flag at Lal Chowk in a low key manner and closed the chapter. Now both the State and Central governments are being seen in the light of being over-jealous in protecting the separatists. With the other action in not declaring the names of those having stashed away black money abroad, should the UPA-2 government not be seriously concerned about its image of being a government which protects separatists and black money hoarders?

BJP Plan To Raise Flag In Lal Chowk Mishandled - I

The PM is clearly under a lot of pressure and it seems that he is unable to articulate his ideas or position very clearly. Take this instance of the BJP wanting to hoist the Indian flag in Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The PM's comment that political parties should not try to score points in the matter of flag hoisting is clearly disappointing. Any party particularly a national party like the BJP is entitled to hoist the national flag anywhere in the country. Kashmir we keep saying is a part of India and even the incumbent government there of Omar Abdullah has clarified its position by stating that it is a part of India, then why should the BJP be stopped from raising the flag there. Additionally raising the Indian flag on occasions like Republic Day or Independence Day is every citizen's birthright and there is nothing of scoring points in this action. If there is a perception by the government that there is likely to be a law and order problem particularly after the last summer's clashes in Kashmir, what should be done is to call the BJP and explain to them to de-scale the event, provide security to the BJP office bearers and have a token flag hoisting ceremony. Why this cannot be done is something beyond a layman's comprehension? By letting the matter play out in the media it is leading to harder positions by all parties concerned, the BJP, the Centre and the Kashmir government which will lead to a conflgaration come 26th January. Reaching out and indulging in some conciliation, some diplomacy is what the PM and this Congress party and the UPA-2 government has long forgotten.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 44 Date: 22.01.2011

Measures To Tackle Food Inflation Welcome But Ban Futures Trading in Commodities

Finally the PM has got down to tackling prices by calling the meeting of senior Ministers and announcing certain measures, which though essentially is nothing new, shows at least that the government is serious about its intent. The measures, however, do not go to the extent of announcing a ban on the futures trading of essential commodities like sugar etc. which should also be implemented to stop the speculation which is one of the causes for price volatility. Additionally when the prices of onions hit the roof, the government conducted IT raids on onion traders and recovered some Rs. 80 crores of unaccounted cash in one location in Maharasthra alone. Such raids are essential not only to unearth unaccounted money but also to curb hoarding. One wonders why this was not done earlier when prices of sugar, pulses etc. in turn showed sudden and dramatic hikes. The abdication of responsibility by the Centre in curbing hoarding to the States as has been the constant refrain of the Congress over the last 2 years is not correct since as long as the UPA and the Congress party is holding office at the Centre, they need to take the initiative to maintain prices to the aam admi. This also applies to ensuring adequate foodgrains are available through the public distribution system so that food shortages are not felt by the aam admi and this advantage is not taken by the wholesale/retail trade to raise prices. There was a time in the middle of last year when the Centre preferred to have foodgrains rot out in the open and in its godowns and additionally feed it to rats but not have it sent out to the States since they had not paid for earlier stocks. The result was that the prices of food went up and additionally stocks available in ration shops was diverted to the open market for purposes of earning windfall profits by the wholesale/retail trade and in those remote areas where due to logistical reasons grains could not reach, people died of starvation like in Orissa. It is another matter that these deaths were quickly hushed up but the fact of the matter remained that some people had died of starvation when FCI’s godowns were overflowing. Thus it is hoped that the UPA-2 government will ensure an alert and responsive mechanism to deal with food prices and intervene effectively and responsibly if there are price spurts in any item/commodity in the market. The measures that the PM announced as said earlier should not be just a declaration of intent but should be implemented vigorously, not only at this juncture of time but into the future such that it becomes part of our system of governance to exercise vigilance on prices particularly food which is what the aam admi is most bothered about.

IAF Should Beef Up Its Administrative Security

Air Marshal Naik heading our Air Force has made an intriguing statement that one of the files relating to the purchase of the next generation fighters that was found on the streets of Delhi was not an important one and hence there was no issue regarding this matter. Is this not surprising coming from the head of our Air Force and who is responsible for defending this country, trivialising an obvious lapse on the part of his people. In contrast, on any other matter of the Air Force where he would claim the privilege of secrecy and defend it vigorously, here is an instance where the file once having come out is stated to be no longer important. This will not do, Air Marshal Naik and you will have to institute a court of inquiry into the matter and take action against those responsible for the file getting down to the streets of Delhi. There are already serious allegations against our Army & the Navy where spies have penetrated the organization particularly with the latter where we have had scandals going up to the War Room, while the Air Force had remained relatively unscathed until now. If Air Marshal Naik’s approach is so careless and perfunctory, we have surely given the responsibility of our Air Force into the wrong hands.

Montek For His Penny's Worth

On the 2G scam even Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission while speaking on an interview with a prominent English TV news channel supported Kabil Sibal by saying that the figure of Rs. 1,76, 000 crores arrived at by the CAG was just not there and presumptive loss should not have been the method. This is again getting into technicalities since the method of computing the loss is not the issue, but the loss is. If there was no loss why did A Raja have to resign and why did Parliament have to be stalled for one complete session. If the Congress and the UPA Govt. was so convinced that there was no loss should they not have carried their viewpoint across to the Opposition. Or is it that there is none within the UPA-2 who is eloquent or persuasive enough to do this? Also was it not the PM’s responsibility to catch the bull by the horns and offer to make a statement on the floor of the House? The Opposition would then have surely listened, if not accepted the government’s stand. Nay, it is not that! There has been wrongdoing and the UPA-2 government knows it and is bent upon hiding it. And that is the reason why the Opposition is hanging on to their demand for a JPC on the issue. Getting people like Montek Singh Ahluwalia to blast the 2G scam by supporting Kabil Sibal’s position is the continued attempt by the Congress to let people not get at the truth. And this will not work, since the more the Congress shows that it wants to hide the 2G scam, the more the Opposition will harden its stand for a JPC.

SEBI Penalty On Anil Ambani

In the new, vibrant and modern India we have to take lessons in English relating to the meaning of words from people like Anil Ambani. This is in the context of the SEBI ban order on him along with his co-directors and on two of his group Cos. from trading in the primary market for a certain period of time. Anil Ambani claiming that the non-participation by his associates and group Cos. from stock trading was voluntary and part of the settlement with the SEBI in the context of the insider trading allegations against them sometime back. Now who will believe that a normal Gujarati will stay away from making money voluntarily is the first point. The fact that even if Ambani had offered it and the SEBI put down in their settlement order constitutes a ban and there is no need for Ambani to twist the meaning of the issue. Further, the SEBI needs to assess some of its rules and not settle for a penalty of just Rs. 50 crores, even though it may be a record, when the gains from the insider trading are reported to be in the region of Rs. 500 crore. In fact the whole money should in such cases be appropriated by the SEBI and a fund constituted to compensate the ordinary, common small investors in case of fraud etc. like in the Harshad Mehta or the Parekh cases.


Petrol Price Hikes: Pass The Blame

The Congress has finally let the cat out of the bag vis a vis the petrol price hikes. They are now blaming the oil Cos. for the price hike along with the other political parties including their UPA allies like the Trinamul. This was the strategy all along in handing over the price review for oil prices or deregulation as the UPA called it to the oil Cos. since then the Congress party would not be blamed time and again when fuel prices were hiked. And with one or the other election around the corner the Congress party image was taking a beating. As regards the petrol price hikes there is no way out if the international oil prices are going up. But then the oil Cos. should not play favourites and not touch diesel prices which along with petrol should be hiked. The important thing is that if and when international oil prices come down then domestic fuel prices should be reduced by the oil Cos. and not take shelter that they are holding onto the reduction to compensate for past losses which seems to be the constant refrain from Murli Deora our Petroleum Minister. If effective de-regulation is done then the common man will regulate his usage in line with the fuel price changes which is a good exercise in inculcating discipline and awareness among the people.

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Vox Populi


by

Aam Admi

Issue : 43 Date: 15.01.2011

Why Is The NCP Overly Sensitive On Food Price Hikes?

One wonders why the NCP was so overly-sensitive to Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks that functioning in a coalition made it difficult for the government to manage inflation. The comment was general, very immature and deserved no more dwelling upon it and giving it more publicity considering the college audience to which it was also made. But then the NCP thought otherwise and considered it fit to respond to it. Thus like they say, where there is smoke, there is bound to be some fire, is there any truth in it? Does Sharad Pawar think that the comment was aimed at him since he as the minister most responsible for food prices has been unable to contain them and in contrast has been driving them up. First it was sugar, then milk, in the middle it was pulses and finally onions. In the midst of the sugar price upward spiral Sharad Pawar had wanted to don the mantle of – Protector of the Farmers, by saying that if he had got a better deal for the farmers, was it wrong? Thus when the onion farmers of Nashik came to him at Lasangaon in end-December with complaints that the crop had failed because of the unseasonal rains in November, he must have told them that we will orchestrate a New Year bonanza for you. In any case, it was the turn of the onion farmers and surely they deserved something to tide them over the crop failure. And lo and behold the onion prices from some Rs. 25 per Kg. overnight jumped to Rs. 75-80 per Kg. Therefore it is best to check Sharad Pawar’s call records in the days before the onion price spiral to see whether the hike was a farmer welfare measure and in the process a bonanza also for the wholesalers and the retailers in the onion trade! The sharp price hikes in food serve a dual purpose for Sharad Pawar and the NCP since firstly, it is an opportunity to feather their nests and secondly, to light a slow fire in the Cabinet under the PM to make him a bit uncomfortable and make Sharad Pawar and the NCP indispensable, in a way, within the UPA.

Rahul's Continued Naivete

After the comment that Hindu or homegrown terrorism is more dangerous to the country than the terrorists from Pakistan to the then US Ambassador, Rahul Gandhi has yet again shown his naivete in saying that coalition compulsions within the UPA-2 is the cause for the inability of the incumbent government to fight price rise. Does this then mean that the Congress to hang on to their chairs will go to any lengths even at the cost of encouraging corruption and throwing the interests of the aam admi to the winds. By capitulating to political compulsions within the coalition Rahul Gandhi will benefit but a handful or at most a few lakhs if you take into account vested interests aligned to the political parties within the UPA-2 coalition but in the process depriving or making it difficult for millions of ordinary citizens. It is time that Rahul Gandhi gets his mind in order and verifies any statements he wants to make with his mother or other senior leaders of the Congress party before venting them out to the media. Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth is no guarantee for an adequate number of grey cells in your brain and or the ability to learn to speak with diplomacy and a certain amount of sensitivity.

IPL-4 Money Show Is Obscene

The current auction for the IPL-4 season is an obscene show of money in a country which has been reeling under runaway inflation on food prices and where 67% of the country is below the poverty line. The question that we need to ask ourselves as a nation is whether we need this kind of conspicuous consumption shows which are vulgar and garish and out of tune with the country’s reality. Apart from this the IPL organisation was lately exposed under Lalit Modi’s stewardship with multiple scams. The owners of some of the teams are suspected to have infringed on foreign exchange investment guidelines and at least two of the teams were banned by the IPL themselves and have been allowed to participate in the current bidding process by court guidelines. In addition there are reports from many players including Kumar Sangakkara and Yuvraj Singh that the team managements have not settled their past dues. Thus before allowing the IPL-4 season to go any further is it not better that they should put their house in order and conduct tournaments more aligned with the spirit of the game of cricket rather than convert it into a tamasha. The public audience in India and around the world who watch the IPL need to realize that all the money that is paid to the players is going to be recovered from people like you and me by the corporates through increase of pricing of their products that we are forced to buy.

Bal Thackeray Should Be Consistent

Bal Thackeray should be consistent in his stand on outsider issues. If he wants all the Bihari & UP bhaiyyas out of Mumbai & Maharasthra and go back to their home States then where is the problem of the Ambanis investing in their home State of Gujarat. Thus he should not gripe that the Ambanis are investing more in Gujarat than Maharasthra. In fact they are going by his own guidelines!

Give Peace A Chance

The metronomic regularity with which explosions related to terrorist activities keep going off in the arc from Pakistan to Iraq and to a lesser degree in the Persian Gulf is a shame on the Western nations. Countries like the US & the UK are happy that the explosions are isolated in the above area and are less on their soil. However, the toll of human lives that these IED's and other similar devices including human bombs take of the local civilian population is very sad. In comparative terms when around 6 people were killed in the latest US shootout in the State of Arizona, President Obama thought it fit to lead the nation in a minute of silence, while almost everyday US drones are killing a similar if not a larger number of innocent civilians in Afghanistan. These killings are done without remorse and classified under 'collateral damage' and stated by the US & NATO military commanders in these strife-torn countries as unavoidable in the process of war. While the truth is that there was never any war declared particularly in Afghanistan where the US along with the UK just walked into the country to cleanse it of the Taliban. Thus if there is no declaration of war then do these wanton killings not classify under war crimes as per the Geneva Convention. Moreover, the Arizona killings happened because of the lax US gun laws where to exaggerate, psychopaths are encouraged to go out and buy guns and are thus facilitated to take their revenge. This has been the pattern in the majority of shootouts that the US has seen over the last couple of years in civilian areas and university campuses. The same goes for 9/11 since if the US airport authorities had been strict in the enforcement of their own security procedures Atta and his gang would never have been able to board the planes with guns, knives and what have you. And 9/11 would never have happened. The 9/11 incident has been the trigger for the Western nations led by the US and UK to first attack Afghanistan and then Iraq. This has led to the asymmetric spiraling of violence in the Muslim world incited by the Western nations with each escalation of war in the named war ravaged countries. Just to take a statistical average, the US and other Western nations should assess the number of terrorist related incidents since 9/11 and before that for the same period including all violence linked incidents, and they will find that the Gulf and Middle East were much more peaceful than it is now. Thus should not the Western nations cease and desist from all acts of war in this region and move back to their shores since with that there is chance of a lasting peace in this region. Even if people of this region kill each other, then they would be their own people, in a localised area and would not spill over and have ramifications worldwide. This is the way for peace. Give it a chance!

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 42 Date:08.01.2011

Onion Price Subsidy & The Dhol Analogy

The government mess-up in trying to subsidise prices of onions is borne out of stupidity. Simply put the market forces should be allowed free play and when schemes like that of the government are put which interferes with the market system, there will be objections as we have now seen at Nasik from the onion traders association. The government should not involve itself with the regulation of prices but enforce that supply bottlenecks, black-marketing and hoarding are eliminated and allow the prices to find their own level. The subsidy like that for onions and sold through government outlets is another means for corruption since no one knows how much was exactly bought and sold and it is always easy to overstate the quantity of produce bought and then pocket the subsidy. World over wherever there is a subsidy you can be assured that there is siphoning of funds. The subsidy is always couched in terms of how helpful it is to the recipient and what a great job the authorities are doing. While the actual truth is that the authorities are shirking away from their primary responsibility of maintaining equitable prices in the market by giving the subsidy. By this the supply chain who have been black-marketing the product are happy since their margins are not eroded. And one needs to also think about how long will government subsidise the prices and whether it has the resources to maintain the subsidy indefinitely? And note another thing, who decides at what price level does one decide to subsidise the item or discontinue the subsidy? Surely, this is another area for manipulation and to make money. Thus all this trade should have been left to the private sector and the government used its teeth to regulate them better such that exorbitant prices are not charged to end customers. Take now the stupidity of the end customer or the common citizen and we will use the onion subsidy example yet again. The aam admi should ask with whose money is the government subsidizing the onions? It is your and my money! They will in any case recover it from you. Thus the assumed relief by getting onions at Rs. 25 per Kg. is very much temporary. This Congress led-UPA government is characterized by such unholy methods. It makes money firstly by allowing the wholesaler-retailer nexus to make money, then it makes money by subsidizing the item through its corporations and then recovers all of it from the aam admi! Thus the common citizen should not be a fool in believing that this government is doing anything good for him and get taken in by the token supply of items at subsidized prices since after all he is the one footing the bill. The analogy for this is the dhol, where both sides of it is struck to make sound, so also the Congress and this UPA-2 government is playing the aam admi dhol on both sides and is making money both ways. The UPA-2 governments should immediately cease and desist all subsidies on food items and devise mechanisms on a crash basis to improve production, remove supply chain bottlenecks and thus bring a modicum of regulation on food prices so that the aam admi is not left at the mercy of unscrupulous traders and black-marketers.

Call Kapil Sibal's Bluff On 2G Scam

This refers to Kabil Sibal’s contesting the loss of Rs. 1,76,000 crore arrived at by the CAG on the 2G scam. This is yet another tactic by the Congress to divert the people’s minds from the base issue of whether there has been a scam or not. The attempt is to confuse the people so that the truth remains well and truly hidden. The base issue is whether there has been corruption involved in the allotment of the 2G licences and if so, how much. If there has been no corruption and the CAG’s report is completely erroneous then why did A Raja have to resign? Even if the loss is estimated based on certain assumptions which may not be valid, how much in any case is the final or nett nett loss estimated or otherwise. Kapil Sibal need not assume that the common citizens are babes sucking their thumbs not to know that the allotment of the licences could have been made on piffling amounts and then the Minister and his cronies collecting the money outside the ambit of the tender. This is also corruption which Kapil Sibal should also know and just proving that the tender process followed the set guidelines and the allotment of licences was based on the past precedence of first come – first served basis will not get A Raja and the Congress-led UPA government off the hook. Thus Kapil Sibal instead of trying to blow holes in the CAG report should concentrate in telling the people of India the truth. That may be a problem, since it is very rare that the Congress party speaks the truth, more so these days. But there seems to be a silver lining to the dark cloud of the Congress, in the sense that it is reported that they have distanced themselves from Sibal’s comments on the CAG regarding the 2G scam, realizing that the new Telecom Minister’s stand is rather indefensible. Consider here for a moment that on a matter which has seized the minds of the nation and paralysed Parliament a Minister like Sibal can go out on a limb and make a statement to the media without obviously a say-so from the PM or the think-tank of the Congress party. Thus surely there is either no control within the Congress party and this UPA-2 government on their functionaries or like they would probably like to say, they have extreme democracy! Even for a moment if we accept Sibal’s position that the CAG’s report on the 2G scam is completely erroneous, why did the Congress party and/or the UPA-2 government not make the Opposition aware of this so that the logjam in Parliament could have been released. Does the UPA-2 being the incumbent government not have the larger responsibility in ensuring that Parliament functions rather than just take comfort by blaming the Opposition for the paralysis of Parliament? Even for Sibal to come so late in the day with his stupendous claim bores holes into the credibility of this UPA-2 government and the Congress party, for not doing their homework earlier and exposing this analysis in time to save Parliament’s functioning.

Catching Small Fish, Letting Big Fish Go

As a consequence of the leak of the letter sent by Home Minister Chidambaram to the West Bengal CM to the media recently before even the addressee got it, resulted in a number of employees at the GPO in Kolkata being temporarily suspended. There is no doubt that some action should have been deservedly taken at the GPO in Kolkata since there was evidence of some delay in delivering the letter. But then was not the leaking of the letter, which surely is privileged communication between the country's Home Minister and a State Chief Minister, the larger or the more grievous offence. Thus should some action not have been taken at Delhi before even initiating any action at Kolkata on the hapless GPO employees. No wonder they went on a flash strike on this issue. But then this is the way that things happen in our India today, where the small fry or defenceless are caught and punished while the big fish go scot-free.

Food Riots Are Round The Corner

Our Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee when confronted with the 18% + inflation on food items last week wanted to look at the monthly figures. Instead of that we can suggest a remedy and that is Pranab-da just like any Bengali bhadralok should do his daily shopping or bajaar for fish/meat and vegetables. That away he will get a feel of the rising prices in real-time. By asking for figures he clearly does not want to confront the issue and tackle it head-on since the trends of the CPI for the last few weeks has been on the up and up. By resorting to these irresponsible tactics which the FM and his Cabinet colleagues in the Congress-led UPA-2 government have been indulging on almost every single issue, they are showing up their inefficiency, incompetence and downright callousness in not taking the aam admi into confidence on important national issues. As for the FM, the reason at least on food prices is very obvious and that is, they have no clue on what is going on. This applies not only to the FM but all connected with the matter like the Agriculture Minister, the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Commission, the Commerce Minister and even the PM. Added to this has been the lack of will to act against hoarders and black-marketeers and step in to bring some regulation in the wholesale and retail trade. The way things are going we are not very far from the days when these Ministers who are expected to sort out and act on regulating food prices while sitting in their ivory towers in air-conditioned comfort ask in the manner of Marie Antoinette – If there is no bread, why do they not eat cake? Similarly with such characteristic disregard for the lot of the aam admi the day is just around the corner when you will have produce trucks stopped on the roads and looted by marauding citizens having become disgusted with this UPA-2 government’s inability to manage the economy. This will be preceded by citizen groups holding morchas in markets around the country protesting on the rising prices of commodities and stop the sales of those trying to derive excessive profit from it. Similar the godowns of hoarders and black-marketeers will be attacked and the stocks held will be brought out in the open for sale to the distressed sections of the community. One wonders why the Opposition particularly the Left parties have not resorted to championing the cause of the oppressed aam admi in the face of rising prices which has persisted over the last 18 months or so. Are the Opposition and the Left in so much disarray or have lost their teeth even in the face of such blatant mismanagement of the country’s economy? These problems will lead India having lost the Red Swathe to the Maoists running from Karnataka to Nepal through the States of Andhra, Maharasthra, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Bengal to loosing the remaining part of the country to a sort of anarchy because of the mismanagement of the economy. The UPA-2 government will then be left to manage 5% of the population of this country residing in the urban areas excluding the poor with their growth led and get-rich-quick policies for the economy, little realizing that this has alienated the larger part of the population and has contributed to inequality and deepened the divide between the haves and the have-nots. While the signs of this inequality have been obvious for quite a while, we can today see its effects in increasing law and order problems in our towns and cities accompanied by the larger number of suicides of our farmers which continue to occur. It is time therefore for this UPA-2 government to have a concerted plan of action to get back the Indian economy on the rails and shore up its credibility, if at all it wants to be in government.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 41 Date:01.01.2011

WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

The Decade Of Open Information, Truth & Sincerity In Public Life!

We have the Wikileaks controversy leaving established governments, seasoned politicians and statesmen on the edge of their seats not knowing what will come out next. These leaks should usher in the era of open information for which we should all be grateful to Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks. Just like open source software has led to a boom in the spread and development of software so also should open information lead to a more conscious and deliberate method of governance and the conduct of international relations. We justly celebrated the end of the Cold War with the falling of the Berlin Wall. With that one thought went out the cloak and dagger diplomacy styles made famous by the institutions like the CIA and the KGB (or should we say S.M.E.R.S.H) across the Cold War divide that was made famous by Ian Fleming and his hero, James Bond 007 in numerous books. Since then we have had the Afghanistan & Iraq wars the basis for which were hidden under multiple veils of secrecy and to protect which disinformation was used in a major way by both the major protagonists George Bush and Tony Blair so that the truth could remain hidden. To protect this basis at least one senior scientist and intelligence official in the UK had to give up his life since he could not morally justify the reasons of why the UK should have gone to war in Iraq. This death was papered over by Tony Blair. Similarly one never knows how many lives were snuffed out so that the Truth would not come out. Finally it had to be an organization like Wikilleaks to puncture this veil of secrecy and blow the lid not only on Iraq and Afghanistan but also the many smaller indiscretions and nuances that are common in the conduct of modern day international relations. The impact of these leaks have been acknowledged by none other than US Vice-President Joe Biden who said that it is common now when he meets with foreign dignitaries that they tend to ask for one-on-one meetings to avoid the Wikileaks kind of exposures or if at all exposures happen, they sure well know who is responsible! Thus our governments around the world and those that operate in them have to learn to live with the completely opposite of what they were used to, that is from operating with scorn and sarcasm in secret with their counterparts from other countries, taking recourse to saying that they were misquoted or whatever and sometimes outright denial to a regime where the information is out there in the open domain and needs to be still managed to obtain end results with less room for maneuverability. Thus the demand for skill and resource of our officials in public life after the Wikileaks exposures has gone up manifold and they will now have to find their feet in the new environment. It is understood that the CIA and the US State Dept. have already constituted study groups to assess firstly, the impact of the Wikileaks exposures on their public image and secondly, how to deal in future with such kind of leaks. On a broader platform, it is kind of contradictory that putting out information in a democratic world is seen to be a problem by the likes of Wikileaks while the apparent position of democratic governments is that hiding information is proper and for which they put out the comfortable and plausible reasons like it is for the public good, to protect the people involved among whom some are clearly not doing any democratic activity like spies, informers and the like. Not only that like any of the novels of Robert Ludlum they go after the Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange and arrest him on trumped charges of sexual misconduct while the more appropriate in line with Assange’s work would be to arrest him for giving the US Govt. a massive blow-job given the information put up by him in the public domain and arrest him for sexual misconduct in a public place. It is understood that the US would like to charge him with conspiracy to ferret out their secrets in liaison with the defence personnel that they have arrested and put away Assange for good. This is apparent again in Joe Biden’s comment that Assange is the highest form of terrorist. This is clearly not the correct approach for the US or any democratically elected government around the world since it is only using means to suppress open information. Just like the US criticises let us say countries like Burma for suppressing dissident’s voices and for not encouraging freedom of speech, so also is it not proper that they should practice what they preach. One cannot have double standards in these matters and what is good for the goose is good for the gander. The era of open information should be ushered by the New Year and the period 2011 – 2020 should be celebrated as the Decade of Truth & Sincerity.


UPA-2 HAS NO CLUE ON CONTROL OF FOOD PRICES

I have been regularly writing on the lack of application by this UPA-2 government on its declared intent to reduce prices. However, what is surprising is that the media and our normally ever-alert middle class has not taken up the cudgels against the government on curbing inflation and particularly food prices in a more vociferous manner. The media should have spearheaded the agitation against rising prices but it has been rather reluctant to do so waking up only when the prices hit the ceiling like for sugar last year and recently for onions. But for the odd editorial and op-ed piece here and there in between on inflation, no concerted campaign has emerged in the media on holding this government to its commitments. To give an example our Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee just 10 days back had stated that inflation is under control and would be at the level of around 6% by March 2011. However, over the last few days he has on the same subject after the onion led increase in food prices has said that he is thinking of constituting a task force to go into the reasons for these increase but maintained that by end of the year the inflation would be down to 6%. Note the difference in the statements where over a span of just 7 days he has twisted his commitment to bring down inflation by a clear 9 months (March to end of the year, hopefully 2011). This is not the first time and not only the FM, but the Agriculture Minister, the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission, and even the PM over the last 2 years as I had written earlier have led us through many Marches, Junes and Decembers with no impact on food prices. Does this not mean that they have no clue on managing the price front? Or that they lack the will to admit that under their regime it is the scoundrels, hoarders and black-marketers who rule the roost. Similarly, it is astonishing that our middle class has been converted to cattle class and have been accepting all these price increases with nary a murmur. Have they been bought over by this government with the pay hikes running from the 6th Pay Commission and onwards? Thus with a number of employed people in the household and with enough money to spare, it seems individuals are rarely motivated to take the trouble of coming out on the streets in protest. Additionally our political parties have been rather silent again on such an emotive issue as prices and but for a token morcha here and there have not thought of any concerted strategy on this matter to embarrass and pillory this UPA-2 government. It is a wonder that the UPA-2 government and the Opposition do not realize that there are people who are beyond the pale of pay commissions and organized sector salary hikes and these are precisely the people who account for more than half of India’s population who are severely hit by the rampant food price increases particularly among the rural areas and the urban poor. No wonder therefore that farmer suicides have reared their head again and in the urban areas there are increasing incidents of theft, burglary and dacoity since if the poor are to meet their needs, crime seems to be the easiest option. The distressing question that comes to one’s mind is that if we let the status quo subsume us then where will we and this country end up?

THE PM MUST SHOW THE WAY

Manmohan Singh for all his blithe purity should realize that as a leader of this nation and his government, he is finally responsible for all the good and bad deeds of his colleagues in the Cabinet. Just like it is said that the PM is the first among equals in the Cabinet to establish the pecking order so also it is the norm that the PM should take the final responsibility for all actions by his Cabinet and government. The phrase – The Buck Stops Here, is what Manmohan Singh should understand and accept that it stops at his desk. By coming out with statements like now that we should stop being pessimistic, despondent and cynical talks of a defeatist attitude wherein he accepts the situation has deteriorated to that stage. This has been his hallmark of stating the truth as it is but sometimes saying the obvious has a negative impact and what we need now is a spark of leadership which one must say is sadly lacking. Even in any of the scams be it the CWG or 2G the fact that the PM kept quiet and allowed the relevant people to make merry in looting the exchequer or fooling the government so that they could benefit outside of government by selling the 2G licences at atrociously low prices, is a sign of his inability to deliver on performance or guide and exercise control over the respective ministers to do their job with the interests of the aam admi uppermost in mind. For all Manmohan Singh’s erudition and experience if this is the situation that prevails then we are surely better off without him. Sometimes like said earlier simplicity has its problems and suggesting like Manmohan Singh did of appearing on the 2G scam in front of the PAC is one such. The PAC is set up for monitoring the routine functioning of various government ministries and departments and has never had a minister let alone the PM appear before it since the Indian Parliament started functioning. Yes, for those in favour of this tactic, there is nothing wrong, there can always be a first time! But the rules and procedures of the PAC constitution should allow this. It is not that the PM offers to appear and then the officials hunt for options to make this happen. In actual fact the offer of the PM to appear before the PAC seemed like a counter without much application of mind to the BJP-led Opposition asking for a JPC. It seemed to be intended more as a diversionary tactic rather than any intent in going through with the offer. However in a broader context, does the PM and the Congress party not realize that the citizens of this country need an answer on the 2 G scam, why and how it happened, and why was nothing done to stop it from going through rather than have these political games played out before them. This country is not comprising of only political parties to play their games in and out of Parliament while the rest of the country dumbly watches the proceedings. Even in trying to resolve the logjam in Parliament the PM and the Congress party have been found wanting and they just cannot blame the BJP-led Opposition on holding the House to ransom and cause losses since the Treasury Benches are equally to blame. Even when some of the UPA constituents suggested that a compromise could be worked out the Congress party was adamant. It is almost as if the Congress party wants to run this government outside of Parliament. The JPC may not necessarily be the solution for the present impasse but the PM and the UPA-2 government should come out with some acceptable solution. If one analyses all this it seems that both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi with no long term background and experience in politics have had their colleagues within the party, the UPA coalition and the Opposition run rings around them. This is obvious when one sees the stalling of Parliament not just for the last session but even earlier, where these two have appeared to run out of ideas and like spectators at a football game prefer to watch the action from the comfort of their seats in the Treasury benches. This is surely no way to run a government. When everything is going well the knowledge and experience comes less into play, but like they say when the chips are down, that is when you need people with the knowledge and ability to find a way out. Given the situation now there is need for a serious leadership where someone has to roll up their shirt sleeves and participate in the cut, thrust and parry of party politics on the floor of the House and not retreat to the comfort of their offices waiting for a better and more peaceful tomorrow in Parliament. Which will never come! Hello! Hello there! Is Manmohan Singh listening? No, unfortunately the line has got cut. The leadership and political class of this country have isolated themselves in their ivory towers and disconnected their link with the aam admi is where the problem lies. Unless this link is restored we will continue to have this kind of discord and pointlessness as we see now in India’s public life.

THE UPA IS LEADING US TO ANARCHY

The UPA Govt. is in a shambles and under the leadership of PM Manmohan Singh is driving us to anarchy. Apart from the massive corruption in the 2G scandal, the fact that a relatively junior minister holding the Telecom portfolio like A Raja not heeding the PM’s advice is indicative enough to show that the PM lacks the ability to exercise control or is diffident in implementing a tough line on his colleagues. It is not only A Raja but also Mamta Banerji who frequently flouts the guidelines from the PM and his office. Then we have Jairam Ramesh going out on a limb on his own as regards India’s climate change policy at Cancun recently without a say-so from the PM. Mani Shankar Aiyar’s position is somewhat similar in conducting his personal feuds with Suresh Kalmadi through the media and having the gumption to state that during the CWG people should leave Delhi. We are talking of people here who hold responsible positions and who deal with important matters of the nation. Whenever a scam like the sugar prices sometimes back where Sharad Pawar of the NCP was involved or now with the 2G scam where Raja of the DMK is involved, there is a tendency to paper over their misdeeds on the altar of coalition dharma. For hanging on to his chair does the PM and the Congress party expect the common citizen to tolerate widespread stealing from the common exchequer? Thus the present Cabinet is seen to be talking in disparate voices full well knowing that they can get away with almost anything. The succession of scams that have been unveiled have led to an increase in this cacophony within the Cabinet since maybe they have realized that the days of this UPA-2 government are numbered. Even within the UPA coalition the constituents are playing their own games to de-stabilise the government like the NCP lighting a fire under the PM with the sharp escalation of onion prices recently. The background being that a few years ago when the BJP was in power, it was the sharp escalation in prices of onions which brought down the government. So, the NCP was just re-winding and playing back the onion story for some mischief, some gain! This state of affairs has led to a spinoff in that every part of this government and the wholesale and retail trade around the country has come to accept that there is none to question them and they can do what they like. With the result that corruption has become both blatant as well as rampant. The common trader be it for vegetables or any similar commodity just jacks up the price on a whim and a fancy, otherwise has one ever heard of a commodity price doubling from an already high level of Rs. 35 -40 per Kg. for onions to Rs. 75-80 per Kg. It is like there is no tomorrow and all the gain has to be here and now. Hari Loot!

THE CONGRESS IS EQUALLY RESPONSIBLE IN DISRESPECTING PARLIAMENT

Pranab Mukerjee’s statement that the BJP-led Opposition has been destroying Parliament is something that applies also to the Congress-led UPA. If the Opposition did not allow the House to function in the recently concluded winter session Pranab Mukerjee needs to explain what efforts did the Congress party and specifically the PM, Manmohan Singh make to get the House back in order. As we have seen the Congress party did nothing to resolve the Opposition’s demands or even at the least to reach out to scale down these demands. And as for the PM except for a sphinx-like and stony silence whenever he found time to appear in Parliament between his various foreign trips, one got the impression that the PM prefers to have Parliament deadlocked and handle matters of governance outside its portals. The Congress party also seemed to be running out of ideas to manage the ballooning situation in the face of the unreasonable demands of the Opposition and preferred to play along with a deadlocked Parliament. That much for the respect that the PM and the Congress party has for Parliament. Pranab Mukerjee also should do well to remember that the Treasury benches have the larger responsibility to show respect to Parliament since they run the government. If such elementary codes of Parliamentary conduct are to be explained to such a long standing member of Parliament like Pranab Mukerjee then it is possibly a sad commentary of him and our democracy.

ONE TIME TAX ON SUV DIESEL OWNERS

Jairam Ramesh took on the SUV owners who operate on diesel and thus avail the subsidy that the government gives on this fuel aimed at farmers and our commercial transport sector and called them criminal. He even suggested that they should pay the full price of diesel which works out to some Rs. 6/- increase per litre on the present price. This stand is very correct and should be implemented immediately. Where it is difficult to charge this differential price at the pump or dispensing level, it should be recovered as a one-time charge on new SUV owners when they buy these vehicles and similarly as an endorsement on the RTO papers for older vehicles without which they would not be allowed to buy fuel. The one-time charge can be easily computed based on the total kilometers over the life of the SUV and remaining kilometers for older SUV’s and the mileage that the SUV gives. There should be no complaint on this from SUV owners for this since firstly they can afford it and secondly they will be able to hold their head high in society for the fact that they are in no way subsidized by government for their lifestyle. In fact similar one time charge should be levied on all diesel cars with engine capacities exceeding 1500cc such that the diesel subsidy becomes inoperative for this segment also.

When Onions Bring Tears From Afar!

In 24 hours the price of onions recently went up from some Rs. 30/- a Kg. to Rs. 75-80 a Kg. One needs to understand why such a thing could happen and track how our government tackles these matters. The scenario traced out here is from news reports both from the print and the visual media. But first let us understand why should onions which always had been hovering in the region of Rs. 10 and Rs. 20 a Kg. suddenly reach Rs. 30/- and then overnight reach a figure of more than double that at Rs. 75-80 a Kg. There is something fishy about this or like we say – daal me kuch kaala hai! The change in prices could have been a gradual or step-by-step increase rather than this sudden jump. This clearly smacks of someone having a hand in it or many people having their hand in it. Now let us trace the chronology of the government and its agencies responding to this and see whether we are able to get to the bottom of this. We have Sharad Pawar, our eminent Agriculture Minister immediately saying that there has been a crop failure in certain of the onion growing regions like Nasik due to the unseasonal rains in November and the reflection of that is in the sudden spurt in prices. And that these prices would continue for another 3 weeks before they would stabilize. This was immediately contradicted by the NAFED MD, the nodal agency handling onion trade and exports stating that there have not been much reports of crop damage to have any large impact of onion arrivals in the mandis. The Agriculture Minister had also further gone to add that they are banning exports of onions on an immediate basis but there was no plan to import onions from Pakistan. The Chairman of NAFED, the next day said that onions from Pakistan would be imported and that already through the Wagah border there have been trucks coming in laden with Pakistani onions and that prices would stabilize within the next 3-4 days. Hoarding was also ruled out as one of the reasons for the sharp rise by the NAFED Chairman since onions are a perishable commodity. By this time the PM and the PMO was seized of the matter and said that onion prices would be tackled on a war footing and brought down in a matter of days. The Cabinet Secretary chairing the meeting on this issue is reportedly to have found that the sharp jump in prices was enacted at the wholesale trading facility near Nasik which is the main market for onions grown in Maharasthra. It was also clearly established that the trade had pushed up these prices. Going back a bit, notice that the Agriculture Minister is trying to give legitimacy to the price increase by blaming it on crop failure and then he is contradicted by his own senior staff at NAFED, first on crop failure, second on not resorting to imports of onions from Pakistan and thirdly, on the time for the prices to come back down to reasonable levels. This gives us a handle that our government clearly does not work. One need not go out of the way to surmise the situation on why prices shot up by so much and that too so suddenly. It is obvious that the traders who resorted to this in the mandi near Nasik had the political backing at a very senior level. We had seen this in the last year when sugar prices started climbing rather sharply and it was found that this was stage managed to benefit the sugar co-operatives and the wholesale trade. Thus the onion lobby must have approached the same person to orchestrate something for their benefit and that is how the prices were jacked up. Moreover, it was the birthday of this person in the last week and that is when possibly the onion lobby had come to him and in chaste Marathi put forth their request – That you do everything for everybody but nothing for us, Sahib! Therefore in not wanting to disappoint his constituency which still contains some surviving farmers and to salivate his ego, the onion crisis was hatched. Since after all he has the ability to don a halo and use his golden parachute to ask whether it is wrong to benefit the poor farmer. Who can therefore question his motives? Again last week in line with his birthday a book on Sharad Pawar was released in Mumbai called – Ekameva, which is understood to translate to – one of a kind. Here is no doubt or question about it since Sharad Pawar is surely – ‘one of a kind’. It is quite clear that this person when questioned about his involvement in these various scams will tell the PM to divest him of one or the other portfolio and thus get off the spotlight or the hot seat, like they say. This time again the PM has questioned the Agriculture Minister to explain about the onion crisis and if by past precedent he offers to quit the Agriculture Ministry, the country would be better served. The other thing about this matter was the approach of the government to assume that prices of onions at Rs. 40 – 45 a Kg. are acceptable? Having been reduced from a level of Rs. 80 a Kg. and with the reduction being substantial, the exorbitant price of Rs. 40 – 45 a Kg. was thrust upon the hapless consumer. And this when the imports of onions from Pakistan was being done at Rs. 18 – 20 a Kg. And mind you in the initial days the concentration was to bring onions at the ‘reasonable’ price of Rs. 40 – 45 a Kg. to Delhi consumers and to hell with the rest of the country, until each State Govt. got into the act to reduce prices. We had even a leader of the Opposition in Goa showing off by selling in front of the BJP office onions at Rs. 30 a Kg. and claiming that it was possible to sell it less than the Rs. 40 - 45 a Kg. which the State Govt. outlet was doing. We all know that you can even give onions away for free but one only has to see for how long can they maintain it? We also had some politicians and commodity trading experts say that onions could not be imported from anywhere else but Pakistan since prices elsewhere in the world were much more than they were in India. This was the reverse logic and the signal that prices in India for onions could rise further in the future. This practice of comparing food prices with prevailing world levels has been going on for some time without realizing that we do not get world level salaries to buy food at world level prices. Food is something that each country in the world protects its population by trade and non-trade barriers and it is only a few items which are more in the nature of a surplus like wheat, rice, sugar, pulses, etc. that are traded. Further there are no vegetables in the country’s markets today which are selling for less than Rs. 40 a Kg. and that too in winter time when prices of items like cauliflower, green peas, carrots etc. fall dramatically. Keeping in mind that the VIth Pay Commission was implemented for almost all categories of government staff around the country, is this yet another strategy of this misguided government to spread the benefit of this award to the vegetable traders and retailers also. Levity apart, when you have such a vast country with such a huge land mass, it is a shame not to be self-sufficient in almost every category of food that we consume in bulk and also bring it to the end consumer at a reasonable rate. Even during this onion crisis the government has been talking of supply side logistical shortages which is again not acceptable since for a country which prides itself to be the Information Technology (IT) laboratory of the world we fail to use these same resources and techniques for our own people. The most disappointing part of the onion crisis was that it clearly brought out that our government has no early warning system to track sharp and sudden escalations in commodity prices and can only be reactive in its intervention and that is where it is caught floundering, not knowing what is to be done. Is it not time to change?
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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 40 Date:18.12.2010

The Credibility Of People In Public Life

Dr R K Pachauri spoke in Goa last week. But the organisations that he represents like the TERI and the UN body on Climate Change that won the Nobel Prize have been under a cloud after it was found that they were fudging data on climate change parameters to suit their objectives. Thus there surely was a credibility gap between what Dr Pachauri said and what the audience believed. The question will always remain in the minds of the public and that how much of all that is said is tailored to corporate or award winning agendas. We have also seen this happen recently with the members of the media where people of public fame like Barkha Dutt and Veer Sanghvi were seen kowtowing with the likes of corporate and public relations agents like Radia purportedly 'leading one along' (one did not know who was leading whom) and the other 'massaging a source' with hints of fixing ministries, corporate matters and Cabinet posts. Whenever these journalists appear on TV or you read them in print, would you not take a larger pinch of salt than usual for whatever they say or express an opinion about. This is the kind of malaise that has been affecting public life today and there needs to be a change movement to be initiated which should originate from those who are holding public and/or high office to ensure that they are compliant with the objectives that are set out in their charter or are consistent with broad societal objectives.

Of Outsiders, Chasms & Divides

The comment made by the Home Minister P Chidambaran recently about migrants responsible for the increasing crime in Delhi is representative of a mind-set that the affluent and/or powerful Indians have come to share and that is that they belong to a different India while the rest live in Bharat. Chidambaran’s comment is a top of the mind response which needs little thinking but is reflective of the biases in the mind of the Home Minister. It is not him alone but even his Home Secretary Pillai who suffers from the same syndrome apart from others. Pillai is famous for having made the comment that we should use our armed forces against the Maoists because they are enemies of the State. He has not applied his mind to the reasons of what got common people and tribals to the point of becoming Maoists and then graduate to ‘enemies of the State’. The point here is that people like Chidambaram, Pillai et al feel that they belong to India and their life is threatened by these ‘other’ people – be it the migrants or the Maoists, from Bharat and therefore it is best that they are done away with rather than have them upturn the comfortable and orderly life of the affluent India. It is not only this incident but at the same time there was news that Praful Patel, our eminent Civil Aviation Minister was constituting a Committee that would go into regulation of air fares. Some people would say that he is just doing his job but then look at the incongruity of it all. For control of air fares for affluent India you have a committee while increase in train, bus and taxi fares are rammed down the throats of the aam admi and if there is a murmur from them or protests, they are caned and thrown into jail like we had in instances in Mumbai a few months ago without any recourse to legal help. Does not every fare or tariff hike like for water and electricity rates or whatever, deserve a committee which will go into the basis of the demand for increase? And we are not talking about the committees like you have for electricity tariff rates constituted by the government which toe the corporate line of private sector power utility Cos. and recommend for increases based on the ‘investments’ that these Cos. have made mind you, but not the amount of power that they generate and supply. What we need is Citizen Committees which are empowered to decide on tariffs for almost everything that an aam admi needs for his daily life. That will then be representative of true democracy and erase the divide between India and Bharat. There will then be no anachronisms like where the MP’s during a price rise of commodities debate in Parliament vote for themselves a triple hike in salaries while pontificating on the rigours faced by the aam admi on account of all round price increases of almost everything around him to keep his body and soul together. Where the amount of black money estimated to have been stashed away abroad has actually increased since reforms relating to opening out of the Indian economy began, is a moot point which needs debate whether we need the reforms in the manner that it is progressing. Would it not be better to have a more realistic and socially conscious model of economic reforms which takes into account the improvement of the GDH (Gross Domestic Happiness) index rather than the GDP. This will not further accentuate and deepen the chasm between India and Bharat as it is happening now. It is only then that our leaders, both social and political, will learn to be a little more polite and conservative while speaking of our people rather than be rude, curt and dismissive as we have seen in the recent past.

