Vox Populi : Issue 89 Onwards

VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 108
Date: 14.04.2012

Contents:

1. Obama's Iran & Israel Policy
2. It Is The Principle and Not The Money, Honey!
3. The Zardari Visit
4. Ineffective Response To Terror
5. Modi Aspiring For World Despot Status
6. Rahul Gandhi's Fate After UP Elections
7. Kidnap For Ransom & Road Rage Cases On The Rise


Obama's Iran & Israel Policy

The Obama initiative on US Iran policy is correct when it says that Iran can be allowed peaceful uses of its nuclear program in exchange for categorical counter guarantees for no pursuit of nuclear weapons. This establishes the right for every free nation to choose the means of energy it wants to pursue including nuclear. At the same time the US is wielding the stick against Iran by seeking the shut-down of the nuclear facilities at Qom, the return of fissile materials and the proper accounting of such material and dangling the threat of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by Israel. One cannot understand why the US should get involved in a war with Iran through a proxy like Israel. On the contrary, Israel should be reined in and discouraged from attacking any country in the region including Iran since past precedent shows that Israel does not act responsibly in such matters. Their perceived threat levels tend to be exaggerated when confronted with a weak enemy as we have seen the case of their forays against Hamas and the Hezbollah in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon respectively. If the US wants to go to war with Iran let it go in directly since then the world will know clearly as to who the aggressor is. As Gunter Grass has correctly castigated Israel in its manner of threatening its neighbours including Iran with war at the slightest pretext, there is every need to disband the state of Israel and disperse the Jews back to their respective homeland. Too many Jews, spoil the broth in Palestine! The country should be restored to the original settlers the Palestinians while allowing those among the Jews who are happy to stay as minorities to remain. This will put a stop to this perennial scenario of conflict that has been haunting the Middle East & Persian Gulf region ever since Israel came into existence some 60 years ago. By doing this, the US will see that peace will return and their outlays in time, money and effort will also dramatically go down that they needlessly expend in the region.

It Is The Principle and Not The Money, Honey!

The number of foreclosures on home loans by US banks hit a high in 2011 and is expected to increase in 2012. Thus there will be more people thrown out of their homes at a time when unemployment is also hitting a high. The people loosing their homes in the majority are not those who deliberately are not paying their mortgages but who genuinely unable to pay since they are out of jobs. If any of them were able to get jobs they would have been able to pay their mortgages or at least a part of it. Would this not require that these mortgages be re-scheduled so that they become payable for the borrower and also do not become non-performing loans for the banks? All this is at a time when the CEO salaries in the US are also hitting a high and returning to obscene levels as that prevailing when the financial crisis was setting in some four years ago. After a couple of years of showing an amenable face in terms of compensation to top echelon executives across the US, it is back to bonanza time. If this kind of a thing happens even in a country like the US then what chance is there in the rest of the world for reducing the disparities in salaries between the top drawer executives and the factory floor workers. President Obama is also moving a bill on minimum tax for the high earners so that those earning in excess of a million dollars a year will have to pay a certain amount of tax higher than the 15% level that famously the Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Warren Buffett among the very rich paid, since their earnings were mostly related to the stock market and through capital gains. This Obama tax has been christened the Warren Buffett tax since he was the first person to highlight this anomaly while citing that in % terms his secretary paid more tax than him. But this tax nomenclature is a misnomer since then it would require the tax to be as heavy as Warren Buffett’s published wealth. This proposal is again being criticized in the US with people taking potshots at it saying that it would complicate the existing tax system more than it is already and the additional revenue it will earn is peanuts! But like they say, it is the principle behind the tax and not the money, honey!

