VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:144

Date: 22.12.2012

Contents:

1. Capital Punishment For Rapists

2. Whither Indian Cricket – 1: The Dhoni Issue

3. Israel In Peace With The Arabs & Palestinians

4. PM Ignorant Of Realities Of FDI In Multi-Brand Retail!

5. After Sandy Hook, Make Gun Control A Reality In The US

6. Taking Action Against HSBC Bank & Others Involved In Hawala Transactions

Capital Punishment For Rapists

Open any newspaper in the country from any region on any day and you are bound to comes across news about a minimum of 2 -3 instances of rapes among which there will be at least one case of rape of a minor child or infant. The gang rape of the 23 year old paramedic at Delhi on Sunday, 16th night was the most heinous among such crimes. Thus to put a stop to such rape cases apart from better and more vigilant policing, it is necessary to consider the death sentence to those indulging in such activity and definitely so when the victims are less than 10 year old. Otherwise rapists tend to take it lightly knowing that they will either get acquitted by virtue of legal procedure or with a sentence limited to a couple of years while the victim bears the trauma and the psychological scars for life.

Whither Indian Cricket – 1: The Dhoni Issue

The convincing manner with which England beat India in the recent Test series demands a review of approach towards the game both by the players in the Test team and the BCCI including decisions about the captain M S Dhoni and coach Duncan Fletcher. There is no doubt a complete overhaul is required of the Test team considering that we have lost 10 of the last 17 Tests and both home and away. First, the captaincy of Dhoni left a lot to be desired through this last series against England and the tactical skills that are required for Tests seems to have dulled in him. The field placings near the batsmen to force the getting of wickets for his bowlers was rarely there and it was more a lackadaisical approach to go through the motions of the game and get this series over. More disappointing is his tendency to not face the problem squarely which he used to do in the past. Now during press briefings, he resorts to confusing the issue and tends to rely on sentiment to keep him on the job and on lame assurances that the next match will be better. Therefore Dhoni as captain has to go. In trying to get pitches to suit spinners he needlessly started a controversy after the Ahmedabad Test which blew up in his face at the Mumbai Test where playing 3 spinners he lost the Test by as convincing a margin as he had won at Ahmedabad. He also forgot that it was Umesh Yadav who got him the important wickets in the England second innings in the first Test which won him that match. A paceman was therefore unnecessary. The classical game of Test cricket requires at the least a mix of five bowlers with 2 pace bowlers a must which Dhoni tended to ignore. In the Kolkata Test after the exchange of opinions about the pitch he went in with the 2 pacers but ended up short of wicket taking ability and England ran away with the game. In contrast England maintained the balance of the bowling combination between pace and spin and it was the pacers who came good at both Kolkata and Nagpur. The pitch controversy resulted in the Nagpur groundsman probably confused and he put up a pitch with low bounce and no life which did not give any assistance to India needing to win the Test to draw the series. It is no wonder that India lost this match also quite miserably. With Dhoni after the World Cup win, it seems that he has gone into complacency that comes to any of our cricketers as time progresses and the wealth comes rolling in. Dhoni has turned to be no different. Thus it is best that he relinquishes the Test captaincy so that someone for the future can take over the reins. Given the performance in the last few series and the losses as outlined earlier and the steep fall from India being No. 1 in the Test standings to being nowhere now demands this change. Virat Kohli as Sunil Gavaskar has said can be blooded to take over the next Test captaincy and Dhoni can fight for his place in the team on the merit of his wicket-keeping first and batting ability second. More in the next about the players for the new Test team and then what to do with the coach and lastly the BCCI.

Israel In Peace With The Arabs & Palestinians

A few days back an article by Thomas Friedman in a syndicated column with the New York Times was carried by the Indian Express, Mumbai where he covered the issue of how Jews retaining their cultural traditions are living peacefully in Turkey. The slant was that in secular Turkey of Attaturk tradition, the Jews were safe and why this could not be replicated in the Gulf & the Middle East. Taking off on this premise we have to realize that people themselves have no problems with the religious beliefs of others as long as they do not interfere with theirs. People share in cultural functions of different communities because human nature basically deep down is fun loving and wants to be happy. It is the political establishment and those with stubborn, parochial and non-negotiable stances on religion like priests who are the prime cause for fostering trouble among communities. Specific to the Jews they bring in the additional burden of being persecuted for centuries culminating in the mass killings that the Nazis led by Hitler engendered upon them. Thus it is the forceful placement of Israel in its present geographic location which is the cause of all the strife that we have been witnessing for the last 60 years or so and which Israel has been martyring itself on. Remove Israel as a country from its present location and you will find over time maybe a decade or so that Arabs and Jews in the entire Gulf & the Middle East have learnt to live happily alongside each other. If the Europeans led by the Germans tortured the Jews why is it that the Arabs & the Palestinians should bear this burden of anger, aggression and sporadic strife. An example of this is just last week a young Palestinian boy in his low teens out to get a cake for his birthday on that day, play-acted with a toy gun and for his antics was shot dead by an Israeli soldier. This incident not only shows up the risk of life for the Palestinians in their daily activities but also how corrupted in mind and how much on edge the Israelis have become over time particularly their soldiers from avoidable combat situations over the years. The place for Israel should actually have been in Europe where the maximum atrocities against the Jews took place. Therefore earlier the better that the State of Israel is disbanded from its present location and transferred to Europe. After the UN General assembly accorded recognition to the Palestinian State this month, the move by Israel to build 30,000 homes in east Jerusalem and the Left Bank is going to be counter-productive to fostering peace in the region. Israel should not only forsake building these housing units but also eschew its confrontational stance on almost anything that is of benefit to the Arabs and the Palestinians. The new housing initiative has brought in condemnation for Israel across the board from the US & Europe including Germany, one of the staunchest allies that Israel has in Europe. One hopes that with this Israel sees some sense and behaves better and in a manner that the seeds of long term peace are sown in the Middle East.

PM Ignorant Of Realities Of FDI In Multi-Brand Retail!

The PM while addressing the members of FICCI touched upon the policy of FDI in multi-brand retail and mentioned that those opposing it are 'either ignorant of global realities or are constrained by out-dated ideologies'. These kind of statements do not behove the PM with his education and reputation as an economist, the latter though may have taken a beating in the last couple of years given India's economic position. What Manmohan Singh has to do is put down his head and apply himself to the fact that basically we need to help our own people. It is even said that God helps only those who help themselves. This adage applies as well to Prime Ministers in relation to the people they govern, if Manmohan Singh is not aware of it. In connection with FDI in multi-brand retail can we not help our farmers in increasing productivity, changing crop patterns etc. with our extensive ICAR labs? Can we not move the goods from the farm gate to the counters at the shops efficiently? Is all this so great technology that we have to invite FDI for this? Do we need multinationals bringing in FDI to provide jobs to our youth making them automatons at the point of stocking up shelves and manning check-out counters at the departmental stores? Are we taking into account the very shabby personnel policies of at least one of the global retail chains planning to come into India which is Walmart? Can we not give these youth jobs to move the produce from farm gate to stores, thus making them entrepreneurs themselves and giving them the freedom to decide what they want to do? Why are we bent on replacing the millions of intermediaries in our existing retail chain and replace them with just 3-4 global retail chains? Are we not in this way propagating limited monopoly and in that process allowing foreign MNC's come and exploit our farmers? If our distributors are looting our farmers, roll up your shirt-sleeves and get them to change, why is Manmohan Singh and his team chary of doing that? For fear of getting their hands dirty or they are plain incapable to resolve the problem? The FDI in multi-brand retail will go the same way as the low cost air travel model went in India over the last few years. There used to be a lot of hype on airlines offering Re. 1 flights which is no longer valid today. Moreover with Kingfisher Airlines closing down during the last Navratri & Diwali time air fares shot through the roof and Delhi - Kolkata flights were priced at Rs. 35,000/-. So where are the aam admi flying days? They had not come to stay and were clearly numbered then and even now. Now the government is talking of regulating air fares so that the airlines do not charge exorbitantly. Similarly, the global retail chains will come into the country riding on the backs of the FDI in multi-brand retail policy, have very aggressive low pricing to generate brand loyalty initially and then in 2-3 years time they will hold the market by the scruff of the neck and hike prices at will. At this time the government will have very less means to control these global retail chains except for recommendatory advices. Is the PM and his team blind to these realities and are content to pass on the retail industry to these global chains which rids them the responsibility for it. Thus it is not that those who are opposing FDI in retail are not aware of global realities or stuck up in their own ideologies, but the PM and his team who are wearing blinders and can see the good part of what the global retail chains can offer and in fact parrot their words to assure the Indian public that everything will be OK.

