EDITORIAL
Friends
Yet another Independence Day came and went into the inanimate pages of history as one more event in this country of myriad dimensions. Yes, India has turned 64. How have we Indians, born around - this time 64 year ago - Aug. 1947, look back at the chequered path, the labyrinth our socio-economic and political life has taken us. Indians were less than 350 millions on 15th Aug. 1947, and to-day we are more than 3 folds at 1200 million, competing with China, to dethrone the Asian giant as the country with largest population in the world. But our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh or the President Pratibha Patil in their long address to the nation, on account of Independence Day celebration did not mention the issue of population explosion the country is experiencing. Prime Minister, in his opening lines itself spoke of “we have to banish poverty and illiteracy from our country. We have to provide the common man with access to improved health-services. We have to provide employment opportunities to each one of our youth”. But my dear Sir, why is the logic that increased number has only added to the number of unemployed men and women, has only added the illiterate and poor people, has been lost to the intelligence of the world’s most educated economist Prime Minister of India? Ghulam Nabhi Azad, a minister under Dr Manmohan Singh, is not an alumni of the famed London School of Economics, yet probably he is the only minister who speaks lucidly on the mother of all problems, the uncontrolled population growth of India.
Barking up the wrong tree has always been the time tested malaise of the socio-economic governance of our country. “Foremost among our tasks is to ensure the welfare of all. It is for this reason that India has adopted inclusive growth as a pillar of its economic edifice and is pro-actively pursuing it. Our task will be complete only when no one sleeps on a hungry stomach, when no one sleeps on the footpath and when every child is in school. Therefore fittingly, education, capacity building, housing, healthcare and nutrition are the priority on the agenda of the government” reiterated President Pratibha Patil in her address from the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. This is the same rhetorics for all the 64 years that have gone into pages of Free India’s history. Of course, we have certainly progressed during this last 6 decades, but it’s the population growth that outstripped even our recent growth story of close to double digit. And sadly it doesn’t seem to ring the alarm bell at all, to all those who are sitting on the decision making process on the outlay of national resources.
Of course both the Chief Executives – one de facto and the other de jure – spoke of different challenges the country is facing and sang peans about the innate ability of our people to overcome the socio-economic and political problems the country is facing. While the president has more or less sedate existence, the Prime Minister, being the de facto ruler could never win over the opposition due to his failure at being a good diplomat. There were many instances of poor management of issues with the main opposition party which could neither win him friends nor influence people. After all if you do not go along, how will you get along?!
Month began with Karnataka strong man B.S. Yeddyurappa, as a sequel to the Lokayukta report, resigning as Chief Minister of Karnataka. As expected he fought until the end with all the power at his command to remain in the CM’s gaddi, but the party’s central leadership had already decided, on the apparent merits of the issue, to change the state leadership. In the event, BSY had his last laugh and succeeded in nominating his own man, in Member of Parliament Sadananda Gowda, taking over as the new CM. A much younger Gowda is expected to usher in a greater transparent administration than his predecessor. Or would he go back to parliament without contesting for Assembly before the expiry of 6 months period, since BSY had thundered as he whimpered that in six months he will be back at Vidhana Saudha as leader of the ruling party? By the way BSY’s beite noire Governor Bhardwaj, is he having a last laugh in the mean while?! He always had his one point programme of ousting the former CM, isn’t it! Or is he unhappy that BJP is still in power!
In India, we have this so-called secularists riling Indian ethos and practices whenever there is a perceived attack on minorities. We have NGO’s, keeping the few-and far between-aberrations, in the socio-political landscape, as a festering wound and try to keep it alive in the public memory. And there are media men and women, who think they are the only guardians of minority interest. But the fact remains that there is no country like India in the entire world who take care of minorities and their sensitivities, as possibly as it can, under the circumstances. Can this be said of any other country including our western neighbour? And we have souls like Mani Shankar Aiyar, who could probably fit, as “Pakistani ambassador to India”. There was this report on 1st Aug. in The Hindu, the daily from Chennai. An Islamabad date lined report headlined as “Hindus struggle for marriage registration in Pakistan”. ‘Without this, they cannot get the computerised National Identity Card,’ the report had informed. It is very pertinent to reproduce a part of what Anita Joshua, a Christian herself, writes in this report, and we quote “Faced with a “double jeopardy” – vigilant attacks and a discriminatory legal framework – this is not the best of times for any minority community in Pakistan to even draw attention to itself, let alone make demands. But fearing that silence would result in more loss of the already negligible space left for any kind of discourse on minority issues, the Hindu community is quietly working with legislators to put in place a mechanism for registration of their marriages.” It is an open secret, not wanting to get persecuted or get killed, how hundreds and thousands of Hindus got Islamised and there are only few thousand families in Pakistan still left as Hindus. According to a poll carried out by Gallup Pakistan, an affiliate of Gallup International, most Pakistanis prefer ‘Islamisation of society'. The intolerance in Pakistan is of such high order that even a temporary elevation of a Hindu judge of the Pak Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan was shouted out of office, some years ago. And we have this Mr Iyer harping eloquently on the civil society of Pakistan. Where are they? This much for Indian ‘secularists’ and mud slinging NGOs.
The news that an Indian migrant, to join his wife in the UK, was ‘Denied visa for lack of English skills’ should not surprise anybody. In fact, it must become a law, in the overall interest of all stake holders. “Is the UK a dumping ground for everyone who wants to come in? What benefits are there for the UK if he arrives here? None” Wrote Leicester Mercury. These are good questions and all should take note of. A 57 year old man, married 37 years ago, with six children living in India, should be joined back by his 54 years old wife, presently living in the UK as British subject. This lady who was given British citizenship 6 years ago, reportedly has 10 brothers and sisters living in Leicester, and she has filed the review petition saying this denial has breached her human rights to family life. A case of ‘Oliver Twist’ asking for more. Probably no other country would tolerate this kind of flagrant exploitation of a legal provision on migration. Hope the High Court in London, does not blink, and advises that she will be better off with her husband and ½ a dozen children back in India. Surely it would serve her well so also her alleged human rights breach.
