VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 203                       Date: 29.05.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      3rd Anniversary: A Comment On Modi's Government

2.      Go Slow & Easy On The Road To A Cashless Society

3.      GST : A Comment On Indian Society

3rd Anniversary: A Comment On Modi's Government

We have the Narendra Modi government at the Centre whose standard norm is telling  lies when it gets cornered on non-performance since untruths is its mantra. This as one has seen happens on almost every single issue. Take the economy which experts have argued in many ways that its growth is below 6% but then the government wants to show it to be above 7%. This was necessary to contend that demonetisation has had no effect. So what does it do? Faced with two options, the first being as is commonly said change or shift the goalposts which would not work in this case since the problem is more structural. The government thus resorts to the second option and that is, changes the rules of the game. This it does by asking the CSO to revise the basis of calculating our economic indices by changing the base years. With this as if like in a P C Sorcar magic act, growth which was in the low numbers jumps to above 7% and which was negative moves into the low numbers region. The head of the CSO in his lame defence for this action has said that every four years the base year of the indices should be changed to reflect 'reality'. If this were so then a document indicating the methodology of this should have been put into the public domain, discussed among a group of experts consisting of economists and statisticians and then adopted. Otherwise the CSO is open to the charge of having us believe that all this while we were living in an 'unreal' world and are only now under the Modi dispensation getting a taste of 'reality'!

Similarly the world over implementation of GST has led to a short spell of inflation but our government tells us that there will be no increase in  inflation! Maybe this is because it is not GST that we are launching what with multiple slabs and rates to suit every interest group of States and industry lobbies in the country. With all this one would feel that we should not changed anything at all or have called it GST since it is good old messy sales tax time all over again! 

When you ask the Narenda Modi government whether the job growth is negative, you have a long pause and then inanities and apologies flood out explaining that the job situation would improve. And the government came into power with a promise to increases jobs and provide them to our youth. So for the young people it has been a long wait of three years to find that nothing is happening on the job front. The BJP's standard tactic faced with such situations is to  change the topic quickly since they are very, very uncomfortable whenever things are not going their way. 

Even commitments made at election times by the Prime Minister himself are not being honoured. During the run-up to the 2014 elections Narendra Modi had said that farmer’s will not have any need to worry if the BJP comes to power since apart from the cost of inputs, the government will set up MSP (Minimum Support Prices) for every commodity after taking into account a 50% margin. With the 3 year’s anniversary of Modi’s government around the corner, the Agriculture Minister, Radha Mohan Singh claims that no such assurance was given. With people who put food on our table this BJP government continues to play games with their livelihoods. Denial has been the BJP's standard rejoinder. Therefore maybe we should make a list of election time promises made by the BJP that are part of their manifesto and also made outside the manifesto and compare it with actual delivery on the ground on these promises. While this is happening we have the BJP President, Amit Shah claiming that agriculture growth has touched 4.1% in the last year because of the 'numerous' initiatives taken by the Prime Minister. Mind you there is no mention of a better than average monsoon that we got last year for which we are showing growth in this particular sector, though the crop surpluses have led to low prices and consequent distress to farmers. If the agriculture sector had not looked up and the monsoon last year had failed, you would not have even seen the disappearing tikki of Amit Shah. This is the other characteristic of the BJP, that is if there is anything, however small it may be, they will rush in to claim the credit. 

We now come to the 3 year anniversary of this government that the BJP is bent upon celebrating. In principle, what is there to celebrate on a road strewn with broken promises. Then the other question is, who celebrates? Those who need re-assurance when they are not performing well or those who know that they are on their way out. BJP can take its pick in the context of the 3 year celebrations.

To get a correct view of how the BJP did in the last 3 years, Narendra Modi should take a review on its performance. Just like Modi himself conducted the review of his ministers sometime back and on the basis of which he sacked some, he should undertake a review of his performance and that of his government. This will get him to know exactly where he stands and then he can better re-invent himself rather than keep changing slogans from - Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas to more appropriate ones that better relate to his performance.

There is this other tendency to compare with other political parties particularly the Congress about any matter. That is quite natural since they were the party that was ruling the country before the BJP came to power. But you cannot take this tendency of comparison beyond a point. Having known that the Congress was corrupt and scam ridden particular in the last decade of its rule and more or less over the entire 60 odd years that it has been ruling the country, and if the BJP has to overtake the Congress' performance in corruption it may take another 100 years, assuming that the BJP's record on corruption is cleaner. This is being stated since whenever one talks against this BJP government their supporters are known to say - You gave the Congress 60 years, so give us some time to show what we can do. But if we go by this logic then the Indian citizen will have to wait for another half a century at least before things on the ground in terms of governance become better. Therefore it is high time that the BJP broke this Gordian knot of tethering themselves to mere comparisons and show exactly what great heights they can lead this country to. Narendra Modi has to recognise this and shift his target from decimating the Congress party and indulging in high profile and media blaring initiatives to making India the 'superpower' it was supposed to become by 2020. There is not much time left and only another 2 years to reach this milestone. 