After Sandy Hook, Make Gun Control A Reality In The US

The shooting at the Sandy Hook school in Connecticut last week where some 22 children and 6 adults got unfortunately killed is part of the long line of shootouts in the US from schools to varsity campuses to shopping malls to cinema theaters starting with the Columbine school killings a long time ago. In fact over the last month there have been three other shoot-outs involving avoidable fatalities which brings up the necessity of review of the gun laws in the US. The ease with which US citizens can buy guns over the counter and through mail order is rather stunning. Without qualifying the purchaser all and sundry are allowed to buy guns which essentially leads to the kind of incidents at Sandy Hook which sporadically sprout all over the US. The logic for not enforcing gun control being personal protection as well as for hunting game, is it not possible to allow individual adults to purchase only hand guns and in the case of persons wanting to buy rifles for hunting, they should produce hunting licences in their names for any 2 successive seasons and/or produce the earlier rifle that they possess in their own name. Only under these conditions over the counter sale can be allowed and sales through mail order or over the Internet should be curtailed. At the same time the guns displayed at gun shops should be only the variety of hand guns for personal protection and also hunting rifles which are not semi-automatic or automatic and without sniper scopes etc. If this is done then to a large extent even without gun control the sporadic shooting incidents that we see cropping up time and again should dramatically come down. This is more so when the victims like at Sandy Hook being children who are cut off so early in their lives which also imposes untold miseries and trauma on their loved ones. If this kind of limited gun control was in force one could possibly argue that Lee Harvey Oswald would have possibly found it difficult to get the sniper scope rifle with which he shot John F Kennedy. Americans should not look at gun control as an infringement on their personal freedom and their right to defend themselves since the situation here is analogous to 9/11 in whose aftermath all Americans submit quietly to increased security for air travel including use of body scanners. Thus the position to take is that let the shooting at Sandy Hook school be the last and to make gun control a reality. Taking Action Against HSBC Bank & Others Involved In Hawala Transactions It is now known that HSBC bank has agreed to pay the US authorities the sum of US$ 1.9 Billion as a fine for their complicity in clandestine money laundering transfers from the UK. It is not only HSBC but a host of supposedly reputed international banks ranging from UBS, Standard Chartered & others have also been charged with money laundering by the US authorities and for which they also have been fined various sums starting from some US300 Million but none as large as HSBC. With these banks and this pattern of banking knowing to have been also existing in India as exposed by Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Admi party one wonders why the Indian governmental authorities have not launched any investigations in this matter. Since then there was a media report that investigations have been initiated on the Lagarde list which contains names of those having foreign bank accounts in contravention of Indian laws. Thus if you can proceed against individuals having banking accounts, should you not also take action against the banks that facilitated these transactions among whom HSBC figures. Since Kejriwal’s exposure HSBC had come out with a bland statement that they follow the regulations laid out by the country in which they operate. If so, why were they hauled up by the US authorities and asked to pay the ‘small’ fine of US$1.9 Billion? Not only that Naina Lal Kidwai the head of HSBC in India has been made President of FICCI. Is the head of the organization not responsible for its activities and if so, should they be nominated to be the head of established local bodies, is the question that comes to mind? Why is it that we always sacrifice national interest when we are confronted with taking action against multinational institutions that may have been complicit in irregular activities and/or transactions in India? Is it that we have not been able to shrug the last vestiges of British rule from our minds yet? Are we still slaves in the mind to Western masters having white skin? One thinks that it is time to assert oneself in international affairs and stand by the side of what is right and proper since after all at the end that is what will get us the credibility and reputation of a proud nation.

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