VOX POPULI

by

 Aam Admi

Issue: 156                             Date:  20.06.2016

Contents:

1.       Navtej Sarna Scoots From Book Launch In London

2.       Chetan Chauhan As The Director, NIFT!

3.       BJP Priority Is Not Saving Money While Saving Electricity?

4.       Vegetable Prices Skyrocket

Navtej Sarna Scoots From Book Launch In London

The newspapers recently were full of the news of how Navtej Sarna, our High Commissioner in London scooted from a book launch upon sighting Vijay Mallya at the function. This incident is rather disconcerting since why should a senior diplomat of a country like India aspiring to be a leading light in world affairs run away upon seeing Vijay Mallya or anyone for that matter. Actually it should have been the other way around with Mallya leaving upon seeing the Indian High Commissioner. Our diplomats should be made of sterner stuff and should hold their ground first and then second, know how to handle such situations and turn them around to the country's advantage. This is precisely the reason that in diplomatic matters Pakistan has forever been running circles around our IFS boys. During the Cold War and then in relations with China, the diplomats of the respective countries were trained to not bat an eye-lid, keep an inscrutable face and be amiable irrespective of how provocative the situation became. Our diplomats may need to be trained in the US in such matters now that we have so many things going on with the US. About this incident, the more disappointing thing was that Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj while commenting on it at a press conference was talking in complimentary terms that our diplomat left the function within 5 minutes of seeing Vijay Mallya there, while actually she should have admonished the High Commissioner to have a stiff backbone and be made of sterner stuff.  

Chetan Chauhan As The Director, NIFT!

The philosophy seems to be when a 'chaiwallah' can become the Prime Minister why cannot Chetan Chauhan be the Director, NIFT. In the process one is clearly losing sight of the fact that the person is a misfit and the organisation will go the dogs. Maybe the logic is that fashion is a not so important a facet of Indian life and so putting anyone as Director, NIFT is of little consequence. But this decision coming from Narendra Modi  who has been given plaudits of being sartorially well-turned out, down to monogrammed cloth and making khadi elegant, it is rather incongruous. Moreover Chetan Chauhan was in the thick of the financial scams at the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) exposed by AAP and putting him in charge of even NIFT is not correct. But in the BJP these days the crony culture is at the fore and Chetan Chauhan's credentials for this appointment is probably that he is close to Arun Jaitley and that he managed to put a lid on the DDCA scam.

BJP Priority Is Not Saving Money While Saving Electricity?

The inauguration of the UJALA scheme of distribution of LED bulbs in Goa was held in the presence of the Union Power Minister Goyal and CM Parsekar at the Park Hyatt, South Goa. This scheme is primarily about saving. Saving firstly the power consumption compared to ordinary bulbs or tube lights or CFL's and secondly, it is about saving the environment since the disposal of the LED bulbs is less harmful compared to the other kind of bulbs. Thus when the emphasis of this scheme is on saving, why should it to be held at a 5-star resort? This inauguration was held within the scope of the in-residence State Power Ministers Conference called by the Union Power Minister held in the same hotel. While on the one hand the BJP talks of austerity and controlling of budget deficits almost every single meeting of theirs is held in luxurious surroundings. Thus at these times of runaway prices in the market the  party continues to be dedicated to enjoying the loaves of office to the fullest extent while lecturing others on the virtues of simple living. It is almost like a Jekyll & Hyde story with the party that had claimed to be different.

Vegetable Prices Skyrocket

Vegetable prices have started to skyrocket in the marketplace again sending both the CPI and WPI into a rising spiral. One cannot fathom such random price surges since we see one or the other food item shooting up suddenly with other similar commodities following suit, as in the game of – Follow The Leader. Earlier we were told that in times of drought prices of vegetables go up because production is less while after the rains come we are yet again told that prices will go up because of either floods having damaged the crop or dislocation of transport. Thus the government has one or the other reason to justify the price increases. At the same time no action is taken to combat the price increase and therefore we continue to hear the same excuses year in year out. The indexed vegetables for inflation in the Indian context is onions, potato and tomato in that order which through the year see wild swings. One would assume that in the vegetable CPI these Three Musketeers would play a major role. It would not seem impossible therefore to conceive that governments in order to limit the rise in CPI may remove these infamous Three and replace them with say pumpkin, cabbage and ghia - bottle gourd which are relatively stable in price. It would not be impossible that the Replacement Three once given esteemed status of being included in the CPI may also get benefited price-wise. To justify this our leaders will then tell us that do we not think that the farmers growing pumpkin, cabbage and ghia - bottle gourd, should also be benefited! The common citizen has no choice but be at the receiving end of price rise and its mismanagement by the government. With the current rise of the prices of tomato to Rs. 100 per Kg. in certain areas of the country, the Centre is making all the right noises of holding an Inter-Ministerial meeting and also a meeting of the State Ministers responsible for agriculture. But will anything come out of this except for pious statements that hoarding should be stopped or prices should be regulated. The reason for this is that the Centre is just going through the motions of these initiatives since control of hoarding or price regulation for items, in this case vegetables, is a State subject. Thus the Centre goes through the motions just so that they ward off the accusation that they took no action. In the last two years when similar situations had arisen with prices of vegetables going through the roof, the government had promised policy changes to include vegetables into the agriculture ministry portfolio which tends to be heavily biased towards rice and wheat such that production could be incentivised. Additionally clusters of vegetable growing centres were promised to come up near metro cities considering that spoilage and damage caused presently by transportation could be avoided. Nothing like this was done and if you raise these issues today then everyone will look around with blank faces confirming that they actually did nothing. Vegetables happens to be the neglected items in our agriculture basket while across India it is the nourishing item in the common man’s diet and with fish and meat beyond the affordance limit of the common man, it is vegetables that he looks to for nutrition. Will the government at least now take concrete steps to increase the availability of vegetables across the country so that it can figure in the aam admi’s thali?

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