VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:130

Date: 15.09.2012

Contents:

1. FDI in Retail & Other Sectors On Black Friday

2. Sports vs. Education

3. Shut Down The Kudankulam NPP

4. The Tarun Gogoi Flip-Flop

5. The Pak Hindu Refugee Issue

6. Citizens Should Demand Efficient & Properly Priced Services & Infrastructure

7. Indian Parliamentary Democracy Is At The Crossroads

FDI in Retail & Other Sectors On Black Friday

The FDI in Retail issue is coming into focus again considering the pressure being put on the government to show some FDI coming in to India in the economic gloom. However, there are very many passionate objectors to this measure among whom Mamata Banejee of the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal remains in the vanguard. FDI in Retail will not benefit us as brought out in the recent UN agency report that showed that bringing in retailers like Walmart does not help the farmers or traders in any country around the world. In fact, big retailers like Walmart and others are detrimental to the interests of the growers and the sellers particularly in the longer term. However, in India Walmart in association with Bharati Airtel has already made a back door entry by entering into the wholesale cash-and-carry trade which is essentially retailing under a disguised manner by keeping the sale quantities low enough to attract retail customers. In addition as is common with big business Walmart and others have been using the media to plug for them by claiming that more and more traders are buying from such outlets like Walmart and others in the cash & carry trade. The scenario of retailing chains of Indian origin is generally of dismal failures and most of them have shut down except in some retailing segments like clothing and in certain geographical regions of the country. Thus while FDI in retail should be stopped, we at the same time should streamline our farmer’s gate to market movement of goods with the least overlays of costs and also develop cold chains across the country specific to produce growing regions to reduce spoilage and wastage. Packaging also needs to be improved for the delivery of the goods and produce in its true form and quality. This will also ensure that wastage is minimized. Depending on FDI for doing this will lead to massive overlays in costs and we will pay in the long run after the retailing MNC’s have got their customers caught in their spider’s web with initial discounts and the like. We also need to remember that given the assumed convenience of buying all that you need at one location and in reduced time in the Walmart style departmental stores, the trend in the West now is to de-emphasise the slogan of everything under one roof and group products by category or similarity of buyers and provide specialized assistance in smaller format stores. Thus what is being brought to India is what is not acceptable or unattractive to Western buyers and something which has already failed in India with the demise of the Indian retail chains by and large. Postscript: On Friday, 14th September, 2012, the UPA-2 in a series of measures announced the approval for FDI in retail upto 51%, in airlines, power exchanges and in the broadcast sector. This has probably been to counteract the criticism that it has been facing over the last year or so of being a dysfunctional government suffering from policy paralysis. But these measure will end up being unproductive and likely to add to more cacophony in the political space in the near future. However, Friday, the 14th September, 2012, will be remembered akin to Friday, the 13th which is linked to horror, in many possible terms like Break or Make Friday, Break or Bust Friday or Black Friday, the connotations remaining mostly with the doom theme. This will be the day when the UPA-2 has written its own epitaph by pandering to the advice of foreigners who have an axe to grind in the Indian economy rather than listening to the voices of its own people and catering to their subsistence needs.

Sports vs. Education

The Unmukht Chand issue with St.Stephen’s College wherein a sports player for lack of attendance was not being allowed to sit for his exams and get promoted speaks of the closed mind-set of the educationists. It also highlights the tendency of the principal of the college, Shri Valson Thampu, to seek publicity by raising needless controversies as we have seen many times in the past. With Unmukht Chand, our U-19 cricket caption leading India to victory in the World Cup, Valson Thampu wanted probably to have some of that shine rub off on him and let the attendance issue develop to hit the media. The world has changed and with that the emphasis for education thus educationists should broaden their outlook to accommodate the changes taking place around them. At the same time with sports going professional the need for education should be left at the discretion of the student since both our most well known cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni have not made the graduate cut but are miles ahead in earnings when compared to our brightest minds. Thus in cases like that of Unmukht Chand the college should help him achieve his education goals by being a bit flexible. The college, of course, has the option not to admit professional players but having done so not ride on their backs into the spotlight.

