VOX POPULI
by
Aam Admi
Issue: 135
Date: 20.10.2012
Contents:
1. Gadkari Exposed!
2. Cleaning The Congress Stables
3. Manohar Parrikar’s One-Upmanship Complicated The Mining Imbroglio In Goa
4. Abdicating Our Duties & Responsibilities To The Foreign MNC's
5. The Changing Face Of Salman Khurshid
Gadkari Exposed!
Arvind Kejriwal’s exposure of the BJP President, Nitin Gadkari’s involvement in the irrigation and land scams in Maharasthra and specifically in Vidarbha, the district which has the infamous reputation of having the largest number of farmer suicides in the country, bring no credit to the BJP who have been vigorously attacking the Congress on corruption but come as a welcome relief to the Congress that the main Opposition party has been similarly exposed. Like they say there is comfort in numbers which also applies to the Thieves Club and with another member of a different colour joining, those already in would feel very happy. Similarly, we talk about the code among thieves being stronger than among civilized society which explains the nexus alleged by Arvind Kejriwal between Nitin Gadkari and the Pawars of the NCP. The modus operandi in terms of land grab by the BJP President in the land adjacent to the dam and declared surplus is also very similar to that of the NCP where they would get allocations of land under the guise of charitable and educational institutions and the like and then use it for private profit. Thus the issue is not what Nitin Gadkari is doing with the land now by giving sugarcane saplings to the farmers below cost but the fact that he usurped the land from the villagers who had first right to get back their land and also asked for it back but the State Govt. with Ajit Pawar at its helm allotted it to Nitin Gadkari. The BJP President is rumoured to be close to the RSS on whose back he not only rode into office in the first place but also got his second term now by amendment of the constitution of the party. Thus a part of the stigma that is now being attempted to be laid on him also rubs off on the RSS. That the RSS has been indulging in realpolitik has been known for quite some time, from when the India Shining campaign of the BJP was its peak and with nary a peep from the RSS. Further specific to our Goa circumstance, we have licensed casinos operating in the State which the current BJP government while in the Opposition had vociferously objected to but now in power for close to 9 months now, nothing has been done about closing them down or at least moving the off-shore casinos out into the sea from their present location in the river Mandovi where they are congesting the navigation channel. In our representations we included writing to the top brass of the BJP and the RSS, both at the HQ in Nagpur and the political cell in Delhi headed by Ram Madhav and also had meetings with the unit head in Goa, but surprisingly there has not been any peep from them for the last 6 months or more now. Thus as the allegations against Nitin Gadkari have proved the BJP & the RSS seem to have realized that money speaks in many ways and it is not necessarily required to look at the colour of the money that is coming in. If this is not sheer pragmatism or realpolitik, one need to be told, what is? Everyone bends to the power of money, even the RSS is the conclusion that we can draw from this. Thus, what we knew all along, is proven now, that in the Indian political scenario there are no angels but a hierarchy of devils, some novices, some small devils and some others big devils.
Cleaning The Congress Stables
The maturity and the intellectual ability of our politicians are coming more and more to the fore in the last month or so. This more so from among the Congress party though there is representation in this regard from the other parties also. Along with this there is a kind of misplaced sense of superiority since some of them hold high office and also the belief that they are beyond criticism or comment considering that they have been elected for a period of 5 years and this span of time is theirs alone to behave and act as they like. Otherwise how can anyone like Salman Khurshid ask why should Arvind Kejriwal ask for the PM's resignation and also that of some 21 Ministers in the current Central cabinet. Specifically Salman Khurshid has gone completely overboard while responding to the provocations by Arvind Kejriwal and the IAC in the revelations about Robert Vadra and then about himself and his wife in how they have been operating the Dr. Zakir Hussain Trust since after threatening to teach the concerned a lesson, he has progressed that up to now he was fighting with ink and it is time to use blood (one is not really clear what he means by that) and further saying that let him come to Farrukhabad and it is doubtful whether he would return. Do these comments behove the Law Minister of India is a question that Salman Khurshid should ask himself though by his own admission he is the Law Minister of the Congress party and not of the country. Then we have had Beni Prasad Verma, the Steel Minister, after his famous comment last month that inflation benefits farmers since then they get better prices for their produce, he has now said that the amount in question of Rs. 71 Lakhs supposedly misused by Salman Khurshid's trust is too small to zero onto since if it were Rs. 71 crores then it would be worth considering to pursue as a corruption issue. This essentially highlights the permissive attitude of the Congress functionaries towards corruption where they follow the laizzez faire policy that you make money, I make money but both of us will turn a blind eye towards each other, if questioned. Then we have the senior functionary from the Haryana Congress commenting on the spate of rape incidents in the State recently that 90% of rape is consensual. Compounding the Congress' woes we have their Porbandar MP waving a gun and walking around with it at a toll plaza near Vadodara for a perceived slight and this was the man who seems to have arranged for the crowds when Sonia Gandhi visited Rajkot recently, which means he must be senior enough. Thus the Congress party should realise that they cannot have such people as Central Minister and/or senior functionaries and in the event the PM is re-shuffling his Cabinet it is time to drop some of these blase and irresponsible ministers and it is seen that functionaries at the State level are appointed with care so that at least they appear to be responsive to people. The Congress High Command has its task cut out for itself since even Hercules who famously cleaned the Aegean stables may run away from the assignment to clean up the Congress stables.
Manohar Parrikar’s One-Upmanship Complicated The Mining Imbroglio In Goa
There is news that the Goa CM is now looking at an all-party meeting to resolve the mining mess is part of the flailing around after having walked into the problem. The legal mining industry is in a bind now in Goa thanks to his penchant for one-upmanship. Actually there was no need for the CM to put a ban on mining in Sept 2012 just before Jayanti Natarajan, the Central Environment Minister was coming to Goa. Getting maybe prior information that she would put a ban on the mining industry, he wanted to hijack the credit to himself by pre-empting her. That is why during her visit to Goa she said that Parrikar's ban would not stand in a court of law. Caught in a bind thereafter the CM finding that nothing was moving particularly on the the stocks of ores lying in the open and at jetties, and mouthing inanities that essentially the State has nothing to do with mining since ores and minerals are a Central subject, he was pushing himself into a corner. He then tried to salvage his position recently by announcing a high-powered Committee so that he could say that the Committee has to decide and he could escape responsibility for the mess. Within his coalition the MGP an important constituent has come out openly against the ban on mining considering its impact on the livelihood of people. But then the game has now been completely taken away from the CM with the Goa Foundation getting the Supreme Court to ban all mining activities in Goa until the illegal mining details are clearly established. Thus the door has been completely shut on the CM as far as the present mining imbroglio he himself created. What essentially Manohar Parrikar should have done is with the imminent resumption of mining activities after the monsoon and the tabling of the Shah Commission report he should have waited to see what the Centre would do in the matter. Once this was known he would have been able to find a way to keep legal mining going which would have reduced the outcry from the people impacted by the closure of the mining industry rather than the clamour that it is in today. This is the least that the CM could have done for those of the common people that elected him and his party to power rather than look for scoring brownie points as to who is better, he & his party or the Congress? Diplomacy where you keep the door a little open rather than completely closed is something that the CM should learn still rather than jump into a situation and end up making a mess of things as in the mining issue.
Abdicating Our Duties & Responsibilities To The Foreign MNC's
Dy Governor S Gokarn, RBI while recently talking at an industry meet at Chennai had mentioned that FDI in retail would help in boosting agricultural productivity and distributor efficiency. Agricultural growth has been languishing in the country at 2- 2.5% over the last decade or so with the monsoon pointed out as the main culprit while agricultural productivity stagnates in India at probably the worst levels for similar crop indices around the world. But these issues have been with us for decades and it is rather sad that nothing has been done about it. Even with ICAR and other national laboratories involved nothing seems to have happened in boosting both agricultural production as well as productivity post the Green Revolution. Though Dr M S Swaminathan, one of the principal architects of the revolution, keeps making all kinds of suggestions which seems to always fall on deaf ears of the powers-that-be. After the Green Revolution we had the White Revolution (for milk) which the recently deceased V Kurien pioneered. Thus we have had our own home bred thinkers, technocrats and scientists who are more than capable of initiating dramatic improvements in the agricultural area. Then why FDI? Will the foreign MNC’s bring a a magic wand which will change agricultural productivity overnight? Definitely not. Not only that if we have our own scientists activate these changes, they will be more acceptable and sustaining than the random initiatives of MNC’s which are purely driven by profit. We have also seen not only in India but around the world, particularly in the Third World, in the