MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE
JAMMU & KASHMIR: So Farroq Abdullah, the former J&K Chief Minister and former Union Minister is a freeman after his 221 days house-arrest. He had the capacity to disturb the peace of Kashmir, after the abrogation of article 370 by the Indian government. He is past 82 years old, but still there is fire within him. He ruled J&K as an uncrowned king. Now that his political relevance under the changed circumstances is suspect, what will he do! The state has been divided and Kashmir is no more a state, just a union territory. For far too long, over 70 years, the writ of a section of Kashmiris ran in the valley. Everybody knew that the article 370 was forced upon the Constitution makers in particular and India in general. Every government that came to rule at the centre agreed to the wrong, but did nothing to rectify it. It was given to NDA II, to plan and execute the strategy to bring Kashmir back to the federal republic of India, where the national laws applied pari passu.
This recognition has to dawn on Farroq Abdullah, if he has to have any relevance under the changed circumstances. If he accepts the government in Delhi, as the ultimate authority for the entire country and manage to convince his followers to do the same, then surely, NDA government in Delhi will be more than happy to deal with him and give him greater role to play in Kashmir.
It is in this context, we need to understand why Omar Abdullah is still under house arrest, so also Mehbooba Mufti, so as to allow Senior Abdullah enough time to come to terms with the new reality and rope in his son. All the trio and other major players of Kashmir have to understand J&K situation is irretrievable and it is in the fitness of things that they accept the political reality that has come about on 5th August 2019.
Hope, senior Abdullah plays a statesman like role for the good of all and welfare of Kashmir valley in coming days, in the larger interest of Kashmiris.
JAMMU & KASHMIR: There is this post from an anguished soul that whole lot of Indians went to the social space when thespian Irfan Khan and film actor Rishi Kapoor sadly passed away sharing their feelings, but sadly and indeed true, similar expressions of feeling didn't come in the social media for the supreme sacrifice of 5 of our army men in Kashmir's Handwara in an encounter with Pakistani terrorists.
All Indians must recognize that security men wherever they are anywhere in India are our evergreen heroes unlike these celluloid celebrities. All five of them, Col.Sharma, Maj. Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh, Lance Naik Dinesh and Sub-Inspector Sagir Ahmed Pathan who died while saving civilians from terrorists deserve all the accolades and words of tribute for their undiluted commitment and bravery for the larger cause of national security. MAY THEIR SOULS REST IN EVERLASTING PEACE while sending a message to the bereaved families that India and Indians are with them through thick and thin.
NEW DELHI: The editorial of TOI of 29th this February is to be read to be believed for its sheer incongruity, asking to “CORRECT COURSE – Handling of CAA disquiet is hurting Indian interest”.
The violence in any form from anybody should be condemned in no uncertain and in unequivocal terms. The death of some 50 people in the riots as a consequence for enacting a well intentioned law is a sad development, for any country, especially for a country like India which has prided itself for its syncratic culture.
Unfortunately, instead of condemning the violence in generic terms and more even handedly, the editorial has clearly decided to take sides and alienate communities. Quoting USCIRF (US Commission on International Religious Freedom) & OIC (Organisation of Isalamic Co-operation) that they condemned violence against Muslims is a complete travesty of truth. It is not who died or which side suffered most deaths, but the truth that who started it, and how it all started, should have been discussed. Instead the editorial tells “overall, CAA and violence targeting Muslims have undermined India’s soft power, and government must hold rioters accountable without partisan consideration no matter what religion they belong to, while disciplining BJP motor mouths who make hate speeches and polarize the social atmosphere”.
No wonder, USCIRF & OIC, are already on the job calling India names, now you have Iran in the cue, how India should manage its affairs. First of all, it is none of their business to give lessons how we should run our affairs. 2ndly, what they are claiming, as per our media reports, is totally untrue.
While granting that BJP leaders indeed indulged in hate speeches, what most English media including TOI failed to write about was the incendiary speeches by people like Waris Pathan, who told about ‘our 15 crores and their 102 crores’, which truly speaking, was a cognizable offence. Media simply soft paddled it. Besides, according to reports available, it was one Tahir Hussain, an AAP Delhi corporator, and one Shahruk, who triggered it all. According to some report Shahruk was involved in a shooting spree in which a policeman died and Tahir was involved in the barbaric killing of Ankit Sharma of IB. Both Shahruk and Tahir Hussain are absconding. Clearly local media mayhem has led to partisan international reactions which is truly misplaced. Fortunately so late in the day many videos are surfacing now about the original perpetrators of mayhem and media double standard. Having chastened even Arvind Kejriwal led AAP has suspended this Tahir Hussain from the primary membership of the party.
NEW DELHI: Close proximity between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gautam Adani, a Gujarati businessman is well known. There have been many reports that Prime Minister has helped his friend from Gujarat on many occasions with favorable government decisions to support Adani Group.
We all know, crony capitalism is the bane of all development economics. How much of these allegations about this nexus between PM Modi & Adani, are true or not is not available in the public space, except the noise media and opposition makes. But these business houses are known to buy the silence of both media and political parties, and the din subsides.
And comes this latest news about some defense ministry contract. Reportedly a Rs: 45000 crores contract to manufacture six submarines is likely to be awarded to Adani Defense Systems and Technology Ltd, who have no competence & experience in ship building. But they are talking about the joint venture with the state owned Hindustan Shipyard Ltd.
The ministry could have given the contract to the public sector Mazagon Docks Ltd, who has the expertise in building ships. Larsen Toubro is another private sector player who also has the capability to build ships. Reportedly the Navy is in favour of considering only these two entities.
There is an allegation that Prime Minister Modi is trying to dilute tender requirements like ratings, joint venture terms etc. only to circumvent qualification requirements, informs media. Prima facie there appears to be a bit of brazen interference from PMO. According to media Navy is pressing for Mazagon Docks Ltd who has the confirmed capability to deliver.
Hope the people involved in taking the decision look into all aspects of national interest over private interest and decides accordingly.
NEW DELHI: So, former Supreme Court Chief Justice, Ranjan Gogoi has become a Rajya Sabha Member of Indian parliament. The report informs that President Kovind has nominated former CJI to Rajya Sabha and that Justice Gogoi has accepted it.
It was expected that print media, especially India’s Largest English Newspaper, Times of India will have it published in the front page, the nomination of Justice Gogoi, for the BREAKING NEWS value it had, for obvious reasons. In the event, TOI combined it with the reaction of former apex court brother judge Justice Kurian Joseph. Of course, Justice Kurian has remarked in his long reaction to the press that ‘Ex-CJI Gogoi has compromised principles of judiciary’.
Fortunately or unfortunately Justice Gogoi, is not the first and will not be the last judge of Supreme Court to get nominated to Rajya Sabha or other decorative occupancy or office of profit. Most apex court judges in the past had one or the other appointment by the incumbent government at the centre. And this includes Justice Markandeya Katju, who criticized the nomination of Justice Gogoi, into Rajya Sabha in superlative terms. Justice Katju was made the Chairman of Press Council of India by the then central government in 2012.
However unlike Justice Kurian, it was not principles of judiciary that had him worked up, but the unproved alleged involvement with one of Justice Gogoi’s lady staff. And Justice Katju appeared very vocal and harsh in his observations.
Be that, as it may, prima facie this whole nomination to Rajya Sabha by the incumbent government is in bad taste. Of course, there have been many in the social media who looked at it with blinkers, like Rafael Judgment, Ayodhya Temple Land Dispute judgment etc. While these judgments had its own grounds of merit, which may not be acceptable to all in the same way, the complaint by one of the female staff of sexual harassment by the former CJI Gogoi, is by far the most serious and this reason alone was good enough to deny the former CJI the coveted position of MP in R.S.
BJP and by extention, its undisputed leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi, threw all elements of decency to wind by recommending the CJI, who was accused of sexual misconduct, to the Rajya Sabha. This was completely an unethical act of political largesse.
It is another matter that the last word on the investigation by the panel of judges on the whole episode of this complaint did not see the light of the day. But it apparently had a strong case, but was not strong enough in terms of intention to have the last word on it. Like in the words of a Mumbai based journalist cum lawyer it had to ‘die a natural death’.
Thus prima facie, there was enough and more ground to deny this former CJI Ranjan Gogoi, whom justice Katju had called ‘rascal and rogue’, a seat in the honorable Rajya Sabha of Indian Parliament.
