Vox Populi Issue 247

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 247                        Date: 03.09.2018                     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   Contents:                 1. 'Raid-Raj' On Freedom Of Speech 2. Chronicling Emergency Like Actions In India Since 29 June 2018 3. Mud In The Face For Modi Over Failed Demonetisation Exercise

                                      'Raid-Raj' On Freedom Of Speech

  The arrest of the 5 activists with supposedly Maoist leanings along with 2 already in custody is a black mark on democracy in India. The coordinated arrests across India where these activists were located smacked of 'raid raj', this time not on tax defaulters but on those who consistently hold up their right to freedom of speech. As the Supreme Court rightly said while striking down the arrests and converting it to house arrest, dissent is an important part of democratic functioning. Otherwise democracy will grow in the manner that we have seen as in the way interpreted by those who govern us and in the absence of feedback and dissent will grow misshapen and may also get stunted in some areas in that process. It is clear from the information coming out that the Maharashtra police have acted in haste. Based on flimsy evidence they have arrested the activists and are now trying to defend their action desperately by exposing some of the evidence selectively to the public . For this they have already been pulled up by the Bombay High Court for holding a press conference when the matter was sub-judice. The unnecessary need to go public with information is clearly an attempt to justify their actions. However this attempt has boomeranged in their face since the evidence put out is amateurish and bizarre. In this day and age when the genre of spy stories and conspiracy theories are so popular the fact that intelligent and educated people will use terms like 'Rajiv Gandhi style of incident' in open letters and e-mails is in the realm of fiction. Even the assassins who killed Dabholkar and Gauri Lankesh used code words not only for the targets but also for the weapons that they were using and this information has been released by the police only. Thus the charge that the police is using planted or fabricated evidence against these activists seems likely to stick. There is no question that we need to go after those that tend to disrupt the tenor of our society but that should be done on both sides of the table, pro-government and anti-government, and even then on the basis of credible and irrefutable evidence. The present action against the 7 activists seems to be an over-reaction to the news that there is a plot to assassinate Narendra Modi. At his level these rumours should be a part of life since there will be many serious and non-serious elements thinking of such action. But it is up to the SPG to sift the wheat from the chaff and chase down the serious threats and the people behind it. In an election mode  that we are in for 2019 in the incident Modi will be open to the charge that he is trying to do this to get the sympathy of the voters since no one in their right minds would like him to be killed since he is the living embodiment of vanity and stupidity and is of more nuisance value alive than dead. Postscript: The fever about being killed has caught on with Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the MP CM claiming that there is a plot to kill him after his 'chariot' bus on campaign was pelted with stones. Nothing happened, no one was hurt and only a windowpane was broken. Now you will see one after another the BJP leaders, big and small will claim that there is someone out there plotting to kill them in a #meToo - Kill Scare campaign. 

               Chronicling Emergency Like Actions In India Since June 2018

Since 29.6.2018, I have been posting weekly on Facebook an update  of what I personally think are events that reflect the Emergency in this current government & in the BJP's actions as also on another head related to Law & Order inclusive of Crimes Against Women (this listing will follow in a subsequent issue of Vox Populi). I propose to continue this until the 2019 General Elections :

Emergency:
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12. The arrest of the 5 activists last week is nothing short of a 'raid-raj' on freedom of speech in this country. The tendency to muzzle dissent was apparent from 2014 when secularism was mocked and intolerance promoted. Then it was the turn of students at JNU & Osmania University among other universities whose voices were proposed to be stifled with the intention of pursuing the intolerance agenda and looking to have the BJP youth wing to control the voices of these students through their unions. In the interim the raid-raj continued with the IT Dept. and the ED chasing down industrialists and businessmen. In India there is no person in business who can claim that he has nothing to hide. Thus the voice of the business community was clamped shut and there was nary a whimper from them on both Demonetisation and the GST launch, both of which were done shabbily. It then was the turn of the cow lynch brigades across India but mostly in BJP ruled States where indiscriminately and without verifying the antecedents people were killed, mostly Muslims and Dalits, for stealing, transporting and slaughtering of cattle. Some of these cases were avoidable since the victims were involved in their legitimate businesses. Now after a limited sojourn against journalists, it is the turn of activists to be branded as Maoists and victimised. Thus a state of 'terror' is being created to stop people from raising their voice and to generate a wave of opinion about the intentions of some people or groups of to de-stabilise the present government and to kill their leaders.  Is this not enough and more fertile grounds for the imposition of an Emergency? 

11. There is an issue of misinformation with the present BJP government which runs to epidemic proportions. But the more serious charge is that of suppressing information from the public which may be showing them in a bad light. This is tantamount to deliberate censorship which is against the fundamental right of freedom of speech. The example in this case was that recently some of the newspapers came up with the input that the decadal growth rates of the Indian economy during both the UPA-1 & UPA-2 governments were better than during the present BJP government. Within a couple of days of this news coming out it was seen that this information earlier available on the government website was quickly erased. A similar report was seen in the case of Jay Shah, Amit Shah's son, financial irregularities related to his business and property matters which was pulled out of the websites of the national media and a ban instituted on the matter by way of instructions to the media. 

10. An atmosphere of uncertainty and fear is again being created by the Kanwariyas violence first in Delhi and then Muzzafarpur where cars were vandalised and wrecked for just some contact with the pilgrims walking on the road. If you see the TV coverage of these two incidents, the driver in the Delhi case being a 25 year old woman and in the second instance not known, would be traumatised for life. The UP police have claimed that they are helpless to stop such incidents. The present government by their reluctance to take action is only encouraging more such incidents to take place since the perpetrators full well know that no punishment will follow for their actions. In the recent Alwar cow lynching case the accused have been seen making remarks openly on national TV that the government and police will support them to go scotfree. Ever since the BJP government came to power the same patterns have prevailed, first with the intolerance issue which had universities like JNU & Osmania in turmoil and then the cow lynching issue which has persisted with a footprint across the country for the last 2 years or more and now the Kanwariyas violence. This was what happened the last time that Emergency was seen in this country which is happening again with fear and uncertainty prevailing among the citizens as a lead up to another Emergency.

