VOX POPULI Issue N 021









VOX POPULI  
by 
AAM ADMI 

Issue No. : N 021
Issue Date: 27th Feb 2023

Contents:

1. Putin's Misadventure In Ukraine Turning Costly 

2. Gujarat Government Seeks Death Penalty For Godhra Convicts While Releasing      Bilkis Bano's Rapists

3. India's Defence Strategy 

Putin's Misadventure In Ukraine Turning Costly 

With the continuing Ukraine war Putin is weakening Russia. He is exposing the  vulnerabilities of the Russian military apparatus. This will be costly for him and his country in the long run. With the anniversary of the war behind him and no tangible signs of victory being seen, Putin is indirectly building another power centre within the countries that can be seen to be under the influence of Russia. With the West led by the US arming Ukraine, the country will emerge as a rallying point for those countries that are inimical to Russia in their region. With glasnost having dismantled the old USSR the Ukraine war may be the next turning point for the demise of Russia as a world power. Biden's sudden visit to Ukraine last week is also a slap in the face for Russian intelligence and to its leadership. Cosmetic gestures like pulling out of the nuclear treaties by Russia are only seen as petulant and have no real meaning. In the eyes of the world Putin should realise that Russia has lost the Ukraine war, the faster he understands that it is good for him and the world.

Gujarat Government Seeks Death Penalty For Godhra Convicts While Releasing Bilkis Bano's Rapists

The Gujarat government has asked for the death penalty to be restored on 11 Godhra convicts who were sentenced to life imprisonment for setting the coach of the Sabarmati Express on fire killing the passengers in 2002 which set off the Gujarat riots. This is completely irresponsible considering that the case was closed after sentencing and there is no need of the Gujarat government, technically the prosecuting authority, to ask for a change in the sentence. In contrast the same Gujarat government sometime back released the rapists, coincidentally again 11 in number, in the rape case of Bilkis Bano of the same time in 2002 on counts of good behaviour before completing their life sentence. In fact these rapists were garlanded upon release from prison and were feted by the local BJP leadership. This kind of biased communal action by the government will lead to serious doubts about the intentions of the present dispensation to support certain communities by design and condone their heinous criminal actions leading to anarchy in the country.

Postscript: In Oct 2022 the police in a village in Gujarat's Kheda district publicly flogged some persons who were disturbing a Garba function while the public cheered. The police has now in court claimed that this was done to maintain peace and communal harmony in the area and some of the policemen involved have said that they were only doing their duty. This is shameful where police go beyond the law and then defend their actions. Not only that the higher police officials have also supported this action. This kind of atrocity is nothing short like they have in Shariat law which is condemned around the world and which we ourselves call barbaric. We should not descend to this kind of action and remember human rights and protect it in our society.

India's Defence Strategy 

Rajnath Singh, our Defence Minister, has been talking of scaling up defence production. This has been echoed by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has gone a little beyond and set an ambitious target for the exports of defence equipment.  The emphasis on defence production for our national needs and strategic self-sufficiency is acceptable but we should not export any arms and armaments. As it is we are one among the Top 5 buyers of armaments in the world which is not a good thing and we should not compound this further by exporting arms to encourage and sustain wars abroad. We are the land of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, and we should protect and nurture his philosophy of Vasudeiva Kutumbakam and propagate it around the world. As for the threats that we face from our neighbours it is only China and Pakistan in that order. The other countries - Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan - have all their own problems to contend with except for Bhutan, a peaceful country with which India has had excellent relations. Between China and Pakistan the latter is a spent-force beset with economic travails and an unstable political scenario. One wonders if Pakistan will dare a conventional war since it may not be able to sustain it for more than a few days. The only option it has are its nuclear weapons which given its ramifications of use, it may not invoke. Thus the principal threat in the short-term is China where we have been seeing incidents across our north and north-eastern borders. With China if there is a war India cannot win and therefore we have to prop up our defensive positions. It is only to that extent that we need to reinforce our arms infrastructure and additionally to keep a vigil on our extensive maritime boundary and the outlying islands of our territory like the Andamans and Lakshadweep. 

