Vox Populi Issue 287

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 287                     Date: 24.06.2019                     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com Contents:        1. Rahul Gandhi Should Remain Congress President Not To Give      Narendra Modi A Free Run 2. Afghanistan Did Almost A Zimbabwe On India 3. Goa Needs To Have Its Own Power Generation 4. Responsible Goa Tourism                      Rahul Gandhi Should Remain Congress President                                Not To Give Narendra Modi A Free Run                              Rahul Gandhi by continuing his intransigence on his resignation is ceding the political space completely to Narendra Modi and the BJP in India today. With a leaderless Congress and the inroads that the BJP is making in encouraging defection from all political parties to its ranks, we are likely to have no credible Opposition. The defections from the parties to the BJP is in trickles now but with an increasingly wishy washy position among the leadership in most parties it will not be long before it becomes a steady stream and then a torrent. The Opposition will then be counting on their fingers the numbers that belong to them in the halls of Parliament. It is for this reason that Rahul Gandhi needs to take a stand now on confirming his continuing leadership of the Congress party. The reasons for this are clear. The Congress is the largest Opposition party in Parliament. It still commands a substantial portion of the national voters whilst other parties are mostly restricted to their home States being more of regional parties. The Congress thus remains pan-India and is still a voice to heard across the nation. If the Opposition is in tatters then the BJP will be given the opportunity to walk over all constitutional proprieties and fundamental rights without a fight. That is where Rahul Gandhi needs to take a stand to lead the Congress and the Opposition against the fight with the BJP in Parliament and beyond. This may lead to his Battle of Waterloo in 2024 and that battle needs to be fought for the survival of democracy in its true form in this country. Throwing in the towel at this stage will be playing into the hands of Narendra Modi and the BJP in their stated objective of a Congress mukt Bharat. After the 2019 elections the BJP is quite far down this road and with the agenda of One Nation, One Vote is planning to consolidate its position and bring in the US Presidential style elections to India banking on the charisma of Narendra Modi. If that happens and Modi does not make any major blunders in his term of Modi 2.0, there will no longer be any meaningful elections in this, the world's largest democracy.                          Afghanistan Did Almost A Zimbabwe On India Afghanistan almost did a Zimbabwe on India a la 1983 World Cup and with no Kapil Dev to rescue us it was left to Bumrah and finally Shami with his magnificent hattrick with 2 of those wickets with balls crashing into the stumps that sent peals of joy into the hearts of Indian cricket fans on 22June 2019.  The story of the match could easily have been different but yet again Kohli was able to pull a rabbit out of the hat to seal an Indian victory. But for how long is what is worrying the hearts of some of India's cricket fans. What should have been a cakewalk victory for India was turned into a fight to the finish by the tough and resilient Afghans. Where one thought that India would put up a record total in excess of 400 to challenge the Afghans, we ended up close to half that.  Where one thought that India needs to play strategic and post totals beyond the reach of the opposing team and keep a watch on scoring run rates even while batting first in case of inclement weather forecasts so that we are always ahead of the D/L method, we end of scuffling in the dirt. But then when things happen like in the Afghanistan match shades of suspicion relating to match fixing rear up. There is definitely no truth in it since you can fix a player maybe two players but to fix an entire team is not possible. The argument here is not to criticise or pull down the Indian cricket team but the desire is to see them play like real champions and to their full potential putting the opposition far far behind. This is one Indian cricket team that can play with their mind as well as their cricketing ability and we need to call on this so that India not only wins the World Cup 2019 but also straddles the world of cricket in all formats of the game.                          Goa Needs To Have Its Own Power Generation The Goa power situation has been always dicey with frequent interruptions and quality of power issues which are compounded more during the monsoon. The reason apart from many is the fact that we do not have our own power generation and have been forever dependent on supplies from neighbouring States, Karnataka and Maharasthra. These States will look after their compulsions and needs first and then supply the remaining to Goa is what we realise but we have no other recourse. This recently led our Power Minister to switch the power supplies of South Goa to the Maharasthra grid also for improved quality and availability. North Goa is already linked to the Maharasthra grid. So now we get all our power from the Maharasthra grid which is absolutely single sourcing which has its own problems.  