VOX POPULI  
                                                          by
                                                      S Kamat
                                                           as
                                                    Aam Admi
                              Issue: 227                     Date: 13.11.2017

  skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com 

Contents:   

1. Are Our Schools Safe?

2. Goa Police Should Not Try To Pass The Buck

3. Saving Indian Democracy

4. The Pollution Crisis In Delhi Should Have Been Anticipated

5. Organised Crime Will Follow In The Wake Of Money Laundering, 
    Therefore Closing Down The Casinos Is The Best Option

                                                        Are Our Schools Safe?

The Pradyuman killing and the arrest of the new suspect, a Cl. XI schoolboy from the same school, Ryan International at Bhondsi, makes chilling reading when you are made aware of the possible reason for the murder, to get a school holiday that would postpone a PTA meeting and an exam scheduled on that day. What is our society coming to? When children in their teens can think of measures as extreme as this to get away from regular events on school calendars. It speaks of a complete lack of upbringing of the suspect with no inculcation of proper moral values by his parents and other elders in his family. The school as far as the incident is concerned is less to blame apart from the regular security measures that it flouted. But at the same time one feels that the school should keep an eagle eye open on the students in the higher classes to look for possible offenders since murder is a rare occurrence but bullying, incorrect dealings with the other sex,  smoking, use of drugs etc. are quite possible the risk factors for our schoolchildren in a rapidly changing modern society. If the CBI is proved right in the arrest of the Cl. XI schoolboy for Pradyuman's murder, we need to take measures to sanitise our schools sufficiently since we would not want them to go the way of US schools where shootings, knifing, drug abuse etc. over the years have been quite rampant. This is being stated since in the last five years or so in the NCR we have had incidents of knifing and shootings reported in the media committed by schoolchildren but maybe not necessarily on school premises. Most of these are related to bravado, rivalry or girl related issues. We could also consider having psychological tests conducted annually by the schools for all children above 12 years to see the child's development and what kind of tendencies he/she are showing. The reports of these tests can be shared with the children and their parents/guardians.  If there is anything adverse then those responsible for the child get all the more time to address the issues and a chance to iron them out. But what makes the murder at the Ryan International school at Bhondsi diabolical, since maybe Pradyuman would have lived but then some other poor child would have died at the hands of the the killer. For the killer, it seems the act was more important than the identity of the victim.

                                              Goa Police Should Not Try To Pass The Buck

The Goan papers lately carried two news items on police matters. The first was that police personnel on duty will not be allowed to use cellphones and access Apps while on duty. The cellphone is a technology gadget that has simplified access to and from people anywhere and everywhere. As to matters related to police, cellphones have almost eliminated the dependence on wireless sets which used to be a specialised technical activity which the cellphones have simplified to an easy to use process. So why does the government want to limit the use of technology rather than embrace it and see how best it can be used to improve police services? Is it a fear of technology that is making the authorities to take this retrograde step? If police are stopped from using mobiles while on duty, will the government stop all other government employees to do the same? Since if you go to any government office you will find at least 60% of the employees on their mobile phones on personal calls or accessing Apps. If there is going to be a rule, then there should be a single rule across the board for all government employees.

The other news was that the police is keen on getting the public as whistleblowers to complain about traffic offences. Why are the police delegating their job to the public? Are they not competent to handle their jobs that they have to ask the public to assist them? Or are they plumb lazy and just want to sit around waiting for the complaints from the public to come in? A scheme of regular patrolling both by foot in city areas and by vehicles on major roads and highways, will get a better rate of catching offenders for all those reasons in which points are proposed to be given to the complainants from the public. Additionally the traffic police that are deployed in the city areas to manage parking can be given daily/weekly or monthly targets for catching offenders to improve the apprehending rate. What happens presently can be seen from an incident personally experienced by this writer last week in Panjim. We were driving into the one-way lane below the Panjim church adjoining the mosque on our way to A B Road nearing 5pm, when we saw 3-4 scooters, hired ones it seemed from their registration plates which were yellow, coming out of the lane and into the Panjim church square! This was clearly wrong side. And there was a police Gypsy vehicle parked in front of the bungalow that is on the right of the lane there with an officer and constable standing outside, next to the vehicle. And they did nothing to the 3 scooters and let them pass through without a murmur let alone a hail! This is our police in Goa today! And the police IGP instead of making the police work is trying to give them an easier time by delegating their work to the public. Mr IGP, put your head down and get on with the job that you are paid to do and get your personnel to deliver on their salaries that they receive every month.

The idea of passing on the task of reporting traffic offences to the public whistleblowers is also fraught with confusion. People who have enmity against others will use this opportunity to take revenge by filing false reports. The police will then be caught in the dilemma of trying to find what is the 'truth'. There is also every chance that the fines imposed through this process will be struck down by the courts since the public whistleblowers have no locus standii  as a traffic regulating or offence administration authority. Therefore it is best that the police work be best done by the police themselves. In a moral sense asking people to tell tales on other people is also wrong. We are setting a bad example for our society here by having people squeal on others. In times of crisis or emergency asking for public support by the police is all right like neighbourhood night patrols if you have a spate of robberies happening but in normal times passing the buck is just not the right thing to do.

