VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:137

Date: 03.11.2012

Contents:

1. Anna Hazare To Be Wary Of V K Singh

2. Communism: A Failed Ideology

3. Corporate Bail-Outs For Government

4. Cabinet Re-Jig & Salman Khurshid‏

5. BJP Needs To Reconcile To Gadkari’s Departure

6. Congress Effectively Putting A Lid On All Scams

Anna Hazare To Be Wary Of V K Singh

Anna Hazare tends to be used by charlatans like Baba Ramdev and opportunists like Arvind Kejriwal of the IAC to serve their own ends. In the same manner we have now V K Singh, the retired army Chief of Staff sharing the platform with Anna to further his own, most likely, political ambitions. For a man one can say who did not know his year of birth and then again after becoming aware of it could not or did not get it incorporated into his personal record for many years and then made a huge issue of it just prior to his retirement with consequent massive impact on the Army morale and division among the senior staff which the Army is continuing to face to this day, to be even entertained by Anna is an honour. Further this initiative of V K Singh seems to be a ploy considering that the media has been full lately of corruption charges against the Army when he was in charge in terms of purchasing parachutes and even milk powder etc. Other than that V K Singh during his stint as Army Chief did precious little to clean up corruption in the Army and during his service tenure he would definitely have known of the scandals in the CSD (Canteen Stores Dept.) where officers of the rank of Brigadier were involved in making money on jawan’s rations, purchase of liquor and the like and Lt. Generals involved in unauthorized land deals in North Bengal for pecuniary considerations. Thus using Anna Hazare’s manch to get instant eyeball recognition prior to his sojourn into politics most probably with the general elections around the corner, will be like taking insurance against corruption charges . In his efforts in this regard he is not chary of consorting with politicians of different hues since just last week he shared the platform with INLD leaders. Anna Hazare has given free launching facilities to the likely short-fuse missile of Arvind Kejriwal and should be careful in the future of not giving others to misuse his platform to serve their own ends like V K Singh who could end up as a spent Bofors gun shell.

Communism: A Failed Ideology

We have now Wen Jiaoboa, the Chinese Premier being accused of using his official position to further the financial fortunes of his extended family whose members are now understood to be worth billions of dollars according to a report published in the New York Times. The Chinese government has thus promptly stopped the online edition of the New York Times from being viewed in China. The news of the Chinese Premier being implicated in using his official position is the latest and most damaging news coming out from China in relation to corruption by high party officials. In the two recent cases, one was where Bo Xi Lai, a very senior Chinese Communist Party committee member was accused of having made money hand over fist and his wife involved in the killing a foreigner for which she was convicted and sentenced. While in the second case, the son of another senior Communist Party was involved in a high profile sports car accident in the middle of Beijing late in the night with some half clothed women in the vehicle. China has a very contradictory and strange method of dealing with corruption. Until a couple of years ago junior officials caught being corrupt had been known to be shot by the firing squad while the high profile cases as highlighted above follow the pattern that those not in the good books of the present powers-that-be are put on trial and publicly shamed while in the case of others the matters are quietly closed. Like the saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, we have seen that with Communism vesting powers with a few, it has engendered despots like Lenin, Stalin who also were enamoured of riches and the good life, which is once again reinstated now by the Chinese example. Thus Communism as a philosophy of seeking equity for all people is essentially flawed since human nature is against this principle since every individual wants to be better in some way than the other person and since in a society there needs to be some people who have to be in charge and it is these people who progressively get drunk with power and tend to end up as bigots. For this reason Communism has failed around the world with the last zealots in India hanging on to a tattered legacy.

Corporate Bail-Outs For Government

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize winning economist has while talking about India recently, said that it is not a matter of seeking FDI that will help the Indian economy move on a faster growth path since if the investment climate was good and uncertainties about political decisions less, then Indian corporate groups which are sitting on a pile of cash would have themselves invested in different areas to stimulate growth. Thus getting FDI is not going to bring about any dramatic change in the country's economic climate. He has further said, in contrast to our own PM and other policy makers, that FDI in multi-brand retail will not lead to any growth in the Indian economy. He has also been critical about Walmart's labour policies. Taking off on the issue that Indian corporate groups are sitting on a pile of cash, while the government is always on the look-out to increase revenue, one method for the government to get its vote of confidence and its belief that all is well with the Indian economy, is to seek funding from these corporate groups. If the government gets the funding then it will be an affirmative for its policies and programs and in the event that the response is negative then it will know that the writing is on the wall as far as its continuance in power is concerned. In days of yore when the kings needed money mostly at the times of going to war then it would seek funding from financiers, which may not be such a bad idea in these modern times, at least to assure the government that it is on the right path in terms of its economic policies and not necessarily to just seek a bail-out.