People would remember the major Western grid failures of which Maharasthra is a part some years back because of excess drawals by some States with a major collapse about 3 years ago which led to outages for extended times over all of Western India. What happens if such a situation occurs in the future and since we are connected to the Western grid through Maharasthra, we will be faced with a blackout in Goa. That is precisely the reason for us to have our own generation with a minimum 250MW plant each in North & South Goa or depending on the exigencies of economies of scale a single 500MW maybe either coast based for convenience of supplies of coal by sea in South or North Goa or at Mopa. The ideal thing would would be to have now 2x500MW, one each in North & South Goa. This with the allocation of about 500 MW from the Centre should last us till the turn of the next decade or more. Even if the Central allocation is reduced considering our own generation, we will be self-sufficient and not be dependent on others and ward off emergency situations of blackout etc. The above plan was advised to the Goa government more than a decade ago almost but nothing was done mostly because of land availability and the generation proposed in Chattisgarh under the acquisition of coal mines policy which had first got stuck in litigation and then equipment issues for wheeling the generation through the national grids to reach Goa. Even today the Goa-owned Chattisgarh power has not reached the State. Thus in the spirit of better late than never it is time that we thought of achieving at least 50% self-sufficiency in electric power generation in Goa as above. At the same time the government should go all out to increase the capacities of solar and also wind power generation and encourage industries, institutions and large housing complexes to invest in these options so that we have more balance between conventional and non-conventional generation. We need to remember that for anything we should not be forever dependent on others be it power, vegetables etc. and waste or use optimally what we have now in plenty, that is water.                                            Responsible Goa Tourism Background: An out of State car, a SUV, speeding on an internal road of Goa while overtaking a vehicle in front of it, got onto the wrong side of the road and collided head-on with a car driven by the son with the father next to him and 2 other people in the backseat. The son died on the spot while the father died in hospital later. The 2 others were injured and admitted to hospital. The occupants of the SUV abandoned the vehicle and fled. The villagers who rushed to the accident scene found opened alcohol bottles in the SUV. In anger they set the SUV on fire.   In relation to the Chopdem incident where an out of State car was set on fire and another incident of a similar kind in Pernem where the people in a car were beaten up, CM Sawant's statement that Goans should not take the law into their own hands and think of the tourism for the State is completely irresponsible. In both cases alcohol bottles were found in the car and that is why the angry public decided to attack the occupants of the car and set fire to one of the vehicles. This is the natural outcome which had to happen since the Goa Government mouths inane platitudes like drinking in public places is banned or driving under the influence of alcohol will be penalised, but rarely implements the rules it sets out. We see blatant violations of public drinking on our beaches and elsewhere. We have our own children and youth drinking under the pretext of birthday parties or weddings until the morning in mixed gender groups which one sees on our morning walks. Nothing is done about this and the respectable local people and responsible tourists prefer avoidance rather than confrontation. But there is a limit to patience and that's where the tempers of the people involved in the Chopdem incident have boiled over. It is correct to say that people should not have taken the law into their own hands but what is the alternative. If you call the police they take hours to come and those involved in the accidents will flee as it happened in the above referred incident. So the CM needs to get the police to have patrolling in their vehicles across all our roads in a random manner and check vehicles, both local and outstation, for speeding, rash driving or any suspicious activity. But the police will not get off their bottoms because they are busy making out challans under the Traffic Sentinel scheme booking local Goans while tourists run riot across the State. The IGP learnt quickly and he is on to making holy statements with no intent enjoying his cushy posting in Goa. Once the police on patrol intercept a few vehicles word will spread that the police are active and the people taking to the roads will be wary. Why does not the government have all liquor vending outlets display prominently notice boards that drinking in public places and vehicles is banned or driving under the influence of alcohol will be penalised spelling out the fine? This could reduce the incidence of these violations. On the other hand we need to have responsible tourists come in to Goa and not the lumpen elements that throng our beaches in their underwear. Thus it is time to weed out those that come to Goa seeking liquor and drugs and who do not know how to behave properly in public. Why does CM Sawant not have have pamphlets or booklets distributed to tourists from the GTDC outlets, on all long distance buses, at our bus stands and railway stations about the do's and don'ts of Goa Tourism and set out what we Goans expect from the tourists while they are here? This along with other ideas given above can be a start to make Goa a responsible and beautiful tourism destination than running to seed like it is right now.                                                   ****************************