The Congress Stand On Corruption

The manner in which the Congress party tackles corruption was again iterated by Sonia Gandhi after one of the worst and most unproductive sessions of Parliament in our history, by saying that at least the Congress makes their tainted persons resign while the BJP does nothing about them citing Karnataka CM Yeddyurappa’s case. She had made a similar statement after the previous Maharasthra CM Chavan’s resignation was sought after the Adarsh Housing Society hit the headlines. This at least means that Sonia Gandhi is consistent and logic would admit that if she has said it twice, maybe that is what they actually practice! Without going into the fact that the BJP is by no means pure as the driven snow in matters related to corruption, there was no need for Sonia Gandhi to seek brownie points by saying that we are better than them. Corruption is a national malaise ans to be tackled at every level and on every front. Consider the Congress position logically now. Agreed that the Congress party seeks resignations from its tainted persons accused of corruption but then are they given any punishment or does the law allowed to take its course to convict them. On both counts, the answer is a resounding – NO. If Sonia Gandhi had said that any of their corruption accused are not allowed to participate in politics and hold any public life for the next 10 years, then we would have understood that at least some action has been taken. This would have served public expectation that the accused would not repeat such actions or at least make sure that they do not get caught in the future! In Sonia Gandhi’s comment there is also no assurance that the tainted persons will be prosecuted and that the process of justice will not be derailed or delayed by political interference. Therefore what Sonia Gandhi is suggesting is that another person will take the tainted person like in a game of musical chairs and then it is that person's turn to make money until he gets caught! The Congress policy seems to be therefore to share the moolah and let the good times begin for each occupant of the all important chair. Thus we should first try and understand what we are talking about and that corruption runs strong and deep in Indian society and it is important that it is extracted by its roots and removed from rotting the system, for which it may be too late even now. And this is where senior leaders of all parties should set an example not with cosmetic measures but by serious deterrent action and society on its part should maintain pressure to engender some amount of probity in public life so that our future is cleaner and brighter.

Highway Expansion & The Expressway Debate

The 4 or 6 laning of the NH17 and/or the expressway through Goa has been attracting a lot of interest among the populace with varied and sometimes strong expressions about the why's and wherefore's of the proposed expansion. The need for improved roads to better connectivity and thus improve the quality of life for the local population with concurrent beneficial effects on the economy of the State cannot be denied. But at the same time this benefit has to be balanced against what are the bad or deleterious effects of the proposed highway expansion. If houses of people have to be demolished then there is a serious need by the government to change the orientation of the highway. Being adamant that the NH17 highway has to follow the present orientation and that there is no alternative to this, is an irresponsible stand which the government has to review. Why are we not thinking of byepasses like the recent one at Agacaim which has to a large extent solved the bottleneck on the old NH17 orientation. This byepass goes through agricultural land and the new byepasses that are required in the expansion of the NH17 can also do the same. This is all the more timely considering that the government is considering remuneration of land owners with attractive rates and with provision of annuities for acquisition of their land. If the land for the byepasses is fallow then it is all the more better since the land is being put to some use rather than remain idle. In so far as the toll is concerned, the same should be nominal and be collected for local vehicles for a lesser period of time say 3 years while for other State registered vehicles it could be for a longer period. As far as the expressway, there is no need for this if the NH17 is expanded since with the short span of travel within Goa by the expressway, we will only be benefiting our neighbouring States with concurrent negative impact on our tourism sector since on the expressway the tourists will zip past to the cheaper beachside locations in either adjoining Karnataka or Maharasthra. If at all the Central Govt. is adamant in building the expressway then let it build it as an elevated roadway with connect points at major vantage points within Goa. That approach will save a lot of land in Goa for its own development.

Pakistan Needs To Define Outcome

With due respect for protocol issues, the demand by Pakistan to specify the ‘outcome’ for the visit of their Foreign Minister Qureshi early next year is rather surprising. In contrast India should give a list of issues to Pakistan in which India expects an outcome like the closure of the across the border terror training camps, the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim and the JeM head involved in the Indian Airlines plane hijack, the planners and implementers of the 26/11 attack in Mumbai who continue to move freely in Pakistan spewing venom at India and the complete inaction of moving forward with the 26/11 probe at the Pakistan end. Let Foreign Minister Qureshi give us the outcomes of these issues before expecting any outcome from his visit. If he has no answers to the above, then it is best that he does not come at all. India can live without another supposed dignitary’s visit from Pakistan.


Tharoor Transferring Soot Onto CVC P J Thomas

We have had Shashi Tharoor springing to the defence of CVC appointee P J Thomas. This reminds one of the old adage of - Pot Calling the Kettle Black. This idiom is used generally in a negative sense but in modern times there seems to be finer strains of meaning to this saying as Tharoor has attempted to outline. A tainted persona like Tharoor speaking up for Thomas is likely to transfer soot to the latter and not whitewash the latters sins. With Tharoor having been asked to quit as Minister over his involvement in the IPL Kochi sweat equity scam inspite of his protestations of innocence and claiming no linkages with the team investors and Sunanda Pushkar, he goes and marries the lady over the next few months seems clearly taking the whirlwind romance plot straight out of the pages of a Mills & Boon book. One wonders if Sunanda Pushkar having to give up her sweat equity in the IPL Kochi team prior to the marriage with Tharoor was part of the pre-nup agreement. So, whom are you bluffing, Mr Tharoor? So Tharoor should desist from further immature forays into the realm of public relations like defending Thomas since the muck around him will only splatter himself and make his position worse. In this context, he would be well advised to follow another old adage - Look Before You Leap.

FM: Inflation Is Coming Down!

We have the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee this week patting himself on the back that inflation has come down on account of lower food prices. Now we have to ask the FM from where he gets his statistics. If you go to the market then there is no vegetable below Rs. 40 a Kg. while onion prices have been skyrocketing at Rs. 70/- and above per Kg. Thus we must be living in a different India than the one the FM is talking about. It is not only him but government agencies have been reporting that inflation for the previous 4 weeks in a row has been going down but as we have all seen food prices during this period has been scaling new peaks. Granted that the inflation index does not comprise only food but then there does not seem to be anything where prices have fallen month on month and definitely not year on year. So why are the FM and the government agencies bluffing the people. It is best that the FM next time around when he has to talk about inflation visits his neighbourhood market and factors in reality into his pronouncements and not by some prepared text given by some half-baked officials who want to show that they are doing what the government wants them to do. The FM in his above speech has also said that by March 2011 the inflation would touch 6% which one has to swallow with a large ‘fistful’ of salt since many Marches, Junes and Decembers have passed when prices were expected to fall and inflation would be contained over these last 3 years according to various leaders like the Agricultural Minister, the PM and officials like the Governor of the RBI, the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission etc., but one wonders nothing actually happened. But why?

Curb Mobile Usage While Driving

We constantly have reports expressing concern about the increasing number of road accidents and the higher rate of fatalities therein on our roads. However, the police do not seem to be taking any action on the almost regular habit of drivers of using their mobiles while driving. This applies to both drivers of 2 and 4 – wheelers. These people are a menace not only to themselves, which they do not seem to realize, but also to other people using the road including pedestrians. Just the other day the undersigned saw a car with a prominently marked L board being driven by a person while speaking into their mobile. Hopefully the driver was one with a regular licence and not a Learner since otherwise you can imagine apart from the irresponsibility of the individual, the callous disregard for the safety of other people on the road. Are our traffic police listening? Will they do something about this on a war footing particularly with more vehicles on the road during the upcoming Christmas and New Year season.

Congress On Communal Terror Is Playing With Fire

The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi in playing the communal card in relation to Hindu or saffron terrorism are playing a dangerous game. We have had enough and more of terrorism which has been given a communal colour starting off with the Babri Masjid and then the Gujarat riots for which we have had retaliation in umpteen terror incidents ending with the 26/11 attack in Mumbai in all of which innocent people have got killed. The Congress full well knows that it is playing with fire when it comes to playing the communal terrorism card and for the sake of India they should desist from these tactics. Rahul Gandhi in his naivete may have said something which need not be be taken as the Congress position on Hindu terror since like we all know he still has to wipe his snot clean when it comes to political matters. In the same context, Digvijay Singh has to be told to bring some sobriety and respect for the dead when he talks on these matters and not go around offending close members of the family like Hemant Karkare's wife just for the sake of scoring some political brownie points. Any kind of terrorism is anathema to Indian society and each person involved in it or each incident has to be investigated thoroughly and the perpetrators of such dastardly cruelty are required to be punished quickly. There can be no two things about this. If required special fast track courts need be set up so that justice is handed out fast so that other similar terrorists will not dare to raise their head in enacting similar incidents. Things should not go the way of Kasab where the state exchequer, in essence the common taxpayer, is paying to fatten him in prison while dilly- dallying in implementing the death sentence passed on him.

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 39 Date:20.11.2010

There was no issue of the Vox Populi dated 13th Nov 2010.

The Rare Earth Metals Monopoly & The India Strategy

Recently in retaliation of the interception of a Chinese fishing trawler by the Japanese Navy, the Chinese government stopped supplies of special rare earth metals like lithium and the like to Japan which are critical and crucial for the electronic industry. China currently controls 80% of the world’s supply on these metals and thus clearly holds a monopoly. The Japanese because of this temporary ban were put out by this with production of items like batteries etc. in electronics seriously affected. This made Japan accelerate a program that they had already put in some place some years back to extract these rare earth metals from the electronics scrap that they have enough and more of. The discarded motherboards of PC’s and electronic circuit boards along with other items of electronics scrap are a large source of these special metals. Not only that this provides a much needed avenue for disposing off the electronics scrap which otherwise is an environmental problem. Japan was doing this out of a compulsion but then why we in India do not take a page out of Japan’s book and do this recycling on our own. This will at least partially resolve the massive emerging problem of environmental damage arising out of disposing electronic waste. Today in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, electronic waste is being handled in primitive and hazardous conditions at a cottage industry level. There is serious and involves severe danger because of these operations to the operators, the neighborhood where these people operate and then the environment. Why should we not consider scaling this up to an industry level which will have its own controls on processing and re-cycling? Apart from this being a service to society India could have the much needed supply of special metals for our own use.

Congress’ Permissive Attitude Towards Corruption

The AICC meet ignored the CWG and the Adarsh Housing scams and passed over these without a mention. This kind of permissive attitude towards corruption has been the bane of the Congress party. Not only does it not lay down a line on corruption for its functionaries and that of government bureaucracy and officials but gives credence to the age old belief that once Congress governments come everybody makes money; every person gets a share of the pie in the sense that the Congress is tolerant and while it makes money, it allows everybody else to also make money. That is why prices keep going up and up during every Congress regime anywhere in the country. This attitude needs to change and the party line on corruption must be made clear. If the policy of the Congress is to be corrupt and turn a blind eye on corruption around them then it is fine; since then the electorate knows what to do when the next elections come. But then if you keep trying to fool the general public like in the recent instance where the Maharasthra PCC chief and a senior functionary of the Congress were caught talking on live television about the money being spent for Sonia Gandhi’s rally in Maharasthra and the lady herself playing seemingly unaware of how funds are raised for such rallies. Nothing was done on this or at least reported in the press and like in all other cases taking it off the public eye seems to be the Congress party’s solution to corruption. The higher echelons of the Congress party has to take exemplary action to show that it has the will and the ability to take action against corruption within its own organization and then its government if it has to retain the credibility of the electorate. The other thing is that with things like corruption the Congress should not play politics. Like when the main opposition party, the BJP reminded them about the CWG scams along with the unraveling Adarsh scandal, the Congress took it upon itself to remind the BJP about ‘coffin-gate’ etc. The Congress should remember that it is not scoring off one scandal of theirs against one of the BJP or the NDA to nullify scores. All these scandals are at the cost of the public exchequer and the incumbent government is answerable for this to the general public and the government in power is morally bound to act against those involved in the scams and bring them not only book but ensure that they are punished according to the law of the land in such a way that neither they or others will repeat it in the future.

The Indian Leadership Conundrum

The other day when the most powerful persons in the world was declared, as expected for India, Sonia Gandhi figured at No. 9 while the PM Manmohan Singh, was at No. 18. Thus the international perception of the PM’s power is in line with what we in India have come to know, that it is the lady who calls the shots. The fact that the PM is so much lagging behind her being the constitutional leader of a rising world economy will surely be a disappointment to Manmohan Singh himself. But for that he has himself to blame. The inability to assert himself and play the leadership role has been the reason behind this apart from his ready willingness to follow the leader. This has resulted in the number of diverse, disparate and some controversial views being articulated by various members of the PM’s cabinet and different functionaries of the Congress party who have not hesitated to taking on one another in public. Though the Congress party spokespersons have been trying to pass this off as a healthy atmosphere of discourse and discussion within the party, discerning party observers will recognize these as the first signs of cracks or differences emerging for the lack of an ability of the party leaders to lay down a clear party line and enforce it. This situation has led to a drift in the manner of governance where each satrap of the Congress tries to take the oars and row the government boat in the manner he thinks fit and the PM with Sonia Gandhi intervening almost at the last gasp. This very much leaves the public to a government by brinkmanship which clearly is not a healthy sign.

The Politics & Mechanics Of Corruption - I

The scam infested UPA-2 government is trying to desperately hold its head above water on charges of persistent and excessive corruption. But there is a point here that most old-timers would appreciate more and that is if various Ministers like Shashi Tharoor and now A Raja are sacked for corruption and similarly senior Congress functionaries like Suresh Kalmadi, then surely on the basis of the highest accountability standards, the PM & the head of the Congress party should accept blame for the problem and also put in their resignations. Such exemplary behaviour was common in the past when Cabinet Ministers like Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned after a rail accident during his tenure. So also was the case of Gulzarilal Nanda who also put in his papers on such counts of showing his responsibility as a Minisiter. Thus if the PM is presiding over a Cabiner filled with a bunch of thieves he should on account of responsibility and morality put in his papers also. The same goes for Sonia Gandhi for having nursed a man like Suresh Kalmadi in the party and given him high posts and who having taken advantage of it run off with the till. Has the Congress party moved away from these time-honored traditions? In fact they should not and we should have both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi’s resignations forthwith.


The Politics & Mechanics Of Corruption - II

Sonia Gandhi, in her most recent public statements on the issue of corruption, has claimed that right from Natwar Singh to Shashi Tharoor to Suresh Kalmadi, it is the Congress party which has acted on people accused of corruption. By doing what, asking for their resignations? It would have been more appropriate for them to have returned the money that they stole as 'proof' of their innocence then the people of India would have admired the Congress party and its current head all the more. She should also remember that in defending Manmohan Singh on the A Raja 2G scam, knowing about something and not doing anything about it is as much a crime as being complicit in it. Further choosing to not auction the spectrum and then saying that the scam amounts are money that would have been possibly obtained by this process is again as much a crime on the part of the Telecom Minister and his bureaucrats since that is the money that would have come to the exchequer and has been lost because of their careless working. The fact that these licences were then sold by the successful bidders to other regular telecom companies at phenomenal prices proved not that those involved were ingenuous but their possible culpability in allotting the spectrum licences. Thus Sonia Gandhi corruption is not a political football to be bandied around between parties as we are better than them but to recognise that it is deep rooted in Indian society and the earlier we stem its tide, the better it is for the country.

The Politics & Mechanics Of Corruption - III

The virus of corruption is embedded deeply into India’s body politic. It is just not one or the other party but the stink of corruption permeates all parties all over India to some larger degree or other. Otherwise on the back of the Congress culpability in scams like the CWG, Adarsh Housing Society and now the 2G scam in which the DMK is also involved, we have the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa almost asserting that it is his birthright of being a CM to allot prime properties of land to his kith and kin. He has also argued that since every other past CM has done so and particularly the previous incumbent H D Kumaraswamy from the JD (S), he has every right to do so. Once Yeddyurappa was caught in the act he has told his relatives to return those properties which were named by the accusers as having been allotted out-of-turn. But the question is whether these are all the properties that were allotted? Is there more that was allotted and which scam maybe has not been exposed? This assumed licence that one can loot public money and property at will has been ingrained not only in India’s body politic but also in Indian society. Thus over the last week we have seen a police inspector in Mumbai caught for raping a minor, having properties in excess of Rs. 25 crores and coming to office in a Toyota SUV. Do his peers and superiors not take cognizance of such flaunting of wealth beyond known sources of income and initiate action? Similarly after Rajasthan, it is now the turn of Gujarat near Porbandar it is said that a scam of some size has been unearthed in diverting NREGA funds. We have also lately seen that the pillars of Indian society, the armed forces and the judiciary are not averse of dipping their hands in more than the till, when actually no one is looking around. Thus it is liberty and licence to loot at will and if it is public money double your fists is what seems to be the code and most importantly make sure that you do not get at caught at any cost.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 38 Date: 06.11.2010


The Sedition Charge & Prior Precedents

The charges being made of sedition against Arundhati Roy are clearly out of place. She has said nothing which has not been said earlier by various government officials including ministers and the like. If Roy has to be charged then Omar Abdullah has to be charged not only for his recent utterances on the status of Kashmir but also for his irate speech in Parliament quite some time back during the no-confidence motion. Similarly S M Krishna our Foreign Minister should be charged with sedition for having sided with Omar Abdullah when he said that Kashmir acceded to India in 1947. Thus logic would say that prior to acceding, Kashmir was not a part of India. So what is wrong with Roy saying it. Our government should have a uniform yardstick on any matter and should not be perceived as playing favourites with one or the other on the same matter. In fact there was no India until the British made it and any lay student of history will tell you that. Many of the princely States were not a part of India prior to 1947. This was the basis on which C P Ramaswami Iyer, the Dewan of Travancore had wanted to go the United Nations to press for the independent State of Travancore. Maybe our officials need a refresher course in history. The same kind of thing applies to people like Geelani and the others of the Hurriyat in Kashmir. These people, including generally all Kashmiris, have been pampered by the Union of India and successive shades of the government at the Centre and have been allowed to meet Pakistani leaders when they are in India. The celebrated meeting was that of the Hurriyat leaders with President Musharraf during the Agra summit when the BJP led Vajpayee government was in power. This was further compounded at almost each government level meeting with Pakistan when the Hurriyat had access to those coming from across the border before, during or after the talks. No wonder the Hurriyat now wants Pakistan to be a party to the Kashmir issue. For Kashmir let us recognize it, is it not Nehru whom we should blame for internationalizing a problem which was essentially a bilateral border dispute and should have been handled as such. Thus today it is no wonder that the Hurriyat today refuse to talk to anyone like the recently appointed interlocutors and claim that they have been used to talking to the Prime Ministers of India and the Presidents of Pakistan! As far as Geelani’s coming to the Azadi meeting in Delhi, what is the intelligence apparatus of this country doing if they are not able to know of these meetings in advance and are able to preempt them or in the alternative stop people like Geelani or from those coming from across the border in participating. Our security and intelligence agencies seem to be masters at pontificating after the events have taken place rather than stop them from happening. Concluding, this government and we Indians should show the maturity in allowing free speech of all shades as long as it does not become abusive and lead to a law and order problem at the time of its happening or as a consequence thereafter.

Corruption: A Way of Life

It has almost become de rigueur in our political system that if you can get away with any level of corruption go ahead but for God’s sake do not get caught. This is the position vis a vis Ashok Chavan, the Maharasthra CM in the Adarsh Housing Society case. Now that his involvement has been generally accepted he is floundering around trying to involve other persons like Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Shinde, the likely contenders for becoming the next CM, in the philosophy that if I am going to go down with the ship, I will also take you down with me. The way these people try to implicate others it once they have been caught would have one believe that their involvement in the issue is that much reduced as to the number of people that they involve. Further Ashok Chavan is setting new trends in definition of relationship of Hindu society by saying that the mother-in-law, sister-in-law relationship is distant. This could be true specific to Ashok Chavan but then for such distant relations he still goes ahead and recommends them for a flat in the Adarsh Housing Society! Or is it that he has discovered that they are distant now that his involvement in the matter has been made public. Another thing one cannot really understand is that there is a report of the defence authorities which says that the compound wall and the gate for the property was built by the MES and that the land was under the control of the defence authorities. If so how does firstly, approval of a 6 storied building to be constructed on that land without the knowledge of the defence authorities take place. Secondly, how was it that when the building plans were revised from 6 to 31 stories, why did the defence authorities not raise objections on account of security? Thirdly, the photos shown in the TV and newspapers show the building almost complete at 31 stories, if so how could someone come into defence land with a compound wall and a gate and complete a building of 31 stories without the active cooperation and collusion of the defence authorities? Lastly, a security threat should be perceived in the making of it and if so, why was the issue of the Adarsh Housing Society raised so late and after the entire building has come up and some owners given occupation also? Is this then yet another case of lack of preparedness by our defence authorities? Like said in another context, we seem to be past masters at dissecting events after they have happened rather than preventing their happening. The Adarsh Housing Society is understood to involve the NCP also apart from the Congress and it is time that the matter was investigated and the guilty brought to book and punished. We should also stop the practice of finding everything about the matter but stop short in recovering the monies involved or imposing exemplary punishment and just wag a finger at those involved in the scam or whatever by saying – Don’t do this again! This way of taking the matter off the public horizon and putting a lid on it has been costing this country heavily and it is time that we changed this trend. In this case all the tainted people have rushed to say that yhey will return their flats, they should be made welcome to do so but none of their funds paid, whatever be the amount, should be returned to them. These monies should be given to charity. Take this Adarsh Housing Society scam alone where the number of senior retired defence personnel involved read like a who’s who of the leadership of our defence services in the last decade and who are getting off lightly by saying that they were not aware that the project was reserved for Kargil war veteran widows and that they would return the flats now. If this scam would not have come to light then the public would have been none the wiser and these personnel would have retained the flats. Is this not a shame on these people and the entire defence services which lately has been stripped time and again and seem to have lost all sense of shame and in the manner of politicians are willing to wing it and take the position that let’s go ahead, we will see once we get caught, if at all.

The Rare Earth Monopoly & The India Strategy

Recently in retaliation of the interception of a Chinese fishing trawler by the Japanese Navy, the Chinese government stopped supplies of special rare earth metals like lithium and the like to Japan which are critical and crucial for the electronic industry. China currently controls 80% of the world’s supply on these metals and thus clearly holds a monopoly. The Japanese because of this temporary ban were put out by this with production of items like batteries etc. in electronics seriously affected. This made Japan accelerate a program that they had already put in some place some years back to extract these rare earth metals from the electronics scrap that they have enough and more of. The discarded motherboards of PC’s and electronic circuit boards along with other items of electronics scrap are a large source of these special metals. Not only that this provides a much needed avenue for disposing off the electronics scrap which otherwise is an environmental problem. Japan was doing this out of a compulsion but then why we in India do not take a page out of Japan’s book and do this recycling on our own. This will at least partially resolve the massive emerging problem of environmental damage arising out of disposing electronic waste. Today in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, electronic waste is being handled in primitive and hazardous conditions at a cottage industry level. There is serious and involves severe danger because of these operations to the operators, the neighborhood where these people operate and then the environment. Why should we not consider scaling this up to an industry level which will have its own controls on processing and re-cycling? Apart from this being a service to society India could have the much needed supply of special metals for our own use.

Obama’s India Visit

The much awaited President Obama visit to India next week is going to go the way of all other earlier US Presidential visits. The Americans have a clear obsession with business and this is what the visit will be focused upon. This is more so in President Obama’s case since the US economy has to yet come out fully out of recession and he needs to show how his vist to India will result in more jobs in the US. The first part he has already done by reiterating that US jobs will not be ‘Bangalored’ thus suggesting a stop to outsourcing jobs to India. Now with the business that he expects to generate in aviation and military industries from his visit he will be bent upon showing how many jobs he has been able to create because of India. His interest in this will be more considering in the elections to the Senate which will complete by the time he starts for India, the Democrats are likely to be thrashed resoundingly and if the Democrats are going to go down, Obama in the manner of the boy standing on the burning deck of the Democrats ship should hold their ensign aloft and wave it with vigour. Thus it is said that more than a 100 CEO’s are accompanying Obama on his India trip who will also be keen to show some returns for their efforts. Is this all in India’s best interests, is something for us in India to analyse? Today the situation is that the US needs India more than India needs the US. Irrespective of talk about the clearances that India wants in areas of dual-use technologies, these are in limited areas and are not so critical. India has come so far in its high technology programs of space, weapons and atomic energy with the active intentions of the US to thwart these programs and today not getting the US technologies is not going to put a break on our programs. Similarly on the nuclear energy front now that India has been accepted as a responsible player through the Indo-US nuclear deal there is no real necessity to go just to the US for our needs, if at all we have a need for it, since Russia, France, Japan and other countries are more than willing to supply India’s needs. Concluding therefore this is the time to play hardball with President Obama and extract from the US what is best in our national strategic and business interests. The US has been trying to get India and the government led by Manmohan Singh in an amenable frame of mind by firstly awarding our PM the best statesman award, then Obama himself talking about the respect he has for our PM and to India and finally suggesting that this visit will take the Indo-US relations to another plane, a new high. We Indians tend to fall for these ploys but it is time to surprise Obama and his delegation that India can also talk tough and stand up for what it believes in. All this while to keep Pakistan happy, inspite of its manifold inconsistencies, and the fact that Obama is not visiting that country during the current visit, Obama has sent them a box of chocolates worth US$2 Billion ostensibly to fight terror. It is time that the US were told that they cannot talk friendship with us and simultaneously arm our enemies who are proven time and again in international circles for fostering, engendering and propagating terror, since those arms may one day be used against us. The week ahead will unfold another chapter in Indo-US relations and India
waits to see what will happen.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 37 Date: 30.10.2010

The Kasab Trial

We continue to agonise ourselves with the 26/11 Kasab trial and put our own citizens to difficulty by shutting off roads and asking for documentation and other papers thus making it cumbersome for people to pass through the area or attend the trial. All this while Kasab remains in his cell at the Arthur Road jail since the trial is conducted over CCTV and as reported in the papers indulges himself in yawning, stretching his arms and showing off his depraved antics, clearly disinterested in the court proceedings. In contrast the country which we so desperately try to emulate, the USA on the Times Square incident when a person of Pakistani origin tried to explode an incendiary device just a couple of months have already sentenced him after having the required court proceedings. Thus why we should be so particular that we should show the world the fair justice system that we have is something incomprehensible when this fellow Kasab has killed our own people without compunction. No one around the world is bothered about the trial proceedings and would in fact respect us more if we act post-haste in the matter and sentence him to death by hanging which he so richly deserves. In contrast we use him as an exhibit and in protecting him spend inordinate amounts of money which we could easily save if he is not there anymore. Moreover in the meaningless 26/11 trial that Pakistan is conducting, they are coming back with a request to extradite Kasab just because India has kept him alive stating the trial cannot go forward without him. In a broader sense we are also in the manner of the West projecting a fear psychosis about terror to our citizens which we can easily avoid. The media also in its coverage of the trial is projecting Kasab as an anti-hero while actually they should ignore him and announce his death through their obituary columns.

Kashmir 4th Interlocutor

With Omar Abdullah calling for a 4th interlocutor it is time that the Central Government if they are at all serious of finding a solution to this vexed problem, should appoint ex-President Kalam as the leader of the interlocutor team. A P J Abdul Kalam has the stature, credibility and the presence to tackle the Kashmir issue and with him being a Muslim the Kashmiris separatists, moderate and India-leaning persons will be happy to talk to him. Clearly the present 3 person interlocutor is very much lightweight and will not go very far in their work.

Keep It Up India Post

We had a need to send a large number of invitations by post for a family function. When we approached the Post Office to find out about the mechanics of this process, we found to our pleasant surprise the Post Master, volunteering to help us send the invitations. We were asked to just get the invitations and give it in at the Post Office and they would take care of the rest. We did this and not only did this kind and helpful gesture relieve us from the onerous job of affixing the stamps but also of carrying it back to the post office to post the invitations. We are extremely grateful to the staff of the post office to assist us in this matter. This is the first time in my life and having lived all over India that I have found a person from the post office being so helpful. Surely the India Post has turned a new leaf. Kudos once again to the staff at the post office! May their numbers increase! Keep it up India Post!

Montek Singh Ahluwalia Should Go

The PM must ask for Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s resignation as Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission. Talking on the unabated food price rise he is reported to have said that this is due to the rise in prices of milk, fruits and vegetables which is in turn because of the larger amount of money in the hands of rural households and since these items are being consumed in larger quantity in the rural areas thus resulting in a shortage of these items reaching the markets in the rest of India. That is why these items are continuing to show a more than normal increase in prices. This statement is incorrigibly shameful coming from a senior official of this government. Are the rural people not expected to consume milk, fruits and vegetables so that more supplies can reach the rest of India and prices remain stable? Where we have more malnutrition in the rural areas instead of welcoming the rise of consumption of these items, the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission seems to be castigating them for eating more and depriving the rest of India. Being in government for such a long time and being a seasoned professional at that, he could have chosen a turn of phrase which is more appropriate and sympathetic to the issue. The need to increase supply side volumes in fruits and vegetables has been known for a long time and it is also well known since these items are perishable we have more than the normal wastage while these goods reach the end customer through the supply chain. The wastage and spoilage for these items is in the region of 40% far above the international standards. The need of the hour which also has been known for a long time has been developing a cold chain for fruits and vegetables from where these are grown and until they reach the end consumer which can easily reduce the perishable aspect and increase supply solving the scarcity issue in the short term. In the long term the acreage under these items should be increased to enhance supply. On these aspects this UPA government into its second term has done nothing. As regards milk the co-operative movement of milk in Gujarat is well known and has been a precursor for many of the states all over India to develop a movement for milk production which has made India the largest producer (by volume) of milk in the world by now. The shortages of milk around the country has been because of logistical reasons. Again the rise in prices for milk has been because of the rise in prices of animal feeds given to the cattle and the tendency of the politicians to please their constituents by proposing hikes for milk being supplied by the co-operatives. Further on pulses prices have not been reducing and urad dal one of the staple protein supplements for the aam admi continues to rule in the retail markets at Rs. 100 a Kg. which Montek Singh Ahluwalia needs to be made aware of. There is a need to bring this down along with other pulses by resorting to imports. Thus let Montek Singh Ahluwalia get his act together and perform on the job assigned to him rather than needlessly commenting on the dietary habits of rural folk in a gross and insensitive manner.

After All We Are Indians!

In the papers recently there were three pieces of news. The first that a senior ranking officer at one of the Indian Navy establishments in Mumbai for pecuniary advantage leaked the papers of the recruiting exams. The second was, that of a professor from IIT, Kharagpur heading the panel of the IIT-JEE in 2006 fudged the basis for admitting some of the students to the IIT’s and was purportedly running a fake tutorial school within the campus of the college for students appearing for the IIT-JEE. He even had the audacity to shred the evaluation and selection papers of the 2006 IIT-JEE to erase his wrong-doings inspite of the IIT rules which state that all papers need to be kept for one year. Can you imagine the plight of those affected by this person and for whom they could not get into the IIT? Surely some of their careers are ruined. The third was that of Lord Swraj Paul being suspended from the House of Lords in the UK though for a short period of some months (one has to write like this since after all he is an Indian) on account of wrongly showing another place as his place of residence and claiming monies for the upkeep of that place. This shows that morality is negotiated at the altar of wealth and justice is biased towards the rich. If a poor person had done the same thing then he would have been lectured, hectored and incarcerated in jail while for those in the peerage it is a rap on the knuckles and even maybe a suspended sentence, who knows! These incidents show that be it in the armed forces where one expects discipline and even handedness, where in education you expect a person to be fair and above board at least at the IIT’s and lastly, where as an Indian making it the House of Lords should be setting an example and practicing what he preaches while visiting India, all of them showed that they are all Indians and still rotten to the core.

The CWG Investigations Are A Sham

The manner of the CWG scams and the way the inquiry is taking shape, it seems it will go the way of all earlier inquiries in free India. Nothing will be found and nothing will be done. The reason for this fear is that first they are going after the small things to show quantity of scam incidents rather than go for the large value items. Secondly, they are going after visible private sector parties to show that they are acting against the defaulting persons and lastly trying to bring in diversionary tactics by pursuing politically connected people of the Opposition like Sudhanshu Mittal. These three approaches though raising lots of smoke will lead the main perpetrators of the scams to get effective camouflage and escape scathe free. Like they say, after all this is India!

Supreme Court’s Foot In The Mouth

The courts again in their wisdom have ventured into human behavioral matters by trying to define a live-in relationship. By saying that a relationship based purely on sex does not entitle for the woman to claim alimony is going against the grain of the matter. If the courts intention was to protect the women from being preyed upon by men then it would have been in the fitness of things to classify all relationships be it sexually motivated or otherwise beyond a sufficient number of years to be entitled to alimony. This would have been a deterrent to men to pursue any kind of relationships with women other than the legitimate. The courts by saying that those in a relationship should have appeared in society as husband and wife is dispersing the judgment making it very difficult to prove the relationship per se in the event of it coming to the courts. Also sex sometimes being the primary motivation of any such live-in relationships and it not being made the basis for the determination of payment of alimony is rather incorrect. A related aspect of this matter is that in these days of gender equality and the increasing number of live-in relationships being entered into consequent of improved economic independence of the female gender, should the courts not decide on the basis of who earns more the man or the woman and evolve a pay-out to the party who is the economically weaker in the relationship. This should be the norm rather than having the female gender dominate the receipts of the alimony. Again as said by the Addl. AG the Supreme Court could have avoided the pejorative ‘keep’ which in itself is derogatory to the female gender unless the court meant the word in a uni-sex context and thus applicable to both genders!

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 36 Date: 23.10.2010

PM Says He Is Not An Astrologer , But The US Likes Astrology!

As reported sometime back when the PM was asked by one of the media persons as to when inflation would be brought under control, the PM is understood to have snapped at him that he is no astrologer. The media person was polite enough not to retort that being PM was bigger than being an astrologer in making false predictions and promises. However, at this moment I would dare to don the hat of an astrologer and predict that when President Obama visits us next month among the major treaties and accords that will be signed, in the fine print you will have three very innocuous items - India agreeing to the nuclear liability bill the way the US wants it to be and Warren Andersen irrespective of the ‘all-out’ effort being made by our UPA-2 government to extradite him to India, will get a reprieve and because of his advanced age will be granted a full pardon and lastly Dow Chemicals will also get a clean chit. A majority of people in India would back my horse in this attempt by the UPA-2 government to firmly ensconce itself in the American sphere of influence and progressively replace the UK in the close leash puppy dog relationship that they so recently vacated.

The Ayodhya Title Suit

On the Ayodhya title suit many argue on the pragmatic decision that the High Court has delivered in apportioning the disputed land among the three suitors and how it will engender the secular fabric of our society. But the problem has been that this was not the mandate of the High Court which was foisted upon with the responsibility of delivering a judgment on the title of the land alone. The court has cleverly avoided this responsibility by appealing through the judgment to Indian society in general to prove once again its open and large heartedness. In that context there is nothing wrong with the judgment and should be welcomed by everybody as long as further litigation does not vitiate the atmosphere. But the problem which is implicit in this support is that we in India particularly the Executive is abdicating its responsibility to take decisions and looking towards the Judiciary to decide on important matters. This is not good precedent and will lead progressively to a weak and ineffective Executive which will concern itself with the routine and pass the buck on important issues of governance to the Judiciary. This in turn will lead to a very aggressive Judiciary which sometimes is not a very healthy sign for a sustaining democracy and will make our society increasingly litigant prone and add to the increasing pile up of cases in our courts where people will come seeking justice for every small matter. Another aspect of the High Court judgment is that it is a deceptive judgment. Ram Lalla as a suitor has been allocated 1/3 of the land. One or two judges of the court who delivered the judgment have accepted that the location as the birthplace of Rama who again to many is still a mythological figure which should not have been translated to reality by firstly accepting him as a suitor and then allocating the baby god, physical land. The judgment has further said that the mosque was built on the remains of a temple and one can assume that the verdict is in some manner, a compensation for this fact. These matters are what will trigger a spate of suits in the courts in the future since there are many places of worship in India which have for one reason or other been built on the ruins of a place of worship belonging to another faith. And on aspects of jingoism within each faith, there are many people who will be bent upon proving that certain places of worship are the birthplace of one or the other god or saint just to outdo the other in the spirit of one-upmanship. These matters will lead to more turmoil in our society. Therefore in this context the learned judges of the UP High Court should have restricted themselves to the title suit and allowed the Executive to take a decision on what happens thereafter.

Double Faced FM

Pranab Mukherjee while attending the recent IMF-World Bank meeting in New York exhorted the institution to orient its programs towards the alleviation of poverty. This is clearly surprising since the FM’s initiatives in India in relation to the management of our economy in recent times is clearly anti-poor. We have many programs which supposedly are towards eradication of poverty and to provide livelihood and rights to the poor. In actual practice they translate to another mechanism of corruption to exploit the poor and underprivileged who essentially lacking education therefore lack self-confidence and thus have no voice to protest and become easy targets to make money out of. Thus as brought out by many an NGO and activists the NREGA program remains unpaid to actual village workers for work done for months on end and even when they get paid it is after a cut which goes to those managing the program. Sometimes whole funds are siphoned on NREGA projects which remain only on paper and with nothing on the ground but the papers still show that imaginary workers were paid which money is safely ensconced in the pockets of the village and government officials, elected or otherwise. Thus when the FM speaks abroad particularly in the West it is fashionable and expected that coming from India he should talk about poverty, lack of public infrastructure, community hygiene, schooling and medical care which the FM parrots out to deliver like they say, what the audience expects to hear. What is happening inside the country is what we are all aware of; how figures are managed to show a rosy picture of our economy and society. Thus it is very proper that we prominently talk of economy growth rates, production increases, burgeoning foreign reserves, a booming stock market flying high on FII money etc. while hiding facts of rampant food inflation which is intended to be managed by juggling the base of the CPI indices, use technology like ultrasound for sex determination of unborn foetuses and go in for abortion in the event of female foetuses and figures related to that, to the increasing female infanticide numbers, the larger than normal infanticide figures for children below 5 years particularly in the northern states, the tonnes of food grains that we allow to rot in the open and then say it is only 0.1% of the total harvest, the number of starvation deaths, the number of malnourished children etc. etc. The list is long added to which the UNESCO report lately shows that malaria deaths in the country have been shown at one-thirteenth of what is occurring by taking only those that die at government hospitals. The sheer cussedness of some of these things is very disturbing, but then like they say this is India!

Bank Lending

The other day I happened to take an enterprising vegetable vendor to one of the leading nationalised banks in Panjim. This person wanted to take out loans for two vehicles – one a delivery van for local delivery to hotels in North Goa which form the majority of his clientele and another bigger vehicle to directly bring vegetables in bulk from Belgaum and/or Hubli/Dharwad. The attitude of the bank was rather surprising since they seemed to be stuck with the principle of asset based lending which acting as security gives the bank the false comfort of the credibility of the person taking the loan and his capacity to pay. The lacunae in this was explained by the bank official himself who said that this approach has resulted in a lot of bad debts which has curbed the bank from considering giving out any more loans. In a competitive economy bank lending should be based upon the loanee’s capacity to pay rather than his asset base which gives the false comfort as above and recovery of loan becomes all the more difficult, stuck in long drawn out and expensive litigation and procedures. The banks need to change if they want to reverse the picture in Goa where it is understood that deposits far exceed bank credits to customers as brought out in the last State Level Banking Meeting. Will the banks change for the better and give loans based on the capacity to pay?Then they will see their credit targets being met.

Get Rid Of Stray Dogs

The stray dog menace around the country needs to be tackled but the government seems unwilling to take any action on the matter. Everyday the packs of the dogs moving around populated areas seem to be multiplying in number and getting more aggressive considering this being the mating season or whatever. In some of our cities like Bangalore there have been instances of vicious stray dogs attacking small children leading to some deaths also. Apart from that there have been instances of diseases originating from the animal species like the ebola virus from apes, then the avian flu from birds and/or cats, the swine flu from pigs or whatever which have had the worldwide population in a scare syndrome now and then. At the rate the dogs are increasing in India, we seem to be heading towards originating a new type of virus/flu called ‘dog flu’. Therefore it is best for the authorities to act, and act now, to sterilise the dogs and then relocate them in relatively lesser habited areas like our forests.

Driving While Using Mobile Phones

The police need to do something about people driving around while talking into their mobiles. This problem is not just limited to those driving cars but even those who are on 2-wheelers like scooters and motorbikes. And it is very rare that you see anyone using the hands-free attachment on the mobile phone Those speaking on their mobiles while driving are not only a hazard to themselves but also a menace to the other driving public on the roads as also to the pedestrians. The police need to get their act together and apprehend these people and impose stiff fines which would act as a deterrent for the future. Is anybody in the police listening?

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Vox Populi

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 35 Date: 16.10.2010

Home Secretary Exceeds His Mandate

The latest issue that has flared up in Kashmir is over the Home Secretary G K Pillai overreaching his powers and taking decisions about the re-opening of schools without taking the Omar Abdullah government in confidence, after the all party delegation returned and a Kashmir package was announced by the UPA-2 government. Granted there could be politics involved in this matter but the track record of G K Pillai is something which does not encourage confidence in his having nothing to do with the issue. There have been earlier instances when the said gentleman talked of using the Air Force against the Maoists as if he was discussing an operation on enemy territory. This clearly alienates the people against such bureaucrats and in the present case he has only added fuel to the fire blazing in Kashmir. Even in his earlier assignment Pillai as Commerce Secretary had sided with the big business and organised sector lobby when it had come to canceling some of the approved SEZ’s after a public agitation in Goa which had the concurrence of the incumbent local Congress government. Thus bureaucrats who overreach their political masters have no place in today’s context and it is best that Pillai be shunted out to pasture as a Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar islands or elsewhere.

Repeal The AFSPA

Those who are defending the AFSPA are mostly the people who are serving in the armed forces or those who have retired from the armed forces and become self-styled experts in security or politics. The other category of people defending the continuance of the AFSPA are the politicians mostly from the Congress and the UPA who obviously have an axe to grind in the matter since the Congress particularly would be blamed of conceptualizing it in the first place close to half a century ago. Times change and laws must change that is the inexorable way of life but then in India the anachronism is that time changes but laws, rules and regulations get stuck in a warp and continue being of the mostly British vintage. In the case of AFSPA when it was brought into force there was hardly any strength of our para-military forces to police the country during law and order problems. But today fifty years hence the situation is vastly changed and our paramilitary forces exist in reasonably sufficient measure to take care of the government needs and there is no need to call the armed forces out of their barracks. The Army and the other wings of the armed forces under no circumstances should be used within the country and against our own people. If circumstances prevail within the country which warrants such usage as recommended by the incumbent government then it should be interpreted as a failure of government and the process of democracy should be restored by having a fresh election and installing a new government which could be more competent than the existing one which asks its armed forces to train its guns at their own people.

