MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE-DECEMBER 2020

NEW DELHI: A master mariner became a Chairman of an Indian port. He was married to a family of political heavy weights. Naturally the brilliant son of the master mariner could have had a chosen career. But he opted to work for an International NGO. On enquiring why he opted to work for an NGO, was it because he is socially oriented and inclined towards social work?! The answer from the master mariner was shockingly frank and truthful. He said “These days in NGOs there is big money coming from many sources”. So, if anyone thinks if one is working for an NGO he is inclined towards service, you are mistaken. He need not be a concerned individual at all. He could just be a money making career junky, out to enjoy life and still keep earning in $. Writer Gurcharan Das was the Chief Executive of an American multinational company Proctor & Gamble. He recently wrote a piece in TOI-“Doing Good in India Gets Harder”, while stressing “philanthropy should be regulated by an independent regulator, not by the Home Ministry”. He is a writer par excellence with sense and essence in what he writes. He speaks about restrictive legislations different governments at different times have enacted. All these legislations were meant with a purpose. NGOs are there to serve the people who need help and support. Help has all kinds of dimensions, physical, spiritual and emotional. It’s been hunky- dory for a long time for these NGOs, until Indira Gandhi’s government intervened. Post emergency, it was found out that NGOs go beyond their brief and get involved in politics of another kind. India is a cultural pot-pouri and there is enough scope for people intent on mischief and there are supportive apparatus available within the country with its own axe to grind. All those who are involved with NGO may be driven by some sense of idealism, but like the young son of master mariner, all are looking for good money, good life and with unobtrusive not so demanding work culture. This is basically an easy life that attracts lot of men and women to NGO sector. But unfortunately it is their interest in being involved in issues not truly related to their original idea of service, and they invite both accolades and brickbats. And there are their media friends due to their easy approach to life, they help them. Thus, every government that came to rule the nation had something or the other to deal with this NGO sector. Mr. Das is rather right in stating that regulator has to be independent, may be under economic offences wing of Ministry of Finance. Indeed Home Ministry is a bit of 'act first and think later’ type with police under its command and therefore should give up their role of being a policeman to NGOs and less harsh and professional team at the enforcement wing of MoF should take up the role of regulator of NGOs. Of course there cannot be solution to all problems of NGOs, some of which are agenda driven and self created. But it is possible to co-exist with less of Tu-Tu-Mai-Mai. Hope, it happens. Good luck to Mr. Das. BIHAR: So, Deepawali has come days earlier to make the fortune smile on Bharatiya Janata Party. It has continued its rule in Bihar for consecutive 4th term in association with JD (U). It has won 41 of 58 bypolls that took place in different states during the last one week or so. Thus the election in different parts of the country has confirmed the sustained establishment of BJP. It is becoming increasingly clear that BJP will be the only truly national party displacing Congress and other political parties. It will only grow in strength and in numbers in coming years. Of course, Prime Minister Modi called it “A vote for development” commenting on Bihar outcome. PM Modi is a politician, and has to say what he said. But the reality is profoundly mixed. Although NDA has managed to retain the wafer thin majority in Bihar, the truth is, it is the opposition led by RJD, a family outfit that got the highest seats at 75 with a vote share of 23.03%, which is reportedly the highest. So the truth is, there is a huge section that has not gone with the so-called ‘vote for development’ rhetoric of PM Modi. It has gone with Lalu Prasad’s politics of chaos and he is still in jail on corruption charges. So, the consideration was clearly different. PM Modi had also observed “The poll result in Bihar have endorsed the way we have tackled Covid-19 pandemic”. This is quite frankly, far from truth. Bihari labourers who were left in the lurch during the lockdown, have suffered the most rightly or wrongly, may not have voted for NDA. That’s how communists have managed to get so many seats. They had only 3 seats, now they have 16, so also AIMIM of Owassi has opened its a/c with a bang. AIMIM managed 5 seats from earlier none. So the talk of development that was voted for is bit of hogwash, at least close to 50% electorates thought so. However, in the midst of these victories BJP and its leadership must look within. Not all is well with BJP leaders and its rank and file. Lot can be written about that ‘party with a difference’ has slowly, but steadily degenerated like any other party, be it in controlling corruption, lawlessness, nepotism etc. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has gone on record saying 72% of candidates of BJP in phase I have declared criminal cases, like RJD 73% LJP 59% Congress 59% JD(U)43%. Long ago George Fernandese had observed when asked 'how could he join hands with BJP' when he became a part of the NDA I. He had said then “I had to choose between two evils- the Congress and the BJP. I went for the lesser evil”. But, evil all the same. But then, once upon a time the Grand Old Party, the Congress, too was strong and omnipresent all over India, but slowly degenerated due to its own in-house contradictions. Hope BJP will learn from the Congress note books, instead of paying its own price and learning the hard way. BIHAR: This man, calling himself a journalist, probably wants himself to be classified as the most ‘secular’ is an anathema to journalism. Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar, calls himself an atheist, lacks completely any sense of proportion. He was generally commenting on the victory of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Bihar elections. He titled his piece in the Sunday Times of India of 22/11/2020 as “Time has come for an All India Muslim Party”. This Aiyar is a well informed well read man but suffers from mental blocks and selective amnesia. All political parties when they test electoral waters in any election offer some future service and even benefits if their candidates are elected. This AIMIM has its origin to the violently poisonous Razakars of Hyderabad Nizam, who never wanted to be a part of India, but circumstances of 1947/48 forced Hyderabad into India. AIMIM is the same party which has made statements bordering on insanity and sedition. Coming to Bihar, AIMIM just wanted to try their luck and offered nothing to voters but got 5 assembly seats. Has AIMIM done anything to Biharis? Can AIMIM take Bihar on development road? Did AIMIM promise Biharis anything tangible, like all other political parties or that they will try with union government for some special package for Bihar? Answer to all these questions is a capital NO. Yet the voters, probably only Muslims, voted for AIMIM, only because AIMIM wanted to unite Muslims against others but mainly against BJP. So what is this Aiyar gloating? He is only supporting a divisive party in the name of Secularism. People like this Anklesaria Aiyar are dangerous to the Idea of India. He is most unhappy if anything positive happens to BJP. Because he thinks BJP is communal, but thinks AIMIM is secular. How strange and sickular! Aiyar claims AIMIM gave tickets to couple of non-Muslims to contest. But one of the earliest Vice Presidents of BJP was Sikandar Bakth, a devout Muslim. He was with Janata Party and when Janata party split he joined BJP to become its founder member and was one of the first General Secretary of BJP and later elected as its Vice President. Same BJP made him the Governor of Kerala. Giving credence to AIMIM, this Aiyar calls this 5 seat win in Bihar is a positive development, but his main complaint against AIMIM, he claims in this article, is the AIMIMs attack on Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen. But in his idiocy and selective amnesia this Aiyar forgets to mention that it is the NDA led by BJP which always stood by Tasleema from these AIMIM wolves by giving her residential visa to stay in India. May be one day same NDA may even give her Indian citizenship, something that can never happen with Razakar turned AIMIM. Do you hearken Mr. Aiyar! MAHARASHTRA: So, Arnab Goswami has suddenly become the ‘staple diet’ of 4th estate, courtesy Maharashtra police. That Arnab Goswami represented “sound and fury” signifying insignificance was well known even during his TIMES NOW days. At that time he was part of the ‘giant’ among press owners, hence not many took cudgels against him. Now that he has become a ‘press entrepreneur’, after leaving the TIMES NOW, TIMES Group is also naturally against him, since he does not represent the group interest anymore. His REPUBLIC TV is probably owned partly by him and partly by some politician or group of politicians. So, he is a freeman to ‘scream’ and ‘scream more’. It is universally accepted that what you are saying may be important, but how you say it is more important than what you are saying. This is where the crux is. This Arnab Goswami, has a panchant for stamping the ‘Achilles foot’ of anybody or may be even everybody, except those whom he ‘likes’. Naturally he has created and sustained a whole lot of ‘enemies’ in the public space. Enemies include even those who are ‘congenitally’ anti-BJP, since they think he is pro-BJP etc. And comes along this Sushant Singh Rajput death case. Because Sushant Singh Rajput was a Bihari, Bihar government and Biharis jumped in, to have a role in the unnatural death case