The removal of Maulana Ghulam Mohd. Vastanvi, as the VC of Darul Uloom Deoband, prima facie, is an internal matter of the institute and the community. An outsider, a non-Muslim has no locus-standi to express opinion. However, as a person interested in the social harmony and coherence, it can be confidently stated that, the removal of Vastanvi as VC of Darul Uloom Deoband, represent the most retrograde step the community leaders have taken. His considered call to Muslims in general to move on with life despite Gujarat, was the most positive call by any leader of the community. It was Nelson Mandela, despite the sufferings the white minority inflicted on him and his people had the generosity of offering the ex-rulers of South Africa, a hand of forgive and forget, that helped the country move on with life for the greatest good of greatest number. Yes in similar spirit the Muslim community has to show the sagacity to overcome the moribund status it finds itself in many spheres of public life. This will only take the community, Insha-Allah, to greater heights of socio-economic progress.
Isn’t it funny that the world’s richest country and supposedly world’s largest economy could have defaulted on its commitments! But that’s exactly what could have happened, if the senate was not to approve the raise in the limit of federal borrowing. So, like it or not this could have been rather an innocuous item dealt by the senate, instead it became almost a national catastrophe nudged by the far right Republican senators to push Obama’s Democratic administration to the precipice. Yes, politicians are the same everywhere, but American politicians probably degenerated to the extent of resorting to a dangerous game of one-upmanship. In the event the welfare funding for poor, especially the Medicare, would be scuttled due to the agreement on cuts in federal spending to the tune of $ 2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Medicare was one of the main plank on which Democrats won the presidency last time round, but ended up compromising the very same promise because of the intense politicisation. That was indeed a sad day for America which is the leader of the capitalist world, when Standard & Poor apparently down graded its financial security from AAA to AA+, one notch down. Yes the agreement between Democrats and Republicans did save the country from possible blues, but the damage was done.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, despite being already 7 years old at the helm of the Union Government of world’s largest democracy, still manages to mouth statements totally inconsistent with that of any Prime Minister, let alone heading the government of the world’s largest democracy. Speaking to the media in the Parliament House before the monsoon session Dr Singh has reportedly stated, answering a specific query “We are not afraid of discussing issues of corruption. The opposition also has too many skeletons in its cup board”. Prima facie, it is an absolutely uncalled for remark. If the opposition has reacted saying that the remark by the PM was “unwarranted, unprovoked and irresponsible”, they are only being matter of fact. If this is the kind of approach a Prime Minister is going to have, how can he think of building bridges with opposition members? Dr Manmohan Singh certainly needs to rethink on his management style especially with his political adversaries for the parliament to function with a degree of coherence.
In the cacophony leading to the eventual removal of B S Yeddyurappa in the mining scam, the exposure by Lokayukta appointed committee to look into the irregularities and corruption in the PDS has not been highlighted the way it deserved. According to the report by R. Balasubramaniam Committee, the loss is to the tune of about Rs: 1740 crores per year. The report has exposed the apparently huge leakages and a high degree of mismanagement in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of foodgrains in Karnataka and makes a scathing observation “The PDS is essentially not being monitored by the Govt. at all”. While it is true that the gargantuan scale of the operation of PDS from procurement to storage to transportation to the eventual distribution of food grains, in a vast country like India, is certain to have its own set of huge challenges, which in turn can lead to unavoidable and inherent leakages and waste, the greed of the official-dom with the participation of crooked shopkeepers and politicians, to exploit the system, has been the bane of independent India’s welfare schemes of feeding its millions of BPL families. Right enough Dr Balasubramaniam observes that “one of the reasons why such leakages go unplugged is that the entire system is deliberately allowed to be opaque thus leaving huge rooms for manipulative practices at all levels”. The report alleges that for similar reasons, even the computerisation, which was introduced in an attempt to plug the loophole, was “mysteriously suspended”.
The report while complaining about the multiple systemic failures fears and concludes that proposed Food Security Bill will only widen the system of corruption and maladministration unless the leakages are plugged. So its not only the issue of rotting food in FCI godowns and open storage areas, but also the loot by the Trader-Babu-Politician nexus that have contributed to millions of poor Indians going to bed hungry and starved. A sad story despite record grain production.
This man called Manish Tiwari, the ‘bombastic’ Congress spokesman, has really gone out of his head. Like Rajeev Gandhi, late husband of his party president, had once called Ram Jethmalani, as ‘barking dog’, even to this Manish Tiwari, it appears this expletive can be used. Or else, how can he accuse the Jan Lokpal Bill Panel members as ‘unelectable’. Is this country a private property of his father? His irresistible vocal venom did not stop there. Desperate to paint social activist as bad, he accused Anna Hazare in almost a gutter language, “Tum tho khud hi uparse niche thak bhrashtaachaar mein dube ho”. What if he had made this statement in the presence of those thousands of supporters who gathered all over India, in support of Anna Hazare’s movement, what would have happened to him. It is difficult to imagine. Why this party, which claims as the only party that won political freedom for India, is having such a bad mouthing spokesperson?
