Vox Populi Issue 283

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 283                      Date: 27.05.2019

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

 

Contents:       

1. Modi's Victory In Lok Sabha Elections Truly Remarkable

2. The Need For More Broadbased Leadership Within BJP

3. Narendra Modi's Eyeball Management During Lok Sabha Election Campaign

4. Goa Government Should Stop Bluffing The People

             Modi's Victory In Lok Sabha Elections Truly Remarkable

Narendra Modi led from the front in the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and pulled off a stupendous victory for the BJP & the NDA coalition. Inspite of the adverse reports in the handling of the economy, Modi overcame these and rode home on the stability of leadership and the nationalism plank. With a splintered Opposition and with the Mahagathbandhan likely to unspool itself as we saw Mayawati unable to read the writing on the wall and even on 22 May stake a claim to become Prime Minister, the people had little to choose except Modi. The 67.11% voter turnout, the highest recorded in independent India, lent credibility that this election was truly more representative than earlier general elections. Some of the Opposition leaders in the Hindi cow belt had complained of the elections being held in the heat of May, the peak summer month but Modi not only cooked their goose but also if there had been more turnout if elections were held in more equable climes, one could safely say that the margin of defeat for the Opposition would have been larger. Not only that the vote share of the BJP touched 38% this time and the consolidated NDA close to 48% which is unimaginable. Thus in hindsight one can say that the Modi juggernaut this time was unstoppable. The prime movers of this vehicle Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had butterflies in their stomach as one could sense before the polling in the 6th phase but with the exit polls confirming a Narendra Modi led BJP and NDA victory on 20th May, all doubts were set aside. With a second term in government Narendra Modi has to assume a greater responsibility of delivering to the nation the 'acche din' that he had promised in 2014. If he messes the economy any further or assuming carte blanche from the present mandate becomes adventurous and unleashes another storm on  the people like he did with demonetisation, they are not likely to forgive him or the BJP ever again, for this time they have voted with their heart and not with the mind and the scars on the heart take longer to heal than those in the mind. One hopes that Modi will heed that.

                The Need For More Broadbased Leadership Within BJP

What Modi said about Sadhvi Pragya's comment on Nathuram Godse being a 'patriot' in the majority applies to him also. He should actually stand in front of a mirror and say it again so that his tongue becomes more civil the next time elections come around. Not only that Modi's gaffes about the Balakot attack that he cleared because of the cloud cover over the target and that our planes would therefore not be detected and then the out and out lie about sending Advani's colour photos by email in 1988 when not only had colour cameras not come to India nor was email commonly used, has brought to the fore the mindset of the man. With this background why some of the BJP heads are being rented out to Narendra Modi is a mystery. Acknowledged professionals and recognised people in their own fields like Jaitley, Goyal, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rathore are insulting their own intelligence by playing second fiddle to Modi and behaving like yes-men. One hopes as time goes by these things will change and the BJP will come out as a party with a more broad based leadership profile.

      Narendra Modi's Eyeball Management During Lok Sabha Election Campaign

Narendra Modi's election managers have persistently kept him in the eyeballs of the country through the lead up and during the Lok Sabha election schedule. Consider the latest coup of sorts on this with Modi's visit to Kedarnath the day before polling for the last schedule of elections on 19th May 2017 making sure that on the day before and on the last polling day the face of Modi would be on every TV channel and he would keep social media abuzz. The next day he visited Badrinath and publicly thanked the Election Commission for permitting him to visit Kedar & Badri for a well earned break after the rough and tumble of election campaigning. From whom else would you get a more tongue in cheek, mischievous and impudent comment than Narendra Modi. Consider the CEC's position who is faced with a Hobson's choice. If he says no to Modi for the temple visits, the BJP will go to town saying that the EC stopped the PM from going on a pilgrimage. He will also surely sacrifice his post-retirement governorship or the ambassadorship of a country like maybe Seychelles which he has almost earned. If he approves Modi's visit then he will have to face a barrage of Opposition words which in any case he has got used to by now. So the CEC chose one of the two options that has the lesser impact on him personally and that is allow Modi to visit Kedar & Badri. These are the areas where Modi street smart that he is, has pulled the carpet from under the Opposition's feet. They have no answer for these kind of events and neither the ability to anticipate such happenings and counteract them by similar or equivalent events of their own to take away the thunder from Modi. This has been the story of Modi's calculated election campaign that started almost 2 years ago with the launch in chronological order of the Webseries on Modi, then the Namo App, the Namo biopic and finally the great photo ops in front of the Kedar & Badri temples, including the one in the cave at Kedarnath. To those religiously inclined he has sent a message also that he was there on the last day when the Kedarnath temple closed this year and again there on the first day when it reopened so that Lord Shiva would not miss him!

