VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:144

Date: 22.12.2012

Contents:

1. Capital Punishment For Rapists

2. Whither Indian Cricket – 1: The Dhoni Issue

3. Israel In Peace With The Arabs & Palestinians

4. PM Ignorant Of Realities Of FDI In Multi-Brand Retail!

5. After Sandy Hook, Make Gun Control A Reality In The US

6. Taking Action Against HSBC Bank & Others Involved In Hawala Transactions

Capital Punishment For Rapists

Open any newspaper in the country from any region on any day and you are bound to comes across news about a minimum of 2 -3 instances of rapes among which there will be at least one case of rape of a minor child or infant. The gang rape of the 23 year old paramedic at Delhi on Sunday, 16th night was the most heinous among such crimes. Thus to put a stop to such rape cases apart from better and more vigilant policing, it is necessary to consider the death sentence to those indulging in such activity and definitely so when the victims are less than 10 year old. Otherwise rapists tend to take it lightly knowing that they will either get acquitted by virtue of legal procedure or with a sentence limited to a couple of years while the victim bears the trauma and the psychological scars for life.

Whither Indian Cricket – 1: The Dhoni Issue

The convincing manner with which England beat India in the recent Test series demands a review of approach towards the game both by the players in the Test team and the BCCI including decisions about the captain M S Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher. There is no doubt a complete overhaul is required of the Test team considering that we have lost 10 of the last 17 Tests and both home and away. First, the captaincy of Dhoni left a lot to be desired through this last series against England and the tactical skills that are required for Tests seems to have dulled in him. The field placings near the batsmen to force the getting of wickets for his bowlers was rarely there and it was more a lackadaisical approach to go through the motions of the game and get this series over. More disappointing is his tendency to not face the problem squarely which he used to do in the past. Now during press briefings, he resorts to confusing the issue and tends to rely on sentiment to keep him on the job and on lame assurances that the next match will be better. Therefore Dhoni as captain has to go. In trying to get pitches to suit spinners he needlessly started a controversy after the Ahmedabad Test which blew up in his face at the Mumbai Test where playing 3 spinners he lost the Test by as convincing a margin as he had won at Ahmedabad. He also forgot that it was Umesh Yadav who got him the important wickets in the England second innings in the first Test which won him that match. A paceman was therefore unnecessary. The classical game of Test cricket requires at the least a mix of five bowlers with 2 pace bowlers a must which Dhoni tended to ignore. In the Kolkata Test after the exchange of opinions about the pitch he went in with the 2 pacers but ended up short of wicket taking ability and England ran away with the game. In contrast England maintained the balance of the bowling combination between pace and spin and it was the pacers who came good at both Kolkata and Nagpur. The pitch controversy resulted in the Nagpur groundsman probably confused and he put up a pitch with low bounce and no life which did not give any assistance to India needing to win the Test to draw the series. It is no wonder that India lost this match also quite miserably. With Dhoni after the World Cup win, it seems that he has gone into complacency that comes to any of our cricketers as time progresses and the wealth comes rolling in. Dhoni has turned to be no different. Thus it is best that he relinquishes the Test captaincy so that someone for the future can take over the reins. Given the performance in the last few series and the losses as outlined earlier and the steep fall from India being No. 1 in the Test standings to being nowhere now demands this change. Virat Kohli as Sunil Gavaskar has said can be blooded to take over the next Test captaincy and Dhoni can fight for his place in the team on the merit of his wicket-keeping first and batting ability second. More in the next about the players for the new Test team and then what to do with the coach and lastly the BCCI.

Israel In Peace With The Arabs & Palestinians

A few days back an article by Thomas Friedman in a syndicated column with the New York Times was carried by the Indian Express, Mumbai where he covered the issue of how Jews retaining their cultural traditions are living peacefully in Turkey. The slant was that in secular Turkey of Attaturk tradition, the Jews were safe and why this could not be replicated in the Gulf & the Middle East. Taking off on this premise we have to realize that people themselves have no problems with the religious beliefs of others as long as they do not interfere with theirs. People share in cultural functions of different communities because human nature basically deep down is fun loving and wants to be happy. It is the political establishment and those with stubborn, parochial and non-negotiable stances on religion like priests who are the prime cause for fostering trouble among communities. Specific to the Jews they bring in the additional burden of being persecuted for centuries culminating in the mass killings that the Nazis led by Hitler engendered upon them. Thus it is the forceful placement of Israel in its present geographic location which is the cause of all the strife that we have been witnessing for the last 60 years or so and which Israel has been martyring itself on. Remove Israel as a country from its present location and you will find over time maybe a decade or so that Arabs and Jews in the entire Gulf & the Middle East have learnt to live happily alongside each other. If the Europeans led by the Germans tortured the Jews why is it that the Arabs & the Palestinians should bear this burden of anger, aggression and sporadic strife. An example of this is just last week a young Palestinian boy in his low teens out to get a cake for his birthday on that day, play-acted with a toy gun and for his antics was shot dead by an Israeli soldier. This incident not only shows up the risk of life for the Palestinians in their daily activities but also how corrupted in mind and how much on edge the Israelis have become over time particularly their soldiers from avoidable combat situations over the years. The place for Israel should actually have been in Europe where the maximum atrocities against the Jews took place. Therefore earlier the better that the State of Israel is disbanded from its present location and transferred to Europe. After the UN General assembly accorded recognition to the Palestinian State this month, the move by Israel to build 30,000 homes in east Jerusalem and the Left Bank is going to be counter-productive to fostering peace in the region. Israel should not only forsake building these housing units but also eschew its confrontational stance on almost anything that is of benefit to the Arabs and the Palestinians. The new housing initiative has brought in condemnation for Israel across the board from the US & Europe including Germany, one of the staunchest allies that Israel has in Europe. One hopes that with this Israel sees some sense and behaves better and in a manner that the seeds of long term peace are sown in the Middle East.

PM Ignorant Of Realities Of FDI In Multi-Brand Retail!

The PM while addressing the members of FICCI touched upon the policy of FDI in multi-brand retail and mentioned that those opposing it are 'either ignorant of global realities or are constrained by out-dated ideologies'. These kind of statements do not behove the PM with his education and reputation as an economist, the latter though may have taken a beating in the last couple of years given India's economic position. What Manmohan Singh has to do is put down his head and apply himself to the fact that basically we need to help our own people. It is even said that God helps only those who help themselves. This adage applies as well to Prime Ministers in relation to the people they govern, if Manmohan Singh is not aware of it. In connection with FDI in multi-brand retail can we not help our farmers in increasing productivity, changing crop patterns etc. with our extensive ICAR labs? Can we not move the goods from the farm gate to the counters at the shops efficiently? Is all this so great technology that we have to invite FDI for this? Do we need multinationals bringing in FDI to provide jobs to our youth making them automatons at the point of stocking up shelves and manning check-out counters at the departmental stores? Are we taking into account the very shabby personnel policies of at least one of the global retail chains planning to come into India which is Walmart? Can we not give these youth jobs to move the produce from farm gate to stores, thus making them entrepreneurs themselves and giving them the freedom to decide what they want to do? Why are we bent on replacing the millions of intermediaries in our existing retail chain and replace them with just 3-4 global retail chains? Are we not in this way propagating limited monopoly and in that process allowing foreign MNC's come and exploit our farmers? If our distributors are looting our farmers, roll up your shirt-sleeves and get them to change, why is Manmohan Singh and his team chary of doing that? For fear of getting their hands dirty or they are plain incapable to resolve the problem? The FDI in multi-brand retail will go the same way as the low cost air travel model went in India over the last few years. There used to be a lot of hype on airlines offering Re. 1 flights which is no longer valid today. Moreover with Kingfisher Airlines closing down during the last Navratri & Diwali time air fares shot through the roof and Delhi - Kolkata flights were priced at Rs. 35,000/-. So where are the aam admi flying days? They had not come to stay and were clearly numbered then and even now. Now the government is talking of regulating air fares so that the airlines do not charge exorbitantly. Similarly, the global retail chains will come into the country riding on the backs of the FDI in multi-brand retail policy, have very aggressive low pricing to generate brand loyalty initially and then in 2-3 years time they will hold the market by the scruff of the neck and hike prices at will. At this time the government will have very less means to control these global retail chains except for recommendatory advices. Is the PM and his team blind to these realities and are content to pass on the retail industry to these global chains which rids them the responsibility for it. Thus it is not that those who are opposing FDI in retail are not aware of global realities or stuck up in their own ideologies, but the PM and his team who are wearing blinders and can see the good part of what the global retail chains can offer and in fact parrot their words to assure the Indian public that everything will be OK.

