VOX POPULI 

 by 

Aam Admi 

 Issue: 150                                                                Date: 09.05.2016 

 Contents: 

 1. Vox Populi Is Back 

 2. Price Rise & The Aam Admi 

 3.  In Defence Of Vijay Mallya 

4. Implement Crop Insurance & Save Farmer’s Lives 

5. More Competent Person Required To Head Film Censor Board 

 6. LPG Scary In The Hands Of BPL Families 

 7. BCCI Trying To Take IPL Out Of India?

Hi,

 I am mailing you the latest issue of Vox Populi to stimulate and encourage discussion and comment on current affairs. If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - kamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com. The comment if posted on my blogs will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the kamatblog.blogspot.com blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.

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 There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs.

 Thanking you for your patience in reading through this. HAPPY READING VOX POPULI.

 Yours truly

 S Kamat, S-1, Sanohitra Apartments, Dr Rego Bagh, Alto St. Cruz, Bambolim Complex, Goa 403202. Ph: (0832) 2458220 Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com


                                                      Vox Populi Is Back 

 Issue 149 of the Vox Populi I had put out on 26 Jan 2013 more than 3 years ago. I had decided not to write any more on public affairs after the Nirbhaya rape case which stunned me to realize how brutal and callous some of the people in our society are. One felt that there was no point writing any more. Some may say that there was all the more need to write. But then mine was a personal decision. The timing of the stoppage was also at the cusp of history, shall we say for want of a better phrase, when the General Elections were imminent. In the wake of insipid, lackadaisical governance of the Congress and the UPA rocked as it were by corruption and scams the Modi juggernaut steamrolled the elections winning an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha. One would have thought that this would signify a change for the country, a move towards the better since for the BJP it was a God-sent opportunity to prove their worth and shut the door on the Congress forever. But 2 years on the Modi juggernaut has lost steam and is puttering along directionless and without purpose, the promises made have hardly been kept. So maybe there is a need to write, express opinions in the belief that one may be heard and we would be able to steer our way back to an even track which this country and its people greatly deserve.


                                             Price Rise & The Aam Admi


When the government is claiming that price rise has been negative successively for the last two quarters and that inflation is under control, let us look at the reality of the platter of food that the aam admi has to necessarily imbibe every day to put body and soul together. Dal - Roti or Dal - Chaval is the staple for the common man but with dal in recent times touching a high of Rs. 200 per Kg. when it vanished from the aam admi's plate, it has thankfully eased off but is again showing signs of escalating now. For this reason the government has released lately an advice that the price of dal should be capped at Rs. 120 per Kg. Look at the dark humor in this decision since sometime back the price of dal at Rs. 100 per Kg. was considered the barrier beyond which it should not climb but once having been managed to rise by hoarders to Rs. 200 per Kg. the government accepts the fact and itself puts out a circular to cap the price at Rs. 120! The idea being that once the old barriers are managed to be surmounted the sanctity of the old barrier is no longer relevant. Roti is mercifully reasonable since wheat at Rs. 35 per Kg. has not shown any dramatic changes in prices lately. Though both wheat and rice are quite expensive now compared to the rates prevailing 2 - 3 years earlier showing escalation of close to 50% for the more affordable quality. Thus with employment not being regular and wages also not going up as much, the aam admi finds it difficult to continue his do waqt ki do roti or mootthi bar chaval with dal on a daily basis. Thus he is forced to cut back on his food with the bill for it going far beyond the money in his pocket. As for subzi, the staple for the aam admi used to be be potatoes and onions. Both have over the last couple of years shown dramatic swings in prices with both touching Rs. 80 per Kg and sometimes even the perceived price barrier of Rs. 100. Though lately potatoes are at Rs. 25 per Kg. and of onions there is a bumper harvest it is understood which should bring about a rationalisation of prices now hovering at Rs. 15 per Kg. As for vegetables and fruit it has vanished from the diet of the aam admi and his family except in season for any particular type of vegetable when the prices drop to reasonable levels. The surprising thing about vegetables is that we are told in the summer season the prices will rise because of lesser availability and in the monsoon we are told that prices will rise because of spoilage in the rains and flooding of roads making it difficult to reach the produce to the markets! Thus the pattern for food items has been that with the prices rising for one or the other reason for 6 months of the year they do not go down for the remaining period of the year except when there is a bumper harvest of one or the other item which is also quite rare these days. For fruits with their known seasonality the prices continue to show an upward trend except for some fruits due to bumper crops in a season the prices become affordable. However, the sum and substance is that vegetables and fruits are an infrequent part of the aam admi's diet. There is also a pattern here of price control operated by the wholesalers and retailers involved in the produce and commodity trade who knowing that consumers do accept higher price levels, maintain these as much as possible during times of over-supply and pass on reductions either delayed or not to the full extent but only marginally thus earning windfall profits. It also becomes difficult to believe this government and its actions since it deliberately fudges the CPI & WPI indices to show that inflation is under control. Lately Finance Minister Jaitley has also quoted only 4 crore members of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) while the actual number is 16 crores, four times that mentioned by Jaitley. Such gaffes and their scale surely bring down the credibility of this government a couple of notches. Again another report said that foodgrains running to millions of tonnes in FCI godowns continue to rot with which it would have been possible to feed 8,00,000 persons for a full year. In the present times when the government can set up temporary enclosures, with air-conditioning to boot, in a matter of days for their functions, exhibitions and expos, is it not possible to set up such enclosures to store the foodgrains that FCI allows to rot. Or better still can they not be moved to the marketplace before rotting so that prices can be brought down or by doing that will vested interests in the trade be adversely affected? As time goes by the fate of the aam admi is going from bad to worse and you will see more of his kind being pushed below the BPL.



