Vox Populi Issue 270

                                   VOX POPULI

                                            by

                                       S Kamat 

                                             as

                                      Aam Admi
                        Issue: 270         Date: 25.02.2019

               Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:       

1. Heads Must Roll For The Pulwama Attack

2. West Indies Cricket Is Back In Rip Roaring Fashion

3. Shaktikanta Das' Actions In Line With His Master's Voice

                        Heads Must Roll For The Pulwama Attack

 Heads must roll for the Pulwama terror attack. The head of the CRPF transit camp from which the buses started, the CRPF commander of the area and the DG, CRPF should be sacked. In addition the Army commanders of the area need be transferred out and sent to the most sensitive forward area or to Kargil as a punishment posting. Similar action should be taken against the police and security agency officials who were directly responsible for forwarding the terror advisories of the likelihood of an attack on the paramilitary on which they sat upon without sending it across to the concerned units. Accountability should be enforced and clear responsibility established otherwise time and time again we will continue to have these attacks taking advantage of the inefficiency and lacklustre approach of our agencies towards safety of its own people and that of the public at large. If Narendra Modi has claimed to be shocked by the Pulwama attack and stated that his blood is boiling then he should on moral grounds submit his resignation and also initiate action to ask for resignations from the political chain of command like that of the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh and that of the J&K Governor, Satya Pal Malik since the State is under President's rule. As for the retaliation against the perpetrators of the Pulwama attack, instead of sabre rattling and playing up the revenge scenarios in the media, what we need to do is to go quietly about our way in asking our army to launch counter attacks against the terrorist training camps. This should have been done after the 1st surgical strike which turned out to be political football with the BJP hot on bravado and the Opposition seeking to puncture that image. Nothing of all that was necessary since strikes against the enemy border should be standard drill so that we eliminate the threat to our forces and the people living in the border areas before t actually happens. Unfortunately the army also tended to take sides during the surgical strike football match while they should have with their lips sealed continued the counter-insurgency operations. We need to learn from the Israeli example who strike at the Palestinian targets within Palestine and the Hezbollah targets deep inside Syria and Lebanon whenever anything is likely to be targeted against Israel and its people. Israel does not wait like us for the bomb to be overhead before we shoot it down where in any case we would be hit but takes it out before it is launched. That is because they have clear and actionable intelligence while we are pussyfooting around with our maybe's on who, what and where the enemy is. It is important that the intelligence gathering capabilities of the country are boosted also so that we are better prepared to face the enemy. At least Pulwama to that extent should have opened our eyes wide open. 

                         West Indies Cricket Is Back In Rip Roaring Fashion

The revival of West Indies cricket augured after beating England 2-1 in the Test series and then having a humdinger of an ODI in the first match with Chris Gayle back in the side promises great times for international cricket. For long West Indies cricket has been in the wilderness after their halcyon days in the past. This has been because of the paucity of good players, young players lacking experience at the international level and more importantly politics within the cricket bodies that manage West Indies cricket. These bodies seemed to have a penchant for getting into scrapes with established players who were desperately needed to put up a decent show for West Indies cricket. This was done even when the scraped up teams were doing well in the ODI & T20 formats and even bringing back trophies home. Good sense seems to have prevailed now with Chris Gayle back in the side for the ODI series against England. The prodigal Gayle celebrated his return with style as only he knows of a rip roaring century in the first match. Like this the other reputed players should find their way back into the West Indies team which will then become a mix of experience and young blood. This will do good for the revival of West Indies cricket. However West Indies cricket continues to get a raw deal from the ICC particularly with regard to the actions of match referees and the rules framed for penalties. Like in the recent series against England, Holder, the West Indies captain, was suspended for the last Test ostensibly for a slow over rate in the earlier 2 tests. There could be some other penalty like a fine rather than having a player sit out from a sport that he excels in. Holder had wrapped up the series by then with West Indies being 2-0 up in the 3 match Test series. Similarly Gabriel, the stand-in captain was fined in the last Test for his fracas with Root. And finally because England lost the series, the pitches played in the West Indies were claimed to be not at par except for the one where the last Test was played which England won! The ICC administration bias towards countries like West Indies, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India are very apparent and it is time that a level playing field is implemented. Postscript: By the time I am writing this West Indies have won the 2nd ODI to level the series after losing the 1st though they had scored a massive 360 which England chased down with competent centuries by Roy & Root (almost sounds like a lawyer's firm). 

