VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 148

Date: 19.01.2013

Contents:

1. Avoid Pakistani Experts On Our TV Panel Discussions

2. Feedback On Shekhar Gupta's Column of 12th Jan 2013 - India To Pay The Price: Response: Do Not Assume That The Indian Public Is Passive

3. Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) Scheme is Being Sabotaged Even Before Taking Off

4. The India - Pakistan Spat On The LoC

5. Of Politics & Rape

Avoid Pakistani Experts On Our TV Panel Discussions

In the recent spat with Pakistan at the LoC, we have had over the last few days panel discussions on TV channels which include some Pakistanis among whom are their retired armed forces personnel. The discussions have been taking an unseemly turn with accusations of warmongering etc. which are the more respectable of the epithets used between the parties from both sides of the border. This is not a pleasant thing for Indian television and for its viewers. More so these kind of discussions will narrow the space for diplomacy for our government in arriving at a solution to the problem at hand. Therefore it is best that we do not have any of the Pakistani experts to ventilate their views on Indian television. If we at all have to have them then the ground rules should be read out to the participants at these discussions in the manner of a 'riot act' and the anchors chosen of a suitable maturity who can moderate the discussions effectively. Otherwise we are only degrading the quality of our TV broadcasts and not achieving anything substantial by way of satisfying either the topic or meeting viewers requirements. If the TV channel members do not do this self-regulation, it may be advisable that our government impose a 'hands-off' policy on these topics when there is a national crisis in the brewing.

Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) Scheme is Being Sabotaged Even Before Taking Off

The celebrated Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme is being diluted even before it has got off the ground. Initially the DBT was to be linked exclusively for Aadhaar card holders which due to the spat between the Home Ministry implementing the Population Register (PR) scheme and the Planning Commission the Aadhaar scheme, the DBT was expanded to the PR cardholders also in those States where the coverage of PR was better than Aadhaar. Now in some States like Maharasthra the DBT is being linked to those having ration cards for transfer of scholarship money and the subsidies for fertiliser. This when it is well known that the scams in relation to bogus ration card holders are massive and there were news items a couple of months back that in Mumbai city alone there were approx. 4 million bogus ration cards. Even in Karnataka there were reports that almost the same number of bogus ration cards - 4 Million were detected. We know our PDS is as leaky as a sieve and hence ration cards cannot form any basis for transfer of funds related to food or for that matter anything else. Thus it would appear that the DBT has lost relevance even before it has been able to prove itself. Based on this precedence in States where the coverage of Aadhaar card holders is not adequate, the DBT will be asked to be implemented through ration card verification which will be a good ploy for vested interests as existing to siphon away the DBT money. We will be then back to square one on our objective to transfer subsidies to the 'real' beneficiaries.

Feedback On Shekhar Gupta's Column of 12th Jan 2013 - India To Pay The Price: Response: Do Not Assume That The Indian Public Is Passive

This refers to your column in the edition of Saturday, 12th Jan 2013 – India To Pay The Price, wherein you highlighted the need for paying the proper prices for products and services in the country like fuel, electricity, water etc. To tell you frankly the column was disappointing considering that the government has been responsible for these subsidies for generations and finding itself now in a predicament is flailing about and in that process coming out with knee-jerk solutions. The other thing is that the absence of organized protest for any of the hikes in fossil fuel or electricity tariff prices etc. should not be taken to mean that it is acceptable to the common citizen since the real position is that these increases are hurting the people. And you will find that the moment you cross the laxman rekha of tolerance the public will erupt not necessarily on the issue that is pricking them but on anything which is the hot topic like the Delhi gang rape incident recently and the Anna Lok Pal agitation sometime back. Also if you take a broad view on most things where prices have been going up it almost seems as if it is orchestrated. This is across the nation and secondly, across the basket of products and services that the common citizen uses or consumes on a daily basis. Like if electricity tariff prices go up in any one State you will find it like clockwork going up across each State in the country and if prices of any one item goes up then after electricity, water will go up or if fruits go up triggered by vegetable price hikes then it will go across to meat or cereals or sugar or eggs etc. Therefore tensions are simmering with the common man since everything is slowly going beyond his ability to afford and it takes little for things to boil over or for things to get to a position where public protests or violence take place. Experienced journalists like you would surely be able to sense this.

