VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 118

Date: 23.06.2012

Contents:

1. The Killing Fields In Kerala

2. The BJP Needs To Be Clear-Headed

3. Pranab Mukerjee Incapable FM Jumps Ship For Presidency

4. India’s Economy Stuttering

5. The Nuclear Power Option Being Forced Down Through People's Throats

6. Pranab Mukherjee as the Presidential Candidate

The Killing Fields In Kerala

Soli Sorabjee writing in his weekly column in a national newspaper on the killing of the ex-CPM leader Chandrasekharan recently in Kerala and the comment of the CPM leader Mani that these things are routine and such people deserve to be killed, claimed kind of assumed ignorance that such things happen. This is rather sad for such an eminent legal luminary people with an extensive practice over a few decades or more. The coastal region in the Malabar north of Kozhikode (Calicut) and until Kannur (Cannanore) and to a lesser extent up to Kasargod on the border between Kerala and Karnataka have for long been known as the killing fields of south India where political rivalries demand the elimination of class enemies and the communist proletariat at the two ends of the scale. Preferred weapons have been have been choppers and country made bombs and there are many a youth whose lives have been snuffed out or have been maimed for life, their mutilated limb stumps are mute testimony of a trek into the realm of transitory insanity. Every person in Kerala and the Communist cadres in the country along with the Congress and RSS who have among them victims of these attacks cannot claim that they are unaware of this situation. However Soli Sorabjee, who one can categorise as belonging to the ‘genteel’ India dabbling in legal matters over his lifetime, one must say prefers not to see the seamy and more often than not the violent streak in the lower strata of our society. This is what we say when we talk of the new partition of this country into India and Bharat. The first affluent and seeking the best and most luxurious in life styles while the latter continues to fumble in trying to make do and frequently gets enmeshed in the mills of crime, violence and political mayhem.

The BJP Needs To Be Clear-Headed

The BJP seems to be a confused party and in taking a long-term view on the 2014 elections and squabbling with its NDA consitutuents over who should be the Prime Minister, if and when they win, they have completely lost sight of the imminent President's elections next month. Gopinath Munde, the Dy Leader of the BJP in the Lok Sabha thinks it fit to comment on the lack of consultation within the UPA on the President election in the context of the Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamul issue of proposing Kalam's name but forgets about the muddleheaded thinking wihin his party & the NDA on not being able to even name a candidate for the President. Saying that the Congress took 2 months to name Pranab Mukherjee as the Presidential candidate and how can the BJP name their within 2 days is neither here nor there. Will therefore the BJP take 3 months to name their candidate in which case it would be advance preparation for the succeeding Presidential election and not for the imminent one. To retain their credibility the BJP particularly and the NDA in general should align their actions to convey the impression of competence, the ability to perform and have original thinking and not remain forever on the path of being just critical of the Congress.

Pranab Mukerjee Incapable FM Jumps Ship For Presidency

When Mamata Banerji named Manmohan Singh as her top candidate for the President of India, it is understood that Manmohan Singh was upset that if this suggestion was considered by the Congress party it would mean that the party and the nation would consider him a failure as Prime Minister. It is believed that he sulked for a day until the Congress party gave its official denial to this proposition and had even threatened to not go for the G-20 & the Rio environment summits. In comparison, Pranab Mukherjee did not seem to have any similar qualms when named the Congress President candidate. Is it because he knew his below normal performance as Finance Minister and thought it better to jump ship now rather than wait for the economy to become any worse?

India’s Economy Stuttering

The GDP story of 5.3% growth with core sector at a sluggish 2% for 1Q.2012 has set off panic buttons around the country whether we are back to the pre-90’s level of 4-6% called famously the Hindu rate of growth. The Rupee also hit a low of Rs. 56 to the US$ around the same time that the GDP story broke. Exports for May are down by 5%. Inflation close to 7.5% on account of rising vegetable prices. IIP for the first time has gone negative. In foreign countries a successive three times that the manufacturing index becomes negative, it is meant to show that recession has set in. Do we have any similar standards in India or do we continue to fool the common public by having the FM or the PM talk things up and hide the actual facts. Thus from a projected superpower in the year 2020 to a laggard in the world on economic growth it has been quite a transition that the UPA has enjoined upon India. Not only that, India is the only country in the BRIC group to be pulled up for non-performance. The FM and all other senior functionaries in this government and the Planning Commission continue to give excuses, which they have been doing for the last 3 years, and blame the rest of the world for India’s economic woes but fail to take responsibility and you cannot but fail to notice that they never blame themselves. The FM after the GDP story broke famously said the following in different forums - That the low growth rates of the GDP have bottomed out. RBI will adjust monetary policy to spur growth. India has resilience to face grave challenges. The Rupee volatility is a concern. While Montek Singh Ahluwalia said – That people these days tend to look at the negative view more. The next day he says – That fiscal reforms and policy paralysis are the reasons for the stuttering growth. Thus you see that these people have their moralizing statements pat and ready and world economic problems come in very handy for them like the financial crisis in banks in the US and Europe first, then the Spain debt burdens followed by Portugal and now the Euro crisis brought on by the likely failure of the Greek economy. How many times have we heard these statements from our policy planners in the last 3 years? Surprisingly as said earlier none are admitting that to this kind of a pass have we led this nation into. Because of our not doing ourselves anything constructive in handling of the economy or policy paralysis as it is come to be called, we have Standard & Poor (S&P) threaten to downgrade our ratings. Why we should be bothered is anybody’s guess? Does anyone rate S&P who are known to fudge their reports as it came out on the back of the US financial crisis when it had threatened to downgrade the US economy? Like the US why do we not stand up to them. Is it because we know what they are saying is true? Similar all and sundry from abroad like various foreign governments, international banks are giving us ‘bright’ ideas on managing our economy. Do we need to listen to them? But even then it is time that we got down to brass tacks and move our economy out of the mess it is slowly sinking into.

