VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 240 Date: 16.07.2018
Contents:
1. Supreme Court In Anger Suggesting Demolish Taj Mahal
2. Deal Within A Deal For Mallya, Nirav Modi & Choksi
3. Be Selective But Respond With Rationale On Adverse International Reports
4. Kashmir Is On The Boil Again
5. Jayant Sinha Should Resign, Failing Which Should Be Sacked By Modi
Supreme Court In Anger Suggesting Demolish Taj Mahal
The papers carried news y/day, 12th July 2018 that a 2 Bench Supreme Court had in anger told the government that if they cannot maintain the Taj Mahal properly, they can consider demolishing it. The judges may have said this out of frustration but they should factor in the immaturity of this present government and the rightist agenda that they outspokenly practise since they may take the Court's advice literally and go ahead and demolish the Taj Mahal. In the last fortnight or so there have been reports that some politicians from the BJP have been demanding that the Taj Mahal should be renamed as Shiva or Ram Mandir or some such, and it may not be impossible to believe that they may take the Supreme Court's advice literally. The Supreme Court judges one thinks should also in speech and judgment maintain a decorum that does not give ideas to the general public sections of which may interpret it according to their agendas unless the judges themselves have deliberately signalled this action to be taken.
Deal Within A Deal For Mallya, Nirav Modi & Choksi
In the high profile scam cases like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi etc. the modus operandi of the investigating authorities and the government is to feed media with whatever action that they are taking to show that they are doing something. But if you assess the news about seizures made and the value thereof, you will find compared to the scale of the scam and its consequent liability, the value of property seized be it movable or immovable is peanuts. Thus it is best that the authorities have a SOP of giving reports on such cases to the media on a regular timeline basis unless there is something sensational that needs to be publicised. The recent offer by Vijay Mallya, to pay back his debts from his property valued at Rs. 13,000 crores is yet another scam since firstly, the valuation is maybe suspect since none of his properties that went up for auction fetched anywhere near his declared value or even their market value and secondly, if you read between the lines in this report where mention of his letters to the PM & the FM are mentioned, there seems to be a quiet deal in the offing which is natural considering that the 2019 elections are around the corner and the BJP needs money to fight the elections. So it would not be surprising if starting with Mallya the first offender or poster boy of scams, as he himself put it, may be completely absolved followed by Nirav Modi & then Choksi, with the aam admi holding the bucket for the losses of the PSB's.
Be Selective But Respond With Rationale On Adverse International Reports
The government remains in denial about international reports which are not convenient to them like on the issue that for women the most dangerous place in the world is India and then that human rights atrocities are happening in Kashmir. The response from us has been without any basis or data of the rejection of the reports. Even our representative in the UN while participating in a debate on the issue spoke on the UN body which prepared the reports not sticking to its mandate of reporting on international war zones but did not contest the report on India as such. It is understood that the UN Secretary General is backing the UN Humans Rights Commissioner on this matter and seeking a probe based on the report. One can see here that being obtuse and beating around the bush does not help. You should rebut but at the same time take cognizance of the reports and try for rectification or improvement. When there are reports from abroad praising India like another recent one on ease of doing business with India having moved up the scale the BJP and government are quick to jump on it and blow their trumpets but any negative reports they refuse to accept. This is rather strange.
Kashmir Is On The Boil Again
Kashmir is on the boil again. The day after Ghulam Nabi Azad made the statement about the increasing number of civilian deaths in Army operations in the troubled State, the headlines in the papers the very next day carried news of a civilian death in a terrorist encounter where 2 terrorists were killed and one surrendered. Again while conducting an area control operation the Army faced a stone pelting crowd and killed 3 civilians including a 16 year old girl on Sat, 7th July 2018. Thus there is nothing wrong in what Azad said. More and more civilians are being killed in police, para-military and Army operations in Kashmir. These are being covered up as collateral damage or the civilians branded collaborators of the terrorists. The attempt is to justify the killing. This has been the pattern even in the North East where the AFSPA was in force though thankfully now with decreasing insurgent activity and peace returning to some of the States there the AFSPA has been withdrawn. The Army acts in such irresponsible manner while called in to play a role in civilian matters like in disturbed areas like Kashmir because of the impunity they are accorded under the AFSPA. We have seen in the recent past how a Kashmiri man was tied to the front of an Army patrol jeep and paraded through villages with announcements that this would be the fate of those indulging in stone pelting. The Army major who used this Kashmiri man as a human shield was given the Area Commander's commendation! If this is is not a violation of human rights then we have to get a definition of what constitutes a human rights violation. Maybe the Army has a logic there that the man is not beaten up or put to other physical harm or even killed! And then we claim that a recent UN Agency report stating major human rights violations in Kashmir to be wrong! The way to go in Kashmir is to use the velvet glove over an iron hand strategy. The situation is already out of hand since we have to understand that once children get involved including as we have seen girls in the agitation who are taking to stone pelting, how deep the pain is. It will take a long time to assuage these hurt feelings and restore normalcy. The way forward is to keep a strict vigil on the leaders of the separatist movement, restrict their movements without actually putting them under house arrest, since if you put them under house arrest they will garner public sympathy and inflame the public. At the same time the government through its administrators should reach out to the common man conveying the message that they sincerely want to help the Kashmiri people and extend the olive branch. As far as control of terrorists is concerned a serious attempt is to be made to seal our borders with Pakistan so that external influence is minimised which will make it better to manage the internal animosity and dissent. The way the government is going about In Kashmir now under Governor's rule is being an election year in the rest of the country and maybe even Kashmir, is to play the macho image a la the surgical strikes and use force. This strategy will boomerang in the government and the BJP's face, who is the principal architect of this strategy, and make the ground situation more difficult to manage in Kashmir.
Jayant Sinha Should Resign, Failing Which Should Be Sacked By Modi
Jayant Sinha is understood to have now apologised for garlanding some of the accused in the Jharkhand cow lynching case and gave them sweets at his residence! These people had just got bail from the High Court. This is the conduct of a Minister in the Central Cabinet. This is the BJP of today. Sinha in defence of his action had said earlier in trying to give a spin to his actions that he was honouring the decision of the High Court! Being Yeshwant Sinha's son and with his education and legacy it was expected a certain amount of political sagacity, a sense of morality and cultural sensibility would be seen from him. In any case Jayant Sinha cannot remain in his post as Minister and needs to resign failing which Narendra Modi will have to sack him. This is yet another example of how educated people embroiled in politics tend to forget their background and bend over backwards to pamper to their home constituency agenda.
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