After Sandy Hook, Make Gun Control A Reality In The US

The shooting at the Sandy Hook school in Connecticut last week where some 22 children and 6 adults got unfortunately killed is part of the long line of shootouts in the US from schools to varsity campuses to shopping malls to cinema theaters starting with the Columbine school killings a long time ago. In fact over the last month there have been three other shoot-outs involving avoidable fatalities which brings up the necessity of review of the gun laws in the US. The ease with which US citizens can buy guns over the counter and through mail order is rather stunning. Without qualifying the purchaser all and sundry are allowed to buy guns which essentially leads to the kind of incidents at Sandy Hook which sporadically sprout all over the US. The logic for not enforcing gun control being personal protection as well as for hunting game, is it not possible to allow individual adults to purchase only hand guns and in the case of persons wanting to buy rifles for hunting, they should produce hunting licences in their names for any 2 successive seasons and/or produce the earlier rifle that they possess in their own name. Only under these conditions over the counter sale can be allowed and sales through mail order or over the Internet should be curtailed. At the same time the guns displayed at gun shops should be only the variety of hand guns for personal protection and also hunting rifles which are not semi-automatic or automatic and without sniper scopes etc. If this is done then to a large extent even without gun control the sporadic shooting incidents that we see cropping up time and again should dramatically come down. This is more so when the victims like at Sandy Hook being children who are cut off so early in their lives which also imposes untold miseries and trauma on their loved ones. If this kind of limited gun control was in force one could possibly argue that Lee Harvey Oswald would have possibly found it difficult to get the sniper scope rifle with which he shot John F Kennedy. Americans should not look at gun control as an infringement on their personal freedom and their right to defend themselves since the situation here is analogous to 9/11 in whose aftermath all Americans submit quietly to increased security for air travel including use of body scanners. Thus the position to take is that let the shooting at Sandy Hook school be the last and to make gun control a reality. Taking Action Against HSBC Bank & Others Involved In Hawala Transactions It is now known that HSBC bank has agreed to pay the US authorities the sum of US$ 1.9 Billion as a fine for their complicity in clandestine money laundering transfers from the UK. It is not only HSBC but a host of supposedly reputed international banks ranging from UBS, Standard Chartered & others have also been charged with money laundering by the US authorities and for which they also have been fined various sums starting from some US300 Million but none as large as HSBC. With these banks and this pattern of banking knowing to have been also existing in India as exposed by Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Admi party one wonders why the Indian governmental authorities have not launched any investigations in this matter. Since then there was a media report that investigations have been initiated on the Lagarde list which contains names of those having foreign bank accounts in contravention of Indian laws. Thus if you can proceed against individuals having banking accounts, should you not also take action against the banks that facilitated these transactions among whom HSBC figures. Since Kejriwal’s exposure HSBC had come out with a bland statement that they follow the regulations laid out by the country in which they operate. If so, why were they hauled up by the US authorities and asked to pay the ‘small’ fine of US$1.9 Billion? Not only that Naina Lal Kidwai the head of HSBC in India has been made President of FICCI. Is the head of the organization not responsible for its activities and if so, should they be nominated to be the head of established local bodies, is the question that comes to mind? Why is it that we always sacrifice national interest when we are confronted with taking action against multinational institutions that may have been complicit in irregular activities and/or transactions in India? Is it that we have not been able to shrug the last vestiges of British rule from our minds yet? Are we still slaves in the mind to Western masters having white skin? One thinks that it is time to assert oneself in international affairs and stand by the side of what is right and proper since after all at the end that is what will get us the credibility and reputation of a proud nation.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:143

Date: 15.12.2012

Contents:

1. The True Colours Of Walmart

2. De Primo Incident In New York, A Flash In The Pan?‏

3. Widening Of NH 17 At Porvorim, 37 Trees Endangered

4. R.I.P. FDI in Multi-Brand Retail

The True Colours Of Walmart

It is a known fact that there have been some irregularities in the manner that Walmart and their Indian partner have introduced retail in the country considering that FDI in multi-brand retail policy has been announced only now. The amount involved is around Rs. 400 crores which the ED has taken the onus to open investigations in. In relation to the charge that Walmart has resorted to corruption in its overseas operations which as per US law is not acceptable, this is a fact. India is among the named countries apart from others including Mexico and China that have been listed where Walmart operations have contravened ethical considerations for doing business. The report also lists that Walmart in India has paid bribes to obtain licences for starting operations and in transactions related to property acquisitions here. Thus the PMO MOS Narainswamy's comment to the media that the US$25 Million which Walmart has purportedly illegally spent on lobbying for its India operations is mostly in the US, beggars imagination. Why should a Co. spend money in its home country for lobbying to enter another country for its business operations when it well and truly knows that the incumbent government there is very keen to welcome them with open arms? By all norms of business logic if any money has been spent then it has to be spent in the target country where it is commencing operations and that is India. Additionally it has been found that in the recent fire at a garment export factory where there were a substantial number of fatalities, it was found that this factory was supplying goods to Walmart who is understood to have been insisting that the prices for the garments be reduced excessively and thus revenues could not be spent on the welfare of the workers at the factory like better fire control systems etc. In Mexico the reputation of Walmart is that its labour laws are probably the worst and it does not allow their workers any medical or other benefits and is known to advise that the workers should seek such benefits from their spouses working in other Cos. For similar labour policies was the opening of a Walmart outlet near New York shelved recently. Thus we have a shady Co., Walmart showing its true colours even before they have officially entered India by coming in by the back-door through its alliance with Bharati and having bribed their way through the rigmarole of regulations in starting business here and one wonders what other tricks they will show us now that the Congress and the UPA-2 government have made them honoured guests.

De Primo Incident In New York, A Flash In The Pan?‏

Recently pictures of NY police officer de Primo helping a barefoot vagrant with shoes and sympathy on the streets of the city went viral on the Net. This is a dramatic change from the impression of the US police force particularly with the coloured people after the incidents in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles over the last few years when a young Negro was shot dead for not identifying himself properly at the first place, a Negro again beaten up brutally by police officers in a patrol car at the second and incidents perpetrated by the police that resulted in race riots in Los Angeles. After these incidents the city administrators, government authorities and politicians had wanted a change of image of the policeman on the city's beat somewhat akin to the British Bobby (though even that is a vanishing breed). One could presume from the De Primo incident that things have changed in law enforcement and citizen interactions but the people know that this is not really true and the present incident is only a flash in the pan and America needs to go a long way on this road to that of the friendly, helpful neighbourhood cop. But even then the De Primo incident is that coruscating flash with the promise of gold which shows that there could be a better tomorrow and after all it is not for any other reason that America is called the Land of Hope. This was also shown in the US Presidential election when Barrack Obama rode to the White House on the back of just 700,000 Americans who thought different in the public vote. And these Americans were mostly the young and those who had migrated to the US from the many countries of this world in search of a better tomorrow. Those who elected Obama were very different from the opinion makers in US society today. It was less the white Caucasian who voted for Obama and it is believed that it is this entrenched segment of US society which creates more the biases against the blacks and other immigrant communities, moving away from giving the right to access opportunities that they enjoyed but who refuse to give that same level playing ground to others that they strongly believe are less deserving. But America did not heed such prejudices and voted a black American Barrack Obama for a second term as President with a resounding electoral college victory. If one looks at the way the electoral college vote went in the recent Presidential elections it is clear that the Eastern and Western seaboard barring minor exceptions went to Obama while Mitt Romney won the swathe through the middle America south to north. The electoral college votes are heavy in the the seaboard States which may be up for review in the upcoming elections since the Republicans sure do not like being beaten by the heavily immigrant States of California and others in the Eastern seaboard which see a lot of Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Will this be the future? Will there be a conflict between the new America and the old America since we see already distinct divisions in aspirations, values and principles? Only time will tell and the 2016 Presidential elections will hopefully tell us more.