There are politicians like Mani Shankar Iyer and there are media members like The Hindu, who for whatever reasons give an impression of being soft towards Pakistan and Pakistanis. Of course, there should be no doubt that we must cultivate friendly relations with our neighbours. But quite frankly haven’t Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have all been very unfriendly towards India? If Pakistan has been busy causing ‘thousand cuts’ in different forms, both Nepal and Bangladesh have helped them deliver these ‘cuts’ to India from their respective soil, be it as a transit points for terrorists into India, or allowing training camps, or harbouring fugitives from Indian laws or pushing counterfeit Indian currency notes into India, printed in Pakistan. Of course in recent times, the Bangla govt. of Sheikh Hasina has expressly spoken and have indeed acted in Indian interest on different occasions. They are indeed friendly acts. Our politicians, which include people like Mr Iyer and media must necessarily push such acts forward into the larger public domain in the greater national interest. The latest act of unfriendliness is the arrest of one Sheikh Mohd. Fahim, a Pakistani national from Karachi with huge catch of fake Indian currency notes. A Kathmandu datelined print media news has informed us that this Pakistani was arrested on 11th Aug. from a Hotel in Kathmandu’s prime tourist location, was found with some 55 lakhs worth of fake Indian money, with his Nepalese contact Sushil Kumar Singh. In May, one Syed Sardar Husain, another Pakistani, was arrested with some 30 lakhs in fake Indian notes. In 2010, reportedly there were 10 of them having been arrested with Indian currency, most of them being Pakistanis. The common feature of all these seizures and arrests was the Karachi printing of these currency notes. Thus, in this loud talking of these so-called Confidence Building Measures (CBM) between India and Pakistan, there appears to be no attention being given to this aspect of unfriendly act of Pakistan. In fact, the cascading effect of mass circulation of these fake money could be very debilitating to the economy of India as a whole, besides the alleged terror funding by fake money. And where is Dr Manmohan Singh, another vociferous votary of dialogue with unfriendly Pakistan, are you listening Mr Prime Minister?
When George Fernandes of NDA was the Union Defence Minister, he had reportedly asked an officer to be sent to Siachen mountain top as punishment transfer where Indian troops were living in inhospitable weather conditions. The allegation was that this particular officer was sitting on an urgent procurement file without action and army personnel stationed in Siachen were greatly suffering. And now comes this report from Public Accounts Committee of similar charge and has questioned the ministry’s lapses, in procuring special clothing and mountaineering gears, impacting the operational capabilities of troops in Siachen sector. It is indeed a matter of serious concern why babudom do not take seriously, the issue involving national interest involving both men and money. The PAC Chairman Dr Murli Manohar Joshi reportedly pointed out serious delays at every level of decision making and asked the minister to fix responsibility on concerned official and make them accountable, and expressed dismay why a country which can make missiles and launch satellites into orbit is still importing and not manufacturing these high altitude used socks, jackets, boots and other gears for the troops posted in mountain areas! Commenting on the financial imprudence at the MOD, Dr Joshi observed that the defence estate, which is spread over some 17 lakh acres all over the country is not making the money which it should be making. The leases to various public and private sector companies at different places have expired and neither they are renewed nor any rent demand raised on them, besides other lapses where many expensive radars and other equipments in a state of disrepair for want of parts and lack of attention being given to the operational aspects of these equipments. It is indeed a sad state of affairs under a very honest minister, but is not known to be a very effective manager of men & money, and defence probably has the highest budget allocation.
So, now the all weather friendship between China and Pakistan is having trouble. Your enemy and my enemy – is same, and therefore we are friends. Unfortunately, this is the only basis of friendship, between Pakistan and China. They have a common adversary India. So it’s the principle of convenience that helped bloom this strange relationship. There was nothing common, social, economic or political, but plain and simple dislike and hatred. Now that China has learnt the hard way that they are having a honeymoon with a 'friend' who harbour all kinds of terror outfits. And for the first time China accused Pakistan for the terror attack in Xinjiang province, which left at least 20 dead. Yes ISI chief has air dashed to Beijing to repair the apparent rupture. But Chinese are far more intelligent but not necessarily straight forward, to fall for the Pak diplomacy. They already know whom are they dealing with. Bad luck for Pakistan. And comes another revelation that Pakistan is the production center of British Passports. “Since British citizens are not required to obtain visas to travel to many countries, a terrorist could use one of these fraudulent passports to travel to many countries without further background checks” informs a report presented to the U.S Congress by the Govt. Accountability Office, quoting an unnamed former Pak immigration official. Reportedly some 40,000 have criss-crossed the globe on forged or stolen travel documents in 2010, according to Interpol. So this is Pakistan for their Indian friends.
“4 die as trigger happy cops fire on farmers” was a sad headline from Pune, just before 5 days of 64th Independence Day. Is this the freedom that our forefathers fought for where these farmers only asked their legitimate right for water which authorities diverted to the city of Pune’s industrial suburbs, and instead of water they got bullets? It was true that they had blocked the Mumbai Pune Highway. But then, the power that be, take note, only when people are put to inconvenience. So, at such places instead of police, political leaders must come to talk to them. When police comes, unfortunately what happened, is true of most cases. There are instances of police ruthlessness and deaths caused by the crowd running helter skelter due to massive and sudden police intervention, sometime even without notice. Past examples are there in Maharashtra. So it is the failure of the political class first and foremost, as it can be seen that nobody came to see victims of the firing. Leaders like Ajith Pawar, the Dy. C.M. of Maharashtra were seen mouthing inanities of developmental politics etc. After all he is the nephew of the Maharashtra strong man Sharad Pawar, and his writ has to run, right or wrong, that’s the bottom line.