Vox Populi Issue 286

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 286                     Date: 17.06.2019

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

 

Contents:       

1. U.P. Fitter For President's Rule Than Bengal

2. Of Demo 2 & The Need To Make The OSA Applicable For Ex- CEA's

3. It Takes Two Friends To Do The Tango

4. Legislation For Bore Wells To Be Mandatorily Closed

                            U.P. Fitter For President's Rule Than Bengal

The BJP meddling in Bengal over the issues of the recent political killings there seems to be misplaced since UP seems to be the better candidate for President's rule. While in Bengal it is only the fights between the TMC and the BJP akin to the RSS-CPM fights in the Malabar region of Kerala, though the Bengal problem has not risen to that level of intensity and severity, in UP there does not seem to be any law and order across the entire State with rape, murder and killings including that of an infant lately. Thus if the Centre wants to impose President's rule anywhere it should be first in UP and then any other State including Bengal.

              Of Demo 2 & The Need To Make The OSA Applicable For Ex- CEA's

Shaktikanta Das, the incumbent Governor of the RBI, thought, probably as is the want of the many secretaries of the Central government who have a penchant for pontificating and who specialise in telling people on what should be done rather than do anything themselves, that tinkering with interest rate cuts would get the faltering economy to move forward from its redolent position and boost it on the path of growth. That is why in a cartoon that appeared in some of the national dailies days before the last rate cut the drawing was that of Das looking interestingly at a placard saying - Demo 2??!!, which message probably was that he should realise the futility of rate cuts and think beyond. One hopes he does not take the cartoon literally and goes whole hog on a Demo 2! India is a complex economy and it needs serious and accomplished economists to man the posts of Governor, RBI & the CEA. People like Das occupying these posts will be hamhanded and only make a bigger mess in the Indian economy than what is existing. Concluding, one must say that the Official Secrets Act (OSA) should be made to cover the posts of the CEA, in fact all posts starting with C like CIC etc. if not already covered, considering Arvind Subramaniam's outburst lately on the controversy on the India GDP figures story. He ostensibly went back to the US to perform granddad duties and within a year he is writing on the India economy! Bad form that. We may have a problem with our numbers but Arvind Subramaniam needs to hold his tongue. Maybe the Official Secrets Act can be back dated and Modi can seek the extradition of the ex-CEA from Trump on charges of opening his mouth once too often!

                                  It Takes Two Friends To Do The Tango

Why we indulge in asking Pakistan for allowing our flights to overfly their territory after the recent Balakot strikes which prompted both countries to close their airspace for the other country's plane, is not understood. First we did in mid-May when the then Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj was flying to Bishkek for the preparatory SCO meetings, which Pakistan allowed. Then again for Modi's flight to Bishkek for the SCO meeting to overfly Pakistan we asked them to open their airspace. Pakistan after a longish delay acceded to our request. But then Modi very correctly did not overfly Pakistan and took the longer route. There is no need to take the risk with a rogue nation like Pakistan and have our senior government functionaries overfly their territory since they are very capable of claiming that a non-State actor or a rogue militant fired the missile that brought down the Indian plane down. This incident could and will trigger off a war needlessly between the two nations which could move up to a nuclear confrontation between both the countries who have nuclear capability. India should realise that false bravado in such matters is actually sheer stupidity and playing tango with Pakistan on such matters only demeans our position.

