VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 204 Date: 05.06.2017
Contents:
1. Playing The National Anthem
2. Demonetisation Did Indeed Affect GDP!
3. The Kashmir Situation
4. 80/20 Rule Thrown In the Dustbin & Unimaginative Working By Public Service Providers
Playing The National Anthem
We have this practice now of playing the National Anthem in cinemas before the start of the show. While saying that the practice is not bad, we have to ask oneself whether it is necessary. Do we really have to wear our nationalism on our sleeve? Is it necessary to flaunt it. Are nationalism and patriotism, maybe two sides of the same coin, not deeply held beliefs of every citizen of the country? Do we really have to make a public exhibition of it so that others know that we are also a patriot? This is being stated since in some cases across the country people who for some reason did not stand up during the playing of the National Anthem were accosted and beaten up. Blatant exhibitionism seems to be the order of the day in recent times. Opinions vary but some may hold that these are all signs of an immature society. It also assumes that the spirit of nationalism and patriotism needs to be drilled into people since they lack the education and intelligence to arrive at these beliefs on their own. This is an insulting assumption of the government when it comes to educated and intelligent people. By overt physical actions one cannot be certified a patriot. It is a belief that should rest in your heart and be called up when there is a need to show it, like if the country goes to war and to support the war effort in whatever small way one can. In times of terror when one could be catapulted into roles where you may have to contribute to the national effort, whether it is to provide shelter to the victims or provide them assistance however insignificant it may be. Even at times of natural and man-made disasters. But what is our record in such instances. The newspapers are full of accident victims bleeding to death on the roads while the public prefer to take videos of the scene with their mobiles rather than provide any help to the victims of calling the police, medical assistance etc. During the unusual floods in Mumbai during 1996 people were unable to reach their homes since all transport had come to a halt, people stranded far from their homes found people unwilling to provide them shelter let alone give them food and water. The Indian trait whenever there is a public commotion or a catastrophe is to shutter themselves in and look after their own and play innocent and unaware of the problem that is raging outside. So of what meaning is this practice of standing up while playing the National Anthem at cinemas. Does this gesture make you a patriot? It is clearly an empty gesture bereft of any deeper meaning. It was done in the past mostly in the 1960's & 1970's since we had the wars with China in 1962 and then with Pakistan in 1965 & 1971 in close succession and where there was a need to stimulate the national spirit. We were also then a young nation. We are now a nation old in age at 70 but our grey hair does not seem to have given us any wisdom since we continue to believe that empty gestures will shore up this great nation. There are already guidelines of playing the national anthem just follow them. Just because the Supreme Court has ruled on it does not mean that we should follow it blindly. The judges are also human beings and are prone to make mistakes. It is possible that they have also missed some aspects of the matter. Like one feels that the national anthem needs to be played in our legislative houses and political rallies at the beginning and end of each session so that the representatives of the people are reminded of their noble duty and reflect that in their actions. The national anthem needs to be played in schools and colleges along with the morning assembly and for college students attendance to this event should be made compulsory and those that do not attend should be barred from exams equivalent to the rule related to attending classes. Similarly for any student functions like their festivals or inter-school or college competitions, it should be made mandatory that the national anthem be played both at the start and end of the function and likewise on each day if the events are scheduled for multiple number of days. Once legislators set the example of respecting the national flag and have the benefit of the nation in their minds and students are inculcated the national spirit there will be no dearth of patriots in this great country. As for the quality of cinema that is shown in cinema halls these days to have the national anthem played at these bawdy houses, one thinks is an insult to the national anthem and to the country and in no way inculcates the nationalistic spirit and breeds patriotism.
Demonetisation Did Indeed Affect GDP!
We have Arun Jaitley yet again trying to bluff his way out of trouble in the context of the Q4 GDP showing a drop and the annual 2016-17 figures being nudged just a tad above 7% in line with the previous projections to shore up some credibility. This is like the proverbial fig leaf to save the government from shame. The Narendra Modi government's standard norm has been to tell lies when it gets cornered on non-performance since untruths is its basic mantra. This as one has seen happens on almost every single issue. The latest official GDP figures which came out this week show the growth to be 6.1% for Q4 of 2016-17, which is negative compared to the previous year and has pulled down the GDP to 7.1% for 2016-17. In fact the Gross Value Added - GVA, which is the GDP without the indirect taxes is much lower compared to the last year for both the Q4 as well as the 2016-17 annual figures. Achieving above 7% growth for 2016-17 was in any case suspect without the base year jugglery which the CSO implemented. This data in fact confirms that Demonetisation did affect the GDP irrespective of Jaitley's rejection of the premise. The unorganised sector was the hardest hit but with the above it is clear that contrary to government claims the organised sector was not left unscathed by the withdrawal of the Rs. 500 & the Rs. 1000 denomination notes. The funny thing is that the Rs. 2000 continues to be unpopular with the people and there have been many demands to bring back the Rs. 1000 note. The Rs. 2000 note in contrast that was brought in to eliminate black money has only facilitated the ease of acquiring it since storing black money needs now littler space! Thus the situation with the Rs. 2000 note is clearly a comedy of errors! This also shows up the inability of the BJP government to read the minds of the people while implementing important measures. This was the only decisive government action that the Narendra Modi government took in the last 3 years and even that was a great mess-up, unless Jaitley wants to talk about the other 'decisive' action that Narendra Modi took in dropping in for a cup of tea with Nawaz Sharif after which we have had 'amicable and peaceful' relations with Pakistan! As for Jaitley's rebuttal that the 3 years of this government's handling of the economy has been to show jobless growth because the unorganised sector has not been surveyed, one could ask why has this government has not done this survey. Is it for fear that their worst nightmares about unemployment in this sector would be confirmed? The only thing that Narendra Modi has been good at is in winning elections and the handling by him and his team of the economy leaves a lot to be desired. The saving grace in Arun Jaitley's recent press statements is that finally he has come around to admitting that Demonetisation did affect the economy and the GDP but it was not the only factor, he claims!