                                                In Defence Of Vijay Mallya


 Everyone is bent upon painting Vijay Mallya as the blackest villain of the loan outstandings scenario from our financial institutions at the present moment. Every agency of the government ranging from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to the CBI to the police are hounding him for one or the other reason. Even the media takes Vijay Mallya's name in very derogatory terms calling him defaulter, absconder and fugitive. The alacrity with which this cacophonous orchestra is being played out lends one to believe that these banks, financial institutions and government agencies have something to hide. The strategy in this seems to be that if they keep the spotlight on Mallya then they can hide their own offences and failings while dealing with him. It is also felt that the media could be a little more responsible and generous to Mallya since in the 'good times' it was he who gave them the headlines and for a large part filled up their Page 3. This is all being stated since Vijay Mallya while running the UB empire employed thousands of people, paid a large amount of State and Central taxes, supported sport ranging from cricket to F-1 racing and entertainment events to keep the flag of his catchy slogan of being the - 'King of the Good Times' - flying, in line with his variegated interests. One cannot forget this overnight and denigrate him now in the vilest manner. If you look at the NPA profile that is said to be close to Rs. 120,000 crores owed to our banks, Mallya's exposure is just below 7%. Even ICICI Bank, the largest among the private sector banks has shown a drop of 76% in its profits due to reasons of provisioning a larger amount of NPA's. So is there a general weakening of the economy and in the scenario of difficult business, is it correct to pick on Vijay Mallya. Then there was a report in the newspapers that a large part of the NPA's have emerged over the last three years. Is there a reason for that and is it related to the new dispensation at the Centre which encouraged fraudulent borrowers to get on the bandwagon and defraud the Banks. It is also to Vijay Mallya's credit that even sitting in the UK he has offered to settle the loans taken by him and even raised the amounts that he is willing to pay once the exact amount is arrived at considering the bank's penchant to charge interest on interest by which process by the time the settlement date arrives, the dues may well cross Rs. 9000 crores. Not only that on the request of the Supreme Court he has filed a list of his personal assets and that of his family around the world which unfortunately the Supreme Court has shared with the banking system, though this list was filed in a sealed cover. Thus Vijay Mallya has made all reasonable efforts to arrive at resolving the problems with the banks who have not resp[onded in equal measure and have said that the offers for repayment are not acceptable to them. Is this because they want to drag the matter further and reach a situation where the debt reaches unpayable proportions. In the problems faced by Vijay Mallya if you analyse the various sections of people that benefited from him during his 'good times' and who are today chary of being linked with him, the banks are at the forefront. Bank officials who used to fall head over heels in their anxiety to prostrate in front of him, throwing the rule book out of the window to give loans to the UB group are today afraid that if Mallya opens his mouth their remaining years of service and pensions may be at stake and they may face jail terms. This is being stated since loans in our banking system cannot be given to an already overextended borrower and the manner in which loans were given by some of our public sector banks (PSB) to the ailing Kingfisher Airlines surely deserve scrutiny. As far as bank dues are concerned Mallya is liable only to the extent of the personal sureties and his own assets that he pledged for the loans. Nothing beyond that as anyone dealing with the Indian banking system knows. Similarly the babus in government and politicians who were close to him are also apprehensive of being linked to Vijay Mallya at this time since like they say, he has become a 'hot potato'. One is not wanting to say here that Mallya was correct in all his dealings particularly the manner he left the staff of Kingfisher Airlines in the lurch with unpaid salaries and other dues. This he should not have done and settled with them in a satisfactory manner. Not only that there are charges against him under FEMA related to money laundering which he needs to clarify. As for his leaving the country and going to the UK if you consider the manner of crucifixion that the Indian banking system and the government investigation agencies are seeking Vijay Mallya has been correct in saying that he does not expect the authorities to be fair if he returns to India and finds it better to deal with them from his position in the UK. Here again he is vilified for running away from his creditors but that is what any smart person would do. All in all the Indian environment's, be it the banking system, society, the media and what have you, the behaviour towards Vijay Mallya smacks of jealousy because of his flamboyant lifestyle and take pleasure in tearing into him when he is having adverse times when they have observed some cracks in his facade of exclusivity that the super-rich employ in the pursuit of their life of pleasure.