The government particularly the UPA-1 & 2 regimes have been less than fair in being open with the public about the issues affecting the country. This has resulted in massive erosion of the credibility of the incumbent government. Thus you have prices of fossil fuels being hiked when international prices are dropping or because the OMC’s have been patient and cannot afford it no longer. These are no reasons to hike prices. Or price hikes are postponed because of elections in one or the other States with which the incumbent government’s fortunes are linked. If there is a dire and emergent need for the hike in fossil prices why has the government not come out with a structured formula outlining the domestic prices of fuel based on the international prices of oil. This would have given the consumer a road-map on price changes and helped him to plan or control his consumption. Instead of that the subsidies conceived in stupidity and to seek political mileage are managed with the same consistent stupidity which gives no confidence for the common citizen to believe in them.

This applies not only for the prices of fossil fuels but to almost everything where this government resorts to fudging, misquoting or deliberate lying. Take the CPI or the WPI index, when prices of things was going up in the marketplace these indices were going down giving a erroneous figure of inflation on which other financial measures are linked by the RBI. The government without applying its mind fully to the issue started to defend the indices giving support to the aam admi’s belief that the government did not know what it was doing. Then finally it admitted that the indices are not reflecting current market movement of prices since the basket of items chosen is inconsistent with today’s reality. But then for donkey’s years we had persisted to formulate financial policy based on these erroneous figures. It would not be wrong to say that maybe the economic mess that we find ourselves in today is because of the government’s persistent stupidity in believing in these indices. Just about a month ago, with the new indices (CPI & WPI) in place, we had the anachronistic situation that prices for fruit, vegetables, meat, cereals, eggs i.e. most food items used by the common citizen on a daily basis went up but the inflation indice went down by a couple of percentage points! The question do we have still the correct basket of products to constitute these indices to reflect the impact of prices on the aam admi?

Then we had the export figures consistently quoted in error for a few months and the errors were in the range of billions of dollars which the age-old office of statistics and commercial intelligence said was due to a reporting error by one of the member organizations under the Commerce Ministry. This is the grammar that is normally used to defend what is called simple and plain fudging figures to decorate the economic position because the political masters wanted it so. It was not only in the trade deficit figures but also in the IIP were the reporting organization changed figures three times in the last 12 months to defend that the Indian economy was not going into a recession. After all this do you want the people to still believe in the government administered prices?

As for electricity rates our government is supporting these infrastructure utilities to load their inefficiencies on the consumer. Price hike is the easy way out. Why is the government not asking its own utilities and those recently formed from the private sector to control the transmission and distribution losses which are estimated to be in excess of 40% since every 10% saving in the losses can lead to a reduction in electricity tariff rates by 20%. In fact the government is going the other way by abdicating its position in the electricity sector in favour of private sector entities. And this private sector particularly Anil Ambani’s outfits like BSES in Delhi and Mumbai are bleeding the end customers. The same situation applies for potable water which ideally should be given free since it is the fount of life on this planet and any responsible government should take this position. While our officials led by the redoubtable Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dy Chairman of the Planning Commission is targeting to charge Rs. 12 per liter for potable water in the very near future. The day is not far off when this will happen if we continue to be passive to government’s inefficiency and erroneous formulations on price. There is more on such issues and like they say the list is long, dark and onerous with the grievousness in descending order of magnitude giving lend to the belief that we as a country are rapidly going downhill on all human indices of a good society.

Thus it is suggested that you should not put out columns as referred above which seems to be more a government pitch to support their measures rather a concerted, considered, logical and factual analysis of the issues behind the price hikes. The tone of your column is also in contradiction of the old IE editorial line which some of us have known since the Emergency and anti-Reliance days, where the paper stood for saying fearlessly what it believed in and stood for the common man and what is good for the country. There is nothing wrong with the paper as such but the problem is with the editorial position which is seen to be a vast change from the past. It may be necessary for the paper to introspect on this and change if it is so desired or otherwise some of us may have to continue to speak in nostalgic terms about the old Indian Express. Oh yes, we are already mistaken since it is already the ‘new’ Indian Express now!

Additional points listed as questions which shows that the policies that we have been following in the last two decades has resulted in deepening and widening the divide between the haves and the have-nots in India essentially a urban vs. rural phenomena:

1. Bansal has hiked rail fares based on the principles outlined in your column saying that the middle class can afford it since they change and upgrade their mobiles every year. This conviction are just plain notions and are to convince himself (Bansal) that what he is doing is justified. This is not of course reality. There has been no parallel improvement in facilities in the trains related to safety of travel, personal safety, hygiene and sanitation, quality of food etc. Maybe you have not taken a train recently. Take a train and experience the mess first hand. The Indian rail user has no choice and is stuck with the Indian Railways.