case of GM crops how agricultural MNC’s have derailed crop patterns, introduced rogue crops/vegetation to the detriment of the local environment and have abandoned projects when commodity prices took a beating like in the case of corn and soyabean. All this while the West where most of these MNC’s are based are moving towards organic food. What is now becoming not acceptable in their home countries these MNC’s are trying to plam off in the Third World and we, suckers as usual, are falling for it. Thus depending on foreign MNC’s to bring in technology to be acceptable and friendly to our environment is a pipedream. As for distribution efficiency, there have been many small projects around the country started mostly by farmer’s cooperatives which have helped improve packaging, moving goods more efficiently to market thus getting farmers better prices. A case in point here is Theni in Tamil Nadu where the farmers adopting the cooperative method for cultivation of bananas have been able to generate dramatic returns for themselves. There are many similar initiatives around the country where farmer’s cooperatives have taken it upon themselves to better their lot rather than depend on government assistance. These initiatives and their models can be duplicated on a national basis and fine tuned if required to be location or commodity specific. This will also at least help in reducing the unemployment of our youth if they are used in these activities. Are we to assume that Dy Governor S Gokarn of the RBI with all the resources at his command is unaware of the Green Revolution, the White Revolution and the many initiatives of cooperative marketing and distribution being done in the country? The problem actually is that all our officials and bureaucrats have abdicated the basic premise of thinking and doing things for themselves and tend to take shelter under the philosophy that it is best to give away this ability and have someone else do it. That is why we increasingly see the PPP model and now the FDI model under the essential plea of resource constraint. Actually both these models are beneficial to our bureaucracy since they turn out to be good resources for their personal benefit with the added advantage of not having to do anything. It is a good ploy to sit on your backside and watch the money and facilities rolling in unhindered through the private corporate sector for PPP’s and from foreign MNC’s in the case of FDI. One needs to repeat here the oft said phrase that we may have got our freedom from the British in 1947 but to this day we remain with bondage and slavery in our minds. Otherwise there is no explanation for us to act the way we do in any sphere of activity for this vast and great nation particularly for people like Dy Governor S Gokarn of the RBI who are knowledeable, experienced and one hopes, capable. In the same lecture he has also said that while demand for consumer goods particularly electronics items has been growing at more than 15-20% a year, the demand for agricultural products has not grown in commensurate measure and stagnates at 5-8% per year. The point being that if agricultural demand had grown rapidly then it would have pulled up agricultural growth along with it. For this comment flashback to some 6-8 months ago when the same man had said that fish, meat, fruit and vegetable prices had been shooting up because demand in the rural areas for these items had been growing by leaps and bounds with the increasing prosperity of the people living in these areas. More money in one’s hands is expected to raise the need for improved and more protein rich diets and hence all these items were being consumed in the areas where they are frown leading to higher prices for the same items in the urban areas. Now would Dy Governor Gokarn clarify his comments and tell us which is correct. Or just like other political leaders and top flight bureaucrats does Dy Governor Gokarn believe that the aam admi has forgotten what he said earlier and he can shoot his mouth with impunity. Concluding on the FDI issue, it is neither the magic balm or wand to make our problems vanish and for which we ourselves have to get down at the grassroots levels and solve the problems ourselves.