NEW DELHI: What is the agenda of media in this country? Many times it is difficult to judge. The Times of India, Mangalooru edition, of 18/03/2020, had this on the front cover. “CAA does not violate any right, government tells SC”. The New Delhi datelined report had detailed in brief the government’s considered stand on the enactment CAA 2019, in their representation to the apex court, where CAA 2019 was challenged. But what was unpleasantly surprising was in the centre of the above report was, in highlighted print in a box, “CAA bigger threat than virus: Shaheen Bagh Protesters Page 6”. So the editor of TOI, or who so ever was responsible for placement of news in different pages, gave equal prominence to the misguided, illegal, road blocking, public nuisance protest in Shaheen Bagh, while there were also demonstrations in support of CAA 2019, which the editor of TOI conveniently ignored. This illegal squatting on the road, blocking traffic is allegedly a kind of employment for those who are sitting there. Allegedly every women present there, was paid some Rs. 500/- every day. What is disgraceful about Shaheen Bagh protest was, it was a complete nuisance for road using public and was engineered by the local MLA of Delhi assembly one Amanutullah Khan. He was joined by opposition political parties like Congress, CPI and anti-nationals who spoke of dismemberment of India. Some of the women and men spoke in very derogatory, inciteful and highly divisive language. Political parties, who took part in the debate in parliament, were strangely singing different and contradictory tunes in this protest. They made ‘CAA 2019 as anti-Muslim and that it would question the citizenship of Indian Muslims’, which in truth was entirely wrong. Thus, in a way the protestors including their organizers and supporters were clearly misleading those who were not participants. The media men and women present in the site were only fuelling the incitement by asking questions with clear intent to put central government on the defensive. Tragedy was despite being fully aware, these media men and women were clearly taking divisive side by not contradicting that Indian Muslims who are citizens have no room to doubt the enactment CAA 2019, therefore the intention of the government. The latest Kapil Sibal statement, “we never said CAA will take away anybody’s citizenship. CAA won’t take away anybody’s citizenship”, while adding ‘CAA is not anti-Muslim’; during the debate in Rajya Sabha on the latest Delhi riot. That is a huge climb down, a clear loss of face for those who supported Shahin Baug and other protestors. One thing which sadly became clear during this protest was Indian Muslims wanted even those Muslims from Pakistan, who have illegally entered India, on economic or other socio-political reasons, should be covered under CAA 2019. This was simply negation of natural justice and ultra vires to national interest. Actually, as per law even those Pakistani Muslims who wanted to be Indian citizens, were eligible to apply under different provisions available in Indian laws, on case to case basis, to all non-Indians, were also available to Pakistani Muslims. So the protestor in Shaheen Bagh were only asserting their misplaced demand and both political parties supporting the Shaheen Bagh protest and media were only fishing in troubled water for political gain. Therefore it was patently wrong for TOI to put this Shaheen Bagh box in the above report, for which TOI needs to be boycotted.
NEW DELHI: Corono Virus became infamous after the outbreak of pandemic from Wuhan city of Peoples Republic of China, is a kind of unexpected villain. It came as a wolf into the grazing cattle herd and left the socio-economic scene of the whole world in a kind of tatters. Some 100,000 affected in China followed strangely by Italy close to 10,000. Equally strangely, there were more deaths, close to 3500 in Italy as compared to some 3300 in China, when the affected were only 10% in Italy as compared to that of China.
Why and what of this phenomenon is still making it to the public space, with many countries having been affected, including India. According to the latest update, in India, some 200 have been affected by the virus and some 5 persons have succumbed to the disease. Frankly, it does not look very serious, but a matter of concern all the same, for the potential to cause untold miseries by this latest virus.
No wonder, authorities have taken this very seriously all over the country, with just about every media space, the information on virus occupied. Of course, media has probably gone overboard leading to some kind of a scare mongering. It is true that for a country like India with wild heterogeneous population with numbers like over 1300 million, it could be a disaster, if anything like what happened in China, Italy or Iran happens.
It is true that government has taken it seriously and there is a health / medical protocol in place in many potential site of virus affecting humans. World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded satisfaction at the initiatives of the government of India to handle any unexpected flare-up in the virus going viral.
Thank God, things are still under control. However the latest initiative of Prime Minister Modi in asking for Janata Curfew has to be seen in the context of what each one of us can do to control, the hopefully unlikely spurt, in the growth of the pandemic.
It has to be accepted that we are a nation of indisciplined population with diverse life styles of myriad kind with all kinds of food habits, social moorings with habits of seeing politics in everything. India is the most complex country in the entire world of homosapiens. Therefore self imposed discipline could hold the possible solution, at least in the short-run, to stop the spread of this deadly virus.
We are told that CORONA VIRUS has life at one place of 12 hours and it is possible to break the chain if it is not allowed to spread by remaining in one place up to at least 12 hours. This Janata Curfew, from 7 Am to 9 Pm is of 14 hours duration and therefore it is expected to help to break the growing chain of virus. Hope it does. Hope the initiative by PM Modi helps in our national attempt to overcome the present crisis, however small it may be. However, it is bad that some people in the social media are busy making fun of PM’s initiative with all kinds of invented innuendos. That is rather sad. (Old info:pls see P/3)
NEW DELHI: That all political parties work towards an agenda was never in doubt. All political parties are in the business of politics for doing something good to the people who voted them. But they are selective about what, when and for whom they want to do this good. It is generally agreed, it’s the middle class and lower middle class people who normally decide the government. Richer class, more often than not, do not vote. So more often, policies are made on the basis of vote bank politics.
Reservation as a tool of vote bank has been there for all the 70 years of free India. Reservation, when decided in the early years of free India, it was to empower those who are marginalized in terms of caste backwardness. Categories like SC/ST/BC/OBC etc. became terms in vogue when reservation became the language of development politics.
For far too long debate has been going on about scrapping the caste based reservation and replace it with economic backwardness or poverty as the yardstick to decide reservation in jobs and educational opportunities in the country. However, in recent times the central government has allowed some 10% reservation on the basis of only economic criterion.
However it is well-known, that those among SC/ST & OBC there have been cases of some section getting and enjoying benefit of reservations for generations, whereas many who had no connection, remained cheated of these benefits. So, a creamy layer was introduced to deny reservation for those who are already doing well.
But unfortunately the vested interest always kept on alternating the meaning of creamy layer and kept on changing the goal post. Starting with Rs. 1.0 lakh in 1993 it increased, in the intervening almost 25 years, up to Rs.8 lakhs in 2017 with some demanding it to be 12/15 lakhs per year as income limit. The idea is they continue to milk the system, despite earning Rs. 12/15 lakh per year. The possible review in early 2020 is reportedly pushed to go beyond October 2020, in time for Bihar assembly election.
It is sad, that those who got all these years the benefits of reservation and have improved their lot during all these years continue to want it for it to be enjoyed as long as it is possible at the cost of those who didn’t or couldn’t make it. This is another sad dimension of Yeh Mera India.
NEW DELHI: For the participation by members of Commerce & Industry, professional persons and general public in times of national crisis setting up funds has been the practice in India. It started with PM Nehru and continued uninterrupted for all these years. No wonder PM Modi too thought on those lines and set up this PM-CARES FUND to help CORONA PANDEMIC victims. Response was almost instant. Tata Group led by Ratan Tata contributed Rs.1500 crores followed by Azim Premji Rs.1100 crores and Reliance Rs.500 crores are some of the major donors with many groups and high net worth individuals donating liberally to this war against the pandemic. Similarly there were men & women from film world equally donating liberally with Akshay Kumar donating Rs.25 crores. Sports persons too followed especially cricketers since they are big-money earners. They can certainly donate big. But sadly MSDhoni contributed an ' awesome ' Rs.1 lakh, when his IPL retention earning is Rs 15 crores every year, besides hundreds of crores from regular advertisements. Whereas Ajinkya Rahane contributed Rs.10 lakhs when his earning is no comparison at all to MSD. Oh ! Poor Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
However what is most disappointing is the remark by a Maharashtra Congressman Prathviraj Chavan, a former CM of Maharashtra and former Union Minister. Reportedly he had remarked " PM- CARES FUND is Modi's Blatant attempt at self promotion ". At one level it represented the sheer mental poverty of the man trying to politicize the serious fight against Corona pandemic.If it was really intended to be self-promotion the response couldn't have been so effusive. It was indeed very sad for politicians to fall so low.
NEW DELHI: In the midst of this uncertainty ridden Corona pandemic there is this lurking fear of its economic fallout. There is no uncertainty on this certainty. How are we as a nation, as a people, would and possibly could rise to meet the challenges of cessation of complete economic activities.
Surely all recognize that every challenge throws up its own opportunities. We have heard of possible relocation of industrial activities by global players from China to other countries. In all probabilities India could be one of the beneficiaries. But is India and Indians ready for such a possibility!
For long years Indians have been quoting former US president late John F Kennedy on patriotism. Addressing fellow Americans he had exhorted “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country ". However what Indians as usual have forgotten is the similar pearls of wisdom had come from an Indian, clear over quarter of a century before JFK.
