VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:127

Date: 25.08.2012

Contents:

1. The Accountability Deficit In Governance

2. The Recent Incident at Azad Maidan: The Police Restraint Was Commendable

3. On Syria & Iran: A Little Equity & Balance, Please!

4. With Logjam In Parliament, Is President's Rule Likely?

5. UPA Suffers From Ineffective Management & Hobbled Minds

The Accountability Deficit In Governance

The accountability factor is somewhat missing among our ministers and government. With the coal ministry directly under his control when the coal allocations were done Manmohan Singh is refusing to accept responsibility for the Coalgate scam which is representative of this problem. Nothing could be worse. Just like A Raja and Maran before him, let the PM first resign as the BJP has demanded and then make a statement as the Congress circles are claiming that he is not being allowed to do. The offer for a JPC on Coalgate is neither here nor there, since nothing has ever come of a JPC except to completely bury the issue like we have seen in the Bofors scam and lately in the 2G scam. A JPC helps to take the issue off the public radar and have the government play footsie with the whole process of the JPC starting from its constitution, to its chairman, and then declare impossible requests like in the 2G case where the Congress dominated JPC want to call George Fernandes and Atal Bihari Vajpayee as witnesses who happen to be both ailing and in no position to move let alone appear as witnesses and who also happen to have no connection with the 2G case. At the same time the JPC has been refusing the call by some of the other parties to call the PM and Chidambaran before it since they were directly involved in the matter. Similarly Suresh Kalmadi, the prime accused in the CWG scam is being let off by the government manipulated CBI because he was ‘not properly briefed by his subordinates’. The whole process of investigating government related and Congress functionaries under this regime is a sham and more oriented to getting them off the hook rather than indict them. Similarly there is no need for a JPC on Coalgate but let the heads roll first and then we can get to the bottom of the allocation problem. As part of the obfuscation process, there are government lackeys posing as economists who are trying to blow holes in the CAG numbers without realizing that whatever be the numbers and however small they may be, there still has been a loss and even these small numbers can make a difference towards the budget deficit and funding development programs. At least this government should realize that when at the drop of a hat it talks of raising prices of different commodities while squanders national resources for the benefit of corporates. In what we are seeing in Parliament on these matters, one cannot understand why it is only the BJP & Opposition parties that are being blamed for stalling Parliament and causing great loss to the national exchequer and stopping the passing of important bills. Is the Congress & UPA not also equally responsible for not conducting the affairs of governance in a proper responsible and accountable manner. The BJP & the Opposition are using the tools that are available to them of a Parliamentary democracy and it is up to the Treasury benches to find a way around this.

