India-awake

Pawar - The Great Indian Dabangg

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:55:00 +0000

The out-of-tune fiddler

Sharad (affectionately called Shady by some) Pawar has done it again!

This time he has successfully handled the price rise - of all the commodities - of onions, which is the daily diet of the so-called aam admi. This is the same aam admi for whom Manmohan Singh and his patron Sonia Gandhi never tire of showing fake concern.

The manner in which the prices of onions have risen by several hundred percent in a short time certainly could not be all owing to damage to crop by un-seasonal rains in Maharashtra’s Nashik region, a major producing center for onions, as Pawar would like the gullible public and still more gullible Manmohan Singh to believe. His assertion has been contradicted by the Commerce Minister, the Agriculture Secretary and the MD of NAFED. Going by Pawar’s handling of the agriculture portfolio so far, it is crystal clear that as in the past, the prices could not have risen so much but for deliberately created market distortions and manipulation not only of supplies but also of price sentiment.

A Reason to mislead?

Make no mistake. Entering into complicated tendering procedures, changing tender conditions, advancing bidding dates, FCFS basis, all these are strictly for the birds like A. Raja. But Pawar knows his onions. He has simple but highly effective strategies that yield results. One of his strategies is to allow the situation to deteriorate to a crisis point, mess it up and then gain from it. This has been done in his Agriculture Ministry, as well by his colleague in the Civil Aviation.

In the case of onions, even assuming that the supplies were likely to be affected by un-seasonal rains, he must have anticipated the impact on prices and should have taken appropriate steps not only by asking the Commerce Ministry to regulate the quantum or pricing of exports but also by co-ordinating actions to crush the hoarding that was inevitable. But he DID NOT ACT. Exports were merrily continued and nothing was done to keep watch on the commodity traders. This was so despite the IB providing inputs on the price situation to the Government. The situation was allowed to drift and lo and behold! Even when the supplies were continuing at a normal pace and before any real impact of the un-seasonal rains on the supply stream could be felt, the hoarders, no doubt encouraged by apparent deliberate lack of actions, planned for the kill. As they shot up the prices, Pawar obligingly uttered the one sentence that would tell the hoarders how long they had to make money and the common man that he would have to be ready to be robbed at least for that long. He said that for at least three weeks prices would remain high. His one-sentence strategy has earlier been successfully tested in the case of sugar and milk with disastrous effect on the common man’s budget. Now, as exports have been stopped and imports of onions are planned in a big way, naturally this would open up a new avenue to make money by vested interests (guess who?), as happened in the case of sugar imports earlier. Everything that has happened and that is happening appears to be part of a co-ordinated operation.

Shrinking supplies in the Shadow of Pawar

And this is certainly not the last straw on the common man’s bent back. The situation is about to repeat in the case of sugar, which is being exported now, to be hoarded abroad and to be re-imported as the prices rise. Everything works to plan.

By his actions and callous indifference “kya kar sakte hain? (what can be done?)” he has once again proved that he is utterly fearless and brazen and shameless. He does not fear Manmohan Singh – he is not feared by anyone in any case - or the people of the country or some Superior Power that be. He has proved to be the Great Indian Dabangg – the villainous daredevil. He seems ever willing to add more and more black feathers in his cap before finally nemesis catches up with him.

Failure, not a worry

Apart from his legendary greed and controversies like possible D-gang link, connection with Telgi Stamp paper scam and IPL, he has also been embroiled in the recent controversy related to the Lavasa project which was his brainchild.

Even discounting the events of the distant past, India-awake has consistently highlighted since 2008 the immense damage this person has been doing ever since he became the Agriculture Minister in 2004. His record in the Ministry shows nothing but rank incompetence and deliberate, gross mismanagement. Compared to what people have known about Pawar’s dealings in his long career, A.Raja would appear to be a novice and 2G scam is nothing.
See these articles:

Sorry state of agriculture and food security

The Mess in Agriculture

Food Prices and Inflation - Govt. Twiddling Thumbs

Pawar deserves the Sack

The New Role Models - 62 years after Mahatma Gandhi

The Altar of Hypocrisy and Expediency

Despite Pawar being the Number One candidate for sacking, Manmohan Singh sits there with folded hands, with the occasional notes asking him “to look into and monitor” the price rise etc. What is extremely disturbing is that while Pawar has let the rumor gain ground that he does not want to continue in the Ministry, it is the Prime Minister who it is believed, wants him to continue. It is clear, as pointed out in an earlier article that the inaction on the part of the Prime Minister leads to no other conclusion but that he is supporting Pawar in whatever he has been doing, for the PM is supposed to be aware of what he has been doing. Sadly, the entire Cabinet of which Pawar is a part, seems to be sublimely unconcerned about the plight of the people, let alone the scandalous actions and inactions of this man. Pawar has given them a handy slogan " Kya Kar Sakte Hain?"

And in passing,

This bird is the Great Indian Bustard - spelt with a U not A

But THIS is THE VULTURE that feeds on the misery of others

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

A Towering "Model" Scam

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 18:17:00 +0000

Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society(where everyone "co-operated")

Click The signature tune of Maharashtra Govt.?

