Vox Populi Issue 246

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 246                      Date: 27.08.2018

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:                              

1. The Cow Lynchings Must Come To An End

2. Of Banking Operations & The State Of Our Economy

3. The Unfolding Kerala Tragedy

                               The Cow Lynchings Must Come To An End

The cow lynching exercise has in the last few days spread to Assam where again you have a BJP led government. One person died in the incident and three there were seriously injured which was sparked by allegations of the victims for stealing cattle.
Thus in cow lynching cases, for one cow at least generally one Muslim or one Dalit are getting killed. These mindless killings have to stop since the attackers are not applying their mind to what happens after their actions to the cows and the victims. The cows in the inability of their being returned to their rightful owners are put in shelters. And with no one to care for them properly there have been a huge number of deaths at these supposed shelters which are supposed to care for the cattle sent there. Rajasthan saw 200 cattle deaths in  2016 in a shelter just outside Jaipur. In Chattisgarh it is a regular affair with 50 cattle dead in 2017 with lesser numbers in between and even a couple of  weeks back another 18 have died there after being cooped up in a room with no ventilation.   The cows mostly die because of starvation and thirst since there could be issues of funding of the shelters but mostly it is because of negligence of those running the shelters and those working in them. Apart from the States mentioned above cow deaths in shelters have been seen across India ranging from Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh and others.  So in cases where such deaths of cattle are happening in shelters should not some of those running the cow shelters be put to death as recompense for the cow lynchings. Now let us come to the victims who are put to death by the gaurakshaks. The cattle trade apart from milk like the business in beef and leather has been traditionally in the hands of the Muslims and the Dalits both as owners of the business and working in them. So they have no alternative livelihood apart from that or will find it difficult to switch their work. Therefore there needs to be sense of practicality in looking at the cattle trade. If cows or cattle in general who are not milk producing can be slaughtered then it serves as a dietary  supplement and also generates employment in the leather trade fr a large part of our population. This home truth has to be drilled into the minds of those that profess to love the cow. It is only then that the current spate of cow lynchings across the country will come to an end. 

                        Of Banking Operations & The State Of Our Economy

RBI recently announced that bank losses in 2017 amounted to Rs. 28,500 Crores. The increase in NPA's in 2017 over the previous year were also put at Rs. 1.5 Lakh Crores. This figure would have been higher but for the banks resorting to decorating their books by fancy accounting and classifying loans to proprietary and partnership concerns amounting to some Rs. 10 Lakh Crores as personal loans. In the immediate last two quarters it is reported that the increase in NPA's has been tapering off which augurs well for the future unless it is yet again related to some fancy footwork in accounting as said earlier. There are two issues here. First bank nationalisation was done in the interests of the common man.  This has been forsaken now and banks have fallen prey to unionised staff and management that serves its own interests and indulges in crony capitalism. The second is that the losses have to be funded. By what - Public money? In both cases the PSB's as well as private banks it is the common man who is at the receiving end and called upon to fund the losses by way of taxation.

At the same time the Rupee was close to Rs. 71 to the US dollar recently recovering now to a tad below Rs. 70, a record of sorts considering that the Rupee has never sunk as low as this. This fall is being blamed on external factors mainly the dramatic erosion of the Turkish Lira against the US dollar. At the same time the stock markets are booming with the BSE Sensex crossing 38,000 and the NSE 11,500. There was a time in the early part of this century when twice the economies in East Asia as well as the developed world were hit badly but India remained minimally affected. But nowadays because we are maybe more 'globalised' our Rupee and the stock markets swing like a pendulum on international winds for the lack of a steadying hand on our economy. The absence of a full-time Finance Minister is showing.