The Changing Face Of Salman Khurshid
Up until the time Salman Khurshid was the person in charge of the UP State Congress unit a couple of years ago, he was considered as one of the rising stars of the Congress party what with his erudite, articulate and cultured image. With the debacle of the Congress in the UP Assembly elections everything seems to have changed for him. At the time of these elections he had an acid run-in with the then Election Commissioner Quereshi on the announcement of the quota for Muslims. Subsequently, during negotiations with the Anna team he was seen to be getting increasingly irascible and when the back-channel talks with Anna Hazare was exposed, he became vituperative and intemperate in language and dismissive in his mannerisms. This seems to be continuing lately in the exposure of Robert Vadra’s real estate dealings through DLF where he had no need to say that his job as Law minister of this country is to protect Congressmen! He also went on to say that Arvind Kejriwal needs to be taught a lesson! For a seasoned politician like Salman Khurshid one has to necessarily say that he has been rather indiscreet. Adding fuel to the fire has been the manner in which he has reacted to the exposure of essentially bad and faulty documentation in relation to the trust he runs along with his wife which clearly compromises both of them in drawing money from the government with shoddy and dubious paperwork. The potent and explosive nature of this matter, is that the unholy couple appeared to have defrauded physically challenged people which is a very emotive issue. But again here in the manner that Salman Khurshid has handled this matter, it is more in the manner of an angry, spluttering, and bumbling character from a P G Wodehouse novel rather than a seasoned politician, one has to unfortunately again repeat. Fielding his wife to the media has been a grievous error if his intention was to defend himself since she has made more of a mess rather than resolving matters. What Salman Khurshid should have done is go back to basics and review the documentation and wherever it was deficient or dubious establish the quantum of the financial amounts involved for that alone and come out with maybe a press statement apologising for these errors and state that these would be corrected. The manner in which this matter has now been handled is that it seems everything is faulty and the people like Arvind Kejriwal are gleeful of the strategic errors being made by Salman Khurshid and his spouse and in the manner of a spider dragging a fly into its web, they are inexorably pulling the couple in. However, the point remains that Salman Khurshid and those of his ilk, that is other Congressmen and also other parties politicians, have long been used to not being questioned and being held responsible for their dealings and that essentially prompts this kind of reaction of - Who is this upstart Arvind Kejriwal, who thinks he can haul us onto the mat? But nonetheless the way things seem to be, Salman Khurshid should quit and come clean on the allegations since his very credibility to hold a responsible office is in doubt.
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VOX POPULI
by
Aam Admi
Issue: 134
Date: 13.10.2012
Contents:
1. Negativity About Corruption
2. Caution Against Chinese Cos. & The Need To Review Our Foreign Policy
3. Robert Vadra: The 'Private Individual'
4. Blackmarketing Subsidised LPG Cylinders
5. Why Are Robert Vadra & Sonia Gandhi Above The Pale Of The Law
Negativity About Corruption
From what we can gather of PM Manmohan Singh's recent comment about the mindless negativity about graft that is eroding the country's image and the morale of the executive, we should not at all talk of corruption. How pursuing graft will erode the country's image is not understood since all right thinking people would imagine that it would only improve the country's image from the negative perception that this country has earned under the UPA-2 regime and that is of being a country of scams. As for sapping the morale of the executive, why the PM of all persons should pander to the bureaucracy and not take them head-on in a movement of change so that they work more effectively for the benefit of the country is something that is again beyond anyone's imagination. Manmohan Singh indirectly justified corruption earlier due to 'coalition compulsions' at the time of the 2G scam. Now with Robert Vadra he will probably say it is for 'family reasons'. This approach towards turning a blind eye to corruption makes one wonder whether people like Manmohan Singh and the rest of the Congress party do at all live in India or not where the aam admi faces corruption at every instant of his daily routine when it comes to interaction with government officials. Will the Congress leadership for a change come down to grassroots and realistically see the situation and not continue to live in their 'ivory towers' and believe that all is fine with the world. However, if they feel that they are incapable to handling the current problems facing this country and improve things by all rights they should step down and either give someone else a chance from within their ranks or give other political parties an opportunity to rectify things. Manmohan Singh admitting to the nation in his televised message last month that he has brought the country to the verge of financial ruin akin to the 1991 mess by essentially not acting in time on economic matters and then not being able to engage with the Opposition political parties in keeping Parliament functioning should assess what would have happened to his services if he was working in the private corporate sector. As we all know he would have been simply booted out for being ineffective and being unable to carry on with the responsibilities delegated to him. If so, electing him to a 5 year term does not give him the right to continue in office and surely being a professional he should not seek any leeway. If he is not up to it, let him quit.