of SSR. We all know, when politics takes over a criminal case, it is ‘free for all’. Suddenly, skeletons started falling at regular intervals from the cupboards of Mumbai film world, the Bollywood. It is well known, that Mumbai film world is deeply involved with underworld for its money and muscle power. Powerful politicians became natural entrants. So the muck has become more murky and dirty. In this particular case, the filth started flying thick and wide. The public is privy to the details of death of Disha Salian, the manager of SSR. She too died under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly with the death of SSR dots started to connect! Mumbai’s currently powerful political family’s name started to appear in the print media and social media. Aditya Thackeray, the ambitious son of ambitious father, Uddhav Thackeray, appeared to be having questionable roles in many of the happenings in the DISHA/SSR/DRUG triangle. Uddhav wanted an inexperienced Aditya to be the chief minister of Maharashtra. But that was not to be, for the possible discomfiture of Ghatbandan Sarkar at Mumbai Sachivalay. He became minister never-the-less. He was all over the media with his omnipresence due to the powerful father. But no sooner the unnatural death of SSR and that of Disha Salian earlier became hot news for obvious reasons, and Aditya became a pointed reference, both his public appearance and his name vanished from public space. For this state of affairs, REPUBLIC TV and Arnab Goswami were fully responsible. How to stop this Arnab Goswami, was a question that haunted Thackerays and this 2018 case of alleged ‘abatement to suicide’ became handy to fix Arnab Goswami. The way the police landed at pre-dawn at Arnab’s residence and pulled him out of his house was reminiscent of what Jaya Lalitha did to DMK boss Karunanidhi, when he was pulled out from his house in his undergarments by the police in the middle of the night. At that time I&C had titled the story “Democracy or Demonocracy”! This is Yeh Mera India. MAHARASHTRA: So Arnab Goswami has been granted bail by the Supreme Court informs the electronic media. He was arrested on 4th November, thus remained incarcerated for 8 days. As was known, the police in Mumbai forcibly took him from his residence and presented him to a local magistrate in Alibag, who while not allowing police for custodial detention, allowed him judicial custody up to November 18. Now what was the purpose of judicial custody detention for 15 days is unclear and apparently made no sense. Naturally Goswami’s lawyers approached Bombay High Court (BHC). But again for reasons best known to them, BHC refused to grant him bail and asked him to approach the local court in Alibag. Then he approaches the apex court and requests for urgent hearing. There were stories floating around that there is a danger to his life due to continued detention, etc. Presentation of facts of the case, in Bombay High Court is not available. Supreme Court, while granting interim bail clearly saw merit. According to judges in the apex court “we are of the considered view that the high court was in error in rejecting the bail application…. We are seeing case after case where high courts are not granting bail and failing to protect personal liberty of people…. It will be travesty of justice if bail is not granted while FIR is pending”. Coming down heavily on both high court and Maharashtra government SC bench observed “if we don’t act in matters like this, then it will be very disturbing”. If courts have their grey areas of confusion, police have their role cutout under circumstances relating to suicide and abetment to suicide. Why anyone wants to end one’s life? Generally a state of mental frustration or state of perceived helplessness pushes people to the precipice. But frankly, if one wants to end one’s life why should it become a crime? If out of frustration or unmanageable stress, that has to be treated as a severe health issue and state should provide all assistance, if person has not died in an attempt to commit suicide, instead of arresting him like a criminal. Coming to abetment per se, the Oxford dictionary tells, its “to encourage or to assist”. Both have not happened in the case of Arnab Goswami. It may be true that alleged non-payment could have caused mental suffering, but taking one’s life is entirely the failure of the victim. Not all people who cannot pay back bank loan commit suicide. Because bank manager harasses the customer, can the manager be blamed for the suicide? There are other provisions in law to make the manager accountable. Therefore, a case under IPC 420 could have been registered against Arnab Goswami for the alleged non-payment. In retrospect however, there is an important call judiciary has to take, when it comes to interpretation of law and its application. In this case, the magistrate in Alibag, wants 15 days to decide what to do with Arnab and orders detention for 15 days in judicial custody. Arnab’s lawyers approach High Court, and judges there