                         Shaktikanta Das' Actions In Line With His Master's Voice

Shaktikanta Das, the new RBI Governor is living up to paying his debts to his masters for the appointment by first reducing interest rates, though marginally, in the last review and then convening a meeting to push the banks to review their interest rates in the light of the RBI reduction. Not only that he has also cleared an interim dividend from the RBI to the government to make the ways and means position of the government easier. Though the dividend needs to be paid, it is being given way ahead of the completion of the current financial year of the RBI after which normally the dividend is declared and then disbursed. The advance receipt of the RBI dividend will help the government fund the goodies that were announced to the public in the last Budget earlier this month and any others that are likely before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. These unplanned expenditures are likely to blow away the targeted budget deficit of the current financial year. Das' action is reminiscent of being faithful and loyal to His Master's Voice, the logo and graphic made famous by the erstwhile music label, HMV.

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Note: The date for the last issue of Vox Populi Issue 269 should read as 18.02.2019. The error is regretted.

Vox Populi Issue 269

                                  VOX POPULI

                                           by

                                      S Kamat 

                                           as

                                    Aam Admi

                  Issue: 269            Date: 18.01.2019

     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:       

1. Pulwama Was A Major Security Lapse

2. Sri Lanka Pull Off A Fantastic Victory At The Kingsmead Test In Durban 

3. Narendra Modi Fighting Corruption?

                          Pulwama Was A Major Security Lapse

I hate writing this but the narrative has not changed about terrorism in India since the Mumbai blast cases. Every time we wake up only after a terrorist attack takes place and then we go through the same breast beating exercises, the blood boil dialogues, the threat scenarios against Pakistan, the photo-ops by the politicians with the victim's coffins but then no one asks the question did the 48 odd CRPF jawans deserve to die at Pulwama? Could our government, the authorities and the jawan's bosses not have done any better?  Why do we always allow the enemy get the upper hand? It is only in India that an Air Force base gets attacked. It is only in India that many military and para-military bases get attacked. The reason for that is simple. We are lax in our security measures and do not enforce it with 'no tolerance'. Why? Because our jawan's lives are cheap! Take Pulwama for instance. The J&K Governor has himself admitted that security warnings had come to the police and security forces about a terrorist attack on our para-military forces, but it was not passed on. Why was civilian traffic allowed on the road? Why was according to some reports private vehicles allowed to weave in and out of the  bus convoys? Why were the 2500 jawans moved on buses which were bunched together? The jawans were sitting ducks. If the jawans had to urgently return to their posts of duty, why could they not have been airlifted?  The bad weather not allowing traffic on the Jammu Srinagar road for a few days earlier is no excuse for organising such a convoy. The number of terror incidents in the Valley over the last few weeks had been on the increase. Why was the likelihood of a terror attack not anticipated?  The Jammu Srinagar road is claimed to be a sanitised road. Then how did 200 Kg.of explosives which was estimated to be in the SUV that hit the CRPF bus moved on the road?  A tragedy was waiting to happen and it happened. We are lucky that the lives lost  were only below 50. The loss could have been much, much more. After this we hope that our authorities starting from NSA Doval down the line to the last jawan are in a state of 24x7 preparedness particularly in disturbed area like Kashmir so that we do not unnecessarily lose the lives of Indian people. A celebrated American General, George C Patton during WWII famously said - You do not win wars by dying for your country but you win wars by making the enemy die for their country. So first let us take care of the lives of our people before we start wanting to kill the people of the enemy. 

           Sri Lanka Pull Off A Fantastic Victory At The Kingsmead Test In Durban 

That cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty was brought home again on the pitch at Kingsmead, Durban, South Africa where Sri Lanka pulled off a very unlikely but sensational win against South Africa on 16th Feb 2019 in the first Test of the 2 match series. One can say that at Kingsmead a miracle was made. Sri Lanka had just crossed 200 chasing a target of 304 to win but had lost 6 wickets. So for anyone watching the game Sri Lanka was a write-off since with the pace trio of Steyn, Rabada and Olivier backed up by the spin of Maharaj, 304 was not going to happen. Kusal Perera was at one end with a comfortable 70 under his belt and was watching his colleagues come and go at the other end unable to combat the bowling of the named foursome. It was then that Vishwa Fernando came to the crease as the last man in. Until then Perera was mixing caution with aggression and trying to reach his century as a consolation for himself and Sri Lanka from the match. But then he realised that nearing his century the 304 mark for victory was not too far off. Therefrom he intelligently started to farm the strike protecting Fernando from the bowlers who were throwing everything at the batsmen including short, rising balls to the body and getting his boundaries of at least one in an over preferably a 6. There was no issue of time since time was on Perera's side. Fernando for his part soldiered on bravely, ducking and dodging the balls coming at his lithe frame but more importantly keeping the ball away from his wickets or giving a catch to the cordon of fielders surrounding him like sharks. It was engrossing to watch the journey of the Perera-Fernando duo that was nail biting suspense and euphoria whenever Perera got a boundary that took them closer to the winning total. This way the pair reached 300 and then with Rabada bowling a ball wide of the off-stump, Perrera nudged it through the vacant slips for 4 and it was all over. Sri Lanka had won. This match will go down in cricket annals as one of the best winning run chases  in cricket history particularly that of Sri Lanka. With Sri Lanka not doing too well in international cricket these days with a fledgling young side, this victory will be a tremendous boost to their morale. Coming also at the start of the South African tour it will pep them up to do well in the rest of the matches which will be a good thing for cricket. Sri Lanka Well Done & Keep It Up. 

