VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:125

Date: 11.08.2012

Contents:

1. The Recent Electrical Grid Failure & The Way Forward

2. Casino Revenue To Support Humanitarian Causes!

3. A Little Balance, Please!

4. The Problem Is Not With The Intent, But With The Implementation

5. Managing Poverty Numbers To Make The NAC & Sonia Gandhi Look Good

The Recent Electrical Grid Failure & The Way Forward‏

The recent electrical grid failures covering the North, East and North-East impacting some 600 million people for a minimum of 12 hours has generated a lot of debate on the revenue model of the electricity generating utilities and the need for increasing tariff levels. The failures have been attributed apart from excess drawal by States like Uttar Pradesh on that fateful day on the fact that essential equipment for containing the spread of the grid failures was not in place and that maintenance of existing equipment had been curtailed because of budgetory issues. It has been widely touted that the solution is to raise tariff levels in a cascading manner so that the end customer is finally overburdened. It is not that the existing electricity utilities are not increasing tariffs which they are as one would notice over the last few months in Delhi and many places across India supported by the Electricity Tariff Commissions in the respective States. But in all this surprisingly no one is talking of efficient management and optimal deployment of resources. Increasing tariffs is not the be-all and end-all solution to the electricity outages that are faced across India more so in our rural areas. There is also no talk of trying to curb our transmission and distribution losses which are close to 40 - 50% of our total generation and power stolen through illegal connections with the connivance and patronage of our politicians. If we are able to manage these matters then the power situation in India will see a dramatic change what with the addition of some 55,000MW of power in the last few years. Better management is suggested since there was a report that due to faulty equipment supplied from China some 40,000MW has remained idle for extended periods of time. Why we should source sub-standard industrial equipment from China on count of low prices alone is something that is not understood and given our inimical relationship with them and purely on strategic grounds we should not source any critical equipment from a not so friendly neighbour. After the massive grid failure we have had all kinds of experts telling us what we should have done and what we should do among them some foreign. It is all right to listen to everyone but we should at the end find our own solutions to our own problems that comes out of our own thinking since that is what will stand to our own good in the long run. The fact of the matter is that the grid failures happened mostly because with the threat of a deficient monsoon in the North and North-West India all the farmers in the region connected their pumpsets to the nearest power line resulting in the serial tripping of the grid. It is a shame, is it not that 65 years of Independence our agriculture is still dependent on a favourable monsoon. So much for being a technological literate nation.

Casino Revenue To Support Humanitarian Causes!

The logic for justifying the casinos in Goa is getting curiouser and curiouser. The last in this series of laughable ploys is that the revenue to the government from the casinos will be used for humanitarian causes like funding the Provedaria, setting up centres for the treatment of the old and those suffering from Alzheimer's disease etc. One has heard of raffles and lotteries used for generating revenue for such causes but licencing casinos must be the first in the world and for that we have to give the credit to Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister of Goa! One does not understand why someone has to think that he can fool the people all the time and not most of the time. By any yardstick and mostly on counts of practical common sense, his above logic falls flat. Take for example that you have a woman involved in prostitution in your locality who also happens to run an orphanage. Would the society and the locality allow her to continue her business because she is using her earnings for a good cause! Since if she is allowed to continue she would have polluted every adult male in the locality. The casino issue is one of morality and whether a society should live of its licentious earnings. All the measures announced in the Assembly session on managing casinos, however brilliant and innovative they may be, are quite unnecessary since the basic premise of having gambling and casinos in our society is wrong. Therefore there is no question of managing it but only of shutting them down. The effort that the CM and the government puts in managing the casinos can be better used elsewhere once they are closed. Much has been made of jobs being generated for Goans from the casinos which in any case is a small proportion from the total employment by this business and at some 2500 persons is less than the number of lives it destroys by addiction to gambling. Unfortunately the number of families turned destitute by the casino business is not being highlighted in any of the statistics generated by the government or other agencies. The other aspect that has come to the fore after the recent Kanda case who is the owner of the Casino Rio is that the ship is moored in the Mandovi without any clearances from the DG, Shipping for being sea-worthy. Thus are the rivers of Goa to be used by outsiders to park their junk casino ships on one pretext or other and block navigation and create congestion for our fishing trawlers and cruise ships that support livelihood and healthy tourism respectively. At this rate the beautiful Mandovi will end up as a graveyard for dead ships. Therefore let us stop beating about the bush on the casino issue and close them down once and for all in Goa.

A Little Balance, Please!

In the shooting incident at the gurdwara in the US recently the number of dead were 6 while the number of dead in the riots in Kokrajhar, Assam have reached 73 but if you look at the media coverage for the incidents, it is disproportionately in favour of the US incident. This includes the reactions from our government and our Prime Minister who happens to be a Sikh while he also represents the State of Assam in the Rajya Sabha. Is it that it is more grievous when someone dies in a foreign country from incidents of terror or communal strife rather than in our own country. We have seen this unbalanced reaction from Western countries where when a few tens of people die in a terror attack a big issue is made out of it, candle light vigils are held thereafter and commemoration of the attack in memory of the victims are organised while hundreds of people are dying almost every day in one or the other country in the Third World from bomb attacks etc. and it is very rare that one sees any concrete step taken to sympathise with the victims except the standard statements which are issued. We also seem to be following the same tack. A life lost in the US or in India should be the same. Like we discriminate against each other in life in India, have we come to a pass where we tend to discriminate in death also. Someone said that on the gurdwara shoot-out the amount Manmohan Singh spoke is much more than he has ever spoken in the two terms that he has held as PM except for maybe when he is holding his press conferences on board aircraft while going or coming back from a visit abroad.

The Problem Is Not With The Intent, But With The Implementation

The CCTV's installed on Junglee Maharaj Road in Pune where we had the latest bomb blasts were not working as reported in the media. In the same manner the CCTV on the Worli Sealink, a very prominent and prestigious structure and therefore a target for terrorists, was also not working to record the suicide of the businessman Sheth involved in the travel business. In the same way for all the lipservice paid in sympathy to the victims of the 26/11 terror incident in Mumbai and the mobilisation to improve preparedness against terror attacks, it was found that after the last attack in Mumbai a couple of months ago that nothing had been done on CCTV and also on buying bullet proof vests for our police personnel which was a hot topic when senior police officer Karkare was shot dead pointblank by the terrorists. Thus the issue is not of intent but implementation. The politicians and the authorities will all make the right noises just after the incidents of terror as in the German Bakery case in Pune and the recent one but a few months down the road, operating on the premise that public memory is short, nothing will be done until the next incident. Thus all this talk that CCTV's costing some Rs. 30 crores will be installed in Pune by the Maharasthra Dy CM Ajit Pawar and the Home Minister, R R Patil are to be taken with a large 'dose' of salt since even if the cameras are installed, the politicians and authorities would have extracted their pound of flesh from the purchases which will be part of the reason why the systems will never be working since the contracts would be placed not based on professional considerations but on the convenience and the ability to pay? The problem is that in India life is cheap and the establishment care two hoots for the aam admi since they know that irrespective of what happens they can fob off the public by donating a few lakhs for those killed and shirk their primary responsibility. It is time we changed this attitude and got things work better so that our society is safe and secure from dangers thrust upon it.

Managing Poverty Numbers To Make The NAC & Sonia Gandhi Look Good

The NSS survey on poverty released recently which says that the poorest in India in the villages live at about Rs.17 a day and in the cities at about Rs23.50 a day is a deliberate ploy to further lower the Planing Commission estimates of around Rs. 22 and Rs.29 respectively. This is being done to set poverty levels for those who would be eligible for government benefits under its various schemes. The lower you set the threshold levels for defining poverty the lesser will be the number of those who are poor. This is how the poverty numbers are managed to fit the NAC guidelines on the Food Security Bill so that it becomes affordable which otherwise has been criticized on two counts, first that in the long-term and during monsoon failures there would not be enough food to meet the requirements and secondly, that the government would have to fund the difference given the high MSP’s and the subsidized lower prices that the food would have to be given to the poor. In these times of criticism of subsidies and growth problems resulting in lower revenue these resources would be difficult to find if 55% of the rural poor and 50% of the urban poor are to be included under the Food Security Bill. Therefore manage the numbers of the poor so that both these problems of availability and funding are tackled by artificially defining them in the NSS survey as above. Thus the objective is not to feed the poor and alleviate their suffering but to prove that the thinking of the NAC is right led by the redoubtable Sonia Gandhi whose image will be automatically enhanced. These are the unfortunate circumstances that this country has fallen into.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:124

Date: 04.08.2012

Contents:

1. Fighting Terror From Behind Closed Doors

2. The Demise of The Anna Movement

3. The Abhishek Verma Air Force Plans Leak

4. The NCP Hullabaloo

5. Complete Breakdown of Indian Society

6. Misguided Western Initiatives To De-Stabilise The Terror In Islamic Countries

7. BJP Should Think That They Are Competent & Come To The Starting Line

Fighting Terror From Behind Closed Doors

The 4 low-intensity bomb blasts on 1st Aug 2012 in Pune on the busy Junglee Maharaj Road on the eve of Rakhi Poornima carries a message to the UPA government that the terror operatives are very much alive and kickin’. More so on the day where Sushil Kumar Shinde was assuming his new charge as Home Minister of the country and P Chidambaran was moving out. The stuff that Shinde was made of also became crystal clear when he cancelled his scheduled trip that evening to Pune after hearing about the blasts. Why Shinde could not visit as scheduled and show some spine is something that will never be known? By Shinde’s visit immediately after the blast he could have conveyed that his government is not afraid of the terrorists but instead of that with the first news of the blasts, Shinde went scuttling for cover. Our leaders are no more made with the backbone as in the past and prefer to follow their security details advice instead of overruling and deciding to go to the affected site in any case. This was the stuff that our leaders like Nehru, Shastri, Rajiv Gandhi and inspite of being a woman, Indira Gandhi, were made of. But no more since our leaders, ministers and politicians prefer to hide behind their security details and give media interviews sitting in cloistered offices.

The Demise of The Anna Movement

The Anna movement is slowly and surely losing steam with none of the earlier aura and charisma that characterized it in the beginning. They need to only blame themselves for what has happened since the single-mindedness of tackling corruption was what had drawn the common public to the movement which has been frittered away by the members of the team through fractious in-fighting, one-upmanship, immature negotiating positions and the dispersal of the aims of the movement to other issues apart from corruption. It has become apparent to the common man that Anna is being ‘managed’ by other members of the team and maybe to show his independent mind he has allied himself with Baba Ramdev while the rest of the Anna team seem to not accept Ramdev into their fold. This is somewhat correct since the allegations of ill-gotten wealth continue to stain Baba Ramdev and Anna’s welcoming him on the IAC platform has become yet another reason to fuel the divisions among the Anna team. Thus in this background Kejriwal’s plaintive plea on national TV during the current fast in which he is participating that the government by not conceding to their demands is wanting to kill him seems to be rather farcical since it is he alone who in his adamancy is bringing himself close to death. There is time still to recast the Anna story and get them into a negotiating force with the incumbent government but that is not going to come by measures like fasting etc. since it is only ending the Anna team to make themselves a laughing stock in front of the nation. Better sense seems to have prevailed on Anna and his team and the latest is that they have called off the fast.

The Abhishek Verma Air Force Plans Leak

In the Abhishek Verma case where the IAF long-term plans for acquisition of air force hardware and strategies is purportedly to have been exposed, why the government does not take immediate action to curtail the pensions of those who were responsible for these papers up to and including the Chief of the Air Force at that time along with terminating the services of those lower in the chain of access to these papers who may still be in service, is something that is not understood. Taking such exemplary action will put the fear of strong disciplinary action through the armed forces and also through government ensuring that the number of such cases are reduced if not eliminated. Thus there is no point in pussyfootin’ on this but put a stop to this once and for all.

The NCP Hullabaloo

The NCP deal to cover up corruption of Chagan Bhujbal and Sunil Tatkare, Water Resources Minister, the latter accountable for a Rs. 23,000 crore irrigation scam once made was the signal to end the stand-off with the Congress and thus the co-ordination committee for the UPA story was the face-saving ploy put out for the consumption of the public. This is the same kind of story like – You Scratch My Back & I Will Scratch Your Back – and we will keep secret what itch of corruption that we have from the rest of the world is exactly what was once again played out to the detriment and the disadvantage of the Indian people. In all this drama one has to say that the ability of Sharad Pawar to make money is phenomenal and he puts to shame even Lallu Yadav who is famously believed to have made money from cattle fodder and got caught while the former each and every time like The Scarlet Pimpernel eludes everyone. There is a public image of his as a do-gooder and helper of one and all but at the same time when farmers in his State of Maharasthra string themselves up on trees or drink pesticide, he is nowhere to be seen but emerges when farmers loans are to be waived off like in the last Rs. 60,000 crore Big Deal to write off farmers loans, he promptly comes on the scene seeking the same relaxation for the large farmers in the sugar heartland. This is the NCP story and there was nothing in the smoke and fire ostensibly raised by them within the UPA for No. 2 status in the Cabinet and all that which were diversionary tactics to protect their corruption.

Complete Breakdown of Indian Society

The electricity grid failures in Northern & Eastern India over the last 2 days is representative of the malaise that is affecting the country over the last few years now. No one has a clue to what is happening. No one has the will or the ability to control and regulate anything. We have seen the same thing happening for our economy where no one even attempts to control the drift and every agency involved pulls in different directions intent on protecting their own turf. In every single disaster, natural or manmade, there has been no clue on how to tackle the massive calamities and every single agency involved in these matters either to prevent or provide relief, end up making a mess. We have a communal strife out of control in Assam where the Chief Minister thinks fit to blame the Centre for not sending the Army quick enough when we all know that llaw and order is a State subject. We have women being attacked, disrobed and assaulted in every part of the country and in public by common people as well as the police, who are supposedly the custodians of the law, and we talk of the habits of the women and their dress code which are the peripheral issues, without going deeper into the problem which is essentially an economic issue and an outburst of pent-up anger by the have-nots against the haves. Traveling by rail is no longer safe since apart from accidents, things like uncontrolled fires take place and without looking at the safety and security aspects of the rolling stock and signaling the Railway Ministers hold fort on theories of sabotage just to deflect attention and seek more time to find reasons to completely absolve themselves. Such things are very apparent when we see the Power Minister Shinde promoted to Home Minister in the wake of the grid failures which affected 600 million people for a minimum of 12 hours in Northern & Eastern India and P Chidambaram restored to the Finance Ministry inspite of his involvement in the 2G scam for which he was yet to get a clean chit and Pranab Mukherji bumped upstairs into Rasthrapati Bhawan inspite of his inept tenure as Finance Minister. The intentions of this government in making these changes is clearly to be devious rather than have its functionaries face the music. In the wake of all this the question should be – Where is India headed? And the answer to that should be tackled forthwith rather than let matters take their own course resulting in more apathy, misery, loss of life and damage to public and private property. Is anyone in the government listening? Postscript: Power Minister Shinde after his elevation to Home Minister while being put on the mat by Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN on the electricity grid failures said that even in the US they take 4 days to restore power in such situations while in India we took only some 12-14 hours, which fact needs to be verified. The first thing here is that the US is no standard to judge the efficiency by which we need to restore essential needs like electricity since we should go by our needs, demands and priorities. Secondly, the US takes a couple of days to restore power during adverse weather conditions like rain, snow in their severe winters and during the hurricane season which makes it difficult to restore power in the event of downed transmission towers and lines while in fair weather India in the month of July Shinde entered the Guiness Book of World Records with the dubious distinction of being responsible for the largest blackout in the world impacting some 600 million people for close to 14 hours. Quite a record that!

Misguided Western Initiatives To De-Stabilise The Terror In Islamic Countries

The manner in which the crisis’s in the Gulf & the Middle East has been unfolding over the last 2 years or so with the latest on the brink to fall being Syria one is reminded of the spy movies that used to come just about the time when the Ian Fleming’s 007 James Bond movies, made enduring by Sean Connery, were making their debut. One movie which was quite popular was – Panic in Bangkok, where in one of the ending scenes, the spy hero is chasing the villain through a ramshackle village in Thailand in a car chase and everything is getting toppled in their way. You have a bamboo hut being driven through, a large water tank being upturned, a vegetable market with stalls with produce scattered all over and then the chase suddenly ends with the villain’s car toppling into a lake and the spy hero nonchalantly lights up a Marlboro on the banks of the lake watching the car go down with the villain ‘supposedly’ inside. (The apostrophe is to provide for options for a sequel.) This seems to be the orchestrated policy of the West with regard to the Gulf & the Middle East that has been pursued under the leadership of the US, the EU countries and NATO. In terms of the analogies to the abovementioned scenario Iraq was the bamboo hut which was blown away in revenge against Saddam Hussein and the rest followed in sequence from Yemen to Egypt to Tunisia to ending with Libya which was the vegetable market where military intervention was necessitated, until Syria came into the cross-hairs over the last few months. Just like deliberate interference in a covert manner in the affairs of other countries was the policy followed by the West in the middle of the 20th century under the pretext of the Cold war and combating Communism so also it is now by orchestrated interference through their own efforts and that of multilateral institutions like the UN has been the hallmark of the West cloaked in the noble objective of guaranteeing freedom and bringing in democracy to the named countries as above and also to the rest of the world where in the opinion of the West democracy and freedom does not subsist. In these uncertain circumstances as is natural the unlawful, illegal and terrorist elements have taken root in these countries and have contributed to mayhem as is their innate attribute and also with the objective of taking revenge on the West by killing their soldiers deployed there. None of these countries in the process of transition can do anything right and every action of theirs is looked through a tinted lens of being undemocratic and tyrannical and castigated roundly in the international media and other forums. Little does the West realize that such initiatives as above are counter-productive to their strategy since it is ending up in contributing to the strength of the enemy and re-instating the confrontational position between the Islamic countries and the West. In fact the Islamic countries are being pushed into the hands of the militia or the fundamentalists as we have seen in Egypt, Libya and other of the named countries where ‘democratic’ elections have taken place. This would not have happened if the change taking place in these named countries was home-brewed and allowed to run at its own speed and on its own course without the provocation and instigation from the West. Will the West even now learn and desist from interfering in other countries around the world and dampen their do-good altruistic noble motives?