The Mumbai Adarsh Society scam or the “Model” Scam has become truly symbolic of the levels to which corruption, abuse of power and plunder of public assets has grown in the Maharashtra Government particularly in the last ten years. A building which, even if constructed in the ordinary course, could not have been more than 6 stories high stands tall at 31 stories, perhaps, symbolically suggesting that corruption has grown five fold, if not more in recent times. The fact that the scam which had been assiduously worked out over a period of ten years successfully avoided exposure for so long shows the extent of manipulative powers and hold over the government and the defense establishment the perpetrators had. This, despite the fact that a group of conscientious army personnel knew about the existence of the scam and the efforts to cover it up for at least six years before some of them succeeded in finally blowing it up through the media on 25th October 2010.

In the days that followed, the name of Ashok Chavan, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra came to the fore for facilitating the entire process and also for securing several flats for his close relatives. Unfortunately for him, his denials about his involvement and about any relatives holding flats exposed him. With great reluctance, the Congress Party was forced to ask him to resign after going through typical Congress-style stage-managed motions of making an “inquiry” to gain time. For Ashok Chavan, it was ironic that just a few weeks before the scam broke, he had arranged for Rupees Two Crores to facilitate a rally for his leader who asked him to quit. However, he may bide his time and wait for the opportunity when he too, like two of his unworthy predecessors may be given a position in the Union Cabinet as a "compassionate" punishment.

Do you have three? Another headache!

In spite of the intense scrutiny of the scam by the media and other activists, the full details have still not emerged with absolute clarity and many questions remain unanswered. What is clear is that some officials in the defense estate department first identified a plot in possession of the army but not in active use and made an elaborate plan based on trickery and fabrications to acquire it for private use. The main “promoter” of the society R.C.Thakur of the Defense Estate Officer appears to be the initiator from the defense services side working with Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, a Congress MLC to manage the civilian side, involving Ministers and bureaucrats in Maharashtra Govt., BMC, MMRDA and other agencies concerned with land use and construction clearances. After the initial stages, the process appears to have become increasingly under the control of the Chief Minister as far as facilitating the approvals and discretionary allocation of flats are concerned.

M.Sc.
Thakur and Gidwani

Every one connected with the entire process or anyone in a position to place a spoke in their wheel of deceit was won over with the simple expedient of offering a flat in the proposed society for himself or his nominees. Simple, because allocating a flat at a fraction of the real market value in the prime area of Mumbai South represented a huge bribe, without a single rupee being actually paid out. The entire process was manipulated and meticulously planned at every stage in connivance with those in positions of authority who eventually also got the benefit of a flat allocation.

As the starting step, it was represented that the land, though occupied by the defense department did not actually belong to it but was Collector’s land belonging to the State Government. Ambiguously worded communications were presented to show that the army had no objection to the land being used for the benefit of defense services personnel. To push the proposal for allowing the land to be used for constructing residential premises, equally cleverly worded false representations were made that the beneficiaries would be Kargil war heroes and their widows. The promoters even managed to secure from the Government the FSI which belonged to BEST having the adjacent plot. The space reserved for a road was got reduced and allowed to be used for the society. The entire procedure was followed, paperwork completed so well and even the Occupation Certificate was obtained, that even after the scam has been exposed, the promoters appear to be fully confident that no illegalities have been committed.

Those who have been allotted flats in the Society include two former Chiefs of Army Staff General Deepak Kapoor and General N.C.Vij, and former Naval Commander Admiral Madhavendra Singh, apart from other high level officers from defense services, some of whom were reportedly involved in facilitating the work of the perpetrators of the scam. Of the main promoters, Thakur reportedly has one complete floor to himself and Gidwani and his relatives hold four flats. Apart from Ashok Chavan’s relatives, Malav, the son of his close associate Jayant Shah also holds a flat. Several politicians or their relatives also hold flats. More alarming is the fact that several bureaucrats have managed to get flats in the names of their relatives. (see list here) The precise status of all the flat owners has still not been established but in all likelihood, more instances of largesse to family and friends of people in power are sure to come to light. The real shocking revelation is that the “Kargil Heroes” behind whose masquerade the participants in the conspiracy, cozenage and fraud worked, do not find a single genuine allocation in their names.

The fraud, in fact, would not have come to light at all had the Naval authorities not raised serious security issues related to the building which is in close proximity to various defense areas. The security issues and the alleged violations or by-passing of the strict environmental rules under the Coastal Regulation Zone Regulations have really prompted at least the promise of some action by the Government, notorious by now for its indifference to scams and corruption involving members of the ruling combine.

The issues involved in the scam and the implications of the massive fraud are far more serious and the people need clear answers and decisive actions in several areas:

As far as the politicians involved are concerned, the Congress party has merely replaced Ashok Chavan with a new incumbent, Prithviraj Chavan. However, that in itself is a typical minimal approach which the party is projecting as a major action. The removal is based merely on practical considerations of avoiding further embarrassment and is not suggestive of any moral high ground being taken by his party. It is also known by now that Ashok Chavan has been implicated in a major land matter in Pune which he decided as Revenue Minister in a way that would mean huge profits for a person allegedly close to him, Jayant Shah. The rot runs far deeper and enough facts have come to light that show that even previous Chief Ministers, Narayan Rane, Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh may be as culpable if not more in the Adarsh scam. If the Congress party is really serious as it claims to be, how can Ashok Chavan and the other Ministers responsible escape without any demonstrable and credible punishment under penal law?