Is Narendra Modi listening?

                                                                                                                                    

Go Slow & Easy On The Road To A Cashless Society

The Ransomware scare that hit computers across the world recently has a lesson to aspiring India playing wannabe to move on the superhighway of a cashless society. It highlights the vulnerability of online systems that are connected to the Internet and/or wifi and mobile networks. When the Ransomware attacks were reported in the local media, it was also the time that many ATM's were not working with the screens showing a communication error. When queried banks remained tightlipped. The problems related to the ATM's were also not related to the common problems of availability of currency or lack of upgradation to handle multiple denomination notes and was definitely linked to linkage problems. This leads to the suspicion that it could have been related to the software virus attack. With the worldwide publicity gained by the Ransomware attack the hackers will be emboldened to try more advanced virus attacks in the future leaving countries like India very vulnerable. Coming on the back of the Ransomware attack was news that Aadhaar data had been stolen from a UIDAI centre which will lead to identity theft. At the same time the Internet site Zomato reported to have had a breach and exposed personal data of some 14 million subscribers putting them to face unknown risks. Thus one would think that it would be wiser not to embark helter-skelter on the road to a cashless economy but take slow and measured steps to move our variedly educated and diverse population so that parallely support and security systems develop to protect the users rather than have him jump off the deep end. One is reminded in this context of what is commonly said - It is better that we overtake developments so that we can benefit by them rather than have developments overtake us.

GST A Comment On Indian Society

The day the multiple rates of GST were finalised, a leading national newspaper carried the headline - One Nation, Many Rates? Where the acronym means a Generalised Sales Tax, it also connotes a single and unified system of tax. But in India we have this unique situation where multiple rates, five at last count, are being brought into force and the major categories like petroleum products and electricity tariffs are being kept out of the purview of GST. The very humorous situation is that detergents and razor blades have been slapped with the highest tax rate of 28% which would mean that we do not aspire to be a 'clean' society and a.k.a. Modi all Indian men should sport beards. This is the state of the nation.

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VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 202        Date: 22.05.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      Anointing Saints Et Al

2.      Chidambaran and Lallu Yadav Brought To Book

3.      Twin City Agreements With Panjim

4.      HO-HO Buses Should Respect Ecology & Safety Norms

Anointing Saints Et Al

The papers carried news the other day that the Pope has anointed the three shepherd children who had seen the vision of Mother Mary at Fatima in Portugal as saints. This brings to question whether just being witness to a vision entitles you to be declared a saint. There are of course stories that are created after the incident along with the evidence of 'miracle' cures to support the declaration of these children to be saints. In all this process is the Christian religion not succumbing to superstition. Christianity that was declared once as a simple faith has in modern times been converted with all the trappings of religion with its associated institution of pomp, grandeur, dogma and what have you to bind the faithful firmly in its vicelike grip. One of my Christian friends had once commented that we Hindus have some 64,000 gods in our pantheon. My reply was that our religion is an old one and these come along associated with their legends to keep the flock together. I had also told him that Christianity is a young religion and has to play catch-up and in time will have its own pantheon filled with innumerable lesser gods like the saints who are this day venerated as much as the principal gods. This tendency seems to be the case in anointing the shepherd children as saints by the Pope recently. In the same context, we have seen in Goa how desecration of churches and wayside crosses are made a big issue of though in the majority of cases it was found that deranged persons of sometimes even the Christian faith responsible for such action. Where we stay there is a chapel whose main gate has at its centre the representation of a cross when the gate is shut while when the gate is opened the cross is split down the middle in two. One would believe that the cross being one of the most important symbols of Christianity should be in one piece.