                      Implement Crop Insurance &  Save Farmer’s Lives


With the prevailing drought around the country particularly in interior Maharasthra and Telengana, there were headlines in the papers that in the last 10 weeks 65 farmers have taken their lives. The reasons for these suicides was stated to have been their inability to bear the burdens of the loans that they had taken which would be difficult to repay after the failure of the crop. At the same time on TV we have seen these ads that are going on and on about the Crop Insuramce schemes that the PM has launched. If there are schemes like this then surely these farmers would not have taken their lives. Or are these schemes again lost in government red tape. It is time therefore that the government gets down to action and starts doling out the insurance to the farmers for their failed crops which will ease their burden somewhat and also banish the thought of taking their own lives.


                      More Competent Person Required To Head Film Censor Board


Shyam Benegal's suggestion to do away with censorship of films and replace it with a grading system stems from his being a stalwart of Indian cinema and having lived for the last 50 years of his life in the metro-cities. However, it is felt that the grading system will not work and will be only paying lip service to restrict underage persons from seeing adult films. The reason for this is that in India the way these things work is that adult films generally attract the film-goers, in the majority male. Those responsible at the entry points of our theaters in the cities may be able up to a point to regulate the viewers but in the rural areas it will just not be possible since entry here is dependent on how friendly you are with the gate-keeper or usher or how much money you can pay these guys for the short-duration titillation. We all have seen that as we were passing through school into college how some of our friends who had not yet grown some facial fuzz or were not tall enough would be stopped by the ushers for A-rated films and we would smuggle them in by putting them in the middle of a our group and the guy giving the tickets to the usher diverting his attention. Mr Benegal, would also have done that and therefore until there is more parity of our societies in urban and rural areas it is best that we continue with the system of censorship that is prevailing. The problem, not many realise, was not with the system but with those heading the Censor Board lately who either to make their presence felt or in their mistaken beliefs generated controversies. So for just a wrong choice of an individual heading the Censor Board we should not discard the existing system. To get a more enlightened and broad-minded person to head the Censor Board is where the solution lies.



                                      LPG Scary In The Hands Of BPL Families


The initiative to provide BPL households with LPG and budgeting Rs. 8000 crores for it in the current year is a good initiative but it should be implemented with care and caution. In our zeal to meet the COP21 evironment benchmarks we should not sacrifice our people. This is being stated because the safety aspect of using of gas bt the BPL families need be considered. With ordinary wood-fires or even kerosene stoves that these families use now there is lesser risk of fire and to life, but with LPG the risk multiplies and the user has to be more careful and more familiar with the equipment. When educated people find the elementary safety aspects of using a proper regulator and keeping the gas rubber tubing safe from rat bites and thus giving rise to accidents, one must assess how much we can expect the BPL families to handle the LPG facility safely given the surroundings that they stay in. Moreover most such families in urban centres live in slums and a single accident is enough to set off a chain of explosions through the slum leading to massive conflagrations. Thus this program of providing LPG to BPL households should be implemented with proper training to be imparted to the users and the oil Cos. taking additional responsibility of frequently monitoring of these connections in the initial stages.



                                    BCCI Trying To Take IPL Out Of India?


BCCI and the IPL Governing Body even thinking of taking the IPL out of India smacks of desertion and running away from problems rather than facing them fair and square. In fact given the penchant of our present government, the BCCI should be hauled up for being anti-national and booked for sedition! BCCI should realise that they are an India body and needs to face up to whatever problems that arise out of their operations in India. It is not as if they will happily take the huge revenues that they earn out of the Indian cricket lovers obsession with the game and expect a bed of roses. Life as they surely understand includes the thorns with the roses. Once before they had to shift the IPL out of India because of the general elections but thinking of moving the tournament because of being the target of court cases etc. is puerile to say the least. The huge advertisement revenues that the BCCI and the IPL earns is because of the massive interest in the game in India, both from television viewership and spectators who come to the stadia. Considering this home grown source of its revenue the BCCI should have a long time ago invested by way of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) into initiatives for the Indian society at large. This would have softened the stridency of the protests against the IPL. Indian society is highly polarised and has a large section of the population that faces deprivation of many essential inputs like potable water for instance which the more affluent class of society of which the BCCI forms a part, take for granted. Therefore it is important that the more affluent should share their resources to improve the lot of the deprived and those on the margins of our society in howsoever small way it can. This approach would have enabled people to see the BCCI in a friendlier light and considered them part of the Indian family. However, in contrast the BCCI is showing their aloofness from Indian society by complaining of being targeted because they have the money. Thus would it not have been better for BCCI to share voluntarily rather than being forced to do it or see a spanner thrown into their operations. The BCCI could take out a page from the Tata group of industries which with its public relations manages to show that it is friendly to Indian society. The cost of this initiative is rather small is what BCCI should understand. If the BCCI pursues the taking of the IPL to foreign shores, then the government should take away the accreditation of the Indian cricket team playing under their umbrella and think of forming a governmental body to run Indian cricket. As it is the BCCI has been under criticism of being a coterie and run by a cosy bunch of administrators who cannot even hold a cricket bat straight and failing in being transparent with its financial facts and figures and any irresponsible action by it now like moving the IPL away should be the last straw on the camel's back for their operations in India.


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