                         Legislation For Bore Wells To Be Mandatorily Closed

We have had the recent death of a child who fell into a bore well and could not be rescued from a depth of around 120-150 feet. Considering that we have been seeing bore well deaths from across the country with mostly infants and minor children falling into them, can we not have legislation that the bore wells are to be mandatorily secured and covered and kept locked at all times other than when they are being used. This should apply to all bore wells from those under construction, to those functioning and those unused or dormant. We can thus make an attempt to save the lives of budding children who meet an untimely death even before they flower in life. 

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

Vox Populi Issue 285

                                                                       VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 285                      Date: 10.06.2019

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

Contents:      

1. Putting A Stop To Slanderous Comments Made Against The Mahatma

2. Anti-Rabies Program Can Be Used To Catch Stray Dogs & Isolate Them From 

     Public

3. Neymar Going The Maradona Way

4. Cortalim Diversion Road Should Be Taken Up On Top Priority

5. Bury Sonsoddo In Mining Pits

        Putting A Stop To Slanderous Comments Made Against The Mahatma

Nowadays with the media explosion everyone seems to be making comments about everything sans knowledge, sans responsibility. Not only that the media tending towards sensationalism picks up these comments and gives them undeserving exposure. There is no attempt by the media to weigh the import of the matter and its impact on people. One would in the first instance expect that those making these comments particularly against well known and respected persons who have contributed towards nation building and are no longer alive, that they first assess their own position with respect to contribution to the nation before they voice their opinion. We have had lately comments made against Mahatma Gandhi and at the same time praising Godse successively from an aspiring actress, an accused in a terror case who has won in the recent Lok Sabha election and become a MP and finally an IAS officer working with the Maharasthra government. These are listed in the order of what one feels is the level of awareness each of the persons have in terms of what they said. It is particularly disappointing for such an instance to come from an IAS officer whose education and training should have given her to express a more balanced view. The other two instances can be attributed to lack of knowledge and/or information in the case of the actress and political and organisational compulsions of the politician. To bring a certain amount of rationality in these matters one could think of maybe giving Mahatma Gandhi,  the Father of The Nation, the status of the National Flag where a certain code of conduct is set out in its usage and thus eliminate the chance of slanderous comments being made against him.

 Anti-Rabies Program Can Be Used To Catch Stray Dogs & Isolate Them From Public

We have in Goa which should be true for the rest of the country where the government on its own or through well-meaning NGO's are conducting rabies inoculation on stray dogs. While in principle this program needs to be lauded, one thinks that we need to take a broader view related to the problems about stray dogs. These canines are a nuisance to every community across India by their shit dirtying building areas, roads, open ground and near garbage dumps where they additionally strew the garbage all around etc. Also with their noise by barking at all times of the day and particularly night they contribute to noise pollution and insomnia among some people. These strays have been known to attack human beings particularly small children and old people to the extent of killing some of them across India. When you are catching them for giving them the rabies shots which exercise in physical success is probably just one out of a pack of 10 dogs since as soon as the strays see the dog catchers they start barking to warn their canine friends and run away. In any case with the small number of strays that you are catching and then releasing them again, why do you not take them off the roads, to shelters or wherever so they are off the roads creating nuisance for the community at large. Here a policy decision can be taken to give people a first chance of adopting these strays as pets and then release them in packs into the adjoining jungles far away from where they were caught or start culling them. Here one has to understand that keeping dogs as pets is not an issue but having strays on the roads is a serious community problem and it is time that we have stray dog-free roads. Therefore we should now initiate a concerted program to catch stray dogs and get rid of them.  