Cabinet Re-Jig & Salman Khurshid‏

The Cabinet reshuffle by the PM is a meaningless exercise to show not only to the outside world but also to himself that he is capable of taking decisions. Even in this he has had the need to kow-tow to the dictates of Sonia Gandhi but also Rahul Gandhi. It has been just a mechanism to fill up the odd vacancies and juggle the pack to show who are the ones nearest to the High Command and other powers-that-be in the Congress party. If the UPA government falls in the upcoming winter session of Parliament the emptiness of the reshuffle would have been underscored. The glaring error in this Cabinet rejig has been the anointing of Salman Khurshid as the Foreign Minister. One is not pre-deciding here his culpability in the scam unearthed by the IAC in relation to the Dr Zakir Hussain Trust that he runs in association with his wife but his rather abrupt manner and intemperate language which emerged during the last stages of the Anna agitation against corruption continuing until the last press conference while addressing the trust scam issue, shows his lack of credentials for handling issues of diplomacy. What has come out is that when needled Salman Khurshid flies off the handle and our enemies like Pakistan and China are past masters at needling and will use this character flaw in Salman Khurshid to the hilt. S M Krishna for all his initial flaws and many gaffes did bring about a change in India's perception around the world and more so in the Gulf and Middle East which has been represented by the extradition of many terrorists back to India by a nation as conservative as Saudi Arabia. It is not that Krishna would have continued given his age but were there no other candidates suitable for the Foreign Minister's portfolio other than Salman Khurshid. Postscript: Surprsingly salman Khurshid was not frozen in his present portfolio or dropped but in fact elevated to the office of the Foreign Minister! This is how the Congress part works.

BJP Needs To Reconcile To Gadkari’s Departure

The BJP has made a strategic mistake by continuing to remain in denial over Nitin Gadkari’s funding of his Purti group. Given the nature of the manner of funding there can be no argument that the whole thing was illegal and the incumbent BJP President will find it very difficult to explain the source of his funding or his henchmen like driver, secretary etc. will be at a loss to clarify of how they came into crores of rupees for the investments made by the shell Cos. Thus it would have been opportune for the BJP to close the matter as quickly as possible and not stall unnecessarily. Sushma Swaraj’s claim that this is a conspiracy to malign the BJP is misplaced since Gadkari’s actions speak for themselves and given the open and shut nature of the transactions which are clearly illegal, there is no need of anyone to even conspire against him. And the BJP as a party comes nowhere near it and therefore the best thing would have been to distance themselves from these transactions saying that they are Gadkari’s private matter, a la the Congress and Robert Vadra . The position vis a vis the BJP’s stand on not only corruption but also black money is threatened since their own President seems to have dabbled on the dark side of the money. Thus it is best that Nitin Gadkari quits office and as quickly as possible. The RSS position on this whole matter though apparently proper considering that it is a BJP party matter and that they have nothing to say on it, does not hold much water since it is well known that Nitin Gadkari was thrust on the BJP as President by the RSS and therefore when he is caught in an embarrassing bind, it is the responsibility of the RSS to take some action. This is more so since the RSS has been batting for Nitin Gadkari’s second term as President of the BJP which has necessitated even the amendment of the party’s constitution. However, the more grievous comment came from Mohan Bhagwat while he was addressing the RSS function at Nagpur on Dussehra day, where he said that on matters of corruption, it is not important where the money is coming from but whether it is put to work for a good cause or not. Thus the RSS clearly does not look at the colour of money that they are getting which permissive position is disappointing. Like we know the BJP government in Goa, headed by RSS sympathisers, is not chary in accepting money from casino owners and earning its revenue from gambling, we will have BJP governments in States across the country justifying their earnings from crime, prostitution and the like by saying that they are using the money for charitable causes and for social service. This kind of plank is not going to be helpful with the people for the BJP with general elections imminent upon us.

Congress Effectively Putting A Lid On All Scams

Putting a lid on all scams has been the expertise of the Congress party which know-how the BJP must be seeking now given the charges against its President. Consider the 2G scam, after such a hue and cry including stalling Parliament, a JPC was constituted to go into the scam which effectively has tied itself into knots and the JPC is more or less defunct. The issue leading to this impasse has been over the calling of the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister as witnesses in front of the JPC, which its Congress Chairman P C Chacko is chary to do considering it may be embarrassing for his party. To justify his actions he is throwing the rule book at the BJP & CPI members, who are at the forefront of this demand, that the JPC does not allow calling ministers to depose as witnesses. To support his contention, he has also referred this matter to Meira Kumar, the Lok Sabha Speaker who has bounced the issue back to the JPC that the decision in this regard is well within its purview. So on a matter which the JPC is quite capable of deciding we have a stand-off akin to that in Parliament and there is no progress on the investigations into the 2G case. When the FM & PM were both involved in deciding on the 2G case as brought out by various documents in the media prior to the debate on the issue in Parliament, why the JPC should not call them is beyond anyone’s comprehension. If the JPC charter does not allow it, it may be time to amend the charter since it is important to get on with the probe and arrive at the bottom of the matter and establish culpability. When our Constitution is amended at the drop of a hat or numerous times since its formulation, why should the procedures of the JPC be sacred and beyond amendment, in this instance if it is not to protect the PM, FM and the Congress party and put a lid on the 2G scam. Thus like the CBI is looked at as the incumbent government’s political weapon so also the efficacy of a JPC will hereafter be in doubt. It is not just the 2G scam but also other scams like the CWG, the Adarsh scam at Mumbai on which a curtain has been drawn with a notice on it that on these a judicial process is on. With our judicial process not very brisk even in the case of the grievous of crimes of a criminal nature, when justice will be delivered for those accused in the above scams is anybody’s guess. Moreover all the accused in these scams have been enlarged on bail starting from A Raja, Kanimozhi and the corporate telecom honchos in the 2G case, to Suresh Kalmadi and his henchmen in the CWG case, to Ashok Chavan and the Mumbai bureaucrats in the Adarsh case. By the time these cases come up for trial the common public would have long forgotten the issues involved and whether satisfactory justice has been delivered will remain in doubt. Thus as Sushma Swaraj said we find the Congress is making money all around like on the earth (CWG, Adarsh), above earth (2G) and even below earth (coal allocations). On the coal allocations, a lid has now been firmly put on the scam and it has been brought effectively under the control of the government, by firstly bringing in the hike in diesel prices and then the FDI in various sectors including multi-brand retail and then we have had the scandals exposed of Robert Vadra’s land deals, the Salman Khurshid NGO case and then Arvind Kejriwal going a step further and exposing Nitin Gadkari’s complicity with the NCP and the resultant exposure about the funding sources of the Purti group, which has completely diverted media attention away from the coal scam. While earlier Arvind Kejriwal’s IAC & the Anna movement was called the BJP’s B team, one has to now maybe recast those opinions and consider that the IAC is possibly the Congress’ B team with it having supported to erase the coal allocation scam from the minds of the people at least for now.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue:136

Date: 27.10.2012

Contents:

1. Milk Adulteration

2. BJP On The Backfoot

3. Stem Rural Migration To Improve The Quality Of Life In Our Cities

4. India’s Growth Conundrum

Milk Adulteration

The newspapers recently carried information that a survey conducted by reputed international organizations supported by government agencies had found that 68% of milk in India is contaminated with pesticide residue and other unwanted matter. This is not linked with the adulteration that goes on in big cities like Mumbai where unscrupulous vendors tend to manipulate the quality of milk, but the contamination was found out at source and at milk processing units. With India once tipped to become the largest milk producer in the world and now having slipped to the 3rd position, there is a need to regulate the feeds to cattle and be rigorous in terms of the quality of the milk that comes to market. Self regulation in maintaining quality control should be implemented as well as final quality checks by independent assessors before it crosses the last link in the distribution chain, that of reaching the consumer. Apart from this given the volume of milk being produced in the country, the imbalances in its distribution and consumption should be corrected so that it is used to fight malnutrition amongst our people particularly children. We have had just a few months ago in Maharasthra the clamour for exporting milk powder, banned temporarily, when just outside Mumbai in the tribal areas children were dying of malnutrition. Could this milk powder not have been acquired by the State government and moved to tribal areas so that at least a few lives could have been saved and future fatalities avoided?

BJP On The Backfoot

The BJP President’s job seems to be always dogged with corruption. First, it was Bangaru Laxman and now it is Nitin Gadkari. With the RSS brass rumoured to pull the plug on him by next week, we would have had another Ravana fall on or around Dusserah. Why the RSS does not do its homework prior to backing someone is not understood since they went to the extent of backing Gadkari for his 2nd term as President though there were objections from the senior leaders within the BJP to this. This brings to the fore another serious problem that the BJP has as a party and that is they are not allowed to take all their decisions on their own but some decisions are thrust upon them by the RSS & the Sangh Parivar. This essentially is the problem that the BJP has in operating freely since apart from internal dissensions it has to bow its heads to its external masters. With the exposure of Gadkari’s shell Cos. which form the basis for investment in his Purti group, there is no way that he can explain his source of funds to start these Cos. This issue has also taken the wind out of the sails of the BJP which was attacking the Congress party and those connected with it on the plank of corruption. One is reminded of the adage – That those who stay in glass houses should not throw stones at others. It is not that the BJP can get away by saying – What about Robert Vadra or Salman Khurshid? Since the cases have to be seen in the context of how grievous they are and obviously the heads will roll starting with the most grievous. The cozy arrangement also between the BJP & the Congress which has now come into the open seems to have been continuing from Vajpayee’s time when the indiscretions made by his family and that of other BJP senior leaders was traded off against that done by the Gandhi family. One would believe that this was an unequal deal since the Gandhi family would have been messing around in much bigger deals than the other parties. But that apart why should two major parties of the country whom we trust to govern this country strike deals to protect each other’s leaders from corruption cases is something that is not understood. It is not just the BJP & the Congress involved in pulling a veil on each others corrupt doings but the alacrity with which Sharad Pawar and others of the NCP and even Bal Thackeray came to Gadkari’s defence, one would believe that they want this issue taken off the public domain since otherwise they would also be embroiled in one or the other matter since they very well know that their hands are also soiled in similar manner. Thus Arvind Kejriwal and his IAC for whatever the manner of his tactics can take the credit for bringing all these issues related to corruption into the limelight. It is time that corruption was tackled in a more forthright manner in this country since the situation has become that wherever you put your hand it comes out with scam stink.