                       Goa Government Should Stop Bluffing The People

The Goa government has been literally in hibernation until now. One cannot fault the new CM Sawant  since he needed some time to settle down. The uncertainty about the results of the 4 Assembly bye-polls is now over and with the BJP winning 3 out of 4 there is really nothing to worry about anymore. However one must compliment the new CM for trying to find a solution to the mining Issue by attempting to get the 18 leases not covered by the Supreme Court's closure order to start work. Why this was not thought earlier even by the late Manohar Parrikar is a mystery. Keeping mining going would have indicated a semblance of normalcy and reduced the pain somewhat which the mining dependant people were facing. As said earlier why those directly affected by the stoppage of mining operations also did not come out with this option will probably never be known. This cannot be a new discovery of CM Sawant! Why did this not come out for the last 3 years or more? So one suspects that this should not be yet another diversionary tactic by the incumbent government to fool the people again? We are constantly seeing these bluffs played by our politicians and governments on the people of Goa. Like we are now suffering water shortage everywhere more so the areas served by the Opa plant and though we know that it is summer, where is the 24x7 supply of water promised by the earlier PWD Minister? We all know that a majority of the 100 inches of average rainfall that we get every year flows into the Arabian Sea. Why is this not being stored along the length of our major rivers like the Mandovi and the Zuari in man-made lakes or reservoirs? To supplement Opa now we are drawing water from the mining pits while if we had lakes built then this would form a big step in water conservation and these lakes being along the course of the rivers would eliminate or at least reduce the water shortfall that Goa faces particularly in the summer months on contiguous areas on the river banks. These lakes depending on the topography can be integrated with mini-hydel projects and mini-turbines to supply electric power to villages adjoining the manmade lakes. They can be even used for fish farming. Similarly we are again seeing in the newspapers lately that the Electricity Dept. is going to spend Rs. 1000 crores to upgrade the power supply system in the State. Here again the Minister had said earlier that in 3 years time there will be no power cuts and Goa will get 24x7 uninterruptible power supply. Is this yet another bluff since day in day out we are seeing more and more frequent power cuts. It is all right to tell us that in the future we will get both power and water on a 24x7 basis but should we not see some progress towards that goal by mitigating the problems we see now and reducing the pain. These baby steps towards the exemplary goal will make us believe that the future is indeed rosy as painted by our Ministers.

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Vox Populi Issue 282

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 282                      Date: 20.05.2019

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

Contents:       

1. Amit Shah's Foot In The Mouth Moment          

2. Criminality In Politics

3. BCCI Should Revert Back To Cricket's Administrators

                                    Amit Shah's Foot In The Mouth Moment                        

Narendra Modi has said that the Congress has found its scapegoats for losing the  2019 Lok Sabha elections in Sam Pitroda for his - Hua To Hua? - comment about the 1984 Sikh riots and Mani Shankar Aiyer surfacing again to repeat his abuse of Narendra Modi as a neech. In the same manner Narendra Modi will only have to blame Amit Shah for the less than expected gains for the BJP in Bengal. Amit Shah made 2 mistakes during his Bengal campaign. The first was calling Bengal - Kangal Bangla. The Bengalis are a sentimental and emotional race. They may call each other names  amongst themselves but do not take lightly any outsider calling them names and that too calling their land that they hold proud a kangal - pauper. The second is that no Bengali belonging to a home grown party like the TMC will ever break a statue of their icons like Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekanand just to name a few. The BJP goons will regret for having broken Vidyasagar's bust and that too located in a institution that carries his name. Whatever gains the BJP may have garnered up to the last phase of polling in Bengal they would squander in the last phase of polling, thanks to Amit Shah's intemperate comments and action. For the 9 seats that go to the polls on 19.5.2019 one wonders if the BJP will get any of these after Amit Shah's gaffe. 

