OPinionatED
or
VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat as
Aam Admi
Issue: 174 Date: 31.10.2016
Contents:
1. The Tata-Mistry Spat
2. Bow Wow – Dog Talk
3. The Indo-Pak Border Is Alive To The Sound Of Firing
The Tata-Mistry Spat
The Tata-Mistry spat that exploded in the last week has been splashed over the media which is not very pleasant and/or creditable for the illustrious Tata group. It is sad that neither Mistry nor the Tata management have been trying to take the matter off the public eye since these are not matters that need to be exposed in public. Transition times for the Tata group have always been associated with ginger and spice since when Ratan Tata was nominated to take charge of the group by the venerable J R D Tata it was the feisty Rusi Mody running TISCO then who had raised a mild banner of revolt. One must say that the young Ratan Tata had then handled the matter firmly and with elan which attributes were carried through his tenure at the helm of the Tata empire. It is now his turn to play the disruptor in this interrupted term of Cyrus Mistry. He may have valid reasons to unseat Mistry but the roots of this problem has its origins at the time when Mistry was nominated to step into the shoes of Ratan Tata. Ratan Tata was not part of the search committee to select the new Chairman while Cyrus Mistry was and the committee in its wisdom or folly selected Mistry. Ratan Tata should have been part of the search committee considering the size and diversity of the Tata group and being an incumbent he would know the great complexity of the job. The condoning clause against this argument would be that Tata knew Mistry already since both were on the board of Tata Sons given the latter's position with Shapoor Pallonji. But being catapulted into the Chairman's job at Tatas was something that Mistry had not bargained for, to which he had demurred initially and which he must be now regretting for having accepted the challenge. But it is time for him to move on with grace considering that he is still young and there is much more than the Tata group for him to play around with and to show his professional competence or otherwise. The fallouts of the spat we have seen in the stock market, with government agencies as also the lakhs of the employees of the Tata empire spread across the globe. But the major fallout will be to get a new Chairman as Ratan Tata has said will take 4 months. Given the controversy whether any serious candidate would like to join so quickly is doubtful and Ratan Tata may find himself occupying the Chairman’s position for a longer span more likely close to a year.
Bow Wow – Dog Talk
The canines have been very much in the news again over the last week. What with another 90 year old person attacked and killed by stray dogs while he was sleeping on his front porch in Kerala. With this it has been three deaths caused by strays in the State over the last couple of months and all of them aged people. There had been outrage over dog culling in Kerala after these deaths but then a solution need be found. Even after the latest killing an old boy’s college outfit has announced that they would give gold coins to the municipal councils which kill the most strays. Commenting on the dog culling earlier Menaka Gandhi, a known animal lover had denounced the measure and called for its immediate cessation. Unfortunately Menaka did not give any constructive ideas on how the stray dog menace can be combated? It has not only been that such attacks have occurred in Kerala but it has been happening across the country and in Bengaluru there had been a number of attacks over the last year on small children mostly while they were playing near garbage dumps. Menaka has also raised her voice in protest for the practice of eating dog meat in Nagaland and Shillong in Meghalaya as also much of the North East tribal areas. But then this protest seems to be rather illogical since if one can eat chicken, goat, lamb, cow then why not dog? One can understand the people sentiments about dog being man’s best friend but when the menace of stray dogs is reaching proportions where human life is at risk then some action needs to be taken. Measures to effect birth control on dogs and to inoculate them against rabies all seem to have failed since if one looks around us in any part of India the stray dog population has been growing at alarming proportions and also the number of biting incidents and attacks on people that lead to death has been rising. Thus the simplistic thing to do would be to catch all the strays in the rest of the country and ship them out to the North East so that the people there are at least not deprived of the protein that they are used to. Some such measure needs to be worked out since the high procreation rate of stray dogs, the uncontrolled disposal of garbage in open areas in our localities which feed the dogs, there will come a day when the number of dogs in any area will exceed the human population. The measure suggested above does not stop people from keeping dogs as pets as long as they manage them properly and give them the required shots so that they are not a danger to the families which maintain them or those people who are likely to come in contact with these pets. The owners of the dogs should also ensure that they pick up dog poop that their pets litter in public places. But recently on Marine Drive in Mumbai when the municipality introduce a system of fines on owners for their dogs for littering the seafront with poop, some grudgingly paid but then it is said that the number of dogs coming for a stroll with their owners on this celebrated promenade has been reducing. Again just before Diwali, in Mumbai again, it was reported that some NGO’s and dog lovers were putting collars on stray dogs and cats labeling the localities they are from, so that these animals can be returned to these localities if they stray out in fear and by disorientation during the noise of Diwali fireworks. Is such concern not misplaced? Since hardly one hour drive from Mumbai in Thane tribal children have been dying in scores because of malnutrition. Are these children, the progeny of humans, not deserving of similar concern?
The Indo-Pak Border Is Alive To The Sound Of Firing
Almost synchronized to the cacophonous noise of fireworks during Diwali, the Indo – Pak border adjoining Kashmir was alive to the sound of firing. The guns from both sides have been blazing away with more regularity than they were six months ago. One could say that this is the end of the season boom of activity before the long winter sets in making the passes difficult to cross over for the terrorists from PoK and Pakistan. But the fact remains that the rat-ata-tat of small arms and mortar fire has increased making the villagers from near the border flee to safer surroundings. There have been a number of casualties on the Indian side of both our army personnel and innocent villagers. One could say that a lo-intensity war on the border has been in progress over the last month or so. This could be because of the attacks on Uri and the tit-for-tat Indian army attacks on terror camps across the border. But there is a darker reason on both sides for this lo-intensity war to escalate and become a full fledged war. On the Pakistani side there is no need to justify the need of a war since it is something that they are used to and which they consider their birthright. But the immediate basis for fanning the flames could be that their Army Chief, another Sharif, is due to retire imminently and it is in his best interest for him to have something serious to develop on the Indo-Pak front since then maybe he gets an extension in service from the other Sharif, PM Nawaz Sharif. General Sharif took a tour of the forward areas on the Kashmir front a fortnight ago to check out the preparedness which is enough visibility to declare his intentions. On the Indian side, we have seen how the surgical strikes post-Uri attack was milked by the BJP and the incumbent government to extract every last bit of political mileage with an eye on elections in a border State, Punjab and the very important State of UP, which are both up for elections in early 2017. So you can imagine what will happen if a full-scale war develops on the western front with Pakistan since then the 56 inch chest will puff up and expect both States to fall into the laps of the BJP and its allies. It would be something like what happened with George Bush who got his second term Presidency because he had the guts to go to war in Iraq. Not only that in India with the economy sluggish a war could be just the thing to propel it to a higher level of growth and get things moving faster. So when the snows start melting in March – April in the high passes of Kashmir’s border with PoK and Pakistan we should start seeing the fires of war lighting up our north-western horizon.
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