VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 185
Date: 23.01.2017
Contents:
1. Of Leader's Family Getting Tickets In The BJP
2. A Separate Cadre For The Election Commission
3. Chatrapati Shivaji’s Statue In The Sea Off Mumbai
4. How Banks Have Changed!
5. Serious Action Needed To Speed Up Economic Recovery
Of Leader's
Family Getting Tickets In The BJP
Nobody
seems to be heeding Narendra Modi's advice not to give election tickets to the
family of sitting MP's and MLA's as also those holding high office in the BJP.
With Rajnath Singh's son being nominated from NOIDA in the 2nd list of the BJP
for the UP elections this advice seems to have fallen on deaf ears. This has
been happening not only in UP but also in Uttarakhand where the Congress leader
who recently defected to the BJP has been nominated for elections. And adding
insult to injury to Modi's advice his son has also been given a ticket for the
upcoming elections. That much for the lip-service of getting candidates from
as wide a field as possible by Modi.
A Separate
Cadre For The Election Commission
There
may be more than a grain of truth in Arvind Kejriwal's allegation of the
Election Commission siding with one or the other party during the conduct of
the elections. He had made this comment in the context of Goa where the Chief
Secretary is in charge of the Election Commission in the State. This situation
one would feel would be true across India since the Election Commission does
not have a separate cadre of officials to conduct elections and depends on the
Central Services cadres to provide them staff. These officials are more
often drawn from the State in which the elections are being held. Thus these
officials but naturally will show their allegiance and favour the party that is
most likely to win the elections which may not be necessarily the incumbent
party. Thus it is best that we develop a separate cadre of officials to run
elections in this country which will staff the senior level of officials in the
Central Election Commission as also the State level commissions to ensure free,
fair and impartial elections. This kind of a cadre will be worthwhile since for
a large country like India some or the other election is happening all the
time.
Chatrapati
Shivaji’s Statue In The Sea Off Mumbai
Chatrapati
Shivaji’s statue to be installed in a man-made island in the sea off Mumbai
would be a welcome tribute to one of the great and legendary figures of Indian
history. A symbol of Maratha pride who singlehandedly kept the Muslim kingdoms
of the Adilshahis, Nizamshahis and the Mughals at bay and was successful in
carving out in the hills of the Deccan a nationalistic kingdom which at one
time extended from near Madras and Bangalore in the South and Bijapur in the
East to almost Gujarat in the North along the western coast. This was further
consolidated by Chatrapati Shivaji’s son, Sambhajiraje Bhonsle and then
expanded later by the Maratha chieftains of the Bhonsles like the Holkars and
the Scindias into almost ruling the whole of India during the decline of the
Mughal Empire. These achievements of the Marathas owe their seeding to
Chatrapati Shivaji who instilled in the Marathas the feeling of patriotism and
the consciousness of nationalism. Even today close to four hundred years since
the birth of Chatrapati Shivaji, his name and that of his family is taken with
reverence and great respect. Which figure in history is remembered in this
manner and for so long is what we need to ask ourselves when we want to raise
the questions of necessity of the statue and the cost involved in its
construction? In fact Chatrapati Shivaji’s name is in the annals of our history
alongside that of Emperor Ashoka and Chandragupta Maurya. It is rather
unfortunate that in today’s times everything tends to be measured in terms of
money. The fact that it will cost some Rs. 2300 crores to construct this
Chatrapati Shivaji’s memorial in the sea off Mumbai is of no consequence when
you assess his contribution to the thought and philosophy of a united India.
Just for the information of the naysayers like the Statue of Liberty earns the
USA in terms of tourism dollars so also this memorial to Chatrapati Shivaji
will be a tourist attraction for Mumbai and will pay back the cost in
constructing it within a span of about twenty years easily.
How Banks
Have Changed!
There
was a time when your neighbourhood bank was your friend in need. The manager
was your consultant and advisor in matters of finance as well as on many other
general issues. Slowly things have been changing with the bank becoming a shop
for multiple financial instruments with the manager rarely getting the time to
even smile at you. He will be in between measuring the weight of gold that some
customer has brought for a loan or finalising a home loan for another buyer.