9. There have been a couple of situations relating to the construction of our highways around the country which smack of high-handed behaviour by both the State as well as Central governments. The incidents cited here relating to the above are also against the principle of federalism enshrined in our Constitution. It is reported that in the construction of another expressway between Salem and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, the police are using strong arm tactics to enforce the decision to acquire fertile agricultural lands from the farmers. Those unwilling to hand over their land are finding the police barging into their homes and forcibly evicting them. It is being said that such action is being done at the behest of the Centre by the present AIDMK State government which is now at the mercy of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for its survival. In another incident in adjoining Kerala the bypass for a highway near Kannur is being politicised in the face of farmers unwilling to part with their fertile land again and activist protests. The Centre had called for a meeting to resolve the matter by calling the pro and anti elements related to the project along with the Central Minister from Kerala but without the representatives or ministers of the incumbent CPM led government in Kerala. Ignoring the State government for an important project deliberately smacks of unilateralism and goes against the spirit of federalism. 

8. Bank deposits limited liability bill proposed to be moved limiting the payout to Rs. 1 Lakh irrespective of the size of the deposits with the bank in the event of it going bankrupt. In the context of all PSB's reeling under the NPA scams there is every chance of every PS Bank going bankrupt. Hence seems to be a deliberate attempt to shortchange depositor and hijack his money by the government. This is a personal worst case scenario prediction. With an Emergency likely to be imposed upon what the 2019 election results will show in the event of a hung result, the PSB's and some of the major private Banks like ICICI will put up their 'true' balance sheets showing the NPA's in their proper accounting method, as a consequence of which most Banks will go belly-up and into liquidation. It is then that the citizens Bank Deposits will be appropriated and you will end up getting a maximum of Rs. 1 Lakh irrespective on whether you are holding sizeable higher deposits with the bank. 

7. Government moving amendment to RTI Act to make it more difficult for citizens to get information from government. Introduced in July 2018 Monsoon session of Parliament but deferred upon objections from Opposition. 

6. An actor, Siddhartha Narayan of Rang De Basanti fame, was trolled by the rightist trolling mafia for tweeting against the Alwar cow lynching case of Rakbar Khan. Shows intolerance to personal beliefs and their projection on public platforms. Date: 25.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

5. A Dalit man, Lovely Kumar was thrashed by a group of upper caste Jats in Quila Parikshatgarh town of Meerut Dist. U.P. And the act was filmed and posted on social media to instill fear in other Dalits. The man was forced to abuse himself, his community and Babasaheb Ambedkar by the assailants. Shows intolerance to lower class communities and not allowing them to go about their normal lives. Date: 25.7.2018. Source: National newspapers.

4. Swami Agnivesh attacked, again by Bharatiya Yuva Janata Morcha (BYJM) goons while he was going about his normal activities in Jharkhand. This is an infringement on fundamental rights to pursue his beliefs and on freedom of speech. Date: 18.7.2018. Source: National newspapers & TV News.Z

3. Shashi Tharoor, MP for Thiruvananthapuram, office in the Kerala capital was vandalised by youths suspected  to belong to the Bharatiya Yuva Janata Morcha (BYJM), for his comments about the BJP leading India into a Hindu Pakistan if they happen to win the 2019 general elections. Issue relates to an attempt to suppress freedom of speech.  Tharoor may have been a bit out of line when he made that comment since we are not very comfortable with Pakistan analogies but there are other civilised forums for redressal rather than resorting to violence and intimidation. Date: 17.7.2018.Source: National newspapers.

2. For the PM's rally in Jaipur on 7.7.2018 security was not allowing anything with the colour black not even clothes or dresses into the venue for fear of spontaneous protests while the rally was in progress. Date 8.7.2018.Source: National newsspapers.

1.  Uttarakhand CM ordering the arrest of an elderly woman schoolteacher who had come to his Janata Darbar requesting for a transfer. Her offence - she argued with the CM. The police later released the schoolteacher on a personal bail bond. Related information, the CM's wife remains in the same school though she was promoted and transferred in 2008, 10 years ago. Date 29.6.2018.Source: TV News.

                Mud In The Face For Modi Over Failed Demonetisation Exercise 

The cat is finally out of the bag! The RBI has come out after two long years that 99.3% of the demonetised Rs. 500 & Rs. 1000 notes have come back. The counting process because of many variables may have some errors but taking the figures of RBI as the truth the government in terms of its stated objective to unearth and appropriate black money through the demonetisation exercise failed to even recover the cost of printing the new currency notes which was in excess of Rs. 10,000 crores. But even then some of the limited minds within the BJP are patting themselves on the back saying that the 0.7% of the demonetised notes which did not come back and which comprises about Rs. 10,300 crores is the black money that they have unearthed! They little realise that this amount is a drop in the bucket in the ocean of black money which runs into lakhs of crores and was reported once as equal to our GDP. With almost all the demonetised notes having come back, this puts Narendra Modi in a piquant position since from his promise of transferring Rs. 15 Lakhs to each citizen's account just after taking office in   2014 upon waging war on black money, he is left in an embarrassing position with no black money from abroad having come back and neither has he been able to unearth any of the black money within the country. The Rs. 10,300 crores as above will not even be enough to transfer Rs. 100 to every citizen. This once again shows that the present BJP government is full of bluff and bluster, tall in promises particularly during election campaigns but having to eat crow when almost every initiative of theirs having fallen by the wayside because of bad implementation and the inability to think through a process.  The fact that the demonetisation exercise failed requires that accountability for this should be established and even if Narendra Modi does not resign taking moral responsibility, Adhia should be summarily dismissed from service and Das' retirement benefits be immediately suspended for causing death and untold misery to Indian citizens during the putting through of this exercise. The fact that only Rs. 10,300 crores remained unaccounted shows again how nimble footed the black money holders are, keeping one step ahead always of the government's interception measures and its enforcement authorities. Postscript: Lately Arun Jaitley, our esteemed Finance Minister has said that the demonetisation exercise did at the least expand the tax base for income tax payers. That was not one of the objectives listed for demonetisation in 2016 when it was put through. These are all afterthoughts now to justify the exercise in the manner of a drowning man clutching at straws or using a sledgehammer to kill an ant. The primary objective of recovering black money by way of demonetisation has failed miserably. The tunes about the objectives for demonetisation are constantly changing from the originally stated in the format of a Remix Music Video and joining the chorus is Rajeev Kumar, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog, who put the blame for the economic slump post-2016 squarely on the ex-Governor of the RBI, Raghuram Rajan and that too for pursuing the re-classification of NPA's. Rajeev Kumar was singing a different tune just 6 months before being appointed as Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog, about the needlessness of the demonetisation exercise and its implantation lacunae. But now ensconced in the official chair he is standing up on his hind feet and pleasing his masters. The government, Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Kumar may like to explain why from 2014 the NPA's have climbed from Rs. 1 Lakh Crores to an estimated Rs. 12 Lakh Crores now with our banking system. Why were the availers of loans conscious of paying up against the loans to avoid them becoming NPA's prior to 2014 and after that they suddenly stopped? Was it because of the lax approach of the new BJP government in not pursuing these people? Surely this needs to be examined. Narendra Modi has not learnt his lesson yet from his promise of bringing back a Black Money and Demonetisation, which both failed miserably and was just last week continuing to claim that every single Rupee of the NPA's he would recover! This is sheer stupidity but good entertainment. That's what Narendra Modi is all about. 

