VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:113

Date: 19.05.2012

Contents:

1. With A Raja Out, All Accused In Hi-Profile Corruption Cases Out On Bail

2. Point Counter-Point In US - Pak Relationship‏

3. Time To Close Down Air India

4. The Incident at the Mahi Army Firing Range in Ladakh

5. Sharad Pawar For Traders Under Guise Of Supporting Farmers

6. The Doublespeak on Iran by our Foreign Ministry

With A Raja Out, All Accused In Hi-Profile Corruption Cases Out On Bail

D Raja is also out on bail in 2G scam case, the last of those sent to Tihar Jail in the wake of the exposure of the scam. In the same manner in the CWG scam case everybody including Suresh Kalmadi is out on bail. Not only that Suresh Kalmadi as reported in the media is planning to contest an IOC position. Maybe those reports that he has gone woolly in the head may be true or it must be another big scam of pulling the wool over all our eyes of claiming mental issues to get out of jail. It is not that one objects to bail since that is a fundamental right of any accused and our judiciary is fully competent to decide on these matters but one need to know how our windmills of justice are churning. Are they churning fast or are they churning slow? As we all know that public memory is short and has it been the strategy of the incumbent government to send these famous (or is notorious, more appropriate) politicians, corporate honchos and bureaucrats and thus claim that they have taken immediate action on the accused and then after a reasonable period let them out. Once out of the public eye these cases as many before them can proceed at their own snail’s pace as Lallu Prasad Yadav’s case in the fodder scam in Bihar has been moving and effectively these accused go to leading a ‘normal’ life. It is not they should be incarcerated for life as said earlier but we, the common public, deserve to informed of the results of the process of justice and at what stage it is in. Justice in these cases, as in many others, needs to be speedy which has been the bane of our judicial system. Therefore it is time that these high profile corruption cases were passed onto a fast track court for a quick hearing and judgment. Point Counter-Point In US - Pak Relationship‏ The US is thinking that by negotiating with Pakistan that aid will be cut by US$ 50 Million for every US soldier killed with Pak connivance that they are smart. Pakistan as time will tell will countermand this by seeking similar compensation for their people killed by drones as has been rampant in the war zones of Pakistan and Afghanistan. With more numbers of Pak civilians and soldiers killed in such attacks compared to US soldiers, the US will find that they are forking out much more in aid than what they had promised. Like they say everything cannot always be measured in terms of money.

Time To Close Down Air India

The Air India pilots strike brings home the fact that it is no longer worth supporting the haemorrhaging airline into which another Rs. 30,000 crore was sunk recently. Air India like they would say is a ‘basket’ case, meaning hopeless in old world parlance. It would be more worthwhile in having the budgeted money allocated to Air India spent on other development projects that are starving for resource allocation. The national carrier banner may be put up for competition among domestic private airlines who will hold it on a rotation for maybe a 3 year basis. There are some newspapers who have been arguing that the Air India pilot strike is motivated by vested interests who want to benefit the private airlines. Is it not better to benefit our own private airlines than international airlines? Let the ones amongst us who are more efficient, grow. That is the way we should be thinking. The Congress party spokesmen are invoking the benefits of having Air India in the case of emergency needs like airlifting Indian diaspora abroad in the case of emergency like seen during the Kuwait invasion by Iraq or the recent airlift from Libya etc. For these once in a life time kind of situations we should not continue to support a bleeding Air India since with the airline industry, the way it is structured, there will always be cheap aircraft to charter in these emergencies.

The Incident at the Mahi Army Firing Range in Ladakh

The indiscipline at the Mahi firing range near Leh last week tantamount to a mutiny with the jawans having control of the armoury for albeit a short period of time and the run of the field guns show to what levels our Army has descended. When officers themselves do not comply with Army rules, in this case not having their wives around during the exercise, which led up to the confrontation between the officers and the jawans, then what can you expect. Such cases are part of a broader malaise within the Army & the Defence forces that anything goes encouraged by what is happening at the top echelon of the forces where the Army Chief gets embroiled in a date of birth scandal, Lt. Generals’ are courtmartialled and dismissed on account of scams relating to military land deals against which the scandals of yore like corruption within the Canteen Stores Dept. are but pale shadows. These incidents have sapped morale and the respect that the jawans had of their superior officers. The new Army Chief has his work cut out for him and requires like Hercules cleaning up the Aegean stables to get into his shirtsleeves and wallow in the muck and filth created by his predecessors and get rid of it as fast as possible.