It was post 1936 Berlin Olympics final between India and hosts Germany. India won 8-1. Post prize distribution ceremony Germany dictator Adolf Hitler offered to the hero of Indian victory, Dhyan Chand, a position of Air Field Marshal if he could play for Germany. For a mere Lance Naik Subedar in the then Indian army, the offer was very attractive. But the Indian in Dhyan Chand refused the offer outright.
To the tantalizing offer of the dictator “what your country do bigger than this?" Dhyan Chand had remarked “It is not the responsibility of my country to make me big. It is my responsibility to make my country big" and had walked out thanking the German strong man.
The day and opportunity is knocking on the door of every Indian to measure upto Dhyan Chand's vision of making India big.
We have huge lessons from China to learn. They did not allow Google, WhatsApp, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.to enter China.With their own Baidu, We chat, Alibaba, renren. Weibo and You tu. They challenged multinationals to create their own multinational brands. INDIA AND INDIANS CAN DO IT AS WELL. DID YOU SAY YOU WANT TO BOUNCE BACK!
NEW DELHI: As an exercise in empowerment of ordinary citizens this concept needs revisiting. Read the news about the intention of government wanting to let private enterprise manage the distribution of power in the country. This can be given to a group of persons who are consumers of power in an area and they in turn make all the consumers as share holders of this power distribution enterprise. This will not only give consumers a ringside view of problems if any, to have a solution as they keep managing the distribution besides the employment potential it offers to members and their children. Any surplus therein will be the profit which in turn can empower the consumer. Such an effort was attempted in the past successfully. The same concept can be extended to other areas of trade and commerce. This is an absolutely WIN-WIN proposal.
NEW DELHI: It is always amazing how judgements are distancing from justice. Today media carried two news items. ‘ST SC QUOTA IN PROMOTION CLEARED ' in the front page headline. The other on the 10th page in small letters ' SC refuses to regularise contractual teachers in Bihar '. Both cases have its own merits and demerits to argue for and against. But the later was certainly far more human than the former. There was enough scope for the highest adjudicator of justice in the land to intervene without regularising. The reason ostensibly was the process of appointment of regulars and contract teachers are not same. But their contribution to teaching is same if not more. So at least increase their salary until a final redressal! It was the government that went against teachers to apex court. Now even court is against them. Where will the weak and vulnerable go! Poor Mother India!
UTTAR PRADESH: Among, the three parts of our democratic functioning are Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. All are independent and are also inter-dependent, in as much as, none can interfere with the functioning of one-another. We are all privy to the violence that broke out after the enactment of CAA 2019. All violence was unnecessary and uncalled for. In the violence, there has been loss of life and property. In the past, there have been steps by the government to recover the cost of damage to public property by different state governments. The government of Yogi Adityanath too had decided to recover the cost of the wanton destruction of public property during the anti-CAA protest in UP. But he went a step ahead and put hoardings with photographs of those who were accused of such destructions. No-body contested the action of the UP chief Minister. Those affected didn’t go to court to seek redressal. But Justices Govind Mathur and Ramesh Sinha of Allahabad High Court took it up suo-moto and passed the order asking UP government to remove those hoardings. Promptly UP government approached the Supreme Court who refused to stay the order thereby sustaining the HC diktat to remove the hoardings. According to Supreme Court judges UU Lalit and Aniruddha Bose, “Individual can do anything unless specifically prohibited by law. The state can do anything only when permitted by the law”. Fair enough!
But for a court to dismiss outright an appeal of an elected government, to sustain an action taken in the larger question of law and order, involving destruction of public property is prima facie questionable, to say the least.
Now that the state government is in a quandary, it was forced to go through the Ordinance route to enact a legislation to cover such destruction of public property. They are needed in the larger interest of the state and therefore the country, which gives UP government 6 months to enact the law and keep the pressure on the accused.
None gets a private right to destroy public property in the name of protest or individual freedom. Truly speaking, all those who destroy public property are enemies of the nation and therefore should be exposed and made to pay for it from their private sources. For a court to act Suo Moto in such cases leads to questionable interpretations especially in a country like India where there are ‘N’ number of issues involving denial of justice and fair play, where courts can take up these issues Suo Moto which can truly be called judicial activism.
UTTAR PRADESH:In India there are 'N' number of archaic laws and the incumbent NDA government has done well to scrap many of them. However in the name of labor reforms for UP government to increase the working hours from 8 to 12 is the most draconian move in recent times. This move if allowed to take effect will surely lead to socio-political unrest across the country. It will be the most exploitative measure anywhere in the world. It should be withdrawn forthwith.
Yogi Adithyanath and his ilk should know that May Day, which is the International Labor Day on 1st May every year, has a history, not for nothing!
It was on 1st May, some 136 years ago in 1884, over 250000 people had gathered in Chicago to force the issue of justice and fair play. American Federation of Labor had adopted a resolution demanding from the US government so also Trade & Industry that labor in US will not accept anymore to work 10, 12 or 14 hours of work as a day's work. AFL demanded that from now on it shall be 8 hours work per day to be counted as a day's work.
Realising the enormity of the issue and recognizing the possibility of violence the government and employers' organization accepted the idea of 8 hours as normal working hours per day. Both government and liberals among employers also accepted, around the same time, the concept of weekly off. Thus from Chicago, Sunday became the non-working paid weekly off day.
Therefore political leaders in their haste to make business friendly laws in the name of development must refrain from enacting patently anti-labor legislations. Labor is as much a factor of production as land and capital.
West Bengal:Speaking at Tata Steel Kolkata Literary meet, Nobel Laureate Abhijit Bannerji was reported to have stated “No fear of Muslims takeover in India”. Abhijit Bannerji, is a Bengali, therefore left oriented, but living in the United States. Clearly he is reading without books or refusing to read the book, as is the wont of most Bengalies when it comes to taking a stand against BJP’s vision of India.
According to him, this talk about Islamization of India from the fringes of the ruling party about the demographics of the Muslim population is just a way to demonize the community, while asserting that there is no real fear of Muslim takeover in India.
Comparing US & India, he had told “India and US are similar in one very important way. The minorities are actually minorities. They are not anywhere close to being dominant”.
He may be well informed, well read and a Nobel Laureate to boot. But he is simply lying to the audience who are not at least illiterate. He is talking to the gallery in a state where the BJP is pathologically disliked.
What people like this Abhijit Bannerji and their ilk need to know is Population of US is less than 328 million and Muslims constitute 1.1% or 3.45 million, whereas in India its over 13% or over 160 million. In 1947, they were about 6% of 350 million that is some 21 million, now in 70+years it has grown by some 8 times and there is no cheek on their profligacy. To realize the enormity of the problem one does not need to be a BJP card holder. Then there is this often repeated slogan, “Pakistan Ladke Liya. Hindustan Haske leyngey”, from sub-continental islamists. So, it is best that persons like Abhijit Bannerji keep to themselves their wisdom and their economics of poverty alleviation. After all they are Americans more and Indians less.
MAHARASHTRA: 2019/20 has been a year of nightmare for bank depositors. With possibility of PMC Bank and Yes Bank going burst, both have managed to stay afloat, courtesy the government of India intervention.
If Punjab & Maharashtra Co. Op. Bank has given more than three fourth of its loanable fund to just one borrower, Yes Bank had lent 30,000 crores of which 20,000 crores reportedly had become bad and doubtful debts, but had concealed the truth. So it was a clear case of trust deficit.
Any bank anywhere in the world is a custodian of depositors’ trust. When it comes to banks, if the trust is lost all is lost. Any genuine ups and downs of business can lead to bank failure, but if it’s the fraud that cost the trust of the depositors, then men & women managing the bank should necessarily be behind bar.
Like PMC, there are so many of them who were involved in the 'golmaal' are in police custody, for fraud and downright cheating, similarly those from Yes Bank are also the guests of police. It does not matter who are behind bar, but trust in both cases have taken the beating. It needed government intervention to save the bank. Can this government intervention go on and on! In both cases, it was the private sector banks that failed, yet the government stepped in to save the confidence in banking per se. In the interest of the banking as an activity of immense importance for general public, this intervention is healthy and responsible.
MAHARASHTRA: Maratha strongman has been in the news in the print media, the other day. He is in the news routinely whether rightly or wrongly. A Mumbai datelined report informed “Pawar’s Assests grow by Rs. 60 lakhs in six years: Affidavit”. Sharatchandra Govindrao Pawar is a known name across the state of Maharashtra. Lot of people in Maharashtra believe that he is a very rich man and his wealth has remained largely undeclared ever since he started making it big which may have remained unaccounted.