                                         Neymar Going The Maradona Way

With the controversies that Neymar seems to be getting into on a very regular basis and matching that frequency with the injuries that he has been picking up, he seems to be going the Maradona way. Maradona at the peak of his career started getting into needless controversies related to drug abuse, financial misdealings and family problems which took a toll on his physical self and from thereon it was all downhill for the South American legend. Neymar was doing well at Barcelona even after Suarez joining with the trio being named MSN - Messi Suarez and Neymar, and carrying the club to dizzying heights in the La Liga. Sharing the load with Messi and Suarez in Barcelona's attack, Neymar was comfortable with the workload not drawing too much from his physical frame. But the move to Paris St Germain seemed to start the slide in Neymar's career with injuries piling up, staying away from the game because of that and consequential mental pressure which probably started him down the road with his both on-field and off-field scandals. The recent banning of Neymar from multiple games for bad on-field behaviour and then being removed from the Brazil captaincy would take a toll on his already disturbed psyche. Neymar is still young and as long as he gives his body enough time to heal and concentrates on just his football, there is hope for him otherwise football would have seen yet another shooting star flash across its firmament. 

                  Cortalim Diversion Road Should Be Taken Up On Top Priority

Background: For those who have visited Goa you would have noticed the NH17 runs over the Zuari river bridge which is the only access to Panjim, the capital city, for those arriving by air at Dabolim airport and those who arrive by train at Madgaon in South Goa. Additionally apart from tourists and those travelling on work between Panaji and Madgaon, there are regular commuters between the two cities who travel for employment and have to compulsorily cross the Cortalim circle and the Zuari river bridge. With the construction of the new Zuari river bridge and its progress commuting at this point has become more and more difficult with traffic jams of up to a couple of hours sometimes these days with people missing flights, getting their work disrupted and even ambulances with patients held up in the jams. As is usual in India any development work is taken up without looking into the plight of the people that may get impacted. In essence people are taken for granted. The attitude being that if the public wants the new bridge it needs to suffer. No road map is drawn for the public and their needs are not factored in during the construction leading to pain all around which sometimes causes disruptions and consequent project delays. Thus for any project the public should insist for a plan for them while the development project is put through.

Article Starts Here : CM Sawant has made a completely irresponsible statement recently about the Cortalim diversion road which he said can be ready in another 8 months compared to the earlier promise of the then PWD Minister to have it ready before the present monsoon. Sawant needs to remember that it was the BJP government only that made this commitment and he should stand by it. Though the monsoon is already upon us, the least that can be done is have the diversion road ready positively by Oct 2019 before the new tourist season begins. The then PWD Minister had made the commitment after examining a number of alternative options and then finalised the present orientation parallel to the Konkan railway tracks. What the citizens were told was that a contractor to build the road was the the only thing to be decided. If as the CM has now said that that Dileep Buildcon will build the diversion road, then since they are the primary contractors for the Zuari bridge, they would have the full ability to expedite making of the diversion road since no coordination would be involved like if it were given to a separate contractor. The other aspect to this Issue is that critical infrastructure issues should not be shelved because of political reasons and then give excuses to the public. The fact that the MGP to which the earlier PWD Minister belonged, left the government has got nothing to do with the citizens for which reason the diversion road is supposedly delayed. The citizens particularly the daily commuters who travel between Panjim and Madgaon are suffering daily with longer and longer traffic jams at the Zuari bridge and at Cortalim. They are also exposed to risk of life and limb when they travel over the existing roads near the Zuari bridge construction. In such a circumstance CM Sawant making a case for further delays of the diversion road is unacceptable. Even the present road over which the traffic is moving at the Cortalim site, the road surface is akin to a country road with potholes and ups and downs on it. Particularly at night with the road also badly lit and even with no traffic it is extremely dangerous for 2-wheelers and cars to ply on the road. It is time therefore that CM Sawant pulls up Dileep Buildcon to improve the condition of the road not only at Cortalim but along the entire stretch where they are involved in the construction of the new Zuari Bridge. They can be given the example of the Atal Setu where during the construction L&T though remiss at times to ensure free and comfortable transit on roads below the bridge on the Porvorim side from the Sai Circle to the river, were responsive enough to hotmix the road and take precautions with the construction materials and processes so it did not become a risk to the travelling public. Dileep Buildcon must be asked to replicate that action if not to better it at the new Zuari Bridge site.  CM Sawant also needs to be reminded that while taking up any development activity it is important to look at the impact of that activity during its being put through on the citizens who are proximate to the activity and who use the present infrastructure and ensure their reasonable comfort and safety. It is just not enough to say like in the present case with the new Zuari Bridge that once the bridge comes up all problems will be solved but while constructing the bridge the problems faced by the people need be tackled in a responsible and time bound manner and not in the callous way as it is now. The contractor, Dileep Buildcon, should also be closely monitored and ensured that there are no more slippages and the project is completed on time, which per revised estimate is Dec 2020. CM Sawant also should not take the long suffering Goan public for granted in the matter of the new Zuari Bridge since there is always a limit to trying the patience of the people too much and for too long.