BJP Should Think That They Are Competent & Come To The Starting Line

Ravi Shankar Prasad has suggested that Rahul Gandhi show his merit by taking on the mantle of the PM. What kind of a loony suggestion is that? BJP should show more maturity than throw this country off the edge of a cliff by such suggestions. Even someone from the BJP as PM would be better than Rahul-baba. This is exactly where the BJP fails to score since they would rather have someone else take up the baton and fail rather than pick it up themselves. Therefore the BJP should shed their skin of diffidence and walk up to the starting line and show their worth by aiming for a gold medal performance. Is anyone in the BJP listening?

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:123

Date: 28.07.2012

Contents:

1. The Indian Economy Slipping Into Recession On A Bed Of Lies

2. Keep Pakistan At Arm's Length

3. BJP Devoid Of Real-Politik

4. With NCP Tiff, The UPA Split Is Wide Open

5. Rahul Gandhi: The Reluctant Leader

The Indian Economy Slipping Into Recession On A Bed Of Lies

The Indian economy continues to show indifferent performance and is slowly but surely slipping into recession. Manufacturing for May showed a blip of an increase compared to a negative in the previous month but Capital Goods production continued to decline which is indicative that long term growth in manufacturing would be impacted. The latest decision of the government is not to release break-up figures for the sectors that constitute the IIP. Thus what was a surmise is now fact that the government is fiddling with the figures, otherwise in these days of transparency where is the need to do the dance of the ‘seven veils’ with the figures unless it is a habit with our bureaucrats to do the dance with six digits hyphenated at two digit intervals. Exports for June showed a marginal spurt which given the Commerce Ministry’s track record one is never sure whether it is fudging or a real increase and considering the growth being in the low single digits it is easy to decorate these figures to manage public opinion. This assumption is borne out by the reports coming in that the Labour Ministry’s survey for unemployment resulted with widely varying figures like 17% for Goa to 1% for Gujarat with other States also showing varying figures. The Ministry has now decided to withdraw these figures and look into the methodology of the survey which revision will be used in the next surveys. There is a background here, as it is understood that in 2010 the Ministry had claimed unemployment figures of some 13% when the NSSO (National sample Survey Organisation) figures on the same in 2008 was about 3.5%, and these variations were asked to be examined. These matters give credence to the fact that the government is ‘managing and massaging’ the figures and any figures that they put out hereafter should be taken with a pinch of salt. The approach of the government and its spokespersons seems to be to paint a rosy picture until they are caught out in their act and then blame it on processes and procedures. This also applies to claims that for FDI, ndia is a desired destination while actual figures show that we do not even receive even half the FDI that China gets and even lower than what Brazil and South Africa get among the BRIC countries. It is like the old saying that – An Empty Tin Makes The Most Noise, and the government of India with not having much to report lately with its non-achievement arising out of ‘policy paralysis’ is trying to rattle the empty tin as much as it can and then when the noise gets muted tends to look inside the tin with surprise to find out as to what went wrong. The problem is that the ministers and people in the government like bureaucrats get into the habit of believing these ‘managed’ figures on the saying that the more you tell a lie there is every chance that people will believe it is the truth. Thus the actual truth never surfaces and in that manner our economy has got lost under the piles of lies being put out from the PM, the PMO, the Planning Commission, the Finance Minister, the Agricultural Minister, the Food & Civil Supplies Minister etc. (Have we left out anybody?) And it has ended up as managing lies like if there is a drought or excess monsoon the prices will go up since there will be a shortage of items and commodities while in the latter case prices will still go up because the roads would have got washed away by the rains and stuff cannot get into the market. They even have an excuse for normal rains and say wait for 3/6/9 months depending on who is speaking and who has someone in the family in the family way. We wish them a happy delivery but each time such assurances are made the economy has been born still-born every time meaning nothing has changed.

Keep Pakistan At Arm's Length

It has been reported that President Zardari has still not been forthcoming on his promised $1 Million donation to the Chisthi shine in Ajmer during his last visit to India. This sums up the Pakistan psyche where they say one thing more often than not to keep face and an assumed sense of importance and bravado while in action do the completely opposite. When they are less than diligent on their promises to religious shrines how can we believe them when it comes to promises they make in bilateral affairs like in the last episode of Surjeet Singh’s release in place of Sarabjit and many more important matters like the 26/11 investigations etc. After Zardari's visit India released Dr Chisthi (the names are similar to that of the saint in Ajmer) which cannot be really grudged considering his age but India either did not ask for Sarabjit's release then as a quid pro quo or if it did then Zardari welshed on the deal but India did not stop at that and gave permission for Dr Chisthi to visit Pakistan which was completely unnecessary. Now we have gone and agreed to playing cricket with Pakistan in India which was avoidable. We need to realise that here it is not just cricket but that we need to keep Pakistan at arm's length until they learn to play ball on terror and Kashmir before we move on to sporting and cultural ties. The relationship with nations particularly with Pakistan in this context cannot be expected to normalise from the sporting field and sympathetic issues like that of Dr Chisthi to the diplomatic table. With Pakistan we should keep talking but follow the maxim - Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You.

BJP Devoid Of Real-Politik

Now that Pranab Mukherji has won the election to be the 13th President of India, the BJP must be regretting for having supported a ‘lame-duck’ candidate like P A Sangma. Instead of that from the beginning if they had played a pro-active role on the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections and started a dialogue with the Congress and the UPA then they could have struck a deal to make Pranab Mukherji the President and Jaswant Singh the Vice-President. This would not only have helped the BJP but also showed their desire to arrive at a consensus on important national issues. Thus the BJP instead of leading were in turn led by the nose by two small parties, the BJD and the AIDMK and their leaders Naveen Patnaik and Jayalalithaa in supporting P A Sangma. Clearly the strategy of the BJP could have been better since come next month Jaswant Singh is a sure loser to the UPA’s Hamid Ansari for the Vice-President’s post given the way things have shaped up.

With NCP Tiff, The UPA Split Is Wide Open

One must say that Mamata Banerji was quite perceptive last week when she had said that the President and Vice-President elections have splintered the UPA & NDA coalitions and put the Indian political scene in chaos. Almost on cue over the last few days Sharad Pawar and the NCP came out citing their unhappiness with the Congress for apparently the former's seniority issue within the present Central Cabinet but with more serious underlying differences and threatening to resign from the ministries held by them as also pull out of the UPA. The target in the cross-hairs of the NCP seems to be Prithviiraj Chavan, the Maharasthra CM who is accused of systematically targeting NCP in the State as also for his non-performance. Having just done a cut and paste job to the UPA with the threatened TMC withdrawal and extending a friendly hand to the SP & the BSP to shore up the President's election, the Congress will be hard put to resolve the NCP problem which is not so much a numbers issue but more of a loss of face in its inability to hold together a longterm ally with the ensuing general elections in mind.