Widening Of NH 17 At Porvorim, Goa: 37 Trees Endangered

At the end of last week the local papers carried a report of the SP Traffic's statement that he along with the CM, Manohar Parrikar had reviewed the issue of traffic congestion from the Mandovi bridges up to Porvorim and outlining certain measures which will ease this problem. From what one can see on the ground is that the road from the Mandovi bridge proceeding to Porvorim is being widened on the left hand side and work is going apace seemingly to meet some very tight deadlines. In all this haste the CM and his officials seem to have forgotten or have ignored that the stretch where the divider ends after Hotel Neo Majestic and up to the Jeevottam Mutt/Tarun Bharat office turn-off, there are 37 trees including 3 old banyan trees and a mango tree which are likely to be affected. If one can understand from the work done it will involve cutting all these 4 trees apart from the fact that with the excavations very close to the roots of the other 33 trees, they will in the long run wither away, topple and die. The highway in this stretch particularly after the Teen Building and up to the Jeevottam Mutt/Tarun Bharat office turn-of is like a beautiful avenue with flowering trees apart from the banyan and mango trees which is going to be denuded with the work as it is planned now. The easiest solution to this problem which probably did not occur to the authorities is that the additional road width in this approx. 600 meters stretch could have come from the right hand side of the road which involve practically no trees that are likely to get damaged and sufficient space exists. Additionally all highways are required to maintain a minimum shoulder of a minimum of 15 meters which is being compromised by the road widening on the left side of the road in this stretch. Thus it is suggested that the road widening be moved to the right hand side of the road. Where the existing work on the left hand side has already been done partially, this part of the road can be covered with pavers for the comfort of pedestrians using the highway and around the trees circular bedis be done so that they can draw sustenance from the soil and where people can sit and rest. This will then give the highway at least in this stretch a citizen friendly philosophy. Overall one needs to remember that road widening in principle is acceptable but it should take care of the environment and also factor in the aspect that with wider roads traffic will tend to speed and also that it will become more difficult when common people have to cross the road and go on to the other side particularly where you have schools like ACDIL. The road or highway should not become a hindrance to local residents and their interests are also to be looked into and not just the interests of the tourists looking for roads with no traffic jams. Is the CM listening and will he give instructions to have the above matter tackled in the manner as suggested? Note: These things as above continue to happen even when you have an IIT qualified engineer as the Chief Minister in Manohar Parrikar. Not only that he was awarded the CNN IBN Politician of the Year recently and when asked whether an IIT-ian makes a good politician then he said that we need honest persons to come into politics and not necessarily engineers. Kind of explains the above issue, maybe he has forgotten that he is an engineer. Again with Rajdeep Sardesai, a Goan at the helm of affairs at CNN-IBN was there match-fixing in giving away the award to Manohar Parrikar!

R.I.P. FDI in Multi-Brand Retail

For all the debates in both Houses of Parliament the conceptual issues of FDI in multi-brand retail were neatly side-stepped and made more or less a non-issue and allowed to rest in peace (R.I.P.). The voting pattern showed up our politicians particularly the BSP & SP of having no scruples to stand up for what they believe in, with both walking out of the Lok Sabha while in the Rajya Sabha the SP showed their consistency while the BSP voted with the Treasury Benches to save the UPA government from embarrassment. The plea of the BSP was that though it is against FDI in multi-brand retail, it did not want to be seen to be siding with the communal BJP and hence its voting with the UPA in the Rajya Sabha. Other extraneous issues down to clearance of the Chaitrabhoomi site at the NTC Indu Mills site in Mumbai for Ambedkar’s memorial a day before the Lok Sabha vote was crucial in allowing the UPA to sail through in the lower house. We, supposedly to have become a super-power by 2020 deferred now by three decades to 2050, now have to wait for the Walmarts, Carrefours and Tescos of this world to help our farmers get better margins on their produce which we cannot give them, set up cold chains in the country which our engineering expertise cannot do, reduce spoilage and wastage in the distribution process from farm-gate to consumer which we cannot manage and provide employment to our educated youth which we output at the rate of millions every year from our colleges, which we cannot give. Amen. So here’s to buying shoddy goods from around the world through these multinational distributors who will dump in India whatever they cannot sell elsewhere knowing full well that our regulatory systems are lax and also purchaseable. Concluding one hopes that the FDI in multi-brand retail becomes a non-starter just like the Indo-US nuclear deal since both are conceived in stupidity and the belief that we cannot help ourselves and do what is needed for our country and its people and off-load our own responsibility to foreign agencies who supposedly know more about our country than we ourselves do.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:142

Date: 08.12.2012

Contents:

1. Dhoni’s Request For Turning Pitches

2. PhD Proposal On Gopinath Munde’s Social Work!

3. FDI In Multi-Brand Retail Harmful To India

4. Muslims Feeling Of Being A Targeted Community

5. Lacunaes In The Direct Cash Transfer Scheme Using Aadhaar

6. The FDI Debate On Multi-Brand Retail in Parliament

Dhoni’s Request For Turning Pitches

Dhoni seems to have lost his touch at captaincy which has been evident in the last few series as also in the current series against England even after the resounding victory that India achieved in Ahmedabad. One would believe that Dhoni is losing his strategic skills in reading the game or going the way the majority of Indian players have all gone, particularly captains, and that is forget about winning and start giving excuses for their below par performances and that of their team. These problems tend to aggravate when the team is not doing well like in the last two overseas tours to Australia and then to England at both places where India got a severe drubbing. Restricting oneself to comments made by Dhoni after the Ahmedabad Test of asking for turners from Day 1 which in itself raised a needless controversy highlighted more by the CAB and the ground curator at Eden Gardens. The point is after asking for rank turners, did we do any better in the Mumbai Test, which in fact we lost in almost equal resounding measure. And this with 3 spinners in the team. Thus asking for turners from Day 1 is not in line with the game of cricket in the classical sense, to which we will come to a little bit later, but then our spinners, as well as our other bowlers, have not been able always to turn on their performance to get quick wickets and bowl the opposition out when it is required urgently. This has been proved many a time in earlier series both at home and abroad. They seem to lack the consistent killer instinct which was also noticeable in the Ahmedabad Test during the second innings where paceman Yadav got the important breakthroughs before Ojha turned on the magic to bowl England out and thus get India to win. Therefore asking for rank turners blew up in Dhoni's face at Mumbai where we got beaten convincingly and again in the Kolkata Test which seems to be going the same way where we have been able to take just 2 wickets (Compton, Trott) in almost a full day's play. Trying to cover himself by saying that turners bring in more of an even game and the advantage of winning the toss becomes less important is neither here nor there since Dhoni, were you not asking for turners to benefit your spinners and then you say that it is advantageous to none! This demand is more aggravated since England have now in their ranks two of the best spinners that they have seen in a long time in Swann and Monty Panesar. It may not be untoward to say that their wicket taking ability is better than of the Indian spinners. Coming back to the classical view of cricket as a gentleman's game which fits the 5 day tests rather than other forms of the game, we need to have the wicket helping the pace bowlers on the first 2 days and gradually deteriorating from the 3rd day to help the spinners and India's home advantage would then continue to remain. The Tests as the Eden Gardens curator said for the viewing public should go on at least for 4 days if not 5 since that is what both the spectators at the stadium and the TV viewers are paying and looking for. And this is exactly why the game in India has become such a paying proposition and brought fabulous wealth to our cricketers including Dhoni. So Dhoni by asking for rank turners, is he not killing the golden goose? These are some of the matters that Dhoni shound ponder over and mull on how to improve the wicket taking ability of his bowlers and the stickability of his batsmen at the crease since more and more of them over the years are facing progressively less balls and therefore maybe making less runs. This is but in no way a case to oust Dhoni from the captaincy but to remind him to think better and not change the game too much for 'home advantage'. He is young and will learn.

PhD Proposal On Gopinath Munde’s Social Work!

There was news item recently that a PhD proposal on Gopinath Munde’s social work when refused by the university authorities in Marathwada University at Aurangabad were threatened for not allowing the topic and then they finally had to succumb to that pressure and allow it. We are again here falling prey to extraneous influences to impinge upon our educational institutions. Whether the topic is deserving does not seem to be the issue but the belief that the BJP leader deserves this signal honour seems to be the intention. To be fair to Shri Munde, he may not be even aware that such a proposal has been given in and that it has caused the furore that as reported in the newspapers. The related matter that bears examination is whether such topics can be taken during the lifetime of the named person or at least as long he is involved in the work mentioned in the dissertation proposal may need to be considered assuming Shri Munde is still i8nvolved in social work. Further what will be the value of PhD’s from Indian universities if these trends persist is another thing that we may have to mull upon.