He is a big-time politician, with over 5 decades in elected positions. He was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was the Union Minister under different governments with important port folios. He also aspired to be the prime minister of India on many occasions. For a person with this kind of background to say he earned just 10 lakhs per year since 2014 to 2020 is simply cannot be true. Affidavit or declaration is alright. Until it is proved otherwise, these affidavits will remain. Here the question is who will formally doubt and raise the question of reliability of the affidavit, given the history and geography of Sharad Pawar and his reach in the socio-political arena of India. Lots of people speak lot of issues connecting him and his family yet no media has ever written about his wheeling dealings, because of his cross connections in the political canvas of India. He is also connected with Pune’s Sakal group of news papers owned by his brother. According to some sources in Pune half the Pune is owned by Sharad Pawar and his family. So how can we believe that Sharatchandra Govindrao Pawar earned only Rs. 10 lakhs per year for last 6 years?
MAHARASHTRA: In the cacophony of unrelenting attack by Rahul Gandhi, on the NDA II led by Narendra Modi on so-called economic slowdown, is the refreshing news from the Reserve Bank of India, which informed that CAD (Current Account Deficit) has sharply contracted. It is true that, due to varieties of reasons, including cyclical and global, the Indian economy has not been doing too well. But referred here above as ‘so-called’, because how much someone like Rahul Gandhi would comprehend the national and international economic ups and downs!
According to the report released for quarter ending 31st December 2019, the RBI stated “The country’s CAD narrows sharply to US$ 1.4 billion or 0.2 % of GDP”.
“The deficit had stood at 2.7% in the corresponding quarter a year ago and 0.9% in the previous quarter” informs the report further. The report further states that the sharp contraction in the deficit was mainly due to a lower trade deficit and rise in net services receipts.
Current Account Deficit or CAD is a critical indicator of the macro economic health of a country. It represents the gap between the overall expenditure or payment through foreign exchange due to imports of goods & services on one side, and the income and the receipts that the country has received for various goods and services exported from the country. The latest report informing the deficit as at the end of 31st December 2019 is only 0.2 % of GDP is by far the best news for anyone looking for some cheer in the Corona Virus affected global /local economy.
With all those who are prophets of doom generally negative on the state of economy, this report from the Central Bank of the country shall, at least, put then in proper perspective. However it is also true that remittances by the Diaspora, besides earnings from travel, computer and financial services were the prime mover that contributed to the CAD being narrowed, while imports for consumption had reduced. Hope the trend continues.
MAHARASHTRA: The News Paper to the Nation, THE TIMES OF INDIA, has gone dumb again or so it seems. An incident happened on 16th/ 17th of April found reported yesterday by English electronic media. At least 3 channels we saw, NDTV, INDIA TO-DAY & NEWS X, reported with visuals. Incident was the murder of 2 Sadhus and their vehicle driver. Clearly they were Hindus. My shock is why TOI failed to report it even after so many days. Was it because they were Hindus!? Strangely even those ' sane ' voices of our secular brigade were also deafeningly silent, including sagarika ghose, barka dutt and their ilk. Sadly even police just let them be beaten to death. And NDTV said police were outnumbered. But police force is there to protect general public not themselves. Different stories are making rounds to suite political compulsions. But the truth is 3 have lost their lives, one of them 70 years old held on to the policeman to " bachaav bachaav ". I am an Indian first but my question is why Hindus who are almost 80% of Indians are being treated by TOI and their media collaborators including intelligentsia as 2nd class citizens!
KARNATAKA: Just read about the ' VERY SMART ROAD near Kadri park, Mangalooru, under the Smart City Project for the city of Mangalooru. According to some reports circulating in the social media the local MLA Vedavyasa Kamath has cleared the contract for the construction of the VERY SMART ROAD to start immediately. Quite frankly it is difficult to react objectively.
We are aware that Corona pandemic presently under an uncertain leash in coastal Karnataka has put paid to lot of construction activities. It was only from this Monday-4 days ago-some opening of activities were allowed. Thus may be this VERY SMART ROAD is being cleared to start the work on. But what made me sad and numb was the absence of any activity on the 6 decades old KOOLOORU BRIDGE which was closed since some months for some major repairs. This is the only link this so-called smart city of Mangalooru has from the north to enter the city or to travel further. This is certainly a top priority for the district administration and city fathers. Driving down to Mangalooru this morning it could be seen there were people sleeping on scaffoldings below the bridge. Clearly they are workers to do repairs to the bridge. The question was why a priority work like this was not pushed for completion when the traffic all these days was either nil or negligible? The existing arrangement of diversion is excruciatingly crawling for the traffic in peak hours. Recognizing the enormity of the problem this piece of work could have been taken up on emergency criterion instead our political class chase a mirage called SMART CITY which clearly is an unlikely possibility anytime soon.
In a world obsessed with me and mine the motto YELLAROO ULIYABEKU YELLAROO BELEYABEKU unfortunately takes a back seat. In recent days print media has been fortunately publishing stories either of Kaveri or its tributaries or those many west flowing rivers and even that huge formerly frothy Bellandur lake right in the middle of Bengalooru showing clear water flowing therein where even pebbles deep down could be seen. This is an extremely positive development that we all need to recognize in the midst of this so called development verbose. Would all those rightly worried about mangoes and its transportation would spare some time on how our leaders- both political and business- have conveniently ignored, if not pushed, this cost of so-called development, by only giving lip service to pollution of water bodies by industrial effluents!?
MAHARASHTRA: In Mangalooru it’s a complete lockdown. How effective! under the circumstances difficult to say. But more lockdowns make sense, especially for those working in essential services. As was visible owners of companies of these services are not concerned about the problems of staff. They are asked to open stores by 6am and no transport provided. So they start from their homes in darkness and walk long distances to reach before 6am. Staff includes females as well. How unsafe and fearful their walks in the darkness! Labour Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada must take note of this cost cutting profit increasing attitude of owners of these stores providing essential food supplies.
MAHARASHTRA: "Four police stations in DK, Udupi sealed after cops test +ve" was the news in print datelined Mangalooru. But 10 days ago in Surathkal an area covering some 50 houses were sealed since a middle aged lady was found Corona positive. The residents of these houses remained in a kind of house arrest since last 10 days. Authorities who declared the sealing of the area made life difficult to over 250 or so people. People have no way of knowing if this is in their best interest. However if because of a policeman being Corona positive only the police station can be sealed for a mandatory 48 hour period, why not similarly the house in Surathkal where the positive case was found only was not sealed instead of some 50 houses ?! Or is it police being positive is less dangerous than ordinary citizens!?
MAHARASHTRA: Devaragunda Venkappa Sadaananda Gowda, a Union minister, is bit of a joke. "I am minister. I am exempt ", his reported remark as he walked out of institutional quarantine and checked into his house is the height of double standard. His justification that since his ministry is part of essential services is another joke. As a minister he doesn't know the difference between 'services' and ' quarantine '. Essential services are exempted from restrictions in movement and this exemption is not available for sick persons. With his arrogance of ministership he can infect his family members by checking into his private residence. Those who treat themselves distinctly can never give justice to others. A point PM Modi should take note and act.
WORLD: Mian Akram Usman was the general secretary of Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (TeI) party in its Lahore chapter.
Mian Usman had put up a poster all over Lahore on Kashmir Solidarity Day, which was observed all over the country on 5th Feb. Being a politician probably he couldn’t think that what he was featuring as a slogan can be labeled as “in bad taste".
Reportedly this Mian Usman came under fire from netizens so also from his party colleagues. His supreme boss, the president of T-e-I, so also the Prime Minister of Pakistan, didn’t blink. He suspended Mian Akram Usman, the general secretary of T-e-I Lahore unit forthwith, without even asking for explanation.
But, what did poster feature? “HINDU BAAT SEY NAHEE - LAAT SEY MAANTAA HAI” From a Pakistani, to expect better than this was foolish. But it was comforting to know; in Imran Khan’s Pakistan it could be different. He summarily suspended the guilty office bearer of his party. This is a message to all our political class – how to act, when action was called for!
And what about India’s Muslim brothers and sisters! They didn’t even react when that joker Waris Pathan declared “our 15 crore is enough for your (Hindus) 100 crore” let alone condemning this man. Would Asaduddin Owaisi suspend this joker, his party MLA, from AIMIM, for that lunatic statement!
There was this Washington datelined news in the print media “Protest in 21 US Universities against Delhi violence”.
WORLD: Report informs, a South Asian Student Activist group organized a demonstration called “Students Against Hindutva”.
These students group from Yale and other 21 universities across the United States are reportedly concerned about the violence in Delhi, in which some 50 or so have died. For sure, there should be condemnation of violence anywhere in the world, which leads to death in big scale. Losing 50 lives in less than a week of violence is pretty serious, especially when it is communally driven. It is true that the violence was communal in nature. But Indian media who fed the rest of the world media, is somewhat agenda driven. They never come out with truth, every time they report an incident. Yes violence did take place. Yes there were hate filled speeches by different sections of people in Delhi. But Indian media suffer from selective vision and hearing impairment.
They suffer from conditioned and prejudiced mindset and report only to mislead the public and by extension even foreign countries.