News that “Small states outperform others in MNREGA front” is no surprise at all. So also that “Chhattisgarh provided maximum days of Employment” is another compliment to smaller states. While all those states need to be commended and congratulated for the good job done, not merely for its reach to the intended target but also for the proper deployment of financial resources without any pilferage. It is indeed to the credit of Chhattisgarh that it could provide full 100 days employment to almost 28000 families. But what needs to be appreciated in this context as the title of the news informs “small states outperform” and that is the bottom line. Basically it is the better management that boils down, patently because states are smaller. Why HDI is much above the national averages in Goa and Kerala is for similar reasons. Even Chhattisgarh is having better HDI in different parameters, above the national averages. So the central government should apply itself in creating smaller states if there are demands from the locals, like the one for Telengana or Vidharbha and the likes. This shall be good for the people and therefore good for the country.
There was this strange news from Geneva, titled “Swiss Banks owe Indian a/c holders over $2.5 billion”. So According to the country which harbours global illicit money and have enjoyed its fruits for decades, the Indian crooks have deposited in their banks a mere Rs.11,000 crores. Can anybody take this on the face value? For far too long Indians of all hues have been hankering the amount being $ 1.5 trillion. The amount Swiss authorities are saying is less than 17% so 83%, according to them is 'gas'. But one thing is certainly true that there have been massive flight of this stolen money from Swiss Banks, because of public outcry and the precious nothing our government has done, only to drag its feet to give these marauders an opportunity to cover their tracks. And it looks fairly clear that, crooks being faster than authorities, the vested interest have acted and thus there may be huge depletion of this sleaze money held by these banks. Of course it may still look ridiculous to believe the preposterous figure as suggested by Swiss authorities. After all these hullabaloo and the noise that Pranab Mukherjee is making probably with a purpose – ‘I have already told you’ kind of thing – to caution and warn these crooks to take note and act, there may after all nothing will be left.
Mumbai Police needs to be congratulated for the work done, which was truly the work of Mumbai Municipal Corporation. Mumbai is the biggest Indian city. Believe it or not Mumbai Police have counted potholes – one by one – on 315 roads in the entire city including suburbs! And again, an extremely commendable job by the police, that they completed the entire job in flat 15 days and submitted a detailed report. The report informs that there are 2352 potholes in the city, and segregated it into 25 areas to say that the Kalbadevi area – which is both commercial and residential – has the maximum number of potholes at 510 with next Vakola at 277 potholes, and 19 areas with less than 100. It also suggests when the repair work can be done – best day & time – and how traffic can be diverted to ensure least problem to the road users. Now this is a fantastic job by the police but believe it or not, no media, print or electronic 24x7, singing peans of this commendable and exemplary job by the Mumbai Traffic Police. This becomes all the more commendable and exemplary since this is not the job of police but that of Municipal Corporation officials, which was unable to do despite repeated demands by the Corporators. Reportedly, Municipal Commissioner, Asim Gupta, an IAS, had stated “The BMC cannot count the number of potholes. We always count number of potholes locations”. Some lessons in governance!
The business of unseaworthy merchant ship strolling into Indian sea waters and reaching Mumbai shores undetected is becoming a regular feature. They are by any stretch of logic are security lapses and cannot be condoned. The latest to enter is M.V. PAVIT drifting to Juhu beach in Mumbai. Believe it or not it has breached 3 tier security built around the city of Mumbai after 26/11 terror attack, by Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Marine Police. And our honourable Union Home Minister had observed after the Mumbai attack on 13th July 2011 that ‘our security measures have improved since 26/11 and terrorists have stuck after 31 months’. He was so sure about it. But this security breach took place after 2 weeks of the latest Mumbai blast which killed around 30 people in 3 places with hundreds having injured. And what if this ship had carried the so-called “stateless terrorist’? We are just fooling ourselves. And our Coast Guards are patting their own back for recovering the cost of operations to salvage the ship and its crews. Where do we go from here Mr Defence Minister and Mr Home Minister?
CAG as usual is riding high. The constitutional body meant to go into government projects has again come up with the accusation that there have been massive miscarriage of appropriateness in the spending and awarding of contract in the Rs: 70000 crores Common Wealth Games. It has squarely indicted Suresh Kalmadi, the Organising Committee Chairman, who is already in jail, besides Sheila Dixit and PMO. Entire opposition demanded that Ms. Dixit, the Delhi CM should quit. CAG report has exposed that there have been deliberate attempt at go-slow in the initial stages only to rush thru’ in the later stage so that all tender norms can be given a go-by in order to give orders/contract to favoured ones. Naturally this has led to huge losses “Eliminating competition led to huge avoidable extra burden on the exchequer”. It is reliably gathered that both the Delhi CM and PM may have lot to explain. However what is sad is the Congress accusation that CAG is exceeding its limit and its bombastic spokesman Manish Tiwari called it only ‘an auditing body and that it cannot comment on any policy decision’. It seem to think only offence is the best form of defence.
“Bloodbath in Syria, at least 120 killed”, was report from Damascus, “Afghan Police Head Quarters hit by car bomb, 13 dead” was Kandahar datelined report, and the third one comes from Beijing. “14 killed in violent attacks in China’s Xinjiang province” – why there is so much violence in this geographic belt? Is there a common factor linking it all? Or isn’t there a common factor? World and all those concerned should take note of these happenings. Where are we going and what are the objectives that are driving these mayhems?
As is the norm, September, every year, we highlighted the year that went by, on 15th Aug. So is this year under Focus, we took up India @ 64. All the year round, there was one scam or the other surfaced and tumbled out of the proverbial cupboard of the government. We could write on some of them only, since the number of scams were too many even for a single year. We have, as usual, published some thoughts from our valued readers, their take on India @ 64. Hope readers shall find them an interesting journey down memory lane. Do revert with your response. Rest are as usual.