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Vox Populi Issue 246

                                                            VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 246                      Date: 27.08.2018

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

 

Contents:                              

1. The Cow Lynchings Must Come To An End

2. Of Banking Operations & The State Of Our Economy

3. The Unfolding Kerala Tragedy

                               The Cow Lynchings Must Come To An End

The cow lynching exercise has in the last few days spread to Assam where again you have a BJP led government. One person died in the incident and three there were seriously injured which was sparked by allegations of the victims for stealing cattle.
Thus in cow lynching cases, for one cow at least generally one Muslim or one Dalit are getting killed. These mindless killings have to stop since the attackers are not applying their mind to what happens after their actions to the cows and the victims. The cows in the inability of their being returned to their rightful owners are put in shelters. And with no one to care for them properly there have been a huge number of deaths at these supposed shelters which are supposed to care for the cattle sent there. Rajasthan saw 200 cattle deaths in  2016 in a shelter just outside Jaipur. In Chattisgarh it is a regular affair with 50 cattle dead in 2017 with lesser numbers in between and even a couple of  weeks back another 18 have died there after being cooped up in a room with no ventilation.   The cows mostly die because of starvation and thirst since there could be issues of funding of the shelters but mostly it is because of negligence of those running the shelters and those working in them. Apart from the States mentioned above cow deaths in shelters have been seen across India ranging from Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh and others.  So in cases where such deaths of cattle are happening in shelters should not some of those running the cow shelters be put to death as recompense for the cow lynchings. Now let us come to the victims who are put to death by the gaurakshaks. The cattle trade apart from milk like the business in beef and leather has been traditionally in the hands of the Muslims and the Dalits both as owners of the business and working in them. So they have no alternative livelihood apart from that or will find it difficult to switch their work. Therefore there needs to be sense of practicality in looking at the cattle trade. If cows or cattle in general who are not milk producing can be slaughtered then it serves as a dietary  supplement and also generates employment in the leather trade fr a large part of our population. This home truth has to be drilled into the minds of those that profess to love the cow. It is only then that the current spate of cow lynchings across the country will come to an end. 

                        Of Banking Operations & The State Of Our Economy

RBI recently announced that bank losses in 2017 amounted to Rs. 28,500 Crores. The increase in NPA's in 2017 over the previous year were also put at Rs. 1.5 Lakh Crores. This figure would have been higher but for the banks resorting to decorating their books by fancy accounting and classifying loans to proprietary and partnership concerns amounting to some Rs. 10 Lakh Crores as personal loans. In the immediate last two quarters it is reported that the increase in NPA's has been tapering off which augurs well for the future unless it is yet again related to some fancy footwork in accounting as said earlier. There are two issues here. First bank nationalisation was done in the interests of the common man.  This has been forsaken now and banks have fallen prey to unionised staff and management that serves its own interests and indulges in crony capitalism. The second is that the losses have to be funded. By what - Public money? In both cases the PSB's as well as private banks it is the common man who is at the receiving end and called upon to fund the losses by way of taxation.

At the same time the Rupee was close to Rs. 71 to the US dollar recently recovering now to a tad below Rs. 70, a record of sorts considering that the Rupee has never sunk as low as this. This fall is being blamed on external factors mainly the dramatic erosion of the Turkish Lira against the US dollar. At the same time the stock markets are booming with the BSE Sensex crossing 38,000 and the NSE 11,500. There was a time in the early part of this century when twice the economies in East Asia as well as the developed world were hit badly but India remained minimally affected. But nowadays because we are maybe more 'globalised' our Rupee and the stock markets swing like a pendulum on international winds for the lack of a steadying hand on our economy. The absence of a full-time Finance Minister is showing.

                                       The Unfolding Kerala Tragedy

The unfolding Kerala disaster as a consequence of torrential rains and then landslides and floods is horrifying. With about 350 dead and close to 7 Lakh people in temporary shelters the human tragedy has reached massive proportions. These are official numbers and the actual numbers may be higher for those caught up in the tragedy that the government and authorities have not been able to reach out to. However apart from ascribing the cause of the disaster to nature's fury one cannot discount the human hand in it. Denudation of forests, the reckless and mindless cutting of trees that has resulted in the weakening of the soil, building of houses and other structures on the hillsides and on the flood plains of the rivers and the inefficient management of the water release from the many dams has probably led to the unfolding tragedy. Notwithstanding all this the human crisis is of mammoth proportions and it is important that all efforts to mitigate the hardships and help in reconstruction be given to the people of Kerala affected by the disaster. What is also important is that in the wake of floods disease always follows and it is important to be wary of these risks and be prepared for them with medicines and medical facilities on a war footing.