‘A Holi against Hindutva’, the placard of the group 'Students Against Hindutva' is clearly misleading and without knowing the complete truth. Prim facie, Indians need not be worried about such misplaced demonstrations. But in the interest of truth, these students groups in the US, unless it suffer from fixated syndrome should know the truth and nothing but the complete truth, before embarking on demonstration against other countries in the name of freedom.
This recognition has to dawn on Farroq Abdullah, if he has to have any relevance under the changed circumstances. If he accepts the government in Delhi, as the ultimate authority for the entire country and manage to convince his followers to do the same, then surely, NDA government in Delhi will be more than happy to deal with him and give him greater role to play in Kashmir.
It is in this context, we need to understand why Omar Abdullah is still under house arrest, so also Mehbooba Mufti, so as to allow Senior Abdullah enough time to come to terms with the new reality and rope in his son. All the trio and other major players of Kashmir have to understand J&K situation is irretrievable and it is in the fitness of things that they accept the political reality that has come about on 5th August 2019.
Hope, senior Abdullah plays a statesman like role for the good of all and welfare of Kashmir valley in coming days, in the larger interest of Kashmiris.
JAMMU & KASHMIR: There is this post from an anguished soul that whole lot of Indians went to the social space when thespian Irfan Khan and film actor Rishi Kapoor sadly passed away sharing their feelings, but sadly and indeed true, similar expressions of feeling didn't come in the social media for the supreme sacrifice of 5 of our army men in Kashmir's Handwara in an encounter with Pakistani terrorists.
All Indians must recognize that security men wherever they are anywhere in India are our evergreen heroes unlike these celluloid celebrities. All five of them, Col.Sharma, Maj. Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh, Lance Naik Dinesh and Sub-Inspector Sagir Ahmed Pathan who died while saving civilians from terrorists deserve all the accolades and words of tribute for their undiluted commitment and bravery for the larger cause of national security. MAY THEIR SOULS REST IN EVERLASTING PEACE while sending a message to the bereaved families that India and Indians are with them through thick and thin.
NEW DELHI: The editorial of TOI of 29th this February is to be read to be believed for its sheer incongruity, asking to “CORRECT COURSE – Handling of CAA disquiet is hurting Indian interest”.
The violence in any form from anybody should be condemned in no uncertain and in unequivocal terms. The death of some 50 people in the riots as a consequence for enacting a well intentioned law is a sad development, for any country, especially for a country like India which has prided itself for its syncratic culture.
Unfortunately, instead of condemning the violence in generic terms and more even handedly, the editorial has clearly decided to take sides and alienate communities. Quoting USCIRF (US Commission on International Religious Freedom) & OIC (Organisation of Isalamic Co-operation) that they condemned violence against Muslims is a complete travesty of truth. It is not who died or which side suffered most deaths, but the truth that who started it, and how it all started, should have been discussed. Instead the editorial tells “overall, CAA and violence targeting Muslims have undermined India’s soft power, and government must hold rioters accountable without partisan consideration no matter what religion they belong to, while disciplining BJP motor mouths who make hate speeches and polarize the social atmosphere”.
No wonder, USCIRF & OIC, are already on the job calling India names, now you have Iran in the cue, how India should manage its affairs. First of all, it is none of their business to give lessons how we should run our affairs. 2ndly, what they are claiming, as per our media reports, is totally untrue.
While granting that BJP leaders indeed indulged in hate speeches, what most English media including TOI failed to write about was the incendiary speeches by people like Waris Pathan, who told about ‘our 15 crores and their 102 crores’, which truly speaking, was a cognizable offence. Media simply soft paddled it. Besides, according to reports available, it was one Tahir Hussain, an AAP Delhi corporator, and one Shahruk, who triggered it all. According to some report Shahruk was involved in a shooting spree in which a policeman died and Tahir was involved in the barbaric killing of Ankit Sharma of IB. Both Shahruk and Tahir Hussain are absconding. Clearly local media mayhem has led to partisan international reactions which is truly misplaced. Fortunately so late in the day many videos are surfacing now about the original perpetrators of mayhem and media double standard. Having chastened even Arvind Kejriwal led AAP has suspended this Tahir Hussain from the primary membership of the party.
NEW DELHI: Close proximity between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gautam Adani, a Gujarati businessman is well known. There have been many reports that Prime Minister has helped his friend from Gujarat on many occasions with favorable government decisions to support Adani Group.
We all know, crony capitalism is the bane of all development economics. How much of these allegations about this nexus between PM Modi & Adani, are true or not is not available in the public space, except the noise media and opposition makes. But these business houses are known to buy the silence of both media and political parties, and the din subsides.
And comes this latest news about some defense ministry contract. Reportedly a Rs: 45000 crores contract to manufacture six submarines is likely to be awarded to Adani Defense Systems and Technology Ltd, who have no competence & experience in ship building. But they are talking about the joint venture with the state owned Hindustan Shipyard Ltd.
The ministry could have given the contract to the public sector Mazagon Docks Ltd, who has the expertise in building ships. Larsen Toubro is another private sector player who also has the capability to build ships. Reportedly the Navy is in favour of considering only these two entities.
There is an allegation that Prime Minister Modi is trying to dilute tender requirements like ratings, joint venture terms etc. only to circumvent qualification requirements, informs media. Prima facie there appears to be a bit of brazen interference from PMO. According to media Navy is pressing for Mazagon Docks Ltd who has the confirmed capability to deliver.
Hope the people involved in taking the decision look into all aspects of national interest over private interest and decides accordingly.
NEW DELHI: So, former Supreme Court Chief Justice, Ranjan Gogoi has become a Rajya Sabha Member of Indian parliament. The report informs that President Kovind has nominated former CJI to Rajya Sabha and that Justice Gogoi has accepted it.
It was expected that print media, especially India’s Largest English Newspaper, Times of India will have it published in the front page, the nomination of Justice Gogoi, for the BREAKING NEWS value it had, for obvious reasons. In the event, TOI combined it with the reaction of former apex court brother judge Justice Kurian Joseph. Of course, Justice Kurian has remarked in his long reaction to the press that ‘Ex-CJI Gogoi has compromised principles of judiciary’.
Fortunately or unfortunately Justice Gogoi, is not the first and will not be the last judge of Supreme Court to get nominated to Rajya Sabha or other decorative occupancy or office of profit. Most apex court judges in the past had one or the other appointment by the incumbent government at the centre. And this includes Justice Markandeya Katju, who criticized the nomination of Justice Gogoi, into Rajya Sabha in superlative terms. Justice Katju was made the Chairman of Press Council of India by the then central government in 2012.
However unlike Justice Kurian, it was not principles of judiciary that had him worked up, but the unproved alleged involvement with one of Justice Gogoi’s lady staff. And Justice Katju appeared very vocal and harsh in his observations.
Be that, as it may, prima facie this whole nomination to Rajya Sabha by the incumbent government is in bad taste. Of course, there have been many in the social media who looked at it with blinkers, like Rafael Judgment, Ayodhya Temple Land Dispute judgment etc. While these judgments had its own grounds of merit, which may not be acceptable to all in the same way, the complaint by one of the female staff of sexual harassment by the former CJI Gogoi, is by far the most serious and this reason alone was good enough to deny the former CJI the coveted position of MP in R.S.
BJP and by extention, its undisputed leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi, threw all elements of decency to wind by recommending the CJI, who was accused of sexual misconduct, to the Rajya Sabha. This was completely an unethical act of political largesse.
It is another matter that the last word on the investigation by the panel of judges on the whole episode of this complaint did not see the light of the day. But it apparently had a strong case, but was not strong enough in terms of intention to have the last word on it. Like in the words of a Mumbai based journalist cum lawyer it had to ‘die a natural death’.
Thus prima facie, there was enough and more ground to deny this former CJI Ranjan Gogoi, whom justice Katju had called ‘rascal and rogue’, a seat in the honorable Rajya Sabha of Indian Parliament.