Rane,Shinde, Deshmukh, Chavan
We are all same (boli = bid, price?)

The second issue relates to actions against the bureaucrats involved in the scam and who got their “reward” by way of allotment of flats in the Society. Actions also need to be taken against officials of various authorities who might have been negligent in processing the proposal and granting permissions. So far, the Government has not shown any inclination at all to initiate action against these officers. As far as the defense services are concerned, the Defense Minister has stated that the Ministry is serious about taking exemplary action. However, its sincerity remains to be tested.

There are many issues related to the land as well as the building itself, which have to be addressed.

First, it has not been established yet whether the land indeed belonged to the Defense or was only in its possession while it belonged to the Government. After initial assertions that the land belonged to the Defense, subsequently there has not been any definitive confirmation of the exact status. If the land actually belonged to the Defense Department, then the scam assumes a much greater significance. Second, the responsibility for allowing the society to appropriate the FSI belonging to BEST needs to be probed.

The third and most important issue related to the building is that of violations of the law on the one hand and the security implications on the other. These two issues assume the greatest significance in deciding the future course of action with regard to the building. While the Ministry of Environment & Forests has already issued a show cause notice to the Society, the Minister, Jairam Ramesh is supposed to have stated that “all options under the law are open except regularization of the structure''. It is not clear as to what these “options” are. If the structure is not to be regularized due to violation of CRZ Rules or based on security considerations, what option is available other than to demolish the structure entirely? The question assumes importance as the statement of the Minister mentioning “all” options other than regularization appears enigmatic. Significantly, the influential owners of flats in the society have already begun lobbying to save the building or at least part of it by paying penalty or otherwise persuading the Ministry to take a sympathetic and lenient view (see here). MMRDA by suddenly withdrawing the Occupation Certificate already granted, has also conveniently given the Society an opportunity to take legal recourse and obtain a stay on further actions. Suggestions have also been made to allow the entire building to be used by defense service personnel, Kargil war heroes etc. Such fanciful suggestions deserve to be rejected out of hand. The defense services already have their rules and are already taking adequate care of their personnel including families of those who lose their lives in the service of the nation, whether in Kargil or elsewhere. Just because in the initial proposal an attempt was made to gain sympathetic consideration mentioning Kargil war heroes and service personnel, there is no reason now to even consider perpetuating the misplaced approach. More importantly, if the building has indeed been made in violation of the law and has security implications, these issues cannot be ignored on the ground that the flats will be allocated to service personnel or their families.

The only solution that would satisfy the people is that both the Central Government, in particular the Defense and Environment Ministries as well as the State Government must immediately set in motion the actions to ensure that all the permissions given to the building are cancelled, the building is demolished and the land restored to the defense department who must not use it for any housing project.

The credibility of the State Government as well as the Central Government will be severely tested on the touchstone of actual actions taken in punishing the guilty and in demolishing the illegal structure which is also a security concern. If the overall attitude of the Government so far is any guide, it will be quite happy to avoid any firm action against the guilty and will also find a way even to rescue the Society in some manner. As of now, there is a complete lack of transparency on what exactly is being done, beyond the cryptic "action will be taken under the law". In all likelihood, the people will only see lip service being paid assuring action till the scam fades away from their notoriously short memories.

And then, those who have already got flats in the Adarsh Society can live happily ever after - in the same flats.

Also Read Article HERE
More strength to the Carpe Omnia Club - Maharashtra Chapter

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Remembering Bhopal – II Responsibility Then and Now

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 06:06:00 +0000

Contd. from I - Between Facts and Frenzy

As stated earlier, the three actors on whom the responsibility lies for the accident are Union Carbide, the Central Government and the M. P. State Government.

Union Carbide

By far the greatest responsibility for the disaster that took place in Bhopal lies on the shoulders of Union Carbide, first the US principals and next the Indian subsidiary. Voluminous information has been collected ever since the accident occurred that proves culpable criminal negligence on the part of the company. All along not only was the company aware of the highly dangerous nature of the operations but also the sordid state of the safety aspects of the plant which had been documented by responsible officials of the US headquarters and which were also within the knowledge of the highest levels in the company including Warren Anderson, the Chairman. There were enough warnings, may be not pinpointing the precise manner in which disaster would strike but fairly serious.

The plant was not operating at the time of the accident with a highly dangerous large quantity (40 tons) of methyl isocyanate which caused the accident, in tank E-610 which did not have refrigeration to keep it cool, a prescribed requirement. The refrigeration unit was shut for 5 months prior to the accident. Other instruments and facilities like Temperature Indicator Alarm, Pressure Indicator Control, scrubber system, flare tower etc. were either faulty or inoperative. "In addition, the safety siren, intended to alert the community should an incident occur at the plant, had been turned off." (Greenpeace) Workers were inadequately trained. The plant was designed by UCC which was also responsible for inspecting and approving all major equipment. The plant was under designed. An official from UCC stationed in UCIL had told UCC in the initial stages that only small quantities of MIC were needed to be stored for economic and safety reasons which was ignored and large bulk tanks were imposed by UCC.