The Recent Incident at Azad Maidan: The Police Restraint Was Commendable

The recent incident at Azad Maidan in Mumbai has opened up a can of worms, as they say. There are different shades of opinion on the manner in which the police handled the situation ranging from the outright communal clothed in secular garb asking whether there is one law enforcement for the minority community and another for others like in the article - Bending Over Backwards by Madhu Trehan in the Indian Express, Mumbai of 22nd August 2012. While the MNS is bent upon exploiting the incident for their own political ends as is their want by claiming that they are there for the Marathi manoos who were hurt and/or molested and blaming the incident on the outsiders from Bangladesh and Northern India among whom Muslims also figure. In the middle is a community like Javed Anand and Teesta Setalvad writing in the Indian Express, Mumbai under the headline – Making History, Not Repeating It on 17th August 2012 who give a twist to the story by praising the police’s restraint and seeking long term concessions for dealing with the minority community in an indirect manner which is essentially trying to get the majority community to turn the other cheek after being slapped on one. Even Syeda Hameed, Member, Planning Commission writing the next day, 18th August 2012 again in the Indian Express, Mumbai in her article – Kokrajhar to Bangalore, in seeking everyone to maintain the secular fabric is a fatuous plea without directly involving with her community and seeking there a change from within. However, the truth is somewhere in between all these options. None see or think it fit to comment as to why the Muslim community particularly at the lowest levels should be hoodwinked by the SMS/MMS’? Why these Muslims do not consider themselves Indians first and shun taking the sides of their religion members from outside countries be it Bangladesh or elsewhere? These are questions that the elders in the Indian Muslim community should answer. Why should the people of the larger Muslim community not encourage education beyond and in addition to the madrassa schools? This emphasis on education would have helped them in just such incidents to qualify, assess and analyse the SMS/MMS’ received and decide whether they should jump into the fray. Why should they continue to be held to ransom by the mullahs? These are the questions which the more respectable, educated, talented and accomplished among the Muslims do not do and that is to lend a helping hand to their deprived and struggling brethren to come out of the morass that is Muslim society in India today. One is not saying that they have not been doing anything at all for the larger Muslim community but there is more organized, concerted and systematic effort required to pull the larger part of their population out of the clutches of fundamentalists and the terror perpetrators. The elite, so to speak, among the Muslim community, is happy to leave behind the morass and escape to a more comfortable surroundings and be ensconsed therein. Time and again when the Muslim community is challenged by incidents like terror or otherwise as in the Azad Maidan incident or the earlier ones, the elite first recoil in horror of once again being entangled in the finger pointing against their brethren and prefer for the sake of form to play along or show that they conform with the fundamentalist elements in their community either out of fear or to avoid unnecessary complications in their ordered lives. Thus what the Muslim community should do is to emphasise on education first and foremost, followed by lobbying for government jobs, seeking quotas just like the OBC/SC/ST do, get themselves enrolled in government programs where assistance is doled out. They are a part of India and are also entitled to benefit from it. This is where the Muslim community has to draw a line and pull together so that their society as a whole can march together hand in hand with a progressing India. Like they say God & Allah helps only those who help themselves and this is where the Muslim community has to put their best foot forward. The approach to retreat into a shell of the minority community and from those barricades defend oneself and put pressure on the majority is old hat in terms of tactics and strategy since it does not benefit the community in any way except to be blamed for blackmail. Thus it is time for the Muslims in this country to believe in themselves, believe that they are part and parcel of this country and partake in its progress and wellbeing as India marches into the 21st century. This journey will not be easy but having made a start one can hope that the end will not be far where one can see every other Indian Muslim confident, assured and believing in themselves raise the Indian flag as a right and entitlement and not just to play make-believe. Coming back to the Azad Maidan incident, the police in the teeth of adversity did an exceptional job and the restraint shown was admirable. There is no more need to use violence against our own people and worse still fire at them. The police, even in this case, true to established norm neglected the intelligence which would have made them better prepared to handle the violence and contain the injury to themselves and damage to public property. If this had been done then the manner in which Arup Patnaik and his police force dealt with the issue would have been a shining example in the annals of police action in India. And for that, what does he get, but booted upstairs, like they say, with a ‘promotion’. The action taken against him was blatantly unfair including the accusations that have surfaced about him in social media. One incident does not make a story and the other side of the truth should also be known before you throw a man into the dungeons, even in the Middle Ages they did that but not so it seems in modern India.

On Syria & Iran: A Little Equity & Balance, Please!