NEW DELHI: What is the agenda of media in this country? Many times it is difficult to judge. The Times of India, Mangalooru edition, of 18/03/2020, had this on the front cover. “CAA does not violate any right, government tells SC”. The New Delhi datelined report had detailed in brief the government’s considered stand on the enactment CAA 2019, in their representation to the apex court, where CAA 2019 was challenged. But what was unpleasantly surprising was in the centre of the above report was, in highlighted print in a box, “CAA bigger threat than virus: Shaheen Bagh Protesters Page 6”. So the editor of TOI, or who so ever was responsible for placement of news in different pages, gave equal prominence to the misguided, illegal, road blocking, public nuisance protest in Shaheen Bagh, while there were also demonstrations in support of CAA 2019, which the editor of TOI conveniently ignored. This illegal squatting on the road, blocking traffic is allegedly a kind of employment for those who are sitting there. Allegedly every women present there, was paid some Rs. 500/- every day. What is disgraceful about Shaheen Bagh protest was, it was a complete nuisance for road using public and was engineered by the local MLA of Delhi assembly one Amanutullah Khan. He was joined by opposition political parties like Congress, CPI and anti-nationals who spoke of dismemberment of India. Some of the women and men spoke in very derogatory, inciteful and highly divisive language. Political parties, who took part in the debate in parliament, were strangely singing different and contradictory tunes in this protest. They made ‘CAA 2019 as anti-Muslim and that it would question the citizenship of Indian Muslims’, which in truth was entirely wrong. Thus, in a way the protestors including their organizers and supporters were clearly misleading those who were not participants. The media men and women present in the site were only fuelling the incitement by asking questions with clear intent to put central government on the defensive. Tragedy was despite being fully aware, these media men and women were clearly taking divisive side by not contradicting that Indian Muslims who are citizens have no room to doubt the enactment CAA 2019, therefore the intention of the government. The latest Kapil Sibal statement, “we never said CAA will take away anybody’s citizenship. CAA won’t take away anybody’s citizenship”, while adding ‘CAA is not anti-Muslim’; during the debate in Rajya Sabha on the latest Delhi riot. That is a huge climb down, a clear loss of face for those who supported Shahin Baug and other protestors. One thing which sadly became clear during this protest was Indian Muslims wanted even those Muslims from Pakistan, who have illegally entered India, on economic or other socio-political reasons, should be covered under CAA 2019. This was simply negation of natural justice and ultra vires to national interest. Actually, as per law even those Pakistani Muslims who wanted to be Indian citizens, were eligible to apply under different provisions available in Indian laws, on case to case basis, to all non-Indians, were also available to Pakistani Muslims. So the protestor in Shaheen Bagh were only asserting their misplaced demand and both political parties supporting the Shaheen Bagh protest and media were only fishing in troubled water for political gain. Therefore it was patently wrong for TOI to put this Shaheen Bagh box in the above report, for which TOI needs to be boycotted.
NEW DELHI: Corono Virus became infamous after the outbreak of pandemic from Wuhan city of Peoples Republic of China, is a kind of unexpected villain. It came as a wolf into the grazing cattle herd and left the socio-economic scene of the whole world in a kind of tatters. Some 100,000 affected in China followed strangely by Italy close to 10,000. Equally strangely, there were more deaths, close to 3500 in Italy as compared to some 3300 in China, when the affected were only 10% in Italy as compared to that of China.
Why and what of this phenomenon is still making it to the public space, with many countries having been affected, including India. According to the latest update, in India, some 200 have been affected by the virus and some 5 persons have succumbed to the disease. Frankly, it does not look very serious, but a matter of concern all the same, for the potential to cause untold miseries by this latest virus.
No wonder, authorities have taken this very seriously all over the country, with just about every media space, the information on virus occupied. Of course, media has probably gone overboard leading to some kind of a scare mongering. It is true that for a country like India with wild heterogeneous population with numbers like over 1300 million, it could be a disaster, if anything like what happened in China, Italy or Iran happens.
It is true that government has taken it seriously and there is a health / medical protocol in place in many potential site of virus affecting humans. World Health Organisation (WHO) has recorded satisfaction at the initiatives of the government of India to handle any unexpected flare-up in the virus going viral.
Thank God, things are still under control. However the latest initiative of Prime Minister Modi in asking for Janata Curfew has to be seen in the context of what each one of us can do to control, the hopefully unlikely spurt, in the growth of the pandemic.
It has to be accepted that we are a nation of indisciplined population with diverse life styles of myriad kind with all kinds of food habits, social moorings with habits of seeing politics in everything. India is the most complex country in the entire world of homosapiens. Therefore self imposed discipline could hold the possible solution, at least in the short-run, to stop the spread of this deadly virus.
We are told that CORONA VIRUS has life at one place of 12 hours and it is possible to break the chain if it is not allowed to spread by remaining in one place up to at least 12 hours. This Janata Curfew, from 7 Am to 9 Pm is of 14 hours duration and therefore it is expected to help to break the growing chain of virus. Hope it does. Hope the initiative by PM Modi helps in our national attempt to overcome the present crisis, however small it may be. However, it is bad that some people in the social media are busy making fun of PM’s initiative with all kinds of invented innuendos. That is rather sad. (Old info:pls see P/3)
NEW DELHI: That all political parties work towards an agenda was never in doubt. All political parties are in the business of politics for doing something good to the people who voted them. But they are selective about what, when and for whom they want to do this good. It is generally agreed, it’s the middle class and lower middle class people who normally decide the government. Richer class, more often than not, do not vote. So more often, policies are made on the basis of vote bank politics.
Reservation as a tool of vote bank has been there for all the 70 years of free India. Reservation, when decided in the early years of free India, it was to empower those who are marginalized in terms of caste backwardness. Categories like SC/ST/BC/OBC etc. became terms in vogue when reservation became the language of development politics.
For far too long debate has been going on about scrapping the caste based reservation and replace it with economic backwardness or poverty as the yardstick to decide reservation in jobs and educational opportunities in the country. However, in recent times the central government has allowed some 10% reservation on the basis of only economic criterion.
However it is well-known, that those among SC/ST & OBC there have been cases of some section getting and enjoying benefit of reservations for generations, whereas many who had no connection, remained cheated of these benefits. So, a creamy layer was introduced to deny reservation for those who are already doing well.
But unfortunately the vested interest always kept on alternating the meaning of creamy layer and kept on changing the goal post. Starting with Rs. 1.0 lakh in 1993 it increased, in the intervening almost 25 years, up to Rs.8 lakhs in 2017 with some demanding it to be 12/15 lakhs per year as income limit. The idea is they continue to milk the system, despite earning Rs. 12/15 lakh per year. The possible review in early 2020 is reportedly pushed to go beyond October 2020, in time for Bihar assembly election.
It is sad, that those who got all these years the benefits of reservation and have improved their lot during all these years continue to want it for it to be enjoyed as long as it is possible at the cost of those who didn’t or couldn’t make it. This is another sad dimension of Yeh Mera India.
NEW DELHI: For the participation by members of Commerce & Industry, professional persons and general public in times of national crisis setting up funds has been the practice in India. It started with PM Nehru and continued uninterrupted for all these years. No wonder PM Modi too thought on those lines and set up this PM-CARES FUND to help CORONA PANDEMIC victims. Response was almost instant. Tata Group led by Ratan Tata contributed Rs.1500 crores followed by Azim Premji Rs.1100 crores and Reliance Rs.500 crores are some of the major donors with many groups and high net worth individuals donating liberally to this war against the pandemic. Similarly there were men & women from film world equally donating liberally with Akshay Kumar donating Rs.25 crores. Sports persons too followed especially cricketers since they are big-money earners. They can certainly donate big. But sadly MSDhoni contributed an ' awesome ' Rs.1 lakh, when his IPL retention earning is Rs 15 crores every year, besides hundreds of crores from regular advertisements. Whereas Ajinkya Rahane contributed Rs.10 lakhs when his earning is no comparison at all to MSD. Oh ! Poor Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
However what is most disappointing is the remark by a Maharashtra Congressman Prathviraj Chavan, a former CM of Maharashtra and former Union Minister. Reportedly he had remarked " PM- CARES FUND is Modi's Blatant attempt at self promotion ". At one level it represented the sheer mental poverty of the man trying to politicize the serious fight against Corona pandemic.If it was really intended to be self-promotion the response couldn't have been so effusive. It was indeed very sad for politicians to fall so low.
NEW DELHI: In the midst of this uncertainty ridden Corona pandemic there is this lurking fear of its economic fallout. There is no uncertainty on this certainty. How are we as a nation, as a people, would and possibly could rise to meet the challenges of cessation of complete economic activities.
Surely all recognize that every challenge throws up its own opportunities. We have heard of possible relocation of industrial activities by global players from China to other countries. In all probabilities India could be one of the beneficiaries. But is India and Indians ready for such a possibility!
For long years Indians have been quoting former US president late John F Kennedy on patriotism. Addressing fellow Americans he had exhorted “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country ". However what Indians as usual have forgotten is the similar pearls of wisdom had come from an Indian, clear over quarter of a century before JFK.
It was post 1936 Berlin Olympics final between India and hosts Germany. India won 8-1. Post prize distribution ceremony Germany dictator Adolf Hitler offered to the hero of Indian victory, Dhyan Chand, a position of Air Field Marshal if he could play for Germany. For a mere Lance Naik Subedar in the then Indian army, the offer was very attractive. But the Indian in Dhyan Chand refused the offer outright.
To the tantalizing offer of the dictator “what your country do bigger than this?" Dhyan Chand had remarked “It is not the responsibility of my country to make me big. It is my responsibility to make my country big" and had walked out thanking the German strong man.