It was noted: “The evidence condemning Union Carbide is persuasive. The structure of Union Carbide's relations with its subsidiaries indicates strict authority and control by the parent company. Union Carbide owns more than half of UCIIL shares. UCIL is listed on Union Carbide's consolidated balance sheet. Union Carbide had direct representation on the board of UCIL. More important is the evidence indicating direct Union Carbide involvement in the design and operation of the Bhopal plant.” UCC had financial and technical control over UCIL which was regularly exercised. According to a former official, “UCC had its finger on the pulse of the Bhopal plant all the time”. In May 1982, a UCC report by a team of American experts released by Anderson pointed out major safety concerns, warning that the plant presented “serious potential for sizeable releases of toxic materials.” A memo three months prior to the accident, in respect of the US plant of UCC which was based on similar features as the Indian plant, had cautioned that “a real potential for serious incident exists” at the US plant and even warned of a “catastrophe”. The evidence of UCC’s cavalier behavior was determined from documents available even without court-ordered discovery process. Ironically, just three days before the accident, UCC had taken a decision to dismantle and ship the plant to Brazil or Indonesia, largely because the Indian operation was running into losses and the demand projections were not met.

The Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide did little to inform workers about the highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) the plant was producing and the potential health threat to neighboring regions. When the accident occurred, the subsidiary’s management team reportedly resisted the parent company’s instructions to apply first aid to victims for fear of generating widespread panic within the corporation and the region. Even after the accident, while treating the affected persons, the UCC personnel did not allow a known antidote to be used for fear that it would disclose the identity of the substance that had affected the victims. Union Carbide had kept secret much of the information on the types and amount of chemicals that had been released.

After the event, UCC worked out strategies (“Judgment proofing”) to avoid liability for itself, including objection to trying the cases in USA (which succeeded), collusive class action settlement for low amounts and finally, preparing for bankruptcy by financial restructuring. Various subterfuges were resorted to by UCC at different times and at one stage even its shareholders had filed suits against Anderson and others for negligence in Bhopal. In order to avoid criminal liabilities, the company even floated a theory of deliberate sabotage by a disgruntled worker which it later did not pursue.

As early as 11th Dec.1984, hours after he returned to US, Anderson said at a press conference that he was confident that the victims will be “fairly and equitably compensated without any material adverse effect” on the balance sheet.

Central Government

Although the industrial licensing policy particularly the policy for foreign investments which was followed by the Government in the years prior to the accident might have appeared logical at the time, ironically, the seeds for a defense to be taken by UCC denying responsibility for the accident, lay in the conditions on which the company was allowed to set up the plant. UCC cited some of the conditions of the Letter of Intent and License to show that it was mandated to make a plant run fully by Indian employees as an Indian operation.

The major failure of the Government had been not to give sufficient attention to the possibility of such serious accidents taking place and effectively regulating such units as also failure to develop an appropriate body of laws to deal with mass tort cases.

Anderson Affair

Men in Focus - Rajiv Gandhi & Arjun Singh

The failure of Central Government which has been most criticized, however, is its decision to direct the release of Warren Anderson within hours after he was arrested by the State Government. It is now clear, based on all accounts of contemporary media and persons involved that the decision to allow Anderson to leave was that of Rajiv Gandhi, the PM at the time. When such a catastrophe had occurred and within days thousands were dead, no other person in authority could have taken a decision to allow Anderson to leave. When all the accounts from the people concerned like P.C.Alexander, M.K. Rasgotra, US Charge d’Affairs Streeb and others are linked, they point to the fact that such was the case. Also important is the reported remark by Andersons’ wife in the US before a reporter that “everything has been settled”. In fact, it can also be accepted that the arrival of Anderson to India in the first place was as a result of “safe passage” assured by the Government before hand. Considering the recent statement of Arjun Singh, the MP Chief Minister that he had no locus standi in the matter also points to the decision having been taken at the highest level at the Centre, bearing in mind that Anderson was also privileged to have tea with the President before he flew out. What appears to have happened is that Arjun Singh took the step of arresting Anderson first and upon the US Embassy getting involved and talking to the MEA about the safe passage assurance, Singh was asked by Rajiv Gandhi directly or through someone to let him leave.

While the Congress party has been strenuously trying to hide the obvious, it appears to be unnecessary as the decision could well have had some justification based on the conditions of that time.

It is a fact that the country had been having a tough time industrializing itself considering the myopic economic policies pursued by Nehru and Indira Gandhi, grandfather and mother respectively of Rajiv Gandhi. Apart from the immediate past of the assassination of his mother and its aftermath, Rajiv was also perhaps desperate to undo the effects of the disastrous policies pursued over the years by his party’s governments and ensure foreign investments in the country. Also at that time, American MNCs were held in awe (as even now) and UCC was a huge MNC of the time. This coupled with the pressure from the US Government might have persuaded him to adopt this course. It is, however, rather strange that Anderson was allowed to meet the President, ostensibly to express his sympathies.