                                                        Saving Indian Democracy

The way things are going on in the Indian political arena, we need to try and look at the likely happenings that may happen in the future. The Opposition parties led by the Congress and the various regional parties bringing up the tail are all in disarray. Thus the hope that they will be able to whip up the anti-incumbency factor against Modi & the BJP and dislodge them in 2019 is a rather forlorn thought. Therefore we need to look at how to keep Modi under check. For all his faults Modi in the face of election victories that are at stake keeps his ears open and responds to feedback. The example of this are the various revisions on the GST with more to come which would not have been done had the imminent Gujarat elections not been ahead of him. Though he may win Gujarat, it is important to give him a good fight and reduce the BJP margin of victory which will be a caution for Modi. Otherwise if he takes Gujarat with a huge majority and also wins the 2019 Lok Sabha elections since there is no feasible alternative from among other political parties as stated above, with a similar resounding majority like in the 2014 elections, we may be heading for Emergency like conditions imposed on the country from mid-2020 onwards. At least if the Opposition parties organise an improved showing in the number of seats won both in Gujarat and across the country in the general elections, it will put a speed governor on Modi's political juggernaut which is threatening to run astray. Clearly the Indian democracy is at stake in the next two years. Arun Jaitley's mishandling of the economy and fully instituting a terrorist Raj through his enforcement apparatus like the income tax, ED etc. will lose a lot of votes for the BJP. Jaitley's approach is somewhat similar to the India Shining platform that the BJP adopted in the past which was a disconnect with people's wants while the present approach is authoritarian which does not go very well with the Indian people. Indians like a little bit of authority but not too much. The Opposition needs to capitalise on such issues where people are hurt like for Demonetisation the major plank to be taken was loss of jobs and livelihood by closures of businesses while for GST it is that there is no 'ease of doing business'. And that the twin operations that were imposed on the Indian economy in the last one year of Demonetisation and GST though claimed to be 'successful' left the economy 'dead'. Only in the Opposition parties improved showing in the elections will we secure the safety of Indian democracy. 

                                   The Pollution Crisis In Delhi Should Have Been Anticipated

The pollution that is crippling Delhi and northern India with haze should have been tackled in proper time this year before it reached hazardous levels. As the harvest season was in swing the government's in Haryana & Punjab should have launched an awareness drive among farmers not to set fire to the stubble in their fields as also informed them of the Supreme Court verdict in the matter. Parallely some incentive could have been announced for enhanced fertiliser subsidies for those farmers that do not set fire to their fields. This would surely have motivated some of the farmers at least not to contribute to smoke pollution and the consequent haze in Delhi.

The other thing is that the AAP government had initiated immediately after coming to power the odd-even rule for cars in Delhi. Though the pros & cons of the measure was discussed to death, it remains the only visible measure to reduce vehicular particulate pollution in Delhi apart from closing down polluting industry, ban on construction activity etc. Why this was not launched when the likely haze from the smoke from Haryana & Punjab was being discussed is something that defies logic and common sense? It seems that the AAP government is no longer interested in the long term health of the people of Delhi or maybe because the odd-even rule was roundly vilified by many in different media forums. However, it is best that every year from Sept - Jan the odd-even rule is strictly implemented since not only will it reduce vehicular pollution but also facilitate to streamline traffic on Delhi roads.

                      

        Organised Crime Will Follow In The Wake Of Money Laundering, Therefore Closing Down 

                                                  The Casinos Is The Best Option

We have Manohar Parrikar talking last week of money laundering of about some Rs. 1000 crores by doctors and those owning restaurants and diagnostic labs where transactions are mainly in cash. Is this something new? Under-declaring of income is the time-honoured prerogative of all Indian professionals like doctors, lawyers etc. and of businesses that handle mostly cash like those referred above and everyone knows about this. The way the Income Tax officers handle it is, they mark up the income depending upon how much cut is offered to them and the issue is settled with everyone happy. These avoidances that require money laundering for the undeclared income are relatively small change compared to what is done through the casinos. Again in the last couple of weeks there was news of some Rs. 90 crores being laundered through a racket in which the Goan casinos were involved by some people based in Delhi.

Money laundering is as old as the oldest profession in the world and that is prostitution. In fact one begets the other. The motivation being easy money. Now that the Goan government has woken up to the fact that money laundering, both big and small, goes on in the State, it is time that we did something about it. Like it is known that the casinos in Goa act as the magnet who bring in the big-time money laundering activities into the State. These casinos are used for  money laundering opportunities that are availed by persons, businesses across India as also organised crime. This is not a good thing since in the wake of organised crime will come the rackets of prostitution and drugs. The mechanics and stratagems that those involved in such activities employ are devious and circumvental to say the least. The easiest thing for the Goan government to do is therefore to close down the casinos which will kill two birds with one stone, get rid of the gambling nuisance and also limit the avenue of large-scale money laundering. No longer can the government justify the presence of the casinos by the revenue that they bring in. The negatives of casinos far outweigh their positive aspects like generating employment and revenue. Thus money laundering is just the tip of the iceberg that is visible above the waterline since there are more major negatives under the water which businesses like casinos thrive upon compared to other business activity. 

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

                                                  VOX POPULI  
                                                           by
                                                     S Kamat
                                                            as
                                                    Aam Admi
                                  Issue: 226                     Date: 06.11.2017
                skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1. Demonetisation Was A Surgical Strike On The Indian People

2. '100' On The World Bank's Report On Ease of Doing Business

3. Limit Size Of Government, Emphasise On Efficient Working 

4. The Betim-Panjim Ferry Incident & What Next

                   Demonetisation Was A Surgical Strike On The Indian People

Carrying on the euphoria after the surgical strike on Pak, Narendra Modi and his government turned their guns inward at the country and on Nov 8,2016 launched the Demonetisation surgical strike on the unsuspecting Indian population. The results of that are being felt to this day. If the Pak surgical strike as we are told resulted in some 22 deaths, the Demonetisation surgical strike killed some 109 directly and many others indirectly. The direct deaths were those who stood on the queues in front of banks and gave up their lives to exchange their own money that had been invalidated by an irresponsible government. The indirect deaths caused by  Demonetisation were related to the fatalities that were caused of sick people who were unable to have the right currency to pay doctors and hospitals because of the non-availability and shortage of the proper currency and gave up their lives though they had the worthless old paper currency in their hands. There could be more cases of indirect deaths like this but it was found by the incumbent government that it was better to wipe these under the carpet. 

The Pak surgical strike resulted in collateral damage as we are told and claimed by Pak of a few villagers in the area and damages to the Pak army and/or terrorist camps. While the Demonetisation surgical strike on the Indian population in terms of  collateral damage resulted in massive job losses across the swathe of the small-scale and unorganised sector, huge amounts of perishable goods were wasted in the early days of Nov 2016 because there was no cash to pay for the goods and no alternate payment mechanisms set up. Many small businesses went under unable to figure out a way to do business without cash. The organised sector was also hit with a slump in demand which they continue to face even now. 

