VOX POPULI

by

S Kamat

as

Aam Admi

Issue: 183                   Date:  09.01.2017

skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:

1.      Modi's Government Failing The Trust Test

2.      The 'Mass Molestation' At Bengaluru

3.      Thakur Refused To Read The Writing On The Wall

Modi's Government Failing The Trust Test

The mess regarding the demonetisation measure continues with the latest being the RBI refusing to accept the demonetised notes after 30th Dec 2016 from the general public. In defence of this position Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister has said that RBI is an autonomous institution and they are within their rights to take any decision while clarifying that the PM in his speech announcing the demonetisation had said that  RBI at their denominated offices will accept notes until 31st March 2017 for which terms and conditions would be advised. One wonders when the Finance Ministry was running the RBI from 8th Nov  to 5th Dec 2016 where its autonomy was hidden? In all this PM Narendra Modi is losing credibility is what his colleagues and the institutions involved do not realise. It is not only in this but in many of the things that Modi has announced since 8th Nov 2016 that there is confusion like the PMGAY - Prime Minister Grameen Awas Yojana is a dud scheme and a State like Maharashtra has not even sanctioned even one application under it and also the Rs 6,000 grant to pregnant women, no one knows how to implement it. This is just like the earlier advice at the height of the cash shortage that you could draw Rs. 2.5 Lakhs for a wedding in the family where after the initial confusion a set of rules were framed by the RBI which were so strict that many preferred not to avail of the scheme and some even deferred the marriage of their children. 

The reason why the RBI is not accepting any more of the demonetised notes except from NRI's and those who had been abroad in the period since 8th Nov is because it and in consequence the government would lose face what with at last count 97% of the demonetised notes having come back into the banking system. And if they continue to accept the old notes they would get more than 100% of the demonetised notes! If this were to happen then the premise that demonetisation was done to eliminate black money would be seriously jeopardised. Not only there would be no question of the 'special' dividend that RBI would pay the government on which basis the poverty alleviation measures were to come. Added to that it would expose the shabby state of accounting of the notes in the banking system under the RBI's stewardship for which now a detailed assessment is being done to show that at least some of the demonetised notes did not come back. 

While all this has been happening the fatuous Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister has been crowing about the boost in collections of taxes, both direct and indirect, in the current year which is but natural since if you analyse the collections you will find that most of it came after 8th Nov 2016 and in the majority it was direct taxes. This happened because the demonetised notes were used to pay up advance tax in excess rather than go through the embarrassment of going through the exchange process or depositing it through the banking channels. That is also the same reason why public utilities have recovered old dues and are current with their tax receipts and why loan repayments to banks peaked after 8th Nov 2016. Why does Jaitley not speak of credit offtake from banks being the lowest in decades in the current year and that the PMI for both manufacturing and services sector has been shrinking month by month and more so after 8th Nov 2016. Jaitley does not seem to be perturbed about serious issues affecting the Indian economy where sector after sector has been reporting slowdowns but is celebrating in his new role of tax collector par excellence.

This is been the state of affairs of the bold demonetisation measure of PM Narendra Modi to eliminate black money, corruption et al which has fallen flat with a resounding splash across India while at the same time putting the billion and more of its citizens to misery which is continuing to this day.

Postscript: Modi on his recent visit to Patna is supposedly to have greeted Nitish Kumar with - Aapne to Daru-bandi kar ke sirf peenewalon me tabahi macha di, maine to Note-bandi kar ke sare desh me tabahi macha ke rakkhi hai. (If you have created a nuisance for drinkers by banning alcohol, I have created a nuisance for the entire nation with demonetisation.)

The 'Mass Molestation' At Bengaluru

There has been two much hype in the media with regard to the supposedly 'mass molestation' incident that happened on New Year's Eve at Bengaluru and also related to the Kammanahalli incident where the lone woman was attacked. In both cases the basic question is what are normal times that women should be out in the streets. This was more so in the Kammanahalli incident since what was the woman doing alone on the streets at 2.30am, even if it was New Year's Eve. Those women who are concerned with their own safety would have been escorted by someone or the other to venture out at that hour. The persons who attacked her were obviously lumpen elements who were seeking some satisfaction of their sexual  urges and the woman was unfortunately the hapless victim. She was lucky to get away with her life since anything could have happened at that time. As for the 'mass molestation' on Brigade Road and MG Road, here again people and particularly women should know where and what times they are safe. There was a condoning clause here that the place was a public place and the occasion was New Year's Eve but even those accompanying the women be it friends or family should have taken care and extra precautions. The more the crowd and with drunken people in them are no place for women to be around at any time of the day or night. The police are also helpless at times when they are outnumbered in a crowd, so blaming them is like using them as a punching bag for your own discretions. The police would do as much they can to protect people but there is a limit to their ability defined by the particular situation. When such incidents happen, women groups become hyper but essentially every citizen of India should remember that his or her safety is first the individual's job and then the police comes in. It is not that you deliberately invite danger and then complain of police inaction is not being a responsible citizen. In India the times are changing and because of the divide between the rich and the poor, no jobs for the youth and therefore no money in their hands, there is a jealousy and grouse that they develop when they see people being of their same age group celebrating freely and possessing things that they themselves aspire to own. This grudge is accentuated at festival times or on days like New Year's Eve and a revenge motive develops which gives rise to incidents as above. Therefore every right-minded citizen is better advised that he or she should take care of themselves and their family first and take necessary precautions rather than depend on the public authorities. Does not sound too good but that is what this country has progressed to. 

The Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru while talking to the media a couple of days back said that 6000 CCTV cameras would be installed around the city to prevent such incidents. Unfortunately this is typical of authorities who gain wisdom after the incident and is typical of closing the stable door after the horses have bolted. He also does not understand that the cameras cannot prevent anything from happening that is being carried out with deliberate intent and will only serve in the trial of the assailants, in the event that they are caught, as evidence. What the police even on the New Year’s Eve incident should have done is anticipated the incident as the crowd was building up and intervened to control the crowd by releasing them in batches or spread them out to the extent possible given the road topography as is done in Kolkata while managing the huge Durga Puja rush. On the contrary our police wait for the incident to develop before they intervene. A training course in better crowd control is recommended for the police not only in Bengaluru but across the country.

Thakur Refused To Read The Writing On The Wall

The removal of Anurag Thakur at the BCCI was on the cards a long time back when he fell foul with the Lodha Committee report and thereafter with the Supreme Court. One needs to have a certain amount of maturity not to play games with the highest court of the land which is what Thakur was doing. He was directly instigating the State Cricket Associations to come out against the Lodha Committee report which was not the proper thing to do. As the apex cricket organisation in the country BCCI was expected to fight its own wars and not hide behind the State bodies. The problem was that BCCI had become arrogant suffering from the syndrome that money can buy you anything and in that attitude has been Anurag Thakur's downfall. 

Another thing that Thakur failed to handle properly was the Pakistan issue. That country is going to drag India to international courts for refusing to play cricket against it and sue India for some US$200 - 300 million for that reason. All cricket playing countries around the world know the dangerous security situation in Pakistan for which reason all matches of that country are being played in the Gulf. Now obviously this is not a normal situation and BCCI should have insisted that Pakistan play its international cricket in its own country. Going further the matches that Pakistan plays in the Gulf should have been denied official status. This would have taken the wind out of Pakistan's sails and they would have concentrated to bring back normalcy at home. Instead of that the offender country -Pakistan is dictating rules to India and threatening it. A rather unfortunate and incongruous situation, indeed!

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