                                           Criminality In Politics

Lately Vanzara & Amin have been discharged on a technicality in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Apart from the refusal of the Gujarat Govt. to give permission for these police officers to be prosecuted, the case would have any way fallen through on the lack of evidence criteria. Similarly we have senior leaders like Narendra Modi & Amit Shah all moving around in public life flaunting their discharge from criminal cases on the same  'lack of evidence' basis. Modi for his involvement in the 2002 Gujarat riots and his buddy Amit Shah on the charge of complicity in murder of a prominent Gujarat politician who was a minister to boot. The BJP as a party has the largest number of criminal cases registered against its functionaries which is a record of sorts in independent India. The question then is - Do we need them to be in the governing seat for another 5 years? 

                           BCCI Should Revert Back To Cricket's Administrators

The amicus curiae, Justice (retired)  P S Narasimha, appointed by the SC for BCCI has rightly said that outsiders should stay away from BCCI and return the game of cricket to its own administrators. The CoA has proved ineffective and for such a long time, almost 3 years, been unable to resolve the cricket body's issues for which reason it should be disbanded apart from the fact of the infighting among the CoA members that has been seen for the last year or so. 

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Vox Populi Issue 281

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 281                      Date: 13.05.2019

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

 

Contents:       

1. Do We Need Modi To Lead Us Again?

2. Conspiracy Theories Originating At The Level Of The Supreme Court 

3. His Master's Voice

4. Security Is Politicised

5. Model Code Of Conduct To Cover Financial and Other Enforcement Agencies

                                     Do We Need Modi To Lead Us Again?

Under Narendra Modi for the last 5 years India's image among its citizens and on the world stage has fallen down from an erudite, responsible, cultured, sympathetic, secular  and progressive nation. We are decidedly lo-brow today besotted with confusion, controversies, confrontations that seem decidedly unnecessary  

Modi's anathema to family and dynasty as indicated in most of his statements stems from probably the fact that he has no family. The fact that he has been separated from his wife since his marriage clearly makes him unable to perceive and understand family values. Lately to add to the claim of a 56 ins. chest the BJP has been saying that Modi is a 'mard' like no other. In Indian society where 'mard' is associated with masculinity there are two facets to it, one of physical strength which one grants that Modi maybe has but the other aspect of the ability to procreate is something that we have not seen from him. So like Modi's most claims the 'mard' label is also half true. His visits to his mother are cultivated to add more to the Modi persona and timed to maximise political gain to show that he still has family. The lack of family has led to unbalance in his life which reflects in his policies that tend to be unstable. The over-effusiveness while meeting foreign leaders with some cringing away from the Modi hugs while maintaining a haughty reserve with Indian fellow politicians and leaders including his own party - the BJP, shows an anxiousness to be accepted by foreigners while wanting to keep a distance from countrymen. 

In his utterances which tend to be outrageous and outlandish one clearly sees the lack of education. This is more so reflected during election times when the edge of vindictiness creeps into his comments. These are unnecessary and do not fit into the characteristics of a leader particular as senior as the Prime Minister. Modi in his enthusiasm to appeal to the uneducated and uninformed voter gets carried away and makes bombastic statements which verge very little on the truth. One is sure in these Modi himself knows that what he is saying is not true but at the same time he knows that his audience has little knowledge of the truth and he takes advantage of it, revelling in the cheap thrills it brings to him. In the same style he thrives in challenging the system, to see how far he can go without being caught out. This is seen in most of his statements that have been reported to the Election Commission on the violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The problem is that Modi in the campaign mode more often than not forgets that he is the Prime Minister of India and says whatever comes to mind which again more often than not devalues the image of the Prime Minister, his office, his party and himself. 