Thus where a popularly elected government is expected to be caring and look after the welfare of its people,  Narendra Modi and his government went the other way and tormented its people on the false premise that this was 'beneficial' for them. Not only that hardly any time had passed but obsessed with the idea of surgical strikes, this same government unleashed another 'brahmastra' on its people in the form of GST to add to the mess in people's lives. But then like they say, that is another story! 

                         '100' On The World Bank's Report On Ease of Doing Business

Why is Narendra Modi and his A-team led by the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley getting rattled by the persistent criticism of their handling of the Indian economy post-Demonetisation and with the problems faced in implementing of the GST that they stoop to whatever comes their way in terms of talking good about India's economic scene and make a big thing of it. Like being listed at 100 on the World Bank's report on ranking of countries for Ease of Doing Business. A rank of 100 and you call it good and make such an amount of noise about it to put any event management activity to shame. There is a sense in being part of a Top 10 but Top 100 and that too just scraping through into it. Are we not thus promoting mediocrity?  This shows the mindset that we have in our political leadership that runs this government today. Not only that Narendra Modi goes on TV making a big thing of why his press conference was timed for 7.30pm since the World Bank would make public the report - Ease of Doing Business - in Washington at the same time being their morning on that day. If you heard him then you would be constrained to believe that he thinks he is talking to a bunch of dummies, hilly-billies from the rural areas who will get suitably impressed with the Modi brand of histrionics. In another sense, we are toeing the line set by foreign institutions and persisting with the colonial regime that is embedded in our minds. Come on, what are we coming to these days?

Let us examine now who is releasing this report and its real relevance to India. The World Bank who with the entire world in a sorry mess for one reason or other and economic growth out there in the wilderness across all nations has some numbers to talk of only when it comes to India which is showing 5-6% growth. This by developed nation standards is pretty good but pretty bad by our own standards, as we all know since it is jobless growth and is a sign of stagflation. China had been doing pretty badly recently but then things are picking up with their economy and it may take a couple of quarters before the spotlight moves from India to China in the World Bank's scheme of things. Until then India is holding the stage at the World Bank and in a marketing perspective makes good sense for this 'august' institution to show that they are doing their job. Narendra Modi and his A-team have fallen for this ploy of the World Bank hook, line and sinker. There is another issue here and that is - Why is Narendra Modi and his A-team accepting the Washington based World Bank's report and going lah-di-da on it? Just about a couple of weeks back the Washington based International Food Policy Research Institute put India at 100th position in the World Hunger Index falling 45 places between 2014 to 2017. The reaction of our government was to go after the institution and the report with hammer and tongs attacking the credibility, methodology, etc. etc. until it literally tore this report to shreds. But now you are accepting another Washington based institution's report! Is this because in the government's opinion the report is talking good about it.

Now let us look at World Bank's report for Ease of Doing Business that places India at '100'. On indices where India has improved are those related to resolving insolvency, protecting shareholder's interests, paying taxes and getting credit (?). The last is a question mark since banks are funds flush and though they are offering credit, no one is willing to take it. In any case all these parameters are applicable to existing businesses in the country which is like a quid pro quo, that is whether you like if or not, you have to live with the prevailing conditions that are related to the four parameters.  The four other criteria in contrast where India has slipped relates to starting a business, getting electricity, registering property and trading across barriers. Thus if  you have to have the Ease of Doing Business, don't  you have to Start A Business in which India has slipped along with the other three criteria that are also linked to getting a business started like getting property registered, getting electricity etc. Thus the report does not encourage anyone wanting to come in on the Make in India program to start a business in India. If so, then what was Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley gloating about in the report. Was it that they believed that their cheerleaders would start clapping on the basis of the summary results of the report and that nobody would read the fine print? Are they so dumb or have they got so rattled with the Indian Elephant economy refusing to budge inspite of their best efforts that they are looking at a glint and believing that they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. This is in the manner of a drowning man clutching at hay to save himself. We have to realise that based on such reports no one makes an investment plan. These reports are only for reference and there should be intrinsic merit in the investment proposition to manufacture in India. This applies to both foreign as well as local investors.

The other thing that is completely not understandable in this matter was up until the Indo-US nuclear deal the US was not in the good books of the BJP. But post-2014 their US relationship has rapidly changed from a dalliance, an affair to courtship, engagement, wedding and then now to honeymoon collapsing the time scale through these various stages. India seems to be permanently in the orbit of the US these days, dancing to their tunes, in step and out of step sometimes, what with Donald Trump, that is kind of accepted. But the point is why are we accepting a foreign report as God's Own Truth. At times we do not accept foreign reports but when it suits the PM and his establishment, it is embraced with alacrity as the present one of the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business. The question is why should Modi & his team  take the crutch of these reports to prop up their India economic story. Are they not able to assess the mess that they have created in the country themselves? In the evangelical zeal and misplaced exuberance of the present government to ostensibly eliminate black money and tax every economic activity in sight by the twin measures of Demonetisation and GST they have made the Indian people forsake economic activity. This is the only explanation since though the GDP figures showed a moderate improvement in the last quarter, the PMI figures released recently show stagnation. Now will Modi & his team go after the PMI report because it is not playing ball! Instead of that what this government should do is improve the credibility of its own figures and prove that they are legit on a sustained basis. In any case coming back to economic activity, people across the country are playing safe and indulging in economic activity at a low key to just keep body and soul together  and waiting for the last of the storms in the form of GST to pass and/or settle down.

Concluding, Narendra Modi and his A-team led by the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley should realise that no amount of flag waving and bombastic claims will help revive the economy. Instead of that what they need to realise is that on the back of Demonetisation the timing of GST was wrong and the measure was also not thought through exhaustively which is why we are seeing the messes today which Secretary Adhia has admitted in the last week. But now that the two irresponsibly stupid measures have been launched against the Indian economy what we need is to put our heads together and repair the damage. Of paramount importance at this time is to generate jobs for youth since otherwise we will have more anarchy as we go ahead.  