                                                     ********************

If you have any issues with this blog, you can revert to :

S Kamat

Mob: 07218698906

Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com

VOX POPULI Issue N020

 

VOX POPULI  

by 

AAM ADMI 

Issue No. : N 020
Issue Date: 20th Feb 2023

Contents:

1. EAM Jaishankar should note that in thought, word and deed India under the BJP is aping the West

2. The BBC Raids Are An Exercise To Show How To Throw Mud On Your Own Face To Make The Lotus Bloom More Luxuriantly! 

3. BJP Needs Tipu To Be Woken Up For Karnataka Elections

EAM Jaishankar should note that in thought, word and deed India under the BJP is aping the West

EAM Jaishankar has said lately that Westernisation is not an index of modernisation and progress  any more in India. This is clearly a contradictory statement considering the ground situation across the country. We seem to be following the Western development model of building highways, expressways, launching Vande Bharat trains and getting ready to welcome Bullet trains which a High Court judge recently has said that it is a pride for the nation while dismissing a petition against the land acquisition for the project. These projects have disrupted the normal lives of common people creating nuisance by way of congestion and in some cases splitting villages. In urban and semi-urban areas it is difficult for pedestrians specially senior citizens to cross a road thus making them lead a truncated life or taking the choice of the longer way around spending more energy, time and money. Rarely are working pedestrian lights seen at our crossings in our towns and cities. We have these new Vande Bharat trains being launched with metronomic regularity across the length and breadth of India to catch one would assume the Assembly election schedules in some of the States. But these trains come with tickets that are higher priced which our common travellingpublic can ill afford. Therefore in some sectors these trains are running almost empty. What would have been better is that the existing train network both for rolling stock and services should have been improved to be timely, more comfortable, clean and with proper hygienic food. This would have benefited the larger travelling population rather than cater to the aspirational segment which thinks it wants air travel comfort on trains. We also have Malls selling all kinds of things as in Western countries. These sell everything under one roof with most of these sales being on lowest price strategies for goods which are close to expiry dates or beyond. Such Malls have rung the death-knell for small neighbourhood grocery stores which have gone out of business or are fast going to shut shop. Thus the social fabric of the Indian way of life has been distorted beyond imagination by these projects that ape the West. We are told that this is progress and development. If that is so then it is best that we avoid it. We need to do things the Indian way and not blindly follow the West calling it modernisation and progress. EAM Jaishankar is either blind or saying things just for the sake of saying them to salve his nationalistic conscience that is very much in demand these days. We should not project the wrong thing which is becoming a habit with the BJP. They seem to be following the Goebbel's doctrine in most things ranging from history and other matters where he had postulated that a lie repeated a thousand times will become truth. The BJP in any case is increasing its emphasis on Hindu religion on the lines that fascist Germany did with the Nazi philosophy. Just like Nazi Germany tyrannised the Jews the BJP is laying the groundwork for its attacks on Muslims. Thus EAM Jaishankar should note that in thought, word and deed India under the BJP is aping the West.

The BBC Raids Are An Exercise To Show How To Throw Mud On Your Own Face To Make The Lotus Bloom More Luxuriantly! 

The BBC issue relating to the IT raids on its offices in India is a clear sign of retaliation by Modi's government for broadcasting the 2-part documentary covering the Gujarat riots in 2002. It was the culmination of bad handling of the matter. If the defence of Modi was that the courts including the Supreme Court has given him a clean chit on this matter then why succumb to the 'colonial mindset'? It was Modi who showed that he had the colonial mindset by trying to take protective action when the white man raises a finger at you. One must admit that the BBC raised more than a finger at Modi. If you had the armour that the Indian courts had given you then should you not have brushed off the allegations as a figment of the BBC's imagination and moved on? But this could not be done because everyone including Modi knew that there was more than a grain of truth in the documentary. Then true to a person with no formal education but with vast power that the elections had bestowed upon him the Modi machinery went into action. They banned the documentary resulting in a furore across the country ranging from Opposition parties, activists and even students. Some of these people got hold of the documentary and tried to show it but then the police got involved the clashes happened, Sec 144 was imposed near some Delhi college and a minority university. So many people got involved with inflamed passions which was a sheer waste of time for everybody on essentially a non-issue or a dead issue. Indirectly the extra importance given to the issue revived it. This should have been avoided. If the matter had been ignored calling it a 20 year old matter and we are past that then it would been a sign of sagacity and wisdom. But when the leader is insecure you have total mishandling of any matter. Coming back to the IT raids the department cannot give a clean chit to the BBC, they are compelled 'to find something or anything'. This is the dilemma that the IT department finds itself in. The interim press release from them on the raids does not go into any specifics of any offences that have been found. Obtusely one can think that possibly this was done to show the BJP muscle that we can take on even a world renowned broadcaster like BBC before the State Assembly election drums start rolling. But how stupid can you get! 