Shut Down The Kudankulam NPP

The Kudankulam stir closer to the fueling of the rods into the nuclear reactor is deservedly reaching fever pitch. The manner in which the people's agitation adjoining the NPP is being handled is a shame on Indian democracy. For something that the government claims is a safe, clean and peaceful use of nuclear energy our government is unable to explain and convince simple villagers of this aspect and has to start the next stage of the operation of the NPP barracked behind 2000 policemen and some 200 odd RAF constabulary. The incongruity of this simple fact does not seem to have struck our authorities. The villagers have been under the banner of PMANE agitating for the last 400 odd days against the NPP but their pleas to close down the NPP have fallen on deaf ears. They have also been let down by the Tamil Nadu CM who has been bribed with the promise of electrical power that the NPP will generate to side with the authorities. Jayalalithaa is thus parroting the line that the plant is safe and secure. However, on what basis she is saying this is somewhat unknown. As for her track record relating to safety, in just the last week the Sivakasi fire incident at a fireworks factory has demolished it since firstly, when the factory was deemed unsafe there was no coordination between the Central and State authorities to shut the factory down. Additionally, there was no burns ward in any hospital in & near Sivakasi, a major fireworks city, and victims had to be ferried some 60 KM. to the nearest burns hospital though these facilities had been promised by the Tamil Nadu CM including setting up of a multi-speciality facility on which nothing was done. The High Court of Tamil Nadu also certified that the Kudankulam NPP was safe again on what basis no one knows. The Central Govt. on its part continues to bumble around with its newly appointed Home Minister blaming the foreign hand behind the Kudankulam villagers agitation since our governments have got used to the idea of believing that our people are incapable of leading and organising informed agitations. In any case the Home Ministry credibility of blaming the foreign hand was blown up in the recent Internet & MMS circulation controversy that got people of the North-east to move from many parts of the country back to their home towns in the wake of the riots in Assam, by first blaming Pakistan for this and later having to retract this. In terms of deluding the people the AERB has lately come out with a report that they are looking at ways and means to counteract unusual natural phenomena and exceptional other threats like missile attacks to our NPP's. This clearly seems to be an effort of building castles in the air since during the hunt for Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Tora mountains we had heard that the US was planning to use 'bunker-busters' which are capable of tunneling into the mountainside and implode any bunkers or underground shelters that had been carved out. How will our AERB stop such bombs mounted on Pakistani missiles which lately our strategic analysts have said are better than India's missile delivery capabilities and Pakistan is also said to have the fastest growing nuclear arsenal in the world. Moreover the PM himself has said recently that the civilian liability cover for the Kudankulam NPP is inadequate. Therefore let the Kudankulam environs be returned to whom it belongs, to the poor and simple villagers and fisherfolk there, shut down the NPP and move out so that the natural flora and fauna can grow in peace. This last aspect is being highlighted since in a news report recently it was said that orchids grow wild in the adjoining green hills of the Kaiga NPP and you can imagine the desolation that will be wrought there if a nuclear accident takes place.

The Tarun Gogoi Flip-Flop

Tarun Gogoi, the Assam Chief Minister continues to flip-flop on the Assam riots. Into the first week of the riots he said that he washed off his hands off the riots while now he says that he accepts full responsibility for the riots. Similarly, he had said that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are responsible for the riots earlier while he now says that they are not responsible. A person has to have some clarity in his mind about any problem before he can attempt to solve it. Thus on the part of Gogoi there seems to be so much muddleheadedness that the communal and ethnic riots issue in Assam which has been festering for more than 30 – 40 years now will continue to remain for another half a century. Our political leaders lack the political will to resolve thorny issues and that is why these matters remain dormant and rear their heads once in a while through provocation as we have seen in the recent Assam riots. Dhubri in Assam continues to be in curfew even now which indicates that Assam is still simmering and that full normalcy has not been restored.

The Pak Hindu Refugee Issue

Pak Hindus who want to legitimately come to India are being denied immigration while Muslims who come in illegally from Bangladesh are welcomed so that our politicians can create vote banks. Similarly the Sri Lankan Tamils even for a visit to India are harassed while those with doubtful national antecedents are accorded welcome. Both the Pak Hindus and the Sri Lankan Tamils are originally Indians and hence their return to India has to be made easier than others. There is a need therefore to ensure clarity in our immigration policies. We have also to note that the illegal immigration by Muslims into India from places like Bangladesh leads to communal problems like we have seen lately in Assam and in other parts of the country. These Muslims then also tend to align with their religious brethren around the world and sing the praises at that time of their original motherland and spew hatred against their newly adopted country, India. In this context, the manner with which the government is handling this issue of Pak Hindus wanting to come back to India is very confusing. Why should we be afraid of Pakistan to take our own people back? Moreover this matter was not even raised by our Foreign Minister in the latest talks with his Pakistani counterpart. Moreover this matter was not even raised by our Foreign Minister in the latest talks with his Pakistani counterpart. In fact we are not playing hard-ball with Pakistan and giving them back in their own coin on many matters like the easing of visa for tourist visits was unnecessary, while we have released Dr Chisthi the Pakistanis inspite of Zardari himself getting involved, have not released Sarabjeet Singh giving inane excuses of typographical errors which got Surjeet Singh released. Our handling of Pakistan remains inept with the 26/11 investigation of the Pakistani hand in the matter being put almost on the backburner after the current visit of S M Krishna. We seem to be playing out Mahatma Gandhi's advice of turning the other cheek when slapped when it comes to Pakistan. This self-flagellation time and again is completely undesirable. Added to that our newly appointed and bumbling Humpty Dumpty – like Home Minister after his major gaffes in Parliament in its last session, has in the manner of the Pakistani government handling the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case has asked for proof from the hapless refugees to prove they were terrorized back home in Pakistan. How much more insensitive can our government get?