                         Limit Size Of Government, Emphasise On Efficient Working 

There is something confusing in the news coming out about government jobs. Last week's headlines if you scan you will find the CM advising his MLA's not to promise jobs or process job requests or fill up vacancies. Two days later there are headlines saying that the CM has promised to fill up as much as 5000 jobs in government, with Health Minister Rane jumping the gun saying that 1500 of these are in his Dept. Then y/day 31.10.2017 there are headlines saying that there are 10,000 vacancies in government that are required to be filled up. Going back in time there were statistics quoted that 1 out of every 15 Goans is in government service or almost one person per family, is the other estimate. We have also been told that the size of our government in Goa is large. We have also seen in our random visits to government offices that half of the employees are not at their desks, half of the remaining are not working but chit-chatting amongst themselves and the burden of running the office is left to a handful of sincere employees. If so what is the point in adding more people which is clearly a burden to the exchequer and indirectly to the citizens at large? Did Manohar Parrikar not promise us a government that works by reducing the size of the government? One thinks therefore that the government should down-size and re-deploy existing employees where they are in surplus to the under-staffed departments. There may be a need of some specialist workers like in the technical Depts. like Health, IT etc. where recruitment may be resorted to on a special basis. This way you will have a more functional and effective government, essentially  - A Government That Works. 

                                    The Betim-Panjim Ferry Incident & What Next

Just like the Panjim bus stand fire incident, we are now becoming wiser after the event as in the case of the Betim-Panjim ferry drifting and going aground a couple of days ago. The same kind of incident had taken place a number of times in the past on the same route as also across Goa particularly on the ferries plying on the Zuari river. After these incidents we have become none the wiser nor put in place procedures or investments that will avoid such incidents in future. The same kind of promises as we had heard after the earlier incidents is what we are hearing again. There has been absolutely no action on the ground. Unique facilities like the river ferry service in Goa needs to be taken care of properly and measures taken to run it smoothly. Unfortunately this is not the case with the ferries maybe because they are free and with no revenue coming in, it is like nobody's baby. So maybe we should think of a nominal charge of Rs. 5/- be put for each passenger apart from the charges that are now levied for the vehicles that use the ferry service. There could also be monthly and annual passes which will bring down the tariff for the commuters. With money coming one would expect that the focus on proper maintenance of the service is put in place including safety of the commuters. Goa is a small place where managing things should be easier as long as the authorities take interest in their work. The particular Betim-Panjim ferry involved in the incident is reported to have hit a sandbar which brings to the fore the question is what are the River Navigation Dept. and the Captain of Ports doing. When was the last time they mapped the Mandovi and published data on the sandbars? The Kolkata port on the river Hooghly similarly is prone to heavy silting and changing sand bar formations. The Calcutta Port Trust and the River Navigation Dept.  there maps the sand bars and puts out this information for the benefit of the river users on a daily basis.  While here after the incident our Minister says that we will dredge the river now! This clearly shows a lack of focus on running a service that benefits the people. Lastly, the earlier ferry incident on the Mandovi had the ferry getting entangled in the anchoring ropes of the casino vessels. The same has again been reported in this incident and the CoP needs to take protective measures by removing the casino vessels 500 meters on either side of the ferry route across the river to avoid such problems in future. The best would be to have the casino vessels out of the Mandovi which the CM has promised by March 2018. Concluding, there are suggestions being made of a cable-stayed pedestrian bridge across the river to replace the Betim-Panjim ferry which may not be a sensible idea. The question apart from the safety and limited usage of the bridge and possible misuse of being used by 2-wheelers, is how many structures do we want across the Mandovi? A ropeway project is coming up nearby and as time goes by a regular bridge will be required at that location or a little further down because the 3rd Mandovi bridge will not be able to deal with the traffic to Panjim. In any case a pleasing and efficient river ferry service in Goa can be a big tourism earner is what our authorities should strive for in the years to come. 

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

                                                       VOX POPULI  
                                                              by
                                                         S Kamat
                                                              as
                                                        Aam Admi       
                                        Issue: 225                Date: 30.10.2017     
                  skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:   

1. Throw Out The Present Brood of Boorish Politicians 

2. Modi Should Practise What He Preaches

3. Are We Moving Back To Emergency Days? 

4. Controversy Against Tipu Sultan Jayanti Unwanted

                                   Throw Out The Present Brood of Boorish Politicians 

The breed of politicians in India is going from bad to worse. We have the worst kind of immaturity and cussedness generated by them being thrust on the people of India with the impudence generated on the strength of numbers achieved out of elections. But this impudence is misconceived since whether it is the winning of an election or the majority amassed in a legislature is based on the manipulation of a largely illiterate majority which is swayed by what are called policy sops that provide incentives or direct cash or gift provisions. We have seen this gratification process in almost every election more so in States like Tamil Nadu where it is done in excess. Is this not corruption? Where on one hand we complain of corruption all around us in daily life and want to be rid of it, we ourselves fall prey to taking something in exchange for exercising your franchise once or twice in five years. Rather contradictory, is it not? We need to analyse this trend of the largely illiterate or less educated voters being manipulated and who thus moderate or should we say completely change the results of the election process.  There may be an existing common and considered opinion of the candidates and/or parties involved in the election process which is overturned by this larger number of voters that is bought out and thus throw up winners who may not be all that deserving to represent us as legislators. Maybe this is the reason why urban voters who may be considered to be more educated than others across the length and breadth of India show a disenchantment towards voting. The politicians on their part want the present distorted system, one cannot say biased since there is no element of coercion stopping anyone from participating, to continue since they can manage it to their advantage and remain installed in positions of power.

With the electorate as we have positioned above as largely illiterate or less educated, we need to consider now the match with their leaders who are again largely illiterate or less educated. Across the party spectrums to find a political leader who is educated is like panning for gold and waiting anxiously to see the flash in the pan. Though one must say that the level of education in successive legislatures both at the Centre and in the States has been over the years increasing but it still remains far from satisfactory to believe that we have involved, capable leaders competent of considered reasoning.