Stem Rural Migration To Improve The Quality Of Life In Our Cities

Recently in one of the published surveys about quality of life around the world, it was reported that Melbourne was the best city in the world to live in. No Indian city figured on this list which was rather disappointing. But we as Indians cannot question this decision since we ourselves know the state of our cities and how much the quality of life has deteriorated, more so over the last 20 years or so. It is time therefore that we introspected on the conditions of our towns and cities and put in place basic infrastructure for our new towns and colonies which will deliver a better living experience than what is available in our existing habitats. One of the reasons for the deterioration of our cities is population pressure arising out of rural migration. Our industrial policy failed to spread livelihood options into the hinterland and with reverses in agriculture dependent on an irregular monsoon and consequent fluctuating means to earn a living, every able bodied individual from the villages started heading towards the nearest city, hoping that the streets there were paved with gold. Seeing this mirage disappear upon his arrival in the city, this individual ended up in the slums of the metropolis which are not only mushrooming in every single vacant plot of land and also growing at an alarming pace. To just understand how this unauthorized cancerous growth will damage the life of the city one has to only look at pictures of the slums in Mexico City and the cities of Brazil notably Rio de Janeiro. These agglomerations of deprived humanity not only tend to throw the planning process for basic infrastructure out of gear since with rapid growth they tend to hog power and water as also contribute to enormous sewage problems. Thus they spawn health problems not only to themselves but threaten the whole city by transmission of vector diseases. In addition one sees crime and law and order issues being generated here which sometimes threaten the social fabric of the metropolis. It is therefore overdue that we should try and reverse this trend of rural migration into our cities and have the rural folk remain in their own villages. For this the first requirement, is that they should feel by remaining in their native villages that they are not being deprived of anything and are not looked at as second-class citizens. The current thinking is that in the cities life is much easier and there are more avenues to earn a livelihood. Thus agriculture has to be restored to the status that the people involved in it believe that it can give them gainful employment and provide a reasonable livelihood. For this there is a need to improve supplies of seeds, fertilizer and those other inputs which are required for a good crop, make agriculture independent of the monsoon by a system of irrigation and then upon harvest ensure that the farmer is paid fairly for his produce and goods are moved quickly to market. Thereafter we can look at increasing agricultural productivity which will break the shackles of agriculture being tagged to growth of just 2-2.5% each year. To supplement employment opportunities in the rural areas industries should have been dispersed here. This has been one of the failures of our industrial policy that industries have been localized in or near urban centres. The much talked about industrial corridors between Mumbai – Delhi and other places in the country were all failures but for some limited success with the automobile manufacturing zones near Indore and maybe Sriperumbudur. Under the National Manufacturing Policy we have this concept of Manufacturing Zones which should not be like the doomed SEZ’s which was essential a politico-industrial plot to seize land. In addition the Railways are thinking of stimulating, again for lack of a better word, ‘industrial corridors’ along their trunk routes which will help the industrial units move their goods faster and better. These initiatives should be used to stem the tide of rural migration to the cities. It is then that we will not only have a better quality of life in the cities but also in the rural areas and maybe some of our existing cities or even new ones will one day figure in the World’s 20 best cities to live in.

India’s Growth Conundrum

The problem with this government is that it plays up to international opinion and ratings agencies. Thus where India’s growth forecasts for the current year have been variously estimated from a below 5% by the IMF to below 6% by other multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank, the ADB and others, we continue to maintain a stoic 6% with some overzealous optimists even not negating reaching 8% (to which band our PM has lately joined), which is actually a pipe-dream. Again when Standard & Poor waves the stick that within the next 2 years if India is unable to stimulate growth and initiate fiscal reforms it will have to consign India’s rating to junk status, it is then that our drowsy PM and his know-all Finance Minister start with reforms from FDI in retail, to airlines to insurance to pension funds, fully well knowing that all these will come to naught since they have not carried the people and their political allies with them. What hurts is that the ruling class do not seem to know what they are doing as clearly admitted by the PM that he has brought this country to its heels akin to the 1991 crisis and then he has the gumption to tell us that money does not grow on trees. We know that already, Mr PM, since we feel the pain every day when we go out shopping for the basic necessities of life like milk, grain, vegetables and fruit, but the point is – Do you know that since at least for the last 3 years you seem to have believed that money ‘does’ grow on trees. Nothing is going to improve since on the India growth issue the FM believes it is all a matter of world recession and the consequent contraction in trade clearly trying to abdicate his and this government's responsibilities. While the eminent Sardarji at the Planning Commission is trying to find holes in the IMF growth forecast for India s by calling it an arithmetical error and has again said that in 6-8 months India will return to the growth path. How many times he has said this for the last 3 years is anybody’s guess but nobody believes him considering that Sardarji’s are traditionally allowed to shoot their mouths and nobody actually listens. In this same line the same Sardarji has again put his foot into his mouth while discussing the draft Land Acquisition bill by saying that tribal lands which is already a contentious issue about the rights of tribals to forest lands and produce, should be allowed to be acquired so that industries can be set up there and employment can be generated. It may not be wrong to say that this sardarji is nothing but a mouthpiece of the West, mostly the US. Then there is the attempt to talk the stock markets and rupee value up by the FM and others which is another fruitless exercise since it is all a transient situation and when fundamentals kick in the markets will find their real levels. This is the scenario that is being played out now. The FM is playing up to the day traders lobby in the stock markets and speculators on the rupee value and nothing else. The real situation is that the IIP is still down with the capital goods sector the harbinger of steady future growth still in the doldrums. And therefore our financial planners instead of playing to the gallery should put their heads down and evolve concrete solutions to India’s economic woes and contain inflation which is killing the people of this country. Amen!