Citizens Should Demand Efficient & Properly Priced Services & Infrastructure

On the back of the massive electrical grid failure in the North and the East last month, a couple of issues have come up which need to be addressed. In one of the articles appeared in the papers at that time, the author stated that private consumers, both individual and group housing as well as industry, had for long islanded themselves by having their own power generation through diesel generators and what have you. The claim was that there is no point in depending any more on infrastructural utilities like electricity supply and it is only the aam admi who would suffer from their inefficiencies and not the privileged or those having resources. There was a sentence in the article stating that ‘people realized that there was a colossal grid failure only upon coming onto the streets’ which is a very scary statement of our own citizens turning their faces away from a problem and not looking to solve it, by saying that it does not concern me. In the process the State or infrastructural utilities will continue to remain inefficient and keep increasing their tariffs to subsidise their sloth and inefficiency. In this instance it is power, tomorrow it could be water since again in Delhi for more than two decades now the relatively well-off are no longer using municipal water but borewell and tanker water for their bathing and toilet needs and mineral water for drinking and cooking. We are not talking of Lutyen’s Delhi here. Take also medical services like ambulance and handling site accident trauma cases unless the government acts on this it is not possible for citizens to get help and support when they need them on an emergency basis. It is then that people who ensconse themselves in paid and cocooned luxury will find the meaning of disregarding such facilities. Everyone has to take a stand and demand for basic and essential services to be provided at a minimum efficiency since with common citizens turning away from basic utilities and creating their own parallel facilities distorts the demand pattern and will lead in the long run to a completely inefficient, artificially expensive infrastructure network which will refuse to respond and react even to normal circumstances and create hindrances to our development. Postscript: Just after writing this there was a newsitem saying that the Haryana Vidyut Board has assured that the Millenium City in Gurgaon would get uninterrupted 24/7 power at a surcharge. Now the Electricity Regulatory Commission of each state has been recommending increases in tariff rates considering in escalation of input cots. Added to that we have these premiums to be paid for 24/7 power which is what should have been the norm but being now made an exception at a surcharge since the new norm is 6-8 hours of loadshedding. Thus expectancy has been moderated and what should be normal is being projected as special. The article claims it is based on the successful public-private partnership in Pune where the captive power plants with private industry having a surplus of 90MW offered to supply this to the electricity board to provide Pune residents uninterruptible power at a surcharge. This model is also wrong since the electricity board should have done this without a surcharge accepting responsibility for their fault or inefficiency.