The Kashmir Situation
On the Kashmir situation which is distressing to say the least there have been comments made by some unnamed BJP leaders and our Army Chief, Gen. Rawat that requires to be addressed. The unnamed BJP leader as reported in the media is supposed to have said that the protesters in Kashmir, he wished were not just throwing stones but if they had carried guns then they could have been dealt with differently. This leader one would tend to believe is speaking for the party since there is no mention that this is his personal opinion, should desist from such veiled threats and realise that the Kashmiris are citizens of this nation as much as he is. Because they are citizens, they have stones in their hands and not guns, which are in the hands of the terrorists. The saving grace in this comment is that the leader has at least the power of perception and is able to recognise that dealing with those that are carrying stones and those that have guns should be different.
Gen. Rawat on his part was reported to have said that the army would adopt innovative methods to tackle the problem in Kashmir. With due respect to the Army Chief and given the background of the attacks that terrorists have mounted on the army, what he needs to concentrate in the first place is to protect his own men and their bases/encampments. He also needs to improve the morale of our soldiers and combat-readiness. The latter he could possibly do by having more frequent changes of shifts of soldiers in disturbed zones like on the border with Pakistan and maybe the North East where insurgency is a factor. Other than he should go back to basics first and protect our borders more aggressively in Kashmir and stop infiltration completely by way of rigorous patrolling. Once he has done all this then he can look to earn brownie points and write his name on the pages of history in golden letters by his innovative tactics.
Postscript: What needs to be done in Kashmir is that the governments, both State and Centre, should reach out to the people and show serious intent in having peace in the State. This can only be done by repealing the AFSPA which is an unnecessary regulation behind which our military and para-military forces are hiding to get away with their not so regular tactics. Other than that the separatists under one pretext or other should be either thrown into jail or put under close house arrest so that their initiatives to foment trouble are curtailed. At the same time the Indian Army and the para-military forces should pull out of the civilian areas like villages, towns and cities and reduce their visible presence. The Kashmir State police should be made responsible for local law and order. The focus of the armed forces should be to unequivocally seal the LoC and the border with Pakistan so that the infiltration of terrorists is stopped. In this context, the bus that plies to Muzaffarabad should be curtailed. The message that should go out from these measures is that India wants to pursue the velvet glove in the steel hand approach. The velvet glove is for the Kashmiris who are our own people and should be treated like any other Indian. But even they should know that the steel hand which is being imposed on the terrorists and Pakistan, could as well turn against them. The current approach is one of ambivalence in the gaps of which everyone including the Kashmiris are finding opportunities to create trouble. An example of this recently was our eminent Home Minister, Rajnath Singh saying that the Army would be advised not to count their bullets when it comes to retaliating against Pakistan in Kashmir. Does this mean that up until now our armed forces were counting bullets during military action? Progressively our foreign policy with Pakistan in relation to Kashmir should be projected to the world so that a DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) would replace the present LoC and the entire border with Pakistan. This would be a suitable stretch on both sides of the border extending upto maybe a kilometer where no military activity would be allowed and both India and Pakistan would be authorized to take whatever action they deem fit to keep that status intact.
80/20 Rule Thrown In the Dustbin & Unimaginative Working By Public Service Providers
We are back to requests from the telecom Cos. and the banks asking us to validate our existing connections/accounts for KYC and to make them Aadhaar certified/enabled. One does not understand why these requests are coming. The plea of the Telecom Cos. is at least to comply with the Supreme Court guidelines to weed out bogus connections and those being used for nefarious and terrorist activities. But there needs to be some common sense and/or logic applied to these matters since with not even 1% of the population involved in terror and criminal activities, why should 99% of the people be put to this process? Senior citizens particularly find it distressing and go through needless inconvenience by these measures. It was only a few years ago that Telecom Cos. were on considerations of market share and business, competing with each other to show off the minimum time in which they could set up a mobile connection and dole out SIM's. The DGP in Goa recently in a joint meeting of his officials with Telecom Cos. had commented that the latter had been giving out SIM's as if they were selling potatoes or onions. Thus the telecom Cos. who are responsible for creating the problem should be made accountable to resolve the issue and not put each subscriber into difficulty. There are many ways that this can be done since the Telecom Cos. already know about suspicious connections from their records and pattern of calls. The Telecom Cos. thus should be assigned targets by the SC to weed out bogus & non-KYC compliant connections over a specific period like maybe 1 year and monitored strictly every quarter for proportionate progress with associated fines for not meeting these targets.