Rahul Gandhi: The Reluctant Leader

The vacuum in leadership as also leaders in the Congress party is reflected in Rahul-baba's diffidence in accepting any position of responsibility in the party or in the government. The reluctance in holding responsible positions could be his personal character flaw following in the footsteps of his father, Rajiv or the comfort that he now basks in of being Mama's boy. In either event the Congress have a difficult task ahead of them in preparing for the 2014 elections with no leader or having reluctant leaders. In the absence of a strong binding force at the top the Congress will also go the same way as the other political parties like the BJP who are caught up more in internecine infighting and backbiting.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:122

Date: 21.07.2012

Contents:

1. In Goa, The Casinos Should Be Shut Down

2. Democracy Under Siege In India

3. BJP Should Get Its Act Together

4. Mamata Needs To Grow Up

5. Kalmadi On Bail

6. In Presidential Election, Candidates Should Respect the High Office While Contesting

7. The Shame On Assam

In Goa, The Casinos Should Be Shut Down

First it was the Congress – led government and now the BJP government in Goa that both pay lip-service to be anti-gambling and against casinos are covertly supporting it. Lately with regard to the statistics put out on the revenue generated and the employment provided by casinos in the State, it is an apparently clear case of the BJP government with Manohar Parrikar leading the charge being detrimental to the social well-being of the State and having a clearly distorted viewpoint on the mechanism for generating revenue for the government. In the first instance, we need to remember that the revenue arising out of casino operations is something which is not contributing to improving the moral fibre of the State and a BJP government stooping so low as to take credit for increase in revenues from casinos speaks for itself. The increase in the number of footfalls at the casinos in the April – June quarter of 2012, normalized for the reduced entry fee of Rs. 500 and assuming that each person visits the casino three times on a 3-day package tour, we arrive at a figure of 10,000 persons per quarter or 3300 persons approx. per month. These will include more outsiders than Goans and even if 10% of these become chronic gamblers, the casinos in Goa are destroying the lives of approx. 4000 Indian citizens per year. Out of this at least 5% should be Goans, which means that lives of 200 Goans are being destroyed by the casinos every year and about 800 Goans in their immediate families are being made destitute. Additionally Goa would be getting blamed for the lives destroyed of other Indians who visit the casinos. Is all this desirable? If not, is this not avoidable? In the second instance, the casino entry fee at a higher level was a threshold barrier to deter people from going into casinos to gamble, this being more so for Goans. By reducing the entry fee to a nominal Rs. 500/- you are opening the floodgates for people and particularly our youth in Goa to flock to casinos and gamble. Just like the DSSY scheme the money has been increased from Rs. 1000/- to Rs. 2000/- as an election promise, so also the BJP had promised that our youth would get an unemployment allowance of some Rs. 2000 – 2500 per month. When this takes place, would some of our youth not go and play with government money at the casinos since the entry fee is just Rs. 500/- By playing to the masses in reducing the price of petrol in the State, if Manohar Parrikar thinks that the people of Goa will condone his raising revenues from casinos and gambling to compensate for the revenue loss, then he is sadly mistaken. Thirdly, the employment statistics given in the newsitem and quoted from government figures seem to be wrong. These job numbers seem to be fudged to show that more Goans are being employed in the casinos while the reality is closer to that which is given in the figures given for Hotel Neo Majestic (Casino Pride) of total employees 351 out of which Goans are only 151. Thus with employment being provided for an upper maximum of 1600 persons, the casinos would destroy the lives of the same number of people that it would give jobs to though these two categories are different set of people but even then for the whole of Goa the figures nullify each other and thus there is no benefit of the casinos to Goa at all. Additionally, there is more nuisance because of their presence arising out of increase in crime, prostitution, drug usage, money laundering, palming off counterfeit money and its relationship to terror operations, congestion on the River Mandovi of the off-shore casinos to the fishing vessels, barge traffic and cruise ships along with the additional costs of administering these problems by the government which are being currently hidden away in the respective departmental budgets. Finally the casinos are an increasing nuisance to Goans and normal tourists. Like in the first category where the casinos are located in residential neighbourhoods the peace and calm of the locality is being destroyed by movement of noise, commotion and rashly driven traffic on a 24/7 basis, soliciting by prostitutes which restricts decent women from respectable households from coming out on the streets for fear of being accosted. Even if we take the figure of jobs provided by the casinos for Goans at 1600, then for 0.1% of the population should 99.9% of the Goan people suffer the nuisance generated by the casinos. Thus we need to think whether we need these casinos at all in Goa since their disadvantages far outweigh their benefits. Goa should aspire to provide clean tourism which seems to be a lost cause now with Manohar Parrikar and his government bent upon acting analogous to a priest operating a vice den or a liquor vend where they first encourage the individual to indulge in the vices on account of the necessity to earn money but without a care for the ultimate destruction of the person on account of his addiction to that vice. Is this why the people of Goa sent Manohar Parrikar and the BJP to power with a resounding majority in the last elections?

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THIS IS AN APPEAL TO ALL OF YOU TO COME OUT AGAINST CASINOS AND GAMBLING IN ALL ITS FORMS IN INDIA AND PARTICULARLY IN GOA. IN THE EVENT THAT YOU VISIT GOA PLEASE SHUN THE CASINOS AND DO NOT ENCOURAGE THEM TO CONTINUE IN BUSINESS WITH EVEN YOUR OCCASSIONAL PATRONAGE. THE FOLLOWING LETTER SENT TO THE BJP AND RSS TOP BRASS OUTLINES THE PROBLEMS THAT WE SEE IN THE CASINO INDUSTRY FLOURISHING IN GOA. SOME LIKEMINDED PEOPLE LIKE ME ARE CAMPAIGNING AGAINST THE CASINOS IN GOA AND WOULD VALUE YOUR SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT. IN YOUR OWN AREA OR CITY YOU COULD TAKE UP THIS ISSUE TO STOP GAMBLING OF WHICH THE ‘MATKA’ FORM OR THE NUMBERS GAME IS THE MOST PATRONISED IN INDIA BY WRITING TO THE AUTHORITIES OR THE STATE AND CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION TO CURB, CONTROL AND STOP THIS. ANY OF YOUR LETTERS THAT YOU ISSUE ON THIS CAN BE COPIED TO ME BY EMAIL OR BY REGULAR POST. IF YOU CAN ALSO WRITE SIMILARLY ON THE CASINO BUSINESS IT WOULD BE APPRECIATED. SEND ME COPIES OF THESE LETTERS ALSO SO THAT WE CAN ALL WORK TOWARDS COORDINATING A NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN TO RID THIS COUNTRY OF THIS VICE OF GAMBLING BEFORE IT BECOMES AN ORGANISED INDUSTRY LIKE WE ARE SEEING IN GOA. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE CASINO BUSINESS IN GOA IS JUST THE BEGINNING WITH SIKKIM ALREADY HAVING SOME CASINOS. THEN DAMAN & DIU FOLLOWING SUIT IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS AND THEN IT WILL BE THE REST OF THE COUNTRY SHOWING THE GOA REVENUE MODEL EXAMPLE SINCE EVERY SINGLE STATE IN THIS COUNTRY NEEDS AN EASY REVENUE MECHANISM AND CASINOS ARE IDEALLY SUITED FOR THIS.

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LETTER SENT TO THE BJP AND RSS TOP BRASS IN NEW DELHI: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 4th June 2012

To,

(See below for Addressee List)

Dear ....................... ,

This is to bring to your attention the mushrooming gambling and casino culture that is spreading in Goa, which happens to be the only State in India where this activity is thriving and rampant apart from Sikkim where there is a marginal presence of casinos. Now that there is a BJP government in power in Goa with an unassailable majority, it is time that a moral clean-up of the State is undertaken by banning such activity as gambling that is represented through the casinos. We have as a group under the umbrella of the Aam Aurat and Admi Against Gambling (AAAAG), Goa have submitted a memorandum in this regard to Shri Manohar Parrikar, the Chief Minister of Goa, a copy of which is attached to this letter. In addition to this, this letter seeks to request you to remind the BJP in Goa and Shri Manohar Parrikar of the basic conceptual ideology that gambling as a vice should not find place in our contemporary Indian society and any earnings from this activity are surely tainted and have no business to be considered as revenue for the government.

In this spirit, the following is enumerated to give you the background of the gambling/casino culture that is slowly rising as a menace to civil society in Goa:

1. Gambling as a vice and represented through the casinos in Goa is polluting civil society since in its wake it brings in the other vices like organized crime, money laundering, drugs, prostitution and linkages to the terror networks. This fact is nothing new and has been seen in other places of the world where gambling activity is actively promoted. Even in Goa over the last 5 years or so when the number of casinos were being increased there have been many cases of crime, money laundering, drugs and prostitution that have happened. It is time that this is stopped and the casinos are asked to close down.

2. Even though the casinos are ostensibly set up to cater to tourists, many are the local Goan families who have seen their near and dear ones destroyed through the passion of gambling. These are ordinary middle class families whose youth primarily are attracted towards the ‘hi-life’ as represented by the casinos and end up loosing everything on the gaming machines/tables of the casinos.