FDI In Multi-Brand Retail Harmful To India

The FDI debate on multi-brand retail in the Lok Sabha brought out some issues which need to be contested. Kapil Sibal's statement that opening up the reforms has benefited the auto ancillaries and the pharma industry in India to become global in size and be counted among the best in the world is one such. However, a moderating thought on this is that these industries have benefited their owners more than the people of this country notwithstanding their contribution to generating employment and the revenues generated by way of excise duty and other taxes. In the same manner the great belief that Kapil Sibal has that Cos. like Walmart coming into the country will source a majority of products locally will be belied when he sees that the shelves of the eventual Walmart stores overflowing with products from China and elsewhere from around the world. Organised retailers buy products from the channels that they have set up and those that offer them the best rate. They have no compunctions to benefit the local suppliers and though in the rules that our government has faithfully framed that so much percentage should be sourced from our small & MSME businesses, Walmart and their kind will pay lip service to it until their FDI approvals are through. Once this is done they will take advantage of our lax monitoring and inspection systems and source from their regular international suppliers and in the unlikely event that they get caught or hauled up, it is easy to get out of the predicament since all you have to do is admit your mistake and pay a minimal fine. What Kapil Sibal does not realise is that without FDI in retail the shops of his constituency - Chandni Chowk, stock in the majority electrical and other novelty goods from overseas mostly China and therefore we celebrate Diwali with Chinese diyas, pray to Chinese-made gods etc. Hence, one would believe that there was no need for FDI and all one would have to do is liberalise imports further so that our own traders would benefit. We also need to remember that some of the big names in retail that are being talked about like Walmart have turnovers exceeding US$400 Billion and which happens to be higher than India's annual export trade. Thus one can imagine the negotiating clout that these Cos. have and into whose maws we are thrusting our poor farmers into. For them it is like jumping into the Walmart's fires after having been slowly simmered in the Indian government's cooking pot for so long. It is not only this but what disappoints is that we are encouraging people like Walmart who along with their local partners, Bharati of the Mittals have already broken laws of our country by pumping in some FDI in excess of US$100 million into the country when it is clearly not allowed. Thus for the UPA & the Congress party, it is common ground for one blackguard to invite another to loot this country. As said many a time in many forums, FDI in multi-brand retail will only benefit the rich and the upper middle-class in terms of improving availability of convenience goods, will lead to rampant closure of the small kirana stores that dot this country and provide livelihood to millions of families, will not improve recovery to farmers for their produce, make our educated youth robots with no independent thinking ability for manning the retail stores and hand over the huge Indian market to monopolistic foreign Cos. who will only end up in exploiting our country and our people.

Muslims Feeling Of Being A Targeted Community

The Muslims in India have never had it so good than in recent times. Capping a long list of Muslims in Indian public life and officialdom from Abdul Kalam as President, Hamid Ansari as Vice-President, Quereshi as Election Commissioner some time back, Salman Khurshid now as Foreign Minister among others, the UPA government has now appointed Ibrahim as IB Director which is a sensitive and critical post. What else do the Muslims want? The fuss being created about Muslims being targeted by the police and law enforcement authorities in terror cases is quite unnecessary. The police have to be left alone to do their job and given the police track record all over India except maybe in Kashmir one would not believe that they go out of their way to pick on Muslims. As a community the Muslims need to be co-operative with the law enforcement authorities and not take confrontational and antagonistic positions which only aggravates the situation creating suspicion and thus aggressive action from both sides. One needs to just look at crime statistics to see that in percentage or per capita terms the Muslims as a community tend to have more crime amongst themselves as also against other communities. This could be because of the generally low level of education within the community resulting in income not satisfactory to live a reasonably comfortable life and thus contributing to strife. The low level of education could also be the reason why the Muslims particularly youth tend to be deluded by the terror propaganda unleashed by outfits like Al Qaeda and others as also easily provoked as we had seen in the recent communal clashes in the North East where pictures on the Internet of natural disasters in other countries was quickly assumed as that of communal problems in Assam. With the explosion of information that is the norm today through the Internet and social media it is important that all of us including the Muslim community qualify the information, in the sense check its veracity, before acting on the input. There have also been some pockets in the Muslim community across the country and not necessarily only in Kashmir who tend to side with Pakistan down to even supporting them in the case of an India – Pakistan match be it in cricket or hockey or whatever and even wave Pakistani flags at public places during the match. This is rather strange since you do not support your own country which gives you sustenance and livelihood but support a nation across the border whose track record in human rights is a shambles, who actively supports terror groups as part of state policy blaming all this on India and whose economy does not allow a reasonable life to its citizens except for a few of the elite. In this context, what comes to mind is that those who support Pakistan can be given an option to move to that country though one wonders if Pakistan would accept these Muslims since it systematically off and on culls the Muslims who have come from India, whom they call Mohajirs, in its cities like Karachi and others. The plight of the Hindus in Pakistan is worse as evidenced lately by the refugee influx of Pakistani Hindus into India seeking residence here after atrocities committed against their women by the Pakistani Muslims. In all this the educated Muslim community in India who have established themselves in Indian society need to play an active role in encouraging education within the community, the enrolment of more and more youth into colleges and professional courses, fostering the sentiments of nationhood on a more general and expansive basis within the community which is the only way to get rid of the step-motherly status that the Indian Muslim has come to believe is his lot in India. The fault in this does not lie with the majority community but with the Muslims who have to come forward and truly believe that they are legitimate and fully empowered citizens of India. Thus in this scenario having a cricket series against Pakistan in India is quite out of context since given the intransigent response from that country we will encourage more of their terrorists to come to India under the guise of cricket fans. Also the cricket series does not benefit anyone except for BCCI and those involved in illegal betting so as a nation we do not need this series and there is no real need for India to prove itself against Pakistan in cricket

Lacunaes In The Direct Cash Transfer Scheme Using Aadhaar

The direct cash transfer scheme using Aadhaar announced by the UPA government as a radical measures in terms of transferring subsidies and benefits to the weaker sections of our society needs to be monitored carefully and implemented well if it has to meet its stated objectives. The major lacunae that this scheme will have is that it will suffer from the same problems that any of the existing administration measures which are used to manage current schemes like MNREGA etc. The first thing is that the list of those entitled can be managed to include and/or exclude those who are close to the local village administration or the unit closest to the beneficiary. In MNREGA in some of the instances in Rajasthan it was found that the people of the lower class of society like dalits were not included in the beneficiary list though they did most of the work and the list was packed with the names of higher caste people. The dalits though were paid for their work but not according to the scheme's norms. Similarly there can be clerical errors in inputting the names of the people and/or their bank account numbers (now 13 digit) along with the Aadhaar number (12 digit) which will lead to the beneficiary not getting the funds due to him/her. We all know the mechanism of redressal of such errors with government officials who will ask for their pound of flesh to correct the entries. Even if there is no bribe involved when educated people find it extremely difficult to interact with government and set right things related to their issues what chance does an illiterate villager or BPL category person have to get his name properly included in any beneficiary list and in the event of errors to get it corrected. As recounted in another trial benefit transfer scheme based on Aadhaar for kerosene it was found that not only were there delays in transfers of the subsidy for no legitimate and explainable reasons but the people found that buying kerosene at the open market price was impractical considering that they had to find the extra money and with no definite time schedule for getting the subsidy they preferred to switch to firewood. This was the reason why consumption of kerosene in that area fell by 80% while the government touted that this showed the extent of leakages in the system and how much kerosene was being diverted to the blackmarket. Imagine this for rice and wheat which the BPL familites are supposed to get at Rs. 2/- per Kg. while market prices for the similar item that is edible in the open market is close to Rs. 20/-. Thus we have to ask ourselves that whether the BPL person will have the extra Rs. 18/- per Kg. to buy for his consumption and then await the subsidy transfer from the government. Definitely, not! Thus we will end up having more people starve than what is happening though the government would have been happy that they have eliminated the defalcation by the people in the chain of transfer of these benefits. The problem is that the direct cash transfer scheme using Aadhaar is looking at just the 'last mile' step in the transfer of subsidy/benefit process without looking at the earlier steps and tighten the lacunae in these areas. This apart we all know the problem for BPL persons to open bank accounts after going through the KYC norms. Thus the direct cash transfer scheme using Aadhaar is being pushed out in haste and unless due application of mind and concerted thinking is not applied, it will end up throwing mud in the government's face and have millions of our poor people lives thrown into disarray and maybe sacrificed at the altar of technology. There is an alternate viewpoint in which if this scheme is introduced it may be another mechanism to improve the liquidity of the government. Consider that a BPL person buys a Kg. of rice at Rs. 20/- which he is entitled to get at Rs. 2/- and the government either does not transfer him the Rs. 18/- subsidy or delays it by some 6 months or more, then the government would be running on the poor man's money. With more than a 100 million beneficiaries, we are talking of large sums of money. Talk of inverting the subsidies pyramid. Also it could be a short-term measure to controlling the government's runaway budget deficit. Concluding, it is not that one is against the new schemes of the government using the latest technology but this is just to remind those involved with its implementation that they should go about this with caution since you are playing with the lives of people who are at or near starvation levels in our country.