Yet another Independence Day came and went into the inanimate pages of history as one more event in this country of myriad dimensions. Yes, India has turned 64. How have we Indians, born around - this time 64 year ago - Aug. 1947, look back at the chequered path, the labyrinth our socio-economic and political life has taken us. Indians were less than 350 millions on 15th Aug. 1947, and to-day we are more than 3 folds at 1200 million, competing with China, to dethrone the Asian giant as the country with largest population in the world. But our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh or the President Pratibha Patil in their long address to the nation, on account of Independence Day celebration did not mention the issue of population explosion the country is experiencing. Prime Minister, in his opening lines itself spoke of “we have to banish poverty and illiteracy from our country. We have to provide the common man with access to improved health-services. We have to provide employment opportunities to each one of our youth”. But my dear Sir, why is the logic that increased number has only added to the number of unemployed men and women, has only added the illiterate and poor people, has been lost to the intelligence of the world’s most educated economist Prime Minister of India? Ghulam Nabhi Azad, a minister under Dr Manmohan Singh, is not an alumni of the famed London School of Economics, yet probably he is the only minister who speaks lucidly on the mother of all problems, the uncontrolled population growth of India.
Barking up the wrong tree has always been the time tested malaise of the socio-economic governance of our country. “Foremost among our tasks is to ensure the welfare of all. It is for this reason that India has adopted inclusive growth as a pillar of its economic edifice and is pro-actively pursuing it. Our task will be complete only when no one sleeps on a hungry stomach, when no one sleeps on the footpath and when every child is in school. Therefore fittingly, education, capacity building, housing, healthcare and nutrition are the priority on the agenda of the government” reiterated President Pratibha Patil in her address from the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. This is the same rhetorics for all the 64 years that have gone into pages of Free India’s history. Of course, we have certainly progressed during this last 6 decades, but it’s the population growth that outstripped even our recent growth story of close to double digit. And sadly it doesn’t seem to ring the alarm bell at all, to all those who are sitting on the decision making process on the outlay of national resources.
Of course both the Chief Executives – one de facto and the other de jure – spoke of different challenges the country is facing and sang peans about the innate ability of our people to overcome the socio-economic and political problems the country is facing. While the president has more or less sedate existence, the Prime Minister, being the de facto ruler could never win over the opposition due to his failure at being a good diplomat. There were many instances of poor management of issues with the main opposition party which could neither win him friends nor influence people. After all if you do not go along, how will you get along?!
Month began with Karnataka strong man B.S. Yeddyurappa, as a sequel to the Lokayukta report, resigning as Chief Minister of Karnataka. As expected he fought until the end with all the power at his command to remain in the CM’s gaddi, but the party’s central leadership had already decided, on the apparent merits of the issue, to change the state leadership. In the event, BSY had his last laugh and succeeded in nominating his own man, in Member of Parliament Sadananda Gowda, taking over as the new CM. A much younger Gowda is expected to usher in a greater transparent administration than his predecessor. Or would he go back to parliament without contesting for Assembly before the expiry of 6 months period, since BSY had thundered as he whimpered that in six months he will be back at Vidhana Saudha as leader of the ruling party? By the way BSY’s beite noire Governor Bhardwaj, is he having a last laugh in the mean while?! He always had his one point programme of ousting the former CM, isn’t it! Or is he unhappy that BJP is still in power!
In India, we have this so-called secularists riling Indian ethos and practices whenever there is a perceived attack on minorities. We have NGO’s, keeping the few-and far between-aberrations, in the socio-political landscape, as a festering wound and try to keep it alive in the public memory. And there are media men and women, who think they are the only guardians of minority interest. But the fact remains that there is no country like India in the entire world who take care of minorities and their sensitivities, as possibly as it can, under the circumstances. Can this be said of any other country including our western neighbour? And we have souls like Mani Shankar Aiyar, who could probably fit, as “Pakistani ambassador to India”. There was this report on 1st Aug. in The Hindu, the daily from Chennai. An Islamabad date lined report headlined as “Hindus struggle for marriage registration in Pakistan”. ‘Without this, they cannot get the computerised National Identity Card,’ the report had informed. It is very pertinent to reproduce a part of what Anita Joshua, a Christian herself, writes in this report, and we quote “Faced with a “double jeopardy” – vigilant attacks and a discriminatory legal framework – this is not the best of times for any minority community in Pakistan to even draw attention to itself, let alone make demands. But fearing that silence would result in more loss of the already negligible space left for any kind of discourse on minority issues, the Hindu community is quietly working with legislators to put in place a mechanism for registration of their marriages.” It is an open secret, not wanting to get persecuted or get killed, how hundreds and thousands of Hindus got Islamised and there are only few thousand families in Pakistan still left as Hindus. According to a poll carried out by Gallup Pakistan, an affiliate of Gallup International, most Pakistanis prefer ‘Islamisation of society'. The intolerance in Pakistan is of such high order that even a temporary elevation of a Hindu judge of the Pak Supreme Court as the Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan was shouted out of office, some years ago. And we have this Mr Iyer harping eloquently on the civil society of Pakistan. Where are they? This much for Indian ‘secularists’ and mud slinging NGOs.
The news that an Indian migrant, to join his wife in the UK, was ‘Denied visa for lack of English skills’ should not surprise anybody. In fact, it must become a law, in the overall interest of all stake holders. “Is the UK a dumping ground for everyone who wants to come in? What benefits are there for the UK if he arrives here? None” Wrote Leicester Mercury. These are good questions and all should take note of. A 57 year old man, married 37 years ago, with six children living in India, should be joined back by his 54 years old wife, presently living in the UK as British subject. This lady who was given British citizenship 6 years ago, reportedly has 10 brothers and sisters living in Leicester, and she has filed the review petition saying this denial has breached her human rights to family life. A case of ‘Oliver Twist’ asking for more. Probably no other country would tolerate this kind of flagrant exploitation of a legal provision on migration. Hope the High Court in London, does not blink, and advises that she will be better off with her husband and ½ a dozen children back in India. Surely it would serve her well so also her alleged human rights breach.
The removal of Maulana Ghulam Mohd. Vastanvi, as the VC of Darul Uloom Deoband, prima facie, is an internal matter of the institute and the community. An outsider, a non-Muslim has no locus-standi to express opinion. However, as a person interested in the social harmony and coherence, it can be confidently stated that, the removal of Vastanvi as VC of Darul Uloom Deoband, represent the most retrograde step the community leaders have taken. His considered call to Muslims in general to move on with life despite Gujarat, was the most positive call by any leader of the community. It was Nelson Mandela, despite the sufferings the white minority inflicted on him and his people had the generosity of offering the ex-rulers of South Africa, a hand of forgive and forget, that helped the country move on with life for the greatest good of greatest number. Yes in similar spirit the Muslim community has to show the sagacity to overcome the moribund status it finds itself in many spheres of public life. This will only take the community, Insha-Allah, to greater heights of socio-economic progress.
Isn’t it funny that the world’s richest country and supposedly world’s largest economy could have defaulted on its commitments! But that’s exactly what could have happened, if the senate was not to approve the raise in the limit of federal borrowing. So, like it or not this could have been rather an innocuous item dealt by the senate, instead it became almost a national catastrophe nudged by the far right Republican senators to push Obama’s Democratic administration to the precipice. Yes, politicians are the same everywhere, but American politicians probably degenerated to the extent of resorting to a dangerous game of one-upmanship. In the event the welfare funding for poor, especially the Medicare, would be scuttled due to the agreement on cuts in federal spending to the tune of $ 2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Medicare was one of the main plank on which Democrats won the presidency last time round, but ended up compromising the very same promise because of the intense politicisation. That was indeed a sad day for America which is the leader of the capitalist world, when Standard & Poor apparently down graded its financial security from AAA to AA+, one notch down. Yes the agreement between Democrats and Republicans did save the country from possible blues, but the damage was done.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, despite being already 7 years old at the helm of the Union Government of world’s largest democracy, still manages to mouth statements totally inconsistent with that of any Prime Minister, let alone heading the government of the world’s largest democracy. Speaking to the media in the Parliament House before the monsoon session Dr Singh has reportedly stated, answering a specific query “We are not afraid of discussing issues of corruption. The opposition also has too many skeletons in its cup board”. Prima facie, it is an absolutely uncalled for remark. If the opposition has reacted saying that the remark by the PM was “unwarranted, unprovoked and irresponsible”, they are only being matter of fact. If this is the kind of approach a Prime Minister is going to have, how can he think of building bridges with opposition members? Dr Manmohan Singh certainly needs to rethink on his management style especially with his political adversaries for the parliament to function with a degree of coherence.
In the cacophony leading to the eventual removal of B S Yeddyurappa in the mining scam, the exposure by Lokayukta appointed committee to look into the irregularities and corruption in the PDS has not been highlighted the way it deserved. According to the report by R. Balasubramaniam Committee, the loss is to the tune of about Rs: 1740 crores per year. The report has exposed the apparently huge leakages and a high degree of mismanagement in the Public Distribution System (PDS) of foodgrains in Karnataka and makes a scathing observation “The PDS is essentially not being monitored by the Govt. at all”. While it is true that the gargantuan scale of the operation of PDS from procurement to storage to transportation to the eventual distribution of food grains, in a vast country like India, is certain to have its own set of huge challenges, which in turn can lead to unavoidable and inherent leakages and waste, the greed of the official-dom with the participation of crooked shopkeepers and politicians, to exploit the system, has been the bane of independent India’s welfare schemes of feeding its millions of BPL families. Right enough Dr Balasubramaniam observes that “one of the reasons why such leakages go unplugged is that the entire system is deliberately allowed to be opaque thus leaving huge rooms for manipulative practices at all levels”. The report alleges that for similar reasons, even the computerisation, which was introduced in an attempt to plug the loophole, was “mysteriously suspended”.
The report while complaining about the multiple systemic failures fears and concludes that proposed Food Security Bill will only widen the system of corruption and maladministration unless the leakages are plugged. So its not only the issue of rotting food in FCI godowns and open storage areas, but also the loot by the Trader-Babu-Politician nexus that have contributed to millions of poor Indians going to bed hungry and starved. A sad story despite record grain production.
This man called Manish Tiwari, the ‘bombastic’ Congress spokesman, has really gone out of his head. Like Rajeev Gandhi, late husband of his party president, had once called Ram Jethmalani, as ‘barking dog’, even to this Manish Tiwari, it appears this expletive can be used. Or else, how can he accuse the Jan Lokpal Bill Panel members as ‘unelectable’. Is this country a private property of his father? His irresistible vocal venom did not stop there. Desperate to paint social activist as bad, he accused Anna Hazare in almost a gutter language, “Tum tho khud hi uparse niche thak bhrashtaachaar mein dube ho”. What if he had made this statement in the presence of those thousands of supporters who gathered all over India, in support of Anna Hazare’s movement, what would have happened to him. It is difficult to imagine. Why this party, which claims as the only party that won political freedom for India, is having such a bad mouthing spokesperson?