                                       The Unfolding Kerala Tragedy

The unfolding Kerala disaster as a consequence of torrential rains and then landslides and floods is horrifying. With about 350 dead and close to 7 Lakh people in temporary shelters the human tragedy has reached massive proportions. These are official numbers and the actual numbers may be higher for those caught up in the tragedy that the government and authorities have not been able to reach out to. However apart from ascribing the cause of the disaster to nature's fury one cannot discount the human hand in it. Denudation of forests, the reckless and mindless cutting of trees that has resulted in the weakening of the soil, building of houses and other structures on the hillsides and on the flood plains of the rivers and the inefficient management of the water release from the many dams has probably led to the unfolding tragedy. Notwithstanding all this the human crisis is of mammoth proportions and it is important that all efforts to mitigate the hardships and help in reconstruction be given to the people of Kerala affected by the disaster. What is also important is that in the wake of floods disease always follows and it is important to be wary of these risks and be prepared for them with medicines and medical facilities on a war footing.

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Vox Populi Issue 245

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 245                      Date: 20.08.2018                     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   Contents: 1. Adieu All. R.I.P. 2. Traffic Problems At Zuari Bridge & Agacaim - Verna Stretch 3. Storing The Waters Of The Monsoon Otherwise Going Waste 4. India's English Tour: What's Going Wrong?  5. Banks Are Being Overly Protected & Charging Customers To The Death                                                 Adieu All. R.I.P. The last week has seen the death of many stalwarts around the world. From Atal Behari Vajpayee to Karunanidhi to Vidia Naipaul to Somnath Chatterjee to Kofi Annan to Ajit Wadekar. Each of them strode like a colossus in their fields touching the lives of many people. Poet, statesman and more importantly probably the last of the gentlemen in Indian politics was Vajpayee. His going releases the moorings of the final threads of rationality in the Bharatiya Janata Party. In Karunandhi's demise the last of the great regional party leaders - the DMK. Vidia Naipaul was an acerbic and outspoken person whose novels were widely admired. In Somnath Chatterjee you had a Parliamentarian who adorned the Speaker's chair in the Lok Sabha with grace and authority. Kofi Annan brought grace, dignity and rare authority to the office of the UN Secretary General coming from the Third World. And finally Ajit Wadekar, the man with the silken touch who with his willow wand could caress the ball to the boundary in cricket with his cuts on the offside. A man who gave India the confidence that they could win abroad and as captain and then manager nurtured a great bunch of competitive cricketers. Adieu all. R.I.P.             Traffic Problems At Zuari Bridge & Agacaim - Verna Stretch Democracy was famously defined by Abraham Lincoln as of the people, by the people and for the people. However, in India it is more known as as of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians. Development as we have seen is being pursued at any cost affecting the day to day lives of the common people, trampling their interests and ignoring their problems. The traffic mess in the stretch between Agacaim and Verna particularly on the Zuari Bridge and at the Cortalim circle is a case in point which is the result of the careless and negligent attitude of our politicians.  Where they should have learnt from the traffic jams and snarls at Porvorim which were there for everyone to see during the ongoing construction of the 3rd Mandovi Bridge. It seems our politicians and decision makers were blind, deaf or both to these problems? The same irresponsible approach is being adopted for the new Zuari Bridge which is the cause of the problems that are being seen on the Verna - Agacaim stretch. Imagine what will happen when the actual bridge construction starts. Just like at Porvorim the approach of this government was to let the traffic flow and to tackle any problems as they arose by handing out patchwork solutions. This attitude underlies the negligence of people's interests and shows no advance planning which would have alleviated the problems to a large extent. The expectation is that people will 'manage' and if you explain the larger picture of the new bridge then the people will suffer in silence. This will not do and it is time that our government takes stock of the issues for any development in advance and tackles them. Presentation of a plan  after looking at issues that are likely to arise will give the people more confidence and get the government more cooperation to put through its development plans more easily and efficiently. The present modus operandi is to ride on people's backs until the limits of patience and tolerance are crossed. Postscript: One would have seen this situation across India where the administration does not think through a situation, puts people into problems and then the politician steps in to 'solve' the problem just for the sake of collecting brownie points. Nearer election times the politicians become more active on such matters.                  