VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 184 Date: 16.01.2017
Contents:
- Urjit Patel Running Away from Media @ The Vibrant Gujarat Summit
- Modi On The KVIC Promotional Items For 2017
- Army Chief Should Concentrate On Core Business
- Modi As A 'Visionary Leader'!
Urjit Patel Running Away from Media @ The Vibrant Gujarat Summit
Urjit Patel, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) running away from the media at the Vibrant Gujarat summit recently is representative of the inability that the Governor has in facing up to situations. This started with the demonetisation exercise commenced from 8th Nov 2016 when Patel & the RBI was railroaded into accepting the decision. Thereafter it appeared to observers that the RBI was being run by the Finance Ministry with one or the other Secretary announcing decisions that were the domain of the RBI. The status of this venerable autonomous institution was then clearly eroded. Even internally within the RBI the same feeling was existent as is brought out by the unions of both staff and officers of the organisation in their representation to government recently. No amount of verbal assurances will be enough for the government to claim that they respect the autonomy of the RBI since in emergency situations they will repeat the same action. Under the present BJP government the independence of autonomous institutions like RBI is constantly under threat. The same situation exists with the government's approach with the Supreme Court with the venerable court being hobbled by not appointing judges on its recommendations for one reason or another. This is being done in the background of the the huge number of cases piling up in courts across the country which surely the government in association with the judiciary has to tackle and bring it down to reasonable proportions.
Modi On The KVIC Promotional Items For 2017
The furore on Narendra Modi replacing Mahatma Gandhi on the KVIC diary and calendar for 2017 needs to be understood in the background of the officials in government seeking to please the Prime Minister in the manner of acolytes. For various reasons the head of KVIC may have taken the decision without any guidelines from the government and for very mundane reasons like seeking an extension to his term or wanting to be noticed so that he could be considered for any other plum assignment that he desires. This is being stated since you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the government and/or the Prime Minister. In continuation of the argument one also needs to state that Mahatma Gandhi does not have the monopoly on the promotion of khadi. As one expert said that the khadi favoured by the Mahatma and what is in vogue today is completely different. At the same time the Haryana minister who said that the sales of khadi did not increase by using the Mahatma's image to promote it is measuring the great man's contribution in a very miniscule way and weighing it on the scale of commercial success, which is representative of the mediocre minds of our leaders today.
Army Chief Should Concentrate On Core Business
The Army Chief Rawat needs to stop the bluff and bluster approach in talking tough but concentrate on brass tacks to do his basic job of protecting his men and country. When the Army is unable to protect their own camps in Kashmir for reasons of administrative lacunae and lax operational procedure as was evident since the attacks on Pathankot, how will they protect the country? Rawat also needs to de-emphasise the 'surgical strike' narrative since it has become more of a political weapon in recent times. As Rawat would obviously know that any such sensitive operations are not to be given needless publicity and the maxim to be applied is - Talk Less, Work More. That is the way the effectiveness of the Army operations would improve. Defence Minister Parrikar need also mull on these issues and cut out the frivolous talk and concentrate on matters to make the Indian armed forces the best fighting-fit force in the world as he himself had said in the recent past.
Modi As A 'Visionary Leader'!
People are always willing to sacrifice for their country as long as there is a just and noble cause. But a leader should know when to ask for this sacrifice since in that decision lies the making of a humane and sensitive leader. A leader loses credibility if he asks for this sacrifice for mistakes committed by him and for irrelevant issues. At the same time if a leader admits his mistakes either committed directly by him or by his government in the event this leader holds the reins of office and apologises for these mistakes then the stature of the leader is greatly enhanced in the eyes of his people. It is not important that the leader compensates the people affected by the mistakes but if that is done then the belief of the people in the leader is cemented further. It is important for a leader to empathise with the people and just not mouth pithy words and shed crocodile tears. He should also not take people for granted. We will touch upon these premises in the context of PM Narendra Modi unleashing the demon of demonetisation on the country on 8th Nov 2016.
The initial objectives of demonetisation were to fight black money, corruption, counterfeiting, terror and drug funding. Lately with the first two objectives of black money and corruption not being achieved, the subsidiary aims of counterfeiting, terror and drug funding are being touted as being hit badly if not eliminated. Further the PM's demonetisation narrative is yet again emphasising that it empowers the poor. How it does that, is not clear? With the bungling of the demonetisation exercise it is the poor and the lesser privileged who have got the most affected. Modi had said in the initial days after 8th Nov 2016 that the rich are spending sleepless nights and the poor are sleeping the sleep of the comfortable. But with the cash shortage it turned out exactly the opposite with the poor spending sleepless nights more so because of their empty stomachs. The jargon of benefiting the poor is just like election promises say it for now, the dummies are not going to come back and question you later. Even, if they do, we will handle it with another story. This approach was also seen in Modi's speech on New Year's Eve where announcements were made for benefits which are not significant and for schemes which are not operative and with confusing guidelines for implementation. The attempt is once again to delude the poor and benefit the middle class and the rich just like about a decade ago when the BJP riding on the plank of the India Shining campaign lost massively in the succeeding general elections. Cash shortage like a virus has spread everywhere from the leather goods fabrication sweatshops in Dharavi to the bangle makers of Firozepur to the farmers mandis that sell produce across the country to the small industries that depend on cash to get their production materials to the micro finance agencies that fund household industries etc. Daily wage workers were hit and food and commodity markets slack with the trading community reporting sales had fallen by more than 50% in Nov 2016. Apart from the realty sector the organised industry sector has been hit with FMCG and the auto industry taking the major brunt. When newspaper headlines including that in the financial papers are screaming about slowdowns, job losses where Modi and his team are seeing the silver lining in the dark clouds of demonetisation is something that they need to explain clearly.