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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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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 132

Date: 29.09.2012

Contents:

1. National Security Issues While Sourcing Critical Infrastructure Equipment

2. Deliberate Obfuscation To Persist With Corruption

3. The Western Tilt Of India's Policy Planners

4. Naveen Jindal’s Obscene Salary and A MAT To Fund Social Schemes

National Security Issues While Sourcing Critical Infrastructure Equipment

There was a news item recently that Lanco, Adani & PunjLloyd have been banned from port projects on account of national security but at the same time Reliance Power was allowed to sign up with China’s Datang Corporation for electrical products critical to the transmission and distribution (T&D) of electrical power in India. Not only did Reliance Power announce its tie-up with China’s Datang Corporation and almost immediately the PM announced FDI approval for power exchanges. Who says that the Ambanis no more have close connections with government? We have also already signed for supply of equipment for India’s thermal power plants (TPP) from China primarily on account of cost and not performance which is a major lapse and which has impacted us in the last year in terms of lost generation of some 40,000MW. We need to look into these aspects since in the US even recently Huawei & ZTE Technologies, the telecom Cos. from China, were hauled up before the US Congressional Committees on account of national security issues and whether there was a software option by which in their equipment a rear window is provided to the Chinese government to spy on the US. Do we at all look at such matters or like going to the vegetable market, we go on the basis of the lowest price for our critical equipment buying and dump all our secrets in the lap of those who are inimical to us. Quite a few years back when Huawei started their software operations in Bangalore, there were concerns expressed about their staff sent in from China and their antecedents but then as is usual in our country everything has died a natural death and we have probably not even thought about such issues since then.

Deliberate Obfuscation To Persist With Corruption

The deliberate obfuscation by asking CBI to look at coal allocations from 1993 onwards by the UPA-2 is with the clear intention to put a lid on Coalgate. One wonders why 1993, and why not from 1947? This will allow generations of CBI officials to be fully employed. Why the present Coalgate could not be tackled separately and with the details of ministers and the Congress politicians kith and kin involved in the mining of coal coming out, is something which is not understood? Our political class does not take heed from the moral – One Thing At A Time And That Done Well. After tackling the present exposures on Coalgate they could have then gone backwards into time and exposed others involved in such activities. Now just like the 2G case passed onto the JPC, nothing will come of Coalgate for the next 5 years since one or the other party involved in it will try to sabotage the probe. And by that time all this is over, some new scam would have come to occupy the public mind. It is not only this case but that of Madhu Khoda in Jharkhand, then the CWG scam where all the accused including Suresh Kalmadi is on bail and the Adarsh scam in Mumbai. Time and again we have seen in our country that major corruption scams have been reduced to a political circus and stakes have been gambled on the strength of powerful individuals and/or parties and bargaining conducted with the intention to put a lid on the matter, without even looking at the issue at stake. Thus the scam or corrupt act gets lost in the overlays of claims and counterclaims leaving the common man stunned with the audacity and manner with which our politicians wriggle out of their illicit acts. Take the latest case of Ajit Pawar’s resignation in Mumbai on account of an irrigation scam and that too in Vidarbha which has had the highest incidence of farmer suicides in the country and where practically no irrigation project came up in the last 10 years and all the money sanctioned was siphoned out. This issue is now being turned around into a prestige fight between the 2 coalition partners, the NCP and the Congress along with the internecine clashes within the NCP, while putting the continuance of the government in Maharasthra at stake. The demand being that the Congress should not target NCP politicians for corruption which has even senior leaders like Chagan Bhujbal and others tainted with one or the other scam. It is not that the Congress are as they – washed in the holy waters of the Ganges, but their turn could also have come later. All this has left the common man in Mumbai stunned (or numbed or no reaction since they are by now inured) to see the kind of leaders that they sent to the legislature. Is there no solution to this wholesale and mass organized robbery by these politicians to make themselves rich at the cost of the common man?