Chidambaran and Lallu Yadav Brought To Book

The furore on the raids organised by the law enforcement authorities on the kin of P Chidambaran and Lallu Prasad Yadav makes for amusing reading. Implicit in their outrage is the fact that the BJP has broken the golden rule that politicians are above the law. There was some hint of this golden rule existing when senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad some time back had said in a somewhat uptight manner that we did not do things like this when we were in power. He was talking when Robert Vadera was hauled up in connection with his irregular land and real estate deals in Haryana. The BJP was bent upon throwing mud at Priyanka by trying to draw her into her husband's wrongdoings. So, Mr Azad, were you trying to invoke the quid pro quo? As for Lallu Prasad Yadav and corruption, they are common bedfellows for a long time now with taints ranging from cows to fodder and what have you. But what is surprising is that with the size of the deals involved of some hundreds of crores of the Yadav family in and around Delhi, the patriarch Lallu was at the forefront of the demand to raise MP's salaries. It was believed then that being no longer in power at that time with JD(S) ruling the roost in Bihar, Lallu Prasad Yadav then a MP was finding it difficult to make ends meet since the 'upri aay' was no longer flowing in. One will have to conclude in the light of the disclosure of the present assets of the Yadav family that Lallu did not probably want to dig into his stash and would rather have preferred to spend only out of his present earnings. The BJP needs to be complimented in trying to bring these politicians and their kin to book for whatever reason that they may be doing this since all politicians should realise that the law is the same for everyone in this country. 

Twin City Agreements With Panjim

Last week it was reported in the news that Panjim was in the process of signing sister city status with Lishui of China. Immediately upon reading this one felt odd that when our relations with China are at its lowest ebb what with many issues  like China's territorial claim in Arunachal Pradesh,  then about the Dalai Lama  and the latest with India officially boycotting the meet on OBOR (One Belt One Road) meet at Beijing, Goa is taking a friendship initiative. In this context Surendra Furtado, Mayor of Panjim is best advised to check with the MEA before proceeding any further in signing of the agreement with the Chinese city representatives.  We should not end up putting the country in an embarrassing position by this move. This is more said since China plays a very devious foreign policy and actively seeks brownie points like taking such initiatives that it can use in international forums to show off its 'good' intentions. We should therefore not have the Panjim Mayor walking into a carefully laid trap. Moreover one should ask whether these twin cities arrangements get any benefit for Panjim city and its residents except for some fleeting publicity for the officials involved. Like in 2004 there was an arrangement with Cannes just prior to or after holding the first IFFI in Goa. In fact if one remembers the key of Cannes was ceremonially handed over to Manohar Parrikar, the then Chief Minister and sitting Panjim MLA at that time. After that it was Singapore's turn and now it is this city in China which few people have actually heard and Surendra Furtado should verify whether a city like that exists because China is quite capable of signing an agreement for a non-existent city and gleefully enjoy themselves at the expense of Goa and India.

HO-HO Buses Should Respect Ecology & Safety Norms

When we were returning today - 14th May 2017 from our Sunday morning walk from Miramar beach to the Panjim market, we saw both sides of the D B Bandodkar Marg randomly dotted with similar cut branches of trees. This has been ostensibly done to make way for the Hop On - Hop Off (HO-HO) open deck - double decker buses that are being introduced for the benefit of tourists. Considering that the tree branches will endanger the safety of the top deck passengers we are told that the branches of the trees on the route have been trimmed. This is completely irresponsible since for the pleasure and benefit of humanity you go around cutting branches of some of the old trees on the the D B Bandodkar Marg and maybe other roads also. There must be some limit to man's greed and stupidity.  This is just one such instance where the GTDC should have known better. To expect anything different from GTDC is rather remote since this was the very same organisation which had asked the GCZMA recently for a blanket clearance to hold tourism related events by the Mandovi riverside in Campal in blatant disregard of current environment laws. The problem in Goa is that we have this tendency to ape others like for the HO-HO buses since if London has it and now Mumbai, why cannot Goa have it? This is not the right approach since we should do something that is unique to Goa and just not copy others. We could have introduced special ferry or cruise services that connect the various tourist sites making this experience something different from other tourist destinations. Even with the HO-HO buses GTDC to commence on its eco-friendly initiatives could chosen routes that avoid cutting trees. Like Campal could have been avoided and access to Dona Paula given via the University Road. This would also have saved the added risk to the passengers from low overhead wires carrying electricity. The problem with our people is that they rarely think through a proposal before implementing and then agonise on the problem for days on end. It is time that things changed since with Manohar Parrikar at the helm of affairs surely the people expect a more practical and efficient approach in doing things. Otherwise the HO-HO buses true to their abbreviation can turn out to be a joke!

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VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 201       Date: 15.05.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      Are Our Fighting Forces Battle Ready?

2.      Of Demonetisation, Liquor Ban on Highways and the Cow Dominating Public Discourse

3.      Is Kashmir Completely Lost?

Are Our Fighting Forces Battle Ready?