Take the oldest party in the country, Congress, and their topmost leadership which has questionable if not dubious educational qualifications. Moreover when there are enough local leaders why the Congress has to have someone of Italian origin at the top is not understandable. Is it to show that the Congress who claim secular credentials has an open mind on who can lead them and that a person of foreign origin is also acceptable? But this open mind has gradually led to a situation today that the Congress party can be said to have no mind at all, so wide are its contours that the horizons are no longer visible!

Let us now look at the nouveau-political outfit the BJP and its broader NDA allies which occupy the seat of government in present times. We are led by a chai-wallah, who takes pride in his origins. Nothing wrong with that but as long as he is aware of his limitations. Unfortunately that he is not and that is precisely why the country both economically and in terms of general law and order is deteriorating badly and very fast. His education credentials at the same time remain dubious. Then as Finance Minister we have an advocate who has the gift of the gab as is required in his original profession but finds himself at sea as an economist but refuses to accept that fact. He is fond of saying that he is working for the long-term benefit of the people but does not realise that for a starving man today's food on the plate is more important than tomorrow's feast. Again he does not realise that mouthing platitudes and jumping on the plank of morality like the need to pay taxes, not to indulge in black money etc. etc. is not going to get the Finance Minister too far unless the engine of the economy is revved up and that too, quickly. Among the other leaders in the rank and file after retiring all those above 75 years like L KAdvani, Murli Manohar Joshi et al, the BJP find today a severe shortage of leaders with true mettle. So sundry persons are elevated to senior party and ministerial positions which has given the country an irregular dose of humour right from taking over the reins of government in 2014 with their foot-in-the-mouth comments. The latest in these annals is KJ Alphons, Tourism Minister holding independent charge, which one would think is important enough, making comments over the last one month, the first that high fuel prices should be acceptable to owners of 2-wheelers and cars since if they can own their vehicles they would have the money to pay the higher prices for petrol. He probably does not understand that a personal vehicle is an essential part of life these days what with the crowded public transport system. The second comment made by him after that was considering that the number of donors who give their eyes after their death is very low  in India, Alphons wanted to make it mandatory for all citizens to donate their eyes. Little does the Minister understand that such matters are personal decisions and one cannot thrust these strictures on the people since otherwise he and his party will be open to the charge of being a fascist party. Alphons has continued with his foot-in-the-mouth affliction by saying that the Agra incident a couple of days ago where a Swiss couple was beaten up by a group of young men is nothing much since there have been similar incidents in Europe and also shootings in the US! What the correlation is God only knows since the Agra incident was an incident of eve-teasing and/or moral policing. In the other parties of the NDA alliance the situation is not very much different with the leaders with either no or little education making similar outrageous comments and there is nothing to commend their prowess of the tasks assigned to them.

What is disturbing in this scenario is that educated, intelligent people of proven competence who exist both within the political parties and outside in our society, more in the latter than in the former, are seen to be kowtowing to political leaders who are not educated, have little to show on their ability and proven performance but who claim mass followings. One cannot understand this phenomenon which is obviously either a need to be proximate to power with its concomitant rewards of holding high positions in institutions and/or to be in the running for governmental awards. This a rather sad commentary on the state of affairs within our society.

However, one thinks that this situation of uneducated boors leading the country can be tolerated for long and it is time that we had a re-think or maybe a revolution in educated, sensible people taking a pro-active part in the affairs of the nation. More people within their own spheres of influence or near their places of residences or among their peer groups should actively pursue matters of public interest. This will at the least get us to a wider public opinion on what is good and is beneficial for this nation and its citizens. It is something for all of us to ponder, deliberate and arrive at one's own action plan which can then be knitted into a larger action plan for the country. 

                                             Modi Should Practise What He Preaches

Narendra Modi has said that all political parties should have democratic practices in their working. Should he not practise what he preaches. Does this prescription not apply to him & the BJP? If he believes in inner party democracy, why did he shut up one of his own party MP's from Maharashtra who had wanted to raise a question about farmer suicides and relief to these farmers in his constituency at a Parliamentary party meeting sometime back. Just like Demonetisation could not chase the mirage of Black Money so also mouthing words in the manner of japa's will not get the mirage of Democracy into the BJP.

                                        Are We Moving Back To Emergency Days? 

                        

Continuing with the intolerance theme in the early part of this BJP government innings, we have  Rajasthan run by BJP's Vasundhara Raje moving to make a law that would require government permission to write anything adverse about legislators, government officials including judges. The legislation also states that the names of those involved in any controversial actions cannot be disclosed by those writing about them without specific government permission which would come within 6 months! This would mean that if there is any genuine issue involved be it of corruption or policy the Rajasthan government would attempt to close the stable doors after the horse has bolted! The media and the Opposition parties have been up in arms against this legislation which harkens one back to the days of the Emergency. Freedom of expression will be strangled by this law which is being ostensibly done to limit fake allegations and also legal cases filed by chronic litigants. Governance does not mean closing the tap and opening it at will and when convenient to the rulers but the ability to regulate the flow of water through the tap is what Vasundhara Raje should realise. With royal blood flowing through her veins falling for such a narrow-minded ploy is a black mark on Raje's fair face. Better sense has prevailed it seems lately and it is reported that Vasundhara Raje is having second thoughts about the legislation which was tabled at the opening session of the Rajasthan Assembly but has now been referred to a Select Committee of the House. With the earlier marking of the houses of the BPL families in Rajasthan with prominent yellow painted labels and now this legislation, questions will be raised on the ability of the present BJP government in Rajasthan to govern. 