Indian Parliamentary Democracy Is At The Crossroads

The Congress strategy when confronted with the many scams and blunders committed in recent times is to follow the policy of first denial, then try and brazen it out, then use bluff to escape responsibility, then look for other scapegoats and past precedent to justify their actions and finally capitulate and either reverse the decision on the issue or convey their apologies. Thus for any matter you have to see in which stage the Congress are in and then decide to maintain relentless pressure so that they move through the various stages of the life cycle of the issue as defined above before you can have resolution. In all matters political and particularly with those involving the Congress whether it be the 2G, the CWG, the Adarsh scams and now Coalgate there is a tendency like the common thief to run away from the problem once the scam is exposed. It almost seems as if the Congress tries desperately to hide these scams under layers of lies and half-truths and once fully exposed are unable to do anything about it but dither. Thus in the light of this if you analyse the PM’s reply on the Coalgate issue one has to admit that it was somewhat banal and off the mark. Like no one asked him to follow the CAG guidelines since audit by its very nature is a post-mortem i.e. after the event. It only serves to draw the attention of those audited with an alternative viewpoint like in this case or to point out errors for the purpose of course correction. Further to attack one’s own institution like the CAG is again showing up the PM’s lack of leadership. The other position that the PM took was that we have done nothing new but pursued what was done in the past. Is that why we sent these guys to legislatures, to maintain the status quo? Or was it to enact new laws and keep pace with development as we go into the future? If we were to follow the past then we could have taken off by the precedents set by the Mundhra scandal during TTK’s tenure as Finance Minister, that was the first of many to come with the Congress. Maybe it is like that only and nothing has changed since we are still continuing the tradition of financial scandals and scams though the scale has multiplied. The other thing is that the approach nowadays to politics is towards grandstanding and drawing parallels on me vs. you basis and thus to try and arrive at a quid pro quo compromise sacrificing thus the interests of the common citizens. It is therefore getting to be a choice between who is the bigger devil. The actors in these dramas do not seem to understand that finger-pointing at one another on issues like corruption does not in any way lessen the problem for the country by showing up one or the other party as the bigger offender. Finally, if you take a broader overview of what is happening in Parliament now, it seems like as if the Congress & the UPA-2 are deliberately instigating the stand-offs while the BJP and the other opposition parties are falling into the trap, thus allowing the UPA to avoid Parliament and saved from this embarrassment do what it likes. Though to be fair, nothing much is seen to have been done otherwise everyone would not have been talking of policy paralysis etc. Is the Congress & the UPA therefore deliberately subverting Parliament? If so, we have a more serious problem to contend with. How the PM at the end of this failed monsoon session, accused the BJP to be obstructionist to democracy by holding Parliament to ransom, is something that one cannot understand since the PM & the UPA made no effort to resolve the issue and played along with those that were kidnapping Parliament! The fact that the PM was allowed to go to Iran for the NAM meet was surprising when the political scam on Coalgate was boiling over? With a constitutional crisis the PM should not have gone and the fact that he did proves that he is irrelevant in the scheme of things in this UPA-2 government. Concluding to take a very, very broad view on the recent going-ons in our political scenario one has to say that Indian democracy is at the crossroads and like the Left has said maybe it is match-fixing that both the Congress and the BJP, the principal political parties, are finding ways and means to avoid Parliamentary debate and the Congress particularly heaves a sigh of relief the moment a session ends.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:129

Date: 08.09.2012

Contents:

1. The CAG Figures

2. The PM In The Washington Post

3. Safety On Our Highways & In Our Society

4. Institutional Activism

5. Resolve the Coalgate Scam & Move Forward In Parliament

6. The PM Should Quit

The CAG Figures

There has been quite a debate on whether the figures given by the CAG on the scams, be it for the 2G case or Coalgate are correct or not. But what people do not realize is that the figures given per se are irrelevant. Analysing these figures on a close scrutiny basis is a case of missing the woods for the trees. The principle behind the erroneous decision matters which are pointers to bad governance. All audit reports including those of the CAG, as we all know for those of us in professional service, are things to note and remember as guidelines. They are not mandatory and serve more as conscience keepers for future action. The important thing, however, is that irrespective of the loss in revenue being not in the lakhs of crores but just 7-10% of that per various estimates of experts and therefore in the thousands of crores, even this smaller amount is critical in the context of our fiscal deficit and where we talk of a dip in customs, excise and income tax revenue due to slump in economy, all these thousands of crores help in tiding over. Between the BJP & the Congress the mudslinging to establish who is the bigger culprit does not help the aam admi who is more interested in where the money went and who is culpable. Those responsible for the action in the entire chain of decision making in the Coalgate scam including the officials, ministers up to the Prime Minister as the minister-in-charge should be held accountable to the nation.

The PM In The Washington Post

The article in the Washington Post on our Prime Minister to which it is understood the PMO has taken umbrage is like the old adage which says - How many mouths will you try to shut? It is only by action and performance that people's opinion will change. Thus to improve Manmohan Singh's image in both India and abroad he should strive to prove by his action that he is not what people believe him to be. In doing even that if he is diffident, then people are surely entitled to their opinion.

Safety On Our Highways & In Our Society

Last week there was a horrific accident on the outskirts of Kannur in Kerala involving a LPG tanker after a road accident bursting into flames and the resultant inferno enveloping some 500 meters on either side of the highway burning in its wake all houses, shops, greenery and killing a large number of people. In analysing the situation the usual blame game of ascribing blame to others is being played out with the police and highway authorities stating that since the LPG tanker hit a divider on a turn while overtaking another vehicle, it is the fault of the PWD who had not installed reflectors on the divider. There have been other experts who have been suggesting that the LPG tanker shell is directly mounted on the wheels and if there had been a frame to house the tanker shell then maybe this accident would not have happened since the frame would have absorbed most of the impact and the shell would not have ruptured. The reason for the three explosions and resulting fire at this accident site was because of the tanker shell rupturing and leaking the LPG which made it an unfortunate night to remember for the nearby population. The driver is also being commended for raising the alarm and getting people to evacuate the nearby houses which resulted in a lesser loss of life which though praiseworthy misses the point of responsibility. Just like the captain of a ship, the driver of the tanker should have remained at the site of the accident and given help to the police and firefighting personnel. For this, the first question, is whether the driver is trained on what to do when an accident or leak of the LPG takes place? Secondly, is there available the minimum firefighting equipment on board the tankers to handle smaller fires? Can self-sealing layers not be used inside the shell to tackle such leaks? Who was responsible for the accident and whether the road was recommended for use by the extra-long and heavy LPG tankers? Why was the driver overtaking when he was clearly aware of the flammable cargo on board? The driver and the oil Cos. in the wake of the accident should be pulled up and got to install proper procedures to deal with such eventualities. The problem in India is that no one cares of what happens to the people enjoined to do their job and people in general like the residents living in the area proximate to the accident. The reason for this is that life in India is cheap and a death in the process of doing a job or those affected near to it or arising out of it, does not generate any serious concern among the authorities except the regulation lip sympathy. This has to change and in the light of this accident it should be made mandatory that LPG tankers be enclosed in a steel frame, self-sealing technology looked at, the drivers trained to advise the concerned people on how to tackle emergencies relating to LPG and a quick-response 24/7 cell with each oil Co. on the routes that are taken by their flammable cargo to reach any site immediately on advice of such accidents by helicopter or whatever or have this done by the State Disaster Management Authority. The casualness with which we in India handle matters relating to road transport can be seen by the fact that BHEL to move their extra-heavy and long cargo found that bridges continue to be designed in the 20th century and now in circa 2012 on the empirical basis that the load bearing capacity should be to handle an Arjun MBT tank. BHEL thereafter had to build their own roads and bridges to move such special equipment to their sites. In the same way sleeper buses are common enough for plying at night between many of our cities but there are no guidelines for the design of these buses and God forbid if an accident takes place. To compound this there is now news that between Bangalore & Mysore the Karnataka government is introducing extra-long Volvo buses with pantry and toilet facilities. Whether these buses though maybe safe to themselves are safe for the traffic in between the two cities is something one does not know whether it has been examined? We rush to install facilities without doing what is called exception testing that is what to do when things go wrong or an accident happens. When the ghat roads on the NH sometime back between Bangalore & Mangalore were not motorable the convoy of buses plying every night since at that time the new broad gauge railway line was not operational, would take the winding roads of Coorg via Mysore to reach Mangalore which are primarily not capable to handle such traffic and there are many harrowing stories of delays aftera bus has broken down or an accident happening on this route. We need to make our roads and highways safe and this will come only if authorised vehicles use it. Are the authorities listening? Postscript: The latest accident at the fireworks factory in Sivakasi highlights that safety aspects continue to be neglected either due to lax monitoring and control or the perpetrators thumbing their nose at the authorities and disregarding strictures.

Institutional Activism

There has been comment that institutions like the CAG, the Supreme Court, the EC and others have been getting more activist lately and it has been attributed to the maturing of our democracy. This is not necessarily true since when you have a weak executive, it is but natural that institutions at a peer level and reporting to it will spread their wings and exercise their responsibilities in a more vociferous manner to test the limits of their authority. This is, of course, subject to the condition that to a large part it also depends on the personality of the individual heading these institutions. Thus with the UPA-2 government being perceived as weak and docile it is everybody’s prerogative according to their assumption to make themselves heard. That exactly is what we have been seeing around us for the last 5 years or so since what would you expect if there is policy paralysis as variously described afflicting the Centre, there is some necessity for someone to step in and impose strictures like what we have seen the Supreme Court do. It is not only the named institutions who have been trying to challenge the authority of the Centre but also people like Mamta Banerji in her new role as Chief Minister of West Bengal who has been creating enough nuisance for the incumbent government on various matters as also Jayalaithaa, CM of Tamil Nadu who has thought it fit to raise the issues of Sri Lankans now to a fever pitch. This kind of action is not limited to State players but also to non-State players like Geelani in J&K who is blaming the Central government of deliberately increasing the number of pilgrims for the Amarnath yatra to show India’s hegemony over Kashmir little realizing that with more money in people’s hands there is a tendency to be reminded of the gods more and more. Thus unless the UPA-2 government is able to establish its writ in a firm and rigorous manner we will continue to see such extraordinary exhibition of responsibilities by our institutions, political parties and the like leading to a cacophonous state in our society.