Misplaced Government Priorities

The FM in one of his interviews recently has spoken of lack of grain storage facilities and their not matching buffer stock and therefore the need to store grain in the open which was subsequently found rotten. It is curious why he was silent on what kind of resources have been invested in creating such storage facilities. In comparison since 2003 when the Commonwealth Games was allotted to India and when around 2008 actual construction work started in Delhi on the facilities it is understood a total of almost Rs. 66,000 crore has been spent. Why were funds diverted to CWG rather than meeting essential needs of the country like grain storage facilities and the like? Why does the media not ask these questions when we all know this UPA-2 government has been slipping badly on its promise of ‘development with a human face’? Even now the government has no clear cut plans to combat rising food prices and has been hopping from one deadline to another and like a recalcitrant child which does not pay heed to its parent’s admonishment, food prices continue to rise unabated. There are more problems around the corner in relation to food prices since the wheat harvest in Russia because of severe drought has been affected which to a certain extent is true for the crop in Australia also. This will lead to a rise in wheat prices which may spiral other food commodities in turn to follow an upward ascent. What is our government doing about it? They are sitting on 30 million tonnes of buffer stock with a bumper harvest expected after a bountiful monsoon this year which as indicated above there is no place to store. Again India has a massive foreign exchange reserves at this moment close to US$300 billion. Thus why does this government not move the buffer stock into the PDS through the States and also into the market directly so that deflationary trends are stimulated at least for food. The foreign exchange reserves can be used to import those of the commodities where there is a domestic production shortfall like pulses and edible oils. Or are we waiting like Sharad Pawar did a few years ago until the international prices reach their zenith and then import it at the highest possible price. Why? We have to show that we are a charitable nation! At the same time the public distribution continues to be in a shambles and for just a small State like Goa there have been no supplies for the last 3 months from FCI godowns even after the Goa Govt. has paid for the supplies. If this is the efficiency of the PDS system then one wonders what is the position on the PM’s promise to the Supreme Court to move 2 million tonnes of foodgrains through the PDS at BPL prices. Or maybe FCI is busy with that bulk supply and therefore is giving the PDS supplies for States like Goa the go-by!

It Was Wrong To Arrest The La Marteniere School Principal & Teachers

The arrest of the La Martiniere principal and the teachers of the school in relation to the suicide of one of the students after being punished is rather shocking. Children are sent to school to learn as well as become proficient in skills, social as well as in games, that they may not be able to pick up in a a cloistered home environment. This implies that they, both the children and their parents, have to respect not only the institution but also the teachers. This applies as long as the discipline and other rules that the school enforces are within the norms of acceptable levels of corporal punishment. If the child or its parents find that the rigour of the disciplining system is something that they cannot accept then they should remove the child from the school. In this particular case as reported in the media the child was many a time an offender of the school norms and these incidents were brought to the notice of his parents. The final incident which prompted the punishment which purportedly led to the suicide is bringing and/or letting off a stink bomb in the class. Such an act should have brought about immediate rustication of the boy and the parents should be equally culpable of the offence since they are responsible to ensure that their son comes to school with acceptable norms of items to learn and not commit nuisance. After the punishment meted out by the school authorities there was a time span of a number of days when the suicide happened. If so, how are the La Martiniere principal and the teachers of the school responsible for the act and why should they be arrested. This incident is going to be a slur on the educational system of this country and our society should not encourage it since we will open the doors to many more such cases which wealthy parents will file for the purpose of creating nuisance for the school authorities. The arrested teachers should be released forthwith and the cases against them dismissed.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 32 Date: 25.09.2010


Make the Commonwealth Games A Success


There is nothing defensible about the work done for the Commonwealth Games and the fact that most of it has been below standard and delayed beyond the expected completion dates. But whether it is the apex organizers from the Commonwealth Games Federation or the foreign press, everybody has been going to town about how much India has mismanaged the building of the infrastructure of the Games. With the wound very much open people at all levels starting from the athletes and delegations from almost every other country have started to pillory India. Apart from that there have been very irresponsible an unreasonable demands like the PM’s car having to go through security and the round the clock reservation of the lanes allocated to CWG traffic on Delhi’s roads leading up to the event venues. Though one should admit that there have been some kind words in between from some, delegates, athletes and countries. But it is not very incorrect to say that the press from UK and Australia, the countries with the largest athlete delegations and to some extent New Zealand, have taken more than their fair share of wrath on India, because it is India. To give an example the following is an excerpt from an email that the undersigned received just about a day before from abroad highlighting similar problems at the Youth Olympics held recently in Singapore – QUOTE SG (Singapore) hosted the Youth Olympics "YOG" recently and there was food poisoning, volunteers complained about shabby treatment, roof collapsed and rain came in, locals not interested to watch so schoolkids were sent as spectators (a la N Korea),,,, but I don't think the International Press bothered to report much at all. In fact many countries were not interested to attend the Sg (Singapore) YOG so what's the fuss about a few countries pulling out of Comm (Commonwealth) Games!! UNQUOTE. The explanatory notes in brackets are mine. So keeping the spirit of the Commonwealth Games alive each delegation should try and make the Games a success knowing full well that India goofed up but criticizing India will not make for an outstanding Commonwealth Games.

Pranab’s Tabla To Manmohan & Sonia’s Sonatas

The number of committees and EGOM that Pranab Mukherji chairs is so large that one wonders where he gets the time to handle the work of his allotted Finance Ministry. Apart from that he is called upon to troubleshoot whenever there is a problem in the house when the Parliament is in session. In all this Pranab-da seems to be the tabla which accompanies the long and ponderous silences of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi like we see in concertos of Western classical music. We cannot call these ragas since we do not see very much the extended silences in Indian classical music that these two are habituated to indulge in. With Sonia Gandhi the silences are necessary since otherwise she will expose her inability to fathom the basic issues of governance. With Manmohan Singh the problem has been akin to a fish out of water, in the sense a reticent bureaucrat in a politician's role. Moreover with the epithet of - The Wise, he clearly wants to retain the title for a few years and not put it in jeopardy by opening his mouth once too often. As for Pranab-da, it is a wonder that he was not put in charge of the all party delegation which was to go to Kashmir. However, P Chidambaran heading the delegation is very correct since any initiative in Kashmir has to be started at the Home Ministry and then vetted by the Cabinet & maybe the PM.

Our Media Should Show More Teeth

It has been a long time since we attained Independence in 1947. The country has been engrossed in development for these six decades or more. The question that demands to be asked is whose development? Is it the development of the common man that has seized the minds of our politicians and policy planners? Or is it the development of the rich, the wealthy and the influential? When the Prime Minister at a meet with top media editors recently said that 37% of India lives below the poverty line, is it not a shame for us? When the Prime Minister at the same meeting said that he cannot evolve a method of giving free foodgrains to the poor, the media editors did not bat an eyelid? They swallowed that statement as the gospel truth and did not even question why this could not be done. They also did not question why 37% of our population is still below BPL. Why? We have to ask ourselves why did the editors of a free press in free India behave this way? In the absence of an answer, we have no choice but to say that these editors were bought. Not bought in the sense that they are corrupt. But bought in the sense with privilege and position? They are afraid to loose all that comfort that they are cocooned in and will protect it any cost. Since that is what they have ‘achieved’ by dint of grit, determination and sheer hard work for all these years. If they loose that then their entire effort of their careers up to now is wiped out and then what face can they show society? If there was free and vibrant media in India then the PM would have been put on the mat not only on the above issues but also on many issues which are showing our society as completely without principles and morals of which the latest and most gross example are the financial scams involved in building the infrastructure for the Commonwealth Games at Delhi.

Exploiting A Scarcity Economy

As indicated recently by the PM 37% of the Indian population lingers below the poverty line (BPL) after 63 years of Independence, while there are many millionaires and billionaires with one or two making their place in the Forbes list of the 10 most wealthiest persons in the world. Apart from that in the present Lok Sabha there are more than 300 lakhpatis and some among them crorepatis with the Congress party leading the pack. There is nothing wrong with acquiring wealth. It is a matter of pride for us if there are some Indians in the Forbes list but this wealth should not have been acquired by snatching it away from the entitlements of the poor. In the same manner with our MP’s there is no accountability and though they routinely submit their list of assets before each election to the Election Commission, there is no assessment to check if their assets have increased in the interim and whether it has been acquired by fair means or foul. With the politicians it is mostly from their corrupt ways that they have acquired bountiful wealth which as the saying goes will suffice their seven generations to come. Notable examples in this category have been Mayawati and the notorious Khoda, an independent MLA in Jharkhand who by chance became the Chief Minister and cornering the mining portfolio in this mineral rich state is stated to have made thousands of crores. This matter is currently under investigation. Apart from this the list of corrupt politicians with assets beyond their known means of income is long and massive at the same time. In the hunger of wealth pursued by the rich, the corporate sector and the politicians since Independence, who are all put together less than 1% of India’s population, there has been a situation of scarcity created for almost everything that a common man needs for his livelihood at various times in these last six decades. If one remembers in the 60’s and 70’s there was a shortage of food, particularly rice, wheat and sugar and you had to queue up in long lines to get your rations for these items. Then came the Green Revolution and the food scarcity tapered off though rearing its head at times for one or the other commodity. When the baby was born in India five decades ago it would not know where its next feed literally would come from, particularly if the mother did not have breast milk, because baby food was a shortage. Then there were the celebrated waiting lists for the Bajaj scooter and the EC TV. The scarcity scenario that prevailed largely for material products has been intermixed these days with services like education and even justice. This artificial creation of scarcity or the real lack of availability of one thing or the other to meet our needs has inculcated in the common man a sense of uncertainty and an unease of not knowing what is our right. Thus what we should be getting in the normal course is being shown to the common man as some extraordinary favour. We have got so inured to this situation that where earlier we would talk of someone black-marketing an item, we today talk of doing the same thing as that person earning windfall profits. Thus a criminal offence has been diluted to an accounting terminology. That is the extent to which our society has changed or adapted to circumstance. This condition is faced particularly among the illiterate, the rural and the poor. As indicated earlier after 63 years of the British leaving our shores, we are unable to provide employment round the year for our lowest class of labour, the unskilled category, and show under the NREGA scheme as a favour that we provide 100 days employment rather than the 300 days which the government should give. Even under the NREGA the people do not get paid and corruption is rampant with false lists of workers being prepared by panchayat members to siphon off funds. Not only that the scheme has not been implemented across the country for one reason or the other an the government has umpteen excuses to defend itself. In a similar scenario under the Food Security bill which is under consideration it is proposed that approx. 25-30Kg. of foodgrains would be given to the poor. However, on a statistical dispute as to the extent of people in the BPL category which according to the government’s own estimates varies from 37% of the PM’s to 46% of the other agencies, the bill is likely to get stuck or the quantum of grain to be given would be reduced if the latter BPL estimate is correct. Meanwhile everybody from Sonia Gandhi downwards in the UPA-2 government are preening themselves as to what a great job they are doing by working on this bill. This when Mahatma Gandhi’s ideal had been that none in India should sleep hungry and neither die of hunger. How many of Gandhi’s ideals like this have been achieved by the Congress, the party he was associated with. The UPA-2 government therefore should work towards ensuring that the poor people are given a fair deal when it comes to employment, housing, health care and education rather than bluffing their way around problematic issues only to be caught at their cover-ups and then the defence of these mistakes becoming more important than the primary issue itself.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 31 Date: 18.09.2010


There Is Something To Learn From Pakistan

Recently a Pakistani military delegation traveling to the US was off-loaded at one of the US airports on a chance comment overheard by Homeland security personnel made by one of the delegation members that he hoped that this would be the last flight he took. Due to the perceived slight related to the off-loading the Pakistani delegation had the courage to call off their meeting with the US military officials and threatened to fly back. In this they were fully backed by their authorities at home in Pakistan. The US realizing their mistake were quick to apologise and patch up things so that the delegation could carry on with their planned official program. These are lessons for India where we seem to take things lying down and not stand up for our rights and that of our citizens when it comes to foreign governments particularly the US. If sufficient noise is made immediately after the incidents then there is every chance for the US to also respond to us with an apology or whatever. We have had after 9/11 many of our senior ministers like George Fernandes, Pranab Mukherjee and even ex-President Kalam treated in a less than proper way considering their official position by the US authorities. Most of these cases came to light months after their occurrence with no official complaint lodged with the US. It was only in the case of ex-President Kalam that the US airline came out with a lame apology and not the US protocol authorities and even that after a long time. Apart from this we have had many other known or unknown Indians being given roughshod treatment by the US agencies while entering the country for which except in the case of Shahrukh Khan, there was nary a peep from our government. The incident with the Pakistani military delegation is yet another thing that we need to learn from Pakistan on how to turn the tables on the opposition during a negotiation.

Sorting Out The Kashmir Knot

There are instances where the government’s lack of perspective and/or honesty of approach is shown up as lacking. One such is the AFSPA and its application not only in Kashmir but also in the rest of the country like in the North East and in the use of the armed forces within the country to quell militant unrest under the protection of the AFSPA, there have been massive human rights abuses. People in the affected regions of the country which has seen the use of armed forces have objected and asked for the armed forces to be withdrawn. This is not a shade of opinion but a unanimous opinion of the people of these areas. Therefore what is happening in Kashmir and the people’s objection there to the AFSPA is nothing new for this UPA government. Looking at the issue in an impartial and objective manner, the armed forces were never conceived by our founding fathers to see military action within the country except maybe in the event of an armed incursion by a foreign country. Even there as we have seen particularly in relation to China, we run away from the scene of the action and yell like a bawling infant seeking help but doing nothing against the enemy. It is only against our own defenceless and unarmed people that our armed forces step into action. Not only that they were not to be there in the first place but for the foolishness of our then incumbent governments who having no trained paramilitary forces for such action thought it ‘wise’ to use our armed forces. We have to remember to look at things that the other party is the enemy and the enemy is better off dead than alive. Such training psychologies are difficult to forget when you are operating within the country since our own people are not the enemy, which is at the root of the armed forces excesses. Even then we have comments from our armed forces Chief of Staff and the Defence Minister that the AFSPA is required in Kashmir and cannot be withdrawn. Where the armed forces should have with alacrity given up their role in Kashmir or for that matter in any part of the country, they are the people asking for protection as said earlier against unarmed and defenceless people. The simple fact of the matter is withdraw the army from all action in Kashmir, then the question of the AFSPA does not come into the picture. Withdraw the AFSPA when the situation in Kashmir has cooled off a bit. Beef up the local police and support it with larger contingents of the paramilitary forces wherever needed. This will give the people of Kashmir the confidence that the UPA Govt. is serious about doing something. Another confidence building measure has already been announced by the Supreme Court in elevating one of the local judges as the Chief Justice of the High Court in Kashmir (we will not say that no one from outside the State was willing to go there given the present situation). One cannot really understand the sudden deterioration of the law and order situation in Kashmir. Up until a year ago Kashmir seemed to be heading towards normalcy. Even the pundits who had fled the Valley were being invited back. One needs to ask what happened after April 2010? Why such a turn? Is this not an intelligence failure of our government just like in 26/11 at Mumbai? Why were the intelligence authorities not able to forewarn the governments at the State and the Central level of the likely turn of events? This matter should be probed by a Central Ministerial level enquiry. In any case, the measures highlighted earlier should reassure the people of Kashmir that they will be governed by their own people. This could be then the informal framework of what is being called limited autonomy. As thing improve on the ground the UPA Govt. can promise more confidence building measures to restore normalcy and wean away the people of Kashmir particularly the youth and children from the separatists and the designs of Pakistan. Otherwise since June what has been happening is that a new generation of Kashmiris is being embedded with the fear and hatred against being a part of India for the lack of understanding of the people’s needs. It is time now to extend a helping hand and restore local governance as much as possible and be pro-active. In these matters it does not help with the PM coming out with statements after three months that it is distressing to see youth and children getting involved in the protests when from Day 1, even from TV footage, it has been this category of the population that has been seen at the forefront of the agitation and it is these that comprise the majority of the fatalities in the current unrest amounting to close to ninety now including innocent children who went for shopping but never came back, shot by the police bullets. The PM has to act and act swiftly when he sees situations deteriorating and not wait for them to go beyond possible cure as the agitation in Kashmir is fast heading.


Pakistan A Country of Scavengers

Pakistan is a country of scavengers. From the spot fixing scandal emerging from the UK involving the recently appointed young cricket captain, Salman Butt and the two fast bowlers, Mohammed Amir and Mohammed Asif, this premise is proven since the captain and Amir are youngsters who were out to make the best of their position while Asif is an experienced hand in these matters having had a number of brushes with the cricket establishment and the law. Why these youngsters should fall prey to these kind of temptations is something that Pakistan society only can explain? This kind of problem in Pakistani cricket comes from a long line of scandals which has dogged it for the last decade or more. One more shocking than the other right from Afridi biting the ball in Australia when he was captain of the ODI team to seek some illusory advantage. But why blame only the cricketers when the precedent runs right upto the current Pakistani President who is famously known as Mr 10% and even the present Prime Minister and many of the Ministers in the Cabinet are having cases against them for corruption and criminal deeds. Therefore the credibility of the Pakistani Govt. and their society is clearly suspect. Also the manner in which everyone right up to the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Interior Minister, their High Commissioner in London and Pakistan’s UN Representative are getting involved in this case is rather surprising since the case is relativey minor and there must be other serious matters of state that these people could busy themselves with. Of particular note are the comments made by the Pakistan High Commissioner who is known to be a ‘loose cannon’ in diplomatic circles in London has started flying very improbable stories in defence of the three accused cricketers inasmuch as bringing in Indian bookies, Sharad Pawar the current ICC President and even India as having a hand in this ‘supposed’ conspiracy while at the same time defending the accused cricketers as gullible, that the money found was for Salman’s sister’s trousseau, that the bookie apprehended was actually their agent and that the cricketers had no knowledge of his bookmaking portfolio. These are clearly issues raised to confuse the issue and find a way out for their boys. This is exactly what scavengers do when caught in the act. They try to bluff their way out any which way they can. Thus apart from the current imbroglio on cricket, you have the involvement of Pakistan both by State and non-State players (to use the phraseology of Pakistan) in terror where again inspite of worldwide condemnation they continue to play a double game. Pakistan by this kind of behaviour has ceased to remain in a responsible comity of nations and therefore deserves to be disbanded at the earliest possible instance.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 30 Date: 11.09.2010

Israel Must Show Restraint

Israel while attending the talks with Palestine in the US for evolving a consensus on the vexed Palestine problem continues to use military force in the Gaza strip. The pretext for this recently was the Hamas attack on some Israeli settlers where about 4 people were killed. For this Israel went and conducted air raids at one of the tunnel exits ostensibly run by Hamas and smashed it completely resulting in multiple fatalities. Here there are two issues. The first, is that Hamas is a terrorist outfit which operates outside of the law for which at this time when peace talks are on Israel could have avoided military action like air raids where again there is every likelihood of innocent people getting killed. Going after those that killed the settlers is an acceptable retaliatory action. The second, is that Hamas would have every intention in derailing the ongoing talks with the Palestinian Govt. since they have not been involved. But is Israel’s position similar? By involving itself in precipitate military action, will it not risk derailing the on-going talks inspite of being a party to them? A little patience, a little judicious application of the mind by Israel could go a long way in solving one of the most complex problems facing present-day humanity.

National Mission to Get Teachers

Kapil Sibal seems to be a man in a hurry. In government all men who are in hurry leave a trail of unfinished projects or create messes which their successors have to break their heads at. Thus Sibal continues in his ingenuousness to go pell-mell with his RTE (Right to Education0 Bill and other policy formulations without looking at the base reality. One of this reality is that there are no teachers to educate those who want to learn. Furthermore there is an acute scarcity of good teachers be it in primary schools, middle level schools, high schools, colleges – PUC & graduate, universities, medical institutes, engineering colleges, IIT’s, IIM’s etc. etc. This list is long. Thus the basic infrastructure of education which is the teacher is non-existent today. Hiding this reality we continue to talk about the largest technical manpower pool in the world, the largest English speaking population in the world etc. little realizing that this scenario is not going to be there for very long. Within a generation the quality of teaching in our educational institutions will drop alarmingly and it would not be surprising that our people will be asked to get themselves certified by foreign universities before they can be considered for enrolment for higher education or research. Thus where Sibal should have created a National Mission for Teachers and pursued that to upgrade the quality and quantity of our teachers, he is looking at education from the other end. Apart from the severe shortage of teachers, other aspects of education infrastructure have to be looked at like blackboards, toilets, libraries and playgrounds for schools. Similarly in colleges good lab facilities both in the regular and professional colleges are very much required. Standardisation of syllabi and certification of courses offered since with mushrooming private colleges, one is not sure of the course content, quality of teaching and whether these courses lead to better employability. The attitude of government to teachers also must change and they should not be treated as just another set of workers but due respect should be given them along with ensuring that salaries are paid to them in time etc. There have been situations in the last few years that teachers who come out in protest on the streets for genuine grievances have been caned and lathi-charged like common hooligans. This has to stop and teachers have to be given their due respect. Their problems should be looked into and resolved before they come to a flashpoint. However, nothing of the sort is done as one saw last year when the teachers at the IIT’s and IIM’s, claimed in another breath by the government as the jewels in our crown, had to resort to collective action and were forced again to come to the streets and involve themselves in hunger strike. Are these instances of respectful governance in a priority area like education? Will the teachers at these institutions after this have the motivation to remain in their jobs? Or will they at the first chance fly off to foreign universities where these same teachers are highly prized? Also will those considering a teaching career be inclined to join academia after seeing the irresponsible attitude of the government to teachers? No wonder then that Sibal has now realized that the IIT’s and IIM’s do not have enough teachers. If with the same alacrity that the MP’s voted themselves and the UPA-2 acquiesced to higher pay to the extent of three times of what they were drawing, they would have given the teachers their due at the time of the strike then Sibal’s problem of no teachers would have probably been a tad less.

Why Can We Not Give Free Foodgrains to The Poor?

The PM has been less than up front in his recent interactions with the editors of the media while addressing issues relating to the Supreme Court stricture of providing free foodgrains to the poor and other matters. While saying that it is impractical to supply free foodgrains to the poor, he has not explained why it should be so? The manner in which the PDS is distributed to the BPL and targeted families below BPL, the same way these foodgrains can be distributed but without payment. The argument that giving free foodgrains to the poor is a disincentive to the farmers to pursue foodgrain production is not necessarily true since while maintaining the support price to the farmers, the government of the day is free to distribute the acquired stock any which way it wants. The farmers are not bothered at all. To highlight this matter when the foodgrains are now rotting in the open are the farmers bothered? No. So also if the government gives it away free, the farmers will not be bothered. The other claim that if foodgrains are given free to the poor then it would find its way back to the government godowns is fallacious since the government does not purchase stocks of any particular commodity round the year but only during harvest times thus making it infructious for the poor or wholesalers to form a cartel and profit from the free foodgrain. In any case in some States there is large scale diversion of foodgrains from the PDS to the free market and therefore if it happens with the free foodgrains distributed to the poor, then it will be nothing new. In fact with more stocks coming into the market in this fraudulent (!) manner, there will be an automatic check on the rise in prices. However, none of this is going to happen since if the poor are getting these free foodgrains through the PDS it will go for their consumption and practically nothing will come into the market. Thus one can see the PM’s arguments are all frivolous. In fact such arguments are those that the rich and wealthy and those who live in ivory towers proffer as an excuse for not doing something to which they are disinclined or are not interested in helping the poor. As regards the PM saying that the Supreme Court was interfering with government policy when it said that the foodgrains should be given free to the poor rather than have them rot, is again wrong since if the government does not act in time or not at all then why should the Supreme Court not intervene on behalf of 37% of the population (which the PM admits are poor) in the BPL category. There is a basic issue here and that is the UPA Govt. has been defending themselves on the foodgrain rotting issue by saying that they are currently stocking about three times the recommended buffer stock. This kind of increase in buffer stock was not anticipated and they have no option but to store the foodgrain in the open since warehouse capacity could just not be expanded in time. This logic is rather difficult to buy since if there was no warehouse capacity, where was the need to procure so much stock? It is rather strong common sense which even the aam admi follows is that not to stock anything beyond what he can safely store. Thus these good (!) intentions of the UPA Govt. of procuring more grain and then allowing it to rot is beyond any reasonable comprehension. Simply put this grain that is now rotting would have found its way into the market through the private trade and again with more oversupply, prices would have fallen. One is sure that the farmer does not expect the UPA Govt. to buy his entire harvest and is quite prepared to go the private trade to dispose off what the government cannot take. There have also been other defensive arguments from the UPA Govt. that the rotting foodgrains constitute only about a lakh tonnes and comprise a miniscule percentage of the total procurement. This is also not acceptable since we as a country and as a society have been steeped in the values that food however much it may be should not be wasted. Is this UPA Govt. trying to tell us that now that we have plenty it is OK to waste some? Clearly as said earlier, these are the arguments of the wealthy and the insensitive. How many children can you feed with one lakh tonnes? How many children go to sleep in India with a half-empty stomach? This is what the PM, his Ministers and his administration ask themselves before they say that they cannot supply foodgrains free to the poor.

No Negotiations with The Maoists At The Point Of a Gun

Nitish Kumar in Bihar is playing a dangerous game in relation to the Maoists. When lives are on the line to say that the Maoists are like the police and are part of our society is trying to deflect the issue. He further added fuel to that fire by saying that the hostages are at the mercy of the Maoists and one cannot expect or anticipate what the Maoists will do to them since they are in their hands and the Govt. cannot be held responsible for their actions. This is clearly throwing up ones hands and refusing accountability towards the issue. Calling an all-party meeting is not an exercise that will in any way help the hostages. Such meetings only result in politicizing the issue and is an attempt to share the blame and an exercise to bail out the incumbent Govt., in this case, Nitish Kumar’s. What should have been done was to organize an extensive combing of the area where the Naxalites are hiding and try to rescue the hostages. By this time two lives of the hostages have already been lost because of the inaction of Nitish Kumar’s Govt. but there is still hope since the Maoists have said that they will release the other three hostages. One does not know if a deal has been struck with the Maoists to release their leaders in jail in exchange for the hostages in which case it would be sad, since there should be no negotiations with the Maoists or terrorists which is tantamount to blackmail.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 29 Date: 04.09.2010

THERE WAS NO ISSUE OF THE VOX POPULI DATED 28.08.2010.


MP SALARY HIKES

The unseemly salary hikes allowed MP's in the last Parliament session have been sought to be defended by some of the party spokespersons. In this they have tried to whitewash the image of MP's. All this is in vain since any prejudice against the corrupt ways of the MP's by the common people has been created by their own actions. In most of their assessment the one thing that has not been covered is the perquisite of the MP's being exempt from the police and judiciary for their excesses be it in personal action or related to financial transactions. Would our political parties put a notional value on this perquisite which has resulted in no action being taken against them by the financial law enforcement agencies inspite of them filing each time during elections their exploding asset base with the Election Commission. This single perquisite has also resulted in more than 300 odd crorepatis in the present strength of the MP's in Parliament, with the majority belonging to the Congress party. The party spokespersons claim that there are some MP's who are not corrupt does not justify that the whole group should be given salary raises since these people need to suffer because of the corrupt majority. Is this not the way the government deals with its employees during collective action.? Further the Left took the correct stand that MP's cannot decide on their own salaries and it should be left to an independent body. The logic that the secretaries in government draw more salary than the MP's is also fallacious since it is quite clear that power is not measured by monetary capacity and in professional institutions many a time there is an employee who draws more salary than the Chief Executive since salary is decided upon based on the employee's worth. Concluding, on the issue of MP salaries the UPA-2 government has clearly capitulated again to the RJD & SP pressure and in appeasement not only brought this Bill into the just concluded session of Parliament but also accommodated them by giving another hike in the allowances package. This salary hike for MP's will result in the clamour by MLA's to increase their remuneration adding to the inflationary pressure in the economy further.

Inaction, Procrastination & Distorted Priorities At The Root Of Our Problems

It took 64 deaths in the Kashmir Valley before our PM spoke up about using non-lethal methods for crowd control. Why we should resort to firing at our own people to quell civil disturbances is something which is not understandable? In this day and age where technology offers alternate options one cannot fathom why these are not used. Even while considering non-lethal weapons the press has been reporting that Tasers are part of the armoury that is being thought about. Now even in the developed countries the use of the Taser has seen many deaths of victims based on which we should avoid using this weapon as part of our armoury for crowd control. With our physical body sizes in our country being much smaller than those in other parts of the world, it would be very correct to surmise that we would have many more fatalities with the use of the Taser than seen elsewhere. Apart from tear gas, there are options now for stink bombs using even the abrasive smell and burning sensation of chili which could be used. Some of these have been developed by our local government laboratories. Therefore there is no need to spend for weapons from abroad unless we want to please the US by supporting their economy and help them get out of recession! But in this matter the basic issue is the fact that this government is complacent and clearly unwilling to take any action to preclude fatalities or find an early solution to any problem unless it boomerangs and bloats out of shape and becomes uncontrollable. Many are the examples in this regard like action against price rise, action against the Maoists, action to save farmers from committing suicide, action against corruption in NREGA etc. In each case it can be conclusively proved that the problems have become complex merely because this government has failed in the initial instance to recognize the problem as such, then passed the buck between itself and the States and finally tended to do just nothing on the issue. This crass procrastination is at the root of the problems around us assuming alarming proportions. A similar example of distorted perspective is the building of airfields and bases in Chattisgarh with the ostensible objective of being able to provide air support to the local police and paramilitary personnel in the event of operations against the Maoists. Is this required? When last reports came in, the Air Force had said that because of the forest cover in the Maoist infested areas, air operations are unlikely to be successful. What is the amount of investment planned for building these air bases? It must be surely in thousands of crores. With a fraction of this amount can one not plan to provide relief and providing livelihood to the tribals and win their hearts away from the Maoists, thus finding a more permanent solution to the problem. Will this manner of spending not be better than building air bases to take action against our own people? Further expanding our existing bases with this money will be more sensible and cost-effective than building new bases. Surely our Air Force can put this money to better use for defending us against external aggression like with China or Pakistan. The airbases in Chattisgarh will increase the alienation among the people since civilian casualties from air operations cannot be ruled out. Thus this UPA-2 government clearly needs to take stock of its operations, act in time and re-cast its priorities.

The Increase In Beggars

There have been reports that the number of beggars in our towns are increasing. In metropolitan cities, this increase may not be noticeable for the fact that there are so many people around and the urbanites rarely have the time to look at these issues. As long as their life of ensconced luxury in high rise apartments is not disturbed they rarely come to know of what is happening at ground level. However, in smaller towns and rural areas this trend of the rise in beggars is very noticeable. In metropolitan cities like Mumbai and others begging is largely an organized activity with territories earmarked by syndicates specializing in different aspects of begging like maiming, disfiguring etc. to soften the hearts of passers-by and extract the coin or note (these days). In smaller towns the beggars are ‘real’ in the sense that they are compelled by circumstances to beg for that meal they need to keep heart and soul together. Some of the press particularly regional has been quick on the uptake in suggesting that the Shylock style syndicates are coming to the towns also. This position is in keeping with we vs. them philosophies where instead of showing sympathy or compassion to those that are compelled to beg, we go off on a tangent by making the topic compatible with coffee table conversations in the salons or drawing rooms of the socialites. The reason for this is very simple since then the problem can be dismissed from the individual’s minds and no further attention need be paid to it. One really does not understand why we look at all these complicated scenarios? These beggars are nothing but the precursors of hard times to come. Just like before the famine in Bengal in the 1940’s and in other parts of the country since then, people come to your door begging for food. So also now with the unabated rise in prices those living on the margins of our society are finding it difficult to find a meal and have no recourse but to beg. The numbers of these beggars will only keep on increasing while our UPA – 2 government emphasizes on growth without a care on what the consequent inflation is doing to our poor. More and more people are being added to the BPL (Below Poverty Line) category each month. Even when the Supreme Court directed that food instead of rotting in the open or in government godowns should be given to the poor free, we found our Agriculture Minister ignoring the directive and in fact repudiating it, by saying that the highest court of the land’s ruling was not implementable! Here again, one cannot understand why our government cannot call the poor to the godowns and ask them to take what they want. A similar suggestion was made by Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition, during the price rise debate in the Lok Sabha last month. Is it not as simple as that? Like they say – Where there is a will, there is a way or should be a way. So is it not the government’s duty to find a way rather than have the grains rot. With the better than average monsoon this year, the news is that there should be a good harvest which will make the godowns of the FCI more overfull, thus ensuring that next year by around the same time we will have more grains rotting. The FCI officials are in fact anticipating this. Is that here also, the government needs to show growth! Our PM in his first term of office had assured that development would happen with a ‘human face’ which slogan is completely forgotten now in emulating the developed economies in relentlessly pursuing growth for growth’s sake. It is time we recast and change these policies and come up with something more realistic and pragmatic which would be for the people’s good. Unless our governments do not intervene in dampening price rise and opening soup kitchens for the poor like you have in developed countries, you will have more and more of these beggars pestering you as time goes by. Thus let us look at any of these problems with a deeper insight than resorting to analysis by superficial quick fixes and avoid complacency in the face of crisis.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 28 Date: 21.08.2010

Talk To The Maoists

We should learn in India how to manage and resolve conflicts. It is implicit in a democracy that everyone though expected to align with the same opinion will not agree. Differences by virtue of the human psyche will remain. It is important to recognize these conflicts as such and have a mechanism to address them. The enduring age old divide is that of the rich and the poor. This cannot be negated since by ability, by birth, by nefarious design, a person could be rich and not necessarily at the cost of the poor. But the poor and the rich have this adversarial stance that they are against each other. Nothing much can be done about this opposing position but what can be done in a democracy is that this can be moderated upon, conditioned and cushioned such that it does not affect performance of the constituents of our society. The manner in which to do this is to ensure that the ‘poor’ get the basic inputs of sustenance like food, clothing and shelter, famously called in India as roti, kapda aur makaan. If this is done then the fact that the rich are getting richer will not be perceived as strongly as out of the exploitation of the poor. However, what happens in our country is the actual opposite where with battle lines drawn, the rich and the poor confront each other. The poor are stripped of their food, clothing and shelter for some project or some factory or the other which the rich and the powerful conceive to benefit themselves, accentuating and deepening the divide between the rich and the poor. It is not that the poor are not paid for the land or whatever that is taken away from them, but these handouts are but a pittance and the poor’s livelihood is snatched away by making promises which are largely not kept as the project goes along. Similarly there are other conflicts like that in Kashmir of a belief and a desire to be different which this country and its government of different shades have not been able to address effectively for the last six decades. Then there are issues of tribals where their beliefs, practices and livelihood that is dependent on forest tracts are suddenly uprooted for an assumed concern for the environment by the government and powerful lobbies and these poor tribals are left witless and completely shattered. In these methods that the government sows where certain communities are blamed for the faults of others while in certain other cases the government itself in another part of the country creates a similar problem with a larger and more grievous impact on society and the environment that the aggrieved people get confused about the government’s intent and begs the question – Is this government ours? Is this the government that we elected? Are they working for our good? In the genesis of these questions lies the root of another burning problem that we have in India presently and that is of the Maoists. Controlling a fifth of the districts of India, across five States, the Maoists have a Red Swathe which extends from the south-east of India through its central part, into eastern India and then onto Nepal. The spread of this has been because of the passivity of successive governments both at the Centre and the States and the lack of a concerted approach to solve the problem of the aggrieved and affected people. With this alienation, it is no surprise that the ranks of the Maoists have been swelling and their courage to cause mayhem increasing. Thus we have Lalgarh, Salboni, Dantewada brought into the fore of the public mind by the Maoists to add to the place lore of Naxalbari derived from the Naxalite movement of the 60’s and the 70’s. Even with the ability of the Maoists to show their influence by stopping two Rajdhanis out of Orissa, derailing a Jnaneshwari Express and time and again calling bandhs in the Red Swathe which are hugely successful, we have our Home Secy and the Home Minister continue to talk about the Maoists in confrontational terms and looking at the problem in the narrow context of law and order. To use an analogy, their approach is like coming up from the back of an elephant hidden from their view except for the tail that is visible and thinking that it must be a large mouse on a shelf! One would think that our senior bureaucrats and ministers will have more imagination than that. In fact by their very antagonistic statements they are creating more alienation with the Maoists and closing the doors to start a dialogue with them. This is not being written in support of the Maoists but to suggest that deep rooted problems need more innovative thinking to arrive at solutions and that we should never shut the doors firmly on dialogue. Dialogue is essential to resolve deep rooted misunderstandings and conflicts of perception which is at the root of the Maoist problem. That is where the offer of Mamta Banerji as a mediator needs to be accepted since whatever faults the lady may have, if she has an access to bring the Maoists to the negotiating table, it should be welcomed forthwith. She should not be derided by the CPM who have clearly not been able to get a handle on the Maoist problem and exercise any modicum of control over it for more than a decade now. The Maoists on their part through Kishenji has responded to the PM & President’s message on Independence Day to come for talks and named a number of persons to be the mediator among whom Mamta Banerji name also figures. Thus this is the time to catch the bull by the horns and start talking so that the Maoist problem is at least diffused and not given the impetus become another Kashmir like sore in India. The fact that Maoists target our youth and lead them astray should be the singlemost issue on which we should try to resolve the Maoist problem.


Our ‘Wise’ PM

Our PM has been dubbed ‘The Wise’ by many around the world including President Obama who desperately has been looking for support in the area of wisdom if you go by the number of detractors that he has in the US at the present moment. The PM’s ascendancy into the realm of ‘The Wise’ has been characterized by a strange silence and reticence in recent times. Pressing matters of governance like the price rise issue, the Maoist escalation of violence, pulling up his Ministers on account of non-performance or corruption, the Kashmir issue, are all given the go-by. It almost seems that he is taking a page out of his predecessor, Narasimha Rao’s book that a problem given time will solve itself. However in the current context of things in India such an assumption is surely not ‘wise’. Or is it that in the manner of most ‘wise’ people, the PM is afraid that if he opens his mouth or takes action on any issue then he would no longer be ‘wise’. Levity apart this inaction, this complacency, this procrastination has to stop. The PM cannot wait for his super-boss, Sonia Gandhi to be in the country before he takes any action. This happened in the case of the Kashmir issue, with the valley in flames and many innocent people, among them youth, dead, the PM was waiting for Sonia Gandhi to return from the US before he called the all-party meeting to discuss the issue and then appear on national television with his limited autonomy offer and development and jobs for youth programs. The same was the case in the Maoist perpetrated massacres in the recent past where the PM was very late in calling for the meetings on a unified force to tackle the problem in the Maoist affected States and to set a development agenda. Now whether the unified force will work or not is another debatable matter since upon analysis of the Dantewada massacre of CRPF personnel, if the State police and the CRPF, just two agencies cannot co-ordinate among each other and this results in the loss of lives of innocent jawans, then how can a unified force commander operate with four or five State police forces and the central paramilitary forces as also the IAF for air cover and the like. Apart from other things this unified force is clearly a step forward on the confrontation agenda with the Maoists while what was required was conciliation. The manner with which the Home Minister and the Home Secretary prior to the PM’s meeting ratcheted up the confrontation agenda by asking for our Army & defence forces to operate against the Maoists, one thought that they were talking about an enemy beyond the borders of our land. While the Maoists are our people, maybe temporarily misguided and deviant, but none the less wholly Indian. Does this not buy them some consideration from our elected government Even with Pakistan we talk in nicer terms while they rail against us, which we tolerate! While the debate raged in the media about use of our armed forces against the Maoists, the PM remained strangely silent? The PM never even thought of publicly chastising the Home Minister or the Home Secy. for their hasty words against the Maoists. The same was the case on the price rise issue in Parliament, the PM remained silent and seemingly was at a loss for words. Whatever he said on the issue to the press on the matter at other times were vacuous statements like with a better monsoon the prices would come down. That inflation would come down to 5% by mid 2011, without specifying how. That growth is desirable for an economy like India. All this we could take out of the reports of the meteorological department or any textbook of economics. What were lacking were specific policies on the manner and method of controlling price rise in what the PM said. It has to be noted here that the emphasis on growth that this UPA-2 is hell-bent in pursuing has to be re-jigged and a lower growth rate aimed at which will curb inflation and not affect job creation or result in loss of existing jobs. Further apart from Shashi Tharoor’s removal, other ministers like Sharad Pawar have been condoned for obvious corruption while sugar prices were escalating unabated some time back, Mamta Banerji allowed to hold office inspite of a rising accident rate in the Railways and not attending Parliament or her office in Delhi for long stretches of time. The Kalmadi involvement in the Commonwealth Games scams has not prompted any public reprimand or rebuke from our PM. Other Ministers who fail to perform or are seen to be corrupt from amongst the Congress and its allies in this UPA-2 government are being condoned and the slated cabinet re-shuffle to take care of such issues with the ministers is being postponed time and again. It is almost as if the PM has accepted corruption as a fact of life and is trying to get the citizens of India to get used to it also. This may sound churlish but after the Leh cloudburst there was a public appeal by this Govt. to contribute to the PM’s Relief Fund for providing assistance to the flood affected in Leh. Considering the scale of corruption now in India and specifically the kind of frivolous action against the CWG Committee and Kalmadi in the face of massive fraud and scams, why should an average tax-payer pay any more money to the PM’s fund since this Govt. and the PM has lost all credibility. Further when the taxes paid by ordinary citizens are diverted into politician’s pockets why should he pay up for the relief to disaster affected people when the Govt. by judiciously managing its resources could have managed this expenditure on its own. Is this not why we elected a government and sent it to power and what do they do is to make merry with public money. Further another thing that has characterized the 3rd longest serving PM in independent India is his reluctance to visit any trouble spot where manmade or natural disasters have taken place to reassure the people that the government is sympathetic to their plight and will look after them. The visit to Leh now is maybe the indicator that on this matter the PM is changing which is a welcome move. But otherwise if things continue in this manner with the PM then India will have another attraction in their portfolio to offer visitors – the Sphinx Version 2. And the world, after the one in Egypt, will be blessed with two Sphinxes both silent and resolute watching humanity etch their feet on the sands of time.


The Development of Konkani

There are people who keep raising this issue of Konkani and its script which has been settled and finalized on a very logical basis while incorporating it in the VIIIth Schedule of the Indian Constitution as a recognized language. Even Eduardo Faleiro the other day had to get into it also and stir up the muddy waters by saying that the Sahitya Akademi awards should be given to people who write Konkani in Roman script. In fact it can be given and I am open to correction on this but I think last year the Sahitya Akademi award went to someone who writes in Roman script. The only necessity here is the quality of literature and that it is required to be translated into Devanagari script before it is put up for consideration of the award. The writers who write Konkani in Roman script should note that they are in no way debarred from aspiring to get the Sahitya Akademi award. We need also to remember that even Rabindranath Tagore had to be translated into English before he could get the Nobel Prize for literature. Thus we should aspire for better and more prestigious awards by improving the quality of our literature which one must sadly say is not even in all the scripts, of any standard even within India except for what a handful of writers bring out. And every once in a while we again fuel the script controversy in the manner of schoolboys who seeing the tail of a cat pull it to see if there is really a cat at the other end of the tail.

The other thing is that an eminent professor of linguistics from Maharasthra, since demised, has shown that the rock inscription at the foot of the mammoth monolith statue in Shravanabelagola in Hassan district of Karnataka is in Konkani of the Devanagari script. This statue was completed in the 10th century which makes Konkani and its Devanagari script more than a thousand years old. By rights then as Tamil, Kannada and Telugu are claiming classical status, we should also claim classical language status for Konkani. We should concentrate on these things in making our Konkani language better and more well known than indulge in these petty squabbling about this, that or the other script. The above clearly proves that Devanagari is the oldest script for Konkani and there should be no dispute in anyone’s minds about why it should get primacy over all other scripts. Specific to the Roman script for Konkani, let us accept that its evolution was consequent of an aberration of history which is the Portuguese occupation of Goa. The same transition in history led to the en masse migration of Konkani families along the western coast of India up to Kerala which compelled our people to pick up the local script to express themselves like Kannada and Malayalam. But now that the Portuguese have gone and we are now free to choose in an atmosphere of freedom, we should clearly by any sort of logic return to the script that we used since time immemorial and that is Devanagari. We should avoid narrow parochial interests to hinder the development of our mother tongue. In the multiplicity of scripts, irrespective of the above positioning, is our variety and we should thrive in this diversity and create literature in all the scripts so that Konkani can flower and prosper in her creations. Thus let us not get bogged down with a script controversy and stop the development of our mother-tongue, but surmount it and move forward to make Konkani a truly kaleidoscopic language.

Thus there are many issues for the development of Konkani which need serious and considered attention which are more important than raising these small fires now and then on the script issue.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 27 Date: 14.08.2010


Our Uranium Reserves & The Indo-US Nuclear Deal

Prithviraj Chauhan, the Minister in the PMO recently made a statement that India has 1.45 lakh tonnes of uranium resources. One would presume that this is the reserve of uranium ore that India possesses. Given the fact that the yield for extracting uranium from its ore is rather small, the quantity as indicated above seems to be sufficient for India’s present and future nuclear needs, at least to the turn of this century. The reason for this is that the needs for nuclear reactors for generation of energy are typically in the range of hundreds of kilograms of uranium while for our weapons program a few tens of kilograms would suffice for a bomb. If this is true why did we go begging to the US and the Nuclear Supplier’s Group (NSG) for getting fuel for our reactors. Why do we never pursue a path of independence and self-sufficiency for any of our strategic needs? The answer to this question need to be given by the PM & this UPA–2 government since on the Indo-US nuclear treaty and the issue of nuclear fuel there was so much time wasted of Parliament which led to sharp divisions within our political establishment leading to polarization of support for the UPA-2 and the Left almost withdrawing support.