The Western Tilt Of India's Policy Planners

The connection with the foreign hand or the preference for it is clear with Manmohan Singh which we saw during the finalization of the Indo-US nuclear deal and now again in the announcement of the FDI in multi-brand retail. This tendency is not only with him but with almost all our senior policy planners. The reason for this may be related to the education in the western universities like with Manmohan Singh or association with them and the UN and other world body multilateral institutions by him and the others. Take the case of Kaushik Basu, the erstwhile Economic Advisor to the PM who came from US academia and upon completion of his assignment in India went back as Executive VP of the World Bank. The same is true with R Raghuram who replaced Kaushik Basu who came into this position from his stint with the IMF & the World Bank. It is but natural therefore that their views would be clouded with western tints and their opinions aligned to western interests. It is not only these people but also Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who time and again comes out as a strong believer and votary of Western economic thinking and who more often than not can see nothing wrong with Western rules and regulations and advocates for their implementation in India. In fact he was publicly pulled up just last week by P Chidambaran who in a rejoinder said that the West is not always right and we should also think for ourselves. Even D Subba Rao, the present RBI Governor has been recommending for our banking sector among other things to implement the Basel III norms which has been criticized by the US and that too by the FDI, a Federal deposit agency, saying that structurally the banks should be stable and paying lip-service to Basel III in term of filing reports of compliance is just not enough and what needs to be improved is the control and regulation of the banking sector so that crises like sub-prime do not surface again. We have also seen so many financial scandals that have dogged the Western banking system particularly over the last few years with set-ups like Lehmann Brothers going under and rogue trading which have ensured some banks to totter on their very existence, but even then we want to follow the policies of the West! Thus one thinks that it is time for us to eschew Western financial thinking and develop our own economic policy structures and work out our own programs within that as also evolve our own financial sector rules and regulations which will work for us than blindly aping the West.

Naveen Jindal’s Obscene Salary and A MAT To Fund Social Schemes

Naveen Jindal’s obscene salary at Rs. 73.4 crore per year along with the top 15 salary grossers in corporate India aggregating annual salaries of a total of Rs. 478 crores and having seen an increase of Rs. 38 crores over last year is something which is completely contradictory to the ethos of this country. There needs to be a rationalization of salaries in the corporate sector and there be should be some relationship between the lowest wage employee in the company and that of the highest paid. With Naveen Jindal drawing Rs. 73.4 crore per year, one wonders what the lowest paid draws? We are not the US or other parts of the developed world where capitalism is flaunted and the ability to command and draw exceptional salaries is considered an achievement. With 53% of the country below the poverty line our industrialists should realize that they have an onerous duty to better the lot of their fellow brethren who are lesser privileged. Our industrialists should also realise that they are from this same land and their money earned is from here and that is why they should support the local people. Paying lip-service by building charitable trusts, hospices and the like is just not enough and it is time that they put their action where today their words are spoken. Like they say, they need to - Walk Their Talk. The industrialists should contribute to make a visible difference over a span of a decade for a community large enough and in such a manner that this group can stand on its own feet. It is also time that our government thought of some tax rebates in the range of 20% of profits of corporate entities to directly fund social support schemes which they can generate on their own and in the environs in which they operate like the Tatas at Jamshedpur etc. or contribute to the MNREGA, Sadak Yojana etc. People may say that if this is done then the rich will work less and show lesser profits, but like they say, avarice and greed is difficult to cap and ultimately it will prevail. But with such strictures it will be ensured that a part of it will definitely go towards mitigating the lot of the deprived. Postscript: Since writing this Naveen Jindal has responded in the press that the Board and the shareholders have approved the salaries which is carrying the obtuseness a bit too far. Naveen Jindal will remember the PM while addressing FICCI the last time he spoke to them advising that salaries of senior functionaries in the private sector should be set with moderation which in the context of the present disclosures the PM is sure to repeat when he addresses the FICCI again in Dec 2012 after a gap of 4 years.

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VOX POPULI

by

Aam Admi

Issue: 131

Date: 22.09.2012

Contents:

1. The LPG Cap Raised From 6 to 9 in Congress-ruled States?

2. The Big Bang Reforms May End In A Whimper

3. Remain Content With Low Growth For 2 Years But Plug The Leaks In The Interim‏

4. What Was The Hurry To Move On The Big Bang Reforms Package

5. Rollbacks Will Pacify UPA Allies

6. Diesel Price Hike Counter-Productive

The LPG Cap Raised From 6 to 9 in Congress-ruled States?

LPG cap raised from 6 to 9 in Congress ruled States? That was the news over y/day(20th Sept). Not only was this bit of news confusing but also disturbing. The cap was brought about by the Petroleum Ministry at the Centre and by rights if there is to be a relaxation then it should be brought around by them and applicable to the whole country and not just the Congress ruled States. Where is the authority with Sonia Gandhi or the Congress party or the Congress ruled States to fiddle with this measure? What is Sonia Gandhi up to since as mentioned by one of her flunkeys on national TV, it was on her directive that the relaxation was announced? Is she showing off her displeasure with the cap as articulated also by the Food Minister K V Thomas and the Himachal Pradesh CM? Or is she trying to be deliberately divisive with the country and split it with some concessions for Congress ruled States and none for others. So much for the Congress President thinking about this nation or is her mind being taken up with Italy these days. The LPG cap will lead to black-marketing which is another matter that the common citizen will now have to contend with.