And then the Tamil film -  Mersal, where criticism is aimed at some comments made on GST by the principal actor to which the BJP took umbrage and asked for these to be deleted. Firstly, comments made in films are not to be taken seriously but then with Tamil Nadu cine politics being primary, one can overlook that lapse. Secondly, the question arises whether the citizens of this country cannot express their opinion on  government measures through any medium, press, music or cinema? The producers and director of Mersal took the accommodative path and said that they are willing to make the cuts where the comments on GST have been shown. They must have done this since the controversy has enabled the film to garner almost Rs. 250 crores at the box-office since it was released both locally and in overseas circuits. The matter with Mersal did not end there but the Income Tax authorities thought it fit to dig out a case against the principal actor of the movie and move against the actor. Though the IT Dept. has clarified that the tax issue of the actor was pre-existing, the timing of the notice is sure to raise eyebrows. This has been the default practice of this present government that wherever criticism or dissident is shown, move in with more than required force on the person through government agencies lie the police, IT or the ED.

Similarly, a professor at JNU is being currently hounded for some statements on Kashmir that he made in a panel discussion on the Al Jazeera news channel. Free speech as we know is being curbed randomly and deliberately by this government which is an attack on the fundamental right of our democracy which every right minded citizen should protest. 

An impartial assessment of the situation prevailing within the country in the light of the above two latest incidents is that with this present government we are moving progressively to an Emergency like situation that is likely to be imposed by the year 2020, just after the scheduled 2019 General Elections. The Emergency will be thought to be necessary by the present NDA government led by the BJP to contain the increasing disenchantment among the people about  government policies and the inability and helplessness of the authorities because of incompetence to tackle these matters.   

                              Controversy Against Tipu Sultan Jayanti Unwanted

The controversy being generated against the Tipu Sultan Jayanti  y the BJP in Karnataka with Central Minister Anantkumar Hegde protesting even his name being put in the invitation is rather sad. How will the BJP and the people associated with the party who never fought for freedom, understand about Tipu Sultan who waged war against the British to remain free & at one time had the invaders with their backs to the wall and on the brink of leaving the country? There have been excesses by all Muslim rulers in the country including the Mughals and Tipu Sultan is no exception but we need to understand about the times prevailing then where waging war was a necessity and some of the tactics and/or results of war are none too pleasant. In contrast Tipu Sultan is commended by the seers of Sringeri and/or Kukke Subrahamnya temples during his time for benevolent rule. In fact today Tipu Sultan is considered to be the father of modern rocketry used in war and research is on at Bengaluru to try out some of the rockets used by Tipu Sultan in association with government agencies at the new rocket testing range in North Karnataka. It is said that this rocket technology was stolen by the British after the defeat of Tipu Sultan as spoils of war, refined and then used by the Western powers. Concluding, one must say that most people these days and particularly those from the saffron brigade indulge in controversial statements, the more horrendous the better, about figures of our history without any proper study. They also pick on people that are dead and gone and who cannot respond. It is time therefore that a training course be instituted for the BJP cadre, ministers included, on Indian history so that they have a better working knowledge on the contributions of the public figures among our ancestors.

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                                                          VOX POPULI  
                                                                  by
                                                             S Kamat
                                                                  as
                                                           Aam Admi
                                         Issue: 224                     Date: 23.10.2017
                  skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:     

1. Governance Issues Brought To The Fore At Election Times 

2. More No-Brainers from the BJP like on the Taj Mahal

3. Standardised Procedure Required to Deal with On-The-Job Discipline & Offence Issues

                   Governance Issues Brought To The Fore At Election Times 

The BJP in government is an abject exercise of top class ineptness. On any issue irrespective of the valid merit of the suggestion or criticism that the government gets, the first reaction is denial and an attempt to deflect attention, the second is rebuttal and thirdly, determined stone-walling. The first is done just to give any response that takes away the attention from the issue. While the last is activated not with any conviction of greater knowledge or competence on the issue but  filled with the arrogance because 'they are the government and they cannot be wrong'. You can see this happening on the GST issue where a multiplicity of issues had been raised ranging from reducing the number of slabs of tax, to re-classification of items into the more correct slabs, glitches wth the portal, the deadlines for filing returns, the problems faced by the textile, jewellery, household industry and the SSI sector. But then nothing was done on any of the issues but low and behold when the PM wanted the focus to shift to Gujarat what with the upcoming elections there, it was like a fairy appeared with her magic wand and what was beyond discussion became an active debating point. The government also started making the right noises that the GST slabs would be reduced, the 28% tax items reviewed, more daily use items shifted to the nil or 5% slab and the export industry given concessions as well as relaxations for filing returns. Difficulties still remain and are compounded somewhat but at least a start has been made. Even the PM has said that the problems faced by the jewellery and handloom sectors that are important for Gujarat also will be resolved shortly. The point to all this is that if GST was an important reform for the economy why was it treated not as such and difficulties faced by the user segments not resolved expeditiously and why does an impending election to Gujarat have to bring the GST into full focus. Elections happen randomly while dealing with the economy is a priority as well as a full time job which is where this government has been failing to judge issues correctly. This is more so now with the economy in bad shape. In fact the comment in most circles is that if the PM have done less circumnavigation of the globe and devoted himself to putting the economy back on the rails maybe we would not have been in this present position. 

As for election mode the PM has already slipped into that mode which is actually his comfort zone by making comments like the Nehru-Gandhi family being against Gujarat and that his proposal in 2013 as Gujarat CM to re-build the Kedarnath temple after the damage caused by the massive floods was rejected by the then UPA government. Both comments are not verifiable or backed by proof but then like in election times everyone knows that rhetoric rules which is what the PM is banking upon. 

During the Kedarnath tragedy then, the initiative taken by Narendra Modi as Gujarat CM to evacuate Gujaratis from the people stranded in the earthquake and floods was completely irresponsible. When disaster strikes every victim is equal and no one should say that I will provide better services for my people. Such initiatives polarises feelings of the victims and distorts relief operations. This is not desirable unless we have a rare order of co-ordination which as we all know is sorely lacking in our country. In the upcoming elections, winning Gujarat is very important for Narendra Modi while winning the other States going to the polls is important for Amit Shah.