Sort Out Kashmir First, Before Seeking Normalcy With Pakistan

We have this tendency, sometimes very strong, to strike a reconciliation with our pesky neighbour Pakistan. To that end we institute various programs particularly on TV wherein we invite artistes from across the border. It is time one thinks to stop that until the relations with Pakistan arrive at some stage of normalcy and not attempt better relations as some believe through these cultural exchanges. Given the Pakistan track record of responding to these good intentions and other positive initiatives by India, the resources spent on these overtures is completely wasted. In fact one would believe that we should set our own house in order in Kashmir before we take any further step of bettering relations with Pakistan. Kashmir is a Muslim constituency where India could practise its overtures on normalcy and then try them with Muslim Pakistan. An advantage of this approach is that we could possibly arrive at peace in Kashmir which would be good for us.

A Greater Degree of Maturity & Awareness Required

There are certain irresponsible comments by Western individuals in positions of authority or having the ability to influence opinion who talk from the top of their head without having the full knowledge of the matter. Examples of this covered by the media in recent times was in the first instance the general who has recently taken charge of the US Central Command suggesting that officers of the Indian and Pakistan armies should attend courses together so that they get to know each other, and with confidence build-up in each other’s personality and ability, it would reduce the tensions between the two neighbours. The concerned general is probably a bit lax in his knowledge of history since all senior officers of the two armies went through the same military college and training institutions built by the British in undivided India. There have been situations where the Chiefs of Staff of the two countries or the operational commanders in the field of the two countries had been classmates from the same Indian military college or the old British regiment. Inspite of that the two nuclear weapon States have seen four wars between and continue to be at loggerheads. The problem between India and Pakistan is political and lies essentially in the fact that there was no premise for a separate State like Pakistan and it was the British who unnecessarily carved out a nation based on communal lines which caused untold bloodshed in its formation and which continues even to this day. Later it was the West who have used Pakistan for their own ends as a buffer to Russia through Afghanistan during the Cold War and now as a counter-balancing force to China and its ambitions of exerting influence in Central Asia. Thus Pakistan was always looking for a deal to be made playing off one nation against another instead of concentrating on the task of nation building. Again since the Western designs in the area were militaristic towards Afghanistan and Russia, the Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies gained predominance within the country and who still continue to call the shots even today. Thus the exercise to send the officers of the Pakistan and Indian armies is not likely to lend to any dramatic results. The second instance was in the case of an author who has written about the Kashmir issue and about trying to win the hearts and minds of the people of that State by India. Now the Kashmir issue is a very complex one and if an easy solution were to come it would have been arrived at in the last six decades. The very fact that this problem has been festering for so long just like the Palestinian problem or the Irish problem in Belfast means that there are no easy quickfix solutions to the problem. Therefore the Western media should show greater maturity while taking the opinions of such people on issues which are more often than not superficial and therefore of no consequence.

The Konkan Railway : A Fair Weather Railway?


The Konkan Railway is turning out to be a ‘fair-weather’ railway considering the dislocations caused on it every year during particularly the monsoon season. The railway has been a tremendous boon to people staying on the western coast and brought down travel time between destinations dramatically apart from providing an alternative to travel by road. However, the regular risk during the rainy season of landslides on the Konkan Railway route and the consequent likely loss of life and material is something which the planners need to address. This particularly so in the context of the talk on plans to convert the Konkan Railway line to a double line. If one goes back to the time that the Konkan Railway was being built there was a fair degree of controversy on the orientation of the line whether it should be coastal or run through an alternate route. Considering the risk factors involved in the present orientation it would be better that the Konkan Railway for the additional line look for an alternative route which would be safer on a 24/7 x 365 days a year basis. One will have to have additional investments maybe on bridges and tunnels in this new orientation but it would be worth its while as a safe route. Progressively therefore this would have created an alternate route in case the present route gets dislocated and in the long term the present route could be exclusively used for goods and ro-ro traffic considering the growing needs of the western coastal region.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 26 Date: 07.08.2010


The Price Rise Debate In Parliament

It is now the turn of the PM to play soothsayer as our weather forecasters are better known as for always predicting the opposite of what would happen. Around November/December 2009, when Sharad Pawar, Agriculture Minister was asked when prices would come down, he had said that it would be dependent on the monsoon. Which essentially means, that since we know that predicting the monsoon is unpredictable, the question of prices coming down was uncertain and not within the knowledge of the Agriculture Minister. He was also not willing to play soothsayer. At least to that extent he was honest. Since that time officials and ministers of this UPA-2 government have come with varying estimates from March 2010 to now March 2011 of when the prices would reduce and also when inflation in India would come down to 5%! The PM lately joined this band by stating that prices coming down are dependent on a good monsoon. This means that none in this UPA Govt. including the PM has a clue on how to contain prices.

This was also proved in the debate on price rise recently in the Lok Sabha where there was a complete lack of realization on the part of the incumbent government that the price rise pervading the Indian economy is a serious phenomenon and affecting the aam admi on a daily basis. This was initially reflected by the Treasury benches resorting to booing and commotion when the Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of the Opposition was giving her opening remarks in the debate. The least that the MP’s supporting the UPA-2 government could have done is to maintain decorum in the House and have the Leader of the Opposition have her say. The situation was similar when the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherji rose to respond and explain the aspects of the price rise and what his government had done to contain it. The FM’s response was limited to defending himself and his party and no concrete suggestions to bring relief to the aam admi were presented.

The fact that growth will lead to inflationary pressures was reiterated by the FM without considering that one can balance between growth, employment and inflation such that the situation relating to prices in the economy is tolerable. Similarly in relation to fuel prices, the problems relating to OMC’s (Oil Marketing Cos.) were highlighted and that they can no longer operate without the subsidy of fuel, kerosene and LPG support prices as somewhat of a given thing. While at the same time oil refineries were making profits, if so why is the government not looking at re-structuring the oil sector and making integrated Cos. which will handle the business from refining to the petrol pumps and complete the consumer chain. The situation that sales tax revenue on petroleum fuels accounts for some 30 - 34% was mentioned as one of the constraints why the tax on fuels could not be touched. This is no explanation since a balance has to be struck between revenue needs and cushioning the shock on the aam admi and everything cannot be dumped onto the latter. It is like saying that we will not part with our share of revenue but pass on all increases or variations on the aam admi. Again if prices are to be de-controlled for petroleum fuels then let the Govt. be transparent and encourage full de-control by having nil customs duty and waiving the excise duty on it also along with reducing the sales tax by the States so that the final prices of diesel and petrol float at comparable levels to internationally prevailing prices at the end consumer.

Further the refusal to accept responsibility for the price rise was also evident since the FM did not touch upon the manipulation of sugar prices by not delivering on the levy sugar quota and then converting that to free sale sugar wherein the sugar co-operatives and wholesalers particularly in Maharasthra made windfall profits. The FM then quoted figures of prices of essential food items like rice, wheat, pulses and oil which are available in shops in Delhi (presumably) comparing them to about a year ago showing that prices had in fact come down. While we all know that the reality is far different. In this list the disparity in pulses particularly urad dal was very glaring since the FM quoted a price now of Rs. 58/- while ruling market prices are at Rs. 98/-, at least in Goa. Every aam admi if he had at all the time to watch the FM’s address would have liked to know the location of the particular shop whose prices were being quoted since they would have liked to flock to it. If the shop owner had margins at the quoted prices then overnight he would have become a crorepati or with no margin, he would have to blame the FM for his bankruptcy and the closure of his shop. These ministers including the FM tout figures about the prices being given for essential food items through the PDS to the BPL and APL families. This category may be sensitive to the political parties but does the government realize that there is a category of citizens beyond the BPL/APL which is the middle class who have always been the sandwich layer pressed from both sides. Even with the BPL/APL category, the FM fail to understand or deliberately turns a blind eye to the fact that most ration shops around the country do not have stocks when consumers go there to buy their needs. The aam admi is thus forced to buy from the open market at sky-high prices. The reason for low or nil stocks at the ration shops is because the stocks are diverted and sold to the private trade which blackmarkets them. This reality is known to everyone in the government who admit in other forums that the PDS in this country is a shambles but when it comes to saving their skin in Parliament on prices take advantage of figures quoted from the PDS. To ensure also that the people in some areas do not starve this UPA-2 government has done nothing. They would rather have the grains rotting in godowns in Punjab or Haryana than delivering them to needy people in the rest of the country. The constant refrain in the FM’s speech in both houses of Parliament during the price rise debate was that the PDS responsibility is with the States. One cannot really understand this logic since the supply of foodgrains and other items to the PDS has to come from the organizations controlled by the Centre like FCI. And at the height of the price rise it was said that the States have not paid for past supplies and hence supplies could not be made to the PDS system. This same sentiment pervaded the FM’s speech in both houses of Parliament where he projected it as a favour that the Centre was doing in supplying the commodities to the States for supply to the BPL and APL families. Thus one would not be wrong in drawing the conclusion that this UPA-2 government would rather have grains rot in the open and in the godowns but would still not supply the needs of the States because they have not paid for past supplies and consequently ensure that the aam admi would either starve or be fleeced by the private trader which the UPA-2 government indirectly supports. This position can be corroborated by the fact that over the last year levy sugar in Maharasthra that was held back by the co-operative sugar mills without delivery to the PDS over many years and which was then converted with the connivance of the Agricultural Minister to the non-levy category and sold in the open market when sugar prices were ruling at the highest, as mentioned earlier. Thus the pattern of UPA-2 sensitivity towards the aam admi in the face of high prices is very clear and that is they have ‘NO’ sensitivity and prefer to load him with the burden until you break his back. The situation with the FM and other politicians is that they live in insulated ivory towers protected by security etc. and fail to realize that with the prevailing trends of prices Indian trade and retailers according to their age-old tradition will take advantage of it and even for items which are not seeing a price increase they will jack up the price just to test the waters and see if that will work in the prevailing regime of runaway prices. Thus the aam admi would get buffeted in the sea of rising prices and tired of swimming in it will one day give up completely.

The FM also mentioned about resources for growth and development as the crying need for taxes to remain high which one does not understand why this government does not realize that this tax regime need be pursued since the aam admi is more than willing to sacrifice on amenities and infrastructure for a little longer time for the sake of lesser prices on his essential needs so that he can survive and see the fruits of development. You can understand this position by accepting that in large parts of the country there is very little development at present and the aam admi is willing to live with that reality a little longer rather than having to starve as time goes by. At the rate the UPA-2 government is going in the blind pursuit of growth it will keep adding to people below the poverty line since expenses far exceed income of the people and those at the bottommost level of the BPL strata will die of being deprived of food while this government is so immersed and absorbed in the game of politics with its opponents. The diversion by the FM in the Rajya Sabha to GST while touching upon the aspect of both States and Centre raising resources for the government working on the grand plea of collective responsibility and effective federalism was very aptly put in his place by Arun Jaitley of the BJP who said that this government was interested in grand programs when it suited them like GST but then if effective federalism was really intended then its scope should be expanded and a whole list of other issues should be jointly addressed so that the true concept of federalismis implemented. Nowhere in the FM’s speech when he touched upon resource issues and controlling the budget deficit, did the fact of reducing the size of government come up and introducing economies in the working of the government which can make a sizeable dent in the objective to reduce the budget deficit. This is clearly one of the very visible areas where economies can be obtained instead of burdening the aam admi with high prices to make this white elephant fatter. The PM& FM have to look at this aspect very seriously.

Concluding there were two aspects of this price rise rebate which were glaring and also disappointing. One was the approach and attitude of the FM which was like that of a schoolboy coming out of the examination hall happy that he has answered all the questions set by the Opposition and preening himself in front of his peers. Maybe the FM would have preened a little more if Sonia Gandhi were present in the House! Unfortunately she was not there except for a glum faced PM who sat through the Lok Sabha debate taking away some of the thunder and TV coverage from Pranab Mukherjee’s rejoinder. The other was that most of the elders including the Vice Chairman of the House were dozing off or sleeping in the Rajya Sabha while the FM was making his speech. This shows you how much seriousness our elected representatives show to issues like price rise which are uppermost in the public mind. Is it not time for us to seek reform and have this UPA-2 government booted out on account of non-performance and deliberately misleading the aam admi.

Learning The Politician's Language

Sometimes we have to be thoroughly familiar with a language to understand the full meaning of what is said. This particularly is important when you want to understand the utterances of our politicians. Like recently when a minister in the Goa Assembly stated that a particular contract cannot be terminated and needs to be examined by the Law/Finance Dept.'s again to see whether the indemnity clause will have financial repercussions on the Govt. and that is if the opposing party invokes it, then it actually means that he has already been approached for a deal by party who has the contract since just the last week he had said that the Govt. will terminate the contract and seek damages from the party. The later statement was the invitation to the opposite party to contact the minister. Similarly when another minister announces in the Goa Assembly that after the high court hearing on a particular date he will call the concerned parties for a discussion and have them take the required action, it means that the concerned parties should contact him since he is open to a deal. On top of this you have the Goa CM while speaking at a function on Lokmanya Tilak's Punyatithi exhorting the journalists to inform the public on the positive side of government decisions and actions. Now is this not a difficult job since the majority of decisions are for the benefit of the government, its ministers, their coterie and the politicians with the aam admi benefit coming in a straggly last. Just to give an example this government implemented the price support scheme for basic items required by an average household which the CM himself last week on the floor of the Assembly stated that there are serious flaws in its implementation and it needs to be reviewed. This scheme has been in force for at least six months or more and the government is now waking up to the fact that it is flawed! Thus the objective of supporting the aam admi in the wake of rising prices was clearly not served. For an employee who is lax or negligent in delivering his responsibilities, the employer immediately takes action to reprimand him or cut his salary and at worst terminate his services. But with the government and the politicians nothing like this happens and they have the temerity to stand up on the floor of the legislature and just say sorry or give lame excuses and get away with it. So first learn the politician's language for your own benefit and then seek measures to make these irresponsible politicians accountable.

Impose President's Rule In J&K

With Kashmir again up in flames and Omar Abdullah throwing up his hands by saying that he cannot control the situation on his own, is it not that the Centre should consider bringing the State under President's rule? For lesser problems in other States, there is always this Damocles' sword hanging on the head of the incumbent government, so why are we not doing it in J&K? Is the Centre afraid since then it will have to carry the blame of not being able to manage the situation? In either way a firm decision has to be taken so that the situation in Kashmir does not deteriorate.

The Adverse Effects of Indiscriminate Mining

The news that the Central Govt. is also planning to ban iron ore for export is welcome news coming in the wake of the Karnataka Govt. banning the export of the ore from its ports. This is the first step in the long road to stop indiscriminate mining in the country. For iron ore, what was happening was that since China was accepting low grade ore the top soil of farms in Karnataka was dug up and sent abroad by both legal and illegal mining operators without any regard for the long term generation of income of the farmers/land owners and with even less regard about environmental damage. As for corporate mining Cos. they continue to ravage the environment putting out the logic that they are doing it for the sake of revenue for the Govt. keeping their selfish interests of generating sky-high profits in the background. A corporate mining entity in Goa was pumping themselves up by putting out in the media recently that they have paid Rs. 500 crores in royalty in the last financial year. This would mean that the entire environment and the people resident in the mining areas are made to sacrifice their health, livelihood and well-being on the altar of money. One wonders why these mining Cos. have to be reminded time and again that generation of income no way justifies the degradation by rampant and indiscriminate mining. In fact Jairam Ramesh has made a statement recently that illegal mining is rampant around the country and it is difficult to stop it. This would mean that the best means to regulate it is to stop all mining and allow it only in a limited way to meet the country’s strategic needs. Further some of the corporate Cos. involved in mining feel very holy when they are given this or that environment award which in fact has no meaning since the depredations that they conduct on the soil is ir-repairable and has effects elsewhere like with the water running off ore dumps you have contamination of water bodies and lung related diseases to people which are caused in the mining areas by the contamination of the air with fine ore dust. Thus a planting of decorative green cover like a few trees is no compensation to the extent of damage that they have caused to Mother Nature. We also have to remember that more often than not these awards are purchased so that the corporate entity name is burnished time and again in the minds of the people about their being environment friendly. In a similar manner the construction of schools, playgrounds, health clinics and camps or promoting activities like sports, music groups etc. in the mining areas are just mechanisms to divert the attention of the people away from the pressing problem that they face and essentially to salve the conscience of the corporate entity involved in mining. For contesting this you have to just ask whether it is better to do all this after having committed the act of creating nuisance by resorting to mining or not doing mining at all. The latter option is clearly the more honest and nature friendly option. In this context one has seen recently in the case of the second Mumbai airport that in the greed or the compulsion for building the airport the government agency has said that they can transplant 400 acres of mangroves elsewhere! One does not really know whether mangrove in the first instance, can be transplanted and secondly, if possible, what this will cost? Is it not better for a country like ours where resources are required to be used judiciously that we choose a site which will have the minimum of green cover destroyed. Now here a government entity which is expected to have a public conscience, is proposing this kind of environmental damage. You can imagine how much a private entity will spoil nature. In another instance a corporate entity involved in mining in Goa is supporting the capital city to install a nominal capacity garbage digester which they have never done in terms of taking such initiatives ever since the Co. set up base in Goa. Why are they doing it now, when iron ore export is likely to be banned? And is it because there is more environmental awareness among the people now? In all charitable thoughts that corporates have, there is always a certain selfish or a profit motive hidden somewhere. Summarising, mining as an activity should be banned and indiscriminate mining more so.


OMC's Buy Bay Of Bengal!

In Chennai a politically well connected wheeler dealer involved in real estate has not only duped individuals but also some of the OMC’s (Oil Marketing Cos.) in buying land with survey numbers which are in the Bay of Bengal coast and under water. One wonders how the OMC concerned could buy land and also pay for it with sums amounting to close to Rs. 20 crores without inspecting what they are buying. If this is the way these OMC’s are run, without doing proper homework and background checks, how can we trust them to be legitimate and fair in setting prices for petrol every month under the scheme of de-regulation of petrol prices. Not only that the money that these Cos. are throwing around belongs to the individual tax-payers and it is time that the Govt. acting on behalf of the aam admi conducts an investigation into this matter and holds those responsible for this gaffe accountable. Or were they looking at it as a prospective investment for off-shore oil exploration!


Hail WikiLeaks!

On the issue of the WikiLeaks the reaction of President Karzai was the most apt and proper in saying that the documents leaked give nothing new for those involved in the conduct of the war against terror in Afghanistan. For the public at large who do not really follow the war it may make sensational reading. But the leaks were very much necessary to substantiate in whatever manner the fact of innocent civilian deaths occurring and the complicity of Pakistan and its intelligence ISI with the Taliban. In addition the leaks have unveiled the extent of data in terms of casualties and the conduct of the war which the US and other coalition partners have been hiding from their domestic public. No longer can the US take the position that in war civilian casualties are inevitable since it can now be surmised that many of the civilian casualties that arose out of the coalition forces actions were avoidable. There is a basic issue here in terms of categorizing the casualties arising out of the war on terror conducted by the coalition forces in Afghanistan and that is with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda not in uniform how do the US and NATO forces determine which casualty is a terrorist and which is civilian. What stops the coalition forces from saying that the majority of deaths caused by their action is that of terrorists and get away with it? There is another broader argument on this and that is the US started the war in the first place and if there are any civilian deaths it will have to be on their head. The other issue is that of the WikiLeaks naming certain people involved in the conduct of the war, be they coalition forces, informants, spies and what have you. What is wrong in giving out this information? If there has been an activity which is intrinsically illegal and immoral, then the WikiLeaks naming those involved will only serve to cleaning up the mess and those involved full well know what the cost of their involvement could lead to, death in the ultimate instance. At least that way there could be an earlier resolution to the war in Afghanistan. There have been other reports that the war on terror in Afghanistan is complex what with the government loyalists, the tribal rivalries, the Taliban, the Al Qaeda and the US with the other coalition forces and no one should come to simplistic judgments from the content of the leaks. Now here gain the issue is very simple and can be tackled by having the US pull out of Afghanistan if they are finding it a bit too strenuous for their simplistic brains to analyse and come to any solutions. No one asked them to go in there in the first place. It was also completely stupid to go in with cruise missiles, top of the line fighter aircraft etc. when the ‘enemy’ had but left over Russian era ‘80’s rifles and wooden staves initially and sitting on their donkeys. Old CNN footage at the start of the Afghanistan campaign will support this. The US must take the responsibility of indirectly arming the Taliban, the Al Qaeda and the tribals in Afghanistan when they loose arms and equipment to the insurgents out of failed combat operations. The focus of the US and coalition military initiatives seems to have been changed now from getting the Al Qaeda and their leader, Osama Bin Laden to going after the Taliban, the good and the bad variety – one for talks and the other to eliminate, and propping up the Karzai regime. Why has the focus changed away from Al Qaeda? If Osama Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Omar are the targets, why is the US not asking their partners, Pakistan to hunt them down or pass them to the US? Or like Karzai said after the WikiLeaks, why are the US are not attacking the terror camps within Pakistan and see if they can get the top leaders of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban? All in all the WikiLeaks have been a good thing since bringing the mess into the open will bring some moderation into the war effort, enable the parties to clearly recognize who is a enemy and who is a friend and evolve strategies which are consistent with the situation on the ground.
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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 25 Date: 31.07.2010



US Dictats & India’s Foreign Policy

In our foreign policy we need to learn how to stand up to the US and tell them what’s what. First it was the Iran vote in the IAEA when India sided with the US and voted against Iran’s nuclear program. Did India not have a nuclear program? If so with the age old relations that India has with Iran why did we vote against them? Are they not equally entitled to pursue atomic energy for peaceful purposes? More so when a country like Israel in their neighbourhood has a clandestine nuclear program and is understood to be in possession of nuclear weapons. At least as a deterrent Iran should have been allowed to pursue its nuclear program and a long-time friend like India should have showed them token support by way of a vote. As far as the US’ nudging India on Iran it is not only on the IAEA vote but even lately when the US was pursuing for economic sanctions against Iran the US State Dept. was almost issuing instructions to India by saying that it would be in India’s ‘best interests’ to support the sanctions against Iran. These kind of statements are not limited to Iran but also in the case of India’s relations with Pakistan. After the 26/11 terror incident which had the Pakistan signature all over it, India called off the process of talks with Pakistan for normalizing relations. It was upon the instance of the US that India resumed the process of talking to Pakistan moving it from official level talks to secretary level and then finally the minister level talks. And we all know what happened between our Forign Ministers Qureshi and Krishna. This inspite of numerous provocations by Pakistan which apart from the 26/11 incident included the infamous attack on India’s Parliament by the LeT and other terror incidents dotting India. Despite these provocations India did not retaliate against Pakistan while the US after just the one 9/11 incident went and attacked two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, where they are still present close to a decade later. Among them was Iraq which had no conceivable link with the 9/11 incident and the Islamic terror network that spans the world. The US initiative in asking India to start talks with Pakistan was to show the latter that the US has still an influence over India and thus get Pakistan in a compliant state of mind to support them in their war on terror in Afghanistan. This strategy is more than clear since inspite of knowing that Pakistan is complicit with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the US continues to mollycoddle Pakistan. Otherwise what is the meaning of resuming military aid to Pakistan in terms of arms and fighter jets which have no relationship with fighting terrorism but will be clearly used against India at some future point in time. On top of this the US Secretary of State has gone ahead and announced the US$7.5 billion civilian aid to Pakistan to improve their infrastructure like power plants, water supply etc. This aid may have been a long time coming after being first announced but the timing of the US Secretary of State announcement is very disconcerting. This comes just after Pakistan announced a deal with China for supply of nuclear power plants and looks suspiciously that the US is succumbing to Pakistan’s blackmail. Time and again this has been the Pakistan strategy to milk the US of the dollars they need on one pretext or other and continue the clandestine working against US interests in areas of conflict like now in Afghanistan. The issue is simply to ask – how dumb can the US get? It is only now that the US at least the military command in Afghanistan has been waking up to the reality of Pakistan being complicit with the Taliban, of cross border terror raids and the threat of the Lashkar e Toiba (LeT) in very unmistakable terms and voicing their opinion about it being contra to US interests in the area. This when India has been shouting itself hoarse for the last decade or more about cross border terror attacks and the need for hot pursuit, of the ISI being hand-in-glove with the Taliban and of the very real threat that the LeT poses to peace in the region. Each time the US has dissuaded India on the plea that Pakistan possesses nuclear weapons and there should be no provocation for either party to use nuclear weapons. The facts that India presented about Pakistan being more than complicit with terror have been corroborated by the WikiLeaks dossier recently released to the international press. Thus will the US see reality and stop acting as a milch cow for Pakistan and will India show some spine to handle its diplomacy for its own best interests than get entangled into double game and triple game scenarios of the US. It is surprising why India plays poodle to the US when essentially it does not need anything from the US while in contrast Pakistan who needs the US for almost every need twists the US around its thumb.


Protect Our Trees & Green Cover

The fact that trees collapse with unfailing regularity during the monsoon is something that should be tackled with all seriousness. The following is applicable to all Indian cities. Come the monsoon the Mumbai newspapers have news that one or the other day a tree has collapsed. These trees are some old, some young but none the less they are important since they bring green cover to a beleaguered metropolis which has been largely concretised from end to end. Importantly they also give shelter and habitat to the last vestiges of bird life that one can spot in Mumbai. However, we as citizens and the municipal authorities do not look after these trees and in the hurry to concretize a pavement or fit it with pavers, we hardly allow any space around these tees to allow them to breathe, spread their roots and grow. It is for this reason that the trees lacking nourishment have no option but to collapse. Therefore it is important that the citizenry and municipal authorities alike ensure that enough space is left around the tree for it to nourish itself. Many a time on our itinerant visits to Shankar Mutt in Matunga we have heard the call of the koel on our morning walks and a string of parrots shooting past us from a mango tree where they have their nests while we stood on the verandah where we were staying. Let us learn therefore to look after our green cover since that is the thing which nurtures our bird and insect life and not sacrifice it on the altars of concrete monstrosities.

Congratulations Quraishi! Congratulations India!

The elevation of S Y Quraishi as CEC is great news and a signal achievement for India as a secular nation. Muslims around India should take heart with this appointment and realise that as long as they pursue a policy of inclusion into our society and are deserving in merit, there is nothing stopping them from achieving any position in India. This appointment following that of ex-President Kalam who set an exemplary record as the most people friendly President in the annals of free India should encourage Muslim youth not to pursue a divisive agenda. Apart from this the person who topped our civil services exam this year was a Muslim from J&K which again shows that there is no bias In Indian society against Muslims and that inspite of the constant strife in J&K those who apply their mind to achieve something are able to do it. This is the kind of will that should increasingly be fostered among Muslims. If a divisive agenda is pursued then there are many who will only try to accentuate and deepen that divide. Why should we as Indians give an opportunity to these divisive forces?

Naxal Area Development

When the PM recently chaired the meeting of CM’s of Naxal affected States for which we had West Bengal abstaining and Bihar represented in absentia, the same old medicine was being doled out of how much resources are being earmarked for Naxal area development and the creation of a unified command for the law enforcement agencies in these affected States. Nothing different was even conceived which would make a difference in these trouble-ridden areas. Consider for a moment the same PM who had said that the delivery mechanisms for development in the country are in a shambles, totes up so many crores that will be spent on Naxal area development. Thus is it not quite clear that the PM’s heart is not in this statement which is a better comment than saying that knowing full well that the delivery mechanisms do not work he is throwing good money at bad implementation infrastructure. The result is that the money is going to be wasted. Remember the Naxal areas are more tribal dominated and therefore more of a challenge to deliver development. So is this not another statement made by the PM for public consumption. The other is creating a unified command which is clearly a confrontational strategy which the tribals are already sick off being on the receiving end of it from both sides, the government forces and the Naxals. This was preceded by full fledged discussions of the home ministry with the armed forces for their help in Naxal affected areas. This again was extremely ill-advised and will serve nothing but alienating the people in the Naxal affected areas all the more. Confrontation is not what is desired but withdrawal of all central para-military forces from the region and beefing up the police capability in these areas and arming them and empowering them to deal strictly and without mercy against the Naxals. This will serve two purposes, getting the local people to believe in normalcy since like in any other part of the country law and order is enforced only by the police and secondly, the interception and elimination of the Naxals will remove the fear that threatens the life of the local people in these areas. Simultaneously development should be undertaken at the district level by the local administration by taking the village panchayats into confidence and as much as possible deliver the development programs through them. There are issues relating to use of jungle lands in these areas where the people predominantly are tribal and here a pro-active approach is required to lessen the disturbance of the tribal link with the jungle and jungle lands and encourage development only as much as the tribals seek. This forest policy should be more people oriented and not animal or jungle oriented since we need to remember that it was these tribals who have protected and nurtured our forest lands or whatever exists today and it is important that we understand this link and foster it. At the same time those from the towns and urban areas who in the manner of bounty hunters go in and encourage the tribals to maraud the forest of timber, minerals and other wealth should be isolated and strictly dealt with. This is the only way that the Naxal problem will not generate deeper roots in this milieu and will ultimately go away. A sympathetic, pro-active and encouraging approach is what is required and not a confrontationist, we-know-what-do approach. The first thing that our administrators at Delhi need to realize and express is that the people in these areas are our own people maybe confused, maybe among those who have strayed but at the end of it all they are our own people and they are deserving of our sympathy and a helping hand. Who among us does not need a smile and a shoulder to lean on when we have done something wrong? The opportunity for reform need be given contrasting this with the delivery of death.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 24 Date: 24.07.2010

THERE WAS NO ISSUE OF THE VOX POPULI DATED 17.07.2010.

Mamata Banerji Should Go

Mamata Banerji should resign owning responsibility for the two ghastly accidents that have happened in just two months in the railway network and that too in her home State of West Bengal. Failing which the PM should dismiss her from her job as Railway Minister. This is more so because of her statements which show a complete lack of maturity wherein she is trying to find reasons to blame the accidents of the Jnaneshwari Express and the Uttara Banga Express on the CPM led government in West Bengal. There is a limit to being superstitious and claiming why should two accidents happen within two months of each other and that too two days before important political events like the first before the municipal elections and the second two days before the July 21st Shaheed Divas rally in Kolkata and both happening near 2AM in the morning, is bordering on idiocy. It is clear that the confrontational position which Mamata Banerji takes with the incumbent CPM government, which is very alluring to her supporters most of the time, has clouded her reasoning. Not only that we in India in the 21st century cannot have a Cabinet Minister responsible for a highly operational ministry like the Railways which has the second or third largest railway network in the world and whose trains on a daily basis carries the largest number of passengers in the world, talk trash and try to sidetrack her responsibilities. Mamta Banerji should have concentrated after the series of accidents that have happened particularly in the last one year which have not been limited to West Bengal on the maintenance of tracks, the rolling stock, the signaling systems, the scheduling and duty hours of loco drivers and other staff as also other essential parameters to run the Railways efficiently rather than just increase the number and the speed of services. If Mamata Banerji finds concentrating on the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal her priority it will be in the fitness of things to relieve her of the charge of Railway Minister so that someone else can do a better job at it. As one of the cartoons in one of the national dailies very aptly showed Mamata Banerji commemorating the death of a handful of TMC supporters in her Shaheed Divas function on July 19 in Kolkata standing on a pile of skulls who died in the last one year in railway accidents. She should realize that in her job she is not enacting a parody and that in the Indian Railways the buck stops with her.

India The New Caste System & Every Man For Himself

India has a new caste system now that of the urban aggregation, the privileged India of the rich and those of political inclination and Bharat of the rural masses and the urban poor. Thus in the ongoing debate on whether to include caste in the census we should by right include these above castes. The reason is quite simple since we encounter this in our daily lives on a day to day 24/7 basis. The access to facilities be it medical, schooling, infrastructure etc. is determined by which of these castes you belong to and how much money you are willing to roll or how much power and influence you are willing to exhibit. While the other caste factor like whether you are a Kshatriya or a Brahmin or an OBC, SC or ST affects people in their lives like when they arrive at breakpoints of their life like at college admission or getting a job etc. the ‘new’ caste is a round the clock affair. This new caste is very much compartmentalized and fiercely protective of its boundaries as is reflected by a recent statement of Mohandas Pai, one of the senior officials of the new horizon software giant Infosys, who refused the fact that villages exist in India and derided the contribution of rural India to the economy. Such is the misplaced pride of the new technology which heaps its scorn on the very roots that gave birth to them and fed them. In the same manner you have the political class representing our MP’s seeking a raise because of the prevailing high prices in the economy in their salary to some Rs. 85 thousand a month. Thus those whom we sent to legislatures to look after us are specializing in looking after themselves making true the adage that – Charity begins at home.

Let Us Make Up Our Own Minds, Not Be Driven By The FBI Or US Agencies

There has been a report in the papers that some low level FBI officers have commented on the manner of handling the response to the terrorists in the 26/11 incident at Mumbai by our law enforcement personnel and have stated that the reason for the high level of casualties was related to our police not carrying guns as standard issue like they have in the US or other Western countries. These kind of comments we invite when we hand over our assumed responsibilities to some runts in the US thinking that they will help us. They will not. They all put up a show of support and co-operation while the intention is to get here under our skin and wheedle out information which they will use for their convenience and benefit. This was evident in the case of David Headley where promised access was delayed for one reason or other by the US authorities and even now we do not know, since the matter has been kept under wraps, whether full access has been given. What we will do with that access is another matter and we can leave that for another day. Similarly India for more than a decade has been advising the US ad nauseum about terrorist training camps in Pakistan and cross-border attacks in Kashmir but it took the US to wake up to that reality when they came to Afghanistan and found themselves subject to the terrorist cross-border attacks. The LeT situation is the same and it is now that the US is realizing that this terror group has an international footprint and aspirations which India has been harping upon for ages. The other thing about the 26/11 incident like the 9/11 was a complete departure in methods used by the terrorists which caught the Indian authorities by surprise just like 9/11 did for the US. That apart the basic premise of carrying guns that the FBI pre-supposes is a cultural issue and Indian constables have never carried guns in the performance of their normal duties. Armed support is called for in the event of need which was done in the 26/11 incident. We do not in the manner of trigger-happy US policemen shoot first and talk later even to people who are many times more educated and accomplished than these cops assuming everyone who has committed a minor infarction is a born criminal. This approach is what has caused the deaths of so many innocents in the US where people have not been given an opportunity to explain their stand but have been shot down by the police in cold blood. Therefore we need to take these comments of these junior level FBI officers with more than a pinch of salt. India has learnt from the different terrorist incidents that have occurred including 26/11 and we are quite competent to handle our own matters without having to listen to unsolicited advice. As for the inability to intercept calls of the terrorists during 26/11 and the lack of sophisticated equipment, it is a matter of resources that each country possesses and what the FBI has in the US it cannot pre-suppose that it would have the same available in every country around the world. In fact the FBI and other US law enforcement officials are all at sea if they do not get their familiar equipment and are unable to perform because they tend to be gadget driven unlike our people who are event or situation driven be it for interception, detection etc. In an unrelated news report that came out again in the newspapers was that a US think-tank ‘thinks’ that the Indian Maoists will gradually shift their target of attacks to urban areas. Now the basis of this report is completely unknown and where the Indian Govt. authorities and even our investigative media are unable to get access to the Maoists, though some of the TV media have gone in and interviewed some of the Maoists, one wonders on what basis this US think-tank published its report. Clearly it is a figment of someone’s imagination sitting in armchair comfort in an air-conditioned office safely in the US and churning out a report for report’s sake. There is not much wrong in this report though since it is somewhat based on historical research on the pattern of strikes of the Naxalites (now called Maoists) in the late 60’s or early 70’s in Bengal who used to initially attack targets in rural areas since chances of their being intercepted was less and who then moved to strikes in the urban areas after gaining their confidence in the rural areas. We all know this and coming from the US does not give it any additional halo which needs to be advised to our politicians and higher law enforcement officers who in the first instance will carry the report on their head as the ultimate authority or source book while in the second instance our police officers will make a trip to the US to meet the think-tank to see what they know!

LPG Cylinder Rs. 50/- Surcharge Unwarranted

The decision of the OMC’s (Oil Marketing Cos.) to deliver LPG cylinders on an anytime basis by charging a premium of Rs. 50/- is an irresponsible decision. This is making the LPG cylinder a privileged commodity and accessible to those who can afford to pay the premium of Rs. 50/. There is no advice if the number of cylinders to be delivered under this category are limited like in the tatkal tickets issued by the railways so that the general delivery of cylinders to regular queuing customers are not affected and this facility will be used only in emergencies. This facility will surely degenerate and will be misused by the LPG dealers who will deliver only to customers willing to pay the premium in case a part of this money is going to them as increased margin. Thus this facility is an indirect way to increase the price of the LPG cylinders and having conditioned the users to this price increase the OMC’s will make it the regular price of the cylinder. We all need to remember that customers in India have always got used to managing around constraints like leaving the third key with the neighbours so that the family can have access to the dwelling or our dabbawalas in Mumbai are able to deliver on-time to their customers which is a matter of awe and wonder to Western management experts, so also the delays in LPG cylinder deliveries is managed by neighbour support or an arrangement with the LPG delivery boys which fosters working together and engenders community spirit. While just for the sake of a few rupees the OMC’s are smashing this way of living. Even if they want to offer this facility of a premium for requested time deliveries on LPG cylinders, let it not exceed more than 1% of the deliveries at the dealer level verified on a monthly basis.

The Games Politicians Play

The techniques used by politicians in assuaging the concerns or public outcry seems to be two fold. One is to assure of good times to come or what prosperity development will bring. This method is to promise that good will happen and in fact it is just around the corner! The politician rarely associates any meaning to these statements or gives weight to his commitments. For him/her it is just a method to get out of the present predicament or embarrassment and postpone to face the issue head-on and live another day. Thus you will see on the price rise issue that has plagued our economy for the last 18 months or so, every minister in the incumbent UPA Govt. concerned with the matter, has been saying that prices will come down and it is just a matter of months, some say 3, some 6, but in fact even after 18 months or more the trend is opposite and prices are up, up and away! Here again there is sometimes a complete lack of co-ordination between the ministers since on the same issue how can there be different time schedules on their estimates. Even in terms of an appreciation of certain base realities, there seems to be a lack of cohesion at the topmost levels of this UPA-2 Govt. since when petrol prices were de-controlled and diesel was not, the PM on his way back from the G-20 summit was saying that diesel would also be de-controlled soon. This while we all know that the upward inflationary spiral will get more impetus once diesel prices are set to soar adding to the woes from soaring prices for the aam admi. While the PM was making this statement, his FM was saying that the petrol price de-control will result in higher inflation which could be expected to settle down in about 6 months! While the young MOS in the Oil Ministry was saying that support prices to farmers could be jacked up to cover the rise in fuel prices. This while our Agriculture Minister had already announced the same. In this vexed scenario, if you see everyone is trying to push the problem off his slate or working on his own agendas. But unfortunately the buck stops with the aam admi, who has to bear the brunt of rising prices and the costs of these irresponsible decisions whether he likes it or not. The concern therefore for those who govern is not the problems or the well-being of the aam admi but to save their own skin. Thus it is time now for the aam admi to hold the politicians responsible for their statements and note down each time schedule, deadline or commitment that they spoke in relation to every constituency or matters in general and act on it by writing in the papers or participating in community groups within their locality or inform an active and responsible NGO in their constituency so that there is a groundswell of opinion which the politicians will have to address and cannot ignore. We have as time goes by prove wrong the saying that public memory is short. The other technique used by politicians is stonewalling to prevent anyone from getting to the truth. This could be in relation to their responsibilities, personal lives or the scandals that they are more often than wont to get into. The mechanics of this process starts with outright denial, then a small admission, then dependent on how persistent the chaser is - complete admission, then remorse and profuse apologies. On these matters the explosion of media particularly the TV channels has given the aam admi an additional weapon in that they can publicly expose and highlight any issue and bring it the lay public attention. This way we have seen in the celebrated murder cases of Jessica Lall and Kataria, and also the accident case of Admiral Nanda’s nephew where people sleeping on the pavement in Delhi were mowed down and killed, how the media brought back the cases into judicial focus and the guilty were punished more than what they would otherwise have been. This is what the aam admi has to do and bring the matter up to the media and public limelight so that the issue can be chased to its logical conclusion.


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THERE WAS NO ISSUE OF THE VOX POPULI DATED 03.07.2010.

VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 23 Date: 10.07.2010


Justice Hegde Lets The Lok Ayukta Office Down

Retired Justice Santhosh Hegde’s resignation as Karnataka’s Lok Ayukta was welcomed in all quarters particularly by the common man. It was expected that the resignation would bring pressure on the incumbent BJP government to resolve the majority of the cases brought against government officers by the Lok Ayukta and which are hanging fire because the government has not given the permission to proceed against the concerned officers. These problems are similar to those that were faced by the earlier Lok Ayuktas and it was time that an eminent person like Justice Hegde showed his displeasure on the functioning of the Lok Ayukta office and took the government head-on. However, Justice Hegde’s capitulation in withdrawing his resignation at the behest of the BJP and specifically, the senior leader L K Advani, and going to the extent of calling Advani that he was like his father, has taken the air out of the protest and reform balloon in a big whoosh! Justice Hegde in aligning with a political party while announcing the withdrawal of his resignation has sullied his hitherto spotless reputation and also slighted the office of the Lok Ayukta. He should demit office nonetheless citing second thoughts or whatever.

The Pawar Moves To Cricket, Done With Food

Sharad Pawar’s approaching the PM to reduce his responsibilities as a Minister is a clear strategy to move away from the sensitive Food & Public Distribution portfolios in the wake of the unrelenting surge in food prices and so that he does not garner any further blame than he already has collected. Apart from that whatever objectives Sharad Pawar had in wringing these two ministries of the possibility of making money has been completed and he does not see any further merit in hanging on to them. Moreover his responsibilities as the President of the ICC apart from taking away his time, promises richer rewards in adding to his personal treasure chest and that too in US dollars so where is the need to hang on to the local tattered and thankless ministries. Interestingly, he continues to talk that food prices will come down in a few months, this was on the sideline of a function in Mumbai a few days ago commemorating him for taking over as President, ICC. While at a NCP convention in Maharasthra just last week he said that with a good monsoon there will be bumper harvests in 2010 and prices will come down. Mr Pawar, what about your similar statements made 6 months to 9 months ago, nothing really has come down, has it? At that time he had said that to forecast the rains and the drop in prices, he is not a soothsayer or astrologer. Have you, Mr Pawar, picked up these qualifications now? Justice Hegde has gone to the media since then that the BJP Govt. in Karnataka has not given him the powers that he sought which is opportunity enough for him to re-submit his resignation and wah his hands off the Lok Ayukta position.This will allow the groundswell of public opinion to form and revise the powers of the Lok Ayukta so that future incumbents can perform effectively.


Konkan Railway Building Trash Corridors

Traveling up and down the Konkan Railway route between Mangalore and Mumbai is a pleasure to the eye during the monsoons with the lush greenery all around showing off Nature’s bounty in its wildest abundance. However, the jarring note in this experience is the piles of plastic and other rubbish which are strewn along the railtrack particularly when approaching the individual stations. The Konkan Railway would do the environment a favour by ensuring that it keeps the areas comprising the stations as a – No Plastic Zone and also advises its on board Pantry Car contractors not to dump their waste and plastic crockery used by the passengers after they have finished eating, along the railtracks. If this is not done we will have in a few years time the Konkan Railway, while continuing to run through the lush countryside on the west coast, be hemmed in by two white plastic dunes on both sides of the track. Can the Konkan Railway authorities look into this, please?