The Nuclear Power Option Being Forced Down Through People's Throats

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) public hearing report underlines the lack of pursuit of democratic norms in dealing with the protestors in the lead-up to the commissioning of the nuclear plant in the start-up phase along with not sharing of technical information relating to the safety features of the Russian reactors and the geological/hydrographic information related to the site. Both the Central & State governments have been pulled up on this matter and asked to provide this information to the protestors. On its part the government is taking satisfaction in the commissioning of the start-up phase and the fact that it had filed thousands of police cases against the protestors including those of ‘sedition’. The similar pattern is being followed to mow down the protests at the Jaitapur NPP where just last week protestors agitating against the acquisition of land at the site were arrested in droves and the media reported that the protest was ‘crushed’. These phrases are surely not those that are used in democracy where the people are trying to express an opinion albeit in a united and forceful manner and are more common in dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. The government is also moving apace on the NPP’s considering that NPCIL management has again over the last week signed the long term purchase agreements for the nuclear reactors from GE-Westinghouse. One would recall that these reactors were not acceptable to be installed in its parent country, the US, while India in its fairmindedness is buying these based on the shred of a paper certifying these by a Senate Committee. These reactors along with the French ones are the most expensive in the world and India is going on a merry ride carried away in the zest of a spendthrift shopping spree.

Pranab Mukherjee as the Presidential Candidate

The candidature of Pranab Mukherjee as the Presidential candidate by the Congress party sums up all that is wrong with the Indian political scene. Here is a man who has albeit had a long innings as a Congressman and in public life. He has held mostly positions of the Finance Minister in successive Congress and its coalition governments and is the presently the incumbent Finance Ministerin charge of our sputtering economy. In this last innings Pranab Mukherjee has not covered himself with any distinction and has in fact presided over the economy going rapidly downhill over the last 3-4 years. A clear lack of ideas on what to do has been characteristic of his approaches towards the economy and instead of concentrating on his portfolio he has been chairing almost every single EGOM of the present government and also its main trouble shooter. Part of the reason for this could be that the Congress party does not have anyone to be, shall we say, multidisciplinary and also hold the can when things go wrong for which Pranab Mukherjee has more often than not been the fall guy. Thus one would say that if this government has been accused of 'policy paralysis' then he should shoulder a large part of the blame. Thus naming him as the Presidential candidate, in which contest he is most likely to win, is kind of giving him a promotion for his non-performance on the job assigned to him. In another sense it is 'kicking him upstairs' in the internecine politics within the dog-eat-dog world of the Congress party and both, Manmohan Singh would heave a sigh of relief that a likely contender for his chair is now out of the way, and P Chidambaran would be gleeful that a thorn on his path to the PM's chair is now cleared. But what we also need to remember about Pranab Mukherjee is that even with his long association with the Congress party and working closely with its top leaders including Indira Gandhi and now Sonia Gandhi, they have never really trusted him. His has been a case of being used whenever it was required and then cast away, like shall we say toilet paper. There have always been hushed whispers of his being close to the late T A Pai founded Manipal group and the first family of industrial India, the Reliance group and its founder the late Dhirubai Ambani and having passed on crucial favours to them at critical times, the first for their banking operations and interests in education and the latter in the hell-for-leather expansion in the petrochemiocals area and approving excess of manufactured capacity beyond those licensed. Given these issues one cannot take away the fact that he has what is called the gravitas and the pompousness that in fact comes natural to most Bengalis to hold the President's job. Thus this decision to field Pranab Mukherjee as the Presidential candidate by the Congress is more in the nature of a compromise than anything else.

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