Caution Against Chinese Cos. & The Need To Review Our Foreign Policy
The House of Representatives, Congressional Committee on Intelligence has recommended after an exhaustive one year hearing that Chinese telecom Cos. - Huawei & ZTE, should be banned from US government contracts on grounds of security given their closeness to the Chinese government and also advised the private sector in the US to proceed with caution while sourcing telecom equipment from these 2 Cos. We need to take note of this and do the same for all our dealings with Chinese Cos. which are having a strong presence in our power sector ranging from generation to distribution.These Cos. have made inroads into this crucial infrastructure sector primarily on account of their low prices. It has also been reported that in the last financial year the India power sector lost 40,000MW in generation due to problems related to Chinese electrical machinery and equipment. The day is not far off if we continue in this manner when the Chinese will decide and control when we should have power and when we should not. Playing into the hands of a country which is inimical to us and with whom we share little common objectives is not desirable as a long-term strategy for our country. We thus have to review the presence of Chinese Cos. in all our critical sectors and slowly weed them out. Whether we will do this or not is not clear since even with Pakistan we play 'good neighbour' while they on their part extract every little benefit from every measure to the hilt and then as they did recently go to the UN and embarrass us by raising the Kashmir issue by none other than President Zardari. The recent relaxation in visa restrictions between the two countries that India went overboard in implementing was also not desirable since by easing travel we will give them legitimate channels to send in terrorists and many many spies. We need to play hard-ball with countries who do not cooperate with us and essentially we should deal with anyone as they deal with us on a quid pro quo basis. In the same way training Sri Lankan soldiers by the Indian Army was not desirable and the TN political class was correct in objecting to this since in the past with the IPKF we paid with the life of a young and budding Indian leader like Rajiv Gandhi and we should not attract other problems unnecessarily now. Thus our foreign policy should be operated from a position of strength and we should not allow trade or other extraneous issues interfere with that particularly for countries who are none too friendly with us.
Robert Vadra: The 'Private Individual'
The honour roll of sycophancy that the Congress has fielded over the last few days in defending Robert Vadra, essentially a 'private individual', extends from the Finance Minister P Chidambaran to Salman Khurshid and has added to its ranks Ashwini Kumar, P C Chacko and Veerappa Moily, the last named giving almost a clean chit to Vadra's Companies of any wrongdoing in the light of the accusations made by Arvind Kejriwal of the IAC of collusion with DLF & Congress governments in land and real estate deals. One or the other Congressman is falling over one other to show his or her loyalty to Madam Sonia Gandhi in jumping to the defence of the son-in-law. The Gandhi family seems to be stuck with this voodoo-like tradition of the son-in-law's penchant to embarass the family. With Firoze Gandhi it was for different reasons and with Robert Vadra, it is for different reasons. But at least with Firoze he bequeathed the Gandhi surname on the family which they have been encashing now for generations but then Robert Vadra has nothing to give and only to take, as it seems now. Robert Vadra should also show some more maturity and not call this country a 'banana republic' which is nothing but slander and with his association with a political family, he should realise that it is in his interest to come clean on this affair as quickly as possible. It is also good that he closed his Facebook account to avoid further nuisance to himself and to this country.
Blackmarketing Subsidised LPG Cylinders
After the Central government announced that only 6 subsidised cylinders would be released per year for each connection, we have had various feedback in relation to the impractical nature of the measure. Within a couple of days of the announcement the Congress party said that Congress ruled States would give 8 cylinders at the subsidised rate, which essentially was a divisive comment since the Congress party leading the UPA-2 government should have decided for the country and not just the Congress ruled States. Further there were other comments from within the Congress party's Kerala members that at least 12 subsidised cylinders should be given. There were also comments that for joint families who have many members the restriction would result in fragmenting the family leading to disintegration of the country in the long run rather than holding it together. It has also been pointed that for the Midday Meal Scheme for school children that is given across the country the limitation of 6 subsidised cylinders would lead to a massive increase in cost for the scheme since the schools would have to buy the additional cylinders which they need at the full price. This would make the entire scheme unviable. PM Manmohan Singh while addressing the nation after these measures had said that the government had verified that needy families use just 6 subsidised cylinders per year. Now this comment is up for question since the figures for anything that the government releases are debatable like the CPI figures, the export figures which showed a US 6 billion difference lately, the IIP,the growth numbers etc. etc. Therefore, how this figure has been arrived has to be explained since from even within the Congress party it is being questioned. Not only that what will happen is that across the country the LPG cylinders will be blackmarketed with the distributors suppressing the subsidised cylinders and creating an artificial shortage for them. The consumer thus put under pressure will then be given the option to buy the cylinders at a price just below the full price leading to a mechanism like the Tatkal scheme but giving windfall profits to the distributors. We are also all aware of the kind of setup that our LPG distributors have and there will be many disputes on the quantity of cylinders given since the final confirming authority of the cylinder is the illiterate delivery boy. Ultimately this whole scheme will end in a mess and like it is said of the Congress party they would have opened up another way to cheat the aam admi.