There are politicians like Mani Shankar Iyer and there are media members like The Hindu, who for whatever reasons give an impression of being soft towards Pakistan and Pakistanis. Of course, there should be no doubt that we must cultivate friendly relations with our neighbours. But quite frankly haven’t Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have all been very unfriendly towards India? If Pakistan has been busy causing ‘thousand cuts’ in different forms, both Nepal and Bangladesh have helped them deliver these ‘cuts’ to India from their respective soil, be it as a transit points for terrorists into India, or allowing training camps, or harbouring fugitives from Indian laws or pushing counterfeit Indian currency notes into India, printed in Pakistan. Of course in recent times, the Bangla govt. of Sheikh Hasina has expressly spoken and have indeed acted in Indian interest on different occasions. They are indeed friendly acts. Our politicians, which include people like Mr Iyer and media must necessarily push such acts forward into the larger public domain in the greater national interest. The latest act of unfriendliness is the arrest of one Sheikh Mohd. Fahim, a Pakistani national from Karachi with huge catch of fake Indian currency notes. A Kathmandu datelined print media news has informed us that this Pakistani was arrested on 11th Aug. from a Hotel in Kathmandu’s prime tourist location, was found with some 55 lakhs worth of fake Indian money, with his Nepalese contact Sushil Kumar Singh. In May, one Syed Sardar Husain, another Pakistani, was arrested with some 30 lakhs in fake Indian notes. In 2010, reportedly there were 10 of them having been arrested with Indian currency, most of them being Pakistanis. The common feature of all these seizures and arrests was the Karachi printing of these currency notes. Thus, in this loud talking of these so-called Confidence Building Measures (CBM) between India and Pakistan, there appears to be no attention being given to this aspect of unfriendly act of Pakistan. In fact, the cascading effect of mass circulation of these fake money could be very debilitating to the economy of India as a whole, besides the alleged terror funding by fake money. And where is Dr Manmohan Singh, another vociferous votary of dialogue with unfriendly Pakistan, are you listening Mr Prime Minister?
When George Fernandes of NDA was the Union Defence Minister, he had reportedly asked an officer to be sent to Siachen mountain top as punishment transfer where Indian troops were living in inhospitable weather conditions. The allegation was that this particular officer was sitting on an urgent procurement file without action and army personnel stationed in Siachen were greatly suffering. And now comes this report from Public Accounts Committee of similar charge and has questioned the ministry’s lapses, in procuring special clothing and mountaineering gears, impacting the operational capabilities of troops in Siachen sector. It is indeed a matter of serious concern why babudom do not take seriously, the issue involving national interest involving both men and money. The PAC Chairman Dr Murli Manohar Joshi reportedly pointed out serious delays at every level of decision making and asked the minister to fix responsibility on concerned official and make them accountable, and expressed dismay why a country which can make missiles and launch satellites into orbit is still importing and not manufacturing these high altitude used socks, jackets, boots and other gears for the troops posted in mountain areas! Commenting on the financial imprudence at the MOD, Dr Joshi observed that the defence estate, which is spread over some 17 lakh acres all over the country is not making the money which it should be making. The leases to various public and private sector companies at different places have expired and neither they are renewed nor any rent demand raised on them, besides other lapses where many expensive radars and other equipments in a state of disrepair for want of parts and lack of attention being given to the operational aspects of these equipments. It is indeed a sad state of affairs under a very honest minister, but is not known to be a very effective manager of men & money, and defence probably has the highest budget allocation.
So, now the all weather friendship between China and Pakistan is having trouble. Your enemy and my enemy – is same, and therefore we are friends. Unfortunately, this is the only basis of friendship, between Pakistan and China. They have a common adversary India. So it’s the principle of convenience that helped bloom this strange relationship. There was nothing common, social, economic or political, but plain and simple dislike and hatred. Now that China has learnt the hard way that they are having a honeymoon with a 'friend' who harbour all kinds of terror outfits. And for the first time China accused Pakistan for the terror attack in Xinjiang province, which left at least 20 dead. Yes ISI chief has air dashed to Beijing to repair the apparent rupture. But Chinese are far more intelligent but not necessarily straight forward, to fall for the Pak diplomacy. They already know whom are they dealing with. Bad luck for Pakistan. And comes another revelation that Pakistan is the production center of British Passports. “Since British citizens are not required to obtain visas to travel to many countries, a terrorist could use one of these fraudulent passports to travel to many countries without further background checks” informs a report presented to the U.S Congress by the Govt. Accountability Office, quoting an unnamed former Pak immigration official. Reportedly some 40,000 have criss-crossed the globe on forged or stolen travel documents in 2010, according to Interpol. So this is Pakistan for their Indian friends.
“4 die as trigger happy cops fire on farmers” was a sad headline from Pune, just before 5 days of 64th Independence Day. Is this the freedom that our forefathers fought for where these farmers only asked their legitimate right for water which authorities diverted to the city of Pune’s industrial suburbs, and instead of water they got bullets? It was true that they had blocked the Mumbai Pune Highway. But then, the power that be, take note, only when people are put to inconvenience. So, at such places instead of police, political leaders must come to talk to them. When police comes, unfortunately what happened, is true of most cases. There are instances of police ruthlessness and deaths caused by the crowd running helter skelter due to massive and sudden police intervention, sometime even without notice. Past examples are there in Maharashtra. So it is the failure of the political class first and foremost, as it can be seen that nobody came to see victims of the firing. Leaders like Ajith Pawar, the Dy. C.M. of Maharashtra were seen mouthing inanities of developmental politics etc. After all he is the nephew of the Maharashtra strong man Sharad Pawar, and his writ has to run, right or wrong, that’s the bottom line.