The Zardari Visit

The hullabaloo over Asif Zardari's visit to pay homage at the shrine in Ajmer and the related stop at Delhi was all unnecessary. The request coming from the Pakistan President to visit the shrine could not naturally be refused but it could have been accepted as a low-key visit and remaining faithful to the objective. This would have shown India's graciousness and at the same time indicated that we are firm in not looking at anything more in the visit. Zardari apart from seeking the blessings at the shrine was seeking mileage to satisfy his domestic constituents what with the myriad problems plaguing his country. And like with Musharraf we succumbed and let him get away with his place in the sun in Pakistan. Not only that we have not still learnt that giving Pakistan an inch means that they will steal a yard. Added to that they consider India as a soft touch, and in Dr. Chisthi's bail clearance which was suspiciously timed the day after Zardari's visit, there was more than the hands of the court in it. It is not that anyone would refuse bail at the least to someone who is more than 80 years old and who has spent some 17 odd years in jail but there are many like him who have been caught up in the problem related to Indo-Pak relations and not necessarily in the grinding wheels of justice. Therefore we should have allowed the courts to independently decide on the matter and not have the executive intervene. Zardari got what he wanted but then why did our PM Manmohan Singh not raise the issue of Sarabjit and many others who are languishing in Pakistan jails and even if he did raise it, why has there been no action forthcoming from the Pakistan side. Thus Zardari had lunch, visited the Ajmer shrine, got one of his high profile citizens out of an Indian jail but then what did we get, except to suck our thumb. Zardari back in Pakistan is with his Cheshire cat grin preening himself while we continue to sulk in our mournful silences!

Ineffective Response To Terror

The Maoist hostage crisis has been continuing since March 14th with the 2 Italians kidnapped and then one released , while the Orissa MLA was kidnapped on March 24th. Thus effectively close to one month has passed without our security forces being able to rescue the hostages. No effort also seems to be being made in this regard since the papers are only full of the politics of the hostage crisis and the number of Maoist prisoners that are to be released for the hostages freedom. Normally in such cases the time for negotiation is extended so that rescue attempts can be put in place. This is rather shameful since we talk of our war against terror with special forces among whom the NSG commandos who did valiant duty during the Mumbai 26/11 incident and fast response centers and co-ordinated quick silver responses to terror threats but during actual incidents there is no action on the ground. It is all bluff and bluster about setting up organizations to fight terror which are essentially for people to feather their nests in the law enforcement higher echelon and secure bloated budgets. We should in the example of worldwide forces as in the recent case in France be able to show results for our action highlighting our ability to perform in hostage rescue events. In no case should prisoners be released for hostages since it sets up precedents and signifies a weak state.

Modi Aspiring For World Despot Status

One of the recent issues of TIME magazine has Narendra Modi on the cover with the the headline - Modi Means Business. But Can He Lead India? This is really a tongue-in-cheek headline which could also mean – Modi Is Mean Business. Can He Lead India? On just a platform of development and efficiency in administration one cannot hope to lead a country like India since otherwise we would have commended leaders of the like of Hitler and Stalin who were also involved in genocide. Modi may have committed his sins on a smaller scale but we surely do not want him to replicate it across the country giving him the chance to achieve the status of despots as named above.

Rahul Gandhi's Fate After UP Elections

The Rahul Gandhi comment while analyzing the UP election debacle for the Congress as a ‘collective responsibility’ is a departure from the Congress norm of sacking or relegating to the political wilderness the PCC chief or the lead campaigner, in this case Rahul Gandhi himself. Why should the yardstick then be different when it comes to Rahul Gandhi? His campaign and the basis of it was miserable which one must admit dislodged the targeted Mayawati but eased into the seat of government the father-son duo of Mulayam & Akhilesh Yadav. The analogy of this is to the amateur magician who fumbles on his trick but still brings out something else than what was originally intended. Rahul Gandhi needs to learn that he has to hone up his tricks – his sense and ability, before he ventures into the hustle-bustle of an election campaign again.

