OPinionatED

or

VOX POPULI

by

 Aam Admi

Issue: 168                      Date:  12.09.2016

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.       PM Modi Should Put Through His A-Team Through A Course If He Is Interested In A 2^nd Term

2.        Goan Politics Verging On The Extremes

3.       Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

   PM Modi Should Put Through His A-Team Through A Refresher Course If He Is Interested In a 2^nd Term

The BJP ministers continue with being confused in their speech and about their responsibilities which leads to the lack of delivery of any meaningful governance and creation of avoidable controversies. Lately there have been two statements which hit national headlines and drew equal amounts of opprobrium and praise. The first was Manohar Parrikar’s comment that Pakistan was Hell and the second was by our Tourism Minister, Dr Mahesh Sharma, who said women wearing skirts should be banned from visiting temples. If you look at these two statements there was nothing wrong with them except in the manner that thet were put forth. Parrikar had spoken in the context of a terrorist incursion in Kashmir where two of the intruders were killed by security forces and the remaining two or three escaped back to Pakistan. Thus he had said that two were killed and the others escaped back to Pakistan which is the equivalent of going to Hell. The comment was factual and did not deserve the criticism it got in the national press and from different sections of our society. In the same manner Mahesh Sharma’s statement as Tourism Minister had said that skirts are best avoided by women while visiting temples and they are asked to come fully clothed. The emphasis on banning skirts in the comment could have been deflected to coming fully clothed to maintain the sanctity of temples. The problem with the BJP ministers is that they are not so comfortable speaking to the English press considering that a majority of them are not so proficient with the language and its nuances. While with the vernacular press they seem to be more comfortable and at ease. We have also seen how the items that interest the vernacular audience and that of English are generally somewhat different. Also issues in the vernacular press are quickly raised to a fever pitch but they die down as quickly. In this, one is confused a bit, since with the English press is it not that the same thing that is happening presently? To curb such infarctions and limit the embarrassment the government is best advised that the BJP Cabinet and senior functionaries of the party go through a crash course in public speaking in English as also in public relations.

Similarly among some of the senior ministers Arun Jaitley also seems to be confused on what his responsibilities as a Finance Minister are since he had again lately said that with the new RBI Governor talking over he would look forward to him taking initiatives to increase jobs. But, Mr Finance Minister, it is you who have a wider charter to initiate policy measures to stimulate employment and not the RBI Governor! In the same way Nirmala Sitharaman, our Commerce Minister, was saying just prior to the last interest rate review by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan that interest rates should be reduced by 2%. This is a rather unfortunate comment by a senior minister without looking at its overall ramifications on the economy. The problem with relatively stagnant industrial production and lower exports is not because of interest rates being high but because of credit being blocked in massive NPA's with banks for which reason they are hesitant to extend newer lines of credit. Unless the Gordian knot of NPA's with banks is broken, the sluggish Indian economy will not move forward. Thus Ministers should be aware of the overall state of the economy while handling ministries like commerce.

All in all it is best that Narendra Modi initiates a course for his ministers and senior BJP functionaries in expanding their mental horizons and teach them to speak keeping all ramifications in mind, if he is interested in getting a 2^nd term of government come 2019.