The frequent attacks on our military, para-military forces and their temporary as well as permanent encampments as also while they are deployed in action leads to questions on their alertness, preparedness and the proper training of the forces. The leadership and guidance offered by the officers to the jawans in the field also needs to be assessed. These questions come to mind since after the Pathankot base attack when  terrorists struck at one of our forward military base camps it was at dawn and when the shifts of duty were changing and hit the kitchen tent considered a soft target and also at the arms and fuel dump for maximum impact. Should we not be asking our 'trained' forces  the reason for laxity in not taking as one would believe normal protective measures particularly during change of shifts? In this incident it was reported that the terrorists had holed up in the upper reaches of the terrain surrounding the camp and had been keeping watch for days and knew exactly when and where to strike inside the camp. This raises the question - Does our military not have regular patrols to sanitise the area around the camps to ensure that such incidents do not take place? In the last strike by the Naxalites against the CRPF protective force in Sukma, the story is similar. The forces were hit while they were having lunch and it was said that the Naxalites had been keeping watch and knew exactly when to strike to  extract the maximum impact. The question here again is - Were all the forces having lunch together and did the officers present not think it necessary to keep lookouts  to keep a watch on enemy action? It is all right to sympathise with the forces who got killed or injured in such action but the story keeps repeating. Not only that such casualties have a great impact in lowering the morale of the forces. It is a known fact now to at least the cross-border terrorists and the better equipped Red terror outfits within the country that the Indian forces are easy and predictable targets whose reaction times are also slow and suspect. When such incidents happen the top brass of the armed and/or paramilitary forces talk of giving a fitting reply. Given the past experience,  these are empty words which lack credibility and carry no import to the enemy like putting the fear of God in them. The politicians are worse since they look to extract the maximum mileage from such incidents and use them as photo opportunities while shedding crocodile tears and mouthing pithy words about the slain men being martyrs and that their service to the nation will never be forgotten! In actual terms our armed and paramilitary forces need to take out a page from the celebrated though controversial World War II US General, the Late George. C Patton who famously said - We do not want heroes who die for our country but we want heroes who make our enemies die for their country. (The quote has been sanitised.) Thus our political leaders and the top echelon of our armed and paramilitary forces should concentrate on making our soldiers the best fighting force in the world who kill rather than get killed. 

Of Demonetisation, Liquor Ban on Highways and the Cow Dominating Public Discourse

If you see the issues that have captured national attention and generated debate in the last few months, they have been Demonetisation, Liquor Ban on Highways and the Cow - its status and more importantly its slaughter.    

On the first issue, much has been debated and written about Demonetisation but in summary its effects and impact on the Indian economy and society has been like what Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda man is known to have said - If you repeat a lie a thousand times then it becomes the truth. Ostensibly this measure was taken to control black money, corruption and in its spin off effects to reduce terrorism both foreign instigated and the Red terror within the country. Corruption has not reduced at all with the latest evidence of an Income Tax Commissioner and a Dy. Commissioner of Excise in Mumbai caught while accepting bribes in the range of Rs. 1.25 to Rs. 2 crores. With this you can imagine the state of corruption in Bihar & UP. As for terrorism when the stone throwing reduced in the height of winter in Kashmir it was claimed it was because of Demonetisation. But later facts have now proved that nothing has changed in Kashmir both in terms of local unrest and cross-border terrorism and in fact it has got worse with terrorists attacking banks to access cash for which the government in its greater wisdom has shut down bank branches putting the general public into distress. Thus there has been no benefit of the Demonetisation measure to either the economy or the people apart from spinning off negative measures like having less cash in the economy resulting in continued difficulty for common people under the plea of promoting cashless transactions. The latter for a largely IT unfriendly population particularly in the rural areas and among the elderly who are not gadget friendly where it  has created a problem of making this category averse to financial transactions. Such people are reluctant to leaving their comfort of closing any transaction completely at the time of its taking place by payment of cash rather than go through unseen and unknown agencies on whom they do not have any confidence of completing the transaction. They are also not aware of the manner of handling the transaction in case there are problems with it going through and the process of grievance redressal to correct the matter and in fact, they are simply not interested in needlessly going through these new methods. Thus this government under the plea of modernising our society is taking it back in time by limiting firstly, the number of people who voluntarily use these new methods since cash usage was a simple and universal process and secondly, breeding a class of touts particularly in the rural and urban slum areas who will claim to help those not aware of cashless transactions and in this process recover their pound of flesh and/or use their muscle to swindle and/or extort money from these hapless users. With all this evidence, our Finance Minister Arun Jaitley continues to tout that Demonetisation has been beneficial which seems to be akin to the ostrich burying its head in the sand and reading off from a prompting board buried there.