Sharad Pawar For Traders Under Guise Of Supporting Farmers

Sharad Pawar has been advocating exports of agricultural commodities like sugar and cotton which essentially is not a bad thing. But what we need is a consistent long term policy on this and we cannot have knee jerk initiatives like now which benefits first traders and then farmers. Currently we have been recording bumper harvests for three years in a row and have surplus foodgrains for which having no place to store, it is rotting in the open. In such a situation exporting the grain makes sense after we have supplied the States their needs for the PDS. We also have to remember that climate change has impacted crops across the world including China in the last few years and India luckily has been an exception. But this situation is not likely to last long and climate change will take its toll on us also. This risk factor we have to include in our export policy. Again essentially our food should go to our people which is not happening with a creaking and squeaky PDS which is more known for its leakages to the trader community than guaranteeing food for the targeted people particularly the shortage situation in rural and tribal areas is very severe. Thus for the States why are we not just giving them the PDS quotas without insisting on payment and maybe just charge them transportation so that food can be reached to the intended hungry mouths is something that is not understood. In the papers recently we had Maharasthra and West Bengal claiming that the PDS supplies are low by close to 50% of allocation and they had no funds to pick up allotted stocks. The other States position would also be similar, one thinks. The above strategy will at least move out grain stocks to where it can be stored properly and progressively given to the people. The latest brain wave from Sharad Pawar is that MNREGA wages will be paid by way of foodgrains. On paper this sounds a great idea but it is essentially to pave the way for legitimate withdrawal of grain from government stocks and divert it to traders. When the regular PDS is unable to reach the grain to the fair price shops, will the foodgrains reach particularly the rural and tribal areas to be paid as wages under the MNREGA? Why do we also think even now that the poor and tribals eat only grain since do they not need some amount of money to buy other essential things that they need which they can do if their wages are paid in cash? These are some of the fallacies in Sharad Pawar’s proposal which apparently looks great but hoodwinks both the government and the poor people and fills up traders pockets.

The Doublespeak on Iran by our Foreign Ministry

The doublespeak on Iran by our foreign policy establishment is stunning. We are clearly succumbing to the pressure put on us by the US which was even reiterated during Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s recent visit to India. The public position as expressed by Foreign Minister S M Krishna is that we are holding fort on Iran and will not forsake our traditional cultural and economic ties. While what is fact is that India has cut down its purchases of oil from Iran and has also temporarily shut down the Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) at Mangalore which was the recipient of the larger portion of Iranian crude. Here also there is doublespeak with MRPL ostensibly having been ‘shut down’ last month due to water shortage which has been acute in the coastal city but in any case MRPL would have been shut down by now considering that supplies of Iranian crude had been disrupted. As for the US pressure, following on the heels of Hilary Clinton’s visit there is a high level US delegation here to support India on how it can still cut down its dependence on Iranian crude. The Iranian crude as far as one knows is low-sulphur light crude which is specifically suitable for refineries like MRPL which in fact was built to handle just Iranian crude along with the Kudremukh iron ore extraction and pelletisation plant which sadly is wound up now. The same fate seems likely for MRPL. Thus the US delegation as mentioned earlier is to sell additional equipment and technology to make Indian refineries like MRPL ‘flexible’ to handle other crude. Thus the US is a business delegation! It is true that with sanctions being imposed on Iran the payment for crude oil from that country will now be in Indian Rupees and to utilize the Rupee currency there is currently also a business delegation from Iran to examine what additional products or services can be imported from India. These are all good signs but there is a certain limit to which Indian exports to Iran can increase. But the principle that two essentially friendly countries whose links go back far in time are looking at increasing their trade on the back of pressure from a third country like the US is telling a rather sad story about the strength of will and firmness of resolve of both countries, India and Iran, particularly India. India should have stood firm and secured the right for Iran to pursue peaceful use of nuclear energy which in any case the US is pursuing in back-channel talks with Iran. And if these talks are successful then India will toe the US line and do as told while if it had held firm then India would have had more of an influence in, as said earlier, the right for Iran to pursue the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Would that not have been a foreign policy coup of sorts for India?

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