VOX POPULI
by
AAM ADMI
Issue No. : N 017
Issue Date: 30 Jan 2023
Contents:
1. Indian Industry & The Adani Conundrum
2. India Going On Top In White Ball Cricket
3. More On The Shankar Mishra In-flight Peeing Incident
4. With The BJP Government Everything Is Chargeable!
Indian Industry & The Adani Conundrum
It seems Indian private industry is rotten to the core except for some names like the Tatas, the TVS Group and maybe Birlas, with scandals dotting its growth over the years ranging from scams, falsification of accounts, avoidance of taxes and duties, selling of quotas during the licensing regime which all maybe in a large part has led to the generation and growth of black money or the second economy as it is called. Lately after the liberalisation of the economy in the 1990's there was a more permissive attitude and industry scandals did not create headlines too much until starting from Mallya the muck started hitting the roof. After that we had many others with bigger amounts that were scammed than Mallya like Choksi, Nirav Modi and others and now finally we have Adani. The Reliance shenanigans of Dhirubhai Ambani with his financial wizardry are well known but the mantle that was put across the elder son, Mukesh, to carry on the Ambani tradition has been well worn by him and the Reliance group has today legitimised most of its vastly diversified operations though the younger son, Anil, finds himself in rough waters for his forays into industry. People like Adani fail to realise that when they want to grow big, they will have to come into the limelight where arc-lights are focused on you. It is then difficult to hide anything, even a wrinkle in your operations will be visible. Chanda Kochhar and her husband made the same mistake at ICICI which being listed on the New York Stock Exchange had to submit regulatory reports from which the loans to the Videocon entities came up to the surface. These were pointed out by the US auditors and then the whole thing unravelled which we saw being played out with Kochhar and her husband arrested and subsequently released on bail. Similarly, Adani can preen as the 4th richest person in the world but he has to keep his books clear. Like it is said that Caesar's wife should not only be above suspicion but also appear to be above suspicion. The problem is people in India do not realise this and believe also that abroad you can get away with tactics they use here. That is first intimidate and throw your weight around, second flaunt your connections and third, buy your way out. Adani has also been threatening to sue Hindenberg which if he does in the US, he will be stripped naked and he will not even have the proverbial fig leaf to cover his privates. So Adani has to work out his retaliation plan giving a lot of thought to it but first he has to put his own house in order as far as his Cos. are concerned. A few months ago even in India a report had come out that the Adani Cos. are highly over-leveraged. There is one thing in all this that defies explanation and that is why did Hindenberg release the expose just before Adani was going to the public to raise funds of some Rs. 20,000 crores. That issue is in a mess now. If Adani solves this puzzle then he will know who his real enemies are.
India Going On Top In White Ball Cricket
The new crop of young cricketers are doing exceedingly well with Surya Kumar Yadav (SKY) named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year in the T20I format and Mohammed Siraj whose name is included in the ICC Team of the Year in the ODI format. In addition Siraj is currently topping the bowling rankings in the same ODI format. White ball cricket has changed the way cricket is played and these youngsters have made it their own. This augurs well for Indian cricket in times to come.
More On The Shankar Mishra In-flight Peeing Incident
On the Shankar Mishra in-flight peeing incident, we see in the newspapers first the Air India Association responding to the de-rostering of the crew and the pilot as announced by the DGCA by objecting to the action. In its rejoinder the Association is trying to defend the crew and the pilot involved but they do not at all mention about the victim. This is rather sad. Further Air India has also got into the act and advised the DGCA that the action by the aviation body is excessive and that they will assist the pilot in his plea against the punishment. Here again there is absolutely no mention of the plight of the victim, who being an Air India customer is left in the lurch while at other times the management jargon mouthed is that - Customer is King (or Queen, in this instance). In addition, Air India has been fined another Rs. 10 Lakhs for not reporting the other in-flight peeing incident in Dec 2022 on their Paris - Delhi flight. Thus we see that the principle followed as above is every man or woman for himself or herself, and God save the victim or let them stand up for themselves. In all this the victim, a senior citizen, that too a lady, is left wondering what happened to the Tatas who has allowed her to be bounced around between the perpetrator, Shankar Mishra, the police and the courts and seriously consider keeping quiet accepting that it is common practice on Air India that passengers can pee on each other in flight. Overall, Tatas have completely mishandled the situation. Chandrasekharan when he made the public statement that Tatas could have done better in the matter should have put his words into action. Unfortunately nothing like that was done. Tatas are losing face in this matter and maybe it is time that Ratan Tata stepped in to recover the situation.
With The BJP Government Everything Is Chargeable!
I have been going to Delhi since 1970 off and on for business and stayed there for 3 years from 1988-91. From that time I have known that the Republic Day Parade is a time for joy and celebration and that the parade was free. It was only that if you reached late then you had to stand for the entire duration of the parade since all the chairs for the general public would be taken. Therefore I was shocked to see that for the current parade they sell tickets. Though the rates are nominal it is not correct to charge the public for attending this event. The celebration that India is a republic should be free for its common citizens. Not only that there was a new item in the papers that the number of common people that would be allowed for the parade this year would be limited to 25,000. We talk of a revamped Kartavya Path (the earlier Rajpath) which is bigger and better as we are told and we still limit the number of those who want to come and see the parade? Isn’t this contradictory?
The other thing was that among students a painting competition was organised mostly for the Kendriya Vidyalayas on the theme of Pariksha pe Charcha which radio broadcast by the PM will be aired on 27th Jan. However the students have been asked to contribute money for their participation for the competition to offset the cost of paper and painting materials. Many of the students could not pay the entry fee and finally the schools decided to take out the cost from the Building Development Fund to which the students contribute through their fees every month. Why the government cannot fund even such things is not understood?
Both these matters are a shame for the country where you are asked to pay for everything. Things which were free earlier and the others for which the government incurs a nominal cost and are towards a good cause are being made chargeable.
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S Kamat
Mob: 0 7218698906
Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com
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