On the second issue of liquor ban near highways under the plea that it will reduce the number of fatalities caused by road accidents on the highways, the judgment though given by the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, the judgment is somewhat debatable since there seems to be very little evidence of a direct linkage between drunken driving and road accidents. Additionally the distance limit set at 500 meters from the highways within which there cannot be any liquor served or sold has really set the cat among the pigeons across India both the State governments and the drinking public. Now look at it this way by moving the drinking from the highway within the sanitised distance of 500 meters to somewhere beyond that, are we not just shifting the location of the accidents in the majority of cases to more populated areas of our towns and cities. This will be the case all across India and therefore are we not increasing the number of fatalities by this judgment while the avowed intention has been to reduce it. In the tradition of jugaad that is a byword in India the judgment has had most of the States raising various interpretations on the method of calculating the 500 meters whether it as the crow flies or by the road distance or by the 'motorable' distance which problem has been further compounded now by the reduction of this distance to 200 meters for towns with a lesser population which has made the chances of the liquor vends being exempt more reachable. This reduction in distance is again not understandable since those who drink will drink irrespective of the ban and for the difference in distance of 300 meters exempted for smaller towns, makes one ask - Are the lives in these towns cheaper than in bigger cities? Another method being adopted by the States to work around the judgment is to call the highways passing through population centres as district roads or important roads. All these will only add to the Supreme Court spending more time on the matter to sit in judgment on the finer variations that the Indian mind can devise to get around the original judgment. A simpler method to resolve the issue was to strengthen the Highway Patrol service that is in operation in most States and have them do breathalyser tests on the highways for drivers on a random but frequent basis with substantial fines in cases found to be of drunken driving. Doing this rigorously along with a similar drive within towns and cities for about a year would get the message across that drunken driving is unacceptable on Indian roads and would thus definitely reduce the number of human fatalities. An overall issue related to alcohol and society is that in the developed world it is considered that a country with a higher per capita of alcohol consumption is more developed than one with a lower per capita figure. So are our measures to regulate alcohol intake a method to take the country backwards by way of international standards which we keep quoting and trying to emulate in all general matters!

We now come last to the last holy of holies and that is the cow. The cow is an animal, a useful animal at that since it gives us wholesome and nutritious milk. After its useful life it used to be killed to provide its meat - beef - to those with a taste for it or which comprised their normal diet and its hide was converted to leather in which process it provided for employment in the tanning and leather industry wherein it was used to make various items ranging from belts, purses, wallets, handbags, chappals and shoes. Thus the cow holding an important and respected position in our scriptures is also a practical animal  which serves humanity in various ways. Therefore there is no doubt that we need to hold the cow in high esteem short of deifying it. For those now driving the agenda of putting the cow on a pedestal we need to ask them where were they all this while. There have been many instances across the country until now where stray cattle, many of these cows, have been neglected with some dying for want of fodder and water and it has been a common sight in our towns and cities of stray cattle wandering out of neglect on our roads creating a hindrance to traffic. Is it that the cow protectors have only now woken up that the cow is holy and needs protection? Do these gau rakhsaks realise that it is not enough just to protect but it is necessary to nurture these cows properly over their lifetime? There have been some suggestions that cows will be given Aadhaar cards which is another harebrained idea which will make those who are responsible to monitor these cards to be provided with special cow features recognition tools. Thus while recognising that the cow is a very emotive political tool and is being milked currently to the maximum extent, we should tone down these sentiments and moderate them by sheer practicality and common sense. The cow is a living being and it should be treated with respect it deserves as mentioned above and after its death if it continues to be of benefit to some of our brethren who eat its meat or who become gainfully employed from its hides, then so be it. An example in this regard is that some people donate their organs and/or bodies after death to others in need of organ transplantation or for medical research, notably the retired lady Judge Leila Seth who died recently who donated her body for research. So those who do this are motivated by noble sentiments since what happens to their bodies after death is unimportant to the living being. And when we can accept it for human beings then what is great about doing the same thing for the Holy Cow! Concluding on the cow issue, the government should actively come out and roundly condemn attacks on people involved in legitimate cow trade so that the gau rakhsaks are reined in. The attacks by these self appointed protectors has ranged across the country and it is rather surprising and also disappointing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not mentioned anything about it anywhere even after many of those attacked getting killed. Here also if you see the cow issue is taking us backwards in time which normally assumes being backward in economic development terms. 

Thus on the three matters dominating public discourse lately of Demonetisation, Liquor Ban on Highways and the Cow, as covered above, we are all being retrograde and driving this country backwards while this government of ours claims its primary agenda is going forward through development and through it economic growth. 