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Vox Populi Issue 245

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 245                      Date: 20.08.2018                     Visit: skamat.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   Contents: 1. Adieu All. R.I.P. 2. Traffic Problems At Zuari Bridge & Agacaim - Verna Stretch 3. Storing The Waters Of The Monsoon Otherwise Going Waste 4. India's English Tour: What's Going Wrong?  5. Banks Are Being Overly Protected & Charging Customers To The Death                                                 Adieu All. R.I.P. The last week has seen the death of many stalwarts around the world. From Atal Behari Vajpayee to Karunanidhi to Vidia Naipaul to Somnath Chatterjee to Kofi Annan to Ajit Wadekar. Each of them strode like a colossus in their fields touching the lives of many people. Poet, statesman and more importantly probably the last of the gentlemen in Indian politics was Vajpayee. His going releases the moorings of the final threads of rationality in the Bharatiya Janata Party. In Karunandhi's demise the last of the great regional party leaders - the DMK. Vidia Naipaul was an acerbic and outspoken person whose novels were widely admired. In Somnath Chatterjee you had a Parliamentarian who adorned the Speaker's chair in the Lok Sabha with grace and authority. Kofi Annan brought grace, dignity and rare authority to the office of the UN Secretary General coming from the Third World. And finally Ajit Wadekar, the man with the silken touch who with his willow wand could caress the ball to the boundary in cricket with his cuts on the offside. A man who gave India the confidence that they could win abroad and as captain and then manager nurtured a great bunch of competitive cricketers. Adieu all. R.I.P.             Traffic Problems At Zuari Bridge & Agacaim - Verna Stretch Democracy was famously defined by Abraham Lincoln as of the people, by the people and for the people. However, in India it is more known as as of the politicians, by the politicians and for the politicians. Development as we have seen is being pursued at any cost affecting the day to day lives of the common people, trampling their interests and ignoring their problems. The traffic mess in the stretch between Agacaim and Verna particularly on the Zuari Bridge and at the Cortalim circle is a case in point which is the result of the careless and negligent attitude of our politicians.  Where they should have learnt from the traffic jams and snarls at Porvorim which were there for everyone to see during the ongoing construction of the 3rd Mandovi Bridge. It seems our politicians and decision makers were blind, deaf or both to these problems? The same irresponsible approach is being adopted for the new Zuari Bridge which is the cause of the problems that are being seen on the Verna - Agacaim stretch. Imagine what will happen when the actual bridge construction starts. Just like at Porvorim the approach of this government was to let the traffic flow and to tackle any problems as they arose by handing out patchwork solutions. This attitude underlies the negligence of people's interests and shows no advance planning which would have alleviated the problems to a large extent. The expectation is that people will 'manage' and if you explain the larger picture of the new bridge then the people will suffer in silence. This will not do and it is time that our government takes stock of the issues for any development in advance and tackles them. Presentation of a plan  after looking at issues that are likely to arise will give the people more confidence and get the government more cooperation to put through its development plans more easily and efficiently. The present modus operandi is to ride on people's backs until the limits of patience and tolerance are crossed. Postscript: One would have seen this situation across India where the administration does not think through a situation, puts people into problems and then the politician steps in to 'solve' the problem just for the sake of collecting brownie points. Nearer election times the politicians become more active on such matters.                  Storing The Waters Of The Monsoon Otherwise Going Waste Upon seeing our flood ravaged regions across the country, the waterfalls in our hilly regions and dams disgorging enormous volumes of water at tremendous pressures, one feels that the government needs to take measures across the country to store this water. The waters flowing at massive force can be stored in vertical (maybe 100 feet or even higher) silo farms near these sites allowing the rapidly flowing water to rise as much as it can in these silos. Then these can be pumped in sequence to the next level until the 100 feet silo is completely full and so on to the other silos in the farm. These silo water farms can be located at strategic places where the flood waters and waters released from dams are copious and along the flow of water near population centres like cities, towns and villages. This could alleviate not only the problem of flood damage to living habitats by water diversion but also serve as buffer water stocks to be used when the existing storage of reservoirs is not able to meet the water demand be it for potable use or irrigation. Since the monsoons are irregular, in years that the rains are deficient and once a pattern for that is reasonably established, the extra silos in these farms can be used to store grain which as we have seen in Punjab and Haryana in boom times of harvest is stored in the open to rot. These silos can be made of RCC or steel coated internally with plastic on a crash 5 year program which will lead to a fillip to the related industry and generate employment. Harnessing the forces of nature is a low cost source for energy and is relatively inexhaustible.                                    India's English Tour: What's Going Wrong?  India needs to buckle down in the ongoing cricket Test series in England. The first Test was close and one was happy that the series had started off with a bang. But in that Test were the portends of what was to follow. But let us remain with the first Test for a moment. The fact that Pujara was not taken in the team was a surprise. He has been doing a stint in county cricket and being more familiar with English playing conditions is clearly more qualified to be included than the other recognised batsmen. Rahul or Rahane had to make way for him even on counts of batting averages. Also in terms of technique one can easily say that at the present moment there cannot be an Indian Test cricket team without Pujara. Now let us come to the portends and that relates to our batsmen not able to play swing bowling. The first Test was a low scoring one but it showed up the deficiencies of Indian batsmen's technique to play quality swing bowling. Andersen, Broad, Stokes and newcomer Curran in the heavy English conditions can make the red cherry do magic which our batsmen failed to negotiate. The only exception was Virat Kohli with a magnificent century in the first innings followed by a 50 in the second. The second Test brought these home truths about our batsmen's weakness against swing bowling to roost with the first day's play lost due to rain and then India getting out cheaply with doubts whether they would even cross 100. The England batsmen did relatively better partly because India made their job easier. The lack of an additional pace bowler in Kohli's armoury was apparent. Why an additional spinner was chosen when the Lord's pitch was reported as a green top and with rain reported over the span of the match is something that only Shastri & Kohli can clarify? Not only that Kuldeep Yadav a novice at Test cricket compared to Ashwin was given the ball in the Lord's Test much before Ashwin. This despite Ashwin being among the wickets in both innings of the first Test. This is yet another strategic mistake that Kohli needs to explain. Your main strike bowlers you need to use when the batsmen are new at the crease. The other thing that Kohli and our bowling attack needs to ponder on is once the team gets 5/6 wickets then they let the opposing team off the hook and that is when a Bairstow scores big or a a Woakes gets an undeserving (in India's perspective) century. This happened in both the Tests in England and has happened in the past also. The desire to take wickets should be there in the bowlers and the captain should have the acumen to shuffle his bowlers effectively. These are areas in which Kohli's lack of maturity and experience is showing like being emotional in team selection and not being strategical on the field. It is not enough to be a great batsman to be a good captain and the above are more matters of the mind that needs to be tackled along with a lower back problem. Concluding, one cannot take away the credit from England in the last 2 Tests where from the pace bowlers we have seen great swing bowling after a long time. In any case there are still 3 Tests to go and all India expects from its batsmen is to show more application to match the brilliance of some individual performances like that of Kohli, Ashwin, Ishant and Shami. Postscript: Since this piece was written the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge has started and India is in a good position with all-round batting and bowling performances. Shows what happens when you put your head down and apply yourself to the task in hand.            Banks Are Being Overly Protected & Charging Customers To The Death The other day at the Bank I saw a Notice about fine and imprisonment in event of abuse of bank officials by public. I must say that for the last 50 years or more that I have been going to Banks across the country I had not seen such a notice and that too prominently displayed. The Bank is a service organisation where its primary role is to deal with customers with courtesy and efficiency. Or at least that is the expectation. Therefore why a situation like abuse comes up in interaction between Bank officials and customers is something one finds difficult to fathom. However, to grant the Bank a certain amount of leeway, times may have changed and there could be a class of customers who resort to abuse. But here again one finds hard to believe that anything like this would happen in Goa. However since a notice of abuse has been put up by the Bank I will cite two instances that I personally experienced with Banks in the period Dec 2017 - June 2018. Based on these incidents which are fully documented I leave it to you to judge whether the Bank needs to be abused or not and if I do I would find myself in jail! Anyway, the first instance was end Dec 2017 when I went to draw cash from an ATM and found that instead of cash I was given a printout saying - Unable to dispense cash. The ATM was housed next to the Bank premises and I showed them the printout assuming with that proof the cashier would give me the cash. But I was told that I need to go to my Bank where the Debit card was linked to an account and file a complaint. I promptly did as advised when my Bank told me that it would take 7 days for them to reverse the transaction and credit my account with the undisbursed money. Inspite of regular follow-ups with my Bank branch and the call-centre of my Bank, it took 24 days for the money to be refunded to me. What if I needed the money urgently? What if I was a student or person with no more money in my account? The personal travails of the individual are not taken into account while the Bank officials quote rule books which in any case they do not follow at least for timelines for redressal. In another case in May 2018 I was travelling away from my home station to Bengaluru and upon incurring a small amount of expenditure of Rs. 250, I received an sms saying that my account had gone below minimum balance. I was surprised since at the time of leaving Goa I had enough in my account for at least Rs. 250. Upon returning to Goa with no facility to draw cash from my Debit Card at Bengaluru when I checked with my Bank, I found that an excessive amount had been deducted from my account for our Bank Locker. Upon querying them it was found that instead of debiting a single year's locker rent the Bank claimed that their software had debited my account for multiple years, wiping the account clean. For my comfort and satisfaction the Bank said it was not only me but other people have also faced a similar problem. For a software glitch a Senior Citizen like me had to be without cash while being out of station! This also at a time when the PM has been talking of a cashless society. In any case this issue was resolved after 50 days of my filing an application to rectify it. Why I have to file an application when it is the Bank's mistake is something I could not understand but nonetheless I made an application. But the matter had to go to the top of the Bank's local management before it could be resolved. On the plea of computer glitches the Banks are hiding sloth and inefficiency. This has been the downside of computerisation in banks. Based on these two incidents, please tell me if the Bank officials concerned are not deserving of abuse. But if I abuse them, then they will send me to jail! Why is the class of officials like bank and other public officials being singled out for preferential and soft treatment in the eye of the IPC etc.? A new caste system is being created in this country with IAS at the apex and followed by various categories of public officials to replace Manu's caste order. Apart from this the banks are overcharging common customers. All banks in total made more than Rs. 5000 crores in the last financial year by way of penalties levied for not maintaining minimum balance in Bank accounts. Close to 50% of this amount went to SBI and they still report a loss in three consecutive quarters and some Rs 5000 crores recently for the A-J 2018 quarter. So even after making money out of common customers, the banks books are heavily balanced towards the loot of public money by a crony class of customers who are responsible for the NPA's in connivance with bank officials that reflect as losses. And remember that bank nationalisation was done in the interest of the common man and in about 50 years hence the banks are sitting squarely on the shoulders of the common man and riding him to his death.                                                     ************************