Storing The Waters Of The Monsoon Otherwise Going Waste Upon seeing our flood ravaged regions across the country, the waterfalls in our hilly regions and dams disgorging enormous volumes of water at tremendous pressures, one feels that the government needs to take measures across the country to store this water. The waters flowing at massive force can be stored in vertical (maybe 100 feet or even higher) silo farms near these sites allowing the rapidly flowing water to rise as much as it can in these silos. Then these can be pumped in sequence to the next level until the 100 feet silo is completely full and so on to the other silos in the farm. These silo water farms can be located at strategic places where the flood waters and waters released from dams are copious and along the flow of water near population centres like cities, towns and villages. This could alleviate not only the problem of flood damage to living habitats by water diversion but also serve as buffer water stocks to be used when the existing storage of reservoirs is not able to meet the water demand be it for potable use or irrigation. Since the monsoons are irregular, in years that the rains are deficient and once a pattern for that is reasonably established, the extra silos in these farms can be used to store grain which as we have seen in Punjab and Haryana in boom times of harvest is stored in the open to rot. These silos can be made of RCC or steel coated internally with plastic on a crash 5 year program which will lead to a fillip to the related industry and generate employment. Harnessing the forces of nature is a low cost source for energy and is relatively inexhaustible.                                    India's English Tour: What's Going Wrong?  India needs to buckle down in the ongoing cricket Test series in England. The first Test was close and one was happy that the series had started off with a bang. But in that Test were the portends of what was to follow. But let us remain with the first Test for a moment. The fact that Pujara was not taken in the team was a surprise. He has been doing a stint in county cricket and being more familiar with English playing conditions is clearly more qualified to be included than the other recognised batsmen. Rahul or Rahane had to make way for him even on counts of batting averages. Also in terms of technique one can easily say that at the present moment there cannot be an Indian Test cricket team without Pujara. Now let us come to the portends and that relates to our batsmen not able to play swing bowling. The first Test was a low scoring one but it showed up the deficiencies of Indian batsmen's technique to play quality swing bowling. Andersen, Broad, Stokes and newcomer Curran in the heavy English conditions can make the red cherry do magic which our batsmen failed to negotiate. The only exception was Virat Kohli with a magnificent century in the first innings followed by a 50 in the second. The second Test brought these home truths about our batsmen's weakness against swing bowling to roost with the first day's play lost due to rain and then India getting out cheaply with doubts whether they would even cross 100. The England batsmen did relatively better partly because India made their job easier. The lack of an additional pace bowler in Kohli's armoury was apparent. Why an additional spinner was chosen when the Lord's pitch was reported as a green top and with rain reported over the span of the match is something that only Shastri & Kohli can clarify? Not only that Kuldeep Yadav a novice at Test cricket compared to Ashwin was given the ball in the Lord's Test much before Ashwin. This despite Ashwin being among the wickets in both innings of the first Test. This is yet another strategic mistake that Kohli needs to explain. Your main strike bowlers you need to use when the batsmen are new at the crease. The other thing that Kohli and our bowling attack needs to ponder on is once the team gets 5/6 wickets then they let the opposing team off the hook and that is when a Bairstow scores big or a a Woakes gets an undeserving (in India's perspective) century. This happened in both the Tests in England and has happened in the past also. The desire to take wickets should be there in the bowlers and the captain should have the acumen to shuffle his bowlers effectively. These are areas in which Kohli's lack of maturity and experience is showing like being emotional in team selection and not being strategical on the field. It is not enough to be a great batsman to be a good captain and the above are more matters of the mind that needs to be tackled along with a lower back problem. Concluding, one cannot take away the credit from England in the last 2 Tests where from the pace bowlers we have seen great swing bowling after a long time. In any case there are still 3 Tests to go and all India expects from its batsmen is to show more application to match the brilliance of some individual performances like that of Kohli, Ashwin, Ishant and Shami. Postscript: Since this piece was written the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge has started and India is in a good position with all-round batting and bowling performances. Shows what happens when you put your head down and apply yourself to the task in hand.            