Postscript: The story of EVM is also retrograde wanting to take the country backwards with most political parties preferring to go back to ballot paper. Instead of supporting an excellent piece of equipment that is locally designed and produced our political parties are wanting to shoot it down because it is not giving them the results in elections that they want and that is to win them. All the losers in the elections are complaining with more noise being made by those who lost heavily and more recently including those who won even in the latest round of elections and also in the past because the victory is not large enough!

Is Kashmir Completely Lost?

There is no end it seems of the turmoil in Kashmir. What is alarming this time around are the pictures of children in school uniforms with their faces masked throwing stones at the security forces. Even girls have been in the thick of such action. Earlier it was the terrorist ympathizers and the youth who were involved in street uprisings but with schoolchildren getting involved as now, it would seem that the indoctrination cycle is complete. This will last for another decade and any hope of peace that the PDP-BJP government nurtured is blown to bits. Both parties should take responsibility for the current state of affairs in Kashmir since instead of striving to bring normalcy to the State, both parties were bickering about government formation. The incident where Lt. Ummer Fayaz, the young Indian Army officer, was kidnapped and then killed shows you the bravado of the terrorists who are confident of getting away with such incidents. At the same time such events add to the atmosphere of fear among the local population and it will be very few mothers who would accept sending their children to join the Indian armed forces after this. The hamhanded government has been trying to pump up any positive news to foster morale among the Kashmir people like claiming that there were some 70,000 youth who applied for some 700 police vacancies. There seems to be some error in zeros in this news and the numbers have to be probably divided by 10! It is sad that Kashmir, a beautiful place has gone this way for the failure of successive governments to win the hearts and minds of the local people and with children looking the other way, all seems lost.

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VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 200         Date: 08.05.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1.      The Indian Farmer's Dismal Plight

2.      IT Dept. is Not God's Own Country

3.      Give Pakistan A Bloody Nose

The Indian Farmer's Dismal Plight

There has been a report of a turmeric farmer's  death in Telangana, the reason ostensibly being that the price for the produce had crashed to Rs. 3600 for 300 Kg. Similarly there are reports of pomegranate prices falling to Rs. 15 per Kg. Toor dal is in surplus after a bumper harvest and prices have reached rock bottom without the government doing enough and news report indicate that farmers having no other alternative have dumped the dal at the gates of Mantralaya in Mumbai. And just 6-8 months we were talking of a scarcity in dal and regulating its prices. Earlier it was the same situation with onions, then tomato and again maybe with potato which has also seen a bumper harvest. These up and down situations with farmers always being at the receiving end in whichever situation is a cause for distress which needs to be properly addressed by our government. What has happened to government agencies that used to buy produce like NAFED, STC, etc. etc.?  Why cannot the scope of these agencies be expanded to buy everything from the farmers at normal times as well as during bountiful harvests at fixed rates which they can then distribute around the country  or export. The farmer's lot(a) is filled with tears be it during failed monsoon or drought and even after a good monsoon. Where should he go? Which doors can he knock to make ends meet for him and his family? No wonder farmer's children are not too keen to continue in farming because of first, the back breaking labour and second, seeing the pot of misery that their parents have to carry year after year. At this rate within another three decades we will have a famine in India with no food for the burgeoning population. The government takes action for writing off NPA's at banks by issuing a special Ordinance passed by President but for writing off farmer's loans forming a microscopic value of the NPA's everyone has an objection ranging from Chairperson, SBI, the Niti Aayog bigwigs and even M S Swaminathan! And while this government is obsessed with 'No-Fly List', Demonetisation, Cashless Society etc. etc., we have the deaths of farmers being deliberately ignored and brushed aside. Why can the Rs. 300 crores set aside for incentivising Debit Card usage not be stopped immediately and alternately used to set up a fund to assist the families of farmers who have either committed suicide or died unnaturally in the last one year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his lackeys talk about their orientation towards the poor but there is little or no concrete action on the ground. There seems to be a discordance in the government's approaches to issues needed by the common citizen like in the Railways where the government is not able to offer safe and secure travel to its citizens given the number of accidents and dacoities/thefts on trains these days and provide wholesome food on the journeys, they are introducing luxury trains like the one proposed between Mumbai and Goa with plush interiors, wi-fi and 5-star food apart from other facilities. Sometimes one wonders where this government is leading us and where this country is ultimately headed. With this government's obsession on India Shining issues, there is a neglect of the poor and downtrodden irrespective of what the official line that is being put out of a concern and support for them since this is a class of people who have no voice to protest or clarify the correct situation and even if they manage to speak out, it is easy to either ignore or suppress these voices.