                                  Bury Sonsoddo In Mining Pits

Background: Almost 50 years ago a 8000 sq. meters piece of land on the outskirts of Madgaon town was selected as a garbage dumping site by the authorities. Today the garbage dump covers the entire land and towers some 30 meters from the ground. The town in the meanwhile has expanded and the dump which was on the outskirts is now one of the principal areas of Madgaon and more towards the city centre. Garbage five decades back and until even maybe a decade back was not segregated and the dump stinks to high heaven. During the rains the garbage runs off with the polluted water dirtying the roads and making the surface unsafe for motorists. Attempts have been made to cover the entire dump with plastic sheets before the monsoons which has turned out to be impractical. The dump generates methane, an inflammable gas, and off and on you have fires at the dump like about 10 days ago which raged for 4 days. That these fires are instigated by miscreants and those with diverse agendas is not ruled out. Over the last 20 years we have had many experts come in and offer diverse technologies but nothing has worked out for the benefit of those living near the Sonsoddo dump except that each of these experts have become richer along with sundry officials and politicians. So the best would be to say - R.I.P Sonsoddo and start with a clean slate elsewhere. 

Article Starts Here : In Goa everybody talks but there are few people who act and that is the reason why Sonsoddo has reached such nuisance proportions. It has been festering for years now and the municipal and government authorities have been nurturing it, in a manner of speech. During this time we have many experts and agencies who have come and given suggestions on how to tackle the issue which has not resolved the matter in any real sense. The latest is the self-styled experts who under the pretence of solving the problem push their own products. A gullible and ignorant municipality and government falls prey to these designs since the mountain of garbage at Sonsoddo looms large on theirs and the peoples horizons. A certain amount of connivance between these experts  and/or agencies and some individuals within the authorities cannot be ruled out. Thus the Sonsoddo mountain has become a source of money for different people who exploit it for their nefarious ends under the guise of helping out. Where Lallu Prasad Yadav made money out of fodder, we in Goa are allowing ourselves to be fleeced by people making money out of garbage at Sonsoddo. This is being said in the context of the latest bill of some Rs. 30 crore submitted by the agency who is currently managing the dump. At the same time Sonsoddo has become synonymous with stink, garbage and nuisance. The people of who live near the dump in Sonsoddo are at the end of their patience what with the latest fire and smoke menace which is reported to have thankfully stopped now. So to solve the problem what we need to do is to firstly, recognise that managing the dump is not going to work and the best way is to get rid of it. We have many mining pits around Goa which can be used to dump the garbage of Sonsoddo into them, fill it up and then cover the garbage with a foot or two of soil. Over time, 20 years at the least, this will merge with the environment and no one will be able to make out that garbage was dumped there. This will clear Sonsoddo and then return it back to the citizens living there by making a beautiful public garden. Secondly, stop dumping any more garbage at Sonsoddo. Find another mining pit to dump new garbage and follow the above principle once it becomes full. This has been successfully done in Singapore where garbage was dumped on outlying islands which are now beautiful parks and nature reserves where people flock to see flora and fauna. We could also have dumped the garbage on our outlying islands but since we have these mining pits which are already an eyesore, it is best we fill them up. This is the only way that Sonsoddo can be cleared otherwise time and again it will become a nuisance and used by devious people to make money at the cost of the people. 