News that “Small states outperform others in MNREGA front” is no surprise at all. So also that “Chhattisgarh provided maximum days of Employment” is another compliment to smaller states. While all those states need to be commended and congratulated for the good job done, not merely for its reach to the intended target but also for the proper deployment of financial resources without any pilferage. It is indeed to the credit of Chhattisgarh that it could provide full 100 days employment to almost 28000 families. But what needs to be appreciated in this context as the title of the news informs “small states outperform” and that is the bottom line. Basically it is the better management that boils down, patently because states are smaller. Why HDI is much above the national averages in Goa and Kerala is for similar reasons. Even Chhattisgarh is having better HDI in different parameters, above the national averages. So the central government should apply itself in creating smaller states if there are demands from the locals, like the one for Telengana or Vidharbha and the likes. This shall be good for the people and therefore good for the country.
There was this strange news from Geneva, titled “Swiss Banks owe Indian a/c holders over $2.5 billion”. So According to the country which harbours global illicit money and have enjoyed its fruits for decades, the Indian crooks have deposited in their banks a mere Rs.11,000 crores. Can anybody take this on the face value? For far too long Indians of all hues have been hankering the amount being $ 1.5 trillion. The amount Swiss authorities are saying is less than 17% so 83%, according to them is 'gas'. But one thing is certainly true that there have been massive flight of this stolen money from Swiss Banks, because of public outcry and the precious nothing our government has done, only to drag its feet to give these marauders an opportunity to cover their tracks. And it looks fairly clear that, crooks being faster than authorities, the vested interest have acted and thus there may be huge depletion of this sleaze money held by these banks. Of course it may still look ridiculous to believe the preposterous figure as suggested by Swiss authorities. After all these hullabaloo and the noise that Pranab Mukherjee is making probably with a purpose – ‘I have already told you’ kind of thing – to caution and warn these crooks to take note and act, there may after all nothing will be left.
Mumbai Police needs to be congratulated for the work done, which was truly the work of Mumbai Municipal Corporation. Mumbai is the biggest Indian city. Believe it or not Mumbai Police have counted potholes – one by one – on 315 roads in the entire city including suburbs! And again, an extremely commendable job by the police, that they completed the entire job in flat 15 days and submitted a detailed report. The report informs that there are 2352 potholes in the city, and segregated it into 25 areas to say that the Kalbadevi area – which is both commercial and residential – has the maximum number of potholes at 510 with next Vakola at 277 potholes, and 19 areas with less than 100. It also suggests when the repair work can be done – best day & time – and how traffic can be diverted to ensure least problem to the road users. Now this is a fantastic job by the police but believe it or not, no media, print or electronic 24x7, singing peans of this commendable and exemplary job by the Mumbai Traffic Police. This becomes all the more commendable and exemplary since this is not the job of police but that of Municipal Corporation officials, which was unable to do despite repeated demands by the Corporators. Reportedly, Municipal Commissioner, Asim Gupta, an IAS, had stated “The BMC cannot count the number of potholes. We always count number of potholes locations”. Some lessons in governance!
The business of unseaworthy merchant ship strolling into Indian sea waters and reaching Mumbai shores undetected is becoming a regular feature. They are by any stretch of logic are security lapses and cannot be condoned. The latest to enter is M.V. PAVIT drifting to Juhu beach in Mumbai. Believe it or not it has breached 3 tier security built around the city of Mumbai after 26/11 terror attack, by Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Marine Police. And our honourable Union Home Minister had observed after the Mumbai attack on 13th July 2011 that ‘our security measures have improved since 26/11 and terrorists have stuck after 31 months’. He was so sure about it. But this security breach took place after 2 weeks of the latest Mumbai blast which killed around 30 people in 3 places with hundreds having injured. And what if this ship had carried the so-called “stateless terrorist’? We are just fooling ourselves. And our Coast Guards are patting their own back for recovering the cost of operations to salvage the ship and its crews. Where do we go from here Mr Defence Minister and Mr Home Minister?
CAG as usual is riding high. The constitutional body meant to go into government projects has again come up with the accusation that there have been massive miscarriage of appropriateness in the spending and awarding of contract in the Rs: 70000 crores Common Wealth Games. It has squarely indicted Suresh Kalmadi, the Organising Committee Chairman, who is already in jail, besides Sheila Dixit and PMO. Entire opposition demanded that Ms. Dixit, the Delhi CM should quit. CAG report has exposed that there have been deliberate attempt at go-slow in the initial stages only to rush thru’ in the later stage so that all tender norms can be given a go-by in order to give orders/contract to favoured ones. Naturally this has led to huge losses “Eliminating competition led to huge avoidable extra burden on the exchequer”. It is reliably gathered that both the Delhi CM and PM may have lot to explain. However what is sad is the Congress accusation that CAG is exceeding its limit and its bombastic spokesman Manish Tiwari called it only ‘an auditing body and that it cannot comment on any policy decision’. It seem to think only offence is the best form of defence.
“Bloodbath in Syria, at least 120 killed”, was report from Damascus, “Afghan Police Head Quarters hit by car bomb, 13 dead” was Kandahar datelined report, and the third one comes from Beijing. “14 killed in violent attacks in China’s Xinjiang province” – why there is so much violence in this geographic belt? Is there a common factor linking it all? Or isn’t there a common factor? World and all those concerned should take note of these happenings. Where are we going and what are the objectives that are driving these mayhems?
As is the norm, September, every year, we highlighted the year that went by, on 15th Aug. So is this year under Focus, we took up India @ 64. All the year round, there was one scam or the other surfaced and tumbled out of the proverbial cupboard of the government. We could write on some of them only, since the number of scams were too many even for a single year. We have, as usual, published some thoughts from our valued readers, their take on India @ 64. Hope readers shall find them an interesting journey down memory lane. Do revert with your response. Rest are as usual.
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