VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 203 Date: 29.05.2017
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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