VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 244 Date: 13.08.2018
Issue: 244 Date: 13.08.2018
Contents:
1. Argentina! Oh, Argentina!
2. Dalai Lama's Unwanted & Out-of-Turn Comments
3. Swaccha Bharat Program Ill Conceived, Needlessly Capital Intensive
4. Hapless Bribe-Givers Have No Choice, Cannot Be Named Offenders
Argentina! Oh, Argentina!
I need to confess that I am a big fan of Messi and still not able to get over Argentina's exit in the last World Cup held in Russia. Come to think of it, it seems it was all coach Sampaoli's fault in not being able to knit his forward line into a cohesive attack machine with the likes of Messi, Aguero, De Maria and Dybala in the side. Aguero was hardly used in the World Cup matches and in most cases came on as a substitute. But then in his first serious match for Manchester City in the FA Community Shield after the World Cup he scores his 1000th goal for the club! Not only that in the opening game of the season for PSG, DeMaria scored in the French Super Cup. If you had seen Argentina's matches in the World Cup it was clearly apparent that Messi was being underfed with the ball and most of the time he would be wandering up front in the opposing half like a lost child and him being the best player in the world today. Argentina in their future international forays needs to have a coach who understands his players and is able to get the best out of them.
Dalai Lama's Unwanted & Out-of-Turn Comments
When you have a revered guest staying with you at home, make unwanted and out-of-turn comments, how would you feel? That is the position that the Dalai Lama has put Indians with his comments about Nehru, Jinnah, Partition et al. There was no need for him to say about a self-willed Nehru unwilling to give up being a Prime Minister or that Jinnah would have made a good Prime Minister in which case there would have been no Partition. Many a time has the Dalai Lama done the same kind of thing in the past making controversial statements without recognising that he is a guest in this country and the least that he and his people could do is to be grateful for the hospitality. Moreover he is a man of religion and compelled by China's actions to be thrust into politics which should be limited to Tibet and not related to his host country, India. Religious heads should stick to religion matters and not stray outside where they are bound to make embarrassing gaffes like the one the Dalai Lama has made in his recent visit to Goa.
Swaccha Bharat Program Ill Conceived, Needlessly Capital Intensive
Achieving OD - Outdoor Defecation free India is a mirage. Major offenders of OD are workers at construction sites going into the surroundings with bottles filled with water in their hands early in the morning. Surely they are not going out to water the plants! One of the initiatives for OD free India should have been to make it mandatory for construction sites to have firstly toilets for their workers, better still Bio or chemical toilets. There is also an exercise being thought of of distributing Bio-toilets to villages across the country in some States like Goa to become OD free which is nothing but a spending exercise which is also true for the entire Swaccha Bharat program. Where the program should have started from the basics to bring cleanliness in our surrounding by people awareness and education, the emphasis is to spend money which is being wasted. Like on the toilets Issue Sulabh International should have been brought in in a big way and installed simple toilets in our villages that they would run like it has been done in the slum areas of Mumbai in the concept of community toilets. Then progressively once people had got into the habit of using toilets then slowly the concept of Bio or chemical toilets could have been brought in. This methodology would have ensured that the toilet use habit is sustaining. Nowadays you will find that even if the village home has a toilet the elders may still go out with a bucket in the morning for their morning ablutions by force of habit or stubbornness to persist with the habit. In these fancy purchases of Bio-toilets etc. for the Swaccha Bharat program, you will find these will not work within a year of inauguration like we have seen in our other hi-tech purchases e.g. traffic signals, CCTV etc particularly in remote and rural areas. Thus someone is clearly lining their pockets with these fancy purchases or favours are being made to particular suppliers. Again the Swaccha Bharat program was launched for publicity by VIP's from the PM to Governors sweeping the roads. But these eminent people forgot to put in place a system for someone to do it the next day so the road remains unswept since that day when the VIP used the broom on it. The broom is also lying forlorn in the gutter forgotten because nobody wants to buy it on auction even though Narendra Modi touched it! The other thing is that if you want a Swaccha Bharat make the streets and surroundings of India animal free, like dogs, cattle etc. These should be removed since with their pooh (shit), they contribute more to the dirty roads and surroundings than anything else.
Hapless Bribe-Givers Have No Choice, Cannot Be Named Offenders
The Anti Corruption Bill likely to be presented in Parliament is going to make the bribe giver culpable and subject to criminal prosecution. How can the person paying the bribe who is a victim be made an offender? No one in his right mind goes up to the babus or police and offers a bribe. It is the officials who ask for a bribe as the consideration to do something that a person wants done. The person has no choice. Either he pays up and gets his work done or forgoes the work which sometimes is not possible. The last resort is that the person goes to the ACB - Anti Corruption Bureau and makes sure that the official demanding the bribe is caught red handed. Thus the aspect of the bribe giver to be named the offender should not find a place in the proposed Bill. Many of the bills being passed as law these days are slanted to absolve the bureaucracy and/or public officials. The RTI amendment bill, thankfully withdrawn, was another exercise in blocking information to save the babus. These are all the convoluted machinations that possibly spring out of the mind of Ravi Shankar Prasad, our Law Minister who has spent a lifetime doing this. You will not reduce corruption by making the bribe-giver an offender but by awarding exemplary and speedy punishment by those who take bribes. The government's track record in proceeding against corrupt officials in criminal courts is atrocious and over the last decade more than 80% of those caught have not even been brought to court let alone for sentencing. As usual this BJP government is barking up the wrong tree and needless creating a smokescreen to hide the real issues.
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