VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 205 Date: 12.06.2017
Contents:
1. Amit Shah's Calling Gandhi A ‘Chatur Baniya’ Is Uncalled For
2. Computerisation Be All & End All Approach of Modi Govt.
3. The Ban On Cow Slaughter Etc.
4. Modi Government Not Pro-Poor
Amit Shah's Calling Gandhi A ‘Chatur Baniya’ Is Uncalled For
Amit Shah calling Mahatma Gandhi a ' chatur baniya' is uncalled for since clearly it is being used in the pejorative sense. Apart from the cow that gives us milk, we have some other 'holy cows' in contemporary Indian society and one of them is Gandhi. Criticise him by all means for his views and policies but please do not slight him. His contribution to India's freedom is immeasurable. Comparing Amit Shah and his fellow-in-arms, Narendra Modi's stature to Gandhi's is like comparing minnows to a blue whale. By the way the BJP as a party was not even existent during India's freedom struggle and the icons that the BJP lays claim to nowadays and their contribution to make India free is debatable if not controversial. Amit Shah's comments about Gandhi are an attempt to garner brownie points among the Sangh Parivar followers. But little does he realise that by belittling others you do not become great. You have to claim greatness by your own performance and achievements. The BJP ever since they came to power in 2014 has been trying to dismantle the pillars that Indian society stands upon claiming that this is a Congress legacy of brainwashing. This attempt is dangerous and has serious implications since the cracks being created can result in a collapse of the value systems and principles on which Indian society stands. This is more so with the youth of this country since without being anchored by these principles they will become rudderless and be susceptible to getting swayed by different thought streams that are flowing through the world these days mostly fundamentalism. The earlier Amit Shah understands this it is better otherwise by calling Gandhi names he is only undermining his credibility and that of the BJP. Moreover Gandhi was a Gujarati and Amit Shah slandering another person from his State without due cause is shameful.
Computerisation Be All & End All Approach of Modi Govt.
The Narendra Modi government is also easily swayed by technology and rarely looks at the ramifications of the implementation of any scheme. In the demonetisation exercise we saw the pain that people had to go through in queuing before bank counters and ATM's while the babus in government said that there was no problem. These babus and policy makers are far removed from reality. Like we saw in the craze to move to cashless society and the latest was this insistence of computerisation for which pharmacies all over the country on 30th May 2017 went on an All-India strike. The issue was that all prescriptions were to be uploaded to a central database which the pharmacies refused. The policy makers are probably not aware of the state of pharmacies across the country and the facilities they have and the crowds that some of them handle. It is in no way feasible to scan each and every prescription given the operational scenario they face. Moreover OTC (Over The Counter) drugs are sold without prescription. All this makes for wastage of time of time that can be better served in service to customers than uploading prescription which one wonders if anyone will at all monitor. The Narendra Modi government should realise that computerisation was conceived to facilitate human effort and not replace it. The human involved is important and not the computer and once the policy babus have an understanding of this then most of the government's plans will fall into place.
Similarly we have this stupid idea of daily change in petrol & diesel prices which will result in cheating of customers at pumps. Whenever there is a price drop some of the pumps will not share it with customers and continue with the existing higher prices until the next price increase. The daily change in prices can only be implemented if it is done by on-line remote process from central computers from which all pumps across the country can at one time be re-calibrated with the new prices. It was only Just about 6 months back that oil Cos. were resisting frequent change in prices of petrol and diesel in line with international price fluctuations since they wanted to massage the prices to their advantage. What has changed so suddenly to have daily variation of prices? We go from one extreme to another at the opposite end. Change should be progressive like instead of the present fortnightly cycle of change it could have been done weekly and then if there is really any merit, then do it daily after some time.
The same thing was done with cashless transactions where again after a peak when cash was scarce, the level of transactions has tapered off despite the incentives offered by government. This is for simple logistical reasons where either the number of reliable PoS terminals are not available or the banks are not willing to reduce their margins. Not only that the App based Bhim for cashless operation is not easily accepted by a diversely educated and widely scattered population that we have across the country where reliable mobile connectivity is available. The same thing applies for reliable and high speed Internet connectivity across the country to support as a backbone cashless transactions using credit, debit cards etc. It is like the old proverb - You can jump onto a donkey's back but you cannot make it run. It will run only when it wants to irrespective of the flogging you give it. The moral of this story in technical terms is that you can leapfrog technology but as long as your target population is willing and able to run with you. We are shortly moving into the GST regime which will end up in a similar mess since first the enrolment rate of trader establishments is low, the rates finalised are too many and many of the States like Bengal want the commencement postponed from July 1st 2017 to a later date when people are more willing to accept it.
The Ban On Cow Slaughter Etc.