Vox Populi Issue 244

                                                              VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 244                      Date: 13.08.2018

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

Contents:

1. Argentina! Oh, Argentina! 

2. Dalai Lama's Unwanted & Out-of-Turn Comments

3. Swaccha Bharat Program Ill Conceived, Needlessly Capital Intensive

4. Hapless Bribe-Givers Have No Choice, Cannot Be Named Offenders

                                      Argentina! Oh, Argentina! 

I need to confess that I am a big fan of Messi and still not able to get over Argentina's exit in the last World Cup held in Russia. Come to think of it, it seems it was all coach Sampaoli's fault in not being able to knit his forward line into a cohesive attack machine with the likes of Messi, Aguero, De Maria and Dybala in the side. Aguero was hardly used in the World Cup matches and in most cases came on as a substitute. But then in his first serious match for Manchester City in the FA Community Shield after the World Cup he scores his 1000th goal for the club! Not only that in the opening game of the season for PSG, DeMaria scored in the French Super Cup. If you had seen Argentina's matches in the World Cup it was clearly apparent that Messi was being underfed with the ball and most of the time he would be wandering up front in the opposing half like a lost child and him being the best player in the world today. Argentina in their future international forays needs to have a coach who understands his players and is able to get the best out of them.

                     Dalai Lama's Unwanted & Out-of-Turn Comments

When you have a revered guest staying with you at home, make unwanted and out-of-turn comments, how would you feel? That is the position that the Dalai Lama has put Indians with his comments about Nehru, Jinnah, Partition et al. There was no need for him to say about a self-willed Nehru unwilling to give up being a Prime Minister or that Jinnah would have made a good Prime Minister in which case there would have been no Partition. Many a time has the Dalai Lama done the same kind of thing in the past making controversial statements without recognising that he is a guest in this country and the least that he and his people could do is to be grateful for the hospitality. Moreover he is a man of religion and compelled by China's actions to be thrust into politics which should be limited to Tibet and not related to his host country, India. Religious heads should stick to religion matters and not stray outside where they are bound to make embarrassing gaffes like the one the Dalai Lama has made in his recent visit to Goa. 

       Swaccha Bharat Program Ill Conceived, Needlessly Capital Intensive

Achieving OD - Outdoor Defecation free India is a mirage. Major offenders of OD are workers at construction sites  going into the surroundings with bottles filled with water in their hands early in the morning. Surely they are not going out to water the plants! One of the initiatives for OD free India should have been to make it mandatory for construction sites to have firstly toilets for their workers, better still Bio or chemical toilets. There is also an exercise being thought of of distributing Bio-toilets to villages across the country in some States like Goa to become OD free which is nothing but a spending exercise which is also true for the entire Swaccha Bharat program. Where the program should have started from the basics to bring cleanliness in our surrounding by people awareness and education, the emphasis is to spend money which is being wasted. Like on the toilets Issue Sulabh International should have been brought in in a big way and installed simple toilets in our villages that they would run like it has been done in the slum areas of Mumbai in the concept of community toilets. Then progressively once people had got into the habit of using toilets then slowly the concept of Bio or chemical toilets could have been brought in. This methodology would have ensured that the toilet use habit is sustaining. Nowadays you will find that even if the village home has a toilet the elders may still go out with a bucket in the morning for their morning ablutions by force of habit or stubbornness to persist with the habit. In these fancy purchases of Bio-toilets etc. for the Swaccha Bharat program, you will find these will not work within a year of inauguration like we have seen in our other hi-tech purchases e.g. traffic signals, CCTV etc particularly in remote and rural areas. Thus someone is clearly lining their pockets with these fancy purchases or favours are being made to particular suppliers. Again the Swaccha Bharat program was launched for publicity by VIP's from the PM to Governors sweeping the roads. But these eminent people forgot to put in place a system for someone to do it the next day so the road remains unswept since that day when the VIP used the broom on it. The broom is also lying forlorn in the gutter forgotten because nobody wants to buy it on auction even though Narendra Modi touched it! The other thing is that if you want a Swaccha Bharat make the streets and surroundings of India animal free, like dogs, cattle etc. These should be removed since with their pooh (shit), they contribute more to the dirty roads and surroundings than anything else.