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Vox Populi Issue 284

                                                             VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 284                      Date: 03.06.2019

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

 

Contents:      

1. The Ushering Of Modi 2.0

2. Rahul Gandhi's Habit Of Dithering

3. The Three Services Of Our Defence Forces Need To Be Tightened

4. The Argentinian Coach Better Pull Up His Socks Before Copa America

                                             The Ushering Of Modi 2.0

After Modi's victory the swearing in of him as Prime Minister and the other Ministers has gone off smoothly. The allocation of portfolios has also gone through without any major problem except for the grumbling of the JD(U) refusing to join the ministry because they felt shortchanged in the importance and the number of ministries offered to them. The Cabinet shows off a new look with the principal entrant Amit Shah as Home Minister that required a juggling of ministries of finance and defence between Rajnath Singh and Nirmala Sitharaman, with the latter finding herself ejected from defence and landing herself into the hot seat of the Finance Ministry. That Arun Jaitley opted out was nothing new since if he had demurred any further, he would have been found holding the sack what with the economy being the major non-performer in Modi's first term. Other ministers were thrown out for much lesser reasons. Whether Nirmala Sitharaman can do justice to the portfolio is something that we will have to see since she is qualified for the job but a bit raw as a Parliamentarian. Again there have been comments that putting her in the Finance Ministry was with the intention for the PMO to drive the ministry. Such comments cannot be discounted since in the Rafael debate in Parliament we saw her as Defence Minister bringing in the tail rather than front-ending the debate with even busybody Arun Jaitley upstaging her in the queue to speak. But where she lacks in these areas one must say that she makes up with her commitment and application to the task in hand and one wishes her all the best. The new entrant into the ministry in a Jack-in-the-Box mode is S Jayashankar who has all the credentials but the jump from backroom boy to front end the Foreign Ministry will need some getting used to. Here again Jayashankar will look up to the PMO for guidance on party matters and manuevering work through Parliament. The mandate that Modi and the BJP has got enjoins an onerous responsibility and the combination of Modi as Prime Minister and Amit Shah as Home Minister again brings back unsavoury memories of the turn of the 21st century in Gujarat where the duo were in charge in similar tandem fashion and we had the unexplained murders of Haren Pandya and the encounter killings of Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jahan. One just hopes that emboldened by the massive mandate Modi and Amit Shah will not unleash a series of excesses on the citizens of India.

                                   Rahul Gandhi's Habit Of Dithering

Rahul Gandhi's dithering on his resignation as Congress Party President needs to stop. He needs to show more maturity. Not so far back into the past a similar situation had arisen on the issue of whether he would involve in politics full-time or indulge in it as a spectator. Thankfully that issue was conclusively put to rest when he took over the mantle of party president. In that role he has conducted a credible performance and ran a very creditable Lok Sabha election campaign. Over the duration of the rather long drawn out campaign he has flowered in his political sensibility and turned into a very self-assured orator be it on one on one encounters at town hall style meetings or media events and even at large public meetings. If he keeps doing what he is doing, then he can only become better. This will help him and the Congress party to function effectively as an Opposition in the short-term. Elections are a win-loss game which is in the hands of the voters and no purpose is served by resigning to 'own responsibility' which is only a face-saving political gesture of not much meaning. It is those who are in for the long haul who make for great leaders. By insisting on resigning he is only playing into the hands of his detractors and the BJP who are very much into their narrative of a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'. If by resigning, Rahul Gandhi thinks he can get a better bargaining position in trying to get a carte-blanche in the Congress party re-organisation and to make it more relevant in the present context, he is sadly mistaken.  Any organisational changes that he needs to bring in are best done with him at the helm of the Congress party presidency. He has kept insisting that someone from outside the Gandhi family can become the Congress President. That is not going to happen since as long as any Gandhi remains in the Congress party and is in politics, no one outside the family will take up the top party post. If he continues to dither then it may not be unusual to see factions of the Congress in the various States strike out on their own to create regional outfits. Some of the chatterboxes on TV chat shows have been 'postulating' that Rahul Gandhi's offer to have a Congress President outside the Gandhi family is the signal for unity among those that broke away from the Grand Old Party (GOP) like the NCP & the TMC and others. This is rather immature reasoning since neither Sharad Pawar and Mamata Banerji will give up their independence and the parties that they have built up for close to a decade now. They have like a tiger tasted blood and any talk of merger will be rebuffed and if at all likely will come with the demands of an associated pound of flesh as we had seen in the failed grand alliance of parties like the Mahagathbandhan that was proposed in the lead-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. So Rahul Gandhi will have to soldier on as Congress party president with his shoulder to the wheel seeking the magic figure of 271 in the Lok Sabha come 2024 or even later. 