In the same manner banks who about 2 months ago had sent out sms' to account holders to do a fresh KYC for their accounts and then advised that this was not necessary, have again sent out sms' to do the same again. With the banks there is no SC judgment but one suspects pressure from the Income Tax authorities. Firstly, why is a fresh KYC with photos and all required? Secondly, what has happened in these interim 2 months to ask for KYC again? Has anything changed? If so, the banks should tell us, keep us informed so that we understand the necessity. The banks cannot at their whims and pleasure keep saying do this, do that since for some people particularly elderly people it is a pain. And why photos again? People rarely change their appearance over a period of a decade or so unless there have been special circumstances like an illness, disfigurement by way of accidents etc. or unless it is a deliberate makeover. This fact is more true for senior citizens who will rarely change in their facial appearance. Sometimes senior citizens do not have readily available photos and it is not easy for them to run around and get them at short notice or to the bank's deadlines. At the banks like with the Telecom Cos. because there are some crooks around who do not comply with our income tax rules and other financial regulations and to weed them out the larger public is being put to needless difficulty. Such kind of people may at the outside limit be about 20% of the people who have bank accounts. Here again the banks can sort out these accounts very easily by looking at their transactions and the kind of people involved. But sometimes banks just like the Telecom Cos. having aggressively built up these accounts find it difficult to impose strict measures on them for fear of compromising themselves. This is a method of shirking their primary responsibility. So what do they do, move these verifications to a general level so that they can take the plea that everyone is being dealt with in the same manner. Thus you see for just maybe 20-30% of bad eggs all the account holders are being put to nuisance and difficulty. There are related issues here like computerisation at banks was done for automation and to reduce the use of paper but in their zeal for repeat KYC, there will be more use of paper and the need for storing papers thus negating one of the more important aspects of computerisation.
If the Telecom Cos. and banks sort out the cases which absolutely require verification and additional documents, then they can deal with less people making their job that much easier on this issue. This will also let off the larger population from unnecessary hassle. One has to also ask in this context whether the banks, Telecom Cos. and also LPG distribution Cos., which is another service provider who asks for repeat documentation, in their customer database software have the provision of seeing that the customer's Aadhaar card details are available with them since sometimes the connection is given or account opened with the Aadhaar card as the seeding document for both identity and address proof. If so then why should these Cos. keep bothering such customers all over again. We will now come to the Aadhaar card issue and its use as a primary authentication document. The Aadhaar card itself is a suspect document since as reported in the papers, there are spurious cards and lately the 3 Pakistanis staying in Bengaluru illegally reportedly had Aadhaar cards issued on the basis of other false documents. Then Osama bin Laden has a Aadhaar card and surprise of surprises a goat has a Aadhaar card! Thus getting people to register their Aadhaar cards as primary identity document may not entirely be a foolproof system.
Concluding one must say that in management a golden rule that was practiced earlier was the 80/20 rule which proposed that if 80% of those going to be impacted by any rule or measure are benefited then we can ignore the 20% of those who are not in favour. But the way the present BJP government is operating, it goes in reverse that is the 20/80 rule which means that if it works for 20% of the people then go ahead with the implementation thus letting the 80% of the people go to hell. This premise applies for the above as also the famous (or should one say infamous) Demonetisation exercise that was inflicted on the Indian people on 8th Nov 2016. To supposedly catch 20% of the population that is corrupt, 30% of the population having black money (it is assumed that the 20% is a sub-set of the 30%, considering that those with black money are also corrupt or support corruption) , Narendra Modi wiped out 86% of the currency in circulation comprising the Rs. 500 & Rs. 1000 notes which affected 100% of the country's population drastically for the first 2 months with millions having their livelihood snatched away and lakhs thrown out of jobs. This one must say that Narendra Modi and his government have turned common principles like the 80/20 rule upside down or turned it on its head.
Postscript: As indicated above, this BJP government is allowing a minority, sometimes very minuscule to drive the agenda of the nation taking away attention from more serious and urgent issues of development. Where the government should focus on these minorities like terrorists, corrupt people, black marketers and hoarders and those possessing black money, we are seeing the government and its institutions using this as an excuse to draw the entire population into the net and asked to comply with multifarious regulations. There seems to be no method in this madness. Like in a family do you regulate and discipline only the wayward children or do you put restrictions on all your children?
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