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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