There have been many law and order incidents over the last 2 years across the country involving the slaughter of cows and allegations over the possession of beef which have in intensity ranged from merciless beatings up to lynching. Such incidents have been on the increase over the last few months. Inspite of the severity of the incidents, their increasing frequency and the span of coverage across the country, the ruling BJP dispensation has not come out with any statement on this issue let alone a warning to the attackers not to take the law into their hands. Only one senior BJP minister, Nitin Gadkari has touched upon the topic while speaking to the press claiming that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar had nothing to do with the attacks. It is one thing to say that their party people are not involved but with the government at the Centre that of the BJP is it not necessary for them in the governing mode to issue a notice that such incidents should not recur or ever happen again. With the cow being the MFA - Most Favoured Animal - of the Sangha Parivar the suspicion will be laid at their door only. Even the Prime Minister has not found it necessary to come out with an admonition to the perpetrators of such attacks. In the absence of any official line on the issue the people who are behind the attacks will only get emboldened and the number of such incidents will only increase as we have seen happening. The manner of handling this issue has essentially been a failure of the BJP government at the Centre. Instead of deflating the issue in fact the Centre compounded it by putting a ban on cow slaughter across the country. In the light of this ban, one is not very wrong if a deduction is made that the BJP and the Sangha Parivar had a hand in the attacks. The ban by itself is bad in law because cow slaughter is a State subject and the Centre has no business to interfere in this. Many of the States where beef is consumed like Kerala, the North East States and West Bengal have been up in arms against the ban and a number of BJP MLA's in the North East States have resigned on the issue. Not only that the notice of the ban was probably pushed through in a hurry since the definition of cattle was not limited to the cow but included buffalo also. The Centre has admitted this lapse and said that they would correct it. These kind of lapses have led to a beef shortage in the country particularly in States like Goa where it has gone off the shelves. Not only that faced with the uproar from the above named States against the ban on cow slaughter, the Centre is backtracking and has said that they are open to discuss the issue of the ban. This smacks of governance by the strategy of - Two Steps Forward, One Step Back. This kind of vacillation we have seen very often with this present BJP government showing their amateurish approach to governance that highlights their lack of experience.
Modi Government Not Pro-Poor
The Narendra Modi government is high on decibel and headline grabbing exercises but low on performance and achievements. In its strategy to make the highest amount of noise is the inherent desire to drown out all voices that are inimical to their policies. Intolerant of criticism and fond of engendering just the one and given viewpoint has been their forte. There is a concept of white noise in electrical communication which is defined as the level above which only any signal can be detected and then heard. The present government's approach is to raise the level of white noise in public discourse to such a level so as to erase any other signals (voices) so that theirs is the only voice which is above the white noise level that will be heard. In this approach if the government finds continuous absence of conformity to its views, it is not beyond the use of its law enforcement agencies and sets themloose on such entities. The latest in such instances being the CBI raids on NDTV which is clearly an attempt to cow down this media Co. and get it to conform with the official line. Such tactics the BJP had consistently decried while being in the Opposition for the last few decades but it is pursuing the same tactics when it is chairing the government. Must be the fault of the chair and not the BJP!
Apart from this the Narendra Modi government has been desperately trying to wear the tag of being the champion of the poor and the down-trodden. This hype is absolutely untrue. If you see the farmer agitations and distress we have been seeing in the last 3 years including the latest one in Maharasthra and MP, you will understand where the truth lies. In both States there have been skirmishes with the police including some deaths of farmers in MP. One cannot understand when in Kashmir you use stink bombs, rubber bullets, why is it that in Mandsaur live bullets were used? The farmers agitation has not died down in both these States even though in Maharasthra, CM Phadnavis has approved the write-off loans of some Rs. 30,000 crores, figures are varying and some say the latest is Rs. 60,000 crores which process will be completed by Oct 2017. Even then the farmers have not called off their agitation with some sections and regions in Maharasthra continuing the strike since the terms of the loan waiver have not been spelt out and separately MSP's for produce with 50% margin over cost of production have not been accepted. The MSP issue remains the bane of contention in MP also. With these 2 States in turmoil farmers from other States like Tamil Nadu West Bengal etc. who have been restive will in a matter of time launch their own agitation. Some pundits are saying that the farmers unrest is a delayed reaction to demonetisation which with no cash in the mandis since Nov 2016 resulted in depressed produce prices and then the cashless operation kicked in at the APMC mandis which maintained the low prices since farmers preferred cash. In MP the CM took the decision to part payment of 50% in cash at the APMC's which did not improve matters and therefore the current agitation.