Why Are Robert Vadra & Sonia Gandhi Above The Pale Of The Law
The expose by Arvind Kejriwal of Robert Vadra's acquisition of DLF properties in the 3 Congress ruled States of Delhi, Haryana & Rajasthan at vastly reduced rates and that too funded by DLF had initially been commented by Congress leaders as between two individuals and that the party had nothing to do with it. However, since then the battery of Congress leaders including the Finance Minister, P Chidambaran defending Robert Vadra makes it seem that it is almost the Congress' single point agenda to defend him with Salman Khurshid, the Central Law Minister claiming that is his duty to defend Congressmen. When such heavy artillery has been fielded by the Congress to protect the country's 'first' family, as claimed by some of the sycophants within the party, where was the need for the 'individual' Robert Vadra to come clean on the issue and therefore he has come out now with a bland statement that everything has been reported in his financial transactions with the relevant authorities. Why should Robert Vadra be firstly defended by almost the entire Congress leadership and secondly, it is time he came clean on the sources of funds for the property purchases which are today valued at some Rs. 500 crores if everything is ship-shape and above board. It is in his interest tosort out things and get things clarified, otherwise people will tend to believe that where there is smoke there is bound to be fire. Further, Gujarat CM Modi had questioned Sonia Gandhi's trips abroad and the amounts expended by the Central government on these. Why should be there an issue on declaring this information? She is an ordinary citizen of India and any information as entitled under RTI should be released. This includes her medical expenses as spent abroad. Statements as released by the PMO that but for Belgium for collecting some award there have been no expenses incurred on Sonia Gandhi's trips abroad is just not enough. Further Ambika Soni's comment that all MP medical expenses are reimbursed by the government is neither here nor there and more in the nature of beating around the bush. In this context why Sonia Gandhi and her family should be above the pale of the law of the land is something that is very disappointing. This more so considering her Italian origin. Why the Congress party has been dancing with Sonia Gandhi and her family on their heads is another distressing matter since it is akin to being slaves in their minds to a foreign entity and that too for the first political party of the country which is also more than a century old. Are there no home brew leaders with the Congress to lead the country?
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VOX POPULI
by
Aam Admi
Issue: 133
Date: 06.10.2012
Contents:
1. Backtracking On The Casino Closure Issue
2. Media, A Little Balance, Please!
3. Selling This Country Downriver
4. Congress Minister's Insensitive Comments
5. Anna & The IAC Split
Backtracking On The Casino Closure Issue
Mining which is one of the pillars of the Goan economy has been brought to a shuddering halt consequent upon the Shah Commission report and the suceeding decisions of both the State & Central governments on illegal mining. The closure of mining activities in the State which shows no signs of being resumed anytime soon is supposed to impact 55,000 persons who are directly and indirectly employed in this industry. While this is not an attempt to justify illegal mining and the degradations to the environment that mining has unleashed on the State, an attempt is being made here to draw attention to another essentially illegal activity and that is of casinos which is posturing as legal under the garb of having been issued 'licences' by the State government. The casinos, both on-shore and off-shore, are as reported in the last Assembly proceedings employ some 2,500 people only which per the comments of our esteemed Chief Minister, we can ill afford to close down since such a 'large' number of people will lose jobs. However, on mining, where there at least some legal mines everything has been closed down thus throwing the livelihood of almost 20 times the number employed in casinos in disarray. There must therefore be a reason to protect the casino business at the cost of mining. That there seems to be a reason why our incumbent government is chary in acting against casinos and shut them down is apparent from many of the comments made by Manohar Parrikar on the floor of the Assembly during the last proceedings and therafter to the press. From saying that the offshore casinos will be moved out of the river Mandovi immediately to the 'end of his term' took just 20 days to recant or change his stand. He also said that only 2 of the offshore casinos are functioning, if so what are the other boats doing in the river? Blocking normal traffic of fishing trawlers and cruise ships. And was barge traffic of mining stopped so that the casino ships that are not operating can remain anchored in the