The Big Bang Reforms May End In A Whimper

The Big Bang reforms of FDI in retail, airlines, broadcasting sector and power exchanges announced on Black Friday, 14th September 2012 are going to escalate disparities between our rich and the poor and will also hand over the country into the hands of the new foreign ‘economic’ colonial powers like Walmart and others. What surprises one is why the sudden foot on the accelerator to the chugging Indian economy moving in second gear, which is surely going to stall with all the extra power being fed into it. Could this not have been done in a phased manner over the last couple of years, if at all it had to be done, phasing in the reform process. The Big Bang is clearly thus strategised to take off the attention that Coalgate has been hogging in the political space as well as the public mind lately. The precursor to Friday’s push of economic reforms was set off a day earlier by the IED of the hike in diesel prices by Rs. 5 a litre which for the sake of form should have included petrol also. At the same time the number of LPG cylinders available at the lower price was limited to 6 and any cylinders taken by customers after that would have to be paid at the full price. Hiking the price of diesel alone lays the UPA-2 open to the charge that they have been dawdling over this decision for long and finally bravado and misplaced enthusiasm has taken over concerted deliberate decision making on important and critical policy matters. Even the Prime Minister’s comment that if we are to go under then it is better to do something and then go under rather than not doing anything at all is rather blaise. The counter to this would be that if the UPA were sure that they were going under it would have been better to leave the country the way it was rather than initiate half-baked and unrealistic reforms which the next governments will find it difficult to undo, putting the country into a graver economic mess than existing.

Remain Content With Low Growth For 2 Years But Plug The Leaks In The Interim‏

We have had sharply reduced growth from the heady years of 10% growth a few years ago. The growth projected in the current year of around 6% and maybe down to even 5% is considered a disaster. That is probably the reason why the PMO hit panic stations on Black Friday, 14th September 2012 and released almost every single proposal on FDI that was pending in its In tray. In addition it touched the pricing of diesel, considered the Holy Grail of farmer prosperity to provide motive power for their irrigation pumps, that is when they are not taking it unauthorisedly from the overhead electricity lines and then there is the issue that it would feed inflation considering that transportation costs would go up making commodities more expensive. There was also a threat the international credit agencies would lower India’s credit rating unless something dramatic was done. How much the credit rating is important, is another debate when we have our own urgent and critical internal economic issues to resolve. But then, one does think, that we should for a moment step back and take an overview of the scenario that is prevailing in the Indian economy and take steps to correct the lacunaes that have been built in and which are being considered as given and non-negotiable. It is all right to assume that without growth in the 8 – 10% region we will not have enough revenue from taxation to support our economic measures and to tackle the budget deficit that has been widening by the year. But then we also need to understand that with close to 53% of the country being close to or below the BPL, we need to think how many more we are pushing into poverty by each % increase in inflation. With earnings becoming uncertain and with the scarce earnings buying less and less, there are many in this country who have to forgo basic needs and more often than not sleep on an empty stomach. Thus as inflation creeps up, so does the numbers below the BPL. The reason for inflation going up among many other reasons is that for every single thing the easiest solution is being resorted to and that is to increase price. For fossil fuel under-recoveries raise price, for electricity tariffs raise prices to meet costs, for anything at all let us first raise price and then see, seems to be the attitude. Nobody has been telling the planners to maintain the price line, and manage around that and look for other means to compensate costs. It could be technology, it could be leakages in the system, wastage, spoilage etc. which if suitable managed could help hold the price line. On the other side we have this dodgy situation of our bureaucrats not knowing how things work and why the problem exists. Take the case of waiving off of farmer loans of some Rs. 60,000 crores a few years ago, where it was found that the scheme was of no use to farmers with small holdings since they rarely took bank loans and mostly borrowed from the village money-lender. There was a lot of hullabaloo about the great social initiative that this waival represented but the benefits were appropriated by farmers with large land holdings and who were being provided with irrigated land at government expense. It needs no saying that the then Agriculture Minister played a large role in ensuring that this scheme was tailormade to his home State and surprise of surprises farmer suicides in the State, one of the highest in the country, did not reduce but after the scheme had actually increased. Then there is the issue of our leaky PDS system where the subsidized commodities are hijacked and black-marketed in the open market by moving them sometimes straight out of government godowns and telling the targeted community that the shortages in the fair-price ration shops is because the government does not supply the commodities. The MNREGA claimed to be the flagship social scheme of the UPA is known for its sieve structure for funding where the money does not reach the targeted community 40% of the time and when it reaches at the village level it is fudged for the benefit of the caste group which dominates the panchayat. Thus in this scheme and also those similar to it like the Gram Sadak Yojana you have on paper many roads and civil works made but the ground reality is that nothing has been done. The last issue is size of government which is largely responsible for the budget deficit keeps growing and there is no attempt on the part of government to reduce it. While projects are increasingly seeing the PPP, BOOT route and many of the social ministries depend on NGO’s to reach the public, but even then the size of the government keeps on increasing. Thus the approach to our development has to put in suspended animation our economy for some time (not more than 2 years) and then recast our approaches to revenue and spending. Currently our approach is to pour water into a can skewered all over with holes and pouring more and more water into it and hoping that the leaks would stop and more water would remain in the can. This is never going to happen and we have to stop this mindless profligacy to throw our revenue down the drain. What we need to do is to remain content in the interim with the reduced revenue stream at 5-6% growth, plug the leaks in the system and to ensure that the targeted expenditure reaches the desired segment of population. At the same time reduce the size of government so that the size of our deficit reduces proportionately. Once this is done, concentrate on growth and with the leakages plugged you will find the target of inclusive growth easily achievable. This model of growth leading to trickle fed development of all sectors of the population has not worked and has only ended up to increasing and deepening the rich - poor divide.It is more than time to stop this now. In the present method of this UPA government which is in avoidance mode and not facing up to reality, the approach seems to be to hand over the country to the 'neo-colonialist' corporate entities like Walmart and others from the US and other developed nations. The rich will only applaud and welcome these initiatives since they have reached a stage in their lives where convenience and access is more important to them than price and that is exactly where we are doing a dis-service to the large and greatly deprived population of this great country. At the rate we are going the day is not far off where some country-hick senator will move a motion in the US Senate to make India the 53rd state of the United states of America, and our people like Manmohan Singh here will stand and applaud the achievement of this signal honour!