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3. There is no independent control or regulation on the gambling machines and/or tables in the casinos apart from that set up by the owners. Thus the gambling is biased towards increasing the profitability of the casino owners at the cost of those gambling. This therefore is a manner of extortion through the gaming process. Abroad there are independent gaming commissions which ensure a certain amount of fairness in the process of the games that are played and which monitor the casinos on a regular basis to ensure that these regulations are being followed. In Goa though there is a gaming commission, it is almost defunct and serves no useful purpose and those visiting the casinos are at the mercy of the machines/table operators which is essentially the casino owners.

4. There are two kinds of casinos – on-shore and off-shore. On-shore casinos are allowed to operate only gaming machines with no live gambling at the tables like card games and are supposed to be only in ‘5-star’ hotels. The off-shore casinos are located on board ships and are supposed to be technically 5 KM. from Goa’s sea shore. These off-shore casinos can have gaming machines as well as live gaming at tables. In both categories of casinos, the surprising part is the uniform flouting of laws by which on-shore casinos have been allowed to function within the premises of supposedly ‘5-star’ hotels, certified by the local State administration and not by the Tourism Dept. of the Govt. of India. In the same manner, the off-shore casinos are located mostly on the river Mandovi in the capital city of Panaji on ships that are not seaworthy and which clutter up the river causing traffic congestion to the movement of fishing trawlers, cruise ships and barges carrying iron ore for export. In the manner of splitting hairs, the off-shore casino owners have filed cases in the courts of law that off-shore can also mean being on the river! The matter is now sub-judice. Most of this had happened during the erstwhile Congress government’s rule in Goa for the last 8 years or so.

5. Upon the BJP government assuming power in Goa a couple of months back, the Chief Minister, Shri Manohar Parrikar announced a reduction in the entry fee of off-shore casinos from Rs. 2,000/- bringing it in line with the Rs. 500/- as applicable for on-shore casinos. At the same time, he enhanced the licence fees payable in advance of on-shore casinos from Rs. 15 lakh per year to Rs. 2.5 crores per year and that of off-shore casinos from Rs. 5 crores per year to Rs. 6.5 crores per year. Both these have since been notified. This he admits was a revenue mobilization measure and to simplify the administration of the collection of entry fees from the casinos in which there was a high amount of leakage. However, Manohar Parrikar failed to realize that in his zeal to earn revenue and to plug procedural leakages, he is firstly, resting his government’s earnings on a vice which is, as said earlier, conceptually immoral, and secondly, encouraging a social evil by making it easier for people to visit the casinos by reducing the entry fees to Rs. 500/- for both categories.

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6. Shri Manohar Parrikar at around the same time of revising the entry fee and licence fees of the casinos announced an unemployment allowance of some Rs. 2500/- p.m to Goan unemployed youth. When this is implemented it would not be surprising to see the youth in Goa playing with government money at the casinos with their entry fees now reduced. Thus Manohar Parrikar has increased the social nuisance of the casinos in Goa. Though he has said that he will come up with legislation to restrict entry of Goans below 21 years into the casinos, this will again be a very difficult thing to administer since it will be easy for the youth to grease the palms of the gate-keepers at the casinos and gain entry, since the rates have been reduced from Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 500/-, leaving them with more money in their hands. 7. Goa gets about 20 lakh tourists a year, both foreign and of Indian origin, out of which just about 60,000 visit casinos. Thus the casinos make no serious dent in the tourism portfolio of the State but for adding a certain nuisance and notoriety value to Goa. The negative fallouts of the gambling and casino culture are more than any benefits that it allows.

8. Gambling is an illegal activity all over India and even in Goa but gaming at casinos is not illegal in Goa which is somewhat anachronistic! Therefore gaming at casinos being gambling should also be declared illegal.

9. Advertising is resorted to by the casinos in Goa not only in print advertising, but also point-of-sale moving sign displays, lighted hoardings, signs on road dividers, on airport luggage turntables and even on police road barricades! The image that is conveyed for anyone visiting Goa is that this is ‘Sin State’ akin to ‘Sin City’, is what Las Vegas is known in the United States. Moreover when advertising for liquor and cigarettes is banned in print and visual media, though we see surrogate advertising in this area, the simple question is how are casinos able to advertise freely in all forms of advertising? Clearly this has to be stopped.

10. In many States in India and also in Goa, bars and liquor shops are banned within 100 meters of any place of worship or educational institutions. If bars and liquor shops are required to follow the 100 meters distance separation, common logic or sense should also not allow casinos to be within 100 meters of any place of worship or educational institutions.

11. For entry into casinos, there is no record kept of the visitors and thus it becomes a hot-bed for laundering black/hot money. In hotels around the country and even in Goa, photo ids are a must during check-in as part of the ‘war on terror’ and to also have a record of those visiting the place. But for casinos, there is no record of the people visiting their premises. Just asking for a photo id or PAN card at the time of entry to the casino will prune the visitors and bring a modicum of control to those going to casinos.

12. Another nuisance is that casinos appropriate public spaces near their entrances mostly on the road along the river Mandovi in Panaji which is allocated for the general public.

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13. It is estimated that the casinos in Goa contribute to about Rs. 60 crore to the State Budget while the expenses related to maintaining the casinos in the State, in terms of policing, ensuring law and order and investigation of crimes related to the casinos along with cost of repairing and upkeep of the environment of the river Mandovi in which the off-shore casinos ships continually discharge sewage and effluents are much more than the revenue earned from them. Again as a measure of generating public approbation immediately upon taking over the helm of government in Goa, Manohar Parrikar exempted petrol from the State taxes thus bringing the price down by some Rs. 12 per liter. This is estimated to have resulted in a revenue loss of Rs. 150 crore to the State which he is confident of compensating or recovering from alternate means. If so to continue not patronizing a social evil like casinos in the State, he can surely find ways and means to compensate for the Rs. 60 crores revenue that comes from casinos.

With this, it is requested that you should intervene and ensure that the nuisance and the resultant social evil of the casinos in Goa which is essentially a gambling activity and should be banned with immediate effect. I look forward to your support on this critical and sensitive issue.

Thanking you Yours truly

Sd/-

Srinivas Kamat AG 2 Sabnis Palace Alto Betim Goa 403 521. Ph: (0832) 2416430 Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com

Sent to:

1. Shri Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 11, Ashoka Road, New Delhi 110001.

2. Shrimati Sushma Swaraj, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 11, Ashoka Road, New Delhi 110001.

3. Shri Suresh G Soni, Rasthriya Sevak Sangh (RSS) Keshav Kunj Jhandewalan Deshbandhu Gupta Marg New Delhi 110 055.

4. Shri Ram Madhav Rasthriya Sevak Sangh (RSS) Keshav Kunj Jhandewalan Deshbandhu Gupta Marg New Delhi 110 055.

Democracy Under Siege In India

It is democracy under siege during the ongoing Goa Assembly session which is being held behind police barricades and hordes of armed police guarding from a point about 1 km. away from the road leading up to the Assembly premises and then again at the approach of the two Mandovi Bridges in Panaji which are used for access to North Goa and on whose other immediate end are the Assembly premises. Thus for a premise of democracy which was famously defined by Abraham Lincoln as – Of The People, By The People and For The People, has reached a stage in Goa and for that matter in the whole of India as a shuttered, isolated and secretive exercise. The definition of democracy as adapted to the Indian circumstance is - Of The Politicians, By The Politicians and For The Politicians. Never before in the history of India or for that matter mankind has a select few been so apprehensive of the large majority. In this situation our politicians use every single machination and devious tactic in the book to protect themselves against their habit of personal aggrandizement and amassing wealth by hook or by crook. The unseemly hurry to satisfy their greed is the characteristic of the majority of the politicians in India and in that process they are alienating themselves more and more from the aam admi of this country. That is where they see the necessity for protecting themselves with Z+ security, hiding behind procedure for doing anything that is requested for them for the public good, claiming to be snowed under with the onerous process of serving the mass of humanity that is characteristic in India. This in fact is the sum and substance of the problems related to democracy in India which like Bollywood tends to be India’s own and unique masala mix of the premise called democracy.