The Need For Transparency Re Oil Price Hike

The Govt.'s pricing policy for fossil fuels in the country is clearly lopsided. If we talk of de-regulation of fuel prices, in the same breath we should talk about transparency on how we arrive at the prices. It is not fair to put the aam admi at the mercy of the variability of international oil prices while the Govt. and the OMC's (Oil Marketing Cos.) keep their revenues and margins the same. The Govt., both Central and State, needs to cut on an immediate basis the Customs Duty on fossil fuels to Zero and the Sales Tax from an exorbitant 22-33%, variation in different States of the country, to somewhat more reasonable levels. The aam admi is not to be used as the Govt.'s beast of burden to load on him the responsibility for revenue generation for the country, the payment of relief to the Bhopal gas victims which the Union Carbide Co. should have paid but for the Govt.'s deliberate design and then sloppiness etc. etc. How much more can the aam admi bear? As to prices in the general marketplace particularly food they continue merrily on the upward trend and we have a Finance Minister who says that the current petrol price increases will contribute to inflationary tendencies which should stabilise by end of the year while just last week he has said at the Indo-US Business Council meeting that inflation would come down to around 5% by April 2011. With the de-regulation of diesel prices in the offing in the next 6 months and oil prices showing an upward trend with a weak dollar, is the FM not bluffing us or he clearly does not know what he is talking about. On both counts he should quit office forthwith and we should ask for enmasse resignations of this UPA-2 Govt. on the single point agenda of its inability to contain price rise over the last 18 months.

Pawar For Power & Money

The erstwhile CEO Speed of the ICC has protested volubly that Sharad Pawar is the wrong choice to head the ICC since he knows nothing about cricket. But then Speed forgets that Sharad Pawar knows everything about making money and wherever there is even the faint ring of money you will find Pawar present. Pawar’s climb to the ICC has been through heading the BCCI once which was essentially to polish up his cricket credentials. Thus with billions of dollars that cricket commands today, how can Pawar be far behind in getting his finger in the pie. The above is borne out in the context of the IPL Modi-gate where the question of politicians owning shares in IPL teams came up. Pawar tried to rebut his ownership by first presenting his daughter, Supriya Sule, to state that in the Pune Co.’s bid for the IPL they were not involved and in fact the owner of the Co. was specifically asked not to bid for the IPL. This in fact was later shrouded in obfuscation and nobody knows the truth even now as to who told what to whom and when. In any case the Pune Co.’s bid was not successful and hence the matter died its own death. At that time Supriya Sule had also said that the Pawar family had no interests in the IPL teams which claim was proved wrong after systematic digging by the media which brought out that Sharad Pawar does own shares in a Co. of the Mallyas who in turn own the Bangalore Challengers IPL team. Sharad Pawar finally accepted this fact to the media. What stopped the Pawar family from coming clean on the issue in the first instance rather than have their name slandered about is something none of us will ever understand. Not that Supriya Sule is very clean since as reported even the Mumbai High Court has asked clarification about her Singapore citizenship since she owns property there. The question is how can she be a MP in India with Singapore citizenship? The lies some of our politicians have to be seen to be believed.

Review Our Air Operations

Before and after the Mangalore plane crash recently there have been more than the ordinary number of incidents in relation to air operations in India involving near misses in the air and on the runway, runway mishaps relating to aircraft damaging apron lights and very often tyre bursts. One does not recall in the last fifty years the frequency of such events as we have seen in the last one year. It is not that these incidents are limited to any one or two airlines but almost every single airline in Indian skies is involved though Air India, being the national carrier and as part of their entitlement, has more than a fair share of the accidents. Air safety is of paramount importance and therefore it is best that a serious study be done by the Govt. why such things are happening? Is it because of the increase in operational flights? Is the maintenance of the planes inadequate? If so, is it because of lack of staff and their training or related to spare parts issue? Or is it that the new generation of planes are by themselves trouble-prone? One cannot accept the last option since the same planes used around the world do not appear to show the same pattern of failures. What about matters related to infrastructure? Are the airports and runways not enough for the volume of operations that are on today? As for the near misses, the ATC (Air Traffic Controllers) and pilots issue needed to be looked into as to proper training and licencing to operate, their working hours, the technology related to the equipment that they use which should be upgraded if need be so that their mental alertness is at the highest level. Thus as more and more people are getting into planes to travel on business or pleasure, it is not that our airlines and related infrastructure should deteriorate and air safety become less and less.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 22 Date: 26.06.2010

THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN MY BLOG ID TO: skamatblog.blogspot.com WHERE VOX POPULI IS REGULARLY POSTED.


Controlling the Price Spiral

Inflation having crossed double digits and hovering at around 11% is a cause for concern. Riding on a high of food prices this kind of inflation bodes no good for the aam admi. Dr Rangarajan, ex-RBI Governor and now heading the highest think-tank of the UPA-2 on economic affairs has said that almost 6% of the 11% inflation comes from the rise in price of manufactured products. Linking this with another report on economic affairs that came in the newspapers which says in the last year the profits of mid-size Cos. rose 94%. Does this not mean that the industrial sector under one plea or another is hiking prices to earn windfall profits. This is at the cost of the aam admi who after bearing the brunt of rising food prices has to shoulder the burden of higher manufactured product prices and on top of this if fuel prices are again hiked, then like the laundryman’s proverbial donkey, the aam admi will surely collapse. And our Finance Minister gallivanting around the world has said just yesterday while attending in the US a business forum meeting that by June 2011 inflation will be halved or will be around 5%. Who are these people bluffing? Why this kite-flying? Just about six months ago everybody who is anybody in the UPA-2 government and involved with economic matters had said that by March 2010, later revised to June 2010, that prices would come down particularly food prices. Nothing of the sort has happened and going by the FM’s statement who is surely the man who needs to be at the helm of our economic affairs, we need to wait for another year for a relief from rising prices. The UPA-2 has admitted that rising prices are one of the major concerns of this government, if so why was no GoM constituted to look into this matter and move things on the fast track. It is time that the UPA-2 seriously considered this and formed a GoM to tackle rising prices on a war footing.

Reviewing Our Wildlife Policy

We need to review our wildlife policy particularly in relation to tigers. We need to move away from the belief that the tiger is at the top of the food chain etc. etc. These ideas were all right when there were jungles. Now when apart from wildlife including tigers taking a beating the extent of forest cover is also reducing for reasons, call it climate change, human depredation etc. etc. but we need to take a pragmatic view and that is - jungles will vanish. If jungles will vanish, then tigers will vanish. This is at least true for densely populated countries like India and China. The latter has been facing similar problems in its efforts to protect the tiger. Therefore a better way would be to move tigers to a maximum of four sanctuaries around the country where they can be properly protected. Options for the tiger sanctuaries could be the Jim Corbett park in the north and Nagarhole in the south. This is changing track from the present approach that wherever we sight a tiger, we think of a tiger sanctuary. Similar action can be taken to localize large animals in their preferred habitat location like it was done for the lions at Gir. Now with the experiment successful at Gir and with the lions over-multiplying, the authorities are thinking of re-locating some of the lions to some other places around the country. Similar exercises can be done for the elephant which could be localized at Mudumalai in the South and maybe Kaziranga or any other sanctuary in the North East. Thus the purpose of protecting wildlife as well as taking care of human needswill be factored in. Otherwise we as a society should feel ashamed that we use bulldozers to bring down shanties in urban slums and destroy houses that adjoin our highways with no compunction for the human tragedies that we cause but the moment we have a tiger sighting we start talking in terms of fencing off vast areas of land for the tiger or even go to the extent of diverting some of our national highways to protect a bird sanctuary. Wildlife conservation is a rich man’s hobby and we have picked up this concern from the West. We simply cannot afford it. Since no one objected to the proliferation of the save wildlife movements there have developed vested interests within the country who survive on the amounts spent on protecting wildlife. This inspite of the fact that killing of wild animals for profit and trade continues unabated. Therefore it is time we took a pragmatic view of our policies relating to wildlife and put in our tribals, villagers and rural poor into the equation so that a balanced policy is evolved which takes care of the needs of both.


General McChrystal Presses The Eject Button

The General McChrystal ouster in Afghanistan from the command of the US forces may be a part of a planned strategy by him to press the – Eject – button and get out of his uncomfortable predicament. By making those indiscreet remarks about the officials in the Obama administration and tired with an unwinnable war, strategies that keep changing every now and then and with a deadline of pulling out within 18 months looming large, the General probably though the best option is to seek an exit whichever manner it may be. Some of these generals harbour political ambitions and who better than General McChrystal to tell the story of Afghanistan on a now basis and how wimpish has been the Democratic administration in pursuing the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Rahul Gandhi's Schoolboy Approach to Development

The Rahul Gandhi suggestion to move the flagship social welfare schemes of this UPA-2 government to the private sector smacks of complete immaturity and a devious plan to siphon off funds through crony private sector institutions. The logic for this is simple. If by his own estimates if only 15 paise of every Rupee spent on these schemes is reaching the intended persons, there exists a large 85% margin for the private sector to play around with. Thus even if the private sector progressively reverses the present assumed factoid as above in a span of a decade imagine the number of billionaires that Rahul Gandhi would have created. This kind of school-boyish approach to critical problems of this country should stop. We have this tendency to blame a system but never attempt to rectify or reform it. Like faced with a mountain on a trek, the approach is always to skirt around it rather than face it and climb it. In this case the bureaucracy mountain has been created by our own political system and it has bloated out to such an extent that it contributes a large part of the revenue budget deficit each year. Specific to Rahul, it is his ancestors from his great-grandfather Jawaharhal Nehru who have bequeathed this heritage of a bloated bureaucratic system onto this country. Therefore the Nehru family including Rahul along with the Congress party should be held accountable for this kind of mess. They cannot just shirk their responsibility by diverting the delivery of the social welfare schemes to the private sector and let the bureaucratic system sit idly by and watch the proceedings. This will make the bureaucracy all the more irresponsible and irresponsive. It is not just Rahul Gandhi but also Manmohan Singh who has been taking this stance and had recently commented that the public distribution system (PDS) for food was a shame on this country. Thus putting these different statements together, there seems a calculated attempt within the Congress party to avoid confronting the bureaucracy, side-step it on the plea that the delivery of welfare to the aam admi is more important and in that process funnel funds into another parallel system of breeding billionaires with the money which essentially belongs to the aam admi. This has been the problem with India over the last twenty years or so where a few are blessed with riches at the cost of the teeming masses and we call this development. A recent report indicates that 1% of India’s population earns 30% of India’s income. What needs to be done is to reduce the size of government, make the panchayat raj system more responsive and transparent and make the district magistrate personally responsible for ensuring welfare schemes reach the intended segment of the population. It is only then that our government schemes will work and not by slyly moving it to the private sector and turning your backs on an existing system.

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If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com (NOTE CHANGE OF BLOG ID). The comment if posted on my blog will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY.

VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 21 Date: 19.06.2010

THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN MY BLOG ID TO: skamatblog.blogspot.com WHERE VOX POPULI IS REGULARLY POSTED.


Afghanistan in for Long-Haul Occupation by the US & Pakistan

There have been two reports in the press in the last week relating to Afghanistan. The first is a report of a survey conducted under the aegis of the Pentagon which says that Afghanistan is rich with mineral deposits of the order of US$ 1 trillion comprising of copper, gold, cobalt, lithium and the like, particularly lithium which is in very great demand now to make cell phone batteries. The other was the study conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE) that the highest echelon of the Taliban in Afghanistan comprises of senior ISI officers from Pakistan. The sources for these two factoids seem credible enough in fact they are beyond question. However, there could be variations in the manner and methodology how these assessments were done and there could be some doubts relating to the extent of the conclusion. But if one for a moment goes by the credibility of the sources and assumes that this news is correct, then Afghanistan can forget about getting rid of the US from their midst and so also Pakistan. With so much mineral wealth the Americans will not leave without ensuring that they gain the maximum access to it and exploit it to the hilt. The ISI & Pakistan having entrenched itself among the Taliban because of common religious ideologies will find more reasons to stay in Afghanistan with the new-found mineral wealth. Thus though the Pentagon report on the mineral wealth in Afghanistan is somewhat circumspect about the extent and possibility of exploitation of the ore and was possibly released, as widely assumed, to give some positive news from Afghanistan in view of the slowing down of the US offensive to flush out the militants in south Afghanistan near about Kandahar, the issue will clearly boomerang.

Too Little Too Late For Bhopal Victims

The Bhopal gas tragedy case is taking a curiouser and curiouser turn. In trying to allocate blame for the release of Warren Andersen of Union Carbide and to allow him to leave the country the common man is bewildered at the number of ‘not me’ that is coming out of the present and past Congress leadership, with the progeny of the past leadership speaking up for their fathers, along with the ball being shunted between the Centre and the State. It is almost like the game we used to play when we were children while sitting in a circle as to behind whose back the handkerchief would lie. Similarly there is a desperate game of stonewalling being attempted so that the truth does not come out and to pass the buck so that none in the Congress gets tainted. This while we all know that the Congress party has been complicit in letting Warren Andersen leave the country and to allow Union Carbide get off the hook in terms of payment of damages. Have our present breed of politicians not even heard of the time honoured tradition that the buck stops with the boss. In this case, it should have clearly stopped with Arjun Singh, the then CM at the State level and Rajiv Gandhi as the PM at the Centre. No amount of pussy-footin’ is going to change this fact of life or clear reality. The more the Congress beat about the bush the more complex will the broth become. It is not only the Congress to blame for this matter since the succeeding NDA Govt. did nothing either to pursue the matter with Union Carbide or the US Govt. nor did it involve itself with serious relief to the victims in Bhopal. To put a seal on the whole matter the present PM has put in place a GoM and asked them to come in with a report within 10 days on the future course of action in matters relating to the Bhopal gas tragedy. Why was such a GoM or high power governmental committee not constituted earlier? Why were matters relating to clearance of the affected site not taken up earlier or at least after the Supreme Court judgment on the matter? Why was nothing done, absolutely nothing done for the Bhopal gas victims but for paying them a paltry Rs. 25,000/- when even then for railway accident victims we were paying at least a lakh? Why was no separate commission set up by the State or Central Govt. to look into the matters of relief and rehabilitation of the victims? We cannot blame the judiciary on this matter, neither the Supreme Court which decided on the first settlement nor the Bhopal court which came out with the present judgment on the extent of guilt and sentencing of the Union Carbide India personnel. The reason for this is the Supreme Court at that time took a decision based on what data it was given and clearly they could not go out on a limb and say that more should be done since the extent of tragedy was not brought home to them. Similarly the trial court in Bhopal has no precedent by law to deal with this tragedy and if the executive wanted a harsher punishment they should have made a special law or amended an existing one to deal with the tragedy. Why did the executive sleep on this matter? The initiative that the PM has taken on the GoM has been because like they say – ‘the shit has started to hit the ceiling’, and it is time to find means to seal the lips of the people. How can this be done but by initiating steps to do precisely the same things that should have been done as soon as the site became safe for people to enter and deal with toxicity and to provide better health care to the victims. And then finally the icing on the cake literally is to throw in some money as a sop to the victims which is now being talked of in the region of Rs 10 Lakhs. In India money surely stops all talk and erases ill will. If the victims had let the ball go around a little more on the allocation of the blame game and the buck came nearer and nearer to the late Rajiv Gandhi then the money would have been larger. But then like they say the victims could not afford to wait any longer and neither the present government or the Congress party could allow the stain to become bigger and therefore what they are getting, they deservedly are entitled to it. But then what of those that have died in the interim for lack of care and those that have been born during the tragedy and are facing health issues. Should we call them the ‘Lost Generation’ of Bhopal! Summarising this tragedy shows the uncouth, uncaring, irresponsible face of our politicians of every political hue who are capable of the highest degree of cruel insensitivity but when it comes to saving their skin would not stop to any extent to wash themselves clean of any taint. God Help India!


Taking Care Of The Poor Affected By Road Accidents etc.

There is an issue which we as a society should address through the judiciary. And this is to provide interim monthly compensation for accident victims whose families are unable to fend for themselves in the event of the accident victim being the major or one of the providers of the family that is affected. This amount should be deposited by the perpetrators of the accident with the concerned courts which can transfer these funds to the affected families during the pendency of the investigation and trial. These amounts can finally be set off against the award of the court against the accident perpetrators in terms of a fine or from the amounts awarded to the victim’s family as compensation. The decision for providing this interim relief can be left with the presiding judge hearing the case who upon merits will decide the amount to be provided also after hearing the accident victim family’s economic position. This advice has been prompted by TV news reports recently of families having no support after their breadwinners were killed, one in an auto-rickshaw smash-up and the other in a taxi accident, both in Delhi. In both these incidents the perpetrators of the accident are rich and well-connected people to whom this interim compensation will act as a reminder of the crime that they have committed, that is if they are sensitive to these kind of matters. We as a humane society cannot allow our people to become destitute while the wheels of justice grind out punishment to those that committed the crimes.

The Britishness Of Indian Responses

What Sarah Lyall, an associate of the New York Times, in her book - The Anglo Files: A Field Guide To The British – said about a comparison between the Americans and the British writes - Quote We look to the future; they look to the past. We run for election; they stand for it. We noisily and proudly proclaim our Americanness; they shuffle their feet and apologise for their Britishness. We trumpet our success; they brag about their failures. When they say they are pleased to meet you, they often mean nothing of the kind. Unquote This is a very apt comment not only about the British but about us Indians. After all we were under the British for almost three centuries and learnt from them what all there is to learn, and obliged to them for all that we have and do we not often proudly say that it is a British legacy. Thus we are held more often than not captive by the past as being played out now as in the Warren Andersen - Union Carbide debate on the Bhopal tragedy. Sometime back in a similar vein it was the Jinnah comment that almost unseated the BJP party president but after a wobble he settled back into the echelon of the party and then again it was the Jinnah compliment which got a stalwart out of the BJP and on re-consideration when the MP concerned proved his worth by winning a seat from Darjeeling under the Gorkha banner the BJP are now thinking about taking him back in their fold. And then we have these odious comparisons about Union Carbide and BP now without realising that President Obama is willing to fight for the American people and get them compensation while our politicians at the time of the Bhopal gas tragedy, right upto the then President of India, as reported in some newspapers, were bending themselves backward to get a foreigner like Warren Andersen out of the country forgetting about the clean-up action that was required at the tragedy site and ensuring that fair compensation was obtained for the victims.

The Bhopal Tragedy Remains A Tragedy Because Of The Congress Double Game

The blame game on the releasing of Andersen of Union Carbide some 25 years back was catching everyone in the Congress party on the wrong foot until they finally managed to lay it at the door of the frail & ageing Arjun Singh, who is in any case not in favour with the present powers-that-be in the party. This is in the manner of using the ageing ladders as the dumping ground for all past sins so that the present echelon of leadership of the Congress party remains virginal and pure as the driven snow, at least as far their public image is concerned. However, in this regard Pranab Mukherjee’s recent statement that Arjun Singh had no choice in the matter since if Warren Andersen had not been moved from Bhopal a law and order problem would have resulted causing untold damage, is something to be discarded. Firstly, accepted that keeping Andersen in Bhopal would have been a problem but since the investigating agency in the matter was the CBI, why was he not incarcerated at Delhi? Why was free passage accorded him out of the country full well knowing the gravity of the disaster at Bhopal? Secondly, one has to admire the memory of Pranab Mukherjee who can clearly remember what happened in Bhopal some 25 years ago but cannot remember his own statement of end 2009 that prices would be brought down within 3 months, later revised by him to 6 months, since nothing has been done by him to bring down prices and the inflation index (however, flawed it may be) has crossed double digits for the first time since 2008 and is close to 11% now. The Congress party and its leaders for the sake of survival will do anything, bluff, double-bluff and all. The fact that our political system played only lip service to the victims of the Bhopal disaster is borne by the fact that as late as last week one of the victims who carried a valid card of being a Bhopal gas affected person and thus entitled to free treatment for life was turned away by the very super-specialty hospital that was built for those affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy and later died of her illness. This reads like a before and after story, where contrastingly nothing has changed for the last 25 tears in Bhopal and the victims of that ghastly tragedy were treated carelessly and negligently then and even now. This incident and many others like it are part of the national shame chronicles of India of recent times arising out of a spineless and value-less political culture.

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If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com (NOTE CHANGE OF BLOG ID). The comment if posted on my blog will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY.





VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 20 Date: 12.06.2010

THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN MY BLOG ID TO: skamatblog.blogspot.com WHERE VOX POPULI IS REGULARLY POSTED.



ISRAEL CANNOT BELONG TO A CIVILISED COMITY OF NATIONS

At the end of WW II the major Allied warring nations not only carved out their main enemy, Germany amongst themselves but in the aftermath of the Great War created major scars in the emerging civilized world and that was with the creation of the States of Israel and Pakistan. For the first the UK was responsible largely for the birth of this nation State while for the latter the UK was wholly and solely responsible. In the case of Israel the country has since its creation leaned more towards the US because of the large Jewish lobby in that country which dominates its partisan politics, which fact is also largely true for Pakistan which though without a lobby in the US has managed to call itself an ally of that country because of its geo-political positioning. The UK in the manner of a midwife has receded from the scene as a dominant influence in the affairs of both countries. While Germany has united since then the two other named countries, in whose creation lay the seeds of discord in terms of the Palestine and the Kashmir conflict respectively, have continued to fester with the pain and pangs of their childbirth even though more than half a century has passed. We will concern ourselves for the moment with Israel which has over the years and since its birth has adopted an increasingly aggressive militaristic position and in that process has alienated its neighbours and most of the ocalize world. But for the Big Brother US’s supportive hand Israel as a nation probably would have ceased to exist. The latest provocation has been the boarding in international waters of the aid ships bound for Gaza where some 9 activists lost their lives which no rational mind can support. Close on the heels of this irresponsible incident comes the news that the Israeli Navy has killed 4 Palestinians divers in the sea off the Gaza strip. Irrespective of the intentions of the Palestinians divers why did the famed Israeli armed forces known for their interception ability not take these divers into custody? Where was the necessity for killing them? Or was the Israeli Navy taking the easiest and safest option that dead men speak no truth! All in all Israel has handled the Gaza situation badly and the Jews having known ghettos intimately is bent upon creating a ghetto in Gaza. This is the perverse revenge that the government of Israel is taking for what the Nazis did to the Jews little realizing that times have changed and that no sane mind will accept this kind of position. Therefore it is more than opportune that the State of Israel be disbanded and the Jews that cannot settle in amity with the local people, be it Palestinians, Lebanese or Jordanians or whatever, be allowed to migrate and helped to resettle in Poland and Germany, their original homeland.



An Irrelevant Judgment In Bhopal

One wonders why we agonise on judgments like the Bhopal Union Carbide case. It was but expected since after 25 years the issue was dead and gone. This judgment also follows a pattern of what happened in the 1984 Sikh riots case in Delhi, the Liberhan Commission report on the Babri Masjid demolition and the Godhra train massacre. These cases are a bit different from the Bhopal Union Carbide case since this particular one is less political and has corporate ramifications and is more clearly bound to law between the India Co. and its parent corporation in the US. We need to realize that sentiments and emotions do not work against the black and white letter of the law. The judiciary was also bound more as we all know by precedence since we follow the old British system. There has never been a single tragedy of these mammoth proportions in free India. Therefore from where can the judge get a handle on the extent of sentence to be given. If he remains within the archaic law for this case his position is safe. And when has any Indian for that matter strayed beyond the narrow confines of his job and looked at the merits of the issue at hand to arrive at a judgment. Moreover as it is now being reported there was active collusion between the then government in getting Warren Andersen out of the country. This fact is also well-known that we always give precedence to foreigners that one white man’s life is more than 20,000 Indian lives and the damage to health of future generations as it has been proven now in the Bhopal case. Therefore there is no point in breast beating now. We have to be practical and move on. The announcement by the UPA 2 government to appoint a GOM is all sand being thrown into the public’s eyes since nothing is going to come out of it. The US has clearly said that there is no question of reviving a matter which is more than 25 years old. It is we in India who have this stupidity to enact history in the present while in countries abroad it is all dead, the past and gone. As for the equivalence being drawn between what Union Carbide paid as damages to the Indian Govt. and what BP is now paying or spending on account of the oil spill off the Louisiana coast, the least we can bring into the equation is that those dollars were the old dollars which were of more value than in the new dollars that BP is paying now. We are good at saying that nobody is helping us and nobody cares but stop for a moment and think. We gave Union Carbide the licence to operate from that location which is understood to be then a very habited part of Bhopal. Why did we not only then but even now allow chemical and hazardous factories to operate in densely populated city centres? The reason for that is that we ourselves do not care for our own people’s lives. If so, then why blame Union Carbide? If we cannot take care of our own, do we expect the outsiders to come and look after our people. All politicians, media, NGO’s, activists are now getting into the fray on this matter since it gives them the mileage that they are looking for and once the issue moves away from the limelight, you will again find that the plight of those affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy remains the same.


Stop The Killing

There has been news of another suicide bombing at a wedding party in Kandahar, Afghanistan where some 40 innocent civilians were killed. Such kind of incidents have been a dime a dozen in the last few months both in Afghanistan and Iraq with the fatalities just varying in number. The deaths are brutal, horrifying and painful. It is time that the US and the NATO coalition should sit down and work out their strategies with a hand held to their hearts and analyse for almost a decade that they have been fighting terror in these countries how many people have died in suicide bombings, how many have been killed out of collateral damage , by drone attacks etc. and compare with similar figures a decade previous to their involvement but including the people that the Taliban put to the sword in Afghanistan and those who met a similar fate at the hands of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. This comparison will show the US & NATO commanders at what scale they have been committing genocide in these countries. The provocation of 9/11 is simply not the justification to systematically decimate the population of two countries on the assumption that they are terrorists and generate violence in the countries simply by their presence there. The premise here is that the Taliban, Al Qaeda and whomsoever has a grudge against the Western soldiers and/or governments manufactures an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and the next thing you know is that you have an explosion and start counting the dead mostly innocent civilians. The solution is that if the Western soldiers were safely in their own barracks in their parent countries then there would be less of the incendiary incidents which cause wanton bloodshed. In any case the presence of the US & NATO soldiers is to protect their home countries and if so, is it not logical for them to remain there pointing their guns outward to prevent any of the terrorists from entering and causing nuisance. It is not only in the named countries that terrorists are active but also in other countries around the world with a dominant Muslim population where they have found that putting together an IED is easy, it is hard to trace since it uses commonly available chemicals and then quite easy again to light up just like a firework. Thus you have these incidents spiraling almost everywhere including Times Square as we saw last month. Then there is the issue of the glee with which the US & Western forces report the deaths of the higher echelons of the Al Qaeda by unmanned drone strikes. Just last week the No. 3 person of the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was reported to be killed in a drone strike along with his family that is wives and children. Killing the Al Qaeda man can be tolerated but what fault have his wives and children done that they should join him in the flaming cauldron of a drone strike. If this kind of deliberate killing is not genocide, then what is? It is one thing to sit in a sanitized command and control centre somewhere in Saudi Arabia and press a button activating a missile strike against either a requested target of the armed forces on the ground or that detected by the cameras on the drone and decided to be hit by the operator and yet another thing to be on the ground amidst the blood and gore of an actual missile strike. Thus it has been observed that the soldiers on the ground in a war zone are far more sympathetic about the civilian casualties they are causing than those that are far removed from the action. Like for the drone strike operator it is like sitting at home and playing a video game on a playstation where no emotion or sentiment is called for or is needed. These surgical offensive methods should be banned just like cluster bombs and napalm was banned for use in theaters of war by the UN. The other thing is with whom the coalition commanders and the Western political system consorts with in the country of occupation. One has found that for the purpose of immediacy and showing short-term results the coalition forces are willing to sleep with the enemy, so to speak.Thus one finds that in particularly Afghanistan the coalition armed forces allied with warlords who have clear links to drugs, gunrunning and even the Taliban. A similar link was established with Al Sadr in Iraq since it was found that with his irregular army it was better that he was on the coalition forces side which was also seen to be more effective in street combat since they were more familiar with the territory which charcterised the latter part of the war in Iraq. Thus while in Afghanistan it is the warlords with no political base which are being made stronger by the coalition forces, in Iraq we see political leaders with no mass base and already experienced in rigging the electoralsystem as was found in the recent elections. The genesis of the Iraqi parliamentary being on a ‘chad’ which got Bush his first term as President can naturally not go out of the system and the Iraqis have proved to be quick learners. The point is that there is no system of governance being left behind which will work once the coalition forces have exited the country. In the decade gone by apart from the money wasted byparticularly t he US on the war on terror, it has put its own home population under various kinds of pressure and rigours of additional security strictures which everybody is chafing at but afraid to voice their opinion for fear of being branded unpatriotic or like Helen Thomas found to her dismay upon being unceremoniously dumped from her job as White House reporter for speaking the truth. Therefore in matters of Iraq and Afghanistan let humanity prevail, stop the killing and if required encircle the Al Qaeda and Taliban and ocalize them in Afghanistan so that like rats you can kill them one by one.


STRONGEST POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL ACTION REQUIRED AGAINST ISRAEL

The dastardly attack by the Israeli armed forces against the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to the beleagured Gaza strip in which close to 10 - 20 innocent people, as variously estimated, lost their lives has to be condemned in the highest of our civilisation's forums, the UN or whatever. This unwarranted action should attract the strictest sanctions since here is a nation which goes into international waters and uses armed force on the excuse that it needs to protect itself. What protection does a nation like Israel have to take against a flotilla of ships carrying aid is something that they need to explain in the International Court of Justice? The claim by their Foreign Minister and diplomatic personnel that they were attacked by those on board with small arms, iron rods and cairs is no use for professional soldiers to turn their guns on them. The Israeli soldiers boarding the aid ships were in the nature of pirates which is a fact of life these days in international waters and those aboard the aid ships had every right to defend themselves. The convoluted and obtuse logic that the aid would help the terrorist elements in the Gaza strip to increase their rocket attacks against Israel is perverse since surely there are other methods of recourse that a country can have. Israel seems to subscribe to the phiolsophy that power flows from the barrel of a gun which when used by the Communists in China and other places, it is denounced in international forums but when it is practiced by Israel then it is suggested that it is a defensive action. These double standards have to stop. Also here is a country like Israel which is exercising its powers while other countries like Iran or North Korea and others are threatened just for possessing nuclear weapons and we have all countries in concerted action to denounce them and suggest the strictest of sanctions. Thus the action of Israel has to be condemned in the strongest terms and the most rigourous action should be taken against them. This is also not the first time that Israel is taking such disproportionate action since earlier in their war against Lebanon it was accused of using shrapnel or pellet as well as hi-incendiary bombs which have been recommended to be banned by the UN. Thus in the manner we sentence criminals for repeated offences with higher sentences, Israel should be given a deterrent sentence so that they no longer dare to take military action in international territory.
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If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com (NOTE CHANGE OF BLOG ID). The comment if posted on my blog will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY.

VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 19 Date: 05.06.2010

There was no issue of Vox Populi of 29^th May 2010.

Fuel Price Hikes Time & Again

The petrol price hikes are in the offing again. It is expected that petrol will go up by Rs. 3 to Rs. 3.50 with other fuels rising by equivalent proportion. The government true to its crass stuffiness is trying to sell the price hike as a measure to bring oil prices within India to move with international prices and that it is doing it now when world prices for oil are a bit soft. Abhishek Singhvi, the Congress spokesman, while commenting on the issue has been saying that the UPA Govt. brings in price change, meaning increases, only when it is unavoidable and to the extent of the minimum possible. One wonders how he can manage to keep a straight face while saying this since in the regime of UPA-2 prices of almost everything have been going up thus showing that the incumbent coalition is helpless in the matter. Does it not show that this UPA-2 government is unable to govern? Coming back to the fuel prices, it is a welcome thing that local oil prices will be indexed to those prevailing internationally but then why are the customs duties, excise duty and the State sales tax on petrol and other fuel not being brought down. If this government is going to make prices compare internationally it should go the whole hog and make end customer prices the same whether it be in the US or India. This is what the communists have been saying all along and that is not to use fossil fuels as a revenue generation device. There has been never a need to subsidise fuel prices all along and it is only the distorted political judgment of various governments which have kept alive the spirit of artificially managed fuel prices within India.

Completing The Process of Justice

The sentence of Afzal in the Parliament attack case has been hanging fire for years now. The ball on this now being shuttled between the Delhi Govt. and the President’s office on the matter of a pardon of Afzal. Though after a long time the issue of pardon having been rejected, the Delhi Govt. is now dragging its feet on account of an expectation of a law and order problem in the event the sentence of hanging is carried out. The impending Commonwealth Games in October 2010 is another reason that the Delhi Govt. is chary about executing Afzal. Why a government and a country of such vast dimension should be afraid of executing one individual is something that ordinary people cannot fathom? Do we not have the moral conviction and the requisite backbone to carry the hanging through? Was not the due process of law and justice followed in Afzal’s case? If so, and if he was involved in attacking the highest institution of democracy in this country and in that process of involvement or collusion killed our innocent countrymen, do we not have the guts to hang him so that justice is done? Is this not what those of our people who lost their lives in the incident demand so that their souls can rest in peace? Why do we not realize that the more we protract and delay carrying out the sentence we will be perceived as a dithering, weak country and more terrorists will be emboldened to attack us. They already full well know that in the event of their getting caught they will be treated to the best facilities in prison, provided security of the highest order so that they do not have any fear of their colleagues from trying to kill them as revenge or seal their lips. All this cost which the innocent Indian taxpayer bears without a murmur on account of their stupid, insipid and deranged leaders. A living (still, living!) example of this is Ajmal Kasab whose capture, incarceration, trial and sentencing has become one of the celebrated cases of publicity not only for Kasab but for the whole gamut of politicians, police officials, lawyers, security experts and others who have squeezed every last bit of media mileage out of the incident when what should have been done is that before the first anniversary of the incident, Kasab should have been hanged from the highest electric pole in front of the Gateway of India. This would have sent out a signal message to the terrorists of the world that India is not a country to be messed around with and that we know how to handle our enemies and those that lift a finger against us.would have it cut off. Such immediate action would also have stopped any requests from Pakistan from seeking Kasab’s custody to ostensibly investigate the case at their end while in actual terms their request would be to celebrate with his Pak handlers the successful completion of his mission by returning to Pak soil.Here again just like in the Afzal case we are merrily dancing around the garden and it would not be unusual that Kasab and Afzal would still be living happily in our jails some twenty years from now while most others among us would have passed away.

PIL’s and Air Crashes

There have been many a report in the papers that a number of PIL's relating to the Mangalore airport safety considering it is a table-top structure had been rejected by the judiciary. These are irrelevant comments since if one sees the nature of the crash that took place last week, it could have happened at any airport. It is a clear case of pilot error who overshot the landing mark and therefore was not able to stop the plane's momentum in time before it crashed into the barriers at the end of the runway. Whether there was a valley or level ground at the end of the runway at that kind of speed does not have any relevance on the number of fatalities which any aviation expert will certify. What we need to look at is to minimise these incidents and for which we need to ensure that expat pilots are used to the minimum possible extent by our national airlines and not at all used for critical airports like Mangalore and others. Familiarity of topography, ability to communicate properly with ATC's and crew, accent, attitude, temperament are some of the criticism which expat pilots from the East European countries face, not only in India but around the world. These are some of the things to look at if we are serious about reducing the number of crashes with our airlines and not agonise about the structure and design of airports which are more often than not driven by vested interests.

From Human-Faced PM To Two-Faced PM

One needs to question the PM’s commitment to pursue with seriousness the issue of relief to those who in a prospering country (definition, growing at close to double digit indices) like India are dying of starvation in some of the districts of Orissa and those across India in general reeling under the impact of runaway prices. The PM has ordered a review of the relief measures in the Orissa districts after two years of the program running fearful that the relief is not reaching the targeted people. This when he famously made a statement that India’s public distribution system is a shame at around the same time when the program for relief was launched in Orissa. If so, when he had prior knowledge of the ineffectiveness of the delivery mechanisms of State aid why did he not take proper care that the families affected by starvation are clearly targeted and relief is ensured to be delivered to them. One cannot believe that in modern day India this cannot be done since the district magistrate could be held personally responsible for the delivery of the relief. The approach seems to be that as long as starvation deaths do not reach the columns of newspapers it is all right. But the moment the news breaks out it needs to be countered, combated and demolished with various schemes that have been ‘announced’ and that ‘which the government is working on’, little realizing that the underlying malaise subsists without any change. Our politicians seem to have developed this two pronged strategy while dealing with the media, one when they want to be in the public eye while announcing some do-good scheme or other and the second being how to withdraw from the public eye when news breaks about their negative activities. As far as the PM is concerned he has again come out with a statement that by December 2010 the inflation should soften and prices should come to reasonable levels. We all recall that earlier he had said June 2010 and now looks like he is seeking a six month extension. Levity apart the PM full well realises being an economist himself that his government did nothing to anticipate the rampant rise in prices since Jan/Feb 2009, he also did little to control his ministers notably, Sharad Pawar to fiddle with the prices of specifically sugar to feather his own nest and that of the owners of co-operative sugar mills and in the manner of a person lacking confidence in his measures is seeking one extension after another to tackle the unabated rise in prices. We all know prices once having gone up rarely come down across the board for consumer products, at most there can be marginal ‘lesser increases’. This is more so when you compare the pattern over a 6 month to a year period. Therefore what prices will be there in Dec 2010, to what extent can they be considered ‘reasonable’ and what is soft when you talk that ‘inflation will soften’, is all that will have to be seen. Do we not have to show growth in the economy and for which is not a modicum of inflation desirable? Additionally there is news coming out of Vidarbha that the relief announced for farmers is not being delivered to them but is being swallowed by government officials which is one of the major reasons why farmer suicides continue without change. Thus if you see India on the surface, it all looks fine and with shine but please do not scratch our skin since we are wearing it extremely thin desperately trying to stop all the wrong news from leaking to the press and public.

The Method Of Corruption

It is reported that the assets of the UP ‘Queen’ Mayawati has gone up by Rs. 35 crores in the last 3 years. Nobody grudges Mayawati making money or for that matter any politician. But then the question to be asked is what are the Income Tax (IT) Department officials doing? Do these figures not attract their attention? They are large enough to be seen by even a blind man, like they say! Then why do the IT officials not go after Mayawati since their targets can be probably met with just one raid. Instead the IT Department specialises in putting half page ads in the papers warning us that Big Brother is watching when we, common citizens, draw large amounts of cash or buy any hi-value item with a credit card or purchase a car. Is Big Brother blind when it comes to politicians? Maybe it is selective blindness like the equivalent of being colour blind which stops the IT officials from seeing politicians. Just based on the assets declaration that any of the politicians have filed while contesting elections, which is on the lower side of what they possess, and if this is analysed based on the disproportionate asset accumulation indices every one of them will be indicted for gross violation of tax liabilities and accumulating assets beyond the known source of incomes. Take for instance Mayawati what known sources of income does she have to explain away Rs. 36 crores asset accumulation in three years. And then we have the PM stating in his very infrequent meet-the-press program that he is willing to tackle corruption as long as he is made aware of it. Is he being naïve or just plain bull-headed to tell us that in any case he is not going to do anything about corruption. To tackle corruption the PM has to just start with the 550 odd MP’s in Parliament and investigate their incomes. Just initiating this measure will send the signal to the rest of the country that the PM is serious about tackling corruption and because of that hopefully the general level of corruption could come down. In contrast we have seen the PM and the Congress party strike political deals to remain in office with Lallu Prasad Yadav on the fodder scam, Mayawati on her grandiose and bombastic expenditure programs apart from large scale corruption and lately with the DMK on the issue of Telecom Minister A Raja having his fingers in the pie/cashbox when it came to the low recoveries in the auction of the 2G spectrum. Apart from these high end issues of tackling corruption, we have the contradictions of tackling corruption at the operational level by our investigation agencies. An example of this is that one of the officers of the CBI in Goa upon taking charge announced that cases of corruption can be referred to him by the general public for investigation. This resulted in a spate of complaints to the local CBI office, who were in fact swamped with the complaints. A week later it was reported in the press by the same officer through a press note that the CBI can take up cases only against employees of the Central Govt. departments and undertakings. The majority of the cases sent in by the public pertained to State Govt. employees including panchayat level officials. Thus you have a strong declaration of intent but when it comes to follow-up action everything fizzles out. The concerned officials always find some escape clause to slip their heads out of the noose. This is our India, my friend.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 18 Date: 22.05.2010

ACCEPT BAN ON SAGOTRA MARRIAGES

This is a contra-opinion. Our political system is purely structured on the basis of caste reflected by the vote banks that are built by every single political party. We reserve our jobs on the basis of caste and have had a big debate in the recent past as to how much of the seats in our professional educational system should be reserved on the basis of caste. We are also currently doing a census in which one of the parameters that is being recorded is caste. Then why this hullabaloo about the ban on sagotra marriages by the khap panchayats. This is but a corollary of the adherence to our religion. If caste is acceptable then the ban on sagotra marriages should also be acceptable. Further on this issue with the Congress party being seized of this matter with some of the young MP’s taking up the banner, one does not need much imagination to understand that this will finally be laid at the Congress High Command’s door, the euphemism that is used for Sonia Gandhi. And then we will have the hilarious contradiction of a foreigner dealing on a matter of Hindu religion and sensibility and at the end we will all surely accept her ruling and praise her wisdom!

LCD TV IN CPI INDEX!

We have this indexing that our society does to prove that it is absolutely consumerist which path our government seems to be also traversing. Otherwise how would one explain the inclusion of LCD TV’s in the basket of products that are considered for calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI)? How many people who are really concerned with price rise buy LCD TV’s? Considering the average unit price of other products that are in the CPI basket what is the relationship of the LCD TV unit price? Thus considering the inordinate imbalance in the unit price of LCD TV with the other products in the basket, either way its inclusion does not make any sense. Since if you put in the LCD TV unit price as it is, it is going to distort the CPI index completely and carry it away with itself. While if you give it a low weightage then there is no impact of it at all on the CPI index. Moreover how many of the assembled LCD TV’s are made in India and therefore should we create our CPI index with a foreign product? Thus there is every logic to remove the LCD TV from the basket of products that will determine the CPI index.

POLITICIAN’S FOOT IN THE MOUTH DISEASE

The comments made by the Goa CM recently to a bunch of women activists when thy gheroed him that he is not dependent on their votes shows you the true attitude of our politicians to the aam admi. That the common people are there just to be used at election time and then discarded by the wayside. Specific to any politicians for all their protestations that they have the best interest of the aam admi at heart, it is said that a man speaks the truth when he is under pressure and that is when what is on top of his mind comes out. Thus the Goa CM has spoken the truth in this instance and shown himself to be a true blue politician. He clearly knows that his political longevity does not depend upon the people of Goa but on money power and how much his backbone can bend when he meets the Congress High Command. This was not the end and the Goa CM at a women’s empowerment meeting again put his foot in his mouth by saying that the woman’s place is at home and to look after the family and to leave the sphere of politics alone. In this day and age such views are completely outdated and shows a mindset which is held captive to medieval times. Even considering that he represents the Congress where the supreme High Command is a woman such comments will not go very well since in the just concluded session of Parliament the party had moved the Women’s Bill seeking to reserve 1/3 of the seats in Parliament for women. However, the attitude of Goan politicians to women needs to be reviewed since it was only the other day Shantaram Naik, the Rajya Sabha MP from Goa created an uproar in Parliament by almost saying that women who go out late in the night and consort with men friends only attract being raped. Thus our politicians in Goa should change their thinking and say what they truly believe in as far as women’s rights are concerned and not say one thing now and another thing later on to suit the occassion. As far as the Goa CM’s comment on women not entering politics is concerned, it is also an insult to the many eminent women who have graced the sphere of politics in India and he should at the least apologise on this matter.

HAVE THE US AMBASSADOR CONCENTRATE ON HIS OFFICIAL WORK

Lately we have the US Ambassador, Timothy Roemer expanding the sphere of his visits to include the poverty ridden areas of this country. The last he did was walk on the pipelines that adjoin the Dharavi colony at Mumbai to see the muck and filth in which our poor people live. One cannot understand the proclivity of the US Ambassador to go into this kind of slumming. If his intention is to prove to Hilary Clinton that he should not be transferred to the front line areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq by sending back reports that the battles India’s poor fights every day against poverty, disease and starvation just to stay alive are more dangerous than the war zones in those named countries then it is fine. But giving him carte blanche to go around the country is not desirable. One needs here to look at equity here, will the Indian Ambassador in the US be allowed to visit inner city areas in their metropolises or soup kitchens or health care centres etc. even if our diplomats find the time or have the inclination to make these visits. The answer is – No, since the US authorities will find a reason to gently tell us to mind our business. Then why do we encourage the US Ambassador to make an exhibition of himself and in the process exhibit ourself to the rest of the world. We have to draw a line somewhere and encourage foreign diplomats to do their normal work and not step beyond it. The US Ambassador is possibly thinking of his role in India like that in any African or Latin American country where he needs to get involved in matters related to the alleviation of poverty and in the delivery of health care. With India it is not so and it is up to our Foreign Ministry to clarify this to him. Similar is the celebrated visit of Bill Gates to Amethi on invitation by our Gandhi scion, Rahul. Why are we doing this kind of sophisticated begging which one thought we had put behind us long ago? There is no need to do it now since we have today the resources to sort out these problems. The issue lies in allocating these resources properly. We should also show a certain amount of self-respect by eschewing such ‘sophisticated’ begging practices. Will we learn? Only time will tell.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 17 Date: 15.05.2010

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WAS NO ISSUE OF THE VOX POPULI DATED 8^th MAY 2010.