Thus you will see that Modi has been talking in multiple voices at multiple times. Then there is the emphasis on a cashless or less-cash economy which is nothing but an attempt to deflect the attention from the failure of the demonetisation exercise. The problem is that no one knows what Modi is seeing in the demonetisation exercise irrespective of what he has been saying. And the people within the BJP are blinkered and they can it seems see only Modi. Thus we are in a crisis created by Modi on a program which has many confusing objectives, which any administrative or management person will tell you is a recipe for disaster. At the same time those pointing out the difficulties of the people because of the cash shortage are being branded as speaking for the black money hoarders and also lacking in patriotism. For pointing out that someone is making a hash of an economic measure being called anti-national is a first by any standards. In fact the words sacred and patriotism are being bandied about liberally by the BJP which is devaluing their importance in our way of life. As commented above on patriotism, to call the the demonetisation exercise a ‘sacred’ task is insulting religion and in turn our gods. These are not indicators of a cultured and civilized society.
Ever since Modi has come to power it has been seen that his government has been bent upon dividing society, creating an atmosphere of mistrust that one has to keep looking over one’s shoulder to see if anyone is keeping an eye on you. This happens now whether you have something to hide or not like the other day a friend of mine, 75 year old to boot, got an IT notice though he has not been liable for tax for more than a decade and lives off his savings in FD’s. Just the nuisance for this senior citizen to go to the IT office, queue up before the officer and explain himself is clearly completely avoidable harassment. While the big fish get away the IT picks on the weak and defenceless to exercise and show off their power. Even when Modi asks people publicly to report on those having black money on an email id of the IT department, is it not instigating one fellow man against another? Not that Indians need an additional invitation for such activities. But with all this, unnecessary tension is being fostered in the country.
On the issue of demonetisation as it is coming out now it was Narendra Modi's decision, which he has admitted even earlier, the RBI was not consulted and that institution used to just ratify the decision. Even the Niti Aayog was not consulted though Arvind Panagariya, its Vice Chairman, believes that it advises the government on major policy matters. Why was it isolated? On such a major decision when you were pulling out 87% of currency out of circulation, is it not necessary for a leader to consult the experts on monetary and economic matters and arrive at a considered decision? By not doing this Modi is laying himself open to the charge of being insensitive. In this demonetisation exercise he has followed what is called the ‘scorched earth’ policy in military parlance wherein you focus on victory irrespective of the grievous impact on those impacted or involved. This happens in instances in comments n society where lack of education of a person makes him unable to assess consequences. In misplaced bravado the person moves ahead in the belief – Dekha Jayega. Jo Bhi Hoga Dekh Lenge! This is disastrous as we have seen in the implementation of the demonetisation exercise in the country. If the demonetisation was so important for Modi to do then by if by withdrawing 87% of the currency it has created so much problems then he could as well have pulled out the remaining 13% and it would not have added much more problems than those created in the existing situation. But it would surely have satisfied Modi's larger than life ego. He could then have introduced a new currency for India to break away from the past and maybe called it Modi or Modiah or Modyah. That way he would have left a permanent stamp of his contribution to the history of India. We need a balance in judgment and considered decision making without which Modi may lead us to a precipitate war with either Pakistan or China and then ask us whether we are not prepared to sacrifice and suffer for our country.
Thus you have a country that was touted to be a Super Power in the future and an economy regarded as the fastest growing in the world in the present times irrespective of the fact that the world over recession-like tendencies are prevailing, has been through the hands of its own Prime Minister, just as it was picking itself up to get on to the path of growth and his adamant and stubborn attitude not to accept that he has made a mistake in his implementation of the demonetisation exercise launched on Nov 8th reduced it to a pathetic state of economic uncertainty. The RBI & the World Bank have aleady scaled down the projections for India's GDP growth to around 7%. This does not factor in the impact of demonetisation which is sure to pull it down further to 6.5% or so.
Thus you will see there is a serious doubt on Narendra Modi's leadership abilities, his balanced judgment and his willingness to stand up and accept responsibility for his own actions. He also needs to realise that Analysis is a basic virtue that all leaders must have.This crisis generated from the demonetisation exercise is all the more surprising coming from a man who had promised minimum government and maximum governance in 2014 when he came to power while now it is completely the opposite.
There are benefits in Modi's proposals like demonetisation to fight black money but it has to be implemented right. Like increasing people that are in the IT net to boost revenues which can then be used for development and to lessen IT rates for those who pay tax. Like a less-cash or cashless economy will have a significant impact on the black economy. That with the black economy fading out the white economy would grow and thus boost GDP. But these are goals that are progressive and need to be taken up with the the singleminded focus to derive success and not all together as we have seen since Nov 8th 2016.
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