                            More No-Brainers from the BJP like on the Taj Mahal

We have another no-brainer from the BJP doing the rounds these days and that is trying to de-recognise the Taj Mahal as part of our heritage. Heritage as we all know is something good, something bad and is a khatta-meetha kind of thing. By drawing these red herrings across the media firmament once in a while to justify the saffron agenda the BJP is only ending up discrediting itself. They show their lack of political maturity and the lack of depth in their leadership. The unfortunate part with the BJP is that you scratch the skin and you find rabble rousers. There is a silver lining to the issue about the Taj Mahal since thankfully both the UP CM & the PM have made statements recognising that the monument is part of our heritage and valued at that.

 Standardised Procedure Required to Deal with On-The-Job Discipline & Offence Issues

The other day there was a news report in Goa papers that Sabaji Shetye, the erstwhile Addl. District Magistrate in Panjim, who had been caught red-handed while receiving a bribe has been re-instated and posted at the  ESI Hospital. This is rather surprising! How can an official caught flagrantly in an act of corruption be restored in service? One would have expected that once Shetye was suspended after the incident and upon completion of the enquiry, he should have been removed from service. Is that not what a government having the fight against corruption on top of its agenda do? Instead of that the person is re-instated into his job within a few months. Corruption is a vice from which there is no cure or reform. The corrupt like a drug habit has the offender repeating his corrupt ways.

Again on the hi-profile Tejas Express last week that runs between Mumbai and Goa, the suspected food poisoning incident was highlighted where some 22 odd persons were hospitalised. Follow-up news thereafter said that 2 persons from the catering and managerial departments had been suspended because of the incident. Then finally we were told that there was nothing wrong with the food served on the train and the incident happened because of some of the children vomiting in the AC compartment which caused successive nausea with other co-passengers which again included some children. If so what happens to the 2 suspended officials? One would presume that they would be re-instated. But then the question 
is, why were the officials suspended? In this instance the officials were not directly responsible for the incident? Why did the Railways not wait until a departmental enquiry was complete? 

Thus you see you have one incident where the person caught in the act of corruption is restored to service in a matter of months while in another 2 persons not directly responsible are suspended without any formal enquiry. The point here is that we do not have an established system where acts of omission and commission while on the job are treated the same way and handled for punitive action in a systematic manner. One has to admit that of the 2 incidents cited above one relates to a government employee and the other to an employee of a government corporation which implies that the procedures for handling the issues may be slightly different. But nonetheless we see the government a little too generous while the quasi-government corporation a little over-zealous in laying down the line for its employees. 

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                                                                   VOX POPULI
                                                                                by
                                                                           S Kamat
                                                                                as
                                                                           Aam Admi               
                                                           Issue: 223            Date: 16.10.2017                                                   

                    skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

Contents:

1. Rathin Roy Needs To Change His Lenses

2. Think Simple, Think Basic, Think Proper 

3. Jaitley Should Be More Diplomatic Even As Finance Minister 

4. Get To The Bottom Of Jay Shah Co.'s Phenomenal Growth

5. On A PM Who Speaks

6. Modi Should Become More Rooted In Reality

7. Carelessness & Negligence At BHU Hospital

                                              Rathin Roy Needs To Change His Lenses

Rathin Roy, a member of the PM's Economic Advisory Council has commented that the recent lowering of the projected India GDP figures to below 7%  by both the IMF & the World Bank need not be given weight since they are mostly always wrong. Roy needs to remove his spectacles since used to seeing fudged figures all the time in India be it GDP, IIP, CPI, WPI etc., he is seeing independent agency figures like that of the IMF & the World Bank in the same way. The latest IIP figures show a spurt of 4% which one hopes is the reality since the country desperately needs a recovery. The tendency of people in senior positions these days like Roy to shore up their own credibility by undermining that of others as seen above is very common. Even Rajeev Kumar, the current Vice Chairman of Niti Aayog just prior to his appointment had been severely critical of this government's economic policies. But once appointed he is singing a completely different tune. 

                                                Think Simple, Think Basic, Think Proper 

In Goa there seems to be an insistence towards gadget installations like CCTV etc. This inspite of the papers carrying the other day pictures of a non-functional CCTV camera installed in the Ponda municipality. Across Goa you will find umpteen public  installations of CCTV that are not working and adding to it has no meaning. When it comes to gadgets that are being installed for public utility we should first check their ruggedness to withstand the environment in which they are to operate, whether indoor or outdoor, and also the level of education and training of the personnel who will operate the equipment. The next aspect is maintenance and its easy access for repair since you can install the most sophisticated of equipment but in the absence of service support, all your investment is going to go waste. CCTV as a means to record evidence in case of traffic offences/accidents is acceptable but we have to remember that it will not save lives. Thus in case of traffic issues, traffic signals are better since by controlling and regulating traffic they contribute more directly to saving lives.

Recently we had the fire at the Panjim bus stand  which caused a lot of damage to public property. Here again there was talk of sprinkler systems, smoke detectors being installed which could have possibly limited the spread of and maybe extinguished the fire. But here also we have to relate this to another news report that the Fire Force during the  Panjim bus stand fire found the fire hydrants not working. So if the equipments are there but not ensured regularly that they are properly working then there are of no use in an emergency. All this is fine but here again we should look at the basic fire fighting device and that is fire extinguishers. Were these available at the stores or in suitably prominently public places in the premises so that people could access these and use them to limit/extinguish the fire before the fire fighting force personnel arrive. One does not remember seeing any fire extinguishers at the Panjim bus stand or for that matter in any public building and n Goa. But in any case like in the report carried in today's papers that the fire extinguishers in the Secretariat have not been checked for the last one year, where is the chance of firstly, finding these equipment in public buildings in Goa and secondly, finding them functional.

So the idea is - Think Simple, Think Basic, Think Proper - when it comes to installing any equipment in public buildings and locations in Goa. This would save money and also save lives and property in the long run. 