At a practical level too, it may not have been possible to hold Anderson for any major length of time. In the first place, had it not been for an assurance of safe passage, he would not have come to India at all, much less visit Bhopal. Although it is not highlighted, he was arrested probably based on the original FIR filed by the local police which had registered the same initially under Sec. 304A, a bailable offence. CBI registered the case on 6th Dec. 1984 but the arrest was made by the local SP and DM. If he was indeed arrested under non-bailable provisions which were presumably cited in the FIR of CBI, then the theory that sounds plausible is that a magistrate was taken to the Guest House and Anderson granted bail there by him. Even then, it defies explanation as to how the local police could have made the arrest on an FIR registered by CBI without approval or direction of the CBI, a central agency. Indeed, even the opinion of the Attorney General of India given on 31.7.1998 in relation to an extradition request speaks only of the offence under Sec. 304A.

Subsequent events including the financial settlement for a much smaller than original amount sought must have been influenced by the immense pressure to save UCC and fear of loss of investment from US put into Rajiv Gandhi. The fear of damaging the investment climate was at best a red herring as is the case even now. As one expert said “I am not sure that the world multinational community really cares if Union Carbide has to pay the price for its errors in India”.

The fact that Rajiv Government had accepted even the dropping of criminal charges for the settlement indicates how the Government was keen to save those whose culpability was not in doubt.

It cannot be presumed that the actions were taken for personal gains. But in passing it has to be said at the very least that during Rajiv's visit to the US soon afterwards, a family friend Adil Shahryar (son of Mohammed Younus) serving 35 years in a US prison for federal offences was granted clemency by the US President as a goodwill gesture.

State Government

That the State Government of the time did not show adequate seriousness and concern for safety of the people was clear even before the actual accident happened. Not only did the plant have a prior history of accidents but the facts were known to Government. A fire had occurred in the alpha naphtol unit in 1982 but the fact was suppressed. After the death of a worker earlier in 1975 and then another in 1981 due to leakage of Phosgene gas, a worker had died, questions were raised in the State Assembly and the facts acknowledged by the Government. The Minister concerned had said that he had personally inspected the plant and found that it had adequate arrangements for meeting any exigencies. Later on, even Chief Minister was supposed to have said the same. “All is well”. According to Dan Kurzman, author of a book “A Killing Wind: Inside Union Carbide and the Bhopal Catastrophe” numerous Indian officials had close ties with UCIL, helping the company escape regulatory crackdowns. He further writes that a local Congress-I party leader was UCIL's legal adviser. Several relatives of ranking government officials were on the UCIL payroll, including the manager of the Bhopal plant, who was the son-in-law of Rajiv Gandhi's minister of human resources. Conflicts of interests existed.

The culpability for gross negligence by the State Government in case of a plant that was inherently based on hazardous technology with highly dangerous and toxic chemicals becomes all the more greater considering that Rajkumar Keswani, a journalist had been reporting on the plant from 1981 and after the first article in Sept. 1982, continuously wrote reports right up to 1984 when the accident happened about the dangers even going to the extent of saying that Bhopal was sitting on a volcano. The State Government chose to believe the company and took no notice of these warnings. Even after the accident, it has been claimed that the medical authorities did not allow, supposedly at the instance of Union Carbide, treatment of the victims with sodium thiosulphate, a known anti-dote for cyanide poisoning. The criminal culpability of the State Government officials, whether for ignoring prior warnings to medical treatment after the accident has never been investigated, as it would show that those who were supposed to look after the interests of the victims looked after interests of the guilty.

Some credit, of course, needs to be given to Arjun Singh at least for having arrested Anderson and few other top executives in the first instance. He even said in his press briefing that on the basis of facts already available, each of the arrested executives had constructive and criminal liability for the accident. It is equally a fact that he later succumbed to the pressure from the Central Government.

Incidentally, the greed of the police officer Swaraj Puri, who made the arrests on 7th Dec. 1984 came to the fore when he claimed that certain references in a book written by noted author Dominique Lapierre were defamatory and demanded $ 20 m. between 2002 and 2005. Having failed to get it, he filed a case for defamation in the High Court.

Congress in denial

Protect mine

Sonia Gandhi

The Congress party of today is probably doing more harm to their credibility and to the quest for truth and for justice than the then Congress Governments at the Centre and State. No sooner than information started to surface about Rajiv Gandhi’s possible role in the release of Anderson than the Congress party went in panic and apparently at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, pulled out all the stops to prevent even a hint of Rajiv Gandhi’s link with the event. Sonia Gandhi herself met Arjun Singh on 9th June 2010 when probably an "understanding" was reached on when and what Arjun Singh may say. Embarrassed and unsettled by the allegations, it pressed into service all those who could either convince the people that he had no role to play or who could divert attention to others. R K Dhawan, Ambika Soni, Moily and of course, the permanent defense team of Abhishek, Jayanthi and Manish Tewari went full throttle with half lies or diversions to obfuscate the matter. They blamed Arjun Singh, they blamed Narasimha Rao, amongst others. An excuse that Arjun Singh decided to release him (and also to send him out of country?) due to potential law and order problems was floated. Moily was bold enough to blame a CBI officer, the CJM of Bhopal and even the Chief Justice of India. He also blamed P. C. Alexander by imputing motives to his bringing out certain facts which would indirectly place the finger on Rajiv Gandhi. Some friendly members of the media lent a helping hand to play down the matter.

Vainly trying to prove that their party’s King could do no wrong, they persisted in dogged denial with infantile and convoluted statements going beyond the borders of ludicrousness.

