VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 192             Date:  13.03.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      The Real Truth About the 2017 Assembly Elections

2.      Goa Poised For Political Uncertainty In the Days Ahead

3.      Steve Smith Getting Off Lightly

4.      Cash Transaction Tax & Other Levies At Banks

5.      US Hate Crimes & The Transition In India

The Real Truth About the 2017 Assembly Elections

One hates to be a party pooper but facts are facts. Narendra Modi and the BJP have lost 3 out of the 5 States that went to the Assembly polls. Albeit their victories in UP and Uttarakhand have been handsome but here one has to give in and compliment Modi's charisma which has brought home the BJP in these States. Modi is a good election manager but fails on the aspect of governance which he can concentrate upon in the remaining 2 years that he has in the present term. With UP in the bag, this task will be made easier since he can hope for more support in the Rajya Sabha as time goes by to pass much needed and crucial legislations smoothly. There are some who have said that Modi & the BJP have taken UP with a landslide win, which has more seats than all the other States put together that went for elections this time. But in my opinion the true test of leadership is its spread and not its depth. Winning just UP also shows the single mindedness of Modi which is not necessarily a good thing in statesmanship since you have to look after everyone. It can be presumed from this that he can maybe do only one thing at a time which for a child is a good virtue but for a Prime Minister a bad weakness. Losing a State like Goa that it held for 10 years does not also augur well for the BJP’s future. The same thing with Punjab, where it is a slap in the BJP's face that the SAD, its ally got such a drubbing and the big leader could do nothing! 

Goa Poised For Political Uncertainty In the Days Ahead

The Goa elections have brought home a surprise leader in the Congress party scooping 17 seats beating the BJP at 13 in the 40 member House. After major issues of dissidence within the party leading up to the elections this is indeed a creditable achievement helped no less by the division in the votes of the BJP to the MGP and the misguided BBSM movement's foray into politics. AAP's full fledged outing in the Goa polls was a no-no without a win and the party was able to just get a maximum of 4000 votes in one constituency while in all others it scraped only upto 2000 votes. The AAP should realise that it is not easy to fight elections far from their home base of Delhi though many a leader including supremo Arvind Kejriwal did come down to Goa and campaigned here. AAP need to back their words with performance which has been more than dismal in Delhi irrespective of their overdone publicity and the successes that it has achieved in Punjab are a flash in the pan or like a 'summer storm' as Amrinder Singh of the Congress has said. Coming back to Goa the wheeling dealing would have begun not amounting hopefully to horse trading with the Congress having the better chance to form the government because of their numbers. But getting those 5 MLA's on their side for a comfort in the Assembly is going to be a uphill task unless it goes to the MGP requesting for a bailout. The MGP led by Sudin Dhavlikar long used to sitting on fences should make the most of this unless on 'ideology grounds' both find the alliance a bitter pill to swallow. All in all from a stability in the political arena for close to ten years now Goa is going to dive into uncertainty come the next Assembly gets into session.

Steve Smith Getting Off Lightly

The Steve Smith incident at the Bengaluru Test is against the spirit of cricket as it is played. Considering this anyone who infringes this spirit should be suitably penalised. There is no question of Steve Smith trying to explain away the matter as a 'brain fade' which is obviously not a mature way to handle the matter. Otherwise we will continue to have such incidents and precedents Iike the above will be quoted to defend the transgressors leading to further degeneration of the game as it should be played. Thus BCCI having withdrawn its complaint from the ICC is completely wrong and needs to be re-instated. As Sunil Gavaskar has said - Why do we hasten to withdraw our complaints against cricketers from other countries since if our cricketers are involved, they will never be given the grace by the other opposing party particularly countries like Australia and England? At the least Steve Smith should be penalised to the extent of not being allowed to play in the last Test in the ongoing tour? Not only that the Australian press like the Daily Telegraph has been very acerbic on incidents purported to be of bad behaviour by both Virat Kohli and Anil Kumble against the Australian officials and the umpires during the Bengaluru Test. These reports are iare being made as diversionary tactics and to create a smokescreen to hide Steve Smith's referral to the pavilion which they know was a grievous mistake. That is precisely the reason why if we have to be generous, we should do so with those who deserve generosity and not waste it on the Aussies. 

Cash Transaction Tax & Other Levies At Banks

 After starving the people of cash from 10th Nov 2016 the government and the banking system are back at the game of inflicting more misery on the hapless citizens. This is coming in the form of a penal fee for more than 4 cash transactions in a month, separately for withdrawals and deposits into bank accounts. Though the government is paying lip service to the ploy of asking banks not to implement this, covertly it is behind the measure since otherwise how will the cashless economy come into place? After demonetisation, the exercise of stopping people from withdrawing their own money and then allowing it to be removed in trickles even to this day while at the same time limiting the number of outlets like ATM's, since they were all cash-dry, from which money could be withdrawn, are all impinging on the personal property rights of every single citizen and business entity of this country. It also clearly shows up the inability and consequent irresponsibility of the present government on an important function of governance and that is to provide adequate amount of currency to its people for personal needs as also trade activity. Adding insult to injury instead of accepting this failure and apologising for it, the government has been spinning another yarn, that of the cashless economy. Now the banks too are joining in the game by charging for the number of cash transactions that you can do, remember it is all your own money. This indirectly confirms the continued inability of this government to provide currency and to hide this fact they are taking the aggressive posture of - Why do you need cash? Is this not a form of 'indirect' direct taxation where on a manufactured reason the government is asking its agencies to pull out money from people's pockets. They are also getting banks to do it since the decision on transaction fees relating to credit and debit cards, mostly the latter, is hanging fire for which the banks have been hammering on government's doors for a decision to improve their profitability. Similarly for going cashless the government has announced a scheme on which hundreds of crores have been budgeted. Why is that scheme not being withdrawn and the money given the banks so that they need not levy the cash transaction charge on common citizens? As said earlier in all this the government has failed miserably and since one can interpret this as an infringement on the fundamental rights of the citizen, it is time that someone files a PIL on this in the Supreme Court so that the government can no longer hide behind its inefficiency and their bluff is called. As for SBI's rule for maintaining minimum balances in bank  accounts, that is a matter of competition since customers have the option to move away to other banks who may may not have this rule and it is only SBI who may suffer in the long run. SBI has since clarified that the minimum balance rule is being done to offset the costs of Jan Dhan accounts. So it's a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul, for lack of a better way to manage costs. Further there is also the move to limit the number of times that you can use ATM's which should be the same as what was prevailing earlier and there should be no attempt to curb it further. After all, banks should remember the basic principle that they exist because of money deposited by common citizens and if all people withdraw their money and keep it at home, the banks are likely to go bust. There will come a day not far into the future where you may have to pay just to step into the bank. 

US Hate Crimes & The Transition In India

There have been three hate crimes in the US against Indians in the last two weeks. This has been  fostered by Donald Trump's attitude and publicly stated policy towards immigrants which has created an atmosphere of mistrust and hatred encouraging some people to take advantage of it. Notably Narendra Modi the man who claimed an equation with Donald Trump soon after the US Presidential elections was over, has not even picked up the phone and spoken to the US President seeking justice for the victims and assurances of safety for the large Indian expatriate population in that country.

There is a parallel here in India with Modi and his party, the BJP creating communal tensions since May 2014 all over the country here in India with their intolerance and under one pretext or other, notably over the slaughter of cows and the eating of beef. This has been compounded by the senior BJP leaders including Cabinet Ministers making provocative statements and in that process putting their foot in the mouth, more often than not. Here again there is a situation of double standards where one can safely say that when anyone from the BJP makes a controversial statement however outrageous it may be, then they are defended or at most a comment is made that they did not 'actually' mean what they said or what they said was this, putting out a diluted or vapid version of the statement or comment. But if it is anyone else who makes even a simple comment particularly the Opposition parties then it is blown up in a manner of making a mountain out of a molehill and all within the BJP go hammer and tongs against the person or party even extending to physical attacks, legal course and slandering. This kind of thing has resulted in a kind of uncertainty and unease across the country. Moreover the rank and file of the BJP cadre has got encouragement by this situation and the courage to foment trouble knowing full well that the top leadership will back them up. Avoidable incidents like this have generated an alarm in Indian society on how to deal with this kind of boorishness, intransigence, crass behaviour and a general feeling of disappointment at the transition of our society and country's image from that of an ancient civilisation, educated, cultured and compassionate to a wannabe culture desperate to show off their supposed achievements exposing the shallowness of themselves as well as their claims. 

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