say ‘go back to Alibag’, without asking why this 15 days detention in judicial custody! Thus clearly there is scope for a better administration of law so that people are not put to unlawful / unreasonable suffering. Hope all concerned within the legal fraternity take up the matter where ordinary citizen is not forced to go in circles without the law taking its lawful course! Here it is pertinent to quote what a vacation bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee say while expressing concern over 'governments targeting individuals on the basis of ideology and differences of opinion. It observed that ‘Maharashtra government must ignore Arnab’s taunt on TV. The least that can be done is not to watch the channel. Whatever be his ideology, if Constitutional Courts do not interfere today we are travelling the path of destruction undeniably’. It’s a timely rap. MAHARASHTRA: Reserve Bank of India, the bankers’ bank and central bank and monetary regulator to the nation is in the news. Whether the news is right or wrong depends upon which end of the spectrum one sees the issue. Every organization in a democratic dispensation is there for the country and its people. Unfortunately group dynamics, depending upon its reach, tries to influence the course of happening in its favour at the cost of national or public interest. Internal Working Group (IWG) of RBI has experts in Banking & Finance from the Board of Governors /Directors, who periodically meet to discuss and debate policy matters and prepare report with its recommendations. Government of India in its liberalisation policies had planned to expand banking sector by giving fresh licenses to eligible stake holders. According to RBI, it had earlier decided that Rs. 50,000 crore worth as the size criterion for any group to apply for banking license. Of course this proposal was available for Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) which are not owned or controlled by corporate houses. However, NDA led by BJP is a bit more business- friendly than most other governments, or at least it appears to be so. IWG, which met last week to consider opening banking sector for more players, among other policy initiatives, however has left the door little ajar while allowing large corporate houses besides NBFCs, to own and run their banks. The present governor of RBI Shaktikanta Das was handpicked by the present outfit at Centre, after the exit of Raghuram Rajan, who was not on the same page as the government, on many issues. This latest scenario presents a dicey picture. NBFCs are professional money lenders and they being promoted as a formal banking institution is one thing, but a borrower becoming a lender is an entirely contrasting scene, in this case Corporate houses or Industry houses owning banks. Having learnt of the development Raghuram Rajan along with former RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya have called it “RBI drops a Bombshell”, describing the decision to allow corporate houses to own banks is a recipe for disaster. They ask a very valid question, “How can banks make good loans when it is owned by borrower?” Writing in TOI, the duo remark “Proposal to allow business houses into banking is fraught with risk for the financial system, while cautioning that corporate entry into banking can only lead to further concentration of economic power in the hands of business houses”. This is a grave observation, the government of the day cannot ignore. However what is more worrying is, reportedly all experts in the IWG were of the opinion that ‘large corporate houses/industrial houses should not be allowed to promote a bank’ except one of the experts. This means only one of the expert said ‘yes’ to corporate houses entry to own banks. Therefore, the proposal to allow Indian corporate houses into banking is clearly uncalled for. This development, prima facie, can lead to multiple serious issues especially in a scenario of increasing NPAs, and failure of banks like Lakshmi Vilas Bank and Yes Bank, leading to government intervention. And comes Kaushik Basu, a former Chief Economist of World Bank and former Chief Economic Advisor with UPA under Manmohan Singh. According for him RBI proposal is “Good looking step in Bad Direction”, while remarking “It looks good because the close connection between industrial corporations wanting to borrow and banks wanting to lend speed up lending and make the banking sector look more efficient, but such connected lending almost invariably leads to crony capitalism, and may even lead to financial crash”. Clearly, something somewhere is amiss. Is RBI acting on some politically driven pressure?! KARNATAKA: Is it too much to expect local language skill in employment, especially in government jobs or public sector employment opportunities? The clamour for reservation in jobs for locals has been there since the days of political independence in August 1947. It is right and wrong at the same time. All Indians being born as Indians have the unalienable right to relocate from one end of the country to any destination towards the other end of the country. By extension, this also means he is entitled to look for a source of living, especially employment suiting his qualification and experience if any. India is a country with some 22 officially recognized languages. Of course Hindi is the most spoken Indian language beside English as the link language. While there is no debate on the eligibility of all Indians in all places across India for being employed, the truth is, development per se means, socio-economic empowerment of every Indian, in his place of birth and education in formative years. This means, all growth should restrict migration of labour by creating enabling economic environment for employment as a source of income at one’s place of birth. All our twelve ‘Five yearly development plans’ have come to address the question of economic progress of all areas of the country. National budgets are prepared with allocation of resources for the development of infrastructure in different parts of the country. All these infrastructure creation is intended to create ease of living condition in a particular area, to its people. In the process of creation of these infrastructures, employment is created to its people which truly empowers them because of income generation through wages and consequent purchasing power. Thus, every development leads to the increase of purchasing power of people, which in turn leads to improved standard of living. However the truth of the matter is all areas of the country are not evenly developed. Some areas are more developed than others. For example Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai are more developed than any other parts of the country. This is primarily due to the natural reasons. All these cities are located in sea fronts where ports are developed, which leads to multiplier effect, like roads, railways and airports leading to more infrastructure development, like highways linking other parts of the country etc. Increased development activity leads to more employment opportunities which lead to migration of people looking for jobs. Thus, uneven economic development lead to uneven availability of opportunities of employment and therefore people with less opportunities started to migrate to better developed areas of the country. This is a natural normal phenomenon. However, it does lead to some problems that lead to denial of opportunities to locals, especially in jobs, where highly skilled expertise is not needed. Therefore there has to be some mechanism where locals are protected from being denied of employment opportunities especially in D&C groups. Naturally concerned about this emerging situation, the government in Bengalooru has rightly decided to make knowledge of Kannada as a pre-requisite for recruitment in C&D groups. This is something all state government should do to help local semiskilled unemployed men and women. If Kannada Development Authority has mooted the idea of learning Kannada skills it’s only proper. KARNATAKA: There was this report in the print media datelined Mangalooru on November 21, 2020, “Plaint filed against Co-operative Society head”. Newspapers are there to inform and to educate its readers, with news and reports that would carry the truthful information on happenings around city, state or country. The above report spoke of a complaint at the economic offences and narcotics crime police about the possible angle of cheating by a co-operative society. Depositors and investors, numbering around 100 have reportedly complained that the society Chairman, who also runs an electrical home appliance chain of shops in Mangalooru and other places, has defaulted on the payment of interest on deposits, so also have defaulted in the return of investment when demanded. Report informs of thousands of people from Mumbai, Mangalooru and Gulf countries having invested their money, including retired senior citizens too have put their hard earned savings into this society. With complaint having been lodged against the society and its Chairman, all offices in Dakshina Kannada, have been reportedly closed. All the above details are fine for the purpose of reading. Information too may be relevant, however what is important is to warn the people about the society which has probably betrayed the trust of the depositors and investors. Therefore isn’t it important to mention which is the society that has allegedly let down the trust of people! People need to be forewarned not to buy the attractive interest schemes of the society for any future investment or deposit in such societies. If name is not mentioned how are the people forewarned and what is the benefit of such a report? Is the story only to fill the pages of paper? Or the larger question of protecting the ‘fair’ name of the society and its Chairman, for some consideration! At this point it is relevant to inform that there is the name of a society with similar story making rounds in social media. TAMIL NADU: Times of India of 03/11/2020 carried a print version of an interview T.M. Krishna had with the daily. Title of the interview was “I believe in unbridled freedom”. Word unbridled generally conveyed the meaning “unconstrained”. In the situation prevailing in France in the name of freedom, this title appeared clearly disturbing. We all recognise that freedom should not lead to recklessness. In France, their citizens, at least a section of them believed, it is alright to poke fun at objects of worship and by extension, at its worshippers. This attitude towards freedom is dangerous. A person may take an insult on himself but may not tolerate or may feel very hurt, insulting his God or object of his worship. While it true that there is no place for violence in modern civil society, there has to be enough protection not to hurt one’s religious sentiments. And this title in the TOI with TM Krishna, the Carnatic Vocalist/writer stating “his belief in unbridled freedom” did make me go through the whole write up of some 1000 words. Talking about his Edict Project he was trying to merge the visions of Emperor Ashoka, after his renunciation post Kalinga victory, and visions of BR Ambedkar. According to him “Ashoka was a violent oppressor who after witnessing the devastation his army caused in the Kalinga battlefield underwent self –realisation and embraces Buddhism to make compassion and empathy his mission of life on this sorry world. Ambedkar was at the receiving end of caste violence and injustice and made equality his mission of life. Here TMK sees possibility of merging these views of Ashoka & Ambedkar. According to him, “they may not always be in agreement, but they need to be heard together”. Extending it, he talks about “to measure the freedom in any society is to observe whether the marginalized can speak, write, sing and dance fearlessly”. “No one who truly understands freedom would ever say- too much freedom is dangerous”. The world of civil society, especially ones conducted on the principles of democracy, unlike Communist world or those governed by dictatorship or police states, individual freedom is indeed the corner stone of socio-political life. But then again, like everything else, ‘too much is too bad’ is an oft repeated idiom. That’s universal truth, therefore, prima facie; there cannot be ‘unbridled freedom’, which crosses the limits of a sense of proportion. A civil society has to have its sense of proportion in place to enjoy the fruits of freedom or else, like Jean Paul Sartre has famously observed “We are condemned to be free”, where we will end up paying the price of freedom, where too much freedom or unbridled freedom can be an anathema. WORLD: There was this print media report “Probe finds Priti Patel ‘bullied’ staff, but Boris Johnson backs her” datelined London. Boris Johnson is the British Prime Minister and Priti Patel is the Home Minister or Home Secretary. It is clear Priti Patel is of Indian background. From different reports appearing in the media, it is apparent India and Indians have a special place in Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom. The story of Ms. Patel having ‘bullied’ her staff was in the news some months ago. In India ministers being rude or being a bully is passé. But in the UK it’s different. There is a Ministerial Code of Conduct in Britain. In India no such codes are there. Although India copied many English ‘do’s and donts’, strangely this Ministerial Code of Conduct was not copied. Be that as it may, it is a good practice to make Ministers accountable for their boorish behavior, especially with staff, who works for them. The independent probe into the incident of ‘bullying’ had recently concluded that there indeed was an incident of that kind and that minister Ms. Patel had indeed broken the rules. However report is silent what is the reprimand expected from Ms. Patel for this reported ‘bullying’. Report also tells about the observation from PM’s office suggesting that minister Ms. Patel was unaware of the impact of her actions and that ‘she has apologized for any upset she may have caused’. In a democratic milieu, that politics in UK being practiced, such an ‘apology’, if indeed was tendered, should suffice and case closed. But reportedly Alex Allen, the independent probe man has resigned soon after PM Johnson stated that “since the apology, the issue is closed”. Alex Allen was the chairman ethics committee. Here the question is what is the action expected in this particular case! If the minister has apologized, in a civil society, the issue stands closed! Is she expected to resign for this ‘charge of bullying’ or PM should sack her? If this is the expectation of the ‘aggrieved’ and ‘conductor of probe’, then prima facie it is too much. Or could there be more than what eyes can see! An Indian, brown, minister yelled at an English white staff, can be looked at as ‘blasphemy’ by a section of Brits and therefore in ‘fitness’ Indian minister should be sacked by her British white boss! So, is it a ‘coloured’ racial expectation?!