BJP Should Get Its Act Together

The BJP as a party seems to have lost the elementary basics that they need to be decisive. Being decisive is indicative of leadership which the BJP sorely lacks today. A fractured leadership which resorts to in-fighting at every instance and every turn on the winding road of politics has been their hallmark lately. Take the case of the crisis in Karnataka where yet another CM was installed on the instance of Yeddyurappa's obdurate demands to bring down his own earlier and the only BJP government south of the Vindhyas. This man has been castigated for corruption on many varied counts which has caused no end of embarrassment to the BJP but continues his machinations to topple the incumbent CM since he believes that unless he or his cronies are in the drivers seat in the Vidhana Soudha he would again have to spend some time in jail again. Why no one in the BJP HQ cannot read the riot act to him is anybody's guess? Then again, first in the Presidential election candidates and now in the Vice-Presidential election, the BJP seems to be giving the impression that they prefer to follow rather than lead in spelling out their candidate in advance so that they can build a groundswell of support to challenge the Congress and UPA candidates. This has led them to support a non-candidate like P A Sangma for the President's post since they played themselves into a corner with little choice. Mamata Banerji for all other things that you may blame her for, came out with names of candidates at least of better stature and eminence than that of the Congress & UPA for both the President and the Vice-President. It is quite another matter that her candidates did not want to contest. In this context the BJP's Jaswant Singh is a good candidate for the Vice-Presidency and given time to build support among the political parties he could have been a shoo-in against Hamid Ansari, the Congress candidate who has already had a stint in the post. But it looks like again the BJP left it a bit too late to make up their minds. These and many other things lead the aam admi to believe that the BJP is party which likes to be permanently ensconced in the Opposition and lacks the wherewithal to lead.

Mamata Needs To Grow Up

Mamata Banerji rule in West Bengal is clearly going erratic and directionless. The initial problems she had, with baby deaths in the hospitals, the fires that randomly seemed to sprout from nowhere all over the State and then the Park Street rape case in which the first woman CM of Bengal, Mamata Banerji was perceived not to be on the side of the aggrieved woman and also instrumental in transferring the woman police officer in charge of the Crime Branch in Kolkata Police for hogging the limelight, seem to be far from over. With the Pinki case which was obviously badly handled by the police who did not give the basic protection that a woman or a person claiming to be a woman deserves to get, during arrest or while in jail and the fact that Mamata Banerji did not come out with a statement on this matter has been seen as a negative considering Pinki was in jail for 25 odd days. There is also a broader issue of how a medal-winning athlete is handled in Kolkata or for that matter in India where surely some benefit of the doubt can be given to the athlete and then only rigorous police action taken unless it is an obvious case of murder or similar grievous crime. In line with the hospital issues there was also last week a footballer who died in North Bengal after having been injured on the playing field and no hospital accommodated him to evaluate his injuries. The poor footballer finally died which again speaks of the lack of urgency or seriousness with which patients are treated in West Bengal during the current TMC rule. Even with regard to the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections she does not seem to have talked to either Abdul Kalam or Gopal Gandhi, her candidates for the two posts since both have come with almost identical comments on their candidatures and that is only if they are assured of a win they would have contested. Here there is nothing to fault in Mamata Banerji’s choice of candidates since both are highly eminent people and better than what the Congress & UPA put up, but the process that she followed in proposing their candidature which was at fault. Then there was the commemoration of Jyoti Basu’s birth anniversary which happened to fall on a Sunday which she wanted to celebrate on the preceding Friday which the Left boycotted and in retaliation she locked them out of the Assembly premises when they turned up on Sunday to pay their respects to the Grand Old Man of Bengal politics and the media splashed pictures of the Left MLA’s clamouring at the Assembly gates seeking entry. At least for Jyoti Basu’s stature in Bengal should she not have been a little negotiable in her adamancy? It is time therefore that Mamata Banerji gets her act together and shows some maturity and at the same time restores a semblance of governance to the State that has reposed confidence in her. Postscript: Mamata's erratic slip is still showing with her flip-flop in offering support of the TMC to Pranab Mukherji in the Presidential election. Considering that a Bengali has been nominated for the post for the first time she could have gracefully stood behind Pranab-da from the beginning which would have cemented her position across the Bengali psyche irrespective of party affiliations. There is a time to play politics and there is a time to play the stateswoman is what Mamata should realise.

Kalmadi On Bail

How can Suresh Kalmadi be allowed to go to the London Olympics by the CBI judge when he is implicated in the CWG scam where hundreds of crores was purportedly swindled unless it is to collect his dues from the CWG flame run organizer based in London, with which issue the CWG scam started unraveling! In fact his passport should have been permanently cancelled and he should also not have been given bail. By allowing Suresh Kalmadi to go abroad when he has not yet been cleared of his guilt on charges brought against him the Indian justice system is clearly being undermined. The act of giving Kalmadi smacks like that of the judge who gave the Reddy brothers bail in the Obulapuram illegal mining case in Andhra Pradesh. The fact that people like Suresh Kalmadi, the Reddy brothers and A Raja in the 2G scam case who also got bail are influential people and who can swing the outcome of a case by compromising witnesses or tampering with documents would not be lost on the judges. But with the political patronage of the ruling party these cases like the 2G and the CWG are being systematically diluted and with the cynical pessimism that has become the expectation of the aam admi in such matters, one will have to but conclude that nothing will come out of these cases now. This cynicism is in order since if both Kalmadi & Raja were denied bail all this while particularly the latter who was in jail for close to 14 months, what has materially changed in their cases to grant them bail now? Essentially nothing except that the investigation agencies will need more time to make out their case. And simply on this plea every accused in the 2G & CWG cases have been enlarged on bail. It is thus expected that the mills of justice will grind but will not dispense any justice and it will be yet again a fruitless exercise. Therefore you can argue that the accused need not have been incarcerated in jail at all since what was the point in putting all these wealthy and influential people to unnecessary difficulty? Take Suresh Kalmadi’s case where the party including the Congress High Command defended him initially in the CWG scam, but finding that his case was becoming embarrassing they dumped him and also threw him out of the party but then he swung bail on grounds of dementia of which there seem to be no signs now and then had the audacity to announce that he would contest for MP from Pune, his original constituency, and just last month caused a minor fracas in Pune when his cronies in the Municipality invited him to an inauguration which the Opposition did not want anything to do with. The Congress party at the Centre has compromised our value system so much that the border lines of right, wrong and maybe have blurred and nowadays one is not sure of what’s what since what was wrong until yesterday is right today and vice versa.

In Presidential Election, Candidates Should Respect the High Office While Contesting

The manner in which the current Presidential elections are being 'fought' is a shame on the highest office of the land and some of the august and eminent personalities that have graced the office of the President of India in the past. P A Sangma who is completely unfit to hold this office is in any case contesting because some of the political parties who do not see eye to eye with the Congress and the UPA government are playing him along to meet their own limited objectives. His being in the fray has led some of the parties like the Samajwadi party to extract its pound of flesh from the Congress for supporting their official candidate, Pranab Mukherjee and thus indirectly UP needs to thank Sangma for the financial largesse. Talk of a sword that can cut both ways. But in this doling out of budgetory support by an incumbent government to one or the other State for support by a political party for the Presidential candidate is what is vitiating the process of the election and bringing down the stature of the office of the President. Sangma has also stooped low in saying that Rasthrapati Bhawan should not be a 'dumping ground' for a non-performing Finance Minister like Pranab Mukherjee. Little does Sangma realise that by saying this he is indicating that he is amenable to go to this 'dumping ground'! Thus Sangma should know his limits while campaigning for the Presidency and taking pot-shots at Pranab Mukherjee. Not that Pranab Mukherjee is without fault since his very candidature is suspect in the public eye in terms of the technicality that he did not resign from the various offices of profit that he held at the time of filing his Presidential nomination. The signature on the resignation from the office of profit that Pranab Mukherjee held at ISI, Kolkata is clearly different from how he regularly signs other documents which even a layman can see. Thus claiming that can a person not sign his name differently is insulting the imagination of all Indians since we all know that even if one is woken up in the middle of the night to sign a document one would use the same official signature as a matter of caution that whatever document is being signed should not be contested and then held invalid. Thus a man with 40 years of political experience behind him, holding the high office of Finance Minister and aspiring for a higher office that of President does not have the elementary knowledge that he should sign the same way in all documents shows up Pranab Mukherjee's negotiable standards of conduct. There is like they say - 'Dal Mein Kuch Kala Hai!' but then that is what this country has come to under the Congress party where what they would say or do has become the de-facto non-negotiable standard of behaviour or action which we all have to accept. Some one will definitely move a PIL on this matter, sooner or later and we may have the ignominy of Pranab Mukherjee having to demit office and then get re-elected in a short span of time or does that make Sangma the President for the full term in which case it will be a disaster or a thunderbolt of fortune pushing Sangma forward, depending on which way you look at it. But all the same the two candidates should remember to contest the election with conduct that behoves the high office of the President of India.