                                         Narendra Modi Fighting Corruption?

Narendra Modi has this penchant of calling the Mahagathbandhan of Opposition parties formed to oust him as a collection of people out to protect their corruption and also called it a milawat. One needs to ask Modi that if his allegations are true than what was he doing since 2014 to bring these corrupt people to justice. The people of India gave him the massive mandate in part for his slogan - Na khaunga, Na khane dunga - so that corruption in the country was wiped out. But nothing was done on any of the major financial scandals that had rocked the country and only coming to the fag end of his term in a vindictive mode Modi and his government have gone against Akhilesh Yadav for illegal sand mining, Mamata Banerjee for the chit find scams, Rahul & Sonia Gandhi for the National Herald case,  Robert Vadra for his land deals and  P Chidambaram for the INX Maxis deal. It is abundantly clear that this is being done for electoral gains in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Thus there was no seriousness to catch and punish the corrupt by Narendra Modi who has turned out to be like any other politician. The verdict is still out on the Rafael deal which may still turn out to be the biggest corruption case in independent India in which Narendra Modi has had his hands dirtied. BJP claiming to be a party with a difference has also turned out to be a party with no difference. And Narendra Modi has lived up to the chaiwala epithet bumbling along with his narrow minded agenda to seek only credit for himself and his government and in that process rode roughshod over professional people and destroyed most of the autonomous institutions in this country in the short span of 5 years. 

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Vox Populi Issue 268

                                                           VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi
               Issue: 268              Date: 11.01.2019

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:       

1. Mamata Banerjee: Rani Lakshmi Bai or Demoness or Tigress
2. Narendra Modi's Next Mann Ki Baat On Family Values

3. Of Deals & Offsets

                         Mamata Banerjee: Rani Lakshmi Bai or Demoness or Tigress

That Mamata Banerjee is the fearless and feisty kind and is a master in brinkmanship must have been brought home to Narendra Modi and the top BJP leadership by now. The dharna she conducted at Kolkata against the CBI's interference in Bengal in support of the Kolkata Police Commissioner cloaking it under the plea of an attack on the Constitution and on the federal structure should be enough lesson for the BJP not to mess around with her. The CPM has been aware of this when almost a decade ago they were relegated to the opposition benches and continue to remain there even today.  The street fighter in Mamata Banerjee comes to the fore when she feels politically cornered and that is when she is in her element. She was part of the triumvirate of women, the other two being the now deceased Jayalalitha and Mayawati, who made the lifelong bachelor, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, dance to their tunes when they had got together in government for a brief while. Thus now Narendra Modi, an enforced bachelor will not know how to handle another bachelor or spinster in Mamata Banerjee and may meet his debacle in doing just that in Bengal.

                               Narendra Modi's Next Mann Ki Baat On Family Values

After Chandrababu Naidu's tirade against Narendra Modi for raising his family issue, it is understood that the PM has taken the feedback positively and the next Mann Ki Baat will be on his family values. One hopes it will follow the precept - Practise What You Preach. 

                                                     Of Deals & Offsets

Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications has filed for insolvency proceedings as reported in the newspapers. One wonders how the Rafael set-off partner deal will take off after this. Will Dassault regret having taken on-board the Anil Ambani group that is saddled with a corporate debt exceeding Rs. 45,000 crores? However, on second thoughts one thinks that Anil Ambani and Delhi will both sleep peacefully since an offset exceeding Rs. 30,000 crores has already been arranged to scale down this debt. 