Kidnap For Ransom & Road Rage Cases On The Rise

The law and order issues in common society are also increasing as evident in Delhi & the NCR Region where recent road rage incidents among others has resulted in an auto driver getting beaten up and killed by 4 persons, supposedly drunk, who were in a car on a minor accident issue. Apart from this all around the country we have had kidnapping for ransom issues seeing the death of an infant in Kolkata, to a child in Bangalore, to a teenager killed in Mumbai & Pune. These cannot just be brushed away as normal law and order situations since they talk of a deep and disturbing malaise prevailing in our society today. What is happening to our society is something that our politicians and policy makers need to sit down and analyse? They can no longer take shelter or avoid these matters by saying that they have bigger issues to tackle. If we continue to ignore these incidents then we will reach a state of anarchy very soon with children and women not able to venture onto the streets of independent India. The Kolkata incident could be that of criminals who are habitual offenders in such activity but that in Bangalore and Mumbai/Pune are common school and college going youth kidnapping their known persons and/or friends for getting money to splurge on things that they desire or with which they aspire to emulate their heroes in film or TV. This talks of a need to instill some value systems in our youth through parental guidance and/or through instruction in educational institutions. Where the school or college are not equipped to handle such sessions, it is time that professional NGO’s be called on to implement these programs. In the kidnap for ransom cases we have already seen recently in Mumbai the acquittal of a group of students in the Patravala case who ostensibly killed their class mate and were all acquitted on grounds of lack of evidence though the judge felt that the police did not do a proper job in investigating the case. The family of the victim remains shattered with the verdict of the court and there is little that they can do about it but seek a re-trial. The basic thing remains that irrespective of what the family does to seek recompense their child will never come back. Thus these cases should be stopped before they happen and building awareness among students to eschew the pursuit of material pleasures beyond a point is to be inculcated. Improved parental and peer control would be an important method to instill a value system in youth which abhors the use of violence against each other except to the extent of competitive rivalry. As for the road rage cases, there should be clear and deterrent punishment amounting to large fines and summary imprisonment which apart from suspension of driving licences which could be some of the ways to tackle the problem. All these cases are emerging out of aspirations being discordant with ground reality in the kidnap-for-ransom cases and in the road-rage cases it is easy money which has come into the hands of people particularly in the Delhi & NCR from real estate and selling of farmlands; this sudden bumping up on the wealth scale is something that some individuals cannot handle since actual reality is something different and which these people refuse to come down to. Resultant effect is that try to take out your anger on the immediate cause of provocation. The other thing is that the way these cases are mushrooming they need to be taken up in fast-track courts just like the cases against women like rape, bride burning, dowry cases and the like. But the manner in which different kinds of cases are mushrooming in our society it will not be long before even these fast-track courts will get overloaded with cases and in the manner of our other courts, we will find the wheels of justice grinding slower and slower here also.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 107

Date: 07.04.2012

Contents:

1. The Coup That Never Was!
2. A Grievous Mistake Exchanging Maoists Prisoners For Hostages
3. In US Gun Control Is Important
4. The Looming Foreign Exchange Crisis
5. Design Approaches For Critical Structures
6. The Gen. V K Singh Sacking Issue
7. Was The Asia Cup Final Fixed?
8. The Role Of The US Citizen In The Upcoming Presidential Elections

The Coup That Never Was!

If you look at the mindless chatter on TV talk shows on news channels you will come to the conclusion that the dumbing down of India has seriously begun. The latest topic or scoop as it was called was when a national newspaper alleged that troop movement in January 2012, when the controversy between the Chief of Army Staff and this government on Gen. V K Singh’s date of birth issue had hit its nadir with the General taking the government to the Supreme Court, was akin to or signified a coup being engineered by the Army. It was rumoured that the Army was marching on Delhi and would have taken control. Is there any greater stupidity than this? Is a country like India with the kind of size it has, conducive for a military uprising? Absolutely not. Coups happen in totalitarian regimes and small nations where it is easy to control the means of exercising power and propaganda within hours so that those opposing the uprising have the least reaction time to counteract the event and the general public is amenable to subjective conditioned public opinion. In countries like India it is just not possible though in theoretical terms it could happen but then it has to be many months in the planning stage and given the time span and the number of people that will have to be taken into confidence, it will be prey to the standard maxim that the more people you let in on a secret, the higher are the chances of its no longer remaining a secret. Thus the coup would have fizzled out on its own or have been exposed. The other thing is that even if the Army takes over Delhi then India will not be one because in a few days at least 10 states would revolt and declare their independence and emerge at the UN staking their claim for being recognized as small nations. That is the level of disenchantment with the Centre these days. Thus we should not take give any credence to such rumours since it is akin to a man walking on a busy street in any of our cities who would suddenly stop and point upwards, instantly having hundreds if not thousands looking up at the sky. But in a few moments everybody on the street would realize that it was a practical joke and burst out laughing. Thus the media should introspect how one of their own members pulled a fast one on them. These situations are coming up more and more since everybody is playing a cat and mouse with this UPA-2 government and is watching the fun while akin to a kitten playing with a ball of wool it entangles itself into a mess. So much for an enlightened government that we should be entitled to.