         The Three Services Of Our Defence Forces Need To Be Tightened

The fact that the bringing down of our helicopter by 'friendly fire' on the day of the Balakot strike and related air combat in Kashmir which has been confirmed now brings to the fore the need to shore up our national security. The IAF among the  three armed forces wings had remained out of the chronic offender’s list but with the incident of shooting down of the helicopter it has opened its account of careless and negligent action. Though one must say that the IAF has had its share of crashes with the MIG-21 dominating and a random Jaguar or a Sukhoi going down. However these cannot be ascribed without doubt to the pilots flying them since the age of the aircraft has reached the vintage stage and the MIG-21's have for long been tagged as the 'flying coffins'. But what rankles is that in the recent incident is that the helicopter had not switched on its 'friend or foe' transponder which confused the missile battery commander in Srinagar to identify the aircraft and whether or not to fire the missiles. It is also reported that the commander in Srinagar had also no means to verify the helicopter's antecedents though one wonders what happened to good old radio. And even though the aerial dogfight arena was almost 75-100 Km. away he still decided to fire the Israeli missile to shoot down the helicopter. With just a stray incident of battle creating so much confusion one wonders what would happen if a full scale aerial battle were to take place with multiple aircraft, both in type and number. The IAF needs to brush up after this and keep its battle readiness at a knife's edge. Just to recount we had the Army showing in recent times similar lacunae in the terrorist attacks at its many camps in the forward areas of Kashmir notably Uri and the cantonment at Pathankot. The Navy has been the most proliferate in its inconsistencies with many fires at both Mumbai and Vizag not only at ports but also both on ships and submarines with the latest being the one on a warship just off the Karwar coast about a month ago where a young officer lost his life. At the height of the series of accidents which had included docking a ship at port side which one would assume is a regular exercise for the captain of the  vessel in which he miserably failed the then chief of the Navy taking responsibility had offered his resignation. So with our armed forces in all three sectors of land, sea and air we have problems and it is time therefore that they are brought back to proper trim again. 

        The Argentinian Coach Better Pull Up His Socks Before Copa America

The Copa America cup is  just around the corner and the Argentinian coach better have his thinking cap put on right side up so that he can have his attacking resources of the likes of Messi, Dybala, Di Maria and Aguero to be used in decisive and aggressive fashion. These players are stars in their club teams who depend upon them to score goals and that is how they need to be used in the national team. There needs to be playmakers behind them to feed them the balls to score goals. This was sorely lacking during the last World Cup where Argentina was again forced to cut a sorry face. Messi could be seen in the later matches wandering in the opponent's half of the field with very few balls coming to him. This situation needs to be corrected in the Copa America cup as a build up to the next World Cup upcoming in Oman. The coach should singly be held responsible if Argentina are unable to make satisfactory headway in the Copa America cup.

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