        Hapless Bribe-Givers Have No Choice, Cannot Be Named Offenders

The Anti Corruption Bill likely to be presented in Parliament is going to make the bribe giver culpable and subject to criminal prosecution. How can the person paying the bribe who is a victim be made an offender? No one in his right mind goes up to the babus or police and offers a bribe. It is the officials who ask for a bribe as the consideration to do something that a person wants done. The person has no choice. Either he pays up and gets his work done or forgoes the work which sometimes is not possible. The last resort is that the person goes to the ACB - Anti Corruption Bureau and makes sure that the official demanding the bribe is caught red handed. Thus the aspect of the bribe giver to be named the offender should not find a place in the proposed Bill. Many of the bills being passed as law these days are slanted to absolve the bureaucracy and/or public officials. The RTI amendment bill, thankfully withdrawn, was another exercise in blocking information to save the babus. These are all the convoluted machinations that possibly spring out of the mind of Ravi Shankar Prasad, our Law Minister who has spent a lifetime doing this. You will not reduce corruption by making the bribe-giver an offender but by awarding exemplary and speedy punishment by those who take bribes. The government's track record in proceeding against corrupt officials in criminal courts is atrocious and over the last decade more than 80% of those caught have not even been brought to court let alone for sentencing. As usual this BJP government is barking up the wrong tree and needless creating a smokescreen to hide the real issues.

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

Vox Populi Issue 243

                                                           VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 243                      Date: 06.08.2018

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

Contents:

1. We Have A New Government In WhatsApp

2. Do Our MLA's & MP's Deserve Salary Hikes?

3. India Inc. Fast  Becoming Gujarat Inc. 

4. In India Talk Of Development Is For Sloganeering Alone

                                     We Have A New Government In WhatsApp

The lynching virus that has infected the nation is because the present government has abdicated governance and is depending on foreign agencies like WhatsApp to manage and stem information flow. Where the perpetrators of rumours have to be identified and acted upon the government is adopting a diversionary tactic to convert a law and order issue into a technology problem. This is like drawing a red herring across the matter and focusing the lens on agencies like WhatsApp. The TV media has fallen for this sucker trap and lapped this up with most news channels having endless discussions on what WhatsApp can or cannot do. This also appeals to the public and has thus diverted public discourse. Primarily what should have been done is that the people who plant such news should have been identified and caught. This agencies like WhatsApp can help there by easily tracking who was first to transmit the item or news on their medium. This input needs to be balanced with local police intelligence information to zero in on the perpetrators. Approaching WhatsApp to limit the transmission of the flammatory news is necessarily something to be done but this is a secondary activity. It should succeed the primary emphasis to catch the culprits responsible for the problem. However, the BJP government by first rushing to WhatsApp is abdicating the governance of our country to a foreign entity. 

                                      Do Our MLA's & MP's Deserve Salary Hikes?

The Goa Assembly has quietly passed the measure to raise MLA's salaries by a whopping 77%. The reason as mentioned by CM Parrikar was price rise. Inflation according to the RBI figures is close to 5-6% so the unseemly and prodigious raise by 77% is clearly atrocious. Moreover it is a shame that these legislators take decisions for themselves and that too on the quiet without first considering others who are more deserving. Panchayat members who are paid peanuts have been clamouring for a raise for a long time. Nothing has been done for them. Not only that many of the State-run corporations have not been given the last Pay Commission hikes for which a strike has been called by Kadamba Transport lately. Thus you see our legislators not only feather their nests during their term but also make themselves financially comfortable in the process of doing so. Postscript: Across India our MLA's & MP's have been quietly giving themselves raises in both salaries and allowances. Parties across the board have been unanimous in supporting this measure. One of the most venal politicians Lallu Prasad Yadav had the temerity to say sometime back on the floor of Parliament that even he needs the salary hike to meet monthly expenses now that his wife! Rabri Devi is no longer Chief Minister of Bihar! He also went on to say that MP's who have no other source of income need the hike. Manohar Parrikar while defending the raise had also said something similar that legislators not finding time to attend to their family businesses needed the salaries to compensate for the loss of business while they attend to their legislative responsibilities. Looking at this issue in another perspective, these people become legislators by choice. No one is forcing them. They full well know the implications of the responsibilities that the job entails. And still they come! Why? And after they become MLA's & MP's for a majority of them the net worth keeps rising over the years. Though lately they have had to file asset returns at the time of contesting for elections with the Election Commission these returns are not used to take any administrative faction against the candidates. They are in the manner of decorative items that you keep on your mantelpiece that are kept only to show that the Election Commission has complied with the stipulations in the Rule Book. If the asset returns are passed on to the Income Tax Dept. we would surely have had disproportionate asset cases against more than 95% of our MLA's & MP's. This would have blown the lid off the farce that is played out by almost all the political parties about their 'fight against corruption'. An advantageous side-effect of this could be that we would have had a fresh crop of MLA's & MP's who hopefully would not be as much bent upon making money for themselves. Aside: The post-script has become longer than the original piece. That shows you how much there is sometimes 'between the lines' or reminds you of a bird or a monkey (choose your pick) with a very long tail. 

                                     India Inc. Fast  Becoming Gujarat Inc. 

Narendra Modi has claimed that he is not afraid to hob nob with industrialists in public.  That is because even before they ask for favours he has been showering upon them blessings like manna from heaven. Case in point is that of Mukesh Ambani getting the Institute of Eminence for his university which has not even got off the ground. However much the present government tries to defend this largesse by saying that what has been given is a Letter of Intent, it carries no meaning since never in independent India has a status been bestowed for a non-existent Institute! Similarly the brother Anil Ambani has been given the privilege with no previous experience of military aircraft of being associated with the Dassault Group of Cos., France from whom we are buying the Rafael fighter jets. The Anil Ambani group is clearly being bailed out since they have not been doing well lately in financial terms and particularly their telecommunication foray as Reliance Telecom is close to filing for bankruptcy. It seems these days the best way to obtain any large project is to go up to the government and frankly say that we have no experience in the particular area and they with the 56in. chest in which a seemingly large heart resides which is very selective to favour the people from Gujarat,  will say that these people have a definite intent to do good so give it to them! In this manner India Inc. is being fast converted into Gujarat Inc. 

                       In India Talk Of Development Is For Sloganeering Alone

We keep hearing our politicians ranging from the PM onwards harping on the issue of development. However, with a few extra inches of rain every year every city and town of India gets inundated. In some cities like Mumbai the same areas like Parel, Lalbagh, Dadar, Matunga, Sion have been getting flooded for the last 20 years or so and the municipality has not been able to come up with any solution for the problem. Not that newer areas like Vashi & Navi Mumbai have fared any better. These areas where a lot of new development has taken place have also joined the chronic flooding list. As far as the rural and outlying areas of the country are concerned they are no better. Assam has for generations been seeing flooding during the monsoon and the same is true for Orissa and parts of UP. Though Bihar this year has been spared with the rain gods lenient on them with the rains failing there. Even the capital Delhi has been prone to flood scares with the rising Yamuna every year and even otherwise in the first rains this year some of the areas like near Minto Bridge continue to get inundated. At other times Delhi sees a drinking water shortage particularly in the hot summers but just a few months later with the rains setting in some 5 Lakh Cusecs of water released by Haryana through their Barrage as announced recently is allowed to go waste! At other places around the country we have been seeing rain related deaths like in Kerala. Is this development? Development should mean the ability to manage nature's vagaries and harness them like in the instance of the monsoon for the longer term benefit of the people and minimise the number of fatalities that occur as a consequence of weather related disasters. However in India development is more for sloganeering before elections and for profiteering round the year by the politicians and the bureaucracy. We the people are  also at fault for accepting the problems as above silently being bogged down with the compulsions of daily life and adopting the fatalistic approach that after all the rainy season is only for 3 months in a year. This cannot go on like this and people need to change and be more vocal and demand solutions to the problems they face in the surroundings around them. 

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

Hi,

I am mailing you the latest issue of Vox Populi to stimulate and encourage discussion and comment on current affairs. If you are interested in responding to any of the issues mentioned in this newsletter you could mail me or alternately post your comment at my blog - skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com. The comment if posted on my blogs will have the advantage of other people who peruse Vox Populi to see your comment and respond to it, if need be. On the kamatblog.blogspot.com blog you can see the back issues of Vox Populi also.

IN CASE YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING VOX POPULI, YOU CAN MAIL ME BACK PUTTING - UNSUBSCRIBE VOX POPULI - IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME WILL BE TAKEN OFF THE DISTRIBUTION LIST IMMEDIATELY.

There is no catch in this and no payment of any kind is involved, now or into the future. This is being sent, as said earlier, to encourage your comment and involvement in current affairs. 

Thanking you for your patience in reading through this.

HAPPY READING VOX POPULI.

Yours truly

S Kamat, S-1, Sanohitra Apts., Dr Rego Bagh, Alto St. Cruz, Goa 403202.

Mob: 0 7218698906 

Email: kamatsrinivas@hotmail.com

Vox Populi Issue 242

                                                           VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 242                      Date: 30.07.2018

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

 

Contents:

1. Issues of Mis-Governance by Present BJP Government

2. Parrikar's Fishy Governance

3. The Sabarimalai Temple Judgment Does Not Take Into Account Matters Of

     Faith

4. The Rising Cost of PM Narendra Modi to India

5. Stray Dogs Need To Be Caught & Put In Enclosures for A Swaccha Bharat

6. Banning Import of Fish Without Corresponding Assurance of Supply is 

     Meaningless

7. The Modus Operandi Of Lynching

                        Issues of Mis-Governance by Present BJP Government

Piyush Goyal, acting FM seems to know more about Swiss banks than what they themselves know while contesting the fact that the Indian deposits have gone up in the last year! He brought some report very intricate and complicated from another source to show that the deposits have actually gone 'down'. The very manner in which this was done created a very serious credibility issue with Goyal's claim. Such tactics are those of bullies who not wanting to know anything adverse about themselves try to muscle their opinions on others to prove that they are right. The BJP have been consistently doing this through the pendency of this government. 

Like in the case of lynchings where the victims have been mostly Muslims and Dalits and happening in BJP governed States, the BJP are bringing the charge of being communal against the Opposition parties mostly the Congress instead of getting their cadres or those perpetrating such incidents to stop or catching such people and bringing them to justice. 

Also the waiving of GST on sanitary napkins and making it Nil has resulted in local manufacturers not being able to avail input credit. This again shows that this government does not think through its measures. It will take another couple of months to solve the input credit issue and until that time the government touted  price reduction for sanitary napkins will not happen because manufacturers are unable to reduce prices or can cut it down just marginally by 1-1.5%. The local manufacturers fear that by reducing the GST to zero and not giving input credit to them, the market will be flooded by imported sanitary napkins driving them out of business. This brings back to mind the days of Demonetisation and GST implementation where the measures were good in concept but being put through badly resulted in untold miseries for the common people. 

The PM Research Fellowship (PMRF) program earlier limited to premier educational institutions like IIT's has now been expanded to all universities in the country. The fact that it was limited to some institutions had created a heartburn and had attracted charges of discrimination. The other reason for heartburn is that the amounts of stipend for the PMRF program is much higher than the similar fellowships run by the UGC & other Departments like Science & Technology which will now come to the fore since it is pretty apparent that the stipends need to be rationalised across different fellowship schemes. All this is happening within one year of the launch of the PMRF program. It is felt therefore that the program could have been launched with greater attention and its ramifications on other similar schemes of the government.

                                        Parrikar's Fishy Governance

Manohar Parrikar seems to have lost his touch for governance. You can see this in the ham-handed manner he has been handling the formalin-in-fish issue. Being the Chief Minister of Goa instead of his interest lying in the well-being of Goans, he made a statement in the Assembly about his concern that the tourists are not ordering fish in the hotels. Have we come to the stage that we need to sacrifice our interests for the benefit of tourists? Or is it only for the benefit of tourists will things get done in Goa and not for its local people? The other thing is about the fish mafia operating in the Margao wholesale market. Having been Chief Minister many times, is this the first time that he is becoming aware of the mafia? Also it is insulting to Goans to make out that one man, Ibrahim or whatever his name is, controls the fish trade in Goa? This is what even Parrikar's statements have made us believe where he has said that some politicians are linked to the mafia. Lastly, allowing fish trucks to come to Goa from other States except for consumption is leaving the door slightly open for fish wholesalers to earn more than a premium at this time of shortage since this fish will finally end up only in the markets. If you have a ban then you should have a complete ban and stop all fish coming into Goa. If Goans are suffering by not having fish in their daily diet, the fish processors need also to suffer and forego their business in the interests of Goa for the duration of the ban.   

The Sabarimalai Temple Judgment Does Not Take Into Account Matters Of Faith 

The Sabarimalai Temple judgment is indicative of the very limited scope that the Supreme Court judges have taken and that is the equity of men and women. Shri Parasaran, counsel for the Nair Soceity appearing in the case before the Supreme Court  has argued eloquently and brought out almost all aspects to negate the judgment that has not taken into account the matters of faith. It is faith that last Mon, 23rd July on the occasion of Ashadi Ekadasi the Lord Vittal temple in Pandharpur attracted anywhere between 8-10 Lakh pilgrims to pay their respects to the deity, some who may have walked from near Alandi near Pune to Pandharpur, a distance of close to 300 Km. over a span of 15 days. These devotees get the physical strength to undergo the journey by the power of their faith in the Lord. Nobody gives them transportation, the devotees come on their own unlike political rallies were people are herded into buses or other means of transport but even then they are no match for the crowds that throng temples for religious events. The Rathayatra at around the same time in Puri draws similar crowds of devotees.  The Kumbh mela at Allahabad is another example where large crowds are drawn by their faith in the event. There are other lesser pilgrimages of similar nature in North & Eastern India where it is pure faith that inspires the devotees to go beyond the boundaries of their physical self. Even at Sabarimalai it is again faith that draws the pilgrims to the temple in the middle of the forest in huge numbers. It is now that roads have been built and access to the temple has been made easier but even now there are the die-hards who prefer to trek through the jungle, camping in the open for at least 5-6 days facing the risk of being attacked by wild animals, crossing the river Pamba and then reaching the temple the first day it opens for the Makara Vilakku festival. Such things cannot be explained or rationalised in the limited framework of black and white paperwork. Allowing women of the ages of 10-50 to the Sabarimalai Temple will shatter the faith of the countless multitudes of pilgrims that visit it during the two limited spans that it is open during the year. Lately the Supreme Court has been a touch over-enthusiastic in taking up matters which may not necessarily be in their domain taking advantage of which there are petitioners who file cases in the hope of getting a judgment which makes the matter beyond the reach of any other argument. The Supreme Court needs to be wary of such tendencies. A case in point of equivalence that can be cited is that the Mumbai High Court lately has been asking why so many abortion cases of advanced foetus formation are coming to it since maybe it was more than generous with its judgments in earlier cases. 

                              The Rising Cost of PM Narendra Modi to India

Modi's cost for the Jaipur rally held on 7th July 2018 was about Rs. 7.5 crores mainly to transport some 2,50,000 attendees. In addition t9 this there was the cost of food that was given to those who were brought for the rally. This entire cost was to be borne by State and Central agencies and not by the party. No wonder the fiscal deficit is spiralling beyond control. To recover all this the government will again pick the common man's pockets by increasing some levies and taxes. The PM is expected to address 50 such rallies in Rajasthan alone before the Assembly elections there and you can well imagine the cost that we, the public will have to bear. The PM has again gone off on an African tour touching South Africa among other countries. If you take statistics since 2014 when Narendra Modi became PM you will find that he is the most widely travelled head of State in the world. The embarrassed government has been at its wit's end to find ways of refusing RTI enquiries on the cost of the PM's visits abroad which it has in any case been successful in stalling. 

        Stray Dogs Need To Be Caught & Put In Enclosures for A Swaccha Bharat

Rabies inoculation for stray dogs being done in Goa in association with a NGO should have been expanded in its scope. In any case the dogs need to be caught to be inoculated for rabies at which time they could have been put in pens so that they do not roam free. Dogs are a major source of dirtying our surroundings with their pooh (shit) & their habit of urinating anywhere and everywhere. These stray dogs are also a source of danger for small children and older people whom they attack sometimes with fatal consequences as we have seen across the country. Therefore it is important that they are not allowed to be let loose.  The success of the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan  will depend to a large extent how we are able to stop the dirtying of Bharat by stray dogs.  

Banning Import of Fish Without Corresponding Assurance of Supply is Meaningless

On the formalin in fish issue we are still going in circles with the Goan people continuing to be deprived of fish. The latest statement of CM Parrikar that he would extend the ban on imported fish if the people want to feel safer should have been backed up by the undertaking that once the fishing season starts next week, Goan trawlers would be asked to deliver their fish to local markets only. It is going to be close to one month now that the controversy has erupted and with not only the Goan people deprived of fish but the trade also suffering for lack of a proper decision in the matter. In contrast in neighbouring Maharashtra when there was the suspicion of formalin in fish in some markets from fish brought from outside the State last week CM Phadnavis immediately had the fish tested and after ensuring it was clear allowed the sale of fish and also set up a testing procedure across all major markets of seafood. There was no bickering about this, that and the other like we are seeing in Goa. The simple thing that could have been done in Goa was to immediately have all outside fish come to the Margao wholesale market where the FDA could have set up a temporary laboratory to test the fish for formalin and other adulterants and only with their clearance the fish would be allowed to be unloaded  and sold. As days passed this temporary lab could become a permanent facility. Also outstation suppliers would become wary knowing Goa's testing procedure and supply only good fish. What we are seeing is just a tamasha of banning without considering the needs of the people and the depriving of income of the trade particularly those for whom the daily earnings are important. Mr Parrikar, Clearly this is not a government that works! 

                                The Modus Operandi Of Lynching

The way the model for lynching works is that it is instigated by the BJP top leadership but since it happens in the States they can wash their hands of it since law and order is a State subject. Thus they have a deniability on the matter. This is the devious manner in which the lynching wave is being carried across India but unfortunately the majority of the incidents are happening in BJP ruled states which is coming back as a slap on the party's face. All this is part of a plan to orchestrate communal riots just prior to the General Elections. The BJP does this to boost their macho image which they believe makes them win elections in the Hindi heartland. You can see indicators of this with Ministers at the Centre accusing Congress and other Opposition parties of being communal and one Minister going to the extent of saying that more the lynchings, more the popularity of the PM! 

 

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