The day and opportunity is knocking on the door of every Indian to measure upto Dhyan Chand's vision of making India big.
We have huge lessons from China to learn. They did not allow Google, WhatsApp, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.to enter China.With their own Baidu, We chat, Alibaba, renren. Weibo and You tu. They challenged multinationals to create their own multinational brands. INDIA AND INDIANS CAN DO IT AS WELL. DID YOU SAY YOU WANT TO BOUNCE BACK!
NEW DELHI: As an exercise in empowerment of ordinary citizens this concept needs revisiting. Read the news about the intention of government wanting to let private enterprise manage the distribution of power in the country. This can be given to a group of persons who are consumers of power in an area and they in turn make all the consumers as share holders of this power distribution enterprise. This will not only give consumers a ringside view of problems if any, to have a solution as they keep managing the distribution besides the employment potential it offers to members and their children. Any surplus therein will be the profit which in turn can empower the consumer. Such an effort was attempted in the past successfully. The same concept can be extended to other areas of trade and commerce. This is an absolutely WIN-WIN proposal.
NEW DELHI: It is always amazing how judgements are distancing from justice. Today media carried two news items. ‘ST SC QUOTA IN PROMOTION CLEARED ' in the front page headline. The other on the 10th page in small letters ' SC refuses to regularise contractual teachers in Bihar '. Both cases have its own merits and demerits to argue for and against. But the later was certainly far more human than the former. There was enough scope for the highest adjudicator of justice in the land to intervene without regularising. The reason ostensibly was the process of appointment of regulars and contract teachers are not same. But their contribution to teaching is same if not more. So at least increase their salary until a final redressal! It was the government that went against teachers to apex court. Now even court is against them. Where will the weak and vulnerable go! Poor Mother India!
UTTAR PRADESH: Among, the three parts of our democratic functioning are Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. All are independent and are also inter-dependent, in as much as, none can interfere with the functioning of one-another. We are all privy to the violence that broke out after the enactment of CAA 2019. All violence was unnecessary and uncalled for. In the violence, there has been loss of life and property. In the past, there have been steps by the government to recover the cost of damage to public property by different state governments. The government of Yogi Adityanath too had decided to recover the cost of the wanton destruction of public property during the anti-CAA protest in UP. But he went a step ahead and put hoardings with photographs of those who were accused of such destructions. No-body contested the action of the UP chief Minister. Those affected didn’t go to court to seek redressal. But Justices Govind Mathur and Ramesh Sinha of Allahabad High Court took it up suo-moto and passed the order asking UP government to remove those hoardings. Promptly UP government approached the Supreme Court who refused to stay the order thereby sustaining the HC diktat to remove the hoardings. According to Supreme Court judges UU Lalit and Aniruddha Bose, “Individual can do anything unless specifically prohibited by law. The state can do anything only when permitted by the law”. Fair enough!
But for a court to dismiss outright an appeal of an elected government, to sustain an action taken in the larger question of law and order, involving destruction of public property is prima facie questionable, to say the least.
Now that the state government is in a quandary, it was forced to go through the Ordinance route to enact a legislation to cover such destruction of public property. They are needed in the larger interest of the state and therefore the country, which gives UP government 6 months to enact the law and keep the pressure on the accused.
None gets a private right to destroy public property in the name of protest or individual freedom. Truly speaking, all those who destroy public property are enemies of the nation and therefore should be exposed and made to pay for it from their private sources. For a court to act Suo Moto in such cases leads to questionable interpretations especially in a country like India where there are ‘N’ number of issues involving denial of justice and fair play, where courts can take up these issues Suo Moto which can truly be called judicial activism.
UTTAR PRADESH:In India there are 'N' number of archaic laws and the incumbent NDA government has done well to scrap many of them. However in the name of labor reforms for UP government to increase the working hours from 8 to 12 is the most draconian move in recent times. This move if allowed to take effect will surely lead to socio-political unrest across the country. It will be the most exploitative measure anywhere in the world. It should be withdrawn forthwith.
Yogi Adithyanath and his ilk should know that May Day, which is the International Labor Day on 1st May every year, has a history, not for nothing!
It was on 1st May, some 136 years ago in 1884, over 250000 people had gathered in Chicago to force the issue of justice and fair play. American Federation of Labor had adopted a resolution demanding from the US government so also Trade & Industry that labor in US will not accept anymore to work 10, 12 or 14 hours of work as a day's work. AFL demanded that from now on it shall be 8 hours work per day to be counted as a day's work.
Realising the enormity of the issue and recognizing the possibility of violence the government and employers' organization accepted the idea of 8 hours as normal working hours per day. Both government and liberals among employers also accepted, around the same time, the concept of weekly off. Thus from Chicago, Sunday became the non-working paid weekly off day.
Therefore political leaders in their haste to make business friendly laws in the name of development must refrain from enacting patently anti-labor legislations. Labor is as much a factor of production as land and capital.
West Bengal:Speaking at Tata Steel Kolkata Literary meet, Nobel Laureate Abhijit Bannerji was reported to have stated “No fear of Muslims takeover in India”. Abhijit Bannerji, is a Bengali, therefore left oriented, but living in the United States. Clearly he is reading without books or refusing to read the book, as is the wont of most Bengalies when it comes to taking a stand against BJP’s vision of India.
According to him, this talk about Islamization of India from the fringes of the ruling party about the demographics of the Muslim population is just a way to demonize the community, while asserting that there is no real fear of Muslim takeover in India.
Comparing US & India, he had told “India and US are similar in one very important way. The minorities are actually minorities. They are not anywhere close to being dominant”.
He may be well informed, well read and a Nobel Laureate to boot. But he is simply lying to the audience who are not at least illiterate. He is talking to the gallery in a state where the BJP is pathologically disliked.
What people like this Abhijit Bannerji and their ilk need to know is Population of US is less than 328 million and Muslims constitute 1.1% or 3.45 million, whereas in India its over 13% or over 160 million. In 1947, they were about 6% of 350 million that is some 21 million, now in 70+years it has grown by some 8 times and there is no cheek on their profligacy. To realize the enormity of the problem one does not need to be a BJP card holder. Then there is this often repeated slogan, “Pakistan Ladke Liya. Hindustan Haske leyngey”, from sub-continental islamists. So, it is best that persons like Abhijit Bannerji keep to themselves their wisdom and their economics of poverty alleviation. After all they are Americans more and Indians less.
MAHARASHTRA: 2019/20 has been a year of nightmare for bank depositors. With possibility of PMC Bank and Yes Bank going burst, both have managed to stay afloat, courtesy the government of India intervention.
If Punjab & Maharashtra Co. Op. Bank has given more than three fourth of its loanable fund to just one borrower, Yes Bank had lent 30,000 crores of which 20,000 crores reportedly had become bad and doubtful debts, but had concealed the truth. So it was a clear case of trust deficit.
Any bank anywhere in the world is a custodian of depositors’ trust. When it comes to banks, if the trust is lost all is lost. Any genuine ups and downs of business can lead to bank failure, but if it’s the fraud that cost the trust of the depositors, then men & women managing the bank should necessarily be behind bar.
Like PMC, there are so many of them who were involved in the 'golmaal' are in police custody, for fraud and downright cheating, similarly those from Yes Bank are also the guests of police. It does not matter who are behind bar, but trust in both cases have taken the beating. It needed government intervention to save the bank. Can this government intervention go on and on! In both cases, it was the private sector banks that failed, yet the government stepped in to save the confidence in banking per se. In the interest of the banking as an activity of immense importance for general public, this intervention is healthy and responsible.
MAHARASHTRA: Maratha strongman has been in the news in the print media, the other day. He is in the news routinely whether rightly or wrongly. A Mumbai datelined report informed “Pawar’s Assests grow by Rs. 60 lakhs in six years: Affidavit”. Sharatchandra Govindrao Pawar is a known name across the state of Maharashtra. Lot of people in Maharashtra believe that he is a very rich man and his wealth has remained largely undeclared ever since he started making it big which may have remained unaccounted.
He is a big-time politician, with over 5 decades in elected positions. He was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, was the Union Minister under different governments with important port folios. He also aspired to be the prime minister of India on many occasions. For a person with this kind of background to say he earned just 10 lakhs per year since 2014 to 2020 is simply cannot be true. Affidavit or declaration is alright. Until it is proved otherwise, these affidavits will remain. Here the question is who will formally doubt and raise the question of reliability of the affidavit, given the history and geography of Sharad Pawar and his reach in the socio-political arena of India. Lots of people speak lot of issues connecting him and his family yet no media has ever written about his wheeling dealings, because of his cross connections in the political canvas of India. He is also connected with Pune’s Sakal group of news papers owned by his brother. According to some sources in Pune half the Pune is owned by Sharad Pawar and his family. So how can we believe that Sharatchandra Govindrao Pawar earned only Rs. 10 lakhs per year for last 6 years?