And true to the character (if any exists!) of our politicians Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the CM of MP instead of resolving the Mandsaur crisis and the farmer's agitation, went on a hunger strike for the farmers! This is a classic case of abdication of responsibility where instead of working at his job this guy claims fasting and ill-health to avoid taking a decision! This is India, my friends! This was the same guy who during last year's monsoons in MP while out visiting flood stricken areas dressed in his spotless whites was hoisted by his security men, one on each side over a stretch of muddy ground because of his refusal to step into the mud. What can you expect from such people? Further Shivraj Singh Chauhan's fast for the cause of farmers was clearly a farce what with a huge tent constructed on a public ground with some large number of air coolers installed. The BJP needs probably a 5-star atmosphere to be created so that their leaders can go on a fast in comfort! The BJP top leadership realising just that asked him to call it off and get on with the job that he is supposed to do and that is to negotiate with the farmers. The other spin that the BJP are trying to give to the farmers agitations across India is that it is because of their party policies that has stimulated growth in agriculture in excess of 4%. This excess production has depressed prices for which reason the farmers are firstly, upset and secondly, unable to pay their loans. This unashamedly absurd claim by the BJP to garner credit for increased agriculture production which has happened because of the good monsoon last year is completely irresponsible. Tomorrow, in the BJP attempt to project Narendra Modi as a great leader they will probably say that because of him the Sun rises in the East! With the increased output of produce because of good rains, where is the cold chain infrastructure that the BJP promised in 2014 when a similar situation had prevailed with vegetables and fruits rotting in the fields and farmers coming onto the highways and dumping their produce there in protest? The cold chains is something that the BJP has conveniently forgotten just as their election promise of remunerative prices to farmers. Another attempt by the BJP to divert attention from the farmer's unrest in MP and give brownie points to Shivraj Singh Chauhan is to say that though national growth in agriculture is 4%, there are certain pockets across the country like MP because of very good monsoon last year and the policies of the CM the agriculture growth has been 14-18%. This bountiful harvest is the reason where as said earlier with larger production, prices have dropped. Now this claim seems plausible but given the BJP's track record of massaging figures like GDP, IIP, WPI, CPI etc. to their advantage you need to take this argument with a large pinch of salt.
Where farmers have to take to the streets before the government even accords them the courtesy to look at their problems of bad loans, the industrialists have things made easy for them since they get their bad loans resolved by the government while they sit in their centrally air conditioned offices and cozy homes. The government also goes out of their way to issue an Ordinance to bail out the magnates and the concerned bank officials who sanctioned these loans. And these loans run into thousands of crores while the bad loans of farmers are more in the region of lakhs of rupees. Take the case of Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher House in Mumbai which the banks have been trying to auction with no buyers forthcoming at the base prices set, where just last week a 5th attempt was made. Real estate prices have not dropped so much as to have the banks find no buyers so the other logical conclusion is that the property prices were inflated when loans were given against the building as collateral. With a clear case like this why is the government not proceeding to haul up the concerned bank officials at SBI for this fiasco. If the government takes action in such cases then it will send a message out to all concerned and those involved in similar transactions to be wary and follow due process. It is precisely this cosy bureaucrat-banker-industrialist nexus that has led up to the massive NPA's with banks necessitating the Ordinance referred above since bankers have washed their hands off these dues and the industrialists are with their feet up on their desks tapping their fingers on the arm supports of their cushioned chairs waiting for the write-off of their loans completely confident that they will not be liable to any civil or criminal action. Their confidence stems from the fact that whatever profits they have had to extract from these projects, they have already pocketed and they are least interested in what settlement is arrived at by the banks and the government on their loans. The blackmail that the industrialists employ is to hold future capital investment leading to less employment generation so that the government is brought to the negotiating table to settle. Even the RBI for all its wisdom has come out against the write-off of farmers loans while saying that it will expedite the process of write-offs of NPA's at banks running to lakhs of crores. Strange situation, this! The machinery in this country seems to be oriented to help and support the big thieves while showing off how many little thieves they have been able to net. With this you will see that this government of Narendra Modi on the one hand kills farmers but plays footsie with the industrialists. In the light of farmer’s agitations in Maharasthra and the loan waiver announced by CM Phadnavis. Arun Jaitley has said that the Centre will not fund these loan waivers and the States involved need to find their own resources for this scheme. But in the same breath, he also said that he will try and expedite the NPA issue with Banks and have discussions with RBI to expedite the matter. So you decide who is championing whose cause, the poor or the rich.
In the same way the demonetisation exercise never looked at the impact of the measure on the unorganised and the micro-enterprises which operate on cash. In the first 3 months after Nov 8, 2016, lakhs of daily wage workers in the unorganised sectors and otherwise, small enterprises went out of business because their suppliers demanded cash for raw material and they had to pay wages in cash but then these were not the focus for Modi since these people have no voice. No one would take up their cause. Because they are the silent crores that comprise India's teeming poor and underprivileged. This is the segment of the population that Modi is browbeating and manipulating at the time of elections. Such kind of people live on the margins of our society and because of their desperation they clutch at even straws when anyone offers them hope to better their lot. The politicians have been exploiting the lot of such people and the latest in this exercise is Modi and the BJP. Moreover their minds can be easily diverted as said earlier by swinging in front of their eyes, dreams of a cashless society among other things. This would have no meaning for them but the lure of a single button money transfer on a catchy ‘Bhim’ sways thoughts and aspirations. But the truth remained that the poor were hit and hit badly by demonetisation and nobody cared.
Similarly on this cow slaughter and beef ban issue, who gets hit? It is the poor who get beaten up, lynched, murdered. If cows are not slaughtered then the leather industry will be badly affected which is in the unorganized sector and lakhs of jobs will be lost. The problem with the Narendra Modi government is that they rush to action with no thought and with no back-up plans like alternate employment or whatever. They move on looking for the next headline in the newspapers leaving a trail of the crying and miserable poor in their wake. The massive bungling that the BJP does on each and every major policy issue and even the minor ones shows their ineptness and lack of ability to govern.
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