The FDI Debate On Multi-Brand Retail in Parliament

The FDI in multi-brand retail issue has gone through many hurdles before it will finally come up for discussion this week in both houses of Parliament entailing a vote at the end of the debates. In this process a number of deals have been struck by the Congress with its UPA partners notably the DMK as well as the SP and the BSP who give outside support to the present government. The SP vote though is still hanging in the air to conclude maybe the final wrap-up of concessions that they expect to get. This wheeling and dealing to ensure that the UPA does not get embarrassed has nothing to do with the FDI issue on hand but for the concerned parties to assess how to get off disproportionate asset cases or the CBI off their back on corruption cases or even to such mundane things as to official postings of those close to one or the other party. This shows how much our politics these days is hinge-ing on deal making than retaining broader focus on affairs of policy and governance. The acceptance by the Congress on a discussion on FDI has come about only after they were confident of having bought over their supposed allies within and outside of the UPA. The debate on this issue in both houses of Parliament with a vote will not have any effect on the incumbency of the UPA government. By rights the TMC call for a no-trust vote should have been accepted across the board by all parties not necessarily just to voice their opinion on the FDI issue but as a vote of no-confidence on the performance of the UPA government ridden with scams, corruption, rampant price rise and complete non-performance on economic matters. When everyone wants early elections why the UPA was given a lease of life for another year and the agony of the people prolonged for the same period, is something that all parties opposing the Congress will realise to their regret.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:141

Date: 01.12.2012

Contents:

1. Let Market Forces Rule In India’s Corporate Sector

2. Authorities Should Act According To Law

3. BJP No Better Than The Congress

4. The Aam Admi Party

5. FDI in Parliament

Let Market Forces Rule In India’s Corporate Sector

Recently one of the senior office-bearers of ASSOCHAM told the media that if the government can bail out Air india then why should Kingfisher not be bailed out at least by the public sector banks from which it has borrowed massive amounts of money, since Kingfisher is operating in the same area as Air India and is faced with similar problems. In any case there should have been no question of bailing out Air India since given the enormity of the problems it has been facing in the recent past, it should have been allowed to die a natural death since it will remain a massive liability for the government and the Indian tax-payer. The logic, however, of bailing Kingfisher by analogy as above is infallible but then let us look at this in a slightly different perspective. If you are a big borrower and default then the banks are keen to find a way out like rescheduling etc. take the instance of Kingfisher Airlines here and that of Suzlon and other major corporates. But if you are a small borrower then the bank jumps on you for repayment. There is no question of rescheduling here and the banks go even to the extent of publishing the poor person’s photo in the papers saying he is a defaulter. We have seen these kind of ads for those who default on home loans in the daily papers. In the same way when some activists pushed for the publication of photos in newspapers of the major 400 defaulters by size with banks in India among whom are big and reputed corporates, the RBI stepped in saying that this is not as per the prevailing banking rules. Why should there be one rule for the common man and another for the well-heeled is the question? It is time therefore that the genteel and sophisticated mask of the rich and powerful is ripped off and they brought on par with the rest of the country. If any business like Kingfisher fails then let it go into bankruptcy since someone else will take their place or the other players in the same sector will benefit. Thus in each sector let market forces rule and not the hush hush whispers of crony capitalism.

Authorities Should Act According To Law

The arrests in Palghar of the girls who posted on Facebook the protest about the bandh on the day after the Shiv Sena chief had died is representative of the authorities tending to take the easy way out in any administrative action. It is also a case of the establishment leaning unnecessarily on defenceless individuals since it is afraid to deal with an organised entity in this case a militant political party.It is not only in this case but it is always found that any of the authorities in our country tend to take the safe side and harass single individuals who have less clout or voice to make themselves heard about the injustice being meted out to them. It is only now that media as also the Internet have given a mechanism for these voiceless people to be heard. What should be done is that the authorities should act according to law which will obviate the need as we are now seeing in the above case of corrective punitive action against the magistrate and police officers being launched which was completely unnecessary if they had acted to implement proper justice. In a democracy there is no need to muzzle free speech which also brings to the fore that our political parties and their members should take criticism against them more pro-actively and in a balanced manner rather than resort to violence at the drop of a hat.

BJP No Better Than The Congress

On the Gadkari issue the BJP is turning out to be no better than the Congress by ignoring the aspect of money laundering in the floating of Gadkari’s Purti group of Cos. where the latest evidence unearthed by the media is showing that Gadkari’s very near relatives are the ones who had put money into the shell Cos. which in turn invested in the Purti group. The BJP instead of coming clean from this matter in the manner of metal being rid of impurities by melting it in a furnace which it could have easily done by sacking Gadkari is playing with the Congress as to who’s the one that is better at corruption? Further by sacking Ram Jethmalani for speaking his mind on the Gadkari issue and that of the CBI Director, it is showing intolerance of criticism and trying to muzzle free speech within the party on matters where there is no real defence for the leaders of the party to take such hasty and intemperate action. Thus there is no real difference between the Congress and the BJP when it comes to either its leaders being found to be corrupt or not being allowed to speak against the party leadership. In the Congress we have the ubiquitous High Command while with the BJP it seems to be the Central Committee. Thus in this context new parties adding to the regional parties complement gives a greater choice to the Indian voter in the upcoming general elections.

FDI in Parliament

In some quarters of the media it is being debated on why government policy should be brought to Parliament in the context of the present controversy of FDI in multi-brand retail. These people may be right about this position to a certain extent but then it was the Congress on the floor of Parliament that had offered to discuss it prior to implementation. Thus the position that the Opposition is taking that you cannot offer to discuss it and then change your mind in just a couple of months and say that policy is within the domain of the executive. Why are the Congress going back on their assurance? The onus therefore is on the Congress to come clean and not play hesitant or dilly-dally in the face of executing government policy. This in no case will become a precedent for future policy either for the Congress or in the faint hope that the BJP still holds to come back to power.

The Aam Admi Party

Arvind Kejriwal has announced the name of his political party as the - Aam Admi party. This is another milestone in the journey of R K Laxman's ubiquitous common man (or aam admi) from being a silent observer in the cartoons to a likely active player in the political arena. This is a good thing since it is very important that the aam admi representative of the Indian middle class takes a more active role rather than get snowed under by various government measures mostly taxation and price rise since he is more often than not taken for granted. In a democratic process it is important apart from being passively participatory to be demanding of one's rights at appropriate times. As it is the aam admi vote has no value since it gets lost in the morass of the vote banks cultivated by our politicians of the poor and marginalised sections of society. There is an issue here of understanding what we mean by the vibrancy of our democracy which is held as a beacon by our politicians and professional psephologists when extolling it around the world. Is it only in the ability of the electorate to overturn governments every 5 years or do we have to judge vibrancy in some other way? Just like music played by a novice varies from that played by maestros like Ravi Shankar or Hari Prasad Chaurasia, so also we need to index the vibrancy of our democracy and that is in its ability to assimilate feedback, to act in time on issues which are important to the people and to set the nation on a path of growth and prosperity without being preferential about it to certain sections of society as we see happening now. Thus the choice of the name of Arvind Kejriwal' political party augurs well and we do hope it will usher in positive change in the life of this nation. Postscript: Arvind Kejriwal has used the name – Aam Admi for his fledgling political outfit which is what I had started using a long time ago for my Vox Populi authorship. For a larger cause, I guess, it is OK to sacrifice the name. The term – Mango Man , being bandied around now for the aam admi is more in the nature of a pejorative and should be ignored.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:140

Date: 24.11.2012

Contents:

1. ‘Snoop The Snoopers’

2. The Malaise of Corruption

3. The Mish-Mash That Is The Indian Economy

4. NOTW, Savile & BBC Bungles Reflect The Scars In British Society

5. The Savita Case In Ireland

6. Indian Agriculture Has Become A NCP Fiefdom

7. Israel Has To Show Restraint

8. Congress Suffering From Empty-Headed Leadership Syndrome

9. Dual Pricing of LPG Cylinders

‘Snoop The Snoopers’

The sexual indiscretions in the US that have hit recent headlines involving serving and other generals of the Army as well as Gen. (Retd.) Petraeus heading the CIA from which he has since resigned indicate that Congressional hearings and the like that officers of the government go through before they are confirmed in their job extend only to their past practices and not to current habits. Army generals have been lumped together above since Gen. (Retd.) Petraeus is of that category and was recently having joint command of the forces in Afghanistan and the other named generals in this category are his successor in Afghanistan and the one commanding the famed 81st Airborne Division. These are also very senior command positions privy to top secret information and the fact that these generals being compromised could indicate a grave security risk to the US government. The CIA being ‘top dog’ among snoop agencies in the world does not snoop on its own has been proved in the case of Petraeus since the FBI persistence in the investigation into antagonizing email between two of the ladies involved is what broke the story. But then maybe like in many of Robert Ludlum’s novels there is a need for the NSA or some similar covert agency to ‘snoop on the snoopers’.