Banks Are Being Overly Protected & Charging Customers To The Death The other day at the Bank I saw a Notice about fine and imprisonment in event of abuse of bank officials by public. I must say that for the last 50 years or more that I have been going to Banks across the country I had not seen such a notice and that too prominently displayed. The Bank is a service organisation where its primary role is to deal with customers with courtesy and efficiency. Or at least that is the expectation. Therefore why a situation like abuse comes up in interaction between Bank officials and customers is something one finds difficult to fathom. However, to grant the Bank a certain amount of leeway, times may have changed and there could be a class of customers who resort to abuse. But here again one finds hard to believe that anything like this would happen in Goa. However since a notice of abuse has been put up by the Bank I will cite two instances that I personally experienced with Banks in the period Dec 2017 - June 2018. Based on these incidents which are fully documented I leave it to you to judge whether the Bank needs to be abused or not and if I do I would find myself in jail! Anyway, the first instance was end Dec 2017 when I went to draw cash from an ATM and found that instead of cash I was given a printout saying - Unable to dispense cash. The ATM was housed next to the Bank premises and I showed them the printout assuming with that proof the cashier would give me the cash. But I was told that I need to go to my Bank where the Debit card was linked to an account and file a complaint. I promptly did as advised when my Bank told me that it would take 7 days for them to reverse the transaction and credit my account with the undisbursed money. Inspite of regular follow-ups with my Bank branch and the call-centre of my Bank, it took 24 days for the money to be refunded to me. What if I needed the money urgently? What if I was a student or person with no more money in my account? The personal travails of the individual are not taken into account while the Bank officials quote rule books which in any case they do not follow at least for timelines for redressal. In another case in May 2018 I was travelling away from my home station to Bengaluru and upon incurring a small amount of expenditure of Rs. 250, I received an sms saying that my account had gone below minimum balance. I was surprised since at the time of leaving Goa I had enough in my account for at least Rs. 250. Upon returning to Goa with no facility to draw cash from my Debit Card at Bengaluru when I checked with my Bank, I found that an excessive amount had been deducted from my account for our Bank Locker. Upon querying them it was found that instead of debiting a single year's locker rent the Bank claimed that their software had debited my account for multiple years, wiping the account clean. For my comfort and satisfaction the Bank said it was not only me but other people have also faced a similar problem. For a software glitch a Senior Citizen like me had to be without cash while being out of station! This also at a time when the PM has been talking of a cashless society. In any case this issue was resolved after 50 days of my filing an application to rectify it. Why I have to file an application when it is the Bank's mistake is something I could not understand but nonetheless I made an application. But the matter had to go to the top of the Bank's local management before it could be resolved. On the plea of computer glitches the Banks are hiding sloth and inefficiency. This has been the downside of computerisation in banks. Based on these two incidents, please tell me if the Bank officials concerned are not deserving of abuse. But if I abuse them, then they will send me to jail! Why is the class of officials like bank and other public officials being singled out for preferential and soft treatment in the eye of the IPC etc.? A new caste system is being created in this country with IAS at the apex and followed by various categories of public officials to replace Manu's caste order. Apart from this the banks are overcharging common customers. All banks in total made more than Rs. 5000 crores in the last financial year by way of penalties levied for not maintaining minimum balance in Bank accounts. Close to 50% of this amount went to SBI and they still report a loss in three consecutive quarters and some Rs 5000 crores recently for the A-J 2018 quarter. So even after making money out of common customers, the banks books are heavily balanced towards the loot of public money by a crony class of customers who are responsible for the NPA's in connivance with bank officials that reflect as losses. And remember that bank nationalisation was done in the interest of the common man and in about 50 years hence the banks are sitting squarely on the shoulders of the common man and riding him to his death.                                                     ************************