The other thing that we have seen with Narendra Modi is that he likes to hear what he believes and if there is anything not matching with that, he tends to come down on it with a heavy hand. Thus among international ratings India lately went up a few notches in the Ease of Doing Business but in the Happiness and Press Freedom indices, India was rated very lowly. So while Modi's government publicised the Ease of Doing Business achievement, they were ominously silent on the slippages or low rankings in the other two indices. There is also another tendency to discount international ratings or figures relating to India, mostly when they do not find favour with the present government, by saying that the ratings or figures are not true. And what do foreigners know about India, since we obviously know better! That is the reason why today India's economic indices are such a mess. Why talk of transparency, we have become as opaque as China in reporting of the country's economy. We are fast coming to the situation like in China where any economic figure is given and that's it. No question entertained, no answers given. Then with Modi there is this tendency to hide uncomfortable facts or events like the employment figures recently or the jiggling of the GDP figures. A compulsiveness to show only that is complimentary to the government. 

Economic measures under Modi as we have seen are characterised by limited thinking and implementation programs are defined by two steps forward, three steps backwards. Nett result a mess all around. These have been the hallmarks of the demonetisation exercise, the cashless program, the GST putting through,the health plan which has very limited takers among private hospitals since rates are not remunerative showing sloppy preparatory work for the world's largest health program! Demonetisation failed all around but brought down real estate prices even though there were still no buyers and the sector is still recovering from the debacle. But that is what Modi was touting recently. This was akin to taking an elephant by its tail to wag its head.  It was touted that demonetisation would bring more tax payers into the tax net but current year e-filings have shown a shortfall of more than half a million in Mumbai alone. As for cashless operation, the amount of cash in the economy has gone back close to the pre-demonetisation levels signifying that in India cash is king. Again in disaster situations like it was found during Cyclone Fani when it hit Orissa recently cash was desperately needed by people to buy emergency needs since with no power and wireless connectivity ATM's and PoS' were down and which will be limping to normalcy only in a months time. With Modi becoming PM people were banking on the replication of the much touted Gujarat economic model across India but sadly 5 years hence economic performance has become the Achilles heel of the Modi government. 

With the economy in disarray Modi has little to talk about the 'achhe din' he had promised and that is why the dialogue during the elections has been artfully diverted to nationalism and personality issues. These latter issues stir up emotions and easily divert the mind of the electorate which is what the BJP strategy has been. 

With Modi there has been this noticeable tendency of fitting in yes-men and cronies in major institutions be it the RBI, Election Commission and also in the government bureaucracy making sure that instructions are carried through with the least obstruction. Sadly this leads to a paralysis in the diversity of views and leads to a situation of a horse running with blinders. This is not good for a country like India with its range of complexity and may lead to a situation of some sectors and communities getting preference over others. 

Do we need a person like Modi with his erratic ways to lead us again? The answer to that will be given on May 23 but the alternative to Modi is a barrenness and the possibility of a terribly fractured mandate and more uncertainty as we go into the future. 
So essentially the choice is between the devil and the deep sea.

              Conspiracy Theories Originating At The Level Of The Supreme Court 

Two Supreme Court judges have lately raised the bogey of judgments being marginally modified in text for advantage to the entities involved be they individuals or corporate entities. We who have worked in corporate India know of the deteriorating quality of administrative support to recent times. Therefore the incidents mentioned by the judge in the cases of Ambani, Amrapali and combining the hearings on the Rahul Gandhi case and the Rafael case are where the judges themselves have slipped up and shown lack of due diligence. This can also be attributed to the Registrar of the SC who should be pulled up for these errors which benefit the litigants except in the last case. If judges bring up such cases of 'unseen hands' then it is a insult to the competence of the SC and shows an erosion of their ability to handle such matters. Conspiracy theories should not be originated at the level of the Supreme Court since that will lay the precedent for the country to follow which is a dangerous thing.

                                                      His Master's Voice

We are steadily seeing the His Master's Voice culture developing in our incumbent BJP government. Toe the official line seems to be the diktat to everyone and defend it at all costs. We had seen this in the case of Rajeev Kumar, Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog, a respected home grown economist who was an avid critic of Modi's financial policies particularly demonetisation up until he took up his official assignment and once in the chair started to sing hosannas in praise of Modi's policies including that of demonetisation. The same kind of thing is happening with Krishnamurthy Subramanian, the new Chief Economic Advisor (CEA). Again a professional with good credentials is succumbing to the ploys of government and like a canary singing their tunes once he has assumed office. He had said lately that the crimping of the GDP figures in the last two quarters is indicative and reflective of the fact that alls well with the system for computation of the GDP which was under pressure for manipulation to output rosy figures. This is a simplistic argument and the CEA is well advised to look closely into the matter since the rot is dark and deep.