In a party with a structure like Congress which inherently depends on the High Command for everything, only a few weeks after the assassination of Smt. Indira Gandhi, an inexperienced Rajiv anointed as PM, elections round the corner and the matter having international implications, it is simply unthinkable that he was in the dark about the events related to a catastrophic accident. It is almost a certainty that Rajiv Gandhi was at every stage fully informed, consulted and involved. Only the very gullible can believe otherwise.

The depths at which the party went to divert the country’s attention can be imagined when one of the spokesmen likened any questions being put about Rajiv’s involvement to unpatriotic behaviour. Two senior TV anchors, who were persisting with queries on involvement of Rajiv, mysteriously went off for a couple of days at the height of the controversy. Finally, when nothing seemed to work, the spin merchants of the party came with a fantastically laughable statement that “there is no convincing proof” that Rajiv was in the know of Anderson’s release. Well, if we believe that Anderson should be hanged on the basis of known facts, it must also be believed that Rajiv Gandhi was fully involved in the decision to release him unless there is convincing proof to show otherwise.

Moily - Trying to bury the Truth? But why?

Moily had said that justice was buried but it is truth that is sought to be buried by Congress. The party has also termed allowing Anderson to go as a systemic failure which does not appear to have been so. The real systemic failure was when democracy was suspended in the country in 1975, systemic failure is when massive corruption is allowed to continue at the highest levels, when internal security is given a complete go by for over four years, when an unsatisfactory nuke liability bill is sought to be pushed through to the detriment of the people, - the list is endless.

And the biggest systemic failure is that of our democracy where we, the people, keep on electing rotten politicians time after time and suffer our justly deserved fate.

What needs to be done?

By appointing an EGoM on the Bhopal issue, the Government is simply trying to find a way to somehow bring a closure to the 26 year old matter.

There should be no doubt that the harm and whatever injustice was done cannot be undone now nor can the clock be turned back. If the Government pursues any actions which will not see the light of day for a long time from now, it would be merely continuing with dishonesty and fooling the people even after such a long time.

Criminal Cases:
Those who are aware of legal processes will know that to continue with further actions, even if theoretically possible, would be an exercise in futility, wasteful expenditure and torment and more disappointment for those who still hope for more punishment to the guilty. In the criminal case just decided, the guilty will surely file an appeal. The State Government intends to file an appeal too. Considering the normal legal recourse available to both sides, possibility of the guilty ever suffering the punishment is negligible. Likewise, the country would only be further damaging its credibility by once again asking for extradition of Anderson at this stage 7 years after its request was rejected. The US has no reason to change its position from the one that the US Dept. of State took in its opinion dated July 24, 2003 recommending rejection. If by a stroke of good diplomacy it is ever achieved, there is no chance of the trial reaching the final judgment stage during Anderson’s life time.

And if everyone of the accused is punished by some miracle, those in Government who were responsible or negligent in doing their duty would still go free because they still do not have any accountability.

Compensation:
There is no way to once again revive any legal process to make any higher claims on the company. The judgment dated 14th/15thFeb. 1989 as confirmed by judgment dated 3rd Oct. 1991 is final and cannot be challenged.

If at all the Government, after reviewing the details of compensation received by all the claimants is fully convinced that they need to be given more in the special situation, the only option is for the same to be paid by the Government. And if now the Indian tax payer has to bear the burden, it is a price that must be paid for the characteristic indifference of the Government as well as the people.

Distribution of Compensation:
It is imperative that the Government presents a detailed and transparent status paper to the public giving a true and complete account of the amounts received by it including interest every year after the settlement amount was deposited, the disbursements made each year and reasons for delays in disbursement. The status paper must also disclose the amounts still available and the manner in which the same will be disbursed in a time bound manner.

Relief & Rehabilitation
The State Government must also similarly present a status paper on R & R including a time bound plan for further work proposed to be done. A time bound action plan also needs to be presented for long term medical relief.

Clean up and Remediation
This is one of the most critical issues which have been completely neglected by the Governments at the Centre as well as the State, partly because of the legal issues involved as the responsibility is being placed on Dow Chemicals, the successors to UCC. The actual work cannot be further delayed and a time bound program needs to be prepared for this as well.

Dow Chemicals
Dow Chemicals, faced with legacy legal issues as successor to UCC has consistently denied any legal liability in any matter related to the clean up and remediation. Although the matter may be pursued legally, the least that the Government must do is to stop giving it the red carpet treatment for investing in India. It is high time that the Government realized the country’s strength and stop being in awe of the multinationals.

Legal Framework
The delay in having an appropriate legal and administrative framework to deal with such destructive events in future has been inexcusable and instead of blaming the judiciary or others, the Law Minister should finally focus on his own responsibilities. It is worth mentioning that learning from the Bhopal experience and as a consequence of the accident, the US promptly introduced a new law Emergency Planning and Community-Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA or SARA III) within two years of the accident, requiring each State to establish emergency response commissions charged with developing integrated plans for responding to chemical emergencies and making chemical information available to the public. We have yet to learn.

Although those interested in getting the Nuclear Liability Bill passed are srtenuously arguing that it has no relation to Bhopal disaster, the underlying principle, that of liability of suppliers of such hazardous technology or equipment from accidents due to their negligence remains relevant and it would not be prudent to ignore the lessons from Bhopal now, in 2010 when we ought to be wiser than we were at that time.

