VOX POPULI  
                                                                  by
                                                             S Kamat
                                                                  as
                                                           Aam Admi
                                         Issue: 224                     Date: 23.10.2017
                  skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:     

1. Governance Issues Brought To The Fore At Election Times 

2. More No-Brainers from the BJP like on the Taj Mahal

3. Standardised Procedure Required to Deal with On-The-Job Discipline & Offence Issues

                   Governance Issues Brought To The Fore At Election Times 

The BJP in government is an abject exercise of top class ineptness. On any issue irrespective of the valid merit of the suggestion or criticism that the government gets, the first reaction is denial and an attempt to deflect attention, the second is rebuttal and thirdly, determined stone-walling. The first is done just to give any response that takes away the attention from the issue. While the last is activated not with any conviction of greater knowledge or competence on the issue but  filled with the arrogance because 'they are the government and they cannot be wrong'. You can see this happening on the GST issue where a multiplicity of issues had been raised ranging from reducing the number of slabs of tax, to re-classification of items into the more correct slabs, glitches wth the portal, the deadlines for filing returns, the problems faced by the textile, jewellery, household industry and the SSI sector. But then nothing was done on any of the issues but low and behold when the PM wanted the focus to shift to Gujarat what with the upcoming elections there, it was like a fairy appeared with her magic wand and what was beyond discussion became an active debating point. The government also started making the right noises that the GST slabs would be reduced, the 28% tax items reviewed, more daily use items shifted to the nil or 5% slab and the export industry given concessions as well as relaxations for filing returns. Difficulties still remain and are compounded somewhat but at least a start has been made. Even the PM has said that the problems faced by the jewellery and handloom sectors that are important for Gujarat also will be resolved shortly. The point to all this is that if GST was an important reform for the economy why was it treated not as such and difficulties faced by the user segments not resolved expeditiously and why does an impending election to Gujarat have to bring the GST into full focus. Elections happen randomly while dealing with the economy is a priority as well as a full time job which is where this government has been failing to judge issues correctly. This is more so now with the economy in bad shape. In fact the comment in most circles is that if the PM have done less circumnavigation of the globe and devoted himself to putting the economy back on the rails maybe we would not have been in this present position. 

As for election mode the PM has already slipped into that mode which is actually his comfort zone by making comments like the Nehru-Gandhi family being against Gujarat and that his proposal in 2013 as Gujarat CM to re-build the Kedarnath temple after the damage caused by the massive floods was rejected by the then UPA government. Both comments are not verifiable or backed by proof but then like in election times everyone knows that rhetoric rules which is what the PM is banking upon. 

During the Kedarnath tragedy then, the initiative taken by Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM to evacuate Gujaratis from the people stranded in the earthquake and floods was completely irresponsible. When disaster strikes every victim is equal and no one should say that I will provide better services for my people. Such initiatives polarises feelings of the victims and distorts relief operations. This is not desirable unless we have a rare order of co-ordination which as we all know is sorely lacking in our country. In the upcoming elections, winning Gujarat is very important for Narendra Modi while winning the other States going to the polls is important for Amit Shah.

                            More No-Brainers from the BJP like on the Taj Mahal

We have another no-brainer from the BJP doing the rounds these days and that is trying to de-recognise the Taj Mahal as part of our heritage. Heritage as we all know is something good, something bad and is a khatta-meetha kind of thing. By drawing these red herrings across the media firmament once in a while to justify the saffron agenda the BJP is only ending up discrediting itself. They show their lack of political maturity and the lack of depth in their leadership. The unfortunate part with the BJP is that you scratch the skin and you find rabble rousers. There is a silver lining to the issue about the Taj Mahal since thankfully both the UP CM & the PM have made statements recognising that the monument is part of our heritage and valued at that.

 Standardised Procedure Required to Deal with On-The-Job Discipline & Offence Issues

The other day there was a news report in Goa papers that Sabaji Shetye, the erstwhile Addl. District Magistrate in Panjim, who had been caught red-handed while receiving a bribe has been re-instated and posted at the  ESI Hospital. This is rather surprising! How can an official caught flagrantly in an act of corruption be restored in service? One would have expected that once Shetye was suspended after the incident and upon completion of the enquiry, he should have been removed from service. Is that not what a government having the fight against corruption on top of its agenda do? Instead of that the person is re-instated into his job within a few months. Corruption is a vice from which there is no cure or reform. The corrupt like a drug habit has the offender repeating his corrupt ways.

Again on the hi-profile Tejas Express last week that runs between Mumbai and Goa, the suspected food poisoning incident was highlighted where some 22 odd persons were hospitalised. Follow-up news thereafter said that 2 persons from the catering and managerial departments had been suspended because of the incident. Then finally we were told that there was nothing wrong with the food served on the train and the incident happened because of some of the children vomiting in the AC compartment which caused successive nausea with other co-passengers which again included some children. If so what happens to the 2 suspended officials? One would presume that they would be re-instated. But then the question 
is, why were the officials suspended? In this instance the officials were not directly responsible for the incident? Why did the Railways not wait until a departmental enquiry was complete? 

Thus you see you have one incident where the person caught in the act of corruption is restored to service in a matter of months while in another 2 persons not directly responsible are suspended without any formal enquiry. The point here is that we do not have an established system where acts of omission and commission while on the job are treated the same way and handled for punitive action in a systematic manner. One has to admit that of the 2 incidents cited above one relates to a government employee and the other to an employee of a government corporation which implies that the procedures for handling the issues may be slightly different. But nonetheless we see the government a little too generous while the quasi-government corporation a little over-zealous in laying down the line for its employees. 

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