river. In these inoperative casino ships, what are the activities that are going on is something that needs to be checked. Since it was reported that the Haryana Minister Kanda one of the fleeing accused in the air-hostess Geethika suicide case was hiding in his Casino Rio ship on the Mandovi for 10 days before he went back to Delhi and surrendered. Like this one wonders what other nefarious activities relating to prostitution, drugs, money laundering and organised crime continue on these casino ships, both operative and inoperative. Should we not check this out and clean up our rivers both in physical and figurative terms? Where the ships will go if they have to be moved out of the river is something that the CM has asked not to be questioned since he wants to hold the cards close to his chest. Why this should be so is not understood since it was the CM himself who had been clamouring that they should be moved 3-5 KM out in the sea or at least to Aguada Bay when he was in the Opposition. The CM had also said that women employees timing for work at the casinos will be regulated. Nothing of the kind seems to have happened. Further on the issue of payment of licence fees of casinos the CM had said that many of the casinos had not paid the revised higher figures, which fact was questioned by some of the prominent owners, that apart he also said that those of the public visiting these casinos would be acted upon by law for visiting illegal establishments. Consider this that an elected political leader says that he will arrest those that had elected him for visiting illegal establishments which he is unable to shut down though he has the powers to do so. Is this not picking on the common man? Should not the CM show his muscle to the casino owners to whom he is more than nice. Immediately thereafter he extended the time for payment of the revised licence fees and also offered an instalment plan for payment of the revised licence fees. Is the aam admi given these concessional terms when it comes to his financial commitments? Why this soft approach to big business then? On the revised licence fees, the CM has been preening himself that with only 18 casinos operating out of some 28 licenced, the revenue to the government in terms of licence fees is much higher than in the past. What kind of an attitude is this? Is this not making a virtue of essentially a vice like casinos and gambling. One is reminded in this case to draw an analogy of how a bordello owner would boast of his larger revenue earnings with a lesser retinue. This is the kind of mindset of our present leaders in Goa. In the local papers a couple of days back, it was reported that the police have raided the matka dens in Ponda. While this is welcome, one would remind the CM to go after the 'big fish' rather than be content with minnows. Elevate your horizons, Mr Chief Minister, it is time that you shut down the casinos in Goa.
Media, A Little Balance, Please!
The media more the TV than the print media needs to moderate its approach to reporting and the handling of important issues like economic reforms. While it is sometimes acceptable to report such news without bias, what we see more often than not is that the media goes overboard plugging for the agendas of government or the corporate sector. This generates shades of suspicion relating to 'paid news'. Further on TV discussion forms while the composition of the group most of the time cannot be faulted the manner in which senior political leaders as well as other dignitaries are not allowed to make their point if it is particularly divergent from that of the host or the TV channel in question is rather sad. The balance of the discussions is thus lost and the entire exercise becomes wasteful. This needs to change. Also in the current 'new' wave of reforms, people in the media should realise that they and their families are as much affected by the petrol/diesel price rise and the general rise in prices in the marketplace. Thus they need to think for themselves before they sing the song of the channel or their corporate sponsors. The reason for all this is that people in this country still look at the media and particularly TV now as sources from where they firm up their opinions. If the media tends to play one-sided, it is only shooting itself in the foot since its credibility in the long-term will tend to erode. And then it will not be long before the public will seek alternate media options to inform and educate themselves. To highlight this point just this week, the host of a major English TV news channel was haranguing an Opposition leader that if FDI in Retail is not implemented then the government may have to go in for another round of price hikes on petroleum products! What connection there is between the two is doubtful and also we have all already realised that the price hikes be it for petroleum products or any other item in this country is linked to political convenience rather than to compensate for actual cost increases in the inputs.