Resolve the Coalgate Scam & Move Forward In Parliament

The Coalgate scam which has stalled Parliament has raised many issues relating to our democracy. The Congress, the main party in the UPA-2 coalition has been castigating the BJP for stalling Parliamentary procedure on this issue and has also lately accused the BJP of de-stabilising the government in a statement made by the present Coal Minister Jaiswal. This is where one must say that the Congress party has been deluded by having too much of a good thing going and that too for too long. They probably do not remember that the role of the Opposition in a Parliamentary democracy is to de-stabilise the ruling party unless there is a national emergency by way of any external or internal threats. The Congress functionaries seem to be either unaware of this or are deliberately playing ignorant. On the charge that the BJP is stalling Parliamentary procedure one must agree with them on the logic that allowing a discussion on the Coalgate scam or similar issues has never resulted in any action taken on the issue at hand except put a lid on it. On the claim that the PM is not being allowed to make a statement in Parliament, the simple rule is of accountability and just like A Raja and Dayanidhi Maran resigned based on the CAG reports on the 2G scam and subsequent investigations on that, so also should Manmohan Singh as the incumbent Coal Minister when the allocations were made should stand up and admit his responsibility and quit. Some of the Congress ministers have leveled a charge of conspiracy against the PM which in real terms is a conspiracy of the Congress party to keep the aam admi in the dark on the Coalgate scam and similar other matters on the functioning of government. The final position to resolve the deadlock in Parliament that is emerging which is very correct is to cancel the allocations of coal that have been done but not utilized or under-utilised and for a judicial probe in the matter by a Supreme Court sitting judge. At least if this happens it is hoped that the Congress would respect the rules of de3mocracy and run a transparent government.

The PM Should Quit

The PM has once again opened his mouth 30,000 feet above sea level which is getting to be a habit since he rarely seems to speak his mind when he is on the ground. Talk about building castles in the skies, Manmohan Singh seems to have this attribute neatly tied up with a government plane to boot to take him up in the skies so that he can dream. Or maybe he feels confident to speak up there since he knows that his High Command is far away and will have no access to correct or reprimand him. He has explained his silence on the Coalgate issue and not responding to the accusations of the BJP and the Opposition by saying that with this he is maintaining the dignity of his office. One cannot understand this since as the Prime Minister of India he is expected to speak and be combative when he and his office are being put on the mat. By not responding he is not only lowering his position but undermining the dignity of his office. That is if there is any dignity left to protect particularly in his second term as Prime Minister of this UPA government. When he does not speak on issues like Coalgate where he was directly the minister-in-charge, the accusations get stronger and his opponents are more enthused. Is this difficult for Manmohan Singh to understand? In explaining away his silence, he has quoted an Urdu couplet, which is more suited to the manner of working of a bureaucrat or that of an educationist or better still that of an statue which this government could have commissioned Mayawati to build a few of him, one of which he could have installed at South Block. Surely this kind of reticence does not behove an active politician and the head of the executive of the largest democracy in the world to boot. He has also blamed the Opposition parties to holding up Parliament little realizing that the leadership of the elected executive extends to engaging with the Opposition so that Parliament can get on with legislative business. Therefore it is time to go Manmohan Singh, and do not make it any more painful than it already is and leave even now with some remaining dignity before being besmirched with incompetence in the ability to hold on to even a ministerial post like at the Coal Ministry and presiding over the allocation scams.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:128

Date: 01.09.2012

Contents:

1. Indian Lawyers Handing The Italian Marines Case Of Killing The Keralite Fishermen

2. Sparrow As State Bird, LED Bulbs As Recommended Usage in Delhi

3. The Death Sentence On Kasab

4. Time To Review Gun Control In The US

5. Propaganda War On Syria

6. Have National Consensus On Grave National Issues

7. UPA – 2 Ministers: Stop Bluffing & Accept Responsibility

Indian Lawyers Handing The Italian Marines Case Of Killing The Keralite Fishermen