IT Dept. is Not God's Own Country

The arrest of an Income Tax Commissioner in Mumbai in a Rs. 2 crore bribery case shows clearly that corruption is alive and kicking in India. It also is indicative that the rot related to corruption is deep, dark and extensive. One needs to question how such officers get promoted to senior levels since since as said of tigers who become maneaters, they would have had blood on their hands from a long time back. But even then they are elevated which does not speak very highly of the IT Dept. since people with stained hands are making it to the top. We need to note also that this is also not the first time that senior persons in the IT Dept. have been caught for corruption. Some years ago the head of the CBDT had been arrested on corruption charges and many are the charges against senior officers of the Dept. that are languishing in departmental  enquiry forums or in the criminal courts. Thus the IT Dept. is not God's own country as they would like us to believe and it is time that they put their own house in order before accusing others from the general public of illegalities.

Give Pakistan A Bloody Nose

The recent killings of our two soldiers and their mutilation by the Pakistani soldiers reiterates the old position which is that we as a country take things for granted. We should have a long time ago recognised that Pakistan is like a rabid dog which sustains itself through provocation and terror. In this process it indulges in activities like the beheading and mutilation of the enemy in the most hideous and macabre manner with the belief that it will firstly, make the opponents fearful of them, and secondly, get them the headlines in the media, the bigger the better in both their home country and that of the enemy. India, on the other hand is obsessed with doing things right which in normal circumstances  may not be the wrong thing to do but in case of Pakistan, it is simply playing into their hands. With Pakistan, we should do the right things and given their behaviour over the years give them a bloody nose for every single provocation that they indulge in. That is the only language that Pakistan understands. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth should be India's policy of retaliation as far as Pakistan is concerned. We should also sanitise up to 2 Km. of the border on the Pakistan side  including the LoC making it like a De-Militarised Zone (DMZ) so that they cannot use these areas for staging attacks on India. For this our government needs to have the will. the gumption and the ability to manage international opinion in the event of such action. When the US can at will attack Syria and Afghanistan recently with the 'Mother of All Bombs', why can we not take out the terrorist camps just across the border in Pakistan so that they do not have the continued plea that any action was taken by rogue elements or non-State actors! Postscript: Elder journalist like Kuldip Nayar have been advocating in his old and oft stated position of maintaining friendship with Pakistan that it geographically isolates India from the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the rejoinder could be that the Taliban should be easier to handle than a rogue nation like Pakistan with nuclear capability. 

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VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 199                       Date: 01.05.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

 1. Agriculturalists Should Pay Income Tax

 2. The Tale of AAP Is One of Lost Opportunity

 3. GTDC & GCZMA In Cahoots To Destroy Mandovi Riverside At Campal

 4. Why Pick On Tourist Taxis?

Agriculturalists Should Pay Income Tax

Apart from the cow we have other Holy Cows in our society that we fear to touch. One of these is levying income tax on agriculture income. When everyone pays tax, why farmers should not pay income tax is all the more puzzling? It is not that all farmers need pay tax but at least the rich ones whose landholding crosses a certain figure of acreage should compulsorily be taxed. Taxing farmers is a political hot potato and that is where the government is hesitant to bringing them into the tax net. But if tax revenue needs to grow for developmental needs then taxing agricultural income is definitely the thing to do. The government is well aware which farmers are rich since when the last UPA government had granted the loan waivers amounting to some Rs. 60,000 crores, it was these rich farmers who availed the maximum benefits from the scheme, thanks to Sharad Pawar. It was stated then that farmers with small holdings are not part of the banking system and borrow most of their loans from village moneylenders and therefore could not be benefited. Thus if the rich farmers availed of benefits earlier including being not liable to income tax, it is time that that they shelled out income tax towards nation building as the current BJP government’s sloganeering tells us. Moreover we have the corporate sector getting more and more involved in the agricultural sector and there is no reason why we should allow then the freedom of paying tax on their farm incomes.