The manner in which the international community is bullying Syria is rather sad. David Cameron on the back of an excellent organisation of the recently concluded London Olympics 2012 and to cover up his policy gaffes on not having an elected House of Lords for fear that it would take away the importance of the House of Commons and creating schisms within his alliance with the Liberal Democrats by not signing the approval for redrawing Parliamentary constituencies according to equal population counts, has announced monetary aid to the Syrian rebels along with assistance to them of arms and ammunition. After the US & the French showed their muscle in Iraq and Libya, it seems it is now David Cameron's turn to show the UK muscle in Syria. This misplaced bravado was commended in international circles as a long awaited initiative. While at the same time Iran's training the Syrian army has come up for criticism. What is good for the goose, does not seem to be good for the gander. In the same manner crocodile tears are being shed by the West for the loss of heritage structures and damage to historical treasures in Aleppo which 'date back 5000 years to the dawn of civilisation' that has been under siege by the opposite forces. While in the same context when Iraq's treasures of the same vintage but larger in number were allowed to be looted and vandalised even after one year of US occupation, nothing was mentioned in the media and in fact news about people including the US forces carting away ancient treasures was suppressed. Is this not a very confined and selective viewpoint that is being projected? In the same manner the US last week has been threatening Iran with an armed strike after failing to move anywhere on its ability to control Iran's nuclear ambitions because it is supporting the Syrian official forces. Talk about a fig leaf to hide your shame, nothing could be closer. A few days back there was an earthquake in Iran where some 300 people were killed and there was massive damage to property and infrastructure but one did not even hear a peep from the UN or multilateral charitable and relief institutions to go to the assistance of Iran though it still retains full membership of the UN. Was Ban E Moon, the UN Secretary General looking at the West before he would lift his little finger to provide relief to the distressed Iranians. This once again proves the time honured priciple that the West follows and that is that life is cheap in any other country on this planet other than in the West.

With Logjam In Parliament, Is President's Rule Likely?

The way things are going on in our political affairs, in the worst case scenario P A Sangma could end up ruling the country as President in the next few months. Consider the present logjam in Parliament with the BJP-led Opposition which is gaining support from the fence sitters like the Samajwadi Party, there could be a case for President's rule in a few weeks. While Pranab Mukherjee could be drooling at this prospect, P A Sangma may turn out to be the dark horse. If Sangma's suit in the Supreme Court on the invalidity of Pranab Mukherjee's candidature for President because of his holding an office of profit at the time of filing his nomination is upheld, then Sangma becomes President and rules the country. On the back of the North East riots and consequent exodus of its people from the rest of the country heading back home, it would be sweet justice and give that region the importance it deserves. It will unify the country like no other measure and bring the North East into mainstream India. Make way Pranab-da, Sangma is coming! Q.E.D.

UPA Suffers From Ineffective Management & Hobbled Minds

Whether it was the 2G scam or the coal gate scam that is currently rocking Parliament, the issue of presumptive loss which is the basis of the calculations made by the CAG are up for debate. But what cannot be contested is that the UPA government on that and a host of other issues clearly did not do their best in terms of managing our economy and its assets. There is also the debate set off by the advice of the Supreme Court that all natural assets of the country should be auctioned which has drawn the rejoinder that whether water should be given off to the highest bidder! But these extraneous matters apart which tend to distract attention one needs to ask this government that on the one hand it claims that revenue is required to fund its development programs and with a sluggish growth, revenue is getting impacted but at the same time where it could have generated a substantial revenue like whether it be the 2G spectrum or the coal allocation we find that the government did not put its best foot forward or applied its best minds to the issues. The approach to most such issues seems to be pedestrian like Salman Khurshid now saying that the UPA has answers to many of the questions that are disrupting Parliament now or Sonia Gandhi offering a debate in Parliament on the coal gate scam and also suggesting to constitute a JPC on the matter to stall the Opposition demand for the PM's resignation. These ploys are old hat and even a schoolboy would scoff at these juvenile methods to defuse the situation by the Congress benches. The problem with the UPA has been that it has refused to engage with the Opposition in a constructive manner on many of the bills that it has been wanting to pilot through Parliament and has been taking the easy way out by saying that the Opposition is bent on disruption and thus encouraging the blame-game. One needs to say that where the UPA itself is a divided house as we have seen recently with the NCP & the TMC stating that on most policy issues the constituents have not been consulted and insisting on co-ordination committee meetings, where is the question that the UPA would even deign to talk to the Opposition. This is the primary reason for the affliction of policy paralysis that the UPA has been blamed for by many political and financial commentators. Kaushik Basu, the Chief Economic Advisor to the PM has finally woken up to reality when he recently commented that this UPA combine suffers from a 'trust deficit' and is therefore hobbled in its ability to deliver governance to the people of this country.

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