The Shame On Assam

The Gauhati incident is a shame on the people of Assam following in the wake of the Kolkata incident where a woman was raped in a moving car by perpetrators claiming false identities. In the eastern and north-eastern States of the country starting from Bengal up into Assam and the other Seven Sisters women were treated with respect in the past but with this incident in Gauhati and the increasing rape cases in Bengal, this image seems no longer valid. As far as the police are concerned though there is a necessity for them to be alert, there is little that they can do when such out-of-the-ordinary incidents occur. As reported by an eye-witness the police came within half-hour of being called which is a pretty good response in any part of India and therefore there is not much blame that you can apportion on them. What this or the other police officer said is not valid since its worth is only transient to create those sound bytes on instant TV. The police should however be quick in apprehending the perpetrators and with the support of the Assam CM which has been assured by him, the case should be tried in the fast track courts and exemplary punishment is awarded so that the fair name of Assam is no longer sullied in this manner. The media being castigated for continuing coverage of the incident as it was unfolding is rather unfair since we are not sure if the coverage was received from independent observers or if the media people had alerted the police and then continued to shoot the incident, in which case it is good, hard and unbiased legal evidence which is being presented. However, this incident brings back the memories of the Mangalore incident involving Shree Ram Sene assaulting young couples in a bar or others in Bihar & UP of a cop dragging a supposed criminal along the road while riding a motorcycle, children and women getting thrashed by policemen. This has all happened in the last one year and with more regularity over the last few months which shows that India is getting increasingly violent and intolerant. Time to change, no!

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 121

Date: 14.07.2012

Contents:

1. P Chidambaram's Crass Comment About The Middle Class

2. Lack Of Coordination Among Indian Law Enforcement Agencies, The Cause For Terror Attacks

3. The ‘Time’ Underachiever Manmohan Singh

P Chidambaram's Crass Comment About The Middle Class

Home Minister P Chidambaram's comment about the middle class being able to buy mineral water at Rs. 15 a 1L bottle and buying their children a Rs. 20 icecream cone shows the crass attitude that leaders of our political class have towards the aam admi of this country. This nothing new actually since all leaders and particularly the Finance Ministers of our country, which portfolio Chidambaram has handled many a time, have always used the middle class as a punching bag. Like they say in a sandwich what lies in between the slices of bread is what makes it interesting. Thus in the same manner the Indian middle class is sandwiched between the super rich and the extremely poor and has had to bear the brunt of many an excess mainly financial in every single Budget that has been presented in this country for the last 65 years. Inspite of paying the largest block of both direct taxes and also contributing a very large portion of the indirect tax revenue because of the consumerist boom, the middle class continues to be pummeled by our government since it has no voice in the affairs of the country except at election time. Where the super rich can resort to lobbying using their resources as highlighted in the Nira Radia incident during the exposure of the 2G scam and the cause of the poor are taken by many a NGO as also the government in terms of poverty alleviation measures, one needs to ask whether anyone in this country has taken up the cause of the middle class. It is only in the last decade or so have we seen the tools of the Consumer Courts and the RTI functioning somewhat to alleviate the problems of the middle class. When P Chidambaram talked of the middle class, he also talked of villages in our country that have not seen a metalled road in their lifetime. He mentioned this in a very casual manner as if the government is doing them a big favour. Is this not shocking that a senior functionary of this government and part of the Congress party which has ruled this country for more than 50 years since Independence has been unable to provide every single village in this country a metalled road? How can he have the temerity to say this? Does he not have the modicum of of responsibilty and shame that they have not been able to provide for this essential need? Not only this Chidambaram continued to talk about the 'slight increase' in prices of essential commodities has been because of the increase in the MSP's to the farmers. Firstly, the increase in prices over the last 3 years for almost everything that an aam admi needs for civilsed living has been anything but 'slight'. Secondly, no aam admi of this country grudges the farmer getting better prices for his produce but the increase seems to be going to the vested interests controlled by the political class like distributors and traders and to the politicians themselves who deliberately manipulate prices of commodities to earn windfall gains like in the case of sugar and cotton. There is no need to mention the name of which politician gained from these 2 commodities since it is an open secret. Thirdly, that farmers are not benefiting from the price increases of the commodities in the market place is evident by the rate of increase of retail prices in the market for almost every single commodity is much higher than the rate of increase in the MSP's of the same commodities. Concluding on this issue Chidambaram blaming the media for twisting his comments is rather crude and unfair since then he should give out a handout before his press conferences on what the media should write irrespective of him saying something completely different since the media cannot read Chidambaram's mind. It is not that Chidambaram is alone in exhibiting such crass attitudes towards the citizens of this country but almost every single person in the Cabinet and the only solution to this seems to be to publicly flog them in Vijai Chowk with national TV coverage. It is not that Pranab Mukherjee should think that he has escaped this punishment since he should also get it for his irresponsible and inefficient handling of the economy and putting the whole country into an unescapable financial mess, before he climbs Raisina Hill to enter Rasthrapati Bhawan.

Lack Of Coordination Among Indian Law Enforcement Agencies, The Cause For Terror Attacks

With the Indian law enforcement agencies fighting over the custody of Pakistani terrorist Abu Jundal including the NIA which has gone to court seeking handing over of the above named, one wonders how P Chidambaran, our Home Minister can start accusing Pakistan of State involvement in the 26/11 incident. This is not to contest Pakistan's involvement but to bring home the fact that when interrogation seems incomplete why are we blowing our mouths on the issue since only if we have rock-hard, solid evidence implicating Pakistan it is only then that that country will take heed of the matter. Also contrast this with Ajmal Kasab against whom we have CCTV recordings showing him shooting down our innocent civilians and having been awarded the death sentence, we are still pussyfooting around in carrying out the sentence. Thus based on some leads during an interrogation we start accusing a die-hard enemy nation like Pakistan who has a hide thicker and tougher than a rhinoceros but one of their terrorists caught red-handed we pamper by feeding him biryani in jail at some Rs. 21 crores cost when last estimates were made. The fighting among our law enforcement agencies has been the cause for many a terror attack in this country including 26/11 when warnings from one or the other agency are not given credence and terror alerts are left on desks weeks together with no action taken against them. This precisely is the problem in our preparedness in fighting terror where each law enforcement goes its own way and the terrorists take advantage of this lacunae and kill innocent civilians. It is time to change and improve our alertness, informer networks and time bound investigation ability so that we ward off terror attacks before they even occur.

The ‘Time’ Underachiever Manmohan Singh

The Underachiever tag that Time magazine has affixed to Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister is nothing new and was known to Indians all along. Those who keep track of the political and economic scene here are well aware of this syndrome of the PM. The need to run to Sonia Gandhi for every little thing in government, the 'policy paralysis' plaguing the UPA-2 and rarely being seen in the event of any tragedy that affects the nation and even then half a step behind the Grand Dame and even more rarely speaking to the country or to its press except 30,000 feet of the ground while returning or going from some foreign trip or other, are these not symptoms of the Underachiever disease. Thus Time is not at all wrong when it correctly criticised Manmohan Singh. As for the Congress grouse about asking what is Time magazine, it shows up their own crass ignorance. Further when there are positive reports in the Western press about the PM or for that matter any politician or celebrity from India, we go out of the way to bask in that halo, but when there is criticism then we ask - Who is Time or What is Time? Essentially is that not a philosophical question! Therefore let us not be puerile in these matters and accept criticism when it is valid and due.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 120

Date: 07.07.2012

Contents:

1. Pakistan: The Fount Of Terrorism, But India Should Continue To Talk

2. Abu Jundal Affair: For God's Sake, Keep Interrogation Secret

3. CRPF Attack in Bastar Stinks to High Heaven‏

4. India's Economy: Discard Keynes, Tread The Mahatma's Way

5. Of Nuclear Power Plant's & Safety Features

6. Dhoble’s German Fracas

Pakistan: The Fount Of Terrorism, But India Should Continue To Talk

India always seems to have too high expectations from Pakistan. This is evident from the disappointments expressed in the various incidents relating to the release of death row prisoners in Pakistan to the continued denial of the Pakistan State's involvement in the 26/11 terror incident at Mumbai and the refusal of Pakistan to look rationally at the many dossiers sent by India in this matter. This inspite of the West including both the US & UK being very clear about Pakistan’s involvement in the incident. This is kind of normal since life teaches us that irrespective of how well you deal with anyone, they would reciprocate their own way and not necessarily in the same manner as you. Pakistan is a nation which has many faces which even the US has now understood through the various charades and games that Pakistan continues to play with them. India had warned the US all along but then the US never listened and is re-learning this out of its own experience. It is only now that the US is finally coming around to the fact what India has been telling them for decades about the Pakistan leadership and establishment being complicit with terrorism. Given the state of Pakistan’s economy the revenue stream arising from terror, both in terms of supporting it for the money coming through it from drugs and extortion as also combating it, when money comes in as aid from the US & the West, terror is a golden goose for them. Or putting it another way, Pakistan has the terror toast buttered on both sides to gorge upon. Thus in Afghanistan if the Taliban does not become active by the time of the US withdrawal in 2014 then it is to Pakistan’s disadvantage. That is precisely the reason why India will face a stoic denial from Pakistan on all matters of terror but that does not mean that India should give up on dialogue. The same logic on terror applies to Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan if you saw him at the recent NATO conference in Chicago basking in the spotlight of the West created by the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda. Once the US & NATO forces withdraw one wonders if he would like to remain in his home country since then the aid pipeline would not be as bountiful as it is now. On these billions of dollars of Western aid, the entire Karzai clan, his Cabinet and those close to him have minted money hand over fist and are now looking at more comfortable climes to live out their retirement. The best way to deal with terror would be for the West to switch focus from Iran and put sanctions on both Pakistan and Afghanistan isolating them both financially as well as physically by a blockade and thus throttle terrorism and choke it off until it is dead. There is no other way to make this work.