MAHARASHTRA: In the cacophony of unrelenting attack by Rahul Gandhi, on the NDA II led by Narendra Modi on so-called economic slowdown, is the refreshing news from the Reserve Bank of India, which informed that CAD (Current Account Deficit) has sharply contracted. It is true that, due to varieties of reasons, including cyclical and global, the Indian economy has not been doing too well. But referred here above as ‘so-called’, because how much someone like Rahul Gandhi would comprehend the national and international economic ups and downs!
According to the report released for quarter ending 31st December 2019, the RBI stated “The country’s CAD narrows sharply to US$ 1.4 billion or 0.2 % of GDP”.
“The deficit had stood at 2.7% in the corresponding quarter a year ago and 0.9% in the previous quarter” informs the report further. The report further states that the sharp contraction in the deficit was mainly due to a lower trade deficit and rise in net services receipts.
Current Account Deficit or CAD is a critical indicator of the macro economic health of a country. It represents the gap between the overall expenditure or payment through foreign exchange due to imports of goods & services on one side, and the income and the receipts that the country has received for various goods and services exported from the country. The latest report informing the deficit as at the end of 31st December 2019 is only 0.2 % of GDP is by far the best news for anyone looking for some cheer in the Corona Virus affected global /local economy.
With all those who are prophets of doom generally negative on the state of economy, this report from the Central Bank of the country shall, at least, put then in proper perspective. However it is also true that remittances by the Diaspora, besides earnings from travel, computer and financial services were the prime mover that contributed to the CAD being narrowed, while imports for consumption had reduced. Hope the trend continues.
MAHARASHTRA: The News Paper to the Nation, THE TIMES OF INDIA, has gone dumb again or so it seems. An incident happened on 16th/ 17th of April found reported yesterday by English electronic media. At least 3 channels we saw, NDTV, INDIA TO-DAY & NEWS X, reported with visuals. Incident was the murder of 2 Sadhus and their vehicle driver. Clearly they were Hindus. My shock is why TOI failed to report it even after so many days. Was it because they were Hindus!? Strangely even those ' sane ' voices of our secular brigade were also deafeningly silent, including sagarika ghose, barka dutt and their ilk. Sadly even police just let them be beaten to death. And NDTV said police were outnumbered. But police force is there to protect general public not themselves. Different stories are making rounds to suite political compulsions. But the truth is 3 have lost their lives, one of them 70 years old held on to the policeman to " bachaav bachaav ". I am an Indian first but my question is why Hindus who are almost 80% of Indians are being treated by TOI and their media collaborators including intelligentsia as 2nd class citizens!
KARNATAKA: Just read about the ' VERY SMART ROAD near Kadri park, Mangalooru, under the Smart City Project for the city of Mangalooru. According to some reports circulating in the social media the local MLA Vedavyasa Kamath has cleared the contract for the construction of the VERY SMART ROAD to start immediately. Quite frankly it is difficult to react objectively.
We are aware that Corona pandemic presently under an uncertain leash in coastal Karnataka has put paid to lot of construction activities. It was only from this Monday-4 days ago-some opening of activities were allowed. Thus may be this VERY SMART ROAD is being cleared to start the work on. But what made me sad and numb was the absence of any activity on the 6 decades old KOOLOORU BRIDGE which was closed since some months for some major repairs. This is the only link this so-called smart city of Mangalooru has from the north to enter the city or to travel further. This is certainly a top priority for the district administration and city fathers. Driving down to Mangalooru this morning it could be seen there were people sleeping on scaffoldings below the bridge. Clearly they are workers to do repairs to the bridge. The question was why a priority work like this was not pushed for completion when the traffic all these days was either nil or negligible? The existing arrangement of diversion is excruciatingly crawling for the traffic in peak hours. Recognizing the enormity of the problem this piece of work could have been taken up on emergency criterion instead our political class chase a mirage called SMART CITY which clearly is an unlikely possibility anytime soon.
In a world obsessed with me and mine the motto YELLAROO ULIYABEKU YELLAROO BELEYABEKU unfortunately takes a back seat. In recent days print media has been fortunately publishing stories either of Kaveri or its tributaries or those many west flowing rivers and even that huge formerly frothy Bellandur lake right in the middle of Bengalooru showing clear water flowing therein where even pebbles deep down could be seen. This is an extremely positive development that we all need to recognize in the midst of this so called development verbose. Would all those rightly worried about mangoes and its transportation would spare some time on how our leaders- both political and business- have conveniently ignored, if not pushed, this cost of so-called development, by only giving lip service to pollution of water bodies by industrial effluents!?
MAHARASHTRA: In Mangalooru it’s a complete lockdown. How effective! under the circumstances difficult to say. But more lockdowns make sense, especially for those working in essential services. As was visible owners of companies of these services are not concerned about the problems of staff. They are asked to open stores by 6am and no transport provided. So they start from their homes in darkness and walk long distances to reach before 6am. Staff includes females as well. How unsafe and fearful their walks in the darkness! Labour Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada must take note of this cost cutting profit increasing attitude of owners of these stores providing essential food supplies.
MAHARASHTRA: "Four police stations in DK, Udupi sealed after cops test +ve" was the news in print datelined Mangalooru. But 10 days ago in Surathkal an area covering some 50 houses were sealed since a middle aged lady was found Corona positive. The residents of these houses remained in a kind of house arrest since last 10 days. Authorities who declared the sealing of the area made life difficult to over 250 or so people. People have no way of knowing if this is in their best interest. However if because of a policeman being Corona positive only the police station can be sealed for a mandatory 48 hour period, why not similarly the house in Surathkal where the positive case was found only was not sealed instead of some 50 houses ?! Or is it police being positive is less dangerous than ordinary citizens!?
MAHARASHTRA: Devaragunda Venkappa Sadaananda Gowda, a Union minister, is bit of a joke. "I am minister. I am exempt ", his reported remark as he walked out of institutional quarantine and checked into his house is the height of double standard. His justification that since his ministry is part of essential services is another joke. As a minister he doesn't know the difference between 'services' and ' quarantine '. Essential services are exempted from restrictions in movement and this exemption is not available for sick persons. With his arrogance of ministership he can infect his family members by checking into his private residence. Those who treat themselves distinctly can never give justice to others. A point PM Modi should take note and act.
WORLD: Mian Akram Usman was the general secretary of Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (TeI) party in its Lahore chapter.
Mian Usman had put up a poster all over Lahore on Kashmir Solidarity Day, which was observed all over the country on 5th Feb. Being a politician probably he couldn’t think that what he was featuring as a slogan can be labeled as “in bad taste".
Reportedly this Mian Usman came under fire from netizens so also from his party colleagues. His supreme boss, the president of T-e-I, so also the Prime Minister of Pakistan, didn’t blink. He suspended Mian Akram Usman, the general secretary of T-e-I Lahore unit forthwith, without even asking for explanation.
But, what did poster feature? “HINDU BAAT SEY NAHEE - LAAT SEY MAANTAA HAI” From a Pakistani, to expect better than this was foolish. But it was comforting to know; in Imran Khan’s Pakistan it could be different. He summarily suspended the guilty office bearer of his party. This is a message to all our political class – how to act, when action was called for!
And what about India’s Muslim brothers and sisters! They didn’t even react when that joker Waris Pathan declared “our 15 crore is enough for your (Hindus) 100 crore” let alone condemning this man. Would Asaduddin Owaisi suspend this joker, his party MLA, from AIMIM, for that lunatic statement!
There was this Washington datelined news in the print media “Protest in 21 US Universities against Delhi violence”.
WORLD: Report informs, a South Asian Student Activist group organized a demonstration called “Students Against Hindutva”.
These students group from Yale and other 21 universities across the United States are reportedly concerned about the violence in Delhi, in which some 50 or so have died. For sure, there should be condemnation of violence anywhere in the world, which leads to death in big scale. Losing 50 lives in less than a week of violence is pretty serious, especially when it is communally driven. It is true that the violence was communal in nature. But Indian media who fed the rest of the world media, is somewhat agenda driven. They never come out with truth, every time they report an incident. Yes violence did take place. Yes there were hate filled speeches by different sections of people in Delhi. But Indian media suffer from selective vision and hearing impairment.
They suffer from conditioned and prejudiced mindset and report only to mislead the public and by extension even foreign countries.
‘A Holi against Hindutva’, the placard of the group 'Students Against Hindutva' is clearly misleading and without knowing the complete truth. Prim facie, Indians need not be worried about such misplaced demonstrations. But in the interest of truth, these students groups in the US, unless it suffer from fixated syndrome should know the truth and nothing but the complete truth, before embarking on demonstration against other countries in the name of freedom.
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