STOKING INFLATION

The majority of bank employees in the country after their wage negotiations are getting an increase of around 17.5% in their salary. Now there is news that the judicial services have been granted a three fold increase in their salaries. We are aware that the 6^th Pay Commission hikes in wages has been implemented for government employees and has also been expanded to cover those employed in government and semi- government institutions. Most of these wage hikes could be from retrospective effect leaving a large sum of money in people’s hands. Nobody denies that our people should be paid better but during these times of inflationary tendencies in the economy it will only fuel inflation further making prices to rise. A short term spending thrust to the economy from people with money in their hands is good for the economy since it spurs growth but in the longer term it leads to a stronger push of a rising price trend in the marketplace. Thus the government and employers in the public sector like banks and other institutions should consider putting some of the money being given particularly the component related to retrospective payments into 3-5 year government bonds with reasonable interest so that the amount of money floating in the economy is somewhat curbed. This will at least attempt to put a leash on inflation which is close to being in a runaway stage in the Indian economy. These measures need be considered seriously since a large part of the population particularly retirees, employees in the unorganized private sector, the people from the rural areas and the urban poor do not come under the ambit of the wage increases. These are people who are already suffering from the all-round increase in prices and if prices go up even further their backs would be broken.

BCCI MODI COVER-UP

The Lalit Modi – IPL for long on the public radar seems to have been forgotten just like the IPL after its final goes into hibernation for close to a year. After the BCCI removed Modi from the IPL there is no further news of what is happening in the cases against him. Similarly for all the investigations into the manner of funding of some of the IPL there seems to be a convenient removal from the spotlight. In one sense, this may be good since the investigation agencies may be able to do their work with less intrusion and thus pay attention to the work in hand rather than bother on a 24/7 basis on how to handle the media. But in another sense, which is more the pattern in India, is that these investigation agencies once removed from the public eye tend to sleep on the job until jogged to wakefulness by some development on the case which draws the public and media attention. Further the BCCI removing Modi from the IPL is a convenient way to allow them to handle their own matters in their own way so that they keep the government investigation agencies at bay. At least this time, we should not allow this to happen and the BCCI should be asked to come clean on its finances and organizational structure. Therefore the IT raids on the BCCI offices should be pursued until their logical conclusion. The BCCI and IPL should like responsible corporate citizens comply with all tax provisions and pay their taxes and since they are rolling in money should not come for exemption from this, that or the other tax or levy which generates revenue for the government.

INVESTIGATE NOT SPECULATE

There have been a number of desecrations for some time now of places of worship in Goa and elsewhere in the country that have been coupled with thefts and robberies. Most of the time it has been found that these incidents have been perpetrated by people of unsound mind or those with a grudge of one kind or another or simple, petty robbers. Therefore our people including the religious leaders of the community which gets affected should not speak in haste and allude these incidents to communal problems. Though admitted that these leaders sign off their speeches or statements saying that we should ensure communal harmony remains and that nothing should be done to disturb that fabric. But this is considered unnecessary since once the leaders even talk of communal issues, the lay people automatically assume that their community is under threat and start thinking of taking some action or other. Therefore the leaders would do a service to our society by taking the objective position of - let us investigate and establish facts first before accusing one or the other community. This will contribute to maintaining the balance that is essential in any society. We also need to analyse the reasons for these incidents at different places of worship. These are happening with greater regularity in the recent past possibly because of psychological problems and related trauma which is also largely being contributed by the economic stress of runaway prices that our poor face. Therefore these places of worship are what are called ‘soft targets’ since on one hand while people believe that faith will deter incidents like theft, robbery etc. but then for the robber because of lack of proper protection of these places, is precisely the reason why he will choose these targets. It is therefore best that each community works out a better security program for their places of worship to prevent such attacks, since then both those of unsound mind and those with deliberate intent, can be thwarted.

PHONE TAPPING: INVASION OF PRIVACY

The phone tapping issue ended with the Home Minister’s statement in Parliament that the government has not authorized the tapping and that a probe is on whether at all ‘eavesdropping’ was resorted to by the concerned intelligence organization. In all this there was a rider and that was that for economic offences the government will use their technology to ‘listen-in’ on conversations. Now with the credibility of the government agencies at all-time lows and this not necessarily with the UPA or NDA governments but all Indian governments as such, we are not reassured that our privacy will not be invaded. Therefore as they do in the US, or any mature society for that matter, any tapping/ eavesdropping/ listening-in on named people should be with the authority of the nominated law enforcement officer or magistrate or Home Ministry official. Without authorization no tapping should be done even for economic offences or whatever since with that excuse our intelligence agencies will find a reason to pry into the common man’s affairs with even intent of blackmail. These are clear cases of invasion of privacy. The Supreme Court has also given its latest judgment that narco-analysis, brain mapping etc. should not be done since these are also in the category of invasion of privacy. The law enforcement agencies tend to be inclined towards these technology tools to cover up their inefficiencies in investigating the cases or to use these tools as an excuse to remain idle.

SAGOTRA MARRIAGES & THE KHAP PANCHAYATS

The issue of sagotra marriages as highlighted by the khap panchayatas are again being handled in a manner which is inconsistent with the tenets of Indian culture. The judiciary and the politicians have no locus standii on the matter though they are entitled to express an opinion on the issue. Certain newspapers have been citing the example of the Bombay High Court having applied its mind on the issue in 1945 by a bench with a judge who went on to become the Chief Justice of India. This lends no credibility to the decision since the matter of the ban on sagotra marriages goes back thousands of years and no judicial bench of two can claim that they have more than the accumulated knowledge of Hindu society in this period. In fact this decsion should be deliberated by our Hindu religious leaders who should exercise their minds on the matter and give a concerted decision. There are some communities like ours which have dealt practically with the issue of sagotra marriages and follow the guidelines as a matter of choice of our religious leaders who have said that as long as the kuldevtas of the individuals are different, there is no problem in sagotra marriages. The point here is that since the earlier constitution of communities was by villages which were denominated more or less by the worship of the principal deity of the village as the kuldevta, there was less of a chance of bloodlines being the same for persons with different kuldevtas even though they were from the same gotra. Apart from that there is also the fact that bloodlines have got diluted over time since the gotra principle was instituted and in today's day and age it has lost its relevance. But since we have seen the problems that arise out of inbreeding in our communities which impact the life of children produced out of these kinds of marriages apart from the trauma and torture that the parents and near family of these children face, it makes sense that we as a society need to develop certain checks and balances on this complex issue. As said earlier the people fit to deliberate on this are our religious leaders which should be supported by a medical team which will give them expert advice. Thus if a system is instituted by the State of a blood test to establish compatibility between the intending partners including the Rh factor it will at the least try to ensure that children are borne without genetic deficiences. At the same time this will aoutomatically identify those with AIDS and other life threatening diseases so that people can take an informed decision before entering matrimony. Thus instead of addressing the khap panchayat decision on a ban of sagotra marriages on an emotional platform, we need to introduce a rationality and practicality in the whole matter which will stand the test of time and be useful for future generations.

WHITE ANTS ON CHARAS

There was a news item the other day in local papers that white ants ate or took away 20 odd Kg. of charas from the Police HQ in Panjim. To explain what they have done with the unaccountable drugs in their custody, the police could have at least come with a plausible story and not something as far-fetched as this. Even if we really stretch our imagination one cannot fathom white ants consuming charas. Many questions come to mind. Do white ants, firstly, eat charas? If they do, then were any carcasses of white ants found neat the stock of charas, since some of them surely would have died of an overdose? Normally ants whatever they get, carry it to their den or lair or anthill, whatever you may call it for ants which normally is at least some distance away. If they thus travel like this then technically they are carriers of charas which is unlawful. Then the police will be open to the charge that for the last 10 years or more that the charas has been in their charge, white ants have been carrying away the drug right under their nose and they have not arrested a single white ant in this period. A serious investigation, if not a CBI enquiry should be ordered into this matter. If the white ants did not leave Police HQ and were consuming charas right on the premises, this attracts the charge against the police that they condoned a drugs party in the Police HQ. For this should not the IGP’s head roll? If the white ants had a party in the Police HQ, some of them would have been ‘high’ and the enquiry should establish why all these years the police personnel at the HQ no one reported flying white ants within the premises since the termites were ‘high’. The report of white ants consuming charas is probably the output of the fertile imagination of an inebriated constable which the higher-ups in the police department should have put a lid on rather than expose their stupidity to the media and the people of Goa.

PAYING FOREIGN CONSULTANTS TO LEARN ABOUT INDIA’S RURAL MARKETS

There was a news report in the papers that SBI has paid out some Rs. 6.5 crores to the India arm of McKinsey for a report on rural marketing. This is completely shameless. Why should the lead public sector bank in India pay out money to a foreign consultancy to know how to market their products in India’s rural areas. The Bank should have the in-house expertise or if at all they were keen to get expert help, they could have gone to IIM, Ahmedabad which has done extensive work in marketing and management of rural areas. The problem with our country is that we have not given up our servile attitude of being under the foreigner white man and even sixty odd years after Independence we are still slaves of the white man in our mind. Otherwise nothing like this would ever happen. The exorbitant amounts of money paid out like this just to get the foreign consultants name on the report does not add to its credibility and effectiveness while implementing the report is what the top management of SBI should realize. The amount could have been better spent on providing improved working conditions to its employees including recreational, crèche and other facilities.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 16 Date: 01.05.2010

The Shame Of Parliamentary Proceedings

One can see how much Parliament has got hijacked with issues which have captured the public mind rather than anything seriously to do with governance if you review the on-going Budget session. First it was the general price rise, then the hike in oil prices, then the Women’s Bill, then Shashi Tharoor, then the IPL and now the latest is the phone tapping scandal. How much time is wasted of the legislature rather than have it concentrate on the serious business of debate, passing of laws and legislation? Every session of Parliament in recent times has been chaotic characterized by noisy scenes which prohibit any responsible establishment of views, legislators at the drop of a hat walking into the well of the House, tearing away as we saw recently the Women’s Bill draft copies by members of the House from the Speaker, regular walk-outs, adjournments etc. Is this responsible governance? Are these people that we see on Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha TV the kind of people that we should have handed over the responsibility of governing the country? Can we trust them to make laws which our future generations will have to abide by? Even with the major parties the Parliament process is getting to be a farce and it almost seems like they prefer the legislature go through bedlam and be adjourned rather than work towards a House where official business can be transacted. One also needs to introspect whether these are characteristics of a coalition government and possibly avoided in majority rule by a single party. However, all that one sees happening in Parliament in recent times surely does not at all augur well for the country and there is a need to think about alternative forms of governance which has the ability to discipline its legislators more than what we have today.

US Experimentation Around The World‏

The conceit of the USA is boundless. The other day a spokesperson from the US State Dept. said that like it or not it gets involved in every conflict around the world since it is the world’s only remaining superpower. The US should take out a page from a guidebook of basic intelligence and examine what would happen if they stayed away from whatever conflict that they are in or are getting drawn into now. The unanimous opinion of observers would be – Stay Away, and that the world would then have a chance of being a better place to live in. This is something which the US foreign policy makers do not understand. Resting on the bulwarks of their principles, which are today somewhat outdated and irrelevant, of combating Communism and spreading democracy around the world, is what has got the US into more and more problems. Not only that it has exacted a great cost of money and lives in the country of interference and to the US also. The most celebrated of these was the US involvement in Vietnam where after close to a decade or more of escalating conflict, the US had to come out defeated by the Communists and wearing just the proverbial fig leaf to hide their shame. However, time and again, the US has proven that they have not learnt a lesson from their past faux pas’ and much to the shock and consternation of the rest of the world and its people, continues to get involved in similar situations and generates a conflict where none existed. The latest and on-going saga in this mess is the US invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq. The first country is of lesser importance in terms of size and impact but none the less it is crucial as an example where the US as a bully has taken on a country which has no comparable resources, ability and intention to fight. The US in terms of its wavering focus between an elusive Al Qaeda (and its celebrated leader, Osama Bin Laden) and the Taliban has for one reason or other found it necessary to remain in Afghanistan. However, the greater focus is on Iraq where the US and its allies, the poodle UK included, attacked a country and created a conflict unnecessarily. This has been at a great cost of lives and impact on the Iraqi population which continues to bleed even to this day with innocent civilian deaths because of the ongoing conflict. It is not that the US has been insulated from loosing lives and money which in Iraq has exceeded in scale and content the Vietnam conflict. Thus Iraq has been categorized for the US as ‘another Vietnam’. When the US leave in another 18 months or so from Iraq they would have left the country at the mercy of an internecine insurgency and conflict which is escalating by the day and a powerless government which is finding its feet on the road to democracy with the usual learning curve of grabbing power and resources by the few for the sake of the benefit of many, as they claim, but remains for the benefit of the few that are able to grab at it. This kind of message has gone into the heads of some of the US scribes and columnists and Thomas L Friedman writes in the New York Times that the US did make mistakes in both Afghanistan and Iraq. But in the same breath he justifies that the broad policy objectives of intervention in these countries remains correct. Sadly, it is not. On principles of humanity, one can argue as to what right the US has to commit mistakes in Afghanistan and Iraq since the cost of these mistakes like it was said earlier both in terms of money and lives is borne by the local civilian population? This kind of experimentation by the US on foreign soil should stop. A policy of – Live & Let Live – is that the US should believe in, on the same lines of its strong beliefs on freedom, universal suffrage and universal franchise. Therefore let us stop these single nations like the US in the belief that they are only super-power riding cowboy-style shooting up the world and revolve around a policy of respect for humanity, universal brotherhood and individual people’s rights. We need to understand that all systems do not work everywhere the same way. So also is the case with democracy which will not work for nations which are evolving out of a tribal and/or feudal mind-set since these societies need time to come towards an understanding and respect for democratic values and principles. Forcing democracy down the throat of these nations will not help since only if these societies develop ownership of the principles of democracy by letting them develop on their own, will it sustain with them. Therefore a little patience and a little more sense will help in serving the objectives of the US to spread democracy around the world.

The PM Needs To Make An Effort‏

The lopsided manner of functioning of the present UPA Govt. is result of a kind of anarchy that prevails within its ranks and particularly in that of the Congress party. The Congress functions with a dual headed leadership as far as the government is concerned, one official with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister and the other unofficial, with Sonia Gandhi in the chair. In relation to certain of the economic policies and the implementation of the flagship programs like NREGA, there have been certain differences in recent times between the two named individuals as above. With this duality at the top everyone seems to be taking advantage to speak his mind whether the content that they have to say makes sense or not. Thus you have Digvijay Singh talking against P Chidambaran’s Naxal policy. You have Shashi Tharoor sticking on in government inspite of the numerous gaffes he made during his short tenure as MOS in the Foreign Ministry and was finally removed on account of suspicion of being corrupt. With the Congress that reason for removal from office is a laugh! Then the bombshell that was released by the Outlook magazine about ministerial and opposition leaders phones being tapped got the PM and the HM in a tizzy, with both declaring – Not me! Not me! They could have blamed it on the Telecom Minister A Raja from the DMK since in any case they want him out. But then there was the cut motion looming in Parliament and the DMK support was critical. The fact that someone can cast allegations that phones are tapped clearly means that there is some truth in it, like they say there cannot be any smoke without fire. This means that the technical body that was supposed to snoop and intercept terrorists phone conversations was being used to hear-in on our own people and to serve the UPA agenda without knowledge of the higher authorities or proper authorization. Or with the knowledge of the higher leadership the phone tapping was being misused for serving their own political goals. Both show a complete lack of control on the entire process and is akin to anarchy as suggested earlier. On this burning issue of phone tapping which reminded people of the infamous days of the Emergency the PM did not have the least courtesy to make a statement in Parliament and instead went to the media outside the floor of the House. That is how much our PM gives weightage to Parliament where he is rarely seen these days. Coming from a bureaucratic background he seems to prefer operating from the anonymity of his office than face people in the House. These could be the reasons why there continues to be chaos and bedlam in the House since the senior leaders of the Treasury benches like the PM are more often than not missing from their seats. Their presence would lend weight to the proceedings of the House and discourage those that are bent upon creating nuisance. The Finance Bill, one of the most important bills in the calendar of the House, was again passed after a part of the Opposition walked out. This pattern of passing bills in the absence of a voting on it by the Opposition is a wrong precedent in democracy and does not augur well for the House and India’s democratic traditions. It is time therefore that the Congress party as the lead member of the UPA with the PM in the van should take serious measures to put our democracy back on the rails.

Guess In Which Country This Happens‏

A prestigious train to the national capital gets hijacked. The same train after about two months derails due to a part of the track having been removed. Police and para-military forces get routinely killed by landmine blasts and intermittent encounters. The culmination of these sort of incidents is where over two months time we have two incidents, both of similar nature. In the first, a paramilitary camp is attacked and some twenty odd personnel are killed and the attackers decamp with arms and ammunition and in the second, another detachment of paramilitary personnel is ambushed and some 70 of the forces are killed. The Maoists or Naxalites as they are variously called call for a nationwide bandh which is almost total in certain parts of the country which used to call itself the most civilized, half a century back. Prices rise unabatedly in the market with clear attribution of ministerial involvement in the rise with the intention to feather their nests. Not only that ministers talk prices up of items of general consumption like sugar, milk, pulses and the like during this period ostensibly to aid farmers to get remunerative prices, while in actual reality the mill owners and middle men make money hand over fist. News comes in the form of a UN report that the country’s children remain malnourished and in certain of the eastern states children actually die of starvation while thousands of tonnes of grain rot in the open in a northern state. A minister involves himself in making comments against the founding fathers of the country and contradicts the very basis of our position in a generational dispute and is pardoned for all this but then like a detonator on a short fuse does not last very long and goes out in a blaze of shame on suspicion of supposedly ‘mentoring’ an IPL team from his home state for which debatably his woman associate was given ‘sweat’ equity at no cost but valued at some tens of crores. Then in true Bollywood style the woman associate flings the sweat equity back at the promoters, - Nay, I do not want this. But keep my friend’s job at least. But then the last scene cloes with the minister resigning and the woman having lost all, at least in this matter, dejected, saddened, forlorn but defiant saying – I may be a woman scorned but I am not forlorn since on the burning deck of the minister’s political career, I will show you my worth. This is my Agni Pariksha. Then a news magazine reports that phones of important dignitaries are tapped who are having contradictory positions with the incumbent government or are in the opposition which is promptly denied but like they say ‘a window of opportunity’ was kept open a crack that unauthorized phone tapping is acceptable while investigating economic offences. At around the same time there is news of public servants related to the investigation of economic offences being arrested for corruption and upon raids conducted at their residences come out with a long list of assets which even if they had been in the economic offences investigation for three generations, they would not have been able to amass legally. Can you guess which country, we are talking about? Yes, it is your beautiful India. And this is our UPA Govt. which in its first term promised us with ‘development with a human face’ but was more open in its second term in talking only of ‘development’ since it has no more face to show the Indian people to hide its shame since it is blatantly involved in allowing its members and constituents to make money in any which way they can, the bigger the chunk the better it is. The more you can make, the greater your equation with the powers that be. All this while the poor and the deprived are coming in hordes to the cities in their mission to find work so that they can assuage their hunger by at least having one meal a day. The rural areas are wastelands which boast of no indices of development be it schools, employment, health care, education, water and electricity. The UPA is the least concerned with these issues and in the manner of a reckless driver of a dilapidated jalopy intent to keep the bus on the road talks of becoming a superpower by 2020, nay 2025, nay 2050, God knows when! How many of us will be around then, God only knows? Will it really happens, if God wills? That is the way it or we will all end.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 15 Date: 24.04.2010

Govt. Again Dithering On IPL Fiasco

The news report that the PM has asked P Chidambaram to be at the helm of affairs of the Govt. probe into IPL is shocking news. What is important for the country the Home ministry which is struggling to tackle the Maoist threat post-Dantewada or is it cricket and the IPL? Is there nobody else in the Govt. who can head the IPL probe and is it necessary to pull the Home Minster out of his position for this? This kind of immaturity gives credence to the belief that cricket is a religion in India and gets priority over everything else. If the PM & our Govt. takes decisions like this then it is best that Lalit Modi is nominated the President or Prime Minister of India! If he can run the IPL, he can run India! The kind of money that was being talked about for quite some time now by the BCCI and then IPL should have led to suspicions that everything is not right with the funding of the game of cricket. The Govt. should have started its investigations quietly more than two years back and they would have then been able to do a better job to bring the IPL to book and put it on a steady footing by now. Like they say better late than never, it is good that at least some action is being contemplated now through which hopefully some hard-nosed sense will be driven into the BCCI organization and the IPL. We have this tendency in India to elevate anyone with a modicum of success to a demi-god status and that exactly has been the problem with Lalit Modi. He took the opportune moment to step on the surfboard of cricket when the monumental public support for the game from the Indian public was rising on the back of enhanced prosperity and spending power and that is what carried him to glory. Credit needs to be given to Lalit Modi that he was adept enough to balance himself on the surf board and not fall off. But the kind of money that he saw floating around made him greedy and that was where he met his nemesis in the form of a diffident Shashi Tharoor. If you analyse the Modi-Tharror spat, you will realize it was quite unnecessary. Both had too much at stake to loose and should have shown the pragmatic ability not to initiate any stratagems that would kill the golden goose. But then fate and destiny thought otherwise and both have had or will have to go. In all this the game of cricket has been the winner and with or without Modi, or with or without the new incumbent who will head IPL, the game of cricket will go on from strength to strength in India. The Modis, the Tharoors etc. are minor blips on the cricket radar screen and clearly dispensable since the game has seen many greats who are more legitimate and who have brought honour to this great game of cricket and that is why it will stay.

The Catholic Church Needs Reform

The Catholic Church has been wracked in recent times with accusations of sex abuse, homosexuality, pedophilia and the like. These charges have been from around the globe and going back two to three decades, if not more which outlines the extensive nature of the problem.. These accusations have touched the Vatican also and the incumbent Pope who as reported did not act in one incident in Germany when he was the then Bishop there and in another incident from the US, where he is reported to have overlooked the offence of a priest who had systematically sodomised young boys over a period of 10 years. The latter was when the present Pope as Cardinal Ratzinger was in charge of the office to look into such offences. Other than that we have had the present Pope’s brother not reporting an incident of homosexuality within his church choir and trying to hush it up. This kind of scandal has touched even right inside the Vatican where one of the Pope’s ushers was arrested for involvement in homosexual activities. All this highlights how extensive the rot is in the Catholic Church and an urgent need to stem it. However, the Vatican instead of being contrite and assuring people, including the faithful within the church, to resolve the matter, have taken the path of overt aggression by rebutting some of the charges. Recently Cardinal Angelo Soldano, the dean of cardinals is reported to have said that it was not Jesus’ fault that Judas betrayed him and not a bishop’s fault if a priest shamed himself. The issue goes a little bit beyond that since the present Pope Benedict XVI did not act on the matter when he was a Bishop and also later as a Cardinal he again did not act to enforce punishment on the offending priest at a great cost to the faithful flock, which latter day reparations have proved. Thus the present Pope is culpable because of his disregard to perform his responsibility. The church has whenever these matters are reported have transferred the offending priests out of the country such that they are removed from the reach of the local police. The church little realizes that the deported priest may commence his past activities at another place bringing disrepute to the church yet again. Apart from this angle, there is a broader issue as to how these sex abuses can be addressed to minimize if not completely eliminate them in the Catholic Church. For this it may be required as some of the intellectuals have pointed is to re-visit the issue of celibacy among the priesthood in the Catholic Church. The priests should be allowed to marry which will surely bring down the problem as it exists today and will also be for the betterment of the public image of the Church. Another aspect that the Catholic Church has to look into and that is to asceticise its rituals, shun the pomp and the glamour and concentrate upon the essential act of doing good. As Nicholas D Kristof writes in the New York Times there are many of the priests at the lower levels who are doing excellent work in Africa and South America among the tribals and those affected by AIDS who need to be applauded for their spirit of sacrifice which even the Church itself disregards or does not give due credit. Most of these priests working in these areas tend to be women where again the nuns are barred from priestly duties by the Catholic Church. Contraception is another issue and when condoms have been recognized as the primary defence against contracting AIDS, as a method of contraception it is anathema to the Catholic Church. Jesus Christ enumerated a simple religion but it is his followers who have complicated the religion and ritualized it for their own benefits and needs. Today the Catholic Church is anointing saints and institutionalizing the worship of these saints and also building churches in their name which seems to be in direct competition with Hinduism and its 64,000 Gods. We all need to remember that everything changes and so also should religion if it has to remain relevant.

India : Corruption Inc.

The extent of spread of corruption in the country is reaching alarming proportions. Following closely on the news that the Postmaster General of the Western region was caught while seeking a huge amount of money for giving permission to build on official land, we have a senior lady Income Tax officer at the level of Asst. Commissioner in Mumbai being apprehended while picking up an installment of a total bribe of some Rs. 1.5 crore. The lady officer is reported to have said that the cut goes to her senior officers also which matter is believed to be under investigation. During a raid on this officer’s residence huge amounts of currency was unearthed as well as moveable and immoveable property, including ownership of flats abroad, far beyond the earning capacity of the individual. The lady officer while at her earlier postings is reported to have been involved in similar misdemeanors for which no punitive action was taken. There are lessons in all this since in both the above cases it is government officers involved and in one case the person has hinted that the cut goes to the top. If one analyses this we come to the conclusion that government service is riddled with corruption and if Income Tax officers are corrupt then it is a case of those that are supposed to catch the thief turn out to be bigger thieves themselves. In so far as the cut going to the top is concerned, we all know this for some time now but the fact that officers who have a record of corruption are not acted against would mean that their superior officers actively condone the offence and allow the tainted officer to continue in service since it benefits everybody. Some years ago there was a celebrated corruption case when the head of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was caught but there has been no news since of the action taken against him. In Mumbai and Delhi particularly in the Income Tax Department, it is a regular affair for people at different levels including that of the rank of Commissioners to be caught in corruption cases but the cases never come to their logical conclusion. For all the awareness and intent that the PM shows in wanting to tackling corruption, he remains in the talking stage only without coming down to brass tacks and start implementing some of his promises to tackle corruption. In the case mentioned above of the lady Asst. Income Tax Commissioner the list of seized assets run into totals of crores while earlier it would be in lakhs. This must be the Pay Commission influence since even the scales of corruption have to rise with the cost of living index!

A Rule For The Goose, Another For The Gander!

The problem in our country is that rules and due process are bent depending on the wealth and/or clout that the intercepted person enjoys. Take the case of Lalit Modi, the beleaguered head of the glamorous IPL that is ongoing now. There was an IT raid on the IPL offices and as reported in the press Lalit Modi was questioned extensively on the financial matters related to the IPL. But at the same time he was allowed to travel abroad and attend the ICC meeting in Dubai. Standard procedure is understood to be that when there is an IT raid on an organisation or an individual, the head of the organization and/or the directors are asked not to travel abroad until the preliminary investigations are completed and even then to take the permission of the IT authorities before leaving the country. In the case of Lalit Modi one does not know whether these procedures were followed since from Dubai he could have conveniently flown out permanently from the country, thus getting himself off the hook of any wrongdoing in the IPL matter

Mining Industry Lays Bare The Heart Of Our Motherland

The newspapers were full of the reports recently that Sesa Goa, the mining Co. has made profits of Rs. 1,250 crores in the quarter Jan – March 2010. This indicates the windfall largesse that these Cos. associated with mining have been making lately. These profits have been coming by stripping the land of its green cover, converting the earth into a wasteland by using strip mining methods, polluting the neighbouring fields with ore dust in the process ensuring that for perpetuity nothing would grow on that land, spoiling surface water bodies making it unusable for agriculture and destroying around and within the water bodies the possibility of habitation of animals and birds and fish, reducing the water table by drawing of water in excess of what is allowable for sustainable reserves, thus denuding the environment completely and converting the surroundings into a barren desert. Most of the villages in the mining belt have been converted to what are called 'tanker villages'. With the ground water and surface water bodies polluted and which even animals and livestock refuse to drink, whole villages wait in anxiety for the water tankers to come for meeting their daily water needs. These water tankers are arranged by the local municipality or occasionally by the mining Cos. who profess their generosity and largesse in doing so in various forums. Thus villages which some decades ago were flourishing with green cover and fields overflowing with harvest are now laid barren, thanks to the mining industry. The water scarcity creates a new kind of dependence which hitherto did not exist or was not to the extent that it is today. Thus though the depredations that the mining industry has done to the environment in Goa, which must be similar to other mining sites around the country, has been documented time and again but this has had no effect on the industry. Other than this the impact on human habitation surrounding the mining areas is worse with people suffering from chronic respiratory diseases by breathing in the fine ore dust. Apart from health issues, the impact of mining has to be seen in the context of peaceful human habitation areas being demolished with constant noise and nuisance of mining machinery working round the clock. Damage to houses and village infrastructure like tanks, small dams etc. by the use of explosives in mines for which the villagers have no recourse for compensation since most of the time the mining Cos. refuse to accept liability. Ore carrying trucks also cause nuisance on the narrow village roads that the hinterland has had for many many years. This unruly traffic results in accidents involving loss of lives among the hapless villagers. In boom times like now the trucks working on incentive schemes on how many trips they can make to the destination/ports and back are driven recklessly leading to more disastrous and heart rending accidents. Further during boom times for mining, illegal mining exacerbates the above nuisance for the local population. While the organized sector with Cos. like Sesa Goa are to a certain extent accessible for complaints by the local population, the problem is with the smaller, individually owned mining Cos. and the fly by night operators who are there just for the moment and create more damage due to their lack of social responsibility. It is quite clear that the big Cos. in mining know the above problems and because of that desperately try to do good to hide their mining misdeeds. Thus these Cos. seek awards galore for safe mining, for environmental protection (sic), for safe transportation of ore to the ports from mining sites (sic), by instituting scholarships to students of schools in the mining belt, by opening medical clinics in the mining areas after making the people sick with disease (!). The mining industry in Goa as variously estimated extract anywhere between 20 million tonnes to 40 million tonnes of iron and other assorted ore. This has been going on for the last fifty years or more. That works out to a Billion tonnes of ore in the span of half a century, even if you take the lower estimate. That is the level of rape that the mining industry has done to Goa by extracting its heart out and selling it for money. The recent ruling by Jairam Ramesh, our young Environment Minister at the Centre that no new mining licences would be allowed in Goa was welcome news but then to contradict this comes the other news that some 100 old and unused licences will be activated. One thus gets confused. Is this a return to maintaining the same balance that instead of giving new licences the industry is pursuing re-activation of old licences which would mean that they remain unaffected? Thus one needs to pursue action to ensure that old licences are not at all renewed. If the old licences have expired, let them rest in peace? The latest on the iron ore situation is that China has banned its traders from buying low grade ore while their small and medium manufacturers are free to import. This measure may have an impact in reducing the mining activity in Goa which predominantly has low grade iron ore. But all this is in the short term since with another policy change in China or elsewhere mining activity will start all over again. The government of India considering these factors has to ban mining across the country and allow only the bare minimum that we need for our domestic consumption.

Capping The Iceland Volcano

The dislocation to people, traffic and business that the volcanic eruption in Ireland did in the last ten days with possibilities that this could go on for weeks or months since the volcano is showing no signs of remission leads one to the possibility that maybe we should consider advanced technology to cap or seal the volcano. Just like with major fires in oil wells both off-shore and on-shore where specialists use a combination of high explosives, steam and other items to limit and/or control the fires, the same techniques could have been used at the Iceland volcano site including but not limited to designer low yield atomic bombs. We have the atomic bombs and there is a need to verify their effectiveness for such limited and specialized applications as long as there is no impact on human habitation in the area near the volcano and not very great adverse influence on the environment. We should not shy away from using these weapons to see if they are useful to have the volcano stop its activity and fizzle out. After all technology is developed so that we can test its limits to make the habitation of humankind easier and more comfortable on this planet.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 14 Date: 10.04.2010

THE US FOLLY

The metronomic regularity with which killings are reported in the media out of terrorist attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the greatest condemnation. Almost every day some 50 people die in these two countries out of a bomb attack or friendly fire or a terrorist strike or a UAV missile strike. This tally does not include actual and identified terrorists who are killed by the US military coalitions or the local military or police. While in Iraq the US is bent upon moving out by middle of 2011 it will leave the country tattered and battered and open to more such internecine attacks between rival political factions, the terrorists or armed mercenaries out to loot the country. The question that begs asking is why did the US come into Iraq in the first place if it is going to leave the country in a bigger mess than when they came in. Afghanistan is going the same way as Iraq and will be left in a similar situation if and when the US coalition moves out. Clearly the objective that the US had in both countries has not been met and thus there is a need to introspect before the US repeats this kind of a misadventure again. One cannot understand the paranoia that the US has against terror attacks and particularly of the Al Qaeda and similar outfits. The most powerful country in the world variously referred to as the only superpower is unable to protect itself and puts its own citizens to great distress by various security measures that affect their common day to day life. The time has come when the US should realize that by running scared they are only making the enemy stronger willed and more determined to attack while if they had built better intelligence and quietly eliminated the terrorists in their home bases without actually invading the country the US would have not only become more effective but also had more public goodwill in the country which are their present sphere of war operations.

BARC Security Breach

The incident where foreign scribes were not only accorded permission to enter the BARC premises at Trombay but were also allowed to take photographs needs to be looked into and responsibility affixed for this rather major infarction into our national security framework. The Director of BARC has said that the foreign scribes were always accompanied by the lab security personnel even when they were taking photos is something which our national security organization should not digest but ensure that action is taken against these irresponsible officers and their bosses at BARC. The logic that the BARC Director has used to explain away the incident is that the same information is on the internet and is freely available. This is no position since the Director at his level should know that part of any security philosophy is to make information difficult to get and make the opposite party work for the information. Therefore while these foreign scribes could have got this information from the Net but ‘volunteering’ this information is the malafide part of this incident. The fact that this happened shows up that we do not regard security in the same manner as we speak about it and there is a wide gap between speech and action. Not only that there seems to be a gap in communication in the sense that BARC personnel seemed not to be aware as to what is acceptable and what is not. This brings a need to have a standard security operating manual for all high security labs and our nuclear establishments so that those in the field are clear on what to do in the event of any incident or emergency. Why are we always soft on foreigners and bend over backwards to please them? Is it because of our colonial hangover? Time to get rid of it. With foreigners do a quid pro quo. Would they allow our people into their security establishments? This is the question that BARC security should have asked themselves before allowing them inside. However, all this takes nothing away from the fact that the people involved in allowing the foreign scribes into BARC should be acted against and punishment meted out to them as deemed fit. Imagine this is already the situation when the Indo-US nuclear deal is signed. You can imagine what would happen once the accord is in force, all our nuclear establishments would be as fortified as a 'sieve'!

Bending To The US' Whims

In recent times the US has been snubbed by many countries but notably in the last few weeks by even Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan and then Israel. Pakistan continues to play the fool with the US by talking to China for nuclear energy and Iran for running the gas pipelines from that country to provide its energy needs in Pakistan. These initiatives have drawn more than a frown from the US but Pakistan shows that it cares little for Hilary Clinton’s pouts. But India in contrast religiously toes the US guidelines whether it is on the nuclear limitation of liability bill or the sanctions to Iran or reducing the presence in Afghanistan to make way for Pakistan's expanded interests or dropping the natural gas pipeline from Iran which was to run through Pakistan and end in India or watch from the sidelines while Pakistan squeezes out the US for civilian nuclear deal or believes the US when it says that the arms that they are giving to Pakistan are for the ‘war on terror’ and will not be used against India! Even in the Headley case a simple plea-bargain has kept India out of getting access to this person even after he confessed to acting as a co-ordinator for the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai from our supposedly best friend – the US. The latest is Hilary Clinton saying in the same breath that the balance of nuclear deterrence has been shattered by both India and Pakistan possessing nuclear devices which they are not able to protect! Is she trying to tell us that Pakistan has no protection available for its nuclear arsenal since we know ours is safely under lock and key. Thus when it comes to the US we find our country’s backbone made from rubber ever ready to bend over and when it is required, even backwards without standing up for our rights. And this country is going to be a superpower in the 21^st century, one is not saying by 2020 or even 2050, surely not if we continue to behave in this manner!

Handling The Red Terror

The dastardly attack on the CRPF by the Maoists in Dantewada and the enormity of the lives lost has to be clearly laid at the door of the Central Govt. No amount of shedding crocodile tears by the Home Minister and stating that he is shocked can take away his culpability in this human disaster. The PM also saying that he is shocked should in fact be amended to read that he is shocked at the lack of concern and pathetic ineptitude of his Home Minister and the way he runs the ministry. The Home Minister need also to tone down his comments when it comes to the Maoists since just the day after the Home Minister called them cowards, we had the carnage at Dantewada. The Home Minister needs to realize that he is dealing with people who think differently and who take these comments as personal slights and are then bent upon seeking revenge. Thus it is best for the Home Minister to let his actions against the Maoists do the talking rather than spar at them with words. The Maoists are in a different category of human beings and there should be no need to deal with them as with normal human beings. There needs to be a distinction made even within the Maoists and that is between its leaders and the followers or their foot soldiers. The followers among the Maoists are to a large extent tribals who are the deluded people and those with genuine grievances because of taking away their livelihood by denying them easy access to forest produce and sheer exploitation by more privileged people. These latter people are the people to wean away by development plans in the Red Corridor and proving to them and their families that the Indian State cares. As for the attack at Dantewada the Maoists carefully planned it and riding on the back of success of a similar attack on the police camp in Midnapur district in West Bengal last month got away with their objectives fully met, which was to create mayhem. The Home Minister has been shunting the law and order ball between the States and the Centre and playing the blame game without recognizing that the Maoist issue is somewhat much bigger than a routine law and order problem. The States need the support of the Centre in terms of providing them centralized intelligence, that is if they have any, and resources like the Central paramilitary forces to supplement the State police organization. With more than 25% of the districts in India under the effective control of the Maoists surely a joint and co-ordinated Centre-State effort is desirable. The problem as far as the Maoists are concerned is that the Centre never recognized it as a major problem and allowed the Maoists to control what is called the Red Corridor extending from Nepal in the north to Andhra Pradesh and parts of Karnataka in the south covering in the middle the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Maharasthra and Orissa. The Red Corridor allows the Maoists to source arms and ammunition from Nepal as also Bangladesh and therefore it is important that we tighten the policing of these two borders. The Maoists are also not a political problem. In West Bengal the Central Govt. allowed the CPM and the Trinamul Congress to get into bed with the Maoists at different times with the hope that if enough of these opposition parties, the TMC was opposing the Congress and UPA then, kill each other it will result in electoral gains for the Congress. Unfortunately it does not work that way and the killing fields of Bengal not only gave the Maoists the expertise to create mayhem but also the confidence that they can aspire to bigger things. The apathy and complacency of the Centre is responsible for this and the Maoists have taken full advantage of the situation and today are snatching away the national limelight in the media not only by attacks like at Midnapur and Dantewada but also by stopping the Orissa-New Delhi Rajdhani not once but twice in a span of three months and blowing the Kolkata – Mughalserai line which is one of the Railways highest traffic density lines near Gaya. Thus what needs to be done with the Maoists is that engage them in dialogue but at the same time use our police and paramilitary forces against them systematically until they are no longer a force in our society as they presently are.

Concern For Tiger Misplaced

The other day there was a news item that the PM is seized of the number of tiger killings in the country and has convened a meeting to discuss the matter. We sincerely appreciate the concern that the PM has for tigers but should he not show the same concern for human beings dying of starvation around the country, the malnutrition of children as published in a recent report and among other things the rampant price rise of food prices which is leading people in rural India to have just one meal a day. Are people not important for our PM as compared to animals? There is no doubt that the tiger is an important animal but all these justifications that it is at the top of the food chain are all misplaced. That logic was valid when human beings did not need the land for their habitation but not any more when the pressure on land for human habitation is high. Thus you have human beings encroaching into the forest areas and the man-animal conflict is generated and this is not necessarily limited to the tiger. Therefore we have to look at alternate strategies somewhat like what China has done for animal conservation and that is to segregate the tiger population to three or maybe four sanctuaries or eco-reserves around our country. This will bring back better focus on the animal as well as make the control over poaching easier rather than when it is widespread around the country. This kind of an experiment was successful for the Asiatic lion when segregated in the Gir sanctuary it started multiplying to an extent that the conservators had not expected. And today they are thinking of re-locating some of the lion population to other centres but the animal is resisting re-location since it cannot adapt to a new environment. But that is all right since in any case because of natural causes or filial fights you would have the animal dying. The same thing can be done for the tiger. But the point remains that we tend to spend much more on animal welfare and conservation than on our future citizens i.e. our children. In a similar vein when the question of 4-laning the NH17 coastal highway from Mumbai to Goa was being taken up, the issue came up that the road needs to be diverted away from a bird sanctuary in its path but houses of people in villages and towns adjoining the highway would have to be demolished. So who is important for us people or birds. The distortion of perspective and balance in our society is becoming more and more apparent and in a very much 'in your face' kind of attitude where recently the bids for the two new IPL teams reached a record US$800 Million, surpassing what was paid for all the existing eight teams who are presently in the IPL, this when the country is reeling against food price rise, disparities in society relating to education, job opportunities and related issues which have accentuated the rich-poor divide particularly over the last decade. Does the government of the day not have a role to ensure a proper equity of prosperity and opportunity among all sections of society and only then show a concern for the welfare of animals?

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 13 Date: 20.03.2010

Mayawati's Currency Garlands

The stupid show of money power shown by Mayawati in getting herself garlanded by a garland made of currency notes shows up the kind of constituency that she is trying to impress which are obviously of the same level of intellect as herself to get carried away by these exhibitionist acts. This follows the numerous statues of herself, Kanshi Ram and B R Ambedkar on which she has wasted public money. As far as the currency note garlands are concerned apart from the IT probe to establish the source of the money, do we not have any statute that prohibits the use of our currency notes from being misused in this fashion or limits the currency to be used for legitimate purposes only. We have this for the Indian national flag and surely we should have something similar for our currency. If we do not, it is time that we had a statute on this.

The Irrelevance of The Women’s Bill

There is so much hullabaloo on the issue of the Women’s Bill in Parliament as well as outside. Actually speaking, it is a non-issue since just like the other reservation statutes it will go the same way and end up with not having enough candidates to fill the seats. This matter is raising so much commotion in the press and other media because it is important politically to show up the stance that each party takes. What they will do later is something unknown at this present juncture? Therefore instead of 33% now being considered to be diluted to 20%, the Women’s Bill should have been set at 50% reservation, since the fair sex reasonably constitute half of humanity, and have a rider to the Bill that if the seats are not filled it would revert to the general quota. This approach would have satisfied all parties and constituents and valuable Parliament time saved.

Independent TV News Channels Play Footsie With Govt.