This transition of reduced customer interaction actually started with the
introduction of ATM's where customers no longer had to enter a bank for drawing
money from their accounts which used to be the major activity of ordinary
account holders. The person to person interaction reduced with this transition
and has been deteriorating since. The only exception in recent memory was that
on Nov 10th 2016 every bank in India got the maximum number of customers ever
to come into their branches since they had opened shop! The bank branches over
time automated with computers replacing the age old ledgers. The musty environs
of most bank branches at least in cities and major towns were revamped to look
sleek, modern and were air-conditioned. This became more intimidating to some
customers what with frequent transfers of bank staff where they would not see
the familiar face at the other side of the counter. Around this time came
the focus on costs at the bank. This was more so with the private banks where
it started with charges for issuing cheque books which came as a shock to some
old customers of the banks. Though the banks personalised the cheques with the
names of the account holders to soften the charges that they would recover.
Then there were more restrictions with minimum account balances being mandated
and if you went below the limit charges were levied. The public sector banks
followed with these practices though the usury was more moderate. All this led
to the feeling among customers that you would be charged for just visiting the
bank. More charges for breathing the air inside! And pay through your nose for
sneezing in bank premises! When the ATM's came the above trend was fortified by
the banks encouraging people to use the ATM's so that you did not have to step
into the bank. Initially though you could use your card at your bank ATM 's, it
was later modified to be used at any bank ATM's. The idea was to make it easy
for the customer to provide anywhere access to cash but then actually it was
keep you out of the bank premises. This went to the extent of banks saying that
Fixed Deposits are expensive for the banks and they would prefer to discontinue
them. This sent a shock to generations of fixed deposit holders mostly senior
citizens who had considered banks as their very own monthly salary generators.
But then again the bank realised that if customers do not come into the bank,
then the selling of different instruments not really related to banking like
personal loans, life insurance, mutual fund transactions etc. were going to
suffer. Thus the wooing of customers started all over again. This initiative
was again led by the private banks. Customers started getting calls at lunch
times with bank executives eager to inform them of this, that or the other
instrument which would transform the customer's life! This became so irritating
after some time that most customers put their bank telephone numbers on the DND
list. When this did not work so much the banks started pruning the number of
times you could use the other bank ATM's and now the situation is coming to how
many times in a month you can use your own bank ATM. From the first unlimited
use, to 5 times a month to the newly proposed thrice. This will make customers
step into the branch premises. As you can see the wheel has turned full circle
with customers being brought back so that they can be milked for the multiple
financial instruments that the banks handle. This is supplemented by Narendra
Modi's initiative sometimes of demonetising one or the other currency note
which will bring in an avalanche of customers to the bank like on 10th Nov
2016!
Serious
Action Needed To Speed Up Economic Recovery
The IMF has scaled down the Indian economy growth
projections for this year down to 6.6%. At the same time one of the UN reports
cites that in the long-term the Indian economy will grow at 7.7% or more. The
Narendra Modi led government that has been clutching at straws in the wake of
criticism of its inefficient implementation of the demonetisation exercise
should not latch on to the UN report and claim that 'all is well' with the
Indian economy. In fact the demonetisation exercise and the consequent cash
shortage which has been continuing for almost 70 days now has put back the
Indian economy by a decade. All the sectors of the economy have been affected
with everyone trying to pick
up the shattered pieces of their enterprise and trying to make the best of a
bad bargain. At the same time the government is not taking cognisance of
adverse reports like the FII's having pulled out more than US$ 10
Billion from the Indian stock market in the Oct - Dec 2016 quarter. SEBI has
expressed concern on this matter and fears that the FII's staying away may not
be good for the Indian stock markets.
It is time therefore that Arun Jaitley and his cohorts in government should put
their heads together and instead of just looking at giving sops in the coming
Budget to both the individuals and corporates in terms of income tax benefits
should provide for structural reforms that will set the base for recovery of
the economy and put it on a path of consistent growth in excess of 8%.
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