Abu Jundal Affair: For God's Sake, Keep Interrogation Secret

The manner that we deal these days with issues of national importance is rather sad. With the media very strong and active, it is almost as if everyone including government officials and ministers also seem to be in a rush to tell their side of the story first. The first is to take credit for the achievement and cover themselves with glory as is evident in the Abu Jundal story. The publicity being given to this person’s purported actions in relation to 26/11 are all over the media with even Home Minister Chidambaram jumping into the fray about the manner in which the accused was intercepted and deported from Saudi Arabia. Now considering that 26/11 was a serious issue and there is a need even after so many years to get to the bottom of it, it is rather disappointing to see the manner in which it is being handled. To shoot holes in the story that is pieced together from what has come out in the media, the accused is an uneducated person initiated into terror through a process of training by the ISI supposedly. For our intelligence agencies to stoop down and claim laurels in extracting information from such people is rather sad. There have been doubts cast about the person irrespective of the DNA check and for all you know he may have been planted by the ISI to sing a story to which they know the Indian intelligence agencies will dance to. We all know a couple of months back how some Pakistani businessmen visiting India were branded terrorists by our intelligence agencies and an alert was sent to all major cities and then when the truth came out our agencies like RAW and others had more than mud on their face. By P Chidambaram getting involved in it, we are only making the matter more complicated in terms of our relationship with Pakistan. Why can we not keep all this under wraps after the initial announcement of the suspect’s arrest until there is sure information and definite things to say to the media? Why do we expose ourselves unnecessarily and look like fools? There is nothing wrong with the media looking for scoops in such stories but at the same time the intelligence agencies should not live up to their existing reputation of being as effective as a sieve in keeping critical information secret. Will our authorities at least now learn the meaning of Secret, Top Secret and For Your Eyes Only or do they still believe that these phrases are seen only in 007 James Bond movies or its desi version like Agent Vinod!

CRPF Attack in Bastar Stinks to High Heaven‏

In the instance of the CRPF attack in Bastar where 19 ‘Maoists’ were killed one can see the authorities and again Minister Chidambaran going to the media is to get the official side of the story out first. This would make it appear that all other versions of the incident coming out in the media would be seen by the general public as rebuttals. This is the common enough strategy one follows in road accidents where you try to take the upper-hand so that even if the fault is yours the other party is sufficiently cowed down to express or justify his version. In all this talk of the CRPF shooting in self-defence and whether they do not have a right to defend themselves, the fact that axes were used to mutilate the bodies after they had been shot and killed, is being lost. Why was this brutality necessary? Why were no autopsies done? How were these people identified as Maoists? The villagers say something else altogether and why were women, teenagers and children shot down. If it was close to midnight why were the operations not deferred till the morning and the suspected Maoists surrounded by calling for extra forces so that casualties could have been minimized? If operations had to be completed for operational reasons at the dead of night why were not high powered floodlights used to throw more light on hazy identities? Defending themselves by saying that women and children were held as shields by the Maoists or that the Maoists have women cadre is not exactly covering themselves with any glory. Rushing to the media to take credit P Chidambaran had to eat crow later on national media apologizing if (!) the villagers were innocent bystanders. It is good that the Home Minister but it looked as doing lip service of an apology. Is saying sorry enough to the villagers who have lost their near and dear ones? Is the government not expected to weight its options and then act. We seem in the new ally relationship with the US taking on their habits of killing innocent civilians and then calling it firstly ‘collateral damage’ and thinking that just by saying sorry you are absolved of guilt. This will not work in India, sir! Thus the CRPF-Bastar operation stink smells to high heaven that something rotten has happened there that night and it is time that the true story came out.

India's Economy: Discard Keynes, Tread The Mahatma's Way

The PM’s reference to activating animal instincts in economy refers to Keynesian economics which is part of economics textbook lore but what we need in India is a practical and hands-on approach in tackling the economic mess that we are in now. Why we cannot follow Mahatma Gandhi’s prescription for our economy which is more contemporary than Keynes and stems from an intimate knowledge of the needs of our people is something that is not understood? Mahatma Gandhi had suggested to going back to panchayati raj, making the village as the basic unit of the economy, concentrating in production of ‘desi ’ goods so that we can make the lot of our own people better. Surely we can adapt the Mahatma’s ideas to fit in with current times when we have been seeing that our policy planners in the economic field seem to be completely out of ideas on how to tackle our economy. Their only approach seems to the palliative way like when you go the doctor he will give you a dose of medicine and ask you to come after 3 days if the complaint persists. And when you go back after this time he continues with the same medicine or changes the medication experimenting with you like a guinea pig. So also our economists at the helm of the financial health of our country who buy time in lots of 2-3 months or 6 months or 1 year depending on who is speaking out and when and their constant refrain is that things will get better when actually the reverse is happening and maters are getting worse. This is a complete shame and it is time that the PM in his new economic avatar, saddled with the old economists team, rolls up his shirt-sleeves and gets down to serious business. We have tried different models and one thinks it is time to give the Mahatma's ideas a chance so that inclusive development does not become a slogan but is part of the development process. In the 21st century and after 65 years of Independence we cannot have people continue to die, 61 at last count, every year in the Brahmaputra floods in Assam and we have simply done nothing about it. Similarly we have set up power plants, both gas and coal based, but do not have the fuel to supply them while the country reels under power shortages, more so in the summers. We have surplus grain because of a good monsoon that we cannot store and therefore pray for a bad monsoon the next year so that the grain stocks balance out themselves. All this needs to corrected and quickly if India has to stand proudly in the comity of nations of this world. FDI is not the be-all and end-all of our economic maladies like the Chief Economic Advisor, Kaushik Basu is making it out to be and who inveterately seems unable to get out of the habit of putting his foot in his mouth, which he did again by saying that prices will come down in 2-3 months. Will he guarantee that? Unfortunately he has lost all credibility and no one believes anything he says.

Of Nuclear Power Plant's & Safety Features

The news of the Kudankulam NPP commissioning in its final stages is being carried in the media while at the same time there is no advice on the progress of the report submitted by the High Court judges on the public hearing and what the Tamil Nadu and/or the Central Govt. is planning to do about that. Also there have been earthquakes felt in Gujarat coast where a NPP is planned as also near the Jaitapur NPP site in Ratnagiri district of Maharasthra albeit in the range of 3 - 4 on the Richter scale over the last 6 months. We do hope that per the pattern of the earthquakes, they do not move southward and down to Kudankulam to test the safety that the government has claimed that it has built into the plant post-Fukushima.

Dhoble’s German Fracas

We have another comment covered by the media over 29th June 2012 that ACP Dhoble and his team had asked some German women tourists who were at a pub in Mumbai to come with them to the police station. The video grabs showed the German women arguing with the policemen asking why they should go to the police station. The media, one thinks, should stay away from such incidents and let the police do their job particularly in these times of terror. The visit may have been innocuous enough to establish the validity of their visas, check their antecedents and then let them go. These kind of things routinely happen abroad, more so in Communist countries, where sometimes visiting Indians are asked to come to the police station. We have no hullabaloo raised about such incidents and even when our ex-Presidents, Ministers and publicly known members of our society are put through security procedures in the West particularly in the US, we react by saying that they should comply with established regulations and should not be expected to be treated as VIP’s as at home. So why should these German women not go through a simple procedure of visiting a police station to check their antecedents. Should we not have the same yardsticks for Indians as well as foreigners? Or is the colonial mindset so embedded in our psyches that we will bend backwards whenever we see a white skin?

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