VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 243 Date: 06.08.2018
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.
*************************
Hi,
I am mailing you the latest issue of Vox Populi to stimulate and encourage discussion and comment on current affairs. If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com. The comment if posted on my blogs will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the kamatblog.blogspot.com blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.
IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY.
There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs.
Thanking you for your patience in reading through this.
HAPPY READING VOX POPULI.
Yours truly
There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs.
Thanking you for your patience in reading through this.
HAPPY READING VOX POPULI.
Yours truly
S Kamat, S-1, Sanohitra Apts., Dr Rego Bagh, Alto St. Cruz, Goa 403202.
Mob: 0 7218698906
Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment