Vox Populi Issue 257

VOX POPULI                                                                         by                                                                   S Kamat                                                                          as                                                                 Aam Admi                                            Issue: 257                        Date: 19.11.2018                     Visit: skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com   Contents:       1. The Latest Obsession : Bingeing On Heights Of Statues  2. Arun Jaitley Picking Up On His Math Re GST & Demonetisation  3. Goa's Price & Quality Syndrome For Food Items That Is Being Challenged 4. Goa In A Complete State of Flux in Governance & Political Terms

                      The Latest Obsession : Bingeing On Heights Of Statues 

The current tendency to outdo each other on the height of statues is carrying things a bit too far. First it was the Chatrapati Shivaji's statue that was to come up on an island off the Mumbai coast. Then it was Vallabhai Patel's statue that was inaugurated recently by the PM in Gujarat. Lord Rama was not to be left behind and Jogi Adityanath announced a massive statue of the god in Ayodhya. Then it was the turn of the Karnataka government to announce a huge statue of the River Cauvery in the form of a goddess at Krishna Raja Sagar or the Brindavan Gardens near Mysuru. Statues apart from serving the needs of politics serve no other useful purpose. Building them is a sheer waste of money. The Vallabhai Patel and the Chatrapati Shivaji statues along with the complexes on which they are erected are reported to cost in the region of Rs. 3000 crores each. While the government has money for these statues it does not have the funding to support child immunisation programs like polio. Currently the polio vaccine is in short supply and India is dependent on the MNC, Sanofi to supply the medicine and who taking advantage of the worldwide scarcity have raised prices including to India. India though one of the largest users of the polio vaccine gave up in 1990 to put up a plant here for the local manufacture of the vaccine. We are currently running out of supplies which is likely to affect the child immunisation program for next year and the year after that unless Rs. 300 crores is found immediately to be assured of supplies from Sanofi. This situation shows up the lopsided funding and distorted thinking of this government where statues get a higher priority than polio vaccine. However, voices within this government make the right noises like Arun Jaitley saying the other day that high economic growth is essential for poverty alleviation. But in actual practice we are seeing the plans for growth of statues across the country, both in number and following the motto of higher, higher and even higher while ignoring the immediate needs of child immunisation programs like for polio and forgetting the need for poverty alleviation which in any case is too far out in the future. 

                  Arun Jaitley Picking Up On His Math Re GST & Demonetisation 

Arun Jaitley being an advocate by training can be forgiven for not getting his maths right when saying that GST affected the economy's growth 'only' for 2 quarters, which is 6 months and that's half a year. This in economic growth is a 'huge' period as Donald Trump would have said. So half a year gone on the back of an economic slump caused by the Demonetisation exercise is all the more grievous. At least Jaitley has come around to admitting that GST did affect economic growth. He has not got up to the impact of  Demonetisation on the economy since that is a higher order math beyond Jaitley's present comprehensive ability. But one is sure that he will get up to it once he works up to his post-graduation in maths.

              Goa's Price & Quality Syndrome For Food Items That Is Being Challenged

We need to understand the basic issues underlying the contamination of food and other items that come into Goa. It is like the majority of the items that you get on railway platforms and which applies largely to food items that are on sale. This comment is more valid now than it was in the past. Nobody cares about the quality and hygiene of the food items because they know that rarely does the same passenger comes back to complain. That is why anything goes, meaning anything is sold. This principle applies a little differently in Goa where everything is oriented towards the tourist, be it Indian or foreign. Since the tourist is on holiday he does not mind paying a 'little' extra for any services that he uses or items that he buys or food that he consumes. Thus the prices of everything is inflated. Larceny is a way of life in Goa and many a shopkeeper or store makes a virtue out of it. They take advantage of the fact that demand far outstrips supply justifying their penchant to make the extra rupee. It is explained away by saying - Nobody minds.  Now Goa does not produce enough of any items that it consumes like take fish, milk or for that matter any commodity. Everything to a large part has to come from outside the State. Now the suppliers from the neighbouring States are no fools. They have the pulse on Goa's markets. They know very well the 'tourist syndrome'. With this they are confident that anything that they send to Goa will sell. Not only that they will get a good price for the item. So when it comes to trading with Goa in normal circumstances they may supply good stuff but when scarcity reigns and local demand is better, they will send the worst quality stuff to Goa. Given no choice the Goan market has to accept it. The local shopkeepers who have become used to the 'tourist syndrome' apply it with little or no compunction to their local customers also. The products to be bought are offered saying there is no alternative. What does the local Goan do, he either walks away or grudgingly buys whatever is available. In another context, you could say that the scarcity times that used to prevail during Portuguese rule where luxury goods were available in plenty but essential items were scarce has come back to haunt Goa in a new 'avatar'. So having been used to make do with scarcity through generations the local Goan rarely complains and takes a stand. That is precisely what has happened to fish where the suppliers knew that in Goa anything goes, they started to supply fish laced with formalin. We must in fact thank and compliment the FDA for the first raid when the formalin issue was exposed. Since obviously we were eating formalin laced fish all along. The blame cannot be exclusively ascribed to suppliers from outside the State since the wholesale trade in Goa was complicit and to a smaller extent the local fish suppliers also. When word gets around the entire supply chain would be keen to increase the shelf life of the perishable by using formalin to make that extra buck or not lose money. Business has its own logic and morals. That is why it is correct to take a firm stand and have testing labs so that Goans are assured of contamination free fish. In fact the present office bearers of the fish wholesaler's association should be put behind bars on the count of deliberately and knowingly endangering public health in Goa if charges of manslaughter arising out of the use of dangerous chemicals in edible items cannot be brought against them. That is the only lesson that they will remember and as a consequence reform their ways. Whether it be fish or whether it be fruits and vegetables or even milk, the same principle as enumerated above applies. There is a demand in Goa and the market is not insistent on quality and also willing to pay more so send gas ripened fruits or vegetables laced with pesticides that they would not feed their cattle in the home State or supply milk that remains unrefrigerated in transit as well as after it reaches here through the night and until it is supplied to consumers in the morning. The consciousness raised since the fish in formalin Issue is good but we need to remember that the neighbouring States could start squeezing supplies which may lead to scarcity and consequently rise in prices. Therefore unless Goa starts having a large part of its consumption of food items available locally it may lead to a major problem. The maxim to be followed is - Proceed with caution. Proceed with care.

                    Goa In A Complete State of Flux in Governance & Political Terms

Goa is in a complete state of flux in political terms. With no political leadership for the last 9 months or so since Manohar Parrikar fell sick, there has been literally no governance in the State. Every issue drags on interminably until it dies its inevitable death in the public mind after a short while only be replaced by another issue of similar importance. Thus one would feel that the present political leadership that is in charge of the State is completely irresponsible to allow things in Goa to drag on like this. With Manohar Parrikar being unwell, we are all sympathetic for him but should he not be sympathetic for Goa. Instead of establishing a new leadership he has been allowing the situation to not only drag but exhibited tendencies to remain in power at any cost. The fact that the BJP-led government's majority is on a knife edge was not anybody's fault but more akin to acts of God where one after another the ministers fell sick and that too of major debilitating diseases. Recognising this early the BJP should have gone for a mid-term poll by dissolving the present government. Campaigning on a sympathetic plank of health the BJP could as well have come back to power with a better majority. Then there would have been no need to take in the dissenters from other parties like the Congress and create problems within its own cadres as we are now seeing. As for Shirodkar and Sopte jumping ship of the Congress to the BJP there does not seem anything wrong since the Congress apart from their fighting amongst themselves is showing no great resolve or political will to come back to power. Even the call that these turncoats should be defeated in the bye-elections does not have much appeal since ideology based politics at least at the State level is out and does not sell with the electorate who will elect those that they believe will work for them. Thus Goa seems to be deemed to be in a state of stupor for some more time to come. 

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Vox Populi Issue 256

                                                              VOX POPULI

                                                                        by

                                                                  S Kamat 

                                                                        as

                                                                Aam Admi

                                           Issue: 256                        Date: 12.11.2018

                    Visit: skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com

 

Contents:      

1. The MSME Sector Loan Measure Of Rs. 1 Crore in 59 Mins. Is Yet Another Gimmick 

2. Goa's New Casino Policy Will Be The State's Road To Perdition

3. The 'Living Dead' From Demonetisation and GST

4. Maneka Gandhi Should Mind Her Own Business

    The MSME Sector Loan Measure Of Rs. 1 Crore in 59 Mins. Is Yet Another Gimmick 

The MSME sector has been reeling as a consequence of the cash crunch arising from the two measures - Demonetisation and GST - but lately was again in the news with the PM announcing a credit facility of Rs. 1 crore to them that would be sanctioned within 59 minutes! This is again a mirage-like initiative with no meaning since you see it but yet you see it not because it is not there. This scheme just gives you a principle clearance in the form of a letter by a private agency who have no accountability and you still have to go through the process of clearance of loan through the Bank which will take close to 6 weeks. Moreover the MSME sector accounts for more than 16% of Bank NPA's as of now and none of the Banks are overly keen to add to this debt for fear of it becoming unpayable. So this measure is another pataka from Narendra Modi that fizzles out with no bang for the buck. Maybe it will be still proved to work, for which numbers are needed to justify, with crony BJP MSME's who will borrow knowing full well that they will not be called to repay the loans. We have seen this kind of thing earlier with the initiative of mobile payments where the use of cash was intended to be limited. It did not work either with the Indian people showing that they prefer to deal with cash. Currently with State elections coming up there is a tremendous demand for cash being sought from the Banks which they are finding it difficult to deal with. And where is this extra cash demand likely to go to? If the recent seizure of hawala cash of Rs. 7.5 crores in Hyderabad is any indicator, then it will be to fund elections. 

                   Goa's New Casino Policy Will Be The State's Road To Perdition

The news emerging that there could be land based casinos without them having to be located in 5-star hotels and with a plan to have many such in an enclave either at Mopa or near Panjim under the new casino policy is disturbing news. Casinos per se is bad news for any society and then this proposal to deliberately convert Goa into a Sin City is shocking. With Manohar Parrikar having come onto the streets against casinos in the early days and then justifying later that the earnings from the casinos would be be used to fund Provedaria assistance, it seems the whole of Goa will be made equivalent of Provedaria inmates. Thereafter sometime back  when questioned about the casinos, their location and their numbers increasing over time on the river, he mumbled something about how times change and how ministers earlier were happy with Ambassador cars but nowadays ask for SUV's, which comment no one understood and it went clear over everyone's head. With the new policy likely to recommend casino enclaves as the central plank for the State's economic policy we will be seeing the end of Goa as we know it now. Another dagger among many others would have been planted straight into the heart of Goa's ethos and way of life, killing it altogether. Vivek Menezes in one of his recent columns has succinctly summarised how if Goa follows the road taken by Las Vegas and lately Macau then the destination is nothing but perdition where gambling, drugs, prostitution and money laundering will rule the roost. 

                             The 'Living Dead' From Demonetisation and GST

Emperor Ashoka it is said when walking through the dead at the end of the Kalinga battle and upon seeing the carnage had forsaken war and taken to religion, propagating the teachings of Lord Buddha. Our latter day leaders like Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi, minnows when compared to Ashoka, have been walking through the 'living dead' in India that have been created in the wake of Demonetisation and the GST fiascos and continue to congratulate themselves on these measures ignoring or little realising the havoc that they had unleashed on the people of India which impact continues to this day. 

                             Maneka Gandhi Should Mind Her Own Business

Maneka Gandhi is going completely overboard on the killing of the T1 tigress Avni in Maharashtra recently. The facts are that this tigress killed 13 human beings and was categorised as a maneater. Maneaters have to be put down is what every tiger manual says. Thus the issue being made on the killing the tigress is a bit too much. Gandhi needs to understand that humans come first and then animals, even if they be tigers. Instead of getting obsessed and seeking an enquiry into the killing of the tigress Maneka Gandhi could well be advised to set u a high level panel to go into the issue of child rape in the country. That way she would be doing a service to the girl child and aligning herself with the Ministry that she holds in this government at the Centre. Maneka Gandhi she should keep her animal love as a hobby and not get overly involved in it. She needs all her attention for the Ministry of Women & Child Welfare that she handles. When she has called for the resignation of the Maharashtra Forest Minister over the tigress killing, he has responded that with women & children dying of malnutrition in India, will Maneka Gandhi also resign? In the Thane belt in Maharashtra among tribals malnutrition is endemic with the area and known for starvation deaths also. So it is best that she puts her nose down and gets to work within her Ministry. 

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Vox Populi Issue 255

VOX POPULI                                              by                             S Kamat as Aam Admi              Issue: 255            Date: 05.11.2018       skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com                       WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY DEEPAVALI Contents: 1. Oh Kolkata!  2. Critiquing the Supreme Court & Some Of Its Judgments 3. After The Attack On RBI The Best Thing That Arun Jaitley Could       Do Is To Quit                                                       Oh Kolkata!  I am taking the liberty of making some some off-the-cuff comments after our recent visit to Calcutta, no Kolkata! The first thing that strikes you is the city is alive. It lives.  Not only does it live but it also moves. The mass of humanity that we saw on the city roads because of the Puja crowds actually moves and in a disciplined manner under the able guidance and stewardship of the Kolkata Police. The same is true for the crowds that we saw at Howrah Station. The traffic though quite unruly now compared to earlier days when the mini-buses set off the F-1 race challenge in the early 1980's has become  de rigeur now and every kind of vehicle comes at you as if it wants to run you over. The days when Kolkata was famous for the 'pedestrian being the king of the road' is over and the humble man on the street today is at the mercy of traffic and insane drivers just like in Delhi or even Mumbai or even for that matter any existing or up and coming metropolis in the country.  The Durga Puja atmosphere has not changed and is still the same with the people showing the same enthusiasm as before to visit the pandals and see the deities. The only change has been the dominance of what are called theme Pujas which are sponsored by corporate entities and tend to take up a theme of social or other relevance and lavishly decorate the pandal and the environs thus showing the caliber of the Bengal craftsmen. The deity in this approach is not diminished in any sense and the same lavishness and care is given to the design and the presentation of the idols. However, the theme Pujas seem to take away the religious feeling that one associates with the Pujas replaced by a brassiness brought out by the commercial emphasis dictated by the sponsors. One of our friends mentioned that some of the Committees of the theme Pujas are not from the locality where the Puja is done leading to a lack in ownership of the neighbourhood in the Puja as in the past. This leads to many feelings of discomfort of the residents of the neighbourhood related to the way of life of local residents being disturbed during the Pujas,  The pada Pujo or the baraori Pujas are fast moving towards extinction though there are vestiges of people trying to retain these like niche Pujas e.g. organised exclusively by women etc. and the Pujas being done in the stilt parking of multi-storied complexes by the residents.  The greatest thing was that you could talk in Bengali everywhere. Kolkata was always strong in its consciousness to use Bengali but this time even the Bihari veggie vendor in Lake Market preferred to talk in Bengali, so also the Yellow and the Uber cab drivers.  Not not that even in Saheb-pada we ordered breakfast in Flury's one day and lunch another day at New Kenilworth Hotel in chaste Bengali. Earlier one recalls English was the go-to language on Park Street and its environs. The all pervasive use of Bengali is the best thing that could have happened to Kolkata. But the major disappointment in Kolkata was that its pavements have been hijacked. This is true not only in the residential and business areas but also in the true blue corporate areas like near the Jeevan Deep building and Tata Centre on Chowringhee which have shacks serving food just below them. Earlier they used to be on the corner of Russel Street but mostly chai shops.  The pavements need be cleared since they belong to the citizens. The pavements cannot be hijacked to make Kolkata one huge, contiguous hawker centre and food court. The pavements in its present form are an invitation to disaster and random instances of fire across the city will be the order of the day. Or you will hear of a bus ploughing into the pavement with multiple fatalities. Those hawkers and food stalls have a problem. They do this for their livelihood  because there are no jobs. They will refuse to go away from the pavements per se but they may consider if they are given jobs. But then there are no jobs for the government to give particularly to this category of people who are unskilled and relatively less educated. Therefore the government has to find a solution to this problem by thinking out of the box. These people now running shops and food joints on the pavements should not be deprived of their livelihood and the government also should not be called on to give these people jobs. But then the government should be prepared to invest and maybe ask these people to share in it to create a sense of value for their ownership. So the government can take it upon themselves to build as appropriate in each area a single building not exceeding 6 floors a Hawker Centre and Food Court with slotted ownership facility for each of the hawkers and food dispensers who occupy a particular stretch of street. The existing people running their businesses on the streets will have to move into these HC&FC utilities clearing the pavements. In each of these areas the government will easily find space or old buildings to acquire and build the new HC&FC's. This will not only give back the pavements to the citizens but also give a face-lift to Kolkata which it richly deserves. The only thing is that the government should strictly enforce that the next generation of hawkers and food dispensers should not come and occupy the pavements in the hope that they will also be given a bail-out in the future.   Otherwise Kolkata over these last Pujas was a great trip filled with nostalgia, old friends, good food and outings and the realisation that Kolkata still has still a warm heart that beats for all who come near it. Thank you, Kolkata.               Critiquing the Supreme Court & Some Of Its Judgments                        SC judgments lately are an overreach with the Sabarimalai temple likely to be closed over the entry of women and now the CBI emasculated so to speak over the judgment in the Director Verma midnight sacking Issue. Also the NRC fiasco in Assam that has resulted in so much pain and trauma to some families with the exclusion of some of their near and dear ones from the NRC and consequently maybe facing deportation. In each of these cases, the SC should have recused themselves from taking on the cases.  In the Sabarimalai temple case it is related to a matter of faith and cannot be therefore put to the hard test of legality. By just applying constitutional rights to the issue the SC is looking at it through a narrow lens and pandering to the divisive whims and fancies of a misguided set of people who come to the SC knowing that it will be prey to their machinations and deliver a judgment. Now last month when the temple opened for a short while there were law and order problems at the temple site when some women tried to access the precincts with the assistance of the police of the Communist regime in power. It was reported then that the priests of the temple had declared that they would shut the temple if the women were allowed to set foot near it. Thus if one were to take an overall view was this the intention of the SC to be a party, indirect one may say, to close the temple and not let even the legitimate and true devotees who outnumber by a vast majority the disgruntled lot, to have a sight of the Lord. Other than that the temple entry issue is being expanded and taking on the face of a major law and order problem in the State with the Communists, this time with the support of the government, and the BJP-RSS confronting each other in the shades of the RSS-Marxist war that had dogged in the past the Malabar region for years. This war will now be fought across Kerala. With the temple opening from the middle of November 2018 the State is tense to see how things shape up. And everybody's teeth are on edge. Surely these are not the signs of wisdom that he looks forward to in a judgment. Up north at Ayodhya there is further trouble brewing with the Sangh Parivar making statements that like in 1992 when the Babri Masjid was demolished, they may have to take matters into their hands. We need to remember that we live in current times where akin to a tinderbox, mob fury is generated with the minimum of provocation and then the situation goes out of the hands of the saner elements in our society. Additionally like in the demolishment of the Babri Masjid, there is nothing that can be done when the deed is done and only regrets and recriminations can follow. The politicians as we have seen in the past remain silent spectators allowing the horrifying scenarios to be enacted if not actively supporting and inciting the perpetrators. In such kind of prevailing circumstances there is a need for men of erudition and wisdom to guide our society through safer and calmer waters eschewing confrontational situations. That is what one would expect the SC to do. In a similar vein the CBI judgment puts in limbo the premier investigating agency of the country even for a limited span of close to 3 weeks until the CVC is able to conclude the report into allegations of corruption against Director Verma. In times like this to freeze work at the CBI is a matter of great import but the saving grace one could say is that the agency is so compromised that even if it is put in suspended animation for some time nothing much would be affected and it could be in fact beneficial for the country. All said and done as said earlier the SC should have recused from this matter since it is a matter arising out of an adminstrative action of the government and hence the Central Administrative Tribunal or some such body should decide the matter. Alternately since the appointment of the CBI Director is made consisting of the PM, CJI and the Leader of the Opposition, the SC should have allowed these august personages to be seized of the matter and arrive at a decision. As far as the NRC is concerned in Assam which has become an extremely sensitive issue the SC is absolutely right in its premises and the logic on which basis the NRC is to be created but what is lacking in the plan is sensitivity. Border states particularly adjoining Bangladesh have seen migrant influxes since 1947 and more so just preceding 1971 when Bangladesh got its independence and even to this day at times of distress in the neighbouring country. The migrants have been mainly Hindus but also Muslims  have crossed the borders running away from strife or looking for a better life. India has faced the brunt of these compulsory migrations more so Assam and Bengal which two States are considered transit points for these refugees to then enlarge across India. Thus some of these refugees have been there for a long period of time and have been assimilated into the Indian way of life and into the electoral process, the latter more so by the design by crafty politicians who want to or have converted them into vote banks. In the majority of cases there is no problem of the refugees staying in India and sharing in economic activity. But in some areas of Assam where strife is endemic between tribals and the government and where there is less work even for the locals or there is a religion imbalance, violence rears its head time and again. That is where a solution is required and that has to be political. Hard logic cannot be the basis for identification of outsiders since with so many years having passed, these people have nowhere to go. Dealing with this is also an issue of humanity and India, the country of Mahatma Gandhi and in possession of a large heart should find a way for these people to remain in the country as long as they agree to abide strictly by our laws. The SC by getting involved in the NRC matter is only attracting a bad name for itself. Thus the matter should be left to the governments of the day be it at the State or the Centre who should decide on it or even by the Election Commission. Even now look at the latest SC stricture on limiting fireworks and the the suggestion to use 'green' fireworks which do not exist. Considering pollution both environmental and noise and the fact that most fireworks are made by child labour the restrictions are desirable but they should be made implementable. At this rate of the number of unimplementable and impractical judgments coming out, you will find the weight and sanctity of SC judgments with the people losing import. It should not be that the SC judgments become irrelevant and slowly the SC too. That will be the sad conclusion to this story which is not desirable and it is only the SC who can find a solution or put a stop to it. On general matters, the SC a few weeks back took to task the Chief Secretaries of two States, Goa and Nagaland, for appearing in court 'improperly' dressed. The SC bench expected them to be dressed formally in the British tradition and in sober colours. Now we have thrown out the British for more than 70 years but we are continuing with their dress codes in institutions like the SC which s sad thing. In apparel the SC needs to think local and national and throw out the dress codes laid down by the British. These are cobwebs of history that should be removed forthwith. In these matters we need to examine the US judiciary which has tuned itself in the national ethos not only in dress but in the practice of law and its relevance to their society. One hopes that the SC looks at this missive in a constructive fashion and as a positive feedback.               After The Attack On RBI The Best Thing That Arun Jaitley                                          Could Do Is To Quit One of the worst Finance Ministers that India has seen, Arun Jaitley is throwing his weight around and enacting the scenario defined in the Hindi metaphor - Nach Na Jane Angan Teda. After finding that nothing is going right with the Indian economy and with it going consistently downhill since 2014, his latest attack has been against the RBI blaming them for not regulating the 'profligate' lending seen in the last decade by the Banks. Where Jaitley should have hauled up the Bank top officials for indiscriminate lending he is going after the regulator! With the present BJP government this has been the tendency where incompetent people rule the roost and who flail around when things do not go right and then look for scapegoats to blame. Classic among such people who are square pegs fitted into round holes is Arun Jaitley. His penchant for pontificating on matters that he least understands underlines another Hindi metaphor - Jiski Lathi Uski Bhains. He believes that just because he is named as the Finance Minister people need to listen to him on economic matters. Reluctant to cede his position of authority was highlighted during his leave of absence for health reasons when he made sure the Finance Ministry website continued with his name being mentioned as Finance Minister and he continued blogging on financial and economic matters undermining the position of the temporary incumbent. Even on the major Demonetisation Exercise though he was not taken into confidence he realised that unless he plays ball Narendra Modi may get another bee in his bonnet and look for another Finance Minister. Given the task of implementing the GST, Arun Jaitley made a merry mess of it by not heeding the GST Council recommendations to firstly, delay implementation by just a couple of months until everyone was ready, secondly have multiple tariff levels like the old Sales Tax regime, thirdly not having the back-end of computerisation ready to take on the full load of tax payees. All this has resulted in tax revenues not rising to the levels expected and people now trying to beat the system. So Arun Jaitley should get real and recognising his limitations quit as Finance Minister in which case he would be doing a big favour to the nation.                                     **************************

Vox Populi Issue 254

VOX POPULI                                                                by                                                           S Kamat                                                                as                                                          Aam Admi                                             Issue: 254               Date: 29.10.2018                    skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com THERE WAS NO ISSUE OF VOX POPULI DATED 22.10.18 SINCE WE WERE AWAY TO KOLKATA FOR THE DURGA PUJA. Contents: 1. The India #meToo Movement Should Be Allowed To Die A Slow Death  2. Another Democratic Institution, The CBI  Falls 3. Nirmala Sitharaman Should 'Lead' The Nation On The Rafael Issue By Putting Out       A White Paper On It             The India #meToo Movement Should Be Allowed To Die A Slow Death  The time honoured maxim of jurisprudence that an accused is to be considered not guilty until he/she is proven guilty seems to have been turned on its head when you assess the #meToo movement whether it is in Hollywood and the Western countries or in its '#meToo' version in  Bollywood and India. Based on a woman's complaint professional bodies and corporate entities seem to be taking cognisance of the complaint and are initiating action to debar and/or suspend those involved. The principle of natural justice wherein the accused needs to be heard is also given the go-by. Most of these complaints of sexual harassment, molestation and/or rape pertain almost to 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. There may not even be a shred of evidence to support the victim's case if it all it comes to court but the media and also the government seems to recognise these slanderous allegations as a fit case for action. Emboldened by such approaches there are many women coming forward with their #meToo stories, some concocted, some maybe true but the reading of the tales is a journey through soft porn. Anyone writing against these women are termed patriarchal or paternalistic and vilified. Consider the case of the accused in these cases who are established in their professions to various degrees and in the cases of some who are considered as leaders in their field and society at large. What are they to do when such accusations surface? It is difficult for them to address the media since the trend seems to be in favour of the accuser and the tendency is to get as much of the salacious details as possible. Moreover the incidents more than 10 years old have been lost in the passage of time. Where people cannot remember what happened yesterday, one wonders what credence should be given to incidents more than 10 years old. There is also the aspect of consensus in the incidents where if the act is between two consenting adults then there is no issue at all. So the only option for the accused is to take the legal route for redress as has been done in 2 of the more celebrated cases in this India #meToo movement. Now let us look at the other side of the coin, that of the accuser. These women for the furtherance of their careers or professions thought it fit to do whatever is required to get ahead, which particularly applies to the entertainment industry, and now looking back want to take revenge against those who they feel had slighted them or insulted them. Their actions have therefore nothing to with women's rights at large but remain individual grouses. Again women talking about about the paternalistic attitude of men are actually doing a disservice to the female gender and the women's rights movement by exposing their weakness. The #meToo movement in that sense is putting back the women's rights movement by decades and all because of some aberrated and disoriented women. Another insight that the #meToo movement has thrown up is that the media and society at large are sympathetic to women's causes  which is a good thing and it is time that women use this goodwill to further their position in our society and not waste this on frivolous and demeaning personal agendas. Concluding, the #meToo movement should be taken off the public radar and allowed to die its slow death in the law courts.                                                                                      Another Democratic Institution, The CBI  Falls This government has with great consistency undermined the independence and functioning of the CBI as an institution. By trying to leverage and have its own men in position so that any investigations are moderated and guided to their advantage the working of the CBI has been compromised. Earlier the Supreme Court had called the CBI a 'caged parrot' but presently the analogy to a 'puppy on a leash' seems to be more apt with the two puppies in the current scenario barking at each other to seek positional and territorial advantage. The sad part is that the blame game between the two top officers of the CBI despite being played out in the public arena for months, the government refused to take cognisance of the issue and act in the matter. And when it did, in the scenario of a 'bull in a china shop' it went in for a midnight coup attracting widespread criticism of the action. For all its claims of being a decisive government, this incident with the CBI shows that the Narendra Modi led government seems to be overstretched in its ability to perform and prevarication in decision making is the order of the day. As for undermining the democratic institutions in the country, it started with the RBI running its course through the CEC, CVC, CIC and even the Supreme Court in the last few years. At this rate on the altar of the 'Gujarat model' of development and centralised decision making, Indian democracy is being eroded if not uprooted from its roots. This does not augur well for the country. What more can you expect when lumpen elements occupy the seats of governance whose perspectives are more to do with protecting themselves and surrounding themselves with a coterie of yes-men withnary a concern for the welfare of the people.                      Nirmala Sitharaman Should 'Lead' The Nation On The Rafael Issue                                             By Putting Out A White Paper On It Our Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman seems to be hand over fist into an acute attack of foot-in-the-mouth disease. Her last comment as reported in the papers is that the Congress and Rahul Gandhi are 'misleading' the nation in the Rafael deal. Now if the people in the know and who have all the access to the information on the deal prefer to act coy and obtuse about it, and in that sense refuse to take the 'lead' on the issue, is it not but natural that their opponents should 'mislead' the nation and try to seek political advantage from it. It is time therefore that the Defence Minister and her government come clean on the Rafael deal and put out a White Paper on how a 126 aircraft deal was reduced to 36 whatever compelling circumstances there may have been, whether proper procedures were followed in the decision making of this reduced need and the 'on-runway' price per plane decided originally and in the revised fly-away or fully built up new requirement of 36 planes. There is nothing confidential in this price and matters of national security are in no way compromised since no technical parameters are divulged including the weaponry on board which will come with each plane. Thus Nirmala Sitharaman without beating about the bush should put out a White Paper and 'lead' the nation on the Rafael issue.                                                          **************************

Vox Populi Issue 253

VOX POPULI                                                      by                                                 S Kamat                                                      as                                                 Aam Admi                                Issue: 253               Date: 15.10.2018              skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com Contents: 1. IL&FS Financial Travails & More Lessons Therefrom 2. Maneka Gandhi Should Appoint A High-Powered Committee To Go Into       The Rape Of The Girl Child  3. Goa Is In A Mess & It Is Only Goans Who Can Find A Solution To This                                   IL&FS Financial Travails & More Lessons Therefrom The IL&FS financial travails have been hogging the financial headlines for quite some time now.  The private sector Co. with its associates ran up a debt of a whopping Rs. 91,000 crores. The road-building arm of  IL&FS particularly borrowed about 27 times of its equity and with defaulting projects has required that NHAI take it over. Not only that the head of IL&FS was paying himself, albeit with sanction of the board of directors, a salary of close to Rs. 25 crores a year. With LIC holding 27% of the equity in IL&FS, our government has found it 'wise' to take over the Co. and nominated a new board of directors with Uday Kotak, the noted private banker, to lead the rescue of the ailing Co. The plea for this action is supposedly not only to protect the equity stake of LIC but as put out by the Finance Ministry to stop the NBFC sector particularly the Mutual Fund arm from collapsing. These are all very elevating motives but it essentially means that the common man's money or what is generally called 'public money' is being thrown to the dogs. The same thing is being done by writing off NPA's with PSB's. One can say there is no choice but to take such action and to justify it, but it is necessary to also take corresponding punitive measures against the board of directors of IL&FS and particularly its MD & CEO. The latter for not informing its lenders on time and more so for misinforming them about the likely debacle the firm was facing. Clearly he should be put behind bars which will set an example so that other firms in similar circumstances will be wary. What is happening now is that promoters and senior management people create financial problems and irregularities and then wash their hands off on the matter and seek legal protection by hiding behind their employment contracts or fly away abroad, fleeing the coop so to speak. This culpability should also be extended to bankers who should be charged for indiscriminate lending. When a Co. is already overloaded with debt there is no point in further lending. One is not sure how more loans are sanctioned when the lender is just not a single bank but a consortium of bankers in the case of large loans. There seems to be massive collusion between the lenders and the loanees with sweet deals probably being closed in between. In the hope of recovery, good money is being thrown against bad debt without any sense of caution compounding the problem and complicating it unnecessarily. Loans to small Cos. by the banking sector are given with excessive rigour while the same emphasis does not seem to be applied when loans are given to the large sector or known business groups. Caution is then thrown to the winds. This shows up the lopsided emphasis on target setting by financial institutions where the focus seems to be clearly on achieving high numbers rather than concentrate on the quality of lending and dispersing the profile of loans so that the risk to the lender is reduced. We are having in India one too many of financial scandals lately and it is time that the government and the RBI steps in to regulate the lending sector and brings some sense to it.           Maneka Gandhi Should Appoint A High-Powered Committee To Go Into                                             The Rape Of The Girl Child  Maneka Gandhi, Minister of Women & Child Development has announced the setting up of a 4 man panel of retired judges to probe the allegations that have emerged in what is called the India #meToo scandal which involves primarily established women in the entertainment field complaining of old sexual complaints against ageing film stars and celebrities to take out their dormant grievances. This movement is being dubbed as a battle of women for their rights. While the NCRB - National Records Crime Bureau  reports that every hour, 2 girls below the age of 18 were raped in India during 2016.  44% of kidnapping of girls in that year were from the same age group who are trafficked for labour and prostitution. For child rape, despite the increase in reported cases the conviction rate is low at around 28%. The disposal rates of cases are also low with the police able to clear only 64% of the cases. Such instances of child rape with killings are continuing to this day with increasing frequency. Just recently after the molestation and rape of an infant in Gujarat by a migrant worker from northern India thousands of migrants from that region had to flee the State after a major law and order situation that enveloped northern Gujarat. These victims of rape and sexual abuse come from the more economically deprived strata of our society. Do these victims not have the same rights as those claiming sexual attacks in the #meToo movement? Why has Maneka Gandhi not woken up to the fact of child rape in the country as on date and announced a panel to go into why these are happening and to put an end to it so that all our girl children are able to grow into mentally scar-free women? Even in matters of sexual attacks will we bend to the claims of privileged women while neglecting similar and in fact more grievous attacks which sometimes result in death against the poorer females in our society? The Minister should therefore immediately appoint a high-powered Committee to go into the causes of rape of the girl child and take steps to reduce its incidence on topmost priority.                Goa Is In A Mess & It Is Only Goans Who Can Find A Solution To This Goa is in a mess. It saddens one to say this. But it is the truth. You can question who is at fault but one must set the ball squarely in the Goan people's court. No amount of blaming one or the other, like the politicians or the import-from-Delhi bureaucracy or the out-of-State businessmen mostly North Indian or the bahelyos or the ghatis from across the Western ghats can be blamed for the situation that Goa is in today. The fact remains that the Goans have brought this situation upon themselves.  How one may ask? The unfortunate answer to that question is by being nice. By being pliable. By not speaking out. By not standing up for your rights. By allowing yourself to be used as a carpet to be walked upon. Goans by their very nature are friendly and helpful. And this trait has been exploited by the carpetbaggers who come to make their fortune in Goa known as the Dubai of India. That is why all Goans need to take a firm stand on their rights and beliefs and stick to them. The other matter that requires introspection is that possibly the long colonial rule of Portugal almost 400 years has left an indelible mark on the Goan character not necessarily that only of Christians but all Goans and broken their spine.  Take the recent example of the formalin in fish issue which has been dogging Goa since early July 2018. The latest on this is that we are likely to have foreign agencies certify the fish that we get. Why are we doing this? Do we not have confidence in our local testing agencies or worst case from the rest of the country that we have to think of seeking the help of foreign testing agencies? India calls itself a technical power and for testing fish we seek help from Japan or Singapore! In effect this decision speaks of two things. The first that our ministers  responsible for the decision are incompetent and the second is that the colonial mindset in us has not changed and we are still slaves to foreign influences as said earlier. One of the ministers present in the press conference where the foreign testing was announced was the first person who confused the initial testing of the fish in July 2018 by the FDA officials. Should he not have minded his own business? But we forget, he was actually minding his own business! Not only that we have had him say recently that Parrikar from Delhi should resolve the formalin in fish issue. This is the height of stupidity. What he cannot do here, how can Parrikar do from Delhi?  The formalin in fish issue can easily be resolved by clearly stating that Goa will allow only those fish trucks which carry a FDA certification from the State of origin of the consignment, otherwise the trucks will be sent back. This rule will apply to fish coming into Goa for consumption as also for fish processing and/or export. Fish in the markets will be tested additionally randomly by our own FDA and if found containing formalin the particular retailer and distributor will be black-listed. The retailers need to have documentation from their distributor if they are selling out-of-State fish. If our own ramponkars are selling the fish as a family business, the retailers involved should declare as such. This can be allowed to run for some time about a month and then if the majority of fish coming from outside is containing formalin then we should ban the export of fish from Goa to other States and also abroad so that the domestic needs are met. Within a maximum of 6 months you will see that the situation of formalin in fish is resolved since no one ultimately wants to risk his or her business. The principle underlying the above suggestion is that our ministers and authorities should not be wishy-washy in their decisions which leads to the people taking advantage of them like in the instance of no fish distributors registering with the FDA and then for namesake all registrations coming in a bunch which suspiciously could be from just one person and they should give confidence and support to our officials, in this case the FDA, to do their denominated job.  Here again considering that almost 3 months have passed on of the formalin in fish issue surfacing and there are still no clear signs of resolution. The same issue had come up in the States of Maharashtra, Orissa, Kerala and Bengal. All of them have sorted out the issue and moved on. It is only Goa that is still wallowing in it consistent with itssussegad approach. If such a lackadaisical attitude was adopted in other States then the people would have taken to the streets and ripped off the pants of the authorities. As said earlier this approach continues in the matter of having no Chief Minister for 6 months now. We are all sympathetic to Parrikar but Goa is suffering and one is sure he is  acutely conscious of that. Claims that the government is functioning 'normally' are false since we all know in the absence of a Chief Minister the other Ministers and the bureaucracy can keep the status quo going but cannot go beyond their mandate like resolving the mining issue, recruitments in government etc. etc. But the people take all this lying down reading in the papers once in a while when Parrikar will return which date keeps getting pushed back all the time. It is time to put a firm deadline for Goa to have a functional Chief Minister, Parrikar or anyone else.  One hates to say this but in the first few years when we came to Goa we started using the local red boiled rice, buying it from the bais in the Mapusa market. But over time we found the bais changing and one or two would disappear resulting in our not getting the rice we wanted. This local rice was also not regularly available from the grocer shops. This forced us to change to the standard raw rice. We used to buy this from a reputed and old grocer shop in Panjim. But we kept finding that the rice when hot would give off a bad smell like it was old. After a few months we asked the grocer about it and asked him to give us rice that would not have this smell. His response was - 'Sir, That's not possible. All the rice coming to Goa of this brand will smell because the suppliers from other States send only this rice to Goa. And that is because people here ask for this.' The only logical explanation for this could be is that Goans had got used to scarcity during Portuguese times and having to make do with what was available, this habit has not gone even after close to 60 years after Liberation. The suppliers from other States gleefully exploit this situation and send the worst goods into Goa knowing that the people will accept it. The same applies for vegetables for which Goa is dependent on Karnataka and Maharashtra from where the worst quality of vegetables stuffed with fertilisers and pesticides are sent here knowing that the Goans will not only accept it but pay a good price for it.  The time for doing all this is over and Goans need to become more demanding and show more spine by standing up for their rights be it governance, be it the environment, be it local customs and traditions, be it fish et al and get what they want. Goans need to understand that standing up for what one believes in does not mean that you cannot be nice. That is what is called the steel fist covered with a velvet glove, which idiom Goans need to emulate.                                                        *************************

Vox Populi Issue 252

                                                                      VOX POPULI                                           
                                                                               by
                                                                         S Kamat
                                                                                as
                                                                         Aam Admi
                                                     Issue: 252                     Date: 08.10.2018    
                                skamatblog.blogspot.com or aamadmivoices.blogspot.com             

Contents:

1. Narendra Modi's Hopes For A Nobel Peace Prize

2. India's #meToo Moment 

3. India In Circa 2018

                                Narendra Modi's Hopes For A Nobel Peace Prize

Our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi seems to be angling for the Nobel Peace Prize, after getting the UN Champions of The Earth award. His plank for aiming at the Peace Prize are the Jan Dhan bank accounts which identifies financial nclusion in the world's largest democracy notwithstanding the fact that  a large number of such accounts are lying inoperative and those that are valid are being massively misused like during the Demonetisation times. Then the Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan along with the newly launched sanitation programs which form the basis for the UN Champions Of The Earth award.  The latest in Modi's armoury along with the earlier two to aim at the Peace Prize is the National Health Plan launched recently which though very ambitious in scope is not supported by adequate budgets and financial resources. The current allocation of funding for the health plan will only give a measly Rs. 20 per capita for the covered population. Talk of a gas-filled balloon this is the biggest. Dramatic in scope and intent but all hot air inside! Aspirations and ambitions are all right but these need be supported by fact and that is where Modi's claim to achievement falls far too short. Modi's thinking must be that if Barrack Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing why should the Nobel Prize Foundation not consider his claim.

But the Nobel Prize management maybe anticipating Modi's nomination or because of its own internal problems is re-thinking whether they should consider altogether dropping  the awarding of Nobel Prizes from 2019 and pass it on to another agency. The reason behind this is the scandal surrounding Jean Claude Arnault who connected through his wife to the Nobel Foundation and has been recently sentenced to 2 years in prison for raping and sexual abuse charges brought against him by some 18 women. He was also the reason why the 2017 Nobel Prize of Literature was not announced and why the 2018 Literature Prize  may not be announced. With this scandal there are many of the nominees on the Nobel Prize board who are generally members for life who have relinquished their positions. This has led to the erosion of the reputation and credibility of the institution which is making the Foundation seriously review its program of announcing the Nobel Prizes.

So much then for Narendra Modi's hopes for a Nobel Peace Prize from the original Foundation! 

                                            India's #meToo Moment

When the world celebrates by giving the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize to 2 crusaders who have been working against sexual violence in war-torn areas, we have privileged women in India raising their voices in a #meToo movement when India's women and female children, minors and infants are fighting against rape in a war zone kind of situation in the country generated by their male counterparts. Those who are talking up until now in India's #meToo movement are women who are comfortably placed economically or at the top of their professions and who are venting their grievances more in a vengeful mode than anything else. It would have been better if these women had raised their grouses at the time when the incidents occurred and sought redress then. If these women had talked about rape in our society considering that some of their voices are heard in the media it would have been a greater service to the country. Postscript: The extent of the problem of rape can be understood from the unrest now prevailing in northern Gujarat where migrant workers and their families are being attacked by locals and they are leaving the State in large numbers after an alleged rape of a 14 month old baby by a migrant worker. Where these women in Bollywood should have protested against the depiction of women in Indian cinema they are airing their personal idiosyncrasies and exposing the psychological faults in their characters. Rape and 'item numbers' are a staple of our cinema which are watched by audiences, the women in silence while the slavering predatory single male comes out of the cinema looking for  targets and he seizes the most vulnerable of the female gender, minors and infants, and satisfies his lust. One is not saying that cinema is not the only reason for the rise in incidence of rape in the country but it is one of the significant  factors why rape happens. These Bollywood actresses who are taking pride in launching a #meToo movement in India should introspect about their actions and see if their voice can be used to improve and make safer the lot of their kind rather than drive their own personal and selfish agendas. 

                                                    India in Circa 2018

The Sunday morning headlines on 30th Sept 2018 made one want to shake one's head and confirm that we were fully awake and that all this was happening in our country, India. In Goa the papers headlines screamed that a Christian man's body kept in the mortuary of the Govt Medical College had been inadvertantly cremated as an unclaimed body with other such bodies and the body of a Hindu was found in the particular mortuary slot. Simple logic would say that a Christian was cremated and a Hindu was offered for burial.

Then national headlines, blared out that an American style cop killing had taken place late in the night in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar when an Apple executive accompanied by his lady colleague whom he was proceeding to drop in his car was gunned down by the police as he had refused to stop the car when the 2 policemen had asked him to stop.

This is India, my friend, in Circa 2018, where common people cannot go about their lives without undue interference from the police and even in death they are not respected for the faith that they profess.

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