The fact that Harish Salve, one of our eminent lawyers and a sharp intellectual brain, representing the interests of the Italian marines who shot and killed two of our Keralite fishermen comes across as somewhat depressing. When the Ajmal Kasab trial involved in the 26/11 terror attack was coming up in Mumbai the lawyer fraternity refused to appear on his behalf considering the dastardly crime that he had committed. The Italian marine case is equivalent and no Indian lawyer should have involved himself in this matter since it was cold-blooded killing of the fishermen on a vessel which was many times smaller than the Italian vessel and one never knows what risk the Italians perceived from the proximity of the fishing vessel. The Somalian pirates must have on the top of the marines' minds or like we have seen in the case of the US both in the theaters of war and also when they return home, the soldiers tend to have psychological problems and kill without any compunction and in a trigger-happy mode anyone who is not of their own kind. Harish Salve in his defence of the Italian marines has raised questions of the State of Kerala's jurisdiction in the territorial waters to prove the case void which is treading on aspects of one's national pride. When lawyers take up such cases, is it all about money or seeking the limelight? Do they not judge the morality of the case before they get involved? Most of the time their justification for taking up such cases is that if they do not take it up, someone else of their fraternity will take it up? The question to Harish Salve then would be whether you were willing to sell your principles for being busy and for a few pieces of silver? In terms of being pragmatic and giving the benefit of the matter to the Italian marines the case should have been dismissed and/or withdrawn once the ‘blood money’ was paid including to both the dead and the injured as well as damage done to the fishing vessel in the incident compensated. This would have set the precedent that India was unwilling to keep quiet if its people were attacked without provocation and was reasonable to settle once compensation was paid according to the country of origin of the attackers. The State of Kerala had handled the matter well by first taking the Italian vessel into custody and then in a manner of conciliation releasing it which should have applied to the release of the Italian marines also once the individual compensation was paid. This would have obviated people like Harish Salve from getting involved or tempted to handle such cases.

Sparrow As State Bird, LED Bulbs As Recommended Usage in Delhi

There are a couple of things that Sheila Dixit as Chief Minister of Delhi needs to be commended with the onerous job of presiding over the rape and road accident capital of the country and that is for firstly, elevating the humble sparrow as the State bird of Delhi. In these days where there is urgent need of bird conservation, this is welcome news and one hopes that the Delhi government will put in place measures to protect these humble but very industrious birds. However, it is up to the birds themselves to give the mark of approval for this initiative since when this was similarly done in London & New York, it was found while the sparrow took to New York with alacrity, the numbers in London continued to dwindle. It is a factor of air pollution and the available spaces for the birds to nest in which determines whether they take to a city or not. However, Delhi, in any case, needs to be commended for this initiative. The other thing that the Delhi government has done is to subsidise LED bulbs to be used in place of the CFL bulbs for acceptance by Delhi's citizens since the latter bulbs contain mercury which is difficult to dispose of safely. Thus the CFL bulbs which reach their end of life become a problem to the environment. More and more State governments should emulate these commendable initiatives of Delhi.

The Death Sentence On Kasab

In the Bidwe trial in the UK, the trial was completed within months and the sentence was announced quickly on the person who accosted and shot Bidwe. While with Ajmal Kasab we continue to agonise on his death sentence years after the incident though there were umpteen eye-witnesses and the incident was recorded on CCTV showing Kasab killing our citizens without any compunction. Even now after the Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence, it is said that he is the 6th on the list of those awaiting execution and it may take another 3-10 years before Kasab is actually hanged. The saying that - The Wheels Of Justice Grind slowly, is very much true only in India it seems. On one thing that you can agree with the Shiv Sena is that Kasab should be publicly hanged at the earliest opportunity since otherwise we will continue to spend crores on his biryani and security at the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai.

Time To Review Gun Control In The US

After the Aurora, Colorado incident of the gunman opening fire at the inaugural of the new Batman movie a couple of months back there have a total of four such incidents in the US ending with the one in New York last week where animosity triggered the shooting of one employee against another but in which nine innocent bystanders were inflicted gunshot wounds in the process of killing the rogue gunman. The question as to why innocent bystanders should get injured is something that US lawmakers and their media would definitely debate and take adequate precautionary measures but these incidents all combined which have taken so many lives should prompt the political leadership to seriously review the country's Gun Control laws. Surely New York near the Empire State Building is not a saloon in Dodge City in the old US Wild West for Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid and others to exhibit their shooting skills. Surely the citizens of the US deserve something better in terms of security while going about their day to day lives. The contention among US citizens that is oft parroted to support Gun Control and that is possessing a gun by US citizens gives them the feel of freedom is something which is clearly a mistaken notion and which needs to be quickly corrected. Otherwise on the back of these incidents and those ranging back up to the Columbine school massacre fond as well as tragic memories will haunt the victim's families for all time.Postscript: At the time of writing this, there has been another attack by a gunman on his colleagues at New Jersey, killing two of them. Is it not time for the US to act and licence gun ownership?