Vox Populi Issue 244

                                                              VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 244                      Date: 13.08.2018

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1. Argentina! Oh, Argentina! 

2. Dalai Lama's Unwanted & Out-of-Turn Comments

3. Swaccha Bharat Program Ill Conceived, Needlessly Capital Intensive

4. Hapless Bribe-Givers Have No Choice, Cannot Be Named Offenders

                                      Argentina! Oh, Argentina! 

I need to confess that I am a big fan of Messi and still not able to get over Argentina's exit in the last World Cup held in Russia. Come to think of it, it seems it was all coach Sampaoli's fault in not being able to knit his forward line into a cohesive attack machine with the likes of Messi, Aguero, De Maria and Dybala in the side. Aguero was hardly used in the World Cup matches and in most cases came on as a substitute. But then in his first serious match for Manchester City in the FA Community Shield after the World Cup he scores his 1000th goal for the club! Not only that in the opening game of the season for PSG, DeMaria scored in the French Super Cup. If you had seen Argentina's matches in the World Cup it was clearly apparent that Messi was being underfed with the ball and most of the time he would be wandering up front in the opposing half like a lost child and him being the best player in the world today. Argentina in their future international forays needs to have a coach who understands his players and is able to get the best out of them.

                     Dalai Lama's Unwanted & Out-of-Turn Comments

When you have a revered guest staying with you at home, make unwanted and out-of-turn comments, how would you feel? That is the position that the Dalai Lama has put Indians with his comments about Nehru, Jinnah, Partition et al. There was no need for him to say about a self-willed Nehru unwilling to give up being a Prime Minister or that Jinnah would have made a good Prime Minister in which case there would have been no Partition. Many a time has the Dalai Lama done the same kind of thing in the past making controversial statements without recognising that he is a guest in this country and the least that he and his people could do is to be grateful for the hospitality. Moreover he is a man of religion and compelled by China's actions to be thrust into politics which should be limited to Tibet and not related to his host country, India. Religious heads should stick to religion matters and not stray outside where they are bound to make embarrassing gaffes like the one the Dalai Lama has made in his recent visit to Goa. 

       Swaccha Bharat Program Ill Conceived, Needlessly Capital Intensive

Achieving OD - Outdoor Defecation free India is a mirage. Major offenders of OD are workers at construction sites  going into the surroundings with bottles filled with water in their hands early in the morning. Surely they are not going out to water the plants! One of the initiatives for OD free India should have been to make it mandatory for construction sites to have firstly toilets for their workers, better still Bio or chemical toilets. There is also an exercise being thought of of distributing Bio-toilets to villages across the country in some States like Goa to become OD free which is nothing but a spending exercise which is also true for the entire Swaccha Bharat program. Where the program should have started from the basics to bring cleanliness in our surrounding by people awareness and education, the emphasis is to spend money which is being wasted. Like on the toilets Issue Sulabh International should have been brought in in a big way and installed simple toilets in our villages that they would run like it has been done in the slum areas of Mumbai in the concept of community toilets. Then progressively once people had got into the habit of using toilets then slowly the concept of Bio or chemical toilets could have been brought in. This methodology would have ensured that the toilet use habit is sustaining. Nowadays you will find that even if the village home has a toilet the elders may still go out with a bucket in the morning for their morning ablutions by force of habit or stubbornness to persist with the habit. In these fancy purchases of Bio-toilets etc. for the Swaccha Bharat program, you will find these will not work within a year of inauguration like we have seen in our other hi-tech purchases e.g. traffic signals, CCTV etc particularly in remote and rural areas. Thus someone is clearly lining their pockets with these fancy purchases or favours are being made to particular suppliers. Again the Swaccha Bharat program was launched for publicity by VIP's from the PM to Governors sweeping the roads. But these eminent people forgot to put in place a system for someone to do it the next day so the road remains unswept since that day when the VIP used the broom on it. The broom is also lying forlorn in the gutter forgotten because nobody wants to buy it on auction even though Narendra Modi touched it! The other thing is that if you want a Swaccha Bharat make the streets and surroundings of India animal free, like dogs, cattle etc. These should be removed since with their pooh (shit), they contribute more to the dirty roads and surroundings than anything else.