2. We are like they say in the 'silly season' of talking about taxes before the Union Budget. Many columns have appeared saying that there is no point in increasing taxes on the ultra-rich and it is better to tax the middle class. Talking about inverting the pyramid!

3. On our airlines, Mallya gets away with murder by welshing on loans from commercial banks in the region of Rs. 7000 crore. 80% of India's Fortune 100 account for 90% of NPA's with our banks. But nothing is done or action taken against them. But let a small loanee who is lucky to get a loan since the banks have been cleaned out by the above big corporate clients and if he welshes on his loan not only is he crucified but his picture is put in the papers like a small time criminal, particularly for home loans.

4. We claim that we encourage competition but then when Capt Gopinath of Deccan Air fame who was the first to make air travel within reach of the common man, that was once upon a time, no longer true, wants to start a lo-cost airline, he is being dissuaded by the government since it could trigger tariff wars and make the existing airlines sick. On whose side is this government, on the side of the public or the airline Cos. which keeps the bureaucrats happy with goodies. 5. Why should our government airline Air India, once with the famed Maharaja image but reduced now to the Maharaja's 'white elephant', be allowed to function with accumulated and operating losses with which many low cost airlines could have been run.

If we continue this way and do not stand up for what is right for our country, we will only end up taking the bumbling way down to perdition.

The India - Pakistan Spat On The LoC

In the context of the recent fracas relating to LoC violations between India and Pakistan, one cannot but wonder as to who is the bigger entity. India considering her strengths should have given Pakistan a punch on the nose which should have made that country think twice about retaliating. Instead of that it is seen that we are the persons complaining that Pakistan did this and Pakistan did that. And Pakistan knowing full well that barking dogs do not bite is playing tough and showing its thumb to India. The other thing is that when such situations emerge it is the people who are directly responsible who should respond to Pakistan like our Army Chief, the Defence Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister in that order. Other people like the Air Chief speaking out on the matter confuses the issue and enables the opposite party in this case Pakistan to deflect attention. Protocol needs to be followed and strictly if we are at all planning to take serious action in the matter. Surprisingly the Defence minister and the Prime Minister have been silent on this issue despite the atrocities committed by Pakistan in beheading one of our soldiers and carrying away his head. For the Prime Minister remaining silent has become the norm since he is rarely these days able to think for himself and complies with what he thinks is acceptable behaviour from him like in the 'theek hai'' comment post the televised speech on the Delhi rape case. In fact the incident of our soldiers being not treated according to the Geneva Convention is an action item for Gen Vikram Singh our new Chief of Army Staff, this also being his first serious incident to show his ability, of not ensuring that our jawans and army units were properly prepared and to anticipate retaliation by Pakistan which would have protected our strategic position as well as soldiers on the LoC. Overall it is the same story and the moral being implied is that we will be better prepared next time.

Of Politics & Rape

We seem to be staying in a society where the leaders have no understanding of the sentiments of the people. In the context of the Delhi gang-rape incident of 16th Dec 2012 Sheila Dixit was once again on TV ventilating her by now well-known gripe that the Delhi police jurisdiction should be given to her administration and generally blaming their inaction for the incident. At that time she also said that the spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment resulting in thousands coming onto the streets of Delhi for many days as a sign that people were looking for ‘instant justice’. This was not so since the public more youth and girls than any other category were coming to show their support for the girl struggling for her life on a hospital bed, their grief and in the belief that ‘enough is enough’ and to ask for answers as to how such incidents are allowed to happen by our administration and our police. What the crowd wanted was that some leaders speak to them and assure them on a public platform that action would be taken to make our society safer such that incidents like the one that happened would not take place in future. Instead of that the public protests were allowed to build up, crowd control measures like lathi-charging, tear gas and water cannons were used on our youth who already had tears in their eyes because of Nirbhaya’s plight. Though Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did try to select some leaders and talk to them in closed doors which obviously did not work since a public congregation needs a public statement of assurance and on measures that are proposed by the establishment. This was part of the strategy of buying out the leaders with assurances which is standard ploy as we have seen during the Anna Lok Pal agitation but here the Gandhis misjudged the fact that there were no leaders and each of those people coming out on the streets were showing the courage of their own conviction. This was proved when Arvind Kejriwal of the fledgling Aam Admi party came in only to be rebuffed. Strangely through all this a person called Manmohan Singh remained silent. Subsequently, when the police found that their crowd control measures were not working, they started to slander the crowd by claiming that goondas had taken over the agitation which was enough reason to intensify the above methods, cordon off India Gate, shut down the Metro stations leading to these areas and impose Sec. 144.