                                              Security Is Politicised

On the one hand the PM claims the nation is secure under the BJP but it is the BJP who are seeking and being given security exposing the lie to the PM's claim. Lately the NSA Doval's son has been given Z+ security. Why? It is not clear. The son is learnt to be heading a private foundation. If there is a threat to their person, should not the foundation arrange for the security and pay for it? Again some of the BJP candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and the BJP party functionaries in West Bengal have been provided security. As a level playing field should not the other other party candidates and functionaries be provided similar protection. Or is this security provision also a political ploy to show that the BJP is under threat in West Bengal?

       Model Code Of Conduct To Cover Financial and Other Enforcement Agencies

From the time that the Lok Sabha elections were announced or a little before that the financial and other enforcement agencies, the triumvirate of the IT, ED and the CBI have been raiding one or the other political party opposed to the incumbent government. The last was Mayawati being named by the CBI in the sugar mills scam just about a fortnight ago. Earlier it was the DMK, the Congress splinter party in Andhra  Pradesh and also Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi party in UP for the sand mining scam.  Should these investigating agencies not be brought under MCC - Model Code Of Conduct since otherwise as we have seen now the incumbent government uses them to their advantage by launching raids or naming people from the Opposition parties in one or the other scam to unsettle them in their election campaigns. It is best that this be done and the Election Commission be advised to amend the MCC before the next elections. 