The Tale of AAP Is One of Lost Opportunity

For quite some time the writing has been on the wall for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The rout in the NDMC elections recently should be the final death knell for Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP's political ambitions. The AAP has been the wannabe, the perennial outsider in the country's political arena. Starting off with a lot of promise it has shown how political capital and public goodwill can be squandered so quickly and so nonchalantly. It is also management case history material of how Arvind Kejriwal and his cohorts within the AAP who claiming to be different commenced to conform with the rest of the political class so dramatically. From being the wind that promised to bring change into the country's political firmament, AAP succumbed to being overtaken first by the circumstance and then got swallowed in the same bog of political chicanery. Where after the landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, there was a need to consolidate the gains and strengthen the party, the AAP instead of that with the euphoric victory having gone to Arvind Kejriwal's head, he chose to expel some of the most competent in the party like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav. That done the party 'supremo' chose to be surrounded by yes-men and lackeys and those with questionable credentials if not criminal records.  Apart from that the constant feuding with the LG and the Central government showed that the AAP was not keen to govern but continue to question each and every thing in their old activist mode. Not only that by abdicating the role of Chief Minister to his deputy, Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal once again showed the reluctance of putting his head down and applying himself to the serious business of governance and continue playing around in adaptive RTI mode of finding fault to take potshots at the PM and getting involved in almost every other issue of national concern. This was part strategy to launch the AAP as a national party and lubricate Arvind Kejriwal's dreams of emerging as a candidate for the PM's chair come the 2019 General Elections. This had made him spend Rs. 97 crores of public money on advertisements to promote his image and that of AAP. The amateurish attempt for the AAP to go national has come a cropper after the debacles the party faced in the Punjab and Goa Assembly elections. With the disastrous showing in the Delhi municipal elections considered home base for AAP that has set the cat among the pigeons within the party hierarchy, the plan to contest seriously in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections must be in some doubt. All in all where Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP had to prove their mettle in Delhi to do justice to the public mandate given them and on that proven performance grow the party to go national, it has been a story of opportunity squandered. At this time it may not be inappropriate to recommend that the shutters be brought down on the AAP as a political outfit. From the whiff of fresh air and heady promise that Arvind Kejriwal brought to the political scenario in the country a few years ago to going out with their tails between the legs hangs a tale of personal overreach and the inability to tackle the entrenched political system and finally giving in to it irrespective of continuing to mouth high principles and values which are for others but not for AAP to follow. Arvind Kejriwal has admitted to making mistakes which admission is more in the nature of crocodile tears and to gain public sympathy. He has also said that he will introspect from which one should logically assume that his resignation as Chief Minister of Delhi  will follow. This is expected if Arvind Kejriwal wishes to put in practice what he preaches and having lost the public mandate in Delhi he has no right to sit in the CM's chair. Or he can do like what other political parties do and that is to cling to the seat of power claiming that they have a 5 year mandate. Taking all things into account, one feels that it is time to say - AAP R.I.P.

GTDC & GCZMA In Cahoots To Destroy Mandovi Riverside At Campal

The two government agencies, GTDC (Goa Tourism Dev Corpn Ltd) and GCZMA (Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority), seem to be hand in glove in conspiring to avoid the coastal zone regulations and giving permission for the Grape Escapade festival to be held in Campal. Why activists are hounded who are just pointing out the law is something that defies reason? If GCZMA interprets the law properly and enforces it then there is no need for anyone to bring in last minute impediments to hold any event by going to the NGT is what the body should realise. They in any case need to explain why they gave permission to hold the Grape Escapade at the venue and then withdrew the clearance. GTDC will also have to elaborate how in the face of the NGT judgment to stop, they continued to hold the event. Not only that GTDC is seeking blanket clearance for holding tourism related events by the riverside at Campal. This is an irresponsible attitude for a State undertaking who rather than following the letter and spirit of the law is attempting to subvert it in zealously pursuing its charter. 

Why Pick On Tourist Taxis?

We have the tourist taxis back in the news with their opposition to the app-based taxi services like that of Ola or Uber. This is something that they cannot avoid since such services are a sign of changing times and they will come in any case irrespective of the protests by the taxi associations. With Goa being a tourist destination and with business being skewed to season time between October to March and with everyone from hotels, restaurants and all linked with the tourism sector having one rate for off-season and another for season time and additionally peak season time during the three weeks from Dec 15 to Jan 7 encompassing Christmas and the New Year, the  taxi associations can also demand that they should be allowed to charge market acceptable rates during the season times. If hotels are allowed to do this and nowadays under the plea of 'rate being on size' for sea food in restaurants round the year under which pretext they charge exorbitantly, why should taxi drivers be deprived from this benefit. The only thing that the tourist taxi drivers should do is be graceful and not fleece local Goans. Thus something like showing your id card to establish Goan residence allowing you to get a reasonable rate is something that can be thought of. The other thing that taxi drivers should not object to is tariff meters which has to come in any case. The season, peak season rates can then ride on this base rate of the tariff meters as multipliers which should satisfy everyone involved and connected with the taxi business in Goa.

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