        Hapless Bribe-Givers Have No Choice, Cannot Be Named Offenders

The Anti Corruption Bill likely to be presented in Parliament is going to make the bribe giver culpable and subject to criminal prosecution. How can the person paying the bribe who is a victim be made an offender? No one in his right mind goes up to the babus or police and offers a bribe. It is the officials who ask for a bribe as the consideration to do something that a person wants done. The person has no choice. Either he pays up and gets his work done or forgoes the work which sometimes is not possible. The last resort is that the person goes to the ACB - Anti Corruption Bureau and makes sure that the official demanding the bribe is caught red handed. Thus the aspect of the bribe giver to be named the offender should not find a place in the proposed Bill. Many of the bills being passed as law these days are slanted to absolve the bureaucracy and/or public officials. The RTI amendment bill, thankfully withdrawn, was another exercise in blocking information to save the babus. These are all the convoluted machinations that possibly spring out of the mind of Ravi Shankar Prasad, our Law Minister who has spent a lifetime doing this. You will not reduce corruption by making the bribe-giver an offender but by awarding exemplary and speedy punishment by those who take bribes. The government's track record in proceeding against corrupt officials in criminal courts is atrocious and over the last decade more than 80% of those caught have not even been brought to court let alone for sentencing. As usual this BJP government is barking up the wrong tree and needless creating a smokescreen to hide the real issues.

                                                    ***********************

Vox Populi Issue 243

                                                           VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 243                      Date: 06.08.2018

                    Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1. We Have A New Government In WhatsApp

2. Do Our MLA's & MP's Deserve Salary Hikes?

3. India Inc. Fast  Becoming Gujarat Inc. 

4. In India Talk Of Development Is For Sloganeering Alone

                                     We Have A New Government In WhatsApp

The lynching virus that has infected the nation is because the present government has abdicated governance and is depending on foreign agencies like WhatsApp to manage and stem information flow. Where the perpetrators of rumours have to be identified and acted upon the government is adopting a diversionary tactic to convert a law and order issue into a technology problem. This is like drawing a red herring across the matter and focusing the lens on agencies like WhatsApp. The TV media has fallen for this sucker trap and lapped this up with most news channels having endless discussions on what WhatsApp can or cannot do. This also appeals to the public and has thus diverted public discourse. Primarily what should have been done is that the people who plant such news should have been identified and caught. This agencies like WhatsApp can help there by easily tracking who was first to transmit the item or news on their medium. This input needs to be balanced with local police intelligence information to zero in on the perpetrators. Approaching WhatsApp to limit the transmission of the flammatory news is necessarily something to be done but this is a secondary activity. It should succeed the primary emphasis to catch the culprits responsible for the problem. However, the BJP government by first rushing to WhatsApp is abdicating the governance of our country to a foreign entity. 

                                      Do Our MLA's & MP's Deserve Salary Hikes?

The Goa Assembly has quietly passed the measure to raise MLA's salaries by a whopping 77%. The reason as mentioned by CM Parrikar was price rise. Inflation according to the RBI figures is close to 5-6% so the unseemly and prodigious raise by 77% is clearly atrocious. Moreover it is a shame that these legislators take decisions for themselves and that too on the quiet without first considering others who are more deserving. Panchayat members who are paid peanuts have been clamouring for a raise for a long time. Nothing has been done for them. Not only that many of the State-run corporations have not been given the last Pay Commission hikes for which a strike has been called by Kadamba Transport lately. Thus you see our legislators not only feather their nests during their term but also make themselves financially comfortable in the process of doing so. Postscript: Across India our MLA's & MP's have been quietly giving themselves raises in both salaries and allowances. Parties across the board have been unanimous in supporting this measure. One of the most venal politicians Lallu Prasad Yadav had the temerity to say sometime back on the floor of Parliament that even he needs the salary hike to meet monthly expenses now that his wife! Rabri Devi is no longer Chief Minister of Bihar! He also went on to say that MP's who have no other source of income need the hike. Manohar Parrikar while defending the raise had also said something similar that legislators not finding time to attend to their family businesses needed the salaries to compensate for the loss of business while they attend to their legislative responsibilities. Looking at this issue in another perspective, these people become legislators by choice. No one is forcing them. They full well know the implications of the responsibilities that the job entails. And still they come! Why? And after they become MLA's & MP's for a majority of them the net worth keeps rising over the years. Though lately they have had to file asset returns at the time of contesting for elections with the Election Commission these returns are not used to take any administrative faction against the candidates. They are in the manner of decorative items that you keep on your mantelpiece that are kept only to show that the Election Commission has complied with the stipulations in the Rule Book. If the asset returns are passed on to the Income Tax Dept. we would surely have had disproportionate asset cases against more than 95% of our MLA's & MP's. This would have blown the lid off the farce that is played out by almost all the political parties about their 'fight against corruption'. An advantageous side-effect of this could be that we would have had a fresh crop of MLA's & MP's who hopefully would not be as much bent upon making money for themselves. Aside: The post-script has become longer than the original piece. That shows you how much there is sometimes 'between the lines' or reminds you of a bird or a monkey (choose your pick) with a very long tail. 