If one happens to see the coverage of the price rise in the Indian economy in the recent past particularly relating to food items and its impact on the people at large and farmers in particular on the NDTV channel in recent times but for the story of the food stocks - wheat rotting in Punjab and the starvation of children in other parts of the country, you get the assumption that these channels are not taking the price rise matter seriously. The assumption that Prannoy Roy put forward sometime last week of higher food prices benefiting the farmer is a completely wrong notion irrespective of which kind of farmers he claimed he 'has personally spoken to' since given his background as an economist, he should know that it does not constitute a representative sample. The other aspect that the independent lady economist that was on the same news item, Ms Joyoti (?) correctly brought out is in the rural areas you have to examine the impact in the context of whether the person is a nett buyer or a nett seller of goods. The grievous impact of rising food prices is much more on the nett buyer than on the nett seller. Nobody is denying that the farmer needs to be benefited and he has because of higher support prices for rice and wheat but the extent of his benefit has been much less compared to the middlemen, the wholesalers and the retailers. When it comes to the question of fruits and vegetables and items like sugar this disparity is larger and the price at the farm gate has no comparison to what those in the supply chain make. The feeling that one got seeing this news was that NDTV was plugging for the present UPA Govt. and the news item was in the 'paid news' category. What they should do is expose Sharad Pawar for talking prices of almost every commodity up and up and making money in the bargain. The compulsion of coalition politics is possibly making this UPA Govt. turn a blind eye on Pawar's shenanigans but our independent news organisation like NDTV should surely try and expose him. The latest that Pawar has come out with is that the buffer stock of foodgrains are sold by the Govt. by way of tendering to the highest bidder and he has had the gumption to say that at what prices these bidders sell into the market is not the Govt.'s concern. This goes completely goes against the principle of buffer stocking, which is built up to take care of critical and emergency needs and the stocks need to be moved through the public distribution system at times of need so that prices are controlled and not through the open market channels. The Govt. surely does not want to labelled a profiteer by sellng the buffer stocks to the highest bidder! Pawar has also proposed that the price of wheat to APL ration card holers should go up which thankfully the Union Cabinet had wisdom to shoot down.

A comment on the interview that NDTV carried with Prannoy Roy along with Ninan of Pranab Mukherji just after the Union Budget 2010 was presented, seemed that NDTV was grovelling in front of the PM and the level of obsequiousness that was being exhibited was bordering sycophancy. Ninan in contrast was trying to keep his end up on a Pranab Mukherji who was preening on a job well done almost like that of a juvenile who gets 100 by fluke in a maths exam at school. We all know that it is important of an organisation to be on the right side of this government but at the same time the head of a news organisation like NDTV can show a little more spine. This is a lesson for all independent TV News channels to carry news without fear or favour.

India Should Stick Tighter To Its Principles

The Headley plea-bargain in the US after accepting guilt even for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack essentially gets him off the hook and irrespective of how much our Indian Govt. begs it is doubtful whether they will even get access to him for questioning etc. We have this problem in India of assuming too much of a friendship with foreigners than what exists which is apparent in this case with the US. After the 26/11 incident we got the FBI to come in and go over the terror attack sites in Mumbai. We even gave them access to Kasab. While when we asked for similar access to Headley and Rana after their arrest in the US we were told that US law does not allow it. In contrast there was a report that the Danish intelligence officers for a lesser complaint of an attempt to murder the cartoonist who supposedly slandered the Prophet Mohammed have been given access to Headley soon after his arrest for the purposes of questioning. Thus you will see that a country like India which seeks access for an incident which killed 200 odd people including some US citizens is denied the facility by the supposedly friendly US Govt. There are two reasons for this kind of thing happening. The first thing is we lack the spine to enforce our laws. Thus the FBI should at no point of time have been involved in the investigation of the 26/11 incident and more importantly not have been given access to Kasab. If we had done this taking shelter under our legal system, when the Headley arrest happened we would have something to bargain with for getting access to Headley. The lack of will to enforce our laws when it comes to foreigners or foreign governments has also been shown earlier when a US airlines chartered plane full of US Marines entered Indian airspace near Mumbai and was escorted in by our Air Force fighters. But then the Marines were allowed to check into a nearby 5 star hotel and were given free access to the city instead of being thrown into a jail for the day or two that the unauthorized entry into our airspace was sorted out at the foreign office and defence ministry level. There were some 200 odd US Marines on that plane and if this had happened in a smaller country the US would have been open to the charge of overthrowing the existing Govt. But for us in India it was one large enjoyable binge. In contrast, there was not even a beep from our Govt. when an NRI Indian in the US was thrown into jail with a sentence exceeding ten years for the minor charge of slandering President George W Bush on account of the Iraq war on the Internet. Why did the Indian Govt. not intervene in this matter and get the young lad off the hook or at least got his sentence reduced if not waived. It is time that our Govt. showed some spirit and stood up for our laws and our citizens and not succumb at the least pressure from foreign governments.

India Should Have Taken The Offensive Against Pakistan

We have this tendency in India of hiding the truth. The reason being that sometimes the truth is not palatable, at other times it is not to be made known to the public at large, at yet other times the truth is made out to come out in different shades. In fact we particularly our political system specializes in its ability to hide the truth. That is why our probes take such an inordinate amount of time like that of the 1984 Sikh riots in Delhi, the Liberhan Commission on the Babri Masjid demolition, the Godhra massacre etc. etc. And when the results of these probes come out, they have lost their relevance and the truth is well and truly buried. This particular attitude thus becomes a liability in certain situations like relating to foreign policy issues particularly in the context of Pakistan. Therefore we see everybody from our government speaking on the 26/11 terror incident and its investigation which to a large degree implicates Pakistan in very diffident voices. When you catch one of the terrorists like Kasab involved in the 26/11 incident red-handed and have CCTV footage to prove his involvement and who has given a statement to the effect that the Pakistan ISI was involved in the planning, launching and operationalising the attack, where is the necessity of Indian foreign policy and home ministry spokesmen, officials and ministers to play the coy bride. We should have gone to town with this information on an international basis. With each of the dossiers given to Pakistan, 27 at last count, we should not only have shared it with the countries like the US, UK and others who lost their citizens in the attack but also exposed it each time with an international press conference outlining the contents of each dossier and the complicity of the Pakistani hand in the 26/11 incident. Thus over the 16 odd months that have passed since the 26/11 attack, there would have been close to 27 press conferences which would have effectively put Pakistan on the back foot on the terror issue. Instead of that we let Pakistan slime through and take advantage of the lackadaisical attitude of India by first putting the issue of Baloochistan in the Sharm Al Sheikh joint declaration, then not having a joint declaration after the February 2010 talks in Delhi, all of which gave Pakistan the advantage of claiming the upper hand. Thus internationally India had the opportunity of making Pakistan a pariah State which it missed completely. The disjointed comments by our Defence Minister on a recent visit to Goa that Pakistan is yet having some 42 terror training camps and sponsoring cross border terrorism need to be co-ordinated with the Foreign and Home ministries such that an sustained propaganda barrage in the Goebbelsian vein is aimed at Pakistan. The diffidence in India can be partly rationalized by the fact that it is probably toeing the US line since they need Pakistan to support them in the war against terror effort in Afghanistan and until such time that this continues, the US probably wanted India off Pakistan’s back. Why India such a vast country with such an ancient history cannot stand up for its own rights is something that is completely unfathomable to some of us?

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 12 Date: 13.03.2010

Outmaneuvered by Pakistan

In the aftermath of the fiasco of the Indo-Pak Secretary level talks in New Delhi last month, we are again getting outmaneuvered by Pakistan in the ability of going to the press to put forth a point of view. Pakistan has now said that India never asked for the terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed to be handed over and claimed that he was never discussed at the meeting. India has countered this like other contentious points that Pakistan has brought up post-talks. Thus for the lack of maturity in deciding in having a joint declaration after the talks, India finds itself being defensive and rejecting this Pakistani claim or the other. In fact the Pak Foreign Minister has taken a step further in suggesting that India should change its policy towards Pakistan thus showing him to be bold enough to dictate India's strategy towards its pesky neighbour. This kind of thing has been happening all along with Pakistan always taking the lead in media related matters and influencing policy of its earlier allies like the US and others. India has always found that it had no answer to these atrocious and irresponsible initiatives of Pakistan and found itself by and large rejecting this claim or the other. India should realise that a small country like Pakistan for its very survival has to rely on a quicksilver tongue and that is what it has been doing ever since its independence by saying what the context demanded and looking for their pound of flesh in the matter. One must say that the entire Pakistani establishment both political and military does this with a rare degree of coordination and you will find that the end objectives are the same always irrespective of who is talking. Why India does not take a methodical documented approach when it comes to Pakistan is something which is not understood? Is it because our Foreign Ministry is still a prisoner of the days of Indo-Pak hyphenated relationships and unable to shake themselves out of it even when things have changed or are changing now? The way our Foreign Ministry has been making a hash of most things recently, it seems that it is time that a serious review is done of its operations to bring them up to date with 21st century realities.

Jairam Ramesh : For Whom The Bell Tolls!

Jairam Ramesh has recently taken two bold positions. One is holding back the Bt Brinjal cultivation in India until further testing takes place. The second being and this is specific to Goa, to ask for a stop to illegal mining and banning new mining licences in Goa. With this one does not know how long this Environment Minister will be in his position since the powerful MNC GM lobbies for seeds and that of mining will try everything that is at their disposal to dislodge him. While he has taken very correct positions in the above matters one wonders why on the issue of climate change he is perceived to be moving away from the per capita carbon footprint argument which will be strongly in India’s favour to resist bringing in unilateral numbers by the West for close monitoring and implementation as a consequence of the bargain struck on the sidelines of the Copenhagen Earth Summit. The fact that Jairam Ramesh has also got rid of outdated and ill-informed retired bureaucrats like Shyam Saran and others as advisors from his agenda on climate change also bodes good for him and his strength of conviction to manage these difficult issues by himself and his present bureaucratic staff within the Environment Ministry.

The Art Of Blackmail: Shiv Sena Style

Consider the recent imbroglios that the Shiv Sena was involved in. In the My Name Is Khan controversy with Shahrukh Khan, the message is loud and clear that the Shiv Sena demanded their pound of flesh for release of the movie as scheduled in the Mumbai theters and got it. This suited the principal makers of the movie to a T since with the controversy they got free publicity and had people queuing up at the theaters to buy tickets. The token protests just prior to the movie release date were in the nature of a trailer before the main movie - My Name Is Khan, started so that the people continue to believe in the Shiv Sena. Similar was the case when the BCCI supremo, Sharad Pawar came to meet the ageing tiger, Bal Thackeray on the threat that the Australians would not be allowed to play in IPL-3 and specifically in Mumbai. What gets a tiger to become a purring cat but a substantial kill. Thus after the promise for money was made by Pawar the Shiv Sena anounced a conditional clearance for the Aussies to play in Mumbai which will be followed by a full clearance. It does not look nice to give everything at one go! This is the art of blackmail refined to an art by the Shiv Sena with hooliganism as the primary weapon. We have to see how long we will continue to succumb to such things as we go into the future.

Stop This Human Cost Of War

The number of deaths arising out of bomb blasts and related terrorist incidents has been increasing with metronomic regularity particularly in the countries of Iraq, Afghanistan and also Pakistan. In a broader context the cause of these deaths is being attributed in the Western press as – ‘the cost of democracy’. This is not true since the very premise of bringing democracy to the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan is debatable and whether this form of governance is desired or not in these countries. The West has assumed to a great cost to themselves as well as the named countries towards this crusade of democracy which is quite misplaced. The deaths meanwhile continue to keep happening. If you analyse this matter in depth the West and its coalition forces led by the US are to be blamed for these fatalities, not only their own but that of the local people. Initially it was related to the war effort particularly in Iraq where it was euphemistically called ‘collateral damage’ and even up to the level of President Obama it has been stated that this is unavoidable. Since then Iraq has seen more deaths arising out of the terror bomb blasts while Afghanistan is suffering on both counts - ‘collateral damage’ arising in the majority out of the drone attacks on supposed terror targets as well as terror bomb blasts, both happening, albeit on a smaller scale than Iraq. Thus if you take the coalition forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan the deaths due to ‘collateral damage’ will be eliminated immediately and the provocation for the terror bomb blasts will also reduce. Thus many lives of innocent civilians which are now being written off as figures on a balance sheet can be stopped from happening. The West prides itself at other times and in other contexts on questioning deaths around the world which are related to human rights. If so, are these deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan not similar, since the war itself is illegal and not authorized by any agency like the UN. On this count alone should the strife in the named countries not be turned off by those who started it and that is the West?

Tharoor's Gaffes

The rather frequent gaffes that our MOS for Foreign Affairs, Shashi Tharoor is prone to, could possibly be attributed to the world of difference between his work atmospheres at the UN and now in the government at Delhi. The problem with Tharoor could also be that when he sees the lesser mortals around him in Delhi, he goes on his own trip to show that he is superior and in this process of getting carried away trips on his own tongue. The latest was saying that Saudi Arabia could be an ‘interlocutor’ between India and Pakistan to resolve our disputes. This is a disastrous statement in the context of prevailing sentiment in India against Pakistan and the background of relations between the two countries. However, when Tharoor back-tracked he was sounding like a salesman of the Oxford English dictionary elucidating on the difference between the words ‘interlocutor’ and ‘mediator’. Tharoor has to learn the Indian way of doing things or not doing things(!), depending on what perspective you have. But then on major policy issues he better consult before he opens his mouth the next time around.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 11 Date: 27.02.2010

The Land Grab Allegations Against The President's Family

The allegation of land grabbing being ascribed to the President’s husband and son is enough to have Pratibha Patil resign from the post that she is holding. This comes on the back of the murder allegation against one of her close relatives immediately upon her taking up the office of the President. Like Caesar told his wife – Caesar’s wife should not only be pure, but should appear to be pure (with apologies to William Shakespeare), so also should be the person who holds the post of the President of India. But then we live in times which are completely compromised politically and offices like that of the Governor are open to sex scandal allegations like that of ex-AP Governor N D Tewari, Justice Dinakaran is barred from acceding to the Supreme Court bench because of financial scandal, individuals on multiple murder charges are made Chief Minister as in Shibu Soren’s case in Jharkhand and who are given political support by the Congress who profess that they do not support criminals in its ranks who aspire for public office which logic does not seem to hold when they consider political allies. Thus as we see the truth exists in modern India but it is multi-layered. Not only that, there is a truth for everyone depending on the person, situation and time which is projected with vigour until the next version of truth takes over. However, notwithstanding the above Pratibha Patil for her own sake and to uphold the prestige and credibility of the highest office of the land, should by all counts put in her papers.

P.S. Since the time this was written on 12th Feb 2K10 this news has been completely taken off the media both print and visual. Why do you not object to this 'informal censorship'?

The Initiative To Talk To Pakistan

One wonders why the UPAGovt. has gone and made the offer of talks to Pakistan. This clearly is another gaffe that our foreign policy has been prone to in recent times like the Sharm El Sheikh goof-up on Baloochistan by our PM some time back. With Pakistan not responding on the 26/11 terror incident India had clearly and firmly put a lid on the Pandora’s Box which is the mess of our relationship with Pakistan. There was no need to open the box now since Paksitan as a country has been in self-destruct mode for the last year or so. And we should have allowed this to happen in its natural course without intervening in it, like any other neighbouring country would have done given the opportunity to accelerate this process of self-destruction by your enemy neighbour. The extremist elements in Pakistan had taken hold of the country and had come almost to the doors of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. And with the subsequent spate of bombings taking place in Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi and other cities, it was but a matter of time before anarchy would have taken firm root in Pakistan. Additionally the US with its larger presence on the ground in Afghanistan has now a clearer understanding of the problem that Pakistan is. They are now proposing strictures on Pakistan on the same issues that India has been telling them for years and that is training of terrorists in cross-border camps and the attacks across the border emanating from these camps. Further the US is more aware of the risk of the Pakistan nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of the terrorists and for which they have taken the necessary measures to protect it. This initiative indirectly protects India against nuclear attack if the bombs fall into terrorist hands. The complicity of the Pakistan ISI with the Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists is now more known to the US having been reiterated by Afghanistan along with India’s briefing. This has also been confirmed by the Pak Army lately offering to negotiate with the Taliban for peace in Afghanistan as a ploy to the US and thereby obtain further arms. Thus in all this scenario it seems rather untoward that India should on its own offer talks to Pakistan stalled by the 26/11 incident. Whatever it may be this initiative has been also rather unexpected for Pakistan who again caught off-guard is blubbering at the mouth uttering irresponsible statements which go against the grain of the extended hand as suggested by the offer of talks. All in all nothing good is likely to come of this initiative unless there is an upheaval in Pakistan polity which is most unlikely.

P.S. The talks crumbled as expected . A separate item appears on this subject in the next edition of the Vox Populi.

The Complete Disregard Of The Common Man's Plight By The Political Class

The price rise issue is completely forgotten and descending into routine not worthy of looking at by the ruling UPA or an issue to raise protests by the Opposition except for a namesake morcha organized in the capital in the last week by the BJP. This shows the common approach by politicians of every colour to ignore the difficult plight of the aam admi. The PM also after his CM’s conclave on prices came out with a pacificatory advice saying that the prices will come down. We have had these kind of statements being made much too often, first by the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission, then by the Agriculture Minister and now from the PM and the prices went up the first two times and we will have to therefore see this time whether with the PM, the trend gets reversed. The reason for the opposite happening whenever these statements were made, is because no concurrent action was being taken by the government and it was believed that the prices would come down on their own. This is a myth and the breed of stockists/wholesalers are too hard, mercenary and seasoned to become nervous of just words or be afraid of the ministerial comments. What should have been done is that once we knew that the last monsoon had failed us, the UPA Govt. and the States should have geared themselves to intervene in the market by moving in the supplies from the buffer food stock and considering imports for those items like pulses where there were no strategic stocks. This intervention should have been done with greater vigour from about a year ago when the prices really started shooting up. This show of purpose by the Govt. would have deterred the traders from blackmarketing and stopped the spread of price rise to other items like vegetables (potatoes and onions). Nothing of this sort was done and the government played passive allowing also the Agriculture Minister to play around with the market particularly for sugar to benefit his home constituency and support base in Maharasthra. Thus we find ourselves in this situation now confronting the runaway price rise. The PM has also made a statement recently that the public distribution system in the country is antiquated and is a shame. The question to ask the PM is – Who is responsible for this? Is it not his Congress party which has ruled this country for the majority period since Independence. Thus the PM cannot shirk the responsibility of the ineffective public distribution system and standing up for his party, he has to fix it. Not only that as explained above we have the government sometimes taking the opposite action and in line with that somewhat, we have the much acclaimed Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission stating the other day that the fuel subsidy on petroleum prices at the retail level is inflationary and should be done away with. That it is since it enlarges the deficit but then it is within the domain of control of the government by a multiplicity of measures. While if the government raises petroleum prices and tags it to international prices then it will have a much more direct effect on inflation. Moreover the tagging to international prices will keep the government out of any control of inflation through regulation of fuel prices. Thus Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s suggestion is like the honest and straight-forward Sardarji who has to see things happening before he considers any action to combat the issue. Thankfully the UPA has now postponed the fuel price hike to bail out the petroleum Cos. which if it had been done would have been the last straw on the donkey’s (read aam admi) back who is already collapsing under the load of the exorbitant and runaway prices for food items. It was with great hope that Manmohan Singh’s ascendance to the office of the Prime Minister was welcomed considering his background of an economist and his track record in the tenures he held at the RBI and as Finance Minister and his initial positions of development with a ‘human face’ was very much the correct approach. But now in the second term we are seeing a completely different Manmohan Singh, that of a true capitalist who is talking of 9-10% growth rates in the economy and not being bothered about the aam admi and having thrown the ‘human face’ out of the window somewhere in the middle of the first term. The trickle down theory of distributing economic wellbeing in a high growth economy does not work in a country like India which has its own structural disparities of education and opportunity spread over such a large geographical area. We have seen this in practical reality over the last decade or so, as represented by the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Unless high growth rate policies are coupled with a social conscience we will continue to have poverty, hunger and other social malaises stalk this country and the day will not be far off when this will become the reason for popular unrest.

The Non-Performance Of Sharad Pawar As Agriculture Minister

Sharad Pawar has been in the news once again with an advice that food prices are likely to come down in a couple of months. This is a more realistic estimate compared to his pronouncements in end January that sugar prices will come down in about ten days which fact never happened. In fact the prices went the other way, up and up. Our Agriculture Minister is in the habit of talking prices up most of the time. After the ten days deadline for sugar prices to come down was announced by him, he went to the press saying that once the sugar harvest comes in about 2-3 months the prices of sugar will crash. What is the underlying message here to the sugar trade? Is it not that they should make merry as long as they can and overcharge the customers? At the same time, Sharad Pawar controlling the ministry of consumer affairs and public distribution on the issue of sugar allowed the mils to sell levy sugar which they had not given up to the FCI for the last few years, to sell in the open market when sugar prices were at a high. The benefit of this ruling was in the majority to sugar mills in Maharasthra which made windfall profits to the tune of Rs 100 crores and more. One can clearly understand that as far as sugar is concerned Sharad Pawar’s toast is buttered not on both sides but on all four sides or in the manner of Croesus or Midas rolling in money, Sharad Pawar makes money either which way, whether he is rolling left or rolling right in his ministry. The disappointing point in all this is that Sharad Pawar is doing this with the tacit approval of the UPA Govt. But for some noises made at the CWC to castigate Sharad Pawar and put him on the mat, no serious action was taken against him. So much for the Congress party and our PM to work for the aam admi and show a human face along with his devout pronouncements to hold the ministers accountable for their performance and actions. Sharad Pawar is also known to have said recently that if there is any fault of his in all this, is that he worked for the poor man and the farmers. Charging the poor man exorbitant prices for his food items and creating policies that have farmers kill themselves deep in debt and do nothing about it are some of the initiatives that Sharad Pawar has taken in this regard. He has lately again been saying that prices for pulses and edible oils will continue to remain high since there is not adequate local production and we will have to maintain import of these items in large quantities. Sharad Pawar‘s position on imports after the scam in the wheat imports some 2-3 years ago, is that whenever India enters the international food market as a buyer, the suppliers jack up the prices. Why should this be so since it is an accepted fact of economics that large buyers tend to get the best deal at least on price? In fact when it comes to China buying iron ore on which it almost had a monopoly just prior to the 2008 Olympics, prices of ore crashed and even now it is the Chinese who set worldwide iron ore prices because of their large buying capacity. Can Sharad Pawar not learn and take out a page from China’s book on international buying practices when it comes to our food imports? Further our Agriculture Minister has recently become a strong proponent of BT technology. Nothing wrong with that except if it is tried out in trials to ensure that there is no adverse impact on people’s health and on the environment. This is not true in the case of the BT Brinjal which Jairam Ramesh, our Environment Minister put off since there was not very much of actual data to support the use of these new seeds in line with the above priorities. Moreover, the MNC lobby of the likes of Monsanto was very strong in wanting to get India to accept the technology. Our Agriculture Minister has indicated that we need to double our production if we have to avoid hunger for our population and to this end we should use GM foods since productivity is the criteria. But one does not understand why we need to do this since the developed countries who pioneered the GM foods like wheat and other items are now moving more and more to organic foods considering the damage caused to humans upon eating these foods as also the degradation of the environment. Why cannot we use techniques to expand our agriculture across the country and to that end develop water conservation and irrigation programs to reduce our dependence on the erratic monsoon which will continue to become more erratic as we go into the future due to climate change? This is being stated since it was reported that Punjab is slowly moving out of being the food bowl of India. With just about 20 % of the all India acreage in Punjab, the State was giving us almost 60% of the national wheat and rice crop but now with difficulties in migrant labour they are finding it difficult to maintain this. Thus why can we not get the remaining 80% of the acreage to deliver at least double of what they are producing, in which case we will come close to double the national food production that Sharad Pawar wants. We always seem to take the easy way out and even after 60 odd years of Independence we are unable to move away from depending on the annual monsoon for our irrigation needs.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 10 Date: 28.01.2010

Disaster Zone: Gaza Strip

The UN has brought to the notice of Israel and the rest of the world that close to 1.5 million people in the Gaza strip are facing difficulties due the blockade enforced by Israel in this area. Supplies of medicine, food and nutritional items are particularly scarce and causing acute hardship to the people in the Gaza strip. Will the developed nations of the world, the US, UK and the EC, take cognizance of this and ask Israel to stop this blockade and allow on humanitarian considerations for the above supplies to resume. These countries as named above are quick to point out human rights incursions being done around the world even down to the smallest scale but when Israel commits these violations on such a vast scale so as to cause misery to millions, these countries turn a blind eye. What is the reason for this? Is it that Israel is exempt from any judgment for their irresponsible actions? Or is it because in the philosophy of Big Is Beautiful, these countries are blinded by the sheer splendor of Israel’s actions? Taking an overview of this approach, Israel it seems is unable to get out of the ghetto mindset that it was subject to in Europe in the early part of the 20^th century which condition was aggravated by the Nazis in Germany. Consistent with this paranoia it is not only ‘ghetto-ising’ itself by building walls around itself and in the process segregating Palestinians from their own lands. Additionally it is giving the population of the Gaza strip a taste of the ghetto environment by cutting off essential food, water and medicine supplies. Anyone will concur that this is highly illogical, irresponsible and inhumane on the part of Israel. The UN and the rest of the international community should put a stop to these Israeli forays, misadventures, call it what you will.

U.S Bank Re-Organisation : Not The Time For Obama Presidency

President Barrack Obama seems to be currently having a rough time and as a consequence being overwrought is making all the wrong moves at all the wrong times. Thus the proposal to rationalize and prune the activities of US banks is clearly being done at an inopportune moment. When the government gave them budgetary support at the peak of the financial crisis it was at that time the ‘conditional-ities’ or programs to re-structure the banks should have been put to them. The banks then being beholden to the government would have looked at these initiatives in a more rational manner. They would have also given less exposure to these programs to the press and media to mould public opinion against the President. At the present juncture when the banks have ‘run away with the moolah’ and are behaving as if the financial crisis is a thing of the past and dabbling in the same practices of obscene bonuses, severance pay, perquisites and the like, as they had done earlier, the move by President Obama to ask for prudence and rationalization will obviously boomerang. The banks will invoke the ‘spirit of free enterprise’ on which principle the American dream has long been cast and blame President Obama’s strictures as excessive regulation bordering on interference. If the Federal Reserve while giving the banks the money to support their profligate habits and bad lending patterns had asked for a seat on the board of directors of these banks considering the money being given as equity, then the measures like President Obama is proposing could have been moved at the level of the board rather than bring them out like now in the public domain. With unemployment rising in the US economy and the recession tendencies not yet completely gone and hovering on the horizon, so to speak, it is easy for the targeted banks to twist the President’s recommendations and say that these measures would cause further unemployment and lower lending which would mean the growth of the economy would be a more distant dream than now. Having lost the filibustering majority in the Senate President Obama seems to be hell bound to filibuster his nascent Presidency and blow it up on the back of sliding approval ratings and what is perceived as a lack of knowledge on most matters and the diffidence to act when it is most necessary. To these demerits will add poor judgment and the charge that President Obama is converting the US into a social economy.

The Responsibility For Climate Change

At the Copenhagen Climate Change summit recently there were serious doubts expressed about the validity of some of the premises on the basis of which global warming was forecast so as to cause a clear survival issue for some of the island nations like Maldives and similar other nations in the Pacific Ocean. It was then said that the ocean temperature rise would not be to the extent of 2 degree C put up in the papers of the Copenhagen summit by some of the developed nations and in fact it was expected to be closer to 0.2 degree C. A factor of change or difference of close to ten times which determines whether some of these island nations would exist or not. This magnitude of error cannot support any hypothesis and therefore it was positioned that all this global warming fear that is being revved up is all a hot bubble with nothing inside it. In hindsight the fact that the Copenhagen summit ended with no declaration or treaty supports this line of thinking that the issue of global warming is all a scam positioned by some scientists and the organizations that they are with to get funds for their research. The latest Himalayan blunder in positing that the glaciers in this region will all die by 2035 and the acceptance that this forecast timeline was actually wrong by none other than Dr Pachauri is again clearly in sync with the above scam. A scare situation is attempted to be created to ensure that the agencies involved are flush with funds and when they are caught out, they have like Dr Pachauri did apologise and say they were wrong. Dr Pachauri should have resigned from his position with the same felicity with which he received the Nobel prize or at least returned the prize considering that one of the premises of his work has been admitted to be wrong and he has also accepted this fact.

The Sugar Baron Needs Milk To Sweeten His Nest-Egg

Sharad Pawar the other day cautioned that milk supply from the farmers to the dairies is in a shortage in North India and advised that this could lead to a rise in prices. Hardly had he said that there was a clamour from the various milk co-operatives around India asking for a hike in milk prices. And mind you these milk co-operatives were not only limited to North India. With food prices already at a high and the power and water rates also having been hiked in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, the hike expected on milk was like the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back burdening the already overburdened consumer. At this time it was not only the Opposition parties but also the some of the UPA constituents who started gunning for Sharad Pawar’s head. With this he went on national TV commenting that he is not responsible for the hike in prices for food and other items and that he is only the Agriculture Minister and he has been looking after agriculture. That comment is also debatable if one considers the farmer suicides in the country under his tenure which runs into lakhs over the last decade. This comment adds to the premise that Sharad Pawar is past his time and has reached his level of incompetence as proposed in the famous Parkinson’s Principle. It is best therefore that he quits as Agriculture Minister and from all political posts that he holds in the UPA, his party – the NCP and in public life. The gaffes like this are unpardonable and if the Agriculture Minister who monitors the different crops in the country and decides when to intervene in terms of support prices, import and the like, says that he is not responsible for foodgrain prices, then there is surely something strange. In one sense Sharad Pawar may be right since when he announced that within 10 days the prices of sugar will fall, statistics show that it actually went up during that period by almost 7% all over India except in Delhi and Orissa. The problem seems to be that he has no control and also nobody listens to him. By the same analogy of opposites the price of milk when Sharad Pawar says will go up may actually come down! As regards his comments on milk price for a politician like Sharad Pawar who has been around for donkey’s years and with a maturity and sagacity that he has showed in the past to be considered even for the office of the Prime Minister, this blunder was stunning. Has he not heard what happens to the stock markets which are talked up and down by the Finance Minister or the RBI’s statement or policies and in the same way when he talks of milk prices, is it not the same effect that will be caused? It is known that politicians do these kind of things at times when elections are round the corner to raise funds since the milk co-operatives can then be squeezed by these politicians and asked to part with some of the hike that they are getting. However right now there are no major elections around the corner for the NCP to go looking for funds. Then is it that this timing is personal since Sharad Pawar has announced that he will be relinquishing office come the next general elections and he is making arrangements for his retirement from active politics now itself. The sugar baron sure needs some milk to sweeten his retirement, that is surely what it looks like!

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 9 Date: 23.01.2010

CHINA’S STRATEGIC POSITIONING

China is reported to be building the world’s highest airport in Tibet beating the existing one in the same region. This airport once it is ready will be the 7^th in Tibet. After building the rail link to Tibet from Beijing which was again the world’s highest railway involving multiple logistical and technological challenges this new airport qualifying for the same category of difficulty is surely going to bring laurels to the Chinese engineering and scientific expertise. They have already put a man into space on their own while we have sent one through the Russians, when you go into comparisons with India. Thus when China aims at the frontiers of engineering and technology aspiring to achieve leadership positions, we prefer to be camp followers of the US lulled into a false security by being told that we are the leaders in information technology so that the Americans can use us for all their dirty housekeeping work in the IT area and throw lollipops at us like the Indo-US nuclear deal to keep us docile and quiet. Recently we have seen the Chinese taking away contracts to exploit the large copper deposits in Afghanistan north of Kabul and building a railway to carry away the refined metal back to China over the mountains. There have been similar forays by the Chinese in Central Asia mostly in the oil and gas sectors and to build infrastructure like roads and bridges which will help them exercise political influence in this area. To support their ever hungry economy the Chinese are trying to corner raw materials and resources in almost every part of the developing world ranging from Africa to South America. China is already a major player in Burma helping the military junta regime there exploit their natural gas and petroleum resources which contracts India did try to bid for but were outmaneuvered by the Chinese. There is a large port also being built in Burma by China as also one in Sri Lanka which will give the Chinese fleet access both to the Bay of Bengal as also provide them with a reach into the Indian Ocean. These initiatives by China will enable them to consolidate their position in the region to the detriment of India as also cement their position as a super-power in the years to come. In contrast, as mentioned earlier we are content to play subsidiary roles to the existing major powers and develop no negotiating leverage of our own in any area. There would have been no problem with China’s plans and programs if they were not in Asia and we did not share a border with them. The fact that we have a continuing border issue with them in Arunachal Pradesh which is being kept alive adds to the strain in the relations between the two countries and is indicative of China’s hegemonous tendencies.. Thus we need to be wary of these forays by China in and around us in the region so that we can at the least make an effort to protect our territorial rights and ensure that our sovereignty is not threatened.

Congress Celebrates Its 125^th Anniversary While India Lies Somnolent On Its Death Bed

Recently the Congress party celebrated its 125^th anniversary. One cannot really understand the need for celebration since it is the Congress party which has ruled India for close to half a century since Independence and is clearly responsible for the mess that we are in today. One need not go into the details but the headlines over the last two months will highlight the atrocious manner in which the Congress has governed this country. The 1984 Sikh riots in New Delhi upon Indira Gandhi’s assassination has the main perpetrators moving around freely with one of them almost made a Union Minister in the Congress led government, even after 25 years of the event. The Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 is yet to take anyone to court with the Liberhan Commission report only tabled in Parliament in 2009. The report ends up reading more like a moralistic fairy tale than a legal document and for that reason maybe it will lie in the cellars of the Home Ministry to accumulate vintage since it is very much doubtful whether based on it any concrete action can be taken against the guilty whom we all know, in the majority, fill the top echelons of the BJP and what is called the Sangh Parivar. A girl, Jessica Lall, gets shot and killed in a bar at Delhi in full view of people but for the politician’s son to be incarcerated in jail, it takes more than a decade and more surprisingly he recently comes out on parole ostensibly to attend to his ailing mother who turns up at a public event far away from Delhi while the son surfaces through a brawl at one of the famous watering holes of the city in the company of his illustrious, if not notorious, friends. An ex-Admiral’s son mows down again in Delhi some of the poor sleeping on the roads and the wheels of justice grind slowly and in the process show up how compromised justice is in this country with the defence lawyer having connections with the prosecuting counsel and negotiating for a lenient settlement. Justice at the time of Independence or the two decades thereafter was surely more balanced than what it is today. Nowadays justice is more like a chained dog tied to the palace doors of the rich and powerful in this country.

Forget justice, take poverty and for all the talk about economic progress that this country has seen in the last 62 years since Independence, we have possibly more people below the poverty line than we had anywhere in 1947 and maybe more than the entire population of the country then. The reason for this is that the rich have got richer and the poor have got poorer. This divide has been growing deeper and deeper every decade since Independence and we have come to a pass that we today recognize that are two distinct divisions of this country, one India that lives in the urban areas privy to the benefits of development and in certain pockets boasting of living standards which may be better than the average living standard in the West. In contrast, there is Bharat which lives in the rural areas in the vast hinterland of this country and in the slums of urban India who with a millstone around their necks are compulsorily made to work their backs off for urban India. Whenever India meets Bharat it is mostly to exploit the latter. To hold their noses to ward off the stench in which Bharat lives to make India live in comfort and splendor. To pass on the new 4 and 6-lane highways in their air-conditioned cars lamenting at the lack of growth of agriculture and why we in India have to survive on imports of fruit, olive oil and cheese from abroad.

There is more, take health care. There are more cases of infant mortality now than that were there at the time of Independence. The percentages hide more than they reveal. The fact is that number for number we have more children dying before the age of 5 than earlier as also anywhere else in the world today. Health care in India is a disaster for the poor and down- trodden. To assess this, one has to just visit any of the government run hospitals where you will see patients filling the wards and corridors choc a bloc leaving little room for the doctors to find space to attend to them. Even in AIIMS at Delhi you will find patients staying on the pavements outside hoping against hope to be admitted into the facility for treatment. The sheer number of patients is making the government hospitals burst at their seams and putting the on-duty doctor’s teeth on edge. The quality of health care that is delivered through this can thus be assessed to be uniformly below par by any measurable standards. Another statistic in which India leads is the deaths caused by water-borne diseases and vector diseases like malaria, dengue and the like. On water compared to Independence the quality, the distribution across the country and overall availability of potable water has fallen on a per capita basis. The result is that the burgeoning population has to make do with whatever water is available which is generally polluted by industry and others leading to almost every other person suffering from diseases like diarrhea, dysentery, cholera etc., more so during the monsoons. The developments in medicine in the country are mainly related to the treatment that the rich can get in what are called super-specialty hospitals whose rates are also super-special. This enables our medical fraternity to tom-tom their achievements by saying that the treatment in India is as advanced as in the West but at a fraction of its cost while hiding the fact that these facilities like super-specialty hospitals were built on the premise of free beds for the poor which ceased to be given once the facilities became operational. The majority in India thus carries on with the burden of disease on their shoulders exposed to the vagaries of quacks of all kinds which abound specially in the rural areas.

On education, there is more. Primary education is the most neglected in India and just about a decade ago there was a program called Operation Blackboard to supply blackboards to the schools across the country. This was around when the country was celebrating the golden jubilee of Independence. Even today in India it is doubtful whether anyone can with any amount of certainty state that all schools have a blackboard. There are still many schools which do not have a roof or walls in which to conduct classes let alone toilets, even in girl’s schools, where the children are encouraged to use the open surroundings, if available, for their toilet needs. No wonder therefore the drop out rate is high inspite of the free lunch program conceived as an incentive for the poor to send their children to school which in itself has become a source of corruption with school authorities and local self-help groups making money on the food that was supposed to be a nutritional supplement to deprived children. The situation of secondary education is not much different. Higher education post-matriculation or SSC level has been privatized to supplement government colleges and has seen a lot of investment from interested groups to convert the whole process of education into a business when it comes to particularly professional colleges with little emphasis on the content or quality of education. Therefore you are left with a situation where you may not trust a newly qualified doctor with your life since you know that he has got the seat by paying a capitation fee and has gone through a college possibly with no lab facilities or internship to round off his theoretical learning. In all this the government and these so-called educationists who invest in setting up professional colleges rarely probably take time to think that unless they have a strong primary and secondary education sector, they may be twiddling their thumbs having no admissions into their colleges in the not very distant future. If you look at the education picture overall and take into account the factor of literacy, the recent UNESCO report highlights India’s predicament with the largest number of illiterate adults in the world. In contrast at the time of Independence, we had good schools and colleges which were known for their quality of education and the dedication of teachers known for their commitment to turn out not only good scholars but also good human beings.

Thus if the Congress has any intentions to seek credit for the present state of India, it would only show up the contradiction in their perception of reality and the obtuseness of their approach to things. In fact one can safely say that even without the Congress, India would possibly have reached this position, in fact without any political party or governance for that matter, since India has arrived in its present state by what is called natural growth. No influence of any kind affects natural growth and just like the trees or vegetation or for that matter all living beings grow with age, the same has been true for India. In another perspective you can even now see the India of Independence vintage in some small place or sphere in India where nothing has changed, where people retain the same values of trust, honesty and fellowship with others wishing them well in their endeavours and taking pleasure in other’s achievements as much as their own. This India has telescoped into multiple Indias where the overlays of each has resulted in a decay or dilution or moving away from the value systems that we all held sacred once upon a time. The analogy is also true like if you are in a hall of mirrors surrounded by your own reflection which in a linear context makes your image smaller and smaller as it recedes in multiple reflections and in others distorts, changes shape, metamorphosises forms in reflections of other mirrors which either because of their quality or with intended convexity or concavity changes the shape of the image. The receding true image that gets smaller and smaller is the India of Independence vintage while the overlays of other images dancing in their complexity and distortion are the evolving India. The world over people perceive India in this manner and we have to admit this that the standing and respect that we commanded internationally at the time of Independence and for maybe two decades since that time was much more influential, more solid and more representative of a world leader than what we are today reduced to a camp follower status in world affairs tied to the apron or purse strings of one or the other power like the USA and with practically no voice in world affairs and not even consulted in major developments or happenings by any nation for that matter.

This is the sorry state of my India, brought in a large part by the Congress, led today by a foreigner who has no education and no culture to speak of, which has the audacity to ‘celebrate’ their 125^th anniversary. It is day of mourning, my friend, the day when you will bury the India of the past is not far away or maybe she is buried already or consigned to the flames thus making sure that she does not resurrect.

THE UNACCOUNTABILITY OF SHARAD PAWAR

Sharad Pawar spoke just about a week ago that retail sugar prices will fall in ten days. Then he has added a rider yesterday (20^th Jan 2010), saying just before the above ten days period is up, that wholesale prices of sugar have fallen and to reflect that fall in retail prices it normally takes about fifteen days. Is Mr Pawar trying to buy time and wriggle out of his promise of bringing down retail sugar prices within ten days? It surely looks so. The other question that one needs to ask Mr Pawar is that if bringing down sugar prices was so simple and so quick, even if 10 days goes to 20-25 days, why did he not act on this earlier? Why did he wait for sugar prices to hit the zenith and then take action? Surely there is some reason, mostly political, behind all this? On the sugar issue, the zero import duty for importing raw sugar could it not have been announced earlier? And the stocks of raw sugar imported by the UP sugar mills and lying purportedly in Gujarat ports to the level of a million tones did not happen overnight just before Mr Pawar spoke about the above commitment. Could not therefore the freedom of diverting these stocks to other sugar mills willing to process this be given earlier? The Agriculture Ministry and specifically Mr Sharad Pawar showed a lack of application and resolve to tackle the sugar crisis in time which goes for all other foodgrains also. We talk of a dynamic food environment now and is it not then the role of our Agriculture Ministry to take the lead in monitoring local and international food prices in the context of our harvests and take decisions to import stocks and if required, ban exports so that there is no unnecessary artificial scarcity created in the local marketplace. Therefore Ms Mayawati is not very wrong in asking for the resignation of Mr Sharad Pawar before she can attend the PM’s CM conference of rising foodprices on 27^th Jan 2010. Mr Pawar is a senior Minister and should lead by example in being accountable for his actions and put in his resignation on his own. Further the UPA Govt. has completely failed in its ability to tackle food prices and should on this count alone seek a fresh mandate from the people. Instead of waiting for the problem of food prices lie unattended for so long the authorities once they knew that the rice and wheat harvests had failed should have intervened by releasing foodgrains from the FCI godowns. Blaming the State Govt.’s is not an excuse and clearly shows the irresponsibility of this UPA Govt. that they failed to pursue the matter to its conclusion by forcing the State Govt.’s to lift stocks. Like some of the non-UPA State Govt.’s pointed out the other Congress State Govt.’s also failed to lift stocks. Hence is it not the Congress party and in consequence the UPA Govt.’s failure to manage the escalating food price crisis? This is also a reflection on how much our Ministers and Govt. live in their own ivory towers isolated from the common man. An indication of this is further our Finance Minister’s oblique approach to the problem of rising food prices by saying that he is tackling the rising inflation when a few months back there was a consensus that our inflation indices, the WPI and the CPI do not reflect food prices since when vegetable and pulses prices were skyrocketing the inflation and other indices were showing negative inflation or increases in the decimal range below 1%. Thus like they say every man to his own, this UPA Govt. talks in many voices but never in consonance for the benefit of the common man.

THE INDIAN COMMUNITY IN AUSTRALIA SHOULD STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES

The attacks on Indians in Australia is getting excessive and it is time that those of us who are there do something about it so that these attacks are stopped. For this the Indians there should take a page out of the book of the emigrant South East Asian community in Australia, the majority among them being Chinese and Vietnamese. In cities like Sydney and Melbourne there is a sizeable population of them and these communities there have street gangs which infrequently flare up in a show of force causing mayhem and bloodshed, mainly among themselves. These incidents result in building a reputation of this community that they are capable of retaliating and not to be messed around with. The local Aussie community who are themselves a bit crass and ill-mannered recognise this language and in the majority stay away from the South East Asian community. This is what our expat Indians there need to do. Organise from among the student community within themselves which in any case is in the majority, vigilante groups which will patrol the streets to spot crime against Indians and in the event of an incident are able to reach the spot quickly so that they can catch the assailants, teach them a lesson and then hand them over to the police. These groups can work in consultation with the local police so that they understand that there is no intention to take law into the hands of these vigilante groups. Otherwise and if this is not done then the attacks on the Indian community as we have seen will only go on increasing since the Aussie character is such that if you take things lying down they tend to dominate you more. Enough is enough and it is time to wake up to reality and stand up for your security, safety and your rights.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 8 Date: 16.01.2010

The Army In Seek Of Honour

The Sukna land grab scam is yet another allegation on the Army and its officers integrity and that too of people at the level of generals which needs to be investigated thoroughly and the truth of the matter needs to be publicized clearly leaving no ambiguity in the minds of the people since the Army’s reputation is at stake. The fact that the high standards that the Indian Army sets for itself are unfortunately things of the past since the last decade has shown up the Army to be subject to major flaws in terms of its character, the proclivities of its personnel ranging from the senior most officers to the jawan and problems related to its processes and the manner of administration. It is a well known fact that corruption is endemic in the Army right from purchase of weaponry and equipment to taking cuts on civil contracts placed by various MES officers around the country. The most frequent instances of corruption are with the Canteen Stores Department where major scandals were unearthed on diversion of defence liquor and dry ration supplies to the free market with the involvement of people up to the rank of Brigadier. There were also instances were money was made even on rations supplied to our soldiers stationed in the northernmost regions of the country like in Leh and the Sia Chin glacier. The George Fernandes episode of money being made on supply of coffins is too well known to bear repetition here. Further the atrocities particularly against women caused by Army personnel in Jammu & Kashmir and other regions of the country like the North East are too numerous to recount. In terms of discipline the level of fratricide of Army personnel killing their own peers or senior officers shows that the integrity of the line of command in the forces is under severe strain. A related issue is when even the spouses of senior Army officers had to complain about their having to kow-tow to their senior or commanding officer’s wives for fear of the promotions of their husbands did nothing to enhance the reputation of the Army fraternity. The Army as we all know has its own method of imposing discipline and dispensing justice which should not be devalued or done away with. That is granted but maybe and this is a point for Army officers to ponder that more of their dirty linen would have been washed in public if the Army had been more open about its working. Which brings us to the philosophy that there are always two ways of handling a problem, one by putting a lid on it and allowing the concerned persons in this case the Army and defence forces to sort it out amongst themselves, while the other is to be more open about the problems, in this case the Army’s working and bring out the issues to the light of day. The very fact that there is an openness and acceptance of problems will lead the Army being more conscious of the need for correcting itself. And that will bring out a change for the better. The Army at its highest level should understand that times have changed. And the ‘open approach’ is the way to go. That way we will have a more confident Army approaching their assignments with more vigour and pride in their ability to achieve the insurmountable odds that they are sometimes faced with. Also in this way there will be some honour for the Army to protect since right now the slip is showing.

The Virtue Of UN Resolutions

With great virtue did George W Bush and Colin Powell pursue UN resolutions to legitimize their plans to attack Iraq but now cross-border attacks are being resorted to with impunity in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan without the legal backing of UN resolutions on the pretext that attacking Al Qaeda and the Taliban is fair game in any country/any place. Just the other day when there was a terror scare in Yemen resulting in the embassies of the US, UK and France shutting down for some days, it is understood that the US was planning airstrikes on terror training camps there. The drone missile attacks being launched by US defense personnel sitting far removed as Saudi Arabia and in some cases, the US on targets in Afghanistan and the tribal regions of Pakistan are in the same category of unauthorized attacks and additionally suffer from the drawback that the operators of the ‘red strike button’ on their consoles do not give them a feel of the war and the blood and gore that they are causing. For them it is like playing a video game on an impersonal basis and to tot up their scores for the session that they play not counting the collateral damage that they are causing. While the US foot soldiers in the named countries being privy to live action will see the pointlessness and futility of their action and will be more sympathetic when it comes to causing civilian deaths. This kind of problem on cross-border strikes is more so with Israel who on the pretext of threats conducts airstrikes on a regular basis against assumed terror targets in the Gaza Strip and against its other neighbours. Does the UN have no role in reining in these indiscriminate attacks against the lesser equipped adversary? It is not these airstrikes are a one-off occurrence which one can to a certain extent condone but these have been going on for years now particularly in the Israeli context to the extent that they are now SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) in their defense manuals.

India’s Foreign Policy Needs An Economic Edge

India’s foreign policy continues to be emasculated with no edge to it to look out for economic benefits for ourselves. The latest in this sorry state of affairs is the fact that China has sealed a deal to prospect and extract copper just 30 KM out of Kabul of one of the largest known deposits currently in the world at approx. 25 million tonnes and India had no clue about it. Forget the fact that the US who has invested so much in Afghanistan has been cut out of the deal, India which has spent so much in the reconstruction effort in the war scarred nation was also not advised of the deal by the Karzai Govt. China is understood to have quoted a billion dollars more than its nearest rival in the bid which involves much more than extracting copper like constructing a captive power plant for the mine, build a railroad to carry away the copper to China etc. All these projects are being done by China to support their strategic interests in the region since the railroad access will open the whole of Afghanistan to China. Time and again China has been doing this kind of thing with which the US even in Iraq finds itself cut off from oil production contracts. The economic diplomacy that China is seriously pursuing extends not only to the above named countries but large parts of Africa, South America and Central Asia. It is time that India also pursued similar programs not that it may be possible to win contracts bidding against China but at least the targeted countries will know that we exist and thus it may help our foreign policy exercise the influence that we as a country deserve. But the problem remains that our embassies around the world are more involved in consular operations rather than any economic policy efforts for the parent country’s benefits. The only exception being the Indian embassy in the US which works completely fine tuned to the government and big business interests of the US. Their latest coup has been to engineer the Indo-US nuclear deal so that US Cos. involved in this area get billions of dollars of contracts from India.

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SENT UPTO HERE TO TAMMU FOR FORWARDING TO LOWELL.

VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 7 Date: 09.01.2010

Contain The Al Qaeda In Afghanistan & Pakistan

In the manner of pizza dough being squeezed through a press the Al Qaeda is dribbling out of the sides of Afghanistan and Pakistan as the US increases the level of battle operations in these two countries. Thus you see the Al Qaeda influence spreading in Africa and Asia Minor to countries like Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen. The spread can also be attributed to the Islamic sympathisers of the Al Qaeda wanting to support the parent arm of the organisation in Afghanistan in the face of US aggression. Not that these above named countries did not have Al Qaeda influence earlier since Yemen had seen one of the first attacks on the U.S.S Cole at Aden and on the US Embassy in Nairobi many years ago. But these were nascent units of the Al Qaeda at that time in these countries and should have been eliminated by now with US involvement assisting the local law enforcement authorities. Instead of that these units are gaining in strength as evident in the recent attempted bombing of a US airliner by a Nigerian youth trained in Yemen and the security threat perceived in Yemen forcing the US, Britain and France to close their embassies in this country in quick succession for a few days. Thus the best option to contain the Al Qaeda is to limit it to its place of origin in Afghanistan and in Pakistan where the operationalising strategies for the majority of terror attacks are worked out. Isolating these countries will have the Al Qaeda and their close sympathisers the Taliban fester in these countries and kill themselves leaving the rest of the world in peace. Consequent of the Nigerian youth attempted bomb attack on Christmas Day on the Northwest Airlines flight, the US is upping the rhetoric that the US is a front-line State in the war on terror where it is clearly not. The problem lies with the US process which if followed properly would have ensured that the Nigerian youth would not have even boarded the flight since he was on the No-Fly list. Moreover transit air passengers are not frisked or put through security at most European airports which is an error since if these passengers also are made to go through security again then the terrorists like the Nigerian youth who pass through one check may get caught at the final boarding point. The same applies to the 9/11 incident in the US with the hijackers getting on the flight with weapons due to lax security procedures. Now by hindsight the US and the other developed nations have gone on overkill on security looking at whole body scanners which have their own problems in terms of invasion of privacy rules et al. There are many loopholes in the security environment in terms of air travel and it was recently found that unaccompanied baggage incoming into a country is not screened through X-Ray and other systems. This was found when an East European airline put through a bag containing RDX into Ireland on a test basis and it went through. One can imagine if the bag was that of a terrorist and primed to explode by remote control what kind of a disaster was likely. Thus the best way to avoid terror attacks or limit them in the future is to contain the Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and tighten up the security systems around the world for all kinds of travel and cargo movement. This method will be cheaper and more effective than conducting a full scale war against an invisible enemy and in that process creating more enemies which will protract this war both in terms of time and the manner in which it is fought. The CIA in terms of its operational procedures needs to be revamped since they failed to advise of the risk of the Nigerian youth on the Northwest airlines Christmas day flight to Homeland Security inspite of his father advising that his son’s tendencies were not safe and then having a Jordanian double agent blow up seven of their colleagues at one of their Afghanistan operations just the other day. Like they say the CIA never learns from the goof-ups it has made in past operations and botches up things even now in style which in George W Bush cowboy style of – ‘Let’s Go Get Them! – could be acceptable but under President Obama, it would be wiser for him to rein the CIA on a stronger and shorter leash.

LED Lamps Are Cleaner & Greener Than CFL’s

It is reported that the Himachal Pradesh Govt. gave 16.7 Lakh households 4 CFL’s (2 Nos. 12W + 2 Nos. 20W) each free of cost and saved electrical power in terms of consumption of Rs 100 crore in a year. These statistics are very reassuring but they hide more than they reveal. They hide the potential of mercury pollution when the approx. 67 lakh CFL’s will be disposed off once they fail over a normal 12 -18 month period. The greenery that Himachal is known for will vanish in the span of a generation with the mercury pollution of the environment. They do not take into account the fact that all these CFL’s may not have been used at all or some of them were used for less time than taken for calculations since all the CFL’s are never put on all at the same time in an average household thus hiking the rupee value of the saving. The initial lot of 4 CFL’s were given free by the Govt. but the replacements will have to be purchased at market prices by the people which is the sucker ride that these programs do not highlight. How much of the poorer class of people can afford to buy the replacement CFL’s is what we will have to see since per Indian habits as long as it is free they will use the CFL’s but for replacements they will go back to the cheaper traditional electric bulb. Lastly, it is a wonderful opportunity for the politicians to make money on the deal since 67 lakh CFL’s @ even Rs. 50/- on average means a deal valued at Rs. 33 crores which any lamp manufacturer will give his right arm to get and keep his benefactors happy for at least two generations. We should in no event repeat this Himachal experiment in the rest of India but wait for LED lamps which are coming which will further reduce the power consumption of the lamp in terms of light output it generates and has practically no pollution since it has no mercury in it and the metals used in it do not contribute to environmental pollution. Thus we should not rush into any programs seeing the visible and apparent benefits and leave the risks and problems like pollution to posterity.

Improve Elimination Ability Of Our Forces Against Terrorists

We need to seriously look at the manner of resolving terrorist situations relating to the event after having taken place in terms of interception, interdiction and elimination. In the recent situation in Srinagar just two terrorists held at bay the Indian force for 21 hours and killed many more than their own strength. This is the same thing which happened during 26/11 when a handful of terrorists at the hotels held off close to more than three days the entire Mumbai police force inclusive of the NSG commandos. Compare this situation with what happens abroad like in the US where the fatalities happen mostly when the perpetrator goes into the building or facility but after he has holed up, the fatalities with the interception force are very minimal or practically nil. Thus there is a lot of scope in upgrading the ability of our interception forces to ensure minimum loss of life to the public at large and themselves. Again we call terrorist action as 'waging war against the country', if so, what prevents us from asking our Army commandos in addition to the NSG force involve themselves in this kind of action. They are adequately trained and can be or are deployed around the country in their cantonments and therefore can be used as a QRT (Quick Response Team) whenever such events happen. This will effectively nullify the need for developing SWAT teams within the respective State police forces and will save a large amount of funds which would otherwise be spent in duplicating expertise and resources.

Opposition Parties Found Lacking In Tackling UPA Govt. On Price Rise

There has been now an understanding that the unabated rise in prices over the last one year has been related to the drought consequent upon the failure of the previous year's monsoon and related supply side failures. Though this realisation is belated on the part of the incumbent Govt. it is heartening to note that they have at last recognised that prices have been rising in the marketplace. The fact that the common man has been crippled with the burden of these rising prices seems not to have registered with the political parties in the Opposition since they but for a token debate in Parliament during the last session have not taken to the streets to protest against the situation. A mass demonstration should have been called along with a strike across India by the Opposition parties which would have given them a platform to voice their views and canvass support from the electorate. For long the Left parties known as the champions of the downtrodden have fallen far short of expectations in this current crisis. The BJP has also been silent except for token slogan shouting and using the price rise more as a political weapon to bait the Congress and the UPA Govt. rather than play any meaningful role in forcing the Govt. to act to control and/or curb food prices. Is this because the BJP long known as a bania party are allowing their supporters in the trade to make merry at this time since it is the middlemen who are gaining in a large measure from the runaway prices? The problem for the common man is that once prices rise they rarely come down and definitely not anywhere near the levels that they were in the past. Thus not only is the common man's life being squeezed through the millstones of the economy because of the present price rise but it is conditioning him for future price inflation also. The UPA Govt. led by our 'human face' PM at this time is complacently relating the fact that worldwide prices for food are on the increase without realising that we in no event earn world level income and with each paise of price increase maybe a lakh of poor people in India are pushed below the poverty index since they are in any case living at subsistence levels.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 6 Date: 02.01.2010

Israelis Unable To Give Up Their Ghetto Mindset

Israelis who consider themselves oppressed are today turning the oppressor in relation to their neighbours in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region, particularly the Palestinians whose country they have usurped. Lately they have built a wall transforming their own country into a ghetto which they are possibly unable to forget from their mid-20^th century experiences in Poland and Germany. Thus the Israelis seem to be comfortable with the fact of the wall being existent in their country which the Palestinians are objecting to with all their available resources and the little strength that they have. Thus a barrier long a symbol of segregation and oppression for the Israelis is being seen today as a presence that brings peace, comfort and solace. Like we are all encouraged in a situation where opinions are divided to – Look at the Other Side of the Coin, so also the Israeli perception of the wall is a remarkable transformation of the viewpoint of the Israelis. It seems the wall is so indelibly etched in the Israeli psyche that they just cannot live without it.

The Ram Pradhan Committee Report: The Fact Of The Matter

The Ram Pradhan committee report that was selectively leaked earlier was released officially by way of tabling it in the Maharasthra assembly. On the preparedness of the Mumbai police and the manner in which they handled the 26/11 terror attack it shed little new light on what the discerning citizen already knew. The fact that there is little co-ordination between the intelligence agencies is a very well known fact in India. Even the issue that the intelligence wing of the Mumbai police was completely disregarded and was rarely in the picture in the build-up to the events prior to 26/11 was only to be expected. The intelligence wing in the police, if at all it exists, in the various States of India is only to provide an alternative place of transfer for errant and out-of-favour IPS officers. Another resting place for such officers is the Training School or the Housing Corporation. There is little or no intelligence within the police force and therefore you could say that they find no need for an intelligence wing. The systematic cultivation of informants and the ability to receive and act on inputs of intelligence from the Central agencies has long been given the go-by. Thus it is not surprising to know that the warnings from the Central agencies and the Navy were not acted upon by the Mumbai police. Further the routine advice from the Mumbai police to the 5-star hotels to upgrade their security was completely disregarded which explains the credibility the local police force has with their proximate community who cater to an exclusive class of affluent and business people. The police force and it is not true only of the Mumbai police but all over India lacks today any kind of a professional reputation and does not generate any confidence in their ability to protect their clientele. Instead the average citizen believes that the police are a corrupt and compromised lot and it is best to keep a distance from them. Thus the protector and the protected move on parallel rails, so to speak, and rarely do the twain meet. The same is true for the multiplicity of intelligence agencies at the Central level where there is hardly any co-ordination between them to share information amongst themselves for the sake of the citizens and the nation. Instead it is more turf wars amongst themselves, one-up-manship, a tendency to protect themselves from criticism and an uncontrollable urge to go to the media and seek credit for whatever little positive things that they are able to do. Thus one can but understand that when there is no common sense of purpose how can the job of protecting the nation be done. A simple example in this regard is the tsunami on 26 Dec 2004 which hit first the Indian Air Force base in the Andamans and took a clear 15 minutes to cross the Bay of Bengal and hit the eastern coast, the shores of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Are anyone of us aware that the IAF sent from their Andamans base a message to the Meenambakkam base at Chennai about the impending disaster that the tsunami was bringing? No, because no message was sent though the IAF is expected to have the best communication systems among the armed forces. If a message had been sent the population on the coast could have been advised to evacuate and at least some lives would have been saved since it is well-known the best protection from a tsunami is for the population to move more inside the land and allow the big waves to come in, break and return to the sea. This incident also shows you the preparedness of our IAF against surprise attacks. Suppose an inimical country to the Indian nation had launched an airborne attack against India, you can well imagine the condition that all of us would be in. The 26/11 was one such attack that we had to endure and there will be many more unless we do not focus on alertness and the ability to intercept and destroy our attackers. As for the Ram Pradhan committee report touching upon the equipment issue to the Mumbai police including the infamous bullet-proof (?) jacket that Karkare wore and not being in practice of firing and under-fire situations, these are but signs of an indolent and complacent police force and the local administration who, have been used to complimenting themselves on a job well-done and suffering a disconnect from the local population, have no understanding that they are operating far from the reality that their job demands. The best thing to do now is to understand that a real threat or security scare exists as represented by the experience of 26/11 and create an awareness of an intelligence network comprising of the local population which will alert the police of any untoward incident or happening which they feel threaten the security of their neighbourhood. Thus when Kasab and his co-attackers landed on the Mumbai shores they would have been seen by many people who would have thought why should we bother? Why should we get into trouble? These local people need to be given the confidence that the police are there to help hem, that the police are capable, that the police will not hound them. Only then will we be able to get adequate protection against outside terror attacks. The police on their part need to be paid better so as to wean them away from corruption and have as is being correctly done now a crack SWAT team which is capable to intercept, isolate and neutralize heavily armed attackers.

BJP: No Qualms Of Conscience In Jharkhand

While the Jharkhand election results were being announced showing a hung Assembly, Arun Jaitley of the BJP had assumed that Shibu Soren of the JMM who was holding the keys to power would align with the Congress since they were UPA members in the past and therefore castigating the Congress for joining hands with a 'criminal and a murderer'. These were strong words indeed and now that the BJP has finally gone to bed with the JMM in Jharkhand will Jaitley eat crow and take back his words like Rajiv Pratap Rudy did while commenting on the same JMM alignment issue. From this we can see that the BJP is still playing the politics of convenience and will consort with known criminals of all sorts to meet limited political aims. This was also proven in the last General Elections when the BJP, among all other parties, had fielded the largest number of candidates with a criminal record.

Zulus Spilling The Blood Of The Bulls

There is a festive custom of the Zulus at the time of the harvest to kill a bull by their warriors with their bare hands. At one level, this kind of thing is condemnable if the bull is tortured at the time of killing. A civilized society should as much as possible make killing of animals for any reason simple and effective and cause the least pain and get it over with quickly. At another level, if you see the Spanish speaking world there are bull fights where bulls are killed for sport in a process akin to torture more frequently than the presumably once a year or at most twice a year of the Zulus, which we all tolerate. Thus is there one rule for the goose and another for the gander, when we criticize the Zulus for following an ancient tradition. If the Zulus have to stop their practice then the Western world will also have to give up their bullfights.

Blackwater Exonerated

The Blackwater personnel involved in the unnecessary killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad have been acquitted by a US court of appeal. This after they had been found guilty earlier and had been sentenced for the offence. This clearly seems to be a process by the US authorities of trying to appease public opinion by claiming that the Blackwater personnel hired by the DoD (Dept. of Defense) are answerable to law and have been exonerated after due process has been followed. Thus the teeth of the criticism of the blatant public offence is blunted and the US gets away with their hired personnel wiped clean of criminal malfeasance.

Give Peace A Chance

President Obama has said that the US will not rest until those behind the recent attempted bomb attack on board by the African youth on a US airplane on Christmas Day are caught. This is the US response to an Al Qaeda attempted terror attack. While President Obama has no similar words of disciplining his forces or even for commisseration for 12 killed in a US missile strike at around the same time in Afghanistan of which 8 were children. These kind of events keep happening all the time where innocent civilians get killed and the US takes no action to stop these incidents. Thus the Al Qaeda and the Muslim world believe that their desire to seek revenge is as strong as Obama's and their means are like the bomb strike attempted on the airline. This meaningless strike and counter-strike will continue as it has been for over 8 years now in Afghanistan and 6 years in Iraq with sporadic incidents spreading the same violence around the world. There is therefore a need at this juncture to eschew violence and only then peace can follow or be given a chance to follow. And in this matter the US have to take the lead with their Nobel Peace prize winning President Barrack Obama in the vanguard.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 5 Date: 26.12.2009

Reclusive PM‏

It is only now that the PM is getting involved in the Telengana mess. But for a statement close to 10 days ago from him that the Telengana proposal will take time, we had nothing coming from him even when the Telugu people were up in arms and Andhra Pradesh was in turmoil. Even in the fire fighting team constituted by the Congress and the UPA Govt. it was Pranab Mukherjee who was the leader and there was no sign of the PM. It has happened many a time in the past in times of crisis when the PM has preferred to recede into the background and cede the central position to others, mostly Sonia Gandhi. Even the Telengana issue seems to be a decision taken in haste by the Congress party highest leadership which cross the PM is being made to bear. Thus to better tackle matters of government the PM has to assert himself more since obviously erroneous decisions like the one on Telengana State are not taken. This is the only way that the PM can retain the

steering wheel in his hand of the vehicle called government in this country.

2^nd SRC : Happy Times For New States

The Telengana supporters would have been disappointed with the current UPA Govt.’s announcement last week that there needs to be wide-ranging discussions about the formation of the new State. But with the new SRC (State Re-organisation Commission) around the corner, it would have brought smiles on the faces of many of the supporters of other of the splinter State supporters like Gorkhaland, Hait Prdesh, Bodoland, Bundelkhand et al. Even the Telengana supporters need to have patience and hold their horses since ultimately their dream will get fulfilled with Hyderabad as the capital but how long it will take is anybody’s guess.

Indict Blair & Bush

Tony Blair’s recent comments that the UK would have in any case attacked Iraq even if Saddam Hussein did not have WMD’s is enough evidence that the Iraq war was conceived as an exercise in regime change and as ex-President George W Bush’s maladjusted desire to seek revenge against Saddam Hussein for the perceived slights against his father as a consequence of the first Desert War when Iraqi forces had overran Kuwait. It is quite stupefying that for these finicky reasons the elected leaders of the two countries that comprise in the US, the most powerful democracy and in the UK, the longest serving democracy in the world, went and attacked a country like Iraq which has now lasted more than six years with casualties variously estimated to be more than a half a million in Iraq and the invading nations and because of the war, converted the entire country into a cauldron of strife comprising of terrorist mayhem, factional infighting among religious groups – the Shia and the Sunni, mercenary war, smuggler and blackmarketeer ground battles, turning a once fair nation proud of its rich past and heritage into a nation of beggars living off the mercy of the rich nations of the West. It is a wonder that the alternative of just taking out Saddam Hussein and his family and thereby saving the rest of the population of Iraq never struck the cowboys, Bush and Blair, since then the human and material cost of this extended war would have been much less. Is it that these alternatives were not examined just for the lack of ground level intelligence and because of that a full scale attack on Iraq was launched by the US/UK coalition? Or was it the desire to stimulate their economies that prompted the Western leaders to war? In that economic rescue strategy, however, they have failed since the Western economies in any case went into recession last year and are even now feeling the impact of it. These are some of the matters that the recently constituted UK investigation panel needs to go into so that the world at large clearly knows the reasons for going to war on Iraq. In a larger context to ensure that the world does not see similar situations of precipitating armed conflict between nations of clearly dissimilar strengths, the Bush/Blair duo need to be punished including but not limited to the charge of waging unnecessary war amounting close to genocide. This will effectively put paid to desires by elected leaders of democratic nations from committing their resources and causing untold human agony just to satisfy their personal whims like the chieftains and kings of yore. In this regard, Blair is already attracting the charge of self-aggrandisement using his political contacts, knowledge and special information consequent of his holding the high office of the PM, within two years of giving up his official position which cooling period is the norm for UK politicians as also not being able to explain his sudden coming into wealth that has helped him invest in properties and investments around the world.

The Mystery Of Karkare's Bullet Proof Jacket‏

The charade being played out in connection with the bullet-proof jacket worn by Karkare on 26/11 is clearly getting out of hand. On one hand we call him a hero and fete his family for his exploits and on the other hand we trivialise the matter of his death so much that we quote the sweeper at the hospital where Karkare was taken after being shot to establish the whereabouts of the ostensibly bullet proof jacket. The fact that this jacket was sub-standard in terms of the supposed protection it was expected to provide Karkare and other policemen at that time operating in similar situations needs to be assessed and clarified. This apart from being standard operating procedure for the police to get a feedback on improving the quality of the resources that they employ, is required to be advised to the policeman’s families like that of Karkare so that they are satisfied about the cause of his death. If the bullet-proof jacket was sub-standard, it remains sub-standard and no amount of obfuscation by the police now can change that or even bring Karkare back to life. The important thing is that the people of India need to know the truth as much as Karkare’s family. Further this issue brings about another dimension of the manner accident and trauma victims are handled by our hospitals. Are all the things on the person of the victim not kept safely since it is clearly evidence and will be required not only to clarify to the victim’s family but also required in the event that insurance is to be claimed or the case is admitted to our law courts for administering proper justice? At least after the publicity involved in Karkare’s case, we do hope that these matters are handled with the seriousness that they deserve.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue : 4 Date: 19.12.2009

Our Intelligence Agencies Barking Up The Wrong Tree‏

The primer for our intelligence agencies does not seem to have contained the books of John Le Carre and Robert Ludlum considerig the way they have been handling the Headley case vis a vis their interaction and expectation on this matter with the US authorities. To any educated Indian youth brought up on the diet of the novels of the above two authors, it is a known fact that the US will firstly not part with Headley given his prime importance to the US. Secondly, if he has been an agent with the DEA or any other US agency they will try to turn him again to meet their short-term objectives on terror in the present context. To use a bad metaphor, Headley in the manner of a lime will not be given access to any other country unless he has been squeezed dry by the US authorities. If Headley turns approver then India can say good-bye to any hopes it has to even interrogate him let alone seek his extradition since the US witness protection program is very strongly protected by federal law. One aspect that maybe our intelligence agencies have not considered while they follow the past trail of Headley around the country, is that there could be other Headley's who are at the present moment planning future attacks against our people on the lines of 26/11. These people need not use the network of Headley's contacts in this country which is the first principle of intelligence operations and that is, to cover your tracks develop a competely new network.

Statewise: The Wheel Is Turning Full Circle

The wheel is turning full circle again. India prior to 1947 contained more than 500 kingdoms or princely states. With the Telangana crisis precipitating a similar demand for full statehood from many wannabe states from all over India, the UPA Govt. will have their hands full. One indiscreet decision has created an avalanche of expectation. Maybe we should never have created our states based on a linguistic formula. Maybe it was better off having a very loose federal structure and having small states, which are better to manage which is the popular opinion presently, the way to go. This logic works both ways, it is easy to be very corrupt also in small states as Koda has proved in Jharkhand. Maybe we should never have imposed Hindi on the entire country. Maybe we should not have adopted English as the de-facto national language. These are the many questions that will haunt us until parochial community interests are projected as national interests. Maybe it is time to start on a clean slate since as we can all see while we fight the developed nations on free trade and climate change on account of bullying, unfair practices and discrimination, we in India do the same for smaller states. If you are not convinced then ask the people of Assam & the rest of the North East whether they like to be part of the nation and whether development in their region is taken with the same priorities as the national capital or any of the larger States and you will get your answer. An interesting fact is though Delhi has the maximum per capita expenditure on development it also has the worst quality of life, law and order and safety records compared to the rest of the country.


Obama's New AfPak Policy Will Not Work

President Obama’s new AfPak policy which includes the surge of 30,000 US soldiers to be sent in to Afghanistan is doomed for failure. The reasons for this are relatively simple. Why should what has not happened in 8 years, happen in the space of the next 2 years? Since per the announced policy the US starts withdrawing from Afghanistan by 2011. Has anything changed dramatically in Afghanistan to warrant this optimism? Nothing, that we can see. Is President Obama seeing more than what we can see? Maybe and good luck to him. Even with Nato support and a proportionate increase of solders from their member countries the new surge will only end up with more fatalities of the foreign soldiers on Afghan soil. There will also be a corresponding increase in the civilian deaths in Afghanistan because of this increased activity from the hands of the West’s soldiers and also because of retaliation by the Taliban and the Al Qaeda outfits. The Taliban and their associates are quite happy with the new US plan since they know that they have now won this war like the Afghans first won against the British, then the Russians and now with the US and Nato. They will sit out the siege for another 2 years since it is the US & Nato which is bleeding and wasting money and the Taliban outfits would know that as long as they can protect themselves in the interim they can look forward to a rosy future. They just have to sit it out. From the most important player in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai, the comment on Obama’s AfPak plan has been that they will need at least 5 years to be able to police themselves and another 15 years to raise an army and defend themselves. One can clearly see that President Karzai is pursuing a lifetime employment policy, in the sense that as long as his lifetime of assured wealth and comfort is guaranteed over the next 15 years by the US and Nato, it is OK with him. It is almost as if the US are employed to guarantee the security of Afghanistan, nay not the country but that of Karzai! That is what finally the Afghanistan plan boils down to. These people have grown too big for their boots inflated by borrowed US power that Karzai as also the Iraqi PM stood up Defense Secretary Bates on his recent visit to these countries. In another sense one is left with bewilderment that the US has not learned over the last four decades or more after having had experience of meddling in the banana republics of South America, the mines of Chile, the rice paddies of Vietnam and lately the dustbowl of Iraq that people like Karzai play a role, like that of an actor, of supporting democracy and in that process get access to unlimited amounts of money from the West primarily the US which assures them a lifetime of comfort interspersed with some embarrassment once in a while when things like corruption rears its head or it comes out that Karzai’s brother was on the CIA payroll and additionally is one of the prominent druglords in country. But then who cares, since if you break down and say that you love your country and will do anything for democracy, everything will be back to normal with the US and the West and the pipeline dripping foreign currency into the country will not dry up. Chalabi did this exercise for long in Iraq until he finally fell out of favour with his US masters. The problem with places like Afghanistan is that they are just not suited for democracy and with a tribal history behind them, it is more the jockeying for power that plays an important role than any desire to be equal with the next man as in a democracy. Thus President Obama and the US is again barking up the wrong tree and will realize their folly only after another hundred billions of dollars have gone down the drains of Afghanistan and another hundred odd Western soldiers have lost their lives in this battle with thousands more dying among the native civilians some being baptized as Taliban or Al Qaeda terrorists in their last breath of life. One can also not understand the paranoia of the US to be afraid of Al Qaeda of striking them from thousands of kilometers away since it is up to the US authorities to better police themselves in their own land and to ensure that such acts are not planned and launched from their own territory. The recent spate of discoveries of people planning attacks on the US seem to be more in the nature of disinformation being created to mobilize public opinion by the intelligence agencies in the US since these are being very much timed with policy on announcements of surges of troop deployment by the US in the battle zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. Thus what the US needs to do is to contain the problem in Afghanistan particularly and isolate the country from the rest of the world. The Taliban and the Al Qaeda will then be capped within the country and with sanctions being imposed and nothing coming into the country from outside except for essential food and medical supplies and travel by the locals outside the country not allowed, there will come a time when the Taliban and the Al Qaeda will turn on each other. Internecine killings being quite the order of the day in these tribal regions the problem will solve itself. They will kill each other rather carry their mayhem to the rest of the world. The US and Nato instead of bleeding dollars in Afghanistan to fight a senseless war and support a corrupt Karzai Govt. can better utilize their money elsewhere. The embargo can be organized by a UN peacekeeping force which will seal off Afghanistan from the world. This strategy in another view will take off the Taliban and the Al Qaeda from the public eye and newspaper headlines around the world. These organizations are thriving on this attention and using it to organize their recruitment of more cadres around the world from among those who are disgruntled and who have a gripe against Western society. This has ended up with the Afghanistan having to recruit irregulars for their law enforcement and military at very much inflated salaries commensurate with the work performance that they can deliver. Also technology geeks are joining the Al Qaeda as found out recently when the drone visuals were found in their hands, enabling them to see what the drones are seeing just like those who control the drone operations and their targeting within the US militia. This is the only way to go as far as Afghanistan is concerned and in that process save Pakistan also.

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Issue : 3 Date: 12.12.2009

India: A Hindu Rasthra

We see with the ruckus in Parliament and outside it relating to the Liberhan Commission report on the Babri Masjid demolition, how much we are held captive by the past. The Commission report is a completely useless document having come 17 years after the event happened. What it says each one of us knows which is that the BJP and the Hindutva forces have been complicit with the Babri Masjid demolition. Thus there is nothing new in the report and why Parliament should be so much seized with the matter is beyond the aam admi’s understanding. Do they not have more important things to discuss and legislate? The energy displayed by the political parties within Parliament on account of this report is with no other interest but to get them visibility with the people. The BJP is more so keen to do this since it has been reeling under one shock after another in terms of organizational in-fighting and losses in elections over the last six months or so. The mention of ex-PM Vajpayee in the report to the BJP was like manna from heaven and with this inconsequential morsel of information they are trying to wag the elephant by its tail, so to speak. The aam admi in all this is captivated by the drama played out in Parliament little realizing that more important things for his benefit are being given the go-by in this charade. In terms of our aam admi’s imagination being held captive by the past, we have seen this in recently with Jaswant Singh’s version of Jinnah and India’s partition, the report on the riots against the Sikhs in 1984 and earlier L K Advani’s book of memoirs, which really no one should be bothered about considering these are an old man’s desperate attempts to remain visible on the political horizon and reserve his place in posterity with his own version of things. We should move away from these tendencies and look to the future. Since the future is more important for the country and its youth. Being help captive in the past pampers our elders but serves no purpose for our future. It is not that we should disregard history. History is related to facts which we need to respect while recognizing that opinions do not constitute history. And whether it is Jaswant Singh’s or Advani’s opinion it does not add to history. The problem with all of us Indians is that we will agonise on the past and in that process sacrifice our present and set adrift our future. Therefore we do not have a firm or stable hand on moulding our destiny. Everything seems to be happening perchance or in the manner of serendipity and if something good comes about then it will have like success many fathers, as they say, and if things take a turn for the worse there will be many vociferous critics and no one will want to shoulder the blame. This is India and in our tumultuous serendipity we aspire to be a superpower by, it was 2020 but now we understand it has been pushed to 2050.

Structuring Open Societies

Switzerland the other day refused to accord approval for a structure, ostensibly religious, having minarets from construction. The Swiss further have banned the use of minarets in all constructions in the country. This is rather strange since Switzerland and other countries of the West always lecture about secularism and that people resident there are free to follow any faith they choose. The issue therefore is that each country is free to exercise its decision on whom it admits into the country for taking up residence therein but once they have allowed residence, the person should be allowed to follow his faith. In the particular case in Switzerland one does not know if the construction was anyway funded by the government in which case the authorities are fully within their rights to stipulate whether minarets could be used or not. There have been similar issues related to dress code and carrying of ceremonial weapons by immigrants which countries like France, USA, UK and Canada have found it difficult to accept. In all these cases matters must be made clear at the outset rather than to try to patch things later on which invariably leads to problems. In fact the West on these matters can take a page out of the immigration handbook of the Gulf countries particularly Saudi Arabia where they confiscate pictures and small idols of Gods that Indian Hindus carry. The large immigrant Indian population here have learnt to live with this stipulation. Thus all immigrants to the West should be made to sign a declaration that they will comply with all norms of the society that they are immigrating into relating to its openness, dress code, behaviour and pursue their religion on an individual and family basis which will avoid all future complications.

No Numerical Targets, Please

India needs to set numerical targets in terms of carbon pollution to combat climate change but these should in no way be subject to international supervision. A voluntary target setting exercise is important to know where you are headed and make midstream changes if required depending upon the priorities set by India’s growth and developmental plans. But having internationally supervised and legally binding targets will mean like tieing the yoke around our necks and being compelled to forsake our own needs, if the event arises. Thus India at Copenhagen should participate as a responsible player in understanding the needs to cut pollution but then keep its options open as long as it can to tie this up with its developmental needs. The problem sometimes is with our entrenched bureaucrats like Shyam Sharan who even after retirement play lead roles in some of these sensitive negotiations. The concerned gentleman was sounding to one of the TV news channels that if India has to accept legally binding targets which are not in line with its expectations then the developed nations will have to fund India to meet these as also share technology. The technology aspect is acceptable since it would be available at a cost but why should we accept funds from abroad now. Times have changed and if India can give the IMF a billion dollars and import 200 metric tones of gold, then does Shyam Sharan not realize that India is no longer a beggar going around with a bowl in international circles. These are the people who continue to retain the colonial mindset and are totally incompatible with India on its way to become a superpower in the middle of this century. They therefore need to be sent back home once they have completed their tenure of service and not be given these special assignments. More often than not for petty personal gains they sabotage an important negotiation.

Rising Prices: Nobody's Baby‏

Jayanti Natarajan, the Congress spokesperson, recently on the issue of unabated rise in food prices has almost indicated that the Central Govt. has nothing more to do about it after exhausting all their options and that the State Govt.’s have to act in this matter. This is a completely irresponsible approach since the means for price control be it legislation on control of prices, decisions to import foodgrains etc. lies with the Centre and not with the States. The only thing that the States can do in this matter is to exercise control over hoarders and blackmarketeers which are local and within their jurisdiction. Even in these matters when the Maharasthra Govt. a couple of months ago found sugar stocks being hoarded in the sugar belt while prices were going up, they saw the Central Agriculture Minister intervening to get these hoarders off the hook. Be it edible oils or pulses we have been importing these to supplement local production. If so when prices were ramping up why did the Centre not take action to urgent discretionary imports to meet short term needs on any particular variety of the commodity? Regarding the runaway prices of onions why did the Centre not ban the export of onions when prices started rising about 6 months ago? It was only in Ocober / November 2009 that the minimum export price of onions was hiked and in December now it has been jiggled up a little more by the Centre. Thus the Central Govt. has all the wherewithal to manage and control prices but seems to be clearly disinclined to do so. This could be because the Congress policy and programs stems from the following basis - CONtinue with GReed, fearing no redrESS. In the alternate if the UPA Govt. at the Centre is seriously unable to get a handle on this unabated foodprice rise, it should admit its incompetence and resign. The UPA Govt. has ridden on the backs of the aam admi in its two terms of office and having secured their objective are now shedding crocodile tears on his plight and giving unrelated and frivolous excuses when it comes to resolving his problems. In fact the UPA Govt.’s style of governance led by Manmohan Singh is a Government by Abstain-ment. This is exposed by various instances like when farmers were killing themselves on account of crop failure, unremunerative prices and inability to pay their loans, the UPA Govt. was seized in negotiating the Indo-US nuclear deal. While now when the UPA Govt. has clearly failed to control prices, it is seized with drawing red herrings to divert the attention of the people of India by presenting the vacuous Liberhan report on the Babri Masjid demolition in Parliament and getting more than active on the Climate Control talks in Copenhagen. No one is saying that these issues are not important but we need not emphasise on a person of Manmohan Singh’s calibre that he needs to prioritise and look at the aam admi’s needs first since after all, all political parties will need votes come the next elections. Concluding Jayanti Natarajan should stop putting out such articles as referred above since she must be having at least the limited intelligence to know that these are counterproductive, since where she is trying to justify the actions of the UPA Govt. at the Centre, she is ending up devaluing and besmirching its reputation.

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Issue : 2 Date: 05.12.2009

No Dialogue With Pakistan

It was very proper that no meetings were held on the sidelines of the recent CHOGM with Pakistan by our Foreign Minister Krishna or PM Manmohan Singh. India has done more than enough in extending the hand of friendship inspite of the needless provocation time and again by Pakistan culminating in the complicity of the Pak intelligence agencies in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. Pakistan at its various levels starting from the President downwards to the Interior Minister and the Army Chief speak in different voices but the common refrain in all this is to rebut India at any cost. They also seem to be speaking to shore up their constituencies within Pakistan rather than attempt any serious effort to make progress on or to resolve any of the problems plaguing the Indo-Pak relationship. They also forget that the Pakistani hand has been exposed in almost every single terrorist attack or plot that has been targeted at the West since 9/11. Thus unless the Pakistani authorities put their house in order there should not be any official level interaction between India with Pakistan. In the unlikely event of any further incursions in Kashmir or the rest of India, directly or indirectly by infiltrating terrorists on the part of Pakistan, we should give them a lesson that they will never forget. In this we will have to take the US into our confidence who are by now tired of the different tunes of terrorism emanating from Pakistan where democracy is but a label or a front to appease the US & the West. It is time that India acted tough with Pakistan and stopped spending time pussy-footin’ around and agonizing on what action we should take and if we take any action what would the world say about it.

Better Governance Needed In West Bengal

The BJP is in a shambles all over India but from the pictures of a burnt bus attributed to BJP activists during a bandh called by them against rising prices in Kolkata, the bastion of the Communists, it looks they are strong and active in west Bengal. This was not so some years ago since the BJP ideology is something that does not go well with the Bengali psyche which is very much polarized to either the militant and egalitarian Left or the soft comforts of the pleasure loving, capitalist Right. Thus the heightened activity of the splinter BJP in West Bengal can be attributed to yet another failure on the part of CPM led government in West Bengal with Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharya at its helm. There was a time when the intelligence apparatus and the ability to intervene in social unrest by the Communists was so effective that small parties in the State had no chance to make their voice heard which seems to have disappeared under the present regime. The CPM have to seriously introspect that instead of concentrating on in-fighting, whether they have to re-orient themselves to achieving effective and good governance in West Bengal, one of the two bastions they have in India. The writing is on the wall in favour of the Trinamul Congress and the Congress (I) combine when the next assembly elections are due but that writing is not yet cast in indelible ink and the CPM has still time to change it by concentrating on strengthening its organizational ability and project a pro-people image. It is almost as if the CPM Govt. in West Bengal is sitting on a roller coaster going downwards and unable to stem the momentum, is rushing into the morass of having to relinquish the seat of government.

No Hindi For Liberhan

It is shocking to learn that the Liberhan Commission report is not available in Hindi. Is it not part of standard procedure that all reports of the Govt. should be available in the national language? If not, what is the point of these language authorities and the like? Consider the Liberhan Commission report, it has been 17 years in the making and nobody had the foresight to remember that it may be required in Hindi. Is this what we have to believe? And the UPA Govt. has the temerity to suggest that it is able to buy time on this account from facing a discussion in Parliament because the report is not available in Hindi. For all reports of the Central Govt. a strict instruction has to be issued that it should be made available in two languages : Hindi and English and when it comes to the States, in the local official language as well.

Rising Prices: Nobody’s Baby

Onion prices are hitting Rs. 35-40 a Kg while urad dal has been hovering around Rs. 100/- a Kg. for quite some time. The Central and State governments have not implemented any effective steps to regulate prices in the market place inspite of public clamour and the fact that rising prices is the subject of most cartoons in the newspapers these days. It is time that something is done about these issues. The government should intervene in these matters by resorting to imports as far as pulses are concerned and to stop the export of onions on a most immediate basis. Otherwise the prices of onions are literally bringing tears to the housewife’s eyes in managing the household budget. The concern for the aam admi and his daily diet has to supersede all other matters. These are the people who elect the politicians to our legislature bodies and surely their needs come first. Every single Minister upto the PM has been clucking in sympathy on the plight of the people in the face of rising prices but no concrete action follows, just words to say that we have to wait and watch the prices to fall. No one knows when. The Agriculture Minister has again said that the rise in onion prices is ‘temporary’ and in another 2 weeks the prices will drop, which has been his refrain for the last 2 months. However, prices of onions continue the opposite trend and are rising by the week showing that the prices as in government appointments seem to be ‘temporary but likely to be made permanent’. Pawar for his sheer efficiency has to be sacked from his post of Agriculture Minister since under his tenure first it was a crisis for wheat last year, and then sugar recently and now onions. The problem with him is that no action of any sort is forthcoming to bring some regulation in supply and prices of basic commodities. It is also rather unfortunate that under his tenure have we had the maximum number of farmer suicides in the agrarian belts of Maharasthra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and in contrast have the millowners, middlemen, stockists and hoarders benefited. Should the Agriculture Minister thus stay in his post? On a war footing this government has to tackle prices of the following items to ameliorate the problems facing the aam admi: rice, wheat, sugar, edible oils, potatoes and onions. Regulating the prices of these will ensure that there is no cascading effect on prices of other items and commodities. Hoarders and blackmarketeers have to be identified and raided so that larger stocks come into the market to balance the increase in prices. In conclusion, one is forced to ask : When our leaders and Ministers sit down to have a meal do they not have a twinge of conscience about whether their poor constituents are able to have a meal or not in these times?

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