If this was not enough evidence of the massive disconnect between the administered and the administrators one has to ask – What else is? Our leaders were simply scared to come out in the open and from the comfort of their homes they would give TV interviews giving opinions which had no relationship with the situation on the ground. Like our Humpty Dumpty Home Minister Shinde said that if he were to go out and talk to the demonstrators then tomorrow he would be asked to talk to the Maoists congregating in a similar manner. This after the crowd had been categorized as containing lumpen elements so that Humpty Dumpty‘s statement sounded plausible. The ability to differentiate situations and read the right signs are difficult to obtain when one tends to seek comfort in isolating oneself and manage through paperwork since papers do not react or bite you back in real time like people do. One must say that Sheila Dixit did try to reach out to the crowd at the time of the impromptu condolence meeting at Raj Ghat after Nirbhaya had passed away but then it was too little, too late.

Similarly, Ashwini Kumar, our present Law Minister, read the situation as an expression of the public belief that our justice delivery system in India today is seen to be impotent. These are very serious words indeed but then has the Minister tried to look at how laws are implemented. More often their application is in the breach. Laws are used as tools of caution or something to threaten people with. They are less applicable to the rich, powerful and the politically connected and more applicable to the aam admi. And, pray Minister, who is responsible for this situation, is it not the Congress party which has ruled India for more than fifty years of the 65 that we have been independent. And in this time the majority of our laws have remained outdated, irrelevant and unimplemented. In this context one has to only read the comment made by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who said that if the ban on dark sunfilm imposed some 2 years ago by the Supreme Court would have been followed then it may have been possible to avoid the Delhi incident. And where was the patrolling by the police and/or the celebrated road-blocks that Delhi streets are known for particularly in the night to ward off terror attackers. If these had been in place then the bus could have been intercepted earlier and the rapists stopped. So if you ask our politicians, officials and leaders why all this was not done, they will come up with the oft-given excuse of being overworked, short-staffed and that mistakes ‘do happen’. The point is therefore that those who cannot deliver should be dismissed from service and their retirement benefits suspended for at least 5 – 10 years which will drill some sense and mobility among our administration personnel to perform better.

And then we have our ‘technology’ Minister like Kapil Sibal now come out with a watch which if activated will notify the authorities, one believes the police, of the location of the woman attacked so that law enforcement authorities can reach the spot quickly. It is not as if one wants to sound cynical but these devices will not work since it will trigger false alarms mostly by the user and end up making the responding agency lose their alacrity to come to the aid of any victim. Then there is the bigger issue of whether women would like to wear a device like this since it is by itself a scare situation and psychologically depressing to wear something like this. Thus Kapil Sibal’s position is like we did try to do something but then they (the women) did not want it. It would have salved his ego no end that he came out with a quirky device that no one wanted. This is another exhibition of the ‘We vs. Them’ syndrome that our rulers exhibit.

There is also much debate over imposing the death penalty on rapists since people fear that the rapists may end up killing the victims. The death penalty is a deterrent and will work to reduce the incidence of rape. That some victims may get killed is part of the risk that we have to take since one would believe that it will save more women from being raped than those that get killed after rape. After all we are trying to limit rape and if the rapists kill their victim they will be then in any case additionally charged under Sec 302IPC for murder. Thus the sentence for rapists of minor victims should be death by hanging and for other victims vary in excess of 20 – 30 years rigorous imprisonment depending on how much brutal the rape was. Additionally there should be no bail for the rapists. One hopes therefore that our justice system takes off and tries rape cases as part of the fast track system and beats the existing guideline of completing the trials and sentencing within 2 years as existing. Also that our leaders hone their senses a little bit better and pick up the finer virtues of sympathy, compassion and kindness towards the citizens they represent and not just pay lip-service to these sensibilities. Sheila Dixit is reported to have also said that it was only the persons in politics who got blamed for the incident. This is another lesson that she should learn that the ‘buck stops with her’ as far as Delhi is concerned. And where politicians are quick to take credit for even the smallest thing, why should they be afraid to be named for blame.

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