The Malaise of Corruption

The venal side of most of our politicians and legislators is well known. The same applies to our bureaucracy since just this week we had the lady ex-Chief Secretary of UP indicted for corruption by the CBI. Along with this the person heading the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was being investigated by the CBI for showing concessions and favours to a private group. All this on the back of a number of IAS officers being caught in corruption cases and having disproportionate assets and as far as the IT Dept. is concerned we have had Commissioners indicted for corruption leading up to even the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). One therefore need not reiterate that corruption is a pervasive phenomena in Indian society. What hurts the common people is that our authorities refuse to even see this problem and particularly the Congress governments who in fact encourage this sort of thing and turn a blind eye to it. Like again last week we have had a news item highlighting bogus ration cards in Mumbai where the authorities have now ruled that if there is no drawal against a ration card for 3 months, it will get suspended. We all know of some 40 lakh bogus cards in Karnataka and that this problem is common enough around the country. It is just like the petrol mafia, this is yet another mafia which uses these bogus ration cards to siphon off foodgrain stocks to the open market for windfall gains. Again last week, we were told that 50% of cellular towers in Mumbai are illegal! If out of 3600 towers in Mumbai, if some are illegal then it is to some extent acceptable but with half of them being unlawful, it reflects the broader malaise that affects India these days. And this in a hi-tech sector where we have the organized corporate sector including multinationals involved. The common tendency in India is not to follow the law most of the time and if caught try to bribe your way out of it. It has become an embedded culture now to do things beyond the pale of the law knowing full well that you can get away with it by paying money. This essentially is the root cause of corruption and it is an attitude issue which needs to be corrected. For one or the other reason the average Indian is willing to pay to get his work done rather than be either hassled or wait in line. Thus for all those who scream from the pulpits about corruption and the need to get rid of it, in their own lives when things have to get done, one is reasonably sure that they pay up quietly and not have it known to the public at large. The same goes for black money which is a problem intertwined with corruption. The average Indian indulges in generating and using black money since otherwise society brands him as a duffer and an idiot. If you have an honest government officer, you will find that the pressure on him from his immediate family to becoming corrupt is the highest and if he resists this temptation there are chances that the people around him may treat him as an outcast. Thus the person has not much choice. Therefore if we have to limit, reduce or eliminate corruption, the change has to come from within and among all of us. Say – NO, to paying up unauthorized demands when you interact with any agency be it government or otherwise and that’s when a start would have been made in the war against corruption.

The Mish-Mash That Is The Indian Economy

The economic headlines during the last 10 days or so, have read something like this. Industrial growth falls further with YoY 2.4%. Manufacturing and capital goods are major laggards. Export growth shrinks. Trade deficit widens. Exports to China encouraged. Fiscal deficit widens. Inflation reduces to 7.45%. RBI refuses to touch interest rates. Rupee touches 2 month low. Sensex remains range bound. Moorat trading (at Diwali) does not give a fillip to the Sensex. 2G auction a damp squib. Thus even a novice at economics will tell you that the country is going downhill with the UPA at the helm of affairs. It is not that one is gleeful about this state of affairs but then one has to recognize the situation for what it is before one can go about correcting it. Thus only exports that has seen dull movement is something that can be justified considering that world markets are facing recession and in Europe many countries are toying with imposing austerity measures faced with recession. The point is that none of the above figures may be correct because of basic structural flaws as reported in the past, therefore one cannot but reiterate the conclusion that our policy planners in the economics arena are probably shooting in the dark. Thus whenever they see a ray of hope in any one indice or sector, they jump to embrace it as if there is no tomorrow. But they end up proved fallacious or disappointed making the age-old adage come true – That one swallow does not herald the onset of spring. Our FM had seen the 2G auction as something that would bail him out from his budget deficit crisis little realizing that the Telecom Ministry and the Congress High Command had other plans and deliberately sabotaged the auction so that they could come out spotlessly clean on the 2G scam. As reported the spectrum released was so nominal that none of the telecom Cos. even felt that it was worth sniffing at. Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s comment last month that the recessionary tendencies seem to have bottomed out, have again also been proved wrong. The Sardarji forever makes the same mistakes time and again and because of the unreliability of his forecasts he would best be deputed to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) where his talents are better suited, rather than at the Planning Commission. In fact the entire economics team of the UPA-2 government should be shown the door and immediately at that since they exhibit no fundamental understanding of how the Indian economy works. That is the only way that the country will turn around and start performing again.

NOTW, Savile & BBC Bungles Reflect The Scars In British Society

The News of the World (NOTW) scandal and the Murdoch involvement safely buried one would have thought that British society had put this kind of thing behind them. But then with the surfacing of the Savile scandal and the other McAlpine bungle in the BBC which has even caught the previous head Thompson to being embarrassed in his new job at the New York Times, it seems that hacking into the mobile phones of a 13 year old who killed herself to seeking salacious details from celebrity phones, is not necessarily the end of the story in terms of UK media interest. Media holds a mirror to a society in general and these stories show the extent of depravity that commonly prevails in Britain. The sexual indiscretions in the US that have hit recent headlines are similar to the above.

The Savita Case In Ireland

The case of Savita's death due to pregnancy delivery complications in Ireland has been hitting the headlines ever since the unfortunate incident took place. But then we need to look at the matter objectively. When people migrate they need to understand that by that very process they are accepting to live within the norms of the country to which they are going. This includes the laws of that country and the mores of that society. In this case, here is an educated couple who should have verified the laws of the country particularly when it is involved with a precious issue like childbirth. We all know that everything does not go in childbirth cases as planned, more so in these days where the expectant mother is expected to work and meet the demands of a job abroad. Thus if Catholicism in Ireland was an obstacle they could have flown out the mother back home or an adjoining country where the laws and customs are more friendly to them. Blaming the Irish government for their religious beliefs will not bring back Savita and that is what her family should realise and no amount of public outcry will change that fact. This does not mean that one should not record the protest since that is important for future such incidents where if the Irish government is open to change, precious lives could be saved. But that depends purely on Ireland and their willingness to amend their position on abortion. We should also look at such matters in the context that if anything was happening in India which would affect our religious sensibilities, would we be amenable to change? This is an important lesson to expatriate Indian families and those planning to migrate abroad to check out the laws of the land that they are going to so that the lives of theirs and those of their precious ones are protected and saved in the event of emergencies.

Indian Agriculture Has Become A NCP Fiefdom

What happened during the last Cabinet re-shuffle which many people may have missed is that Indian agriculture has become a NCP fiefdom with Sharad Pawar as Minister and Tariq Anwar as MoS. Henceforth the only growth that one will see in this sector beyond the nominal 2% that we have seen lately is in the size of the girth of the ministers and in their bank balances and assets both legitimate and benami. With a marginal drop of less than 1% in the inflation numbers the government is getting the aam admi ready for the next price shock since agricultural commodities have not shown any signs of any price plateauing or falling. Sugar has already hit Rs. 40/- a Kg. at the retail level with our godowns brimming with the white gold on the back of two successive bumper harvests while news reports indicates that the late monsoon this year has affected the crops of sugarcane by about 40% and also that of potato, onions and pulses. All this news had been coming out from Maharasthra, Sharad Pawar’s bastion obviously to manage the situation to his advantage. Like they say, whether the weather Gods are kind to agriculture or not, Sharad Pawar’s harvest is assured come rain or shine. FAO on the back of weather vagaries because of climate change which has affected food production in the granaries of the world like the US Mid-West, Russia and other regions has been predicting food prices to rise. At least with our bumper stocks of food particularly wheat and rice we can turn the tables on these trends and maintain our local food prices when international food prices are climbing. This, of course, will only be if the Pawars and Anwars of this world smile benignly on their countrymen. Why a man from Maharasthra should continue as Agriculture since the State has been leading the country in terms of farmer suicides in the country and as seen in the recent sugarcane price agitation in the State, Sharad Pawar wants his way in the matter rather than cede the credit to any of his other politician class like Raju Shetty etc.

Israel Has To Show Restraint

Israel is completely getting out of hand in its retaliation against the Hamas in its present conflict in the Gaza strip. The terminology by official Israeli spokespersons that they will 'reduce Gaza to its status in the Middle Ages' is completely against all norms of civilised national behavior. We all need to recognise that the position of Israel in its present geographical location is untenable and essentially because of this we have these random conflagrations, like the present one, with one or the other opposite number, be it the Hamas, Palestinians, Hezbollah, Syria or Iran. If a permanent solution is found to this basic problem by allowing Palestine self-rule with a Jewish minority and maybe an Israeli state with a Palestinian minority cohabiting next to each other within the present Israeli state then we would not have these rocket and airstrike exchanges which end up killing more innocent civilians and damaging public property. Even Israel has to be restrained by those who have an influence on them like maybe the US or some of the European nations not to use excessive and disproportionate force against essentially a weaker enemy. For a race that has seen oppression the tendency to go on the offensive to destroy (and eradicate) those opposing them, kind of shows that the scars of torture have not healed over seven decades. But that apart restraint has to be shown by any nation and Israel has to learn this. The other angle to these conflicts could be a representative one which the Western nations tend to exhibit often. Israel and most Western nations are highly militarised and continue to develop a variety of sophisticated weapons. Now these weapons have to be put to use otherwise the efficacy of these weapons cannot be assessed in battlefield conditions. Thus there is a need for escalation of tensions in any part of the world leading to short battles if not wars where these weapons can be put to test. That is the pattern you see ever since the Cold War gave over of conflicts worldwide. Notable among these are the fact that the Iraq war started on a wrong premise which took a succeeding US president in Barrack Obama to realise that it was completely unnecessary and as for Afghanistan it was a disproportionate reaction to 9/11 where Cruise missiles were being used in the early stages against the Afghans riding donkeys and carrying staves. Even in the case of Israel Barrack Obama has supported their right to defend themselves. No one wants to deny Israel this right but then 180 odd airstrikes in 48 hours with residential apartment blocks as targets and killing innocent women and children are not defensive tactics. It is time therefore that the US President leaned upon Israel to see reason and scale down its firepower while retaliating against the random rocket strikes from the Gaza strip.