Selling This Country Downriver
The latest FDI clearances in Insurance and Pensions are showing up the intention of this UPA government to pander to the corporate lobby in India as well as the designs of the foreign lobbies that are interested in this sector considering the huge size of the India market and the volumes of funds involved. As one of the Opposition panelists in a TV discussion highlighted the timing of what is being termed as the 2nd wave of India reforms is somewhat suspect considering that the world economy particularly in Europe and the US is just coming out of the recession and with the US in a Presidential election year, moving now may be injudicious since the corporates there may be holding back until the end of this year to firm up their investment plans. Further with even Cos. like AIG in the insurance sector in the US seeking a bailout with the financial crash a couple of years back, one wonders what we have to learn from these Cos. Why we are not supporting our own Cos. in this sector like LIC & GIC is something that is not understood? This applies also to the banking sector where the West has seen major scandals and scams running into bilions of dollars, the closure of Cos. like Lehmann Brothers and every single major financial Co. tainted by scams, the Basel reforms being questioned for their efficacy and even the respectable LIBOR, the index rate which formed the basis for all international lending transactions falling by the wayside recently. Inspite of all this we continue to believe that the West can teach us how to run our financial economy. With the shoring up in the value of the Rupee and the Sensex touching the 19,000 level, it is being said that these are the indications that India is on the right track, but we seem to forget that these indicators are fickle since it is very much dependent on hot money inflows from FII's. In the meanwhile all international ratings agencies and multilateral financial institutions have scaled the India growth figures for this year in the range of 5-6% inluding the ADB recently which is where the rub of the basic problem lies. What we need to do now is rather than recklessly seek growth but pause and consolidate our economy, plug the leaks in the system from governance to the PDS to social schemes like the MNREGA and see that they are functioning properly. Then after a period of 2 years of this 'hold' then move forward on growth more strongly which will be more sustained and durable. Why we do not take some lessons from other countries facing similar problems is again not understood and in this context the lady President Fernandes in Argentina has in the manner of Venezuela thumbed her nose to the West and managed to control inflation, create more jobs and put the Argentinian economy on a path of growth. Spain which is the throes of seeking a financial bail-out has also stressed on the need to cut down the size of government. While we do not look at these issues and believe that mindless growth will solve all our problems.
Congress Minister's Insensitive Comments
The latest comment by the Congress Minister Jaiswal on women is yet another shame on the Congress and the UPA-2 government. The mindset and attitude of these leaders is clearly represented in these insensitive comments that they utter. It is not only him but the whole bunch of Ministers of the UPA-2 have been known to put their foot in their mouth. It was Beni Prasad Verma a couple of months ago who said that inflation benefits farmers since it gets them better prices for their produce which speaks volumes for his knowledge of the basics of economics. Then again we have had the PM Manmohan Singh telling us that money does not grow on trees. Do we all not know that? In the context that he was making this statement of the under-recoveries on petroleum prices by the oil Cos. and having dawdled on this for years on one pretext or other, it gives the impression that Manmohan Singh believed that money does grow on trees up until the point that he hiked the diesel prices by Rs. 5 a litre. We also had P Chidambaran in the recent past making snide comments that the average middle class will not think twice before buying an icecream for their children by paying Rs. 20/- but would not give similar higher price recoveries to our farmers. The list on this is long which shows how isolated these ministers and this government is from reality. They continue to live in their make-believe world and do not blink an eye-lid at spending Rs. 28 Lakhs for the UPA-2 3rd anniversary dinner which worked out to some Rs. 7000/- per plate. The Congress official clarification to this was that the majority of this expenditure was in constructing a water-proof tent on the lawns at the venue since the monsoons were on in Delhi at that time. Where the PM exhorts the aam admi to tighten his belt and be prepared for tough times did he not realise that he should lead by example and not expand the Congress leaders belts which are in any case constantly expanding. On a more serious note was austerity not a consideration for this function and could not a hall have been hired for this function saving the money for the water-proof tent. Or was the PM emulating Barrack Obama's dinner for him on the White House lawns during his last visit to the US, since following the US on all matters is now a pet phobia with Manmohan Singh these days.
Anna & The IAC Split
The manner in which Kejriwal of the IAC has sidelined Anna Hazare is a classic example of someone using a simple man to serve his own ends and achieve national visibility. Arvind Kejriwal has done this in a smooth manner mouthing the correct platitudes even to the extent of offering the cash contributions collected during the various fasts that Anna had conducted. Anna has rightly refused these contributions. For a movement that was slated to fight corruption which one should understand is not only monetary, Arvind Kejriwal has shown how morally corrupt he is by way of exploiting Anna Hazare's persona and image to prop up himself and the IAC. The model of a public mass-based movement to fight important issues like corruption by putting pressure on the government to institute offices like the Lok Pal and Lok Ayukta was the correct way to go. The political move made by Arvind Kejriwal is destined for failure since he will fail to capture the imagination of the people. One has to give the IAC a maximum of 6 months before it fades out of existence. One now understands the hardline positions adopted by Arvind Kejriwal in the various negotiations with the government on the Lok Pal, since he never wanted anything to come out of them. The fact that is heartening in all this is that Anna Hazare is not giving up and soldiers on steadfast in his convictions and beliefs. All of us need wish him the best of luck.
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