Goan Politics Verging On The Extremes

The Goa political scenario is swinging to the extremes. What with Subhash Velingkar declaring the Goa prant of the RSS independent of the Konkan unit and conducting his show of strength at the 12^th Sept 2016 meeting at Cujira, has found an uninvited strange bedfellow imposing upon him. This is in the form of the Shiv Sena who clearly want to fish in troubled waters. One is sure that Velingkar would not have bargained for the Shiv Sena, among the more extreme of the Hindutva brigade come calling on him. In the same manner you have the Marathi Rastrabhasha Samiti (MRS) making noises as a follow-up to the independent MLA’s private resolution seeking official language status for Marathi in Goa in the last Assembly to be implemented before the next elections. The move by the government in passing the private member’s resolution in the House with a rider that it should be subject to the acceptance of the people was with an eye to split the BBSM movement into Marathi and Konkani groups. The BBSM as an organization aligning itself with the RSS with Velingkar as its then head was unusual since the majority of the RSS in Goa would want Marathi to continue as MOI. This is not really wrong considering the precedence of the majority of vernacular schools in Goa being Marathi and that BBSM stands for Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch. But then the quid pro quo was expected to be placed before the BBSM members at any time and that was to make Marathi also the official language of Goa. Those in the RSS and now the new Velingkar-led Goa RSS would not be averse to this proposition. So the BBSM will find itself being pushed into an extreme corner where it will have to compromise since the majority of its leaders are considered pro-Konkani and not so amenable to Marathi. People like Uday Bhembre who their entire life have been working against making Marathi the official language in Goa will be left with no choice but to accept it as the 3^rd official language of Goa. What next but Romi Konkani will follow as the next entrant to the official language status since it obviously has more right than Marathi. Thus the BBSM in its MOI agitation has clearly sacrificed the interests of Konkani. As for the BBSM forming a political party, almost 12 years ago, it is called a tup in the Hindu measure of time, Uday Bhembre and Arvind Bhatikar had been asked to form a regional party in Goa building on the Nitoll Jin platform that they have. At that time they had said that regional parties will not work in Goa. What was the compulsion now to consider forming a party? Was it just the MOI issue? Would a single point agenda form the basis of a party is what these eminent people heading the BBSM should mull over? On a point of principle the BBSM position on the MOI is divisive seeking to divide the people on language sounding at the same time holy because you are defending the mother tongue! If at that time Bhembre & Co. had listened to form a regional Goa based party since there were enough and more issues like corruption, protecting Goan land, IIFI etc. then one of the present leaders of the BBSM would have been the present Chief Minister and maybe the MOI issue would never have become an issue to agitate about. Now it is a big, political khichdi that has been formed and Goa may not come out of it unscathed and maybe will continue to be ruled from Delhi. POSTSCRIPT: This is what the same leaders did to the Konkani language by not allowing Romi Konkani to have equal status by treating it as a step-sister to Devnagari Konkani. Where language should be treated as a free flowing river touching many banks, assimilating many vocabularies, dialects and sub-sets of language, which would make it expansive and richer and form the unifying force for a region like the Konkan ranging from the north in Thana and Panvel to the south until Trivandrum and in the east until Bangalore, we have insularly stuck to Konkani in its Devanagari temple, close fisted as it were and exulting in that literature and culture which hesitantly slips through the clenched fingers and stands devoid of energy to live a limited and short-lived life. Now those who did this to the Konkani language are on the MOI issue without realizing the real-politik involved are sacrificing whatever current status that it enjoys.

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

Recently in the case where a man threw acid on a girl who did not reciprocate his one-sided love and in which the girl died, the man was sentenced to death indicating that the crime was premeditated and heinous enough for a death sentence to be given. However, it is important that the death sentence is completed as quickly as possible since then only it will act as a deterrent to other possible perpetrators who may consider such crimes. In the Nirbhaya rape case that happened in Delhi in Dec 2012 though the multiple attackers who were adults, were awarded death sentences the punishment has not been carried out even though almost 4 years have passed since the crime was committed. Not only that the main attacker, a minor, got off by just being sent to a remand home and was out of the home in 2 years time. One hopes that if the sentences were executed promptly rapes would not have continued to dot the country particularly the Hindi heartland where just in the last month there were instances of rape in Agra and Bijnor where in the first a teen attacked a 11 month old baby and in the second a 13 year old attacked a 7 month old baby. There have been other cases across the country like In Kerala where in a Nirbhaya style incident a young law student was raped, the body mutilated. In the case of the minor involved in the Nirbhaya incident who was as produced in evidence as the principal instigator who committed the rape also, there was widespread debate that he should be treated as an adult and the law deal with him in the same way as the the other adult attackers. This should have been done since though we should follow the letter and spirit of the law, the judge should be given the leeway to decide when compelling evidence indicates that the minor was as much a party to the crime as the others and considering the bestiality of the crime and the ultimate death of the victim, that the minor be treated as an adult since in physical age he was almost at the border of being an 18 year old. Like it is said that the delay in carrying through the punishment sometimes becomes no punishment at all and leaves the door open to appeals and counter-appeals by the perpetrators diluting thus our justice system which we should avoid encouraging at all costs.

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