Postscript: The above scenario is true anywhere in India as we have seen recently in the incident of the 23 people killed in the stampede at the foot overbridge at Elphinstone Station on the Mumbai suburban network. The high traffic of people over the bridge could have been assessed by the Railways traffic department and alternate arrangements to move people made. But the apathy of the authorities in persisting with a - chalta hai, chalne do - attitude resulted in the deaths of the unfortunate people left without choice but to use the doomed bridge. Similar is the story of roads being flooded in sequence during this monsoon at Mumbai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. Mumbai has a problem with the high tide issue which restricts evacuation of water into the sea but none of the other cities have any excuses for the flooding but the sheer negligence of authorities. Bengaluru being the worst since with a couple of inches of rains some of the localities are flooded and the authorities make an asinine statement that the 'city got more rain than it could handle'. Will the BBMP put out a map showing how many inches of rain at the maximum is each locality designed to handle for the information of the citizens. 

                                    Jaitley Should Be More Diplomatic Even As Finance Minister 

Arun Jaitley while on his trip to the US of  A is behaving as if he is the Finance Minister of the BJP and not the Finance Minister of India. By alluding to some political leaders that have been trying to derail the GST implementation, he is washing the family dirty linen in public. That too in the US which has a very active media. But then the US media lately has been busy with North Korea, Trump's antics and Weinstein's sexcapades. But even then trying to actively seek kudos at the cost of the country does not behove India's Finance Minister who has gone there on official duty for the World Bank & IMF meetings.

                                     Get To The Bottom Of Jay Shah Co.'s Phenomenal Growth

Yeshwant Sinha is absolutely right the BJP moral fabric is slowly unwinding in the matter of the phenomenal growth of turnover of Jay Shah's Co. in just one year. Earlier there have been rumours of the Adani's being close to the top echelons of the BJP leadership but with Jay Shah, the strike is more direct. One cannot understand all this furore if the figures for Jay's Co. are legitimate. He should be actually be proud and thank Wire for catapulting him into the limelight. In this country where Income Tax raids are a badge of honour what was written about Jay's Co. was innocuous. Like they say 'dal me kuch kala hai' otherwise why does Jay Shah use heavy artillery both directly by filing a Rs. 100 crore defamation suit and then fire from the BJP & government shoulders with Ministers lining up to swear his innocence ranging from Piyush Goyal to Rajnath Singh. In all fairness the government should institute an enquiry into the matter to reveal the truth.

                                                          On A PM Who Speaks

Amit Shah while at Amethi y/day 10th Oct 2017 has said that we have now a PM who speaks. There is no doubt that there is truth in this comment. But the unfortunate part is that Narendra Modi sometimes speaks too much and on issues which are not convenient nothing at all. There are also times when he speaks without understanding and at most other times does not mean what he says. But given the three years or more that we have seen Modi as PM, it is maybe better to have a PM who does not speak but acts than a PM who speaks but does not act or acts wrongly.

                                             Modi Should Become More Rooted In Reality

Narendra Modi while rebutting that the there is nothing wrong with the Indian economy stated that under the previous UPA regimes the GDP went below 5.7% three times and now it has gone down only once. He has said this expecting that the bottoming out of the economy is going to happen very shortly and from now on if will be up and up for the GDP. He should have however added that we should be prepared for a hard landing at the time of bottoming out and that we should bring our cushions along to protect our bottom! Modi is back in election mode again with the upcoming prestige staking Gujarat elections and conveniently forgets that he got the massive mandate from the people in 2014 for precisely the reason that the UPA's performance was indifferent.  And that he was voted into power with a strong enough mandate to set right the UPA's wrongs. But what did Modi do in the last three years but circumnavigated the globe three times, did not appoint an Economic Advisory Council except lately and showed the door to a reputed economist who was in the short-list for this year's Nobel Prize in Economics! Modi should have had the sense to at least focus on the economic growth of the country before moving on to other matters. The other distressing thing is that Modi and his government lives in denial since even the day before appointing the Economic Advisory Council (EAC) he was saying that there was nothing wrong with the economy then why did he need the EAC, he could as well have flown on his own. Then he quotes that electricity and coal production has boomed in the country and that is why he is offering the Saubhagya scheme of free electric connections to the poor and the very next day in the papers it is said that suburbs of Mumbai under the State Electricity Dept. which rarely had power interruptions are seeing 5-6 hours of load shedding and then in y/day's (9th) paper if was reported that Maharashtra had bought 1200mw of power to meet the shortfall. Similarly power plants in Karnataka and Andhra are having low stocks of coal ranging from a week to a few days and if coal supplies are not stepped up load shedding is the only recourse. So does Modi go only on the basis of figures given him on paper to announce his further schemes or does he insist that the ground situation needs to be surveyed to get him the real picture. Like in Goa where we live, power goes off throughout the day at least a dozen times for periods ranging from 5 minutes to an hour and this happens every day. So where is the surplus power and will Modi's plan to penalise the Discoms for load shedding but for technical faults really work? This government is great at making rules that sound good but are impossible to implement. And then there was the scam ridden LED lamp distribution purportedly to save power of which nothing more is heard of. Was this a one time scheme since LED lamps fail sometimes or given the quality of lamps supplied under the scheme , quite often? So it's time that Modi and his government take a reality check and verify facts before announcing any further schemes so that he remains credible. Modi also personally has to realise that he cannot continue to live in election mode all the time.

                                       Carelessness & Negligence At BHU Hospital

At BHU hospital there are reports of deaths of some 20 persons during June 2017 because of industrial nitrous oxide instead of the medical grade given for anaesthasia. The firm that manufactures the gas and supplied it had no licence to manufacture the medical grade gases be it nitrous oxide or oxygen. Inspite of this the firm responding to the committee appointed to probe the incident has the audacity to point out that the deaths were not related to the gas supplied by them since the same industrial nitrous oxide was supplied by them to hospitals in Allahabad and Lucknow who have reported no deaths! Such situations can happen only in Uttar Pradesh one must say. What were the doctors and other surgery staff doing? Did they not look at the marking on the gas cylinders before using it for a surgical operation? This is a shame not only for the BHU hospital but India as a whole. 

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