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Vox Populi Issue 267

                                                           VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                            Issue: 267              Date: 04.02.2019

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:       

1. Indian Democracy Is In Tatters

2. Another Wicket Has Fallen: That Of The Head Of The Indian Statistical 

     Commission

3. No Constitutional Framework Wherein The CVC Can Be Proceeded Against For 

     Corruption

                                               Indian Democracy Is In Tatters

Indian democracy is in tatters. Led by people who are accused of criminality and on the basis of court judgments have attempted to shore up their credibility and thus lay claim to hold legislative and executive positions in our government. Indian democracy over the years since Independence has been disfigured, desecrated, mutilated, quartered, killed and the only thing left is for it now to be cremated and its ashes to be immersed in all the rivers that still flow through this great land that is India. We have to be thankful that we still have some semblance of freedom of speech though even that is fast getting restricted. Vote banks, quota banks, caste banks, community banks, language banks, wealth banks, privilege banks have blown holes in the cloth of Indian democracy leaving it in tatters. Many of the banks listed above exist in other democracies but some are unique to India and these are the ones that bring us down dramatically. Like quotas in education and jobs in government for the backward classes and now the newly announced quotas for the economically weaker sections of our society. In theory this is great but in practice particularly after seven decades of Independence it sounds incongruous. These banks are also actively encouraged and nurtured by our politicians since in their continuity lies their future. See the Budget that was presented lately. Where it should be a serious document outlining the proposition of what the government would do with the economy, it has turned into a dole document distributing pennies to almost all sections of the population. The unfortunate part is that people are counting these pennies and seeng how much they have gained. With the impending election such budgets are common and have been even branded as populist budgets. That people may vote the incumbent government to power or that is the expectation is the more distressing part. Is this not then large scale corruption? Corruption of the mind, body and soul. The transient nature of the Budget is also highlighted, in the sense that most of its provisions may not be implemented or worse still the whole thing may be recast, if you go by the Opposition's statements. This the Opposition is laying claim in the hope of doing better at the hustings and displacing the incumbent government. The other thing is that over time and particularly over the last 5 years our democracy has tended to become more authoritarian. Even alternative opinion let alone dissent is not tolerated and the moment you express anything different the social media brigade of the establishment descends upon you or actual goons lay hold upon you to teach you a lesson. Otherwise the police or the IB or the CBI or the ED will arrive at your doorstep to threaten you and thus iron out the alternative opinion or dissent so that you have a uniformity of opinion and a smooth layering of our society. Conformity seems to be the order of the day. But if you use enforcement agencies to control democracy, is it then true democracy in letter and spirit. These are the questions that haunt you. But if you look at other democracies the same authoritarian tendencies have been appearing. Take Donald Trump for example in the US with his many gaffes and ripostes, confrontations with the media and then shutting down the government for a Mexican wall! Then Macron in France who has had the Yellow Vest movement bringing the country to its knees in protest of the many policies of his. So can we be different? Maybe the time has come that we need to tread the same path and look at a new democracy.

Another Wicket Has Fallen: That Of The Head Of The Indian Statistical Commission

Another wicket has fallen. That of the head of the Indian Statistical Commission. Both members of the commission submitted their resignations over the suppression of the jobs report by the NSSO that showed that unemployment was the highest in the last 4 decades. Earlier they claimed that they had not been consulted on the revisions of the base year for the GDP figures to make the present NDA dispensation look good in the handling of the economy. One would say that they did good by quitting since the government went further and showed that in the year of Demonetisation 2016-17 the economy instead of being crimped actually grew by 8.1%! With the common people these things really do not matter since they will look at the news item shrug and move on with their lives. Within the small world of  professional economists within India, it would draw a chuckle and depending on which side of the fence their sympathies lie they would obsess with it for a while and then carry on as usual. The problem is that these things are happening so frequently now that they have got inured to it or like they say,they live in a world of Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics and nothing surprises them anymore. But the bigger picture is that we are losing credibility internationally with the economic institutions of the world where with frequent changes made to the basis for announcement of economic indices of the country, it has come to a situation that no one believes any more the official figures being put out and there will come a day when our official economists may be questioned with comments like - Are you sure? Will things not be changed down the line? This is not a good thing for the country and its image. But one is not sure since maybe this is the new grand design and not have professionals speak on professional matters but leave the last word to the politicians. However, it is surprising to see Rajeev Kumar, Vice Chairman of the Niti Aayog who prior to his current appointment was a critic of Demonetisation but is now increasingly being seen as the government's point man to defend issues relating to economic matters. The chameleon has truly changed its colours! 

     No Constitutional Framework Wherein The CVC Can Be Proceeded Against For 

                                                   Corruption

It has been reported that there is no constitutional framework wherein the Central Vigilance Commissioner - CVC can himself be proceeded against for corruption. A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court to set up a mechanism for this. There is more than a necessity for such a procedure  since the present incumbent in the CVC post , K V Chowdhary took charge of his appointment only after having been cleared of some cases of corruption that the CBI was investigating against him. Even now there are allegations against him for having closed some vigilance cases dubiously.

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