VOX POPULI
by
S Kamat
as
Aam Admi
Issue: 251 Date: 01.10.2018
Contents:
1. Supreme Court Sabarimalai Temple Judgment Is Patently Wrong and
Erroneous
2. Tanushree Dutta's Allegations & The #meToo Movement
3. The Rupee Yo-Yo-ing On A Devaluation Roller Coaster
Supreme Court Sabarimalai Temple Judgment Is Patently Wrong and Erroneous
The Supreme Court judgment in the Sabarimalai Temple case allowing the entry of women of all ages is patently wrong and erroneous. The woman Judge Indu Malhotra in her dissenting judgment in the case has succinctly said that in matters of religion and faith the courts have no right to interfere and should leave the matters to the religious leaders and elders in society. This coming from a woman in a case affecting women and which is likely to have ramifications across India in other temples is eminent wisdom. The aspect that even before the Constitution was framed these practices were in force establishes a precedent of sorts that the courts should not interfere in such matters. Looking at the matter just as ensuringz a right of access for women is very superficial and limited since these practices enjoin a tradition that has been going on through the ages. It is understood that there are moves by the Travancore Devaswom Board, the temple authorities and others who are not comfortable with the judgment to file a review petition in the Supreme Court which needs to be supported so that court interference in matters of religion is not accepted.
Tanushree Dutta's Allegations & The #meToo Movement
Tanushree Dutta allegations on the sexual harassment charge against Nana Patekar is in bad taste and also out of place. Sitting in the US and seeing the support for the #meToo movement, Tanushree Dutta seems to have had ideas to resurrect it in India. So a homecoming with a #meToo Bollywood version seemed a good idea and she launched into it without mulling on the implications. Again for a balanced person any incident more than a decade old is water that has flowed under the bridge and long gone. It is over. People have moved on. There is no point digging out old hurts because the person whom you will hurt the most is yourself. Another aspect of the #meToo movement even in the US is that people are getting tired of it but for the Weinstein saga. You did something either on the spur of the moment or for your career or for love knowing full well the implications and then one fine day you wake up and start playing the victim. This is not acceptable behaviour among rational and sensible adults. The people on whom you cast aspersions are shocked and have to dig deeper into old wounds, maybe long forgotten. There is a broader sociological aspect about the #meToo movement and that is what women think about themselves and their position in society today. Until the 1960's and thereafter in the days of Women's Lib of Gloria Steinem and others, with women burning bras in public, it was thought that the woman is now liberated from the masculine shackles in which they were supposedly chained till then. The liberated independent woman with a mind of her own was welcomed mostly in western societies and other parts of the world to the extent that their societies would allow it. But one thinks that the #meToo movement is setting back the clock to the pre-Women's Lib days and wanting to portray the woman as a prey, vulnerable and in need of protection both physical as well as institutional like through the judiciary or whatever. Is this not retrograde thinking for the women, propagated by the women themselves?
The Rupee Yo-Yo-ing On A Devaluation Roller Coaster
There have been 3 unusual cycles of changes that we have been seeing lately when it comes to the Indian economy. Not in any particular order these are the value of the Rupee, the stock markets and fuel prices. While the Rupee has been yo-yoing about with the trend lines upwards in the last few weeks, the Sensex has been giving stock market investors a roller coaster of a ride in the last couple of months while fuel prices are on a unidirectional binge - higher, higher and still higher, again in the last few weeks. Such changes as we have been seeing recently in these three items are dramatic and have many ramifications on the lives of common people of this country.
The Rupee on a downward spiral against the US Dollar should have been contained by more energetic intervention by RBI. With the Rupee losing value leads to the rise in prices of almost every single item that is in the basket of daily necessities of the common man. The reason for this is not hard to find since we are dependent on imported oil and with landed prices of oil going up everything becomes costly because cost of transportation goes up. We have seen the Rupee depreciating in the past but it always had been effectively contained by RBI's intervention. This was at a time when our foreign exchange reserves were much lower than now where we are holding reserves in excess of US$ 300 Billion. With such reserves there should have been more comfort to try and hold the Rupee to reasonable levels. To explain the inaction we are being given many reasons like - Let the Rupee find its own level. It is also being said that any strong intervention will lead to sending wrong messages to the international community about India's sustained effort to pursue economic reforms. These arguments do not factor in the impact of the sliding Rupee on the common man's budget. And mind you this is happening when the Rupee is not fully convertible. You can therefore imagine what will happen when the Rupee becomes fully convertible which has to happen sooner or later if we are to join the comity of nations as a full-fledged economic player both in trade and services. India cannot participate on the world financial scene as a reluctant or unwilling donkey being pulled along by the dhobi or laundryman but become a pro-active and energetic player and show its competence in handling financial matters effectively and efficiently. Time for our present government to wake up and bite the bullet.
The Rupee on a downward spiral against the US Dollar should have been contained by more energetic intervention by RBI. With the Rupee losing value leads to the rise in prices of almost every single item that is in the basket of daily necessities of the common man. The reason for this is not hard to find since we are dependent on imported oil and with landed prices of oil going up everything becomes costly because cost of transportation goes up. We have seen the Rupee depreciating in the past but it always had been effectively contained by RBI's intervention. This was at a time when our foreign exchange reserves were much lower than now where we are holding reserves in excess of US$ 300 Billion. With such reserves there should have been more comfort to try and hold the Rupee to reasonable levels. To explain the inaction we are being given many reasons like - Let the Rupee find its own level. It is also being said that any strong intervention will lead to sending wrong messages to the international community about India's sustained effort to pursue economic reforms. These arguments do not factor in the impact of the sliding Rupee on the common man's budget. And mind you this is happening when the Rupee is not fully convertible. You can therefore imagine what will happen when the Rupee becomes fully convertible which has to happen sooner or later if we are to join the comity of nations as a full-fledged economic player both in trade and services. India cannot participate on the world financial scene as a reluctant or unwilling donkey being pulled along by the dhobi or laundryman but become a pro-active and energetic player and show its competence in handling financial matters effectively and efficiently. Time for our present government to wake up and bite the bullet.
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