A Grievous Mistake Exchanging Maoists Prisoners For Hostages

Exchanging prisoners for the Maoist hostages, the Orissa MLA and the Italian is a big mistake. This action will remain to haunt governments in India for a long time to come. We have already the Kasab situation where in spite of having video footage of him shooting common people in the CST premises and death sentence being awarded, we are still quibbling on whether to carry out the sentence or not. The latest is that he has sought Presidential pardon. The delay in carrying out the Kasab sentencing and pardoning him has sent a signal to the terrorists who have their eye on India that we are a soft State and they can terrorise us as much as they like in future. The similar position is on the exchange of prisoners most of them Maoists for the two hostages in Orissa where the clear and simple message is that we crumble whenever a terrorist just touches us, he does not even need to push! After the case of the PDP’s leader’s daughter exchange for prisoners in Kashmir many years ago, this is the next exchange that the Orissa and our Central government have initiated. Actually there should have been no negotiation with the Maoists and/or terrorists, if at all a similar situation arises in the future. We should have sent in our guerillas to track down and rescue the hostages. We talk of so much terrorist training and jungle warfare training that we possess and also give to foreign and western forces in our guerilla and other schools but when it comes to rescuing hostages from the clutches of Maoists and/or terrorists in our own territory, we suddenly go completely soft and limp and capitulate to all their demands. Are we only fit to train or we are able to show that we can use that training in real-life situations? We also talk of so much technology that we have at our disposal like satellite cameras with 1 meter resolution on the ground with the Dept. of Space but then why is it that no effort is made to use these equipment. If we do not have why do we not buy this facility on a short-term or an assignment basis from NASA or the Russians? We keep talking of co-operation in the war against terror between nations but we do not venture to seek help that we do not have. An inter-disciplinary coordinated approach is surely desired when it comes to urgent and serious matters of national importance so that information is shared and the desired objective is comfortably achieved. Is this not where the Central government should play the role of co-ordinator and get these facilities for the concerned State government and thus support their efforts in fighting the Maoists or terror groups? Instead of that we find even at senior levels like that of the Centre’s Home Minister and the Chief Minister, the individuals indulge in turf wars and in recrimination of each other when faced with adversity. If the top echelon does this then how will people further down the line ever achieve co-ordination? In these circumstances, therefore there seems to be no other option but to give in to the demands of the Maoists and/or terrorists which is for our officials the easiest and the safest option. To hell with the nation, let us make my job easy is the approach all around. It is disappointing to see that none of our terror cases for the last decade or so have been cracked and it will not be wrong to say that our police and law enforcement have any clue of what’s going on except to jump on the minority community once in a while and put them through interrogation, torture and incarceration in jail. As for the Maoists, they continue to strike with impunity as the recent blasts at Gadchiroli in Maharasthra proved where a police vehicle was attacked leading to loss of many valuable lives. This is a repeat incident in around the same area where just about a year back the Central para-military forces were slaughtered without mercy. It is a shame that we continue to suffer all this and the even bigger shame is that our senior leaders do not have the guts or the gumption to face the country on such issues.

In US Gun Control Is Important

After the recent incident of shooting in the Oakland university campus by Goh in which 6 people lost their lives, should not the US consider to implement stricter laws for gun control? This shooting is in the long line of campus and school shootings in the US starting with the Columbine tragedy and then multiple shootings on campus at various universities. The laws should necessarily make it more difficult for young Americans below 25 years and those holding foreign passports from buying and owning guns. In addition to that the killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida should prompt US law enforcement to move for legislation to eschew gun use in confrontational situations. Self-defence should not necessarily be the option for gun-own