The people must now realize that the Government failed in doing justice to the sufferers and its plans to now pursue the criminal cases are designed only to give false hopes to placate the sufferers. We also need to finally accept that there is no better way of clearing the mess than focusing on the practical and feasible measures for R & R, medical support and land clean up that will give at least some succor and a semblance of justice to the people.

Bhopal is and shall remain a catastrophe and a historic injustice made worse by mishandling and negligence before and after the event. The injustice should not be compounded any more by giving false hopes to the people.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Remembering Bhopal – I. Between Facts and Frenzy

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:27:00 +0000

The Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster – a catastrophe on 2nd/3rd December 1984 at the pesticide manufacturing plant of a monolithic US Multinational of that time, Union Carbide, which led to thousands of people losing their lives and getting injured due to leakage of toxic gas from a storage tank containing Methyl Isocyanate, has remained the worst industrial accident in the world. Over 25 years later and 18 years after the criminal trial in the case related to the catastrophe began, the lower Court in Bhopal pronounced judgment on 7th June 2010 convicting and sentencing 8 persons connected with Union Carbide India who were charged, to 2 years imprisonment, the maximum punishment for the charge for which they were being tried.

The events in Bhopal never received in the past the exhaustive investigation or media attention that they deserved. The judgment was the trigger for those who had practically forgotten the event to suddenly wake up and let out widespread cries of “justice denied”, “too little too late” etc.- amongst them the media, the general public, activists and even those in positions of authority. As the media recounted the disaster and the subsequent events, apart from those who have lived through the memories of the catastrophe, the impact also spread to those whose familiarity with the details was hazy. The impact was certainly compounded by the continuous discussions and interviews by TV media involving politicians, professionals, journalists, activists and others on this matter. The views of many participants with their own subjectivity, agenda and differing perceptions, often coupled with preconceived conclusions, half knowledge and predilections of presenters have tended to add confusion to a complex matter. The opportunity is also being taken by some to project views that deliberately cloud the real issues and divert attention away from inconvenient facts. In that they are ably helped by TV presenters who, appearing to ask tough questions, somehow never seem to ask the right tough questions. And expectedly, the TV channels have also been resorting to sensationalizing facts and conjectures. In the melee, objectivity is becoming the casualty.

Due to the overly active media exposure, the reactions of the parties involved and the general public have almost taken the form of frenzy. As a result of all that has been highlighted or exaggerated, the feelings of disbelief and frustration are leading to an outcry for “justice” and many appear to be ready to virtually hang every person who they think had even a small part to play in the event and it’s handling thereafter. Before logic, reason and objectivity completely fade away, it is necessary to place things in perspective, particularly the actual situation prevailing at that time and in the past all throughout till now. It is simply not correct to judge the events with today’s eyes because they took place in a different time line with a largely different set of conditions. It is also necessary to have at least a fair appreciation of the background of this very complex matter as to law and facts.

At the outset, it must be clear that the three parties who are squarely responsible for everything that has happened or not happened are Union Carbide, Government of India and Government of Madhya Pradesh. At the time of the accident, Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and Arjun Singh was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

The anger, frustration and disappointment of the public mainly revolves around the following in specifics, resulting in the overall feeling of injustice: (1) Failure of the Governments at the Centre and State (2) Judicial Processes (3) Inadequacy of compensation (4) Distribution of Compensation (5) Relief & Rehabilitation and Long term medical issues (6) Remediation of land

Criminal Case – Trial Court

The immediate target of the people’s ire was the lower court judgment sentencing all the 8 accused to 2 years imprisonment. The ill-informed, misinformed and uninformed amongst the people feel that the court ought to have given a much higher punishment for the accident that caused thousands to lose lives and suffer injuries. But in a country which does not have kangaroo courts, the guilty can be punished only as per law. In the case related to the Bhopal disaster, all the 8 accused were tried primarily under Sec. 304A of the IPC (causing death by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide) which offense carries a MAXIMUM punishment of 2 years and the judge could not have gone beyond the maximum under any circumstances. The Court has also given punishment of varying terms under some other Sections of the IPC which are to run concurrently. If all the punishments were to run separately, the total period would increase to 3 years and 9 months - far short of the “hanging” plea of those who clamor for “real justice”. In fact, those who were not directly connected with the plant operations and sitting at distant locations, including the non-executive chairman, have also been given the same punishment as those directly concerned at the site on the reasoning that they “ought to have known” about the situation at the plant level. As all have been found guilty and awarded the maximum punishment, there is little chance for the State to go in appeal except pleading for the sentences to run separately. On the other hand, the accused mainly the non-executive chairman and those not involved in plant operations may well appeal with a good chance of their punishment being reduced.