                                     India Inc. Fast  Becoming Gujarat Inc. 

Narendra Modi has claimed that he is not afraid to hob nob with industrialists in public.  That is because even before they ask for favours he has been showering upon them blessings like manna from heaven. Case in point is that of Mukesh Ambani getting the Institute of Eminence for his university which has not even got off the ground. However much the present government tries to defend this largesse by saying that what has been given is a Letter of Intent, it carries no meaning since never in independent India has a status been bestowed for a non-existent Institute! Similarly the brother Anil Ambani has been given the privilege with no previous experience of military aircraft of being associated with the Dassault Group of Cos., France from whom we are buying the Rafael fighter jets. The Anil Ambani group is clearly being bailed out since they have not been doing well lately in financial terms and particularly their telecommunication foray as Reliance Telecom is close to filing for bankruptcy. It seems these days the best way to obtain any large project is to go up to the government and frankly say that we have no experience in the particular area and they with the 56in. chest in which a seemingly large heart resides which is very selective to favour the people from Gujarat,  will say that these people have a definite intent to do good so give it to them! In this manner India Inc. is being fast converted into Gujarat Inc. 

                       In India Talk Of Development Is For Sloganeering Alone

We keep hearing our politicians ranging from the PM onwards harping on the issue of development. However, with a few extra inches of rain every year every city and town of India gets inundated. In some cities like Mumbai the same areas like Parel, Lalbagh, Dadar, Matunga, Sion have been getting flooded for the last 20 years or so and the municipality has not been able to come up with any solution for the problem. Not that newer areas like Vashi & Navi Mumbai have fared any better. These areas where a lot of new development has taken place have also joined the chronic flooding list. As far as the rural and outlying areas of the country are concerned they are no better. Assam has for generations been seeing flooding during the monsoon and the same is true for Orissa and parts of UP. Though Bihar this year has been spared with the rain gods lenient on them with the rains failing there. Even the capital Delhi has been prone to flood scares with the rising Yamuna every year and even otherwise in the first rains this year some of the areas like near Minto Bridge continue to get inundated. At other times Delhi sees a drinking water shortage particularly in the hot summers but just a few months later with the rains setting in some 5 Lakh Cusecs of water released by Haryana through their Barrage as announced recently is allowed to go waste! At other places around the country we have been seeing rain related deaths like in Kerala. Is this development? Development should mean the ability to manage nature's vagaries and harness them like in the instance of the monsoon for the longer term benefit of the people and minimise the number of fatalities that occur as a consequence of weather related disasters. However in India development is more for sloganeering before elections and for profiteering round the year by the politicians and the bureaucracy. We the people are  also at fault for accepting the problems as above silently being bogged down with the compulsions of daily life and adopting the fatalistic approach that after all the rainy season is only for 3 months in a year. This cannot go on like this and people need to change and be more vocal and demand solutions to the problems they face in the surroundings around them. 

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