BJP Needs Tipu To Be Woken Up For Karnataka Elections

Amit Shah started the Tipu rant that those that follow him like the Congress and the JD(S) cannot do any good for the State. This is now echoed by the Karnataka BJP President Kateel at an election meeting saying that Tipu followers will be banished to the forests. In one sense you can say that the latter's statements are very contextual since Kateel was speaking at a place where Hanuman was believed to have been born and a monkey even he is revered as God belongs to the forest and that is all that he knows. It is also good that he welcomes people of other beliefs and faiths to his abode which none of the present brood of BJP leaders would dare do. In any case, coming back to Tipu, firstly one cannot understand why the poor fellow who has died almost two centuries ago in tragic circumstances while fighting the British, needs to be woken up in his grave just to give the pleasure to the BJP rabble now to make him an election issue. Secondly, why elections are to be made communal jousting grounds is incomprehensible but one guesses that with the BJP around, there is not much choice on that. Thirdly, Tipu Sultan and his father, Hyder Ali are integral parts of Indian history and no one can deny their position therein. They secured this place because of their exploits on the battlefield including against the British and their beneficial rule over their kingdoms. Tipu and Hyder Ali protected and nurtured the Mysore kingdom and its very existence would have been in danger but for them. This they did initially on behalf of the Hindu Wodeyar dynasty for whom they fought. Thus those who by speeches and words alone today want to get a place in history and with no substantive action or deeds to their credit have no right to speak against Tipu. The first resistance to British rule in the then India was by Tipu who was being seen as a threat to the expansion of the British into South India. After inflicting heavy defeats on the British, it was because of treachery from within his ranks that he lost and was captured by the British, valiantly fighting until his last breath. The British dreaded him which with the present BJP you cannot say since they were the opposite with their then leaders during the last stages of British rule whom the present lot revere, supplicating themselves and giving mercy petitions. In fact the BJP did nothing to get the British out of India which they will now claim that they were not in existence then. But even then they talk today with misplaced sentiments of national pride and invoke nationalism at every step which is completely hypocritical and false as also insult and slander people and organisations which fought for India's freedom. You will notice that all these communal agendas come out mostly at the time of elections while at other times these issues are not at the top of their agenda. Thus the people should discount the BJP rantings with a large pinch of salt and concentrate on issues that are local and/or critical to them while casting their vote. 

Postscript: See the malicious and self-seeking interest of the BJP in this issue. For whippping up communal frenzy and with the purpose of winning the elections they will use Tipu, a Muslim, but at other times they will look the other way as far as this community is concerned.

                                                     ********************

If you have any issues with this blog, you can revert to :

S Kamat

Mob: 07218698906

Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com

VOX POPULI Issue No. : N 019

 

VOX POPULI  
by 
AAM ADMI 

Issue No. : N 019
Issue Date: 13th Feb 2023

Contents:

1. Chinese Balloons Floating Irresponsibly Over The Rest Of The World

2. Talking of Colonial Mindsets

3. The Aussie Mind Games 

       Chinese Balloons Floating Irresponsibly Over The Rest Of The World

The Chinese balloon floating free over sovereign nations underlines risks that are unknown. The first obvious risk is it is spying and attempting to map the nations over which it would have passed, in this case the US. With relations between the two countries none too good it was obvious that the US would not sit quietly and watch the balloon float by. That a Chinese balloon was overhead would lead to fears as to what it would contain. After the Covid pandemic there is less of trust with China who refused to take responsibility that the virus emerged from its wet markets in Wuhan and later caused havoc around the world. Thus with a Chinese balloon in the sky there would be fears that it could be spraying unknown things which could lead to disease and pestilence. The US therefore has every right to shoot it down. Even then the US was hesitant as to what could happen in the process of shooting it down whether it would let off another explosive, conventional or atomic, resulting in greater disaster and more pollution. If China were responsible they could have informed the countries in the likely path of the balloon about the object so that people would be aware and there would not be unnecessary scare. This China does not do and then takes objections after the US had shot down the balloon. This is not taking proper responsibility. The US are well within their rights to refuse China to give back the balloon debris since they took the trouble of shooting it down and the object was in US skies. There is another Chinese balloon that the US claim that they shot over Alaska with another one reported earlier as  floating in the skies over Latin America and we have to see what happens to that. As for India, we have to be told by the US that similar Chinese balloons were floating across India and only then will we look up at the skies! It is like those times when the Pakistani terrorists launched a drone attack on an army camp on Jammu and we did not shoot it down because these items were not part of the SOP!

                                           Talking of Colonial Mindsets

There was talk of a colonial mindset still persisting in the UK when the BBC documentary on Narendra Modi's involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots  was aired, in trying to arrive at a rebuttal of the content shown. However, now we ourselves are showing the same colonial mindset in the context of the Hindenberg report that has come out on the Adani Group Cos. As a consequence of the report the Adani stock started going downhill at an alarming rate wiping out half the Group valuation in a matter of days. Now this was a report done by the 'whites' and why should we have bothered if the Adanis were doing things the right way and there was no wrongdoing. That the stocks fell show that we as Indians still take cognizance of what the foreigners say which goes to prove that we also carry the 'colonial mindset'. Otherwise why should we have bothered about the report. We would have brushed it off and carried on as if nothing had happened. Thus we have to remember that when we point fingers at others, there are four other fingers that still point back at us.

                                              The Aussie Mind Games 

On the cricket field, India needs to be wary of the mind games that the Australiam team and its management are playing. Appearing as if they are scared of India's spin attack led by Ravichandran Ashwin is only to lull India into thinking that they have the Australian team on the backfoot even before a single ball has been bowled. This is not true since the likes of Steve Smith, David Warner, Labuschagne, Khwaja and the free hitting Travis Head are all strong in the mind and are capable of taking the Indian bowlers including the spinners to the cleaners. However, they are not resting alone on mind games but making sure that their batting practice covers what they are likely to see in the Tests by getting a bowler who has a similar action like Ashwin to bowl at them in the nets. Thus the Indian cricket team should not take it easy in their preparations for the upcoming series otherwise they will see themselves lose badly.

                                                     ********************

If you have any issues with this blog, you can revert to :

S Kamat

Mob: 07218698906

Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com

VOX POPULI Issue No. : N 018

VOX POPULI  

by 

AAM ADMI 

Issue No. : N 018
Issue Date: 6th Feb 2023

Contents:

1. The Adani Mess-up with Postscript: The Finance Minister & The Finance

     Secretary Needs To Pull Up Their Socks

2. Changing Perspectives & Manufacturing Benefits

3. Re Problems With Indian Medications Abroad: Are We Safe In India?

The Adani Mess-up with Postscript: The Finance Minister & The Finance

 Secretary Needs To Pull Up Their Socks

The Adani stocks continue to take a beating as a consequence of the Hindenberg report on its operations. It is reported that the losses in the falling stock are near US$ 120 billion wiping out half the value of the Adani Group Cos. The surprising part of this story is that despite this massive impact our Secretary, Min of Finance has described this whitewash as a 'storm in a tea cup' and that it will subside in a few days. On what basis he is saying this is not understandable and which crystal ball he is looking into to make his prediction. Maybe he is saying this because in a short time Adani will have nothing more to lose! However, the lack of concern from the Finance Secy is stunning since government entities like LIC & SBI are exposed to the extent of Rs. 56,000 crores in the Adani Group Cos. The government and IRDAI have put out statements that the exposure of LIC & SBI are within the norms and are only to the extent of some 0.2%  of their total loan portfolios. The issue is not that but the risk of the government losing this money which is a substantial amount of public funds. We have seen how from Mallya to Choksi to Nirav Modi the government has failed to recover their investments since the pledged assets never compensate fully to the extent of loans taken and the process of recovery is cumbersome and time consuming. The RBI has again called for the banks to inform it of their exposure to the Adani Group Cos. This is a good step. Thus it is best that all banks and government investment entities have a mechanism of regularly monitoring their exposure to loanees with checks and balances on their operations and the quality of assets along with red light markers that will trigger a more exhaustive review. We have seen too many of financial failures lately and this is no time to sit idly by and watch things change for the worse like a spectator. 