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Vox Populi Issue 280

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 280                      Date: 06.05.2019                     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   Contents:          1. The Charge Against The CJI & A Comment On The Working Of The Judiciary 2. NSE Fraud Stalled By SEBI           The Charge Against The CJI & A Comment On The Working Of The Judiciary   Nowadays nothing seems to be beyond the pale of clouded working down to personnel handling as we have seen with the sexual harassment case in the Supreme Court against the CJI at that. And the way the case is being handled is like the court is the last resort of law, which it is but maybe this case is one such where it needs to show how it will come out of the furnace of justice burnished and shining for the values it upholds. However the way the case was moved it did not look like the path of fair and equitable justice was being laid out for the victim. First, the CJI by calling a special hearing prejudiced the case of the complainant. Then the internal  committee was not constituted per the guidelines of the Vishakha Committee report in sexual harassment cases with the main lacunae being no independent member from outside the accused organisation was included. When the sittings of the Committee commenced then the victim claimed that she was fearful and felt threatened by the proceedings of the Committee and sought the presence of her lawyer, which was not allowed as per rules. With this the woman stopped participating in the proceedings of the committee and was told that the committee would proceed ex-parte. Though the CJI did appear before the committee,it seemed that was more to comply with the rules. This is what essentially transpired and carried on to the logical conclusion which was to give the CJI  a 'clean chit'. A number of questions arise out of the handling of this incident which does not pre-suppose anyone's guilt neither that of the woman in bringing a false accusation or that of the CJI. In the special hearing convened by the CJI, who constituted the panel? Was it not the CJI himself? Why did the other two judges participate in the proceedings of this hearing? Should they not have persuaded the CJI that an internal committee be best formed and allow it first to examine the allegations. What transpired at this special hearing? It was only a show of umbrage and the CJI filled up with his own importance bearing down on the complainant, a woman holding a LDC post at the SC, with not only his own position but that of the SC and drawing up unsubstantiated allegations of devious entities with vested interests trying to derail him personally, the SC and by inference the judiciary of India. These are serious and weighty charges that the SC brought out but without a shred of evidence and if one may say, the last charge seems to be brought in to divert attention from the sexual harassment charge. Again it was reported about 6 months back that the CJI was involved in an incident  at the Kamakhya temple in Gauhati where he was required to wait a few minutes before he could be taken in for darshan because some other political dignitaries were in the garbagriha and the CJI had then taken offence and as a consequence a senior police official supervising the VIP movement at the temple was removed from his position. This incident is being brought in since it bears a striking similarity in the way the CJI reacts when placed in certain situations. As for the internal committee the constitution of the same should have reflected the intention to be fair by following government guidelines as said earlier in the absence of any in-house rules since we are told that that this is the first case of sexual harassment that the SC is facing involving the CJI. The fact that at the end the committee had two women judges in it was heartening considering the matter before it but inspite of it the victim claimed that the proceedings were frightening after participating for 2 days which indicates that maybe the women judges did not put enough effort to put the victim at ease. This essentially is the problem with our judges and the judiciary who are filled to the brim with their own importance and refuse to look at reality. Here the reality was that every effort should have been made to have the victim participate in the proceedings since that was important for the institution i.e. the SC while again we saw the importance of the judges predominating with the ex-party procedure being called in. If the victim had wanted her lawyer to be brought in to assist her, then one thinks that should have been allowed since for one it would have shown the magnanimity of the SC and showed that every effort was made to get to the truth in the incident. By closing this door the SC has given the impression that it is a closed club and it will shut its doors if it feels threatened. Essentially the SC has come out as a weak institution. The CJI has claimed that there is no truth in the allegations then he had nothing to worry about and if it was a matter of confidentiality the victim's lawyer could have been sworn to secrecy if that gave the SC any comfort. Again the committee we were told had no deadline to submit its report but. within a few days almost in the manner of a hasty closure it filed its report with the judgment that the CJI is not guilty. There is a broader aspect in all this and that the judiciary and its members particularly the judges should come out of their cocoon and be more integrated with the society at large. This will make them appear to be more human. The fear that judges have that if they intermingle in society then there are chances of bias creeping into their judgments and that charges of favouritism will be levelled against them may not be valid. The challenge is that by not being isolated and by participating in society and still being able to give impartial judgments will take the judges to a greater level of competence and performance which will also elevate them as individual human beings. We need to do away with the archaic image of the judiciary in India and put it in a progressive path in line with the growth and development of the nation as we go into the future. The last thing is the timing of the revelation by one of the lawyers that the SC could be 'fixed' in the choice of judges to sit on a bench to hear particular cases  etc. which if you link the CJI's charge of certain interests trying to remove him seems to a red herring to divert the public’s attention from the sexual harassment charge. One must finally conclude that the SC has not covered itself with any glory of absolving the CJI of the charge in the manner that it has been done which raises more questions about putting a lid on the matter rather than closing it in a fair and equitable manner aligned to the principle of natural justice.                                            NSE Fraud Stalled By SEBI   The latest to come out with scandals in its operations among corporate institutions is the NSE which was pulled up by SEBI for irregularities and then had strictures put on two of its senior management personnel with another person being moved against on the heels of the other two. A ban from stock trading for some 3 years and hefty fines running into crores of rupees indicates surely the seriousness of their crimes. The stock markets in India are operated in a none too fair manner one would presume going by this incident. One must confess that an understanding of the stock markets particularly in India is beyond comprehension of most people considering that like as of now when the economy is doing badly and staggering on the path of growth we have seen the stock market indices rising and going to record levels. Surely the stock markets should reflect the state of the economy. But then we are told that it moves with the foreign funds coming in to India seeking returns (sometimes called 'hot' money), the international prices of oil and whether the US Federal Reserve has sneezed in the morning or not, let alone the fact that that our RBI has been in a deep freeze for quite a while which does not jiggle the BSE index even a wee bit. So one asks why should one invest in the stock markets where they are absolutely un-Indian in its reactions. Investing in them seems to be more like a gamble and it would be best to invest in the horse races where there is more ease in putting in your money and taking it out. The business TV channels and the anchors therein try pompously to label the stock market movements to a science but fail miserably since after all it is a 'satta' market and what science can you infuse it with. Coming back to the NSE issues, connivance at top management seems to be the norm in most corporate entities in India these days and the tendency is to pursue such activities and make sure that you do not get caught. Things like CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility and pursuing social values are more for lip service and the primary activity seems to be to fill in your pockets and look after yourself first. That is why we have been seeing a run of these kind of frauds across industry sectors lately. That the regulator SEBI was alert and could get a fix on the NSE was merciful so that the fraud could not be persisted with is the saving grace for us.                                                          **********************