Congress Suffering From Empty-Headed Leadership Syndrome

The Congress is suffering from empty-headed leadership syndrome. This normally comes on when the top leadership suffers from a disability of regular speech and the tendency to shut oneself up inside closed doors. We all know that Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh suffer from this disease and to a certain extent Rahul Gandhi also. Giving Rahul Gandhi to lead the charge for the Congress in the upcoming general elections is a clear symptom of this syndrome. In the Assembly segment in the past, he has made a mess of the elections in Bihar and then made a bigger mess in UP where in the last elections the SP came back to power with a resounding majority. In both States the Congress is on its last legs. Thus letting him lead the Congress party in the next general election will signal the death-knell of the party. R.I.P. The other thing that we all need to think about and introspect is about the Congress party, the oldest party in India, with uneducated people at the helm of affairs. Both Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi are not educated since if they were, then there would have been no hesitation to put their qualifications in the public domain. To govern a country though one must say that the dominant need is to be educated, at the least to the graduate level. Some of those leading the pack in the Congress party are even less educated and there seems to be an underlying motive in manipulating an electorate that is even less educated in the majority, thus keeping this country backward forever. If one is to comment on the fact that the present Gandhi family assumes their birthright to lead this country because of their ancestry. One must say that neither are their blood lines pure in terms of their link to the Nehru family. Sonia Gandhi obviously does not qualify to be even mentioned in this regard while Rahul Gandhi is diluted twice once through Feroze and then through Sonia Gandhi. Therefore why the Congress party should hang on to such wretched and irregular heirlooms of the Nehru family is something that is not understood. This talk of charisma and the ability to be a crowd-puller are all cock and bull stories. These myths around Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka have been perpetrated by the Congress party members themselves and cultivated by the present Gandhi family. In this Sonia is the major infarctor, down to copying Indira Gandhi’s style from her sarees and dressing style, the mannerisms of speech and gait while appearing at public meetings. The Congressmen unfortunately tend to believe in this more than in themselves. This leads them to follow the Gandhi family blindly and take any of their utterances as God’s own word. It is time therefore that this myth is busted. In fact the Congress has taken the first step in this regard by anointing Rahul Gandhi to lead them in the next elections which needs to be given a gentle push so that the process of decimation of the Congress party is complete. Like they say, maybe we have had too much of a good thing for too long, more than a century, and maybe it is time to change the Congress party now.

Dual Pricing of LPG Cylinders

We all know that dual pricing of any commodity particularly of an essential nature and in high demand, will lead to black-marketing. The government has seen this in kerosene over the years resulting in scarcity of the regulated price item and exorbitant prices for the unregulated one, leading to diversion of the regulated item. The low price has also encouraged the use of kerosene as an adulterant to petrol with the latter’s price spurting for various reasons linked with international oil price increases. Even lately when diesel prices were being considered for upward review and to bring them in line with petrol, the dual pricing strategy was discarded for precisely the above reasons of it turning diesel to another black-market commodity. But then why dual pricing of LPG has been resorted to now is not understood. Even though the 6 cylinders per year rule is up in the air with various inputs coming from across the political spectrum that the consensus is likely to be 9 cylinders per year, we are already seeing black marketing in the cylinders from the distributors. Like in Goa out-of-turn regular priced cylinders are available at Rs. 1000/- and unauthorized unregistered supply is available at Rs. 1200/- per cylinder. Time to speed up therefore the direct subsidy to the users through Aadhaar, not that it is the final solution, but then when nothing else is possible, we have to manage with half-baked solutions. Like they say half-baked measures call for half-baked solutions.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:139

Date: 17.11.2012

Contents:

1. BJP Playing The Part of a Blithering Idiot‏

2. The 2G Auction Debacle

3. Barrack Obama Back In The White House

4. The Good Side Of IAC Exposures

5. BJP Shooting Itself In The Foot

6. Girish Karnad Goes Viral

7. The PM As The Prevaricating Dummy

BJP Playing The Part of a Blithering Idiot‏

It is now the turn of the BJP to play the part of a blithering idiot. What with the 'reputed ideologue' Gurumurthy making multiple comments on social media in the last few days on Gadkari's financing Purti group of Cos. which are all contradictory. The other BJP leaders who came out in support and against Gadkari on the matter have not firmed up their positions and strangely lapsed into silence. These tendencies are not good for a party which thinks it will lead the next government at the Centre. The least the BJP should do is to exhibit its decision making skills and convince the people of this country that when the chips are down they can get down to a decision. Unfortunately on any matter in the last few months be it moving a no-confidence vote in Parliament or handling its own internal matters it is the BJP's dithering that has come to the fore. In contrast the Congress may make money hand over fist but it keeps the wheels of governance oiled if not with grease at least with money and everyone is happy except the poor who get ground into the dust. So will the BJP wake up and show it is effective at least in the upcoming session of Parliament by moving a no-confidence motion on the FDI in multi-brand retail for which it has to woo the other Opposition parties for the motion to succeed.

The 2G Auction Debacle

With the 2G auction fetching less than Rs. 10,000 crore, conspiracy theories will abound. The first is that the government talked to the telecom Cos. to make the 2G spectrum auction a no-go which indirectly bails them out of the CAG charge that the earlier spectrum if it had been auctioned would have fetched close to Rs. 176,000 crores. Now the Congress and the UPA can tell the people of the country, we told you all along that it was not that much! The second theory would be that the telecom Cos. have themselves formed a cartel so that they underbid and force the government to sell the spectrum cheaply. It is also understood that Vodafone has emerged as the major bidder across regions picking up spectrum in possibly a celebratory mode considering that the parent Co. has decided not even to make a provision of US$2 billion or so on the taxation demand by the Indian government on its earlier big acquisition in India. The UPA government is understandably worried about the burgeoning budget deficit this year which was to be offset by the revenues generated among other things from the present 2G spectrum auction, which is in jeopardy now. A large budget deficit will render liberalization of the economy difficult which will bring the sword down of a lowering of India’s credit rating by international agencies thus messing up the plans of the government. Why our financial planners including our homily quoting PM not follow the maxim – Cut Your Coat According To The Cloth You Have, is something that is beyond anyone’s understanding. What they have to do is seal the revenue leakages in the system be it in the MNREGA or the public distribution system etc., cut down the size of government and ring in austerity measures like never before which will stabilize the revenue funnel which is looking like a sieve now. Is anyone listening?

Barrack Obama Back In The White House

Barrack Obama’s victory in the Presidential elections giving him a well-deserved second term re-affirms the fact that the US is still a country that has at its heart decent human values and the willingness to give a human being another chance. After a rather dithering and indecisive first term where the signal achievements for Barrack Obama were killing Osama Bin Laden, the Health Care Bill and the decisions for pulling out of both Iraq & Afghanistan in that order of importance, the second term will give an opportunity to show what real plans he has from America rather than just reacting to circumstances like he had to do in the first term. The recession, the two quite unnecessary wars were all thrust upon him by the previous Republican incumbent of the White House, George W Bush, and he had no alternative but to put his shoulder to the wheel and try to resolve them. Irrespective of the unwanted legacy that he had to carry, Barrack Obama still has to learn to be more decisive and do less on the consultative mode he tends to more often than not lapse into when faced with difficult decisions. The recent US Presidential elections showed that the Democrat strongholds are more on the coasts, both the eastern and the western seaboards and the Republican strengths are in the middle America running right through the centre of America or what is called in weather forecaster terms – Tornado Alley. In geographical terms Mitt Romney’s votes covered more area than Barrack Obama’s and the incumbent President won because the seaboards are more populated than the hinterland and the fact that the electoral college system is weighted towards those who can capture the coasts. However, in the final result this was not really a close election since Barrack Obama won by close to a million ballots in the public vote and in the electoral college he beat Mitt Romney by more than half the votes that Romney could get. That surely is decisive and quite impressive one must say of how Barrack Obama got back into the White House for a second term. With the Senate firmly in Republican hands, it would not be insensible for the GOP to move for electoral reforms and change the electoral college system so that the white Caucasian, middle American and middle aged vote counts.