Postscript:

The Finance Minister & The Finance Secretary Needs To Pull Up Their Socks

With the exposure of the State Financial Institutions like State Bank of India and LIC in the Adani Group of Cos. in the region of Rs. 57,000 crores, this is not the time for the above august personages to be blithe about the entire matter. The Finance Minister can say that India is too big to fail from the Adani collapse and that the two prime financial Institutions of the country are not overexposed in their loan portfolio to the Adanis, but the Rs. 57,000 crores is nothing to be ignored. At the same time the Finance Secretary can abstain from making vacuous and immature statements that the Adani meltdown is a storm in the tea cup. For the public it is important that the Adani exposure is secured and therefore the Finance Minister and the Finance Secretary should make concerted efforts to recover the money since it is the public that elected Nirmala Sitharaman to Parliament so that she could become the Finance Minister and the Finance Secretary's salary is being paid by the public which he needs to justify and do his job rather than indulge in innocuous statements.

Changing Perspectives & Manufacturing Benefits

The semantics involved in the presentation of the Annual Economic Survey and the Union Budget are rather amusing. There was a time when GDP growth expectations would be in double digit levels and one would be talking of 10-12% growth in a matter of fact manner. Thereafter we slipped and growth of 8-9% became the norm which qualified as normal. However, this year we see that 6-6.8% predicted for 2023-24 is described as robust growth. While just earlier during the Covid times we were fighting to maintain a growth rate of 7% and taking umbrage when the IMF, World Bank and other multilateral agencies were projecting an India growth below 7% against. But we are now taking the 6-6.8% growth as 'robust'! But in one sense it is good that our government is recognising the worldwide recessionary trends currently prevailing and settling for a reasonable growth rate. 

It was also said that the Budget presented for 2023-24 has nothing for the poor and the SME sector. As this information we have the redoubtable FM wading into the action and a headline in the papers saying that she will have a session with the BJP MP's to educate them on how the Budget benefits the poor and the SME sector. Another 'jumla' on the way! 

The other thing was that Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget in Parliament when she came to the phasing out of old, polluting vehicles stumbled with a slip of the tongue and said that she will 'replace old political ......' for '.....old polluting...'. Sometimes the truth has a tendency of slipping out!

Re Problems With Indian Medications Abroad: Are We Safe In India?

We have been lately having problems with our medications being found to be below par and not up to medical standards around the world. In Uganda & Kazakhstan there were reports of deaths amongst children after taking cough syrup made in India. The medication was being made by pharma Cos. near Delhi. The operations of these Cos. were then sealed pending investigation. There are now problems being reported from the US about eye drops from a Chennai Co. that have bacterial contamination as a result of which a number of people have lost vision and there has been one death. The contamination seems to be across different batch nos. of the medicine and after testing by the CDC on bottles that had been opened by users. Apart from the loss of face that India encounters, there is a greater concern as to whether whether the same medicines were being sold in India and whether Indian lives were put at risk particularly of children as in the case of the cough syrup incident. There is a saving grace that the eye drops are not sold in India. As much as the pharma Cos. involved and the government take these matters seriously when foreign countries report these issues, one is not sure if Indian instances are taken with the same import since the attitude taken is that the complaints are spurious and in any case Indian lives are cheap. This is being said since in the media one has not heard of anything about any cases from the cough syrup that happened quite some time back abroad. The Drugs Controlller needs to be seized of these matters and conduct enquiries against these pharma Cos.to make sure that Indian patients are safe.

                                                     ********************

If you have any issues with this blog, you can revert to :

S Kamat

Mob: 07218698906

Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com