VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 200 Date: 08.05.2017
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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