The Good Side Of IAC Exposures

The exposures by Arvind Kejriwal and his IAC do good to the extent that hitherto taboo matters like the financial dealings of the Gandhi family and their relatives along with other political families and also the dealings of the super-rich like the Ambanis etc. and finally the issue of black-money which in Indian society everyone indulges in but is chary to talk about it let alone fight it have come out in the open. The positive thing out of all this is that some action has been initiated by the government in the light of Kejriwal ‘s exposures. Even a face-saving probe was launched by the Congress government in Haryana on Robert Vadra’s land deals while Nitin Gadkari is caught in a bind with his financial improprieties in relation to his Purti group of Cos. The Ambanis and others like them have come out to clear and rebut the allegations made about having unauthorized bank accounts abroad. Even HSBC accused of serving as a money launderer has had to release a public announcement, necessarily bland, that it complies with the law of the land in all the countries it operates in. Even the government has had to announce that a probe is on on the black money Lagarde list of those Indians holding accounts abroad which may not go anywhere but at least a start has been made to be transparent to the extent that there is confirmation that a list exists and the authorities are working on it. Thus such matters earlier hidden under multiple veils of innuendo and secrecy are at least being addressed now with. The reasonable assumption is that if things get talked about some action on them is likely. And the credit for all this clearly goes to Arvind Kejriwal and his team. As for HSBC it is not only in India that it has been accused of money laundering but also in the UK and the US where the fines that are likely on the bank may run up to US$1.5 Billion. In India also there had been cases with them allowing NRI’s to operate accounts which go against US laws. Do we not need then to check if the reverse also is legal since HSBC may be assisting the NRI’s and/or local Indians from breaking Indian foreign exchange laws? We will also be hesitant to take action against HSBC for fear that taking on a big foreign bank may have major repercussions in our ability to get foreign investment (FDI) which is like the Holy Grail for the incumbent government now. The Vodafone retrospective taxation issue is fresh in the minds of our leaders which will prohibit them from considering any drastic punitive action on HSBC. In fact what should be done is to temporarily suspend the banking licence of HSBC in India until they can clarify the money laundering charges against them and prove to us that their India operations are above board. From here where do we go is something that is not known but then whistleblowers and people like Arvind Kejriwal are required since then we at least know how far gone are we on the road of infamy and perdition as a country and a society. It is only then that we can judge what kind of action is required to bring us back to the state of normality. There are a number of eminent journalists in the print media who seem to be jealous of Arvind Kejriwal and his team going to the extent of saying that he has re-found his calling of an Income Tax officer, but then these journalists need to ask themselves what they did all these years but share a cozy relationship with government and big business accepting freebies and the like, indirectly supporting the crony capitalism culture.

BJP Shooting Itself In The Foot

The BJP is again in a mess and that too just before the winter session of Parliament. Where they had enough ammunition to put the Congress & the UPA on the mat in this session starting from Coal gate to Robert Vadra's cozy real estate deals to Salman Khurshid's trust scam, they are looking now inward and fighting amongst each other. It is a completely divided house within the BJP on the Nitin Gadkari financial dealings in relation to the formation of his Purti group of Cos. where any lay accountant will tell you that he will find it extremely difficult to explain the source of his funds. Why the BJP brought in RSS 'ideologue' Gurumurthy to give a clean chit to Nitin Gadkari on his financial dealings vis a vis the Purti group, little realising that he was eroding his own credibility and professional reputation in the process. India is not full of suckling babes as most of the political parties seem to think and a major part of the India success story has come because of the ability and enterprise of its people inspite of having to carry the political class on its back. Not only that other RSS 'ideologues' are complicating the pitch further by bringing in the Gujarat angle against Gadkari. These 'ideologues' well past their prime and with no accountability for their utterances and actions are making a mess of the BJP's position. Thus it is not as if the BJP does not have its hands full with its own in-fighting but this matter is being compounded by such irresponsible RSS interference. It is high time therefore that the BJP shrugged off the heavy hand of the RSS on its shoulder otherwise as a party it will be always hobbled both in terms of formulation of policy and in taking quick action on major issues. Further the BJP itself seems to be suffering from the same dichotomy that affects the Congress party most of the time. In this regard the double standards are very obvious on the part of the BJP decision making since for B S Yeddyyurappa it acts and advises him to demit office and refuses to bring him back even after on some of the corruption cases against him the High Courts take a lenient stand and allow him bail while for Nitin Gadkari under similar circumstances of financial impropriety they prefer to brazen it out and in that process get caught up in a quagmire of their own making. All this is going to cost the BJP heavily in the upcoming general elections and if there had been a chance for them to come up with a better showing and even have an outside chance of forming the government this time around, all that has been squandered away now and looks like a lost dream.

Girish Karnad Goes Viral

Girish Karnad's rantings on first Naipaul, very well deserved, and on Rabindranath Tagore, a little less deserving, are to be taken as expressions of our democracy and categorised as individual opinions and need not necessarily feed a media frenzy. Like they say there is a fine line which divides genius and insanity which also is conditioned as age progresses with the debilitation of the mind called senility. Thus you have to take what anyone says today with a pinch of salt and also take it in your stride which is what needs to be done in the case of Karnad's utterances. As for his comments on Naipaul they are very much valid, who styles himself as a latter-day Nirad C Chaudhuri with the carte blanche to pronounce on all matters Indian, the more controversial the better. On Guru Dev, Karnad is less informed and should not have made those comments at least in the vituperative manner that it has come out in the press, after all the only Nobel Prize winner from India deserves a modicum of respect. Why no one speaks of Salman Rushdie in the same vein, is something that astounds one, considering that in recent times he is the biggest pretender to be a novelist with some links to India? Karnad, are you game for this one?

The PM As The Prevaricating Dummy

Our government keeps saying that there is no alternative to most things like the petroleum fuel and LPG price hikes or the need for nuclear power and lately FDI in multi-brand retail. This is because they take the advice of the professional experts in the field, which is important and desirable, but unfortunately this opinion is not moderated by policy or planning experts. Thus what are called interested parties like the professional experts tend to vociferously push their opinions to the exclusion of all others and therefore alternatives are not considered. It is only this but our PM falls for this hook, line and sinker. And then with the PM it is always ultimatum raj, either this or nothing. We have shown this side of him many a time and notably during the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal. He has shown no ability to build a consensus through structured debate and discussion throughout his incumbency in office otherwise our Parliament would not have been stalled session after session, though we have to ascribe some blame for this to the Opposition particularly the BJP. But then the buck for running this country should finally stop with the man in the driver’s seat and that is the PM. Take the case of petroleum and LPG price hikes, why was this not done all along and that too in stages? Even last week when the price of non-subsidised LPG was supposed to be raised by some Rs. 27 per cylinder by the oil Cos., the announced hike was deferred by the government, presumably because of its impact on the Himachal Pradesh elections where the Congress perceive they have a chance to displace the incumbent BJP regime. So also time after time this dithering government for one or the other tenuous or assumed reason over the last 8 years, that it has been in power, has postponed decisions on petroleum fuel price increases and then this man, our PM, has the temerity to tell us that we are on the edge of the precipice. Why has no one asked him who got us there? It is not only this but the distributor hikes in margin both for petroleum fuels and LPG of some below Rs. 1 for the first and below Rs. 12 for the second, the government, whether it be the State or the Centre, did not absorb it but passed it on to the consumer. When the state levied taxes on these products range from 21 – 29%, could the government not have absorbed them and not passed them on to the consumer? These changes affect the middle class the most in India which is viewed as a punching bag by the government, to be hit any which way and any which side, and they expect this class of citizens to keep quiet. Not any more as Arvind Kejriwal of the IAC has shown lately. The middle class will wake up and will ask searching questions as time goes by. Take also the case of FDI in multi-brand retail, we are looking at it as a magic wand to save our farmers from penury, provide our educated youth jobs and generating growth in our GDP, little realizing that we are throwing the chains of foreign domination again around our necks. Oonce we jump into it, it will not be long before we have to ask Walmart to give us our economic indices like CPI & WPI just like the US Dept. of Commerce does. If they can do it, what’s wrong with us doing the same, will be the refrain of our die-hard pro-US supporters even though Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist has said that introducing FDI in retail will do nothing to increase India’s GDP and we need to be wary of Walmart’s labor practices. But then who can argue with our government who has shut its ears for fear that it may stray from the path of supporting US capitalism.

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