What Was The Hurry To Move On The Big Bang Reforms Package

The knee-jerk announcement of what is termed as the Big Bang of the next wave of reforms in the Indian economy seems to have been motivated by the two denigrating articles in TIME magazine and the newspaper, The Washington Post against Manmohan Singh. Otherwise there has been no other reason for him to run onto the streets of Delhi ala Archimedes shouting – Eureka! Eureka!, announcing everything that Walmart, Tesco & Carrefour wanted, along with Ikea getting their demands accepted and Areva firming up their position for the nuclear reactor at the Jaitapur NPP. As expected the US commended the Prime Minister for his ‘bold’ initiatives towards FDI in multi-brand retail. All these measures and many more have been hanging fire for years and without going into the merits of what has been cleared now, it could have been done a long time ago and in a much more planned manner. Haste makes waste is something that Manmohan Singh has still not realized. The timing of the reforms is also suspiciously close to Pranab Mukherjee being shunted upstairs to the office of the President. If so was he the stumbling block for blocking the reforms process. P Chidambaran who took over as Finance Minister from Pranab Mukherjee and known for his enigmatic Cheshire Cat smiles had also lost no time in reversing or putting on the back burner many of the measures announced by his predecessor particularly the GAAR on the Vodafone deal. Thus when we knew all along what we had to do why did we have to wait until the 24th Sept 2012 to announce the Big Bang. Is it something that we have to wait for every 7-8 years for the elder statesman Manmohan Singh to stir himself once every 7-8 years like the last time while signing the Indo-US nuclear deal and now the Big Bang bunch of economic reforms. No wonder we have to collapse our 5 year Plans to be aligned with the wakefulness and responsiveness of our esteemed Prime Minister. We have Montek Singh Ahluwalia piping in for his two pennies worth, that rolling back on the diesel price hike and the FDI in retail policies would severely affect the credibility of this government. Little does he realize that at the end of all this there should be a government and then only the question of credibility is valid, particularly in the context of Mamata. Banerji and her TMC pulling the plug from UPA-2.

Rollbacks Will Pacify UPA Allies

The political circus in the aftermath of the diesel and LPG price hike and on the back of the Big Bang reforms is likely to move like this. The UPA allies like the TMC and the SP not willing to rock the boat and have mid-term elections will be happy with a partial roll-back of the diesel prices by maybe Rs. 2 and no limit on the number of LPG cylinders on subsidized prices. As for the Big Bang reforms, escape clauses are built-in in the particularly sensitive FDI in retail by saying that those states who do not want to go in for it, can abstain. Thus everything will settle down like the dust after a bull-fight as one of the Congress Cabinet Ministers said that everyone will forget Coalgate just like they did Bofors and many others in the past. That is the sum total of the political morality in India. Create smokescreens to hide massive corruption and carry on in the premise that public memory is short and our people are stupid. That in essence is the faultline of living in a democracy which comprises of largely illiterate voters.

Diesel Price Hike Counter-Productive

The diesel hike by Rs. 5 per litre will contribute to rise in prices and inflation. What the government has done is to take the easy solution. The manner in which they are projecting it, seems like this was the only thing stopping India’s growth rate from reaching 8%. Why we need this growth is also debatable since we have seen with high growth the scams like 2G & Coalgate tend to increase? Considering the slowing down of the economy and the persistent and unyielding rise in prices which has led to lower revenue by way of taxes and duties, the government thought it best as usual to break the backs of the uncomplaining farmers and the common man by hiking diesel prices and limiting LPG cylinders at subsidized prices. This hike is not going to help and will feed inflation that will eat away growth. What should have been done is that fossil fuels like petrol, diesel, CNG, LPG, furnace oil etc. except for aviation fuel should have been allowed into the country duty-free, both customs and excise, and the States persuaded to be satisfied with VAT of 4% on these products. This would have led to a rationalization for the long term in terms of fossil fuel pricing and encouraged consumption. This would have given the much needed push to the economy allowing for growth to be on a more stable footing.

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