Propaganda War On Syria

Going into the last weekend when one switched on the BBC TV International News you would have found a news item where there was reporting from Beirut by the BBC correspondent on the events in Syria since going into the country would have involved probably getting killed like the Japanese journalist did and mentioning unconfirmed reports about some 200 killed near Daraya. Why BBC given its credibility should firstly, put out 'unconfirmed reports' is something that is not understood and the reporter continued in this vein of 'unconfirmed reports' throughout the news item. When there is enough and more news to cover around the world why this zeroing in on Syria is a simple question that comes to one's mind? Is this not tantamount to rumour mongering by a reputed, established and trusted newscaster? The manner in which this was done was clearly like interfering in the affairs of a sovereign country with the deliberate intention of slandering it. Goebbels of Nazi vintage was credited for propaganda blitzes that undermined fact and give concoctions the status of truth. This exercise by the BBC clearly fits into the same undesirable category. Similarly, the UK, France and the US have been threatening Syria in the event that they used chemical weapons, it would attract military intervention. This again is moving into the realm of 'ifs and buts' which for responsible nations is something that cannot be considered acceptable. These initiatives are like a propaganda war on a nation like Syria which is miniscule in size as well as economic and military strength compared to the named countries as above. The West does not probably consider that if they had not interfered in Syria's affairs now or that of Iraq, Afghanistan and many other nations in the Arab world in the recent past then so many lives would probably not have been lost both innocent as well as those in whom unnecessary expectations have been kindled. A bit of rationality and the principle of 'live and let live' would have helped.

Have National Consensus On Grave National Issues

The protest on the government clamping down on social media networks in the light of the distribution of SMS/MMS’ after the Assam riots suspected to have Pakistani links by people like Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and RSS Ram Madhav is completely irresponsible. When there is a national problem, it is expected that people of different political parties and hues should unite and resolve the problem rather than add to it. Granted that our authorities woke up late to the situation created by the distribution of these doctored messages which started the exodus of the North East people from all parts of India back home which is nothing new since on terror and other direct threat situations, our police sit on the intelligence and wake up only after the event has occurred. This is more so in this context of thinking about the possibility of social media being used for such propaganda when we are supposed to be the leaders in IT technology around the world and not knowing what to do and as usual grasping and fumbling around and in the process making gaffes like disabling Twitter accounts of totally unconnected people and even that of a Central Minister. Social media use in the Arab Spring revolutions which drifted westwards from Yemen to Libya lately must not have been lost on our intelligence authorities or maybe they are not up to looking at such trends. But in the spirit of better late than ever action, the government and concerned authorities should be supported and nothing should be done to be counter-productive to the initiative to defuse the potentially explosive situation and bring about normalcy. On national matters, for God’s sake, play ball.

UPA – 2 Ministers: Stop Bluffing & Accept Responsibility‏

People in the government and ministers particularly think that this whole country is populated by duffers. Otherwise why would P Chidambaram go out and make out his case on the Coalgate scam that when no coal was mined after all, nothing was lost? But that life it has been often said is not the case for acquittal from corruption. Non-governance is. The fact that this country’s natural resources were given away for a song is. Is this so difficult for the Congress political big-wigs to get into their thick skulls. By blaming the BJP or this, that and the other political party and the States that they also did something similar is no licence for the UPA-2 government remains. For the fault, grievous in its nature, remains and no addin more people and parties to it dilutes it in any way. This is not the first time that the Congress has attempted this since while trying to explain away the 2G scam, Kapil Sabil the newly appointed Minister did try the same thing. If for allocation of mines in the coal ministry, the coal minister is not responsible then the country need be told about who is. And that precisely is the reason why the PM should quit accepting moral responsibility for the scam. This is time honored procedure to quit and then prove himself innocent. For him as PM to seek extraordinary privilege is simply not done. On the fact that the government and its ministers thinks that in this country apart from them everyone else is a duffer, has again recently ben exposed by Beni Prasad Verma who while in UP recently said that inflation actually helps farmers. This puts all known theories of economics on its head. The gumption in firstly making such statements and then defending them is stunning. What kind of stage or into which blind alley have we run this country into for being governed by such idiots? By massaging the top of the mind issues, playing the caste card, creating vote banks, by bribing voters and essentially pandering and manipulating the illiterate class of this country, our politicians have come to believe that anything goes and they can get away with murder. This has to stop and the first step in this process is for the PM to step down.

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