The other criticism leveled about the trial is the long delay of 18 years in reaching the decision. Actually, on 14th February 1989 the SC had approved the settlement reached between UCC and Govt. of India whereby apart from the monetary terms, even the criminal charges were to be dropped. However, on appeal, the SC on 3rd Oct. 1991 set aside the quashing of criminal charges. The original trial commenced in July 1992. When the charges were framed under Sec. 304 part II, the accused went in appeal to the High Court and thence to the SC. After the Supreme Court decision of Sept. 1996 (see below) the charges were re-framed and it is under the amended charges that the trial, during which 178 witness depositions were submitted by CBI concluded in April 2010. The judgment was delivered less than two months later. Anyone familiar with the inevitable time taken up by criminal trials of this nature and the immense normal work load of the courts would understand the delay. Therefore, it is indeed shocking that even the Minister for Law and JUSTICE Moily whose job is to ensure a proper justice delivery system and who ought to be aware of the reality, made uncalled for and irresponsible remarks saying that in this case justice delayed was not only justice denied but justice buried, to show fake sympathy!

The trial court had also framed charges against Warren Anderson Chairman of Union Carbide USA, the US Company and its Far Eastern subsidiary. As these were absconding, the trial was separated in the early stages. He was arrested in the first instance on 7th Dec. 1984 in Bhopal and was let off on the same day after granting him bail. (See below Anderson Affair and Congress in Denial) He never returned to face trial. The trial court had sought his extradition in 1992 but nothing was done till 2003 when Govt. of India sought extradition from the US Govt. only to be denied in July 2004. In fairness, it must be said that considering the charges against Anderson and in the context of the Extradition Treaty with the US, the legal experts consulted by the Govt. both in US and India had already indicated earlier, the possibility of rejection.

Criminal Case - Supreme Court

When the 8 accused filed revision appeals in the High Court against the charges framed by the trial court they were turned down but on appeal, a two member Bench of the Supreme Court by its judgment on 13th Sept. 1996, concluded that prima facie no charges could be framed under Sec. 304 part II but it was possible to apply Sec. 304A and directed the trial court to frame charges accordingly. Charges under Sec. 304A carry a maximum sentence of 2 years compared to maximum 10 years under Sec. 304 second part. It is this judgment which has been assailed now by many. The judgment came after the matter was duly argued by both sides. If there was any doubt about the judgment, the government itself should have filed for a review, considering the sensitivity of the matter. This did not happen. Now 14 years later, the Minister for Law & JUSTICE Moily, a senior minister, has used rather intemperate and unbecoming language against the then Chief Justice Ahmadi holding him responsible for diluting the charges, only to detract from the failures of others. It was also futile of him to suggest that the charge was reduced to that of a road accident. But the charge is based on the existing law of the land at that time and even now. In blaming the SC, he is also cunningly trying to shift the blame on the UF Govt. because Congress was not in power then.

Civil Litigation – USA

Within days after the accident, many lawyers from the USA - the ambulance chasers – landed in Bhopal offering their services to the accident victims to fight their cases in the US Courts. As early as 7th Dec. 1984, the first lawsuit was filed in US Courts by American lawyers on behalf of thousands of victims. Thereafter 144 more cases were filed in various US courts, all of which were joined in a single complaint in June 1985 involving 200,000 claimants. In the meantime, by a special Act briefly “The Bhopal Act 1985” passed in March 1985 the Govt. of India secured the exclusive right as parent patriae to represent all claimants in India and elsewhere so that “the interests of victims of the disaster could be fully protected and that the claims for compensation were pursued speedily, effectively and to the best advantage of the claimants”. The Government filed the claims on behalf of all claimants in US Courts. By May 1986, in India nearly 487,000 claims had been filed with the Government under the special scheme formed for registration of claims etc. Union Carbide managed to bring the matter before a convenient Judge Keenan and took objection to trying the case in US on grounds of forum non conveniens pleading that on various grounds it was more convenient to try the cases in the country where the accident occurred. The matter was strongly argued by the Govt. of India as to why the US Corporation was the responsible party to be tried and for the litigation to be continued in US. The court accepted UCC arguments and dismissed the consolidated case on grounds of forum non conveniens subject to UCC submitting to the Indian Courts’ jurisdiction in the matter. This decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in January 1987, effectively closing the option of pursuing the litigation in the US for compensation for deaths and injury.

After the Settlement in India (See below), some individuals once again approached the US courts in October 1993 for compensation but were denied hearing on grounds of their not having any standing. Other suits were also filed in 2004 for damages for personal injuries from exposure to contaminated water and for remediation of the land and liability of UCC for activities in India. They were dismissed both in the district and appeals courts at various times by November 2006. As of now, one appeal (Janki Bai Sahu) is pending in the US Court related to liability of UCC for UCIL acts.

Civil Litigation – India

Once the case was dismissed by the US Courts, Government began pursuing the matter in the Indian courts on behalf of all affected persons for compensation. Earlier, it had filed a case for $ 3.3 billion in compensation in the US Court. Even this claim was considered to be low compared to the estimates then made by some independent legal experts of a settlement in excess of $ 5 billion. However, even the lawyers who had earlier filed the cases on behalf of the individuals were fearful that a claim which may potentially bankrupt the US Company would not serve the purposes of those affected to get early justice. When the case was continuing in the US Courts, UCC had made an offer for $350 million in compensation which was rightly rejected at that time by the Government. It pursued its original claim of $ 3.3 bn. in the Bhopal District Court. The district court, in order to afford immediate relief ordered an interim compensation of Rs. 350 crores which was reduced to Rs. 250 crores on appeal in the High Court by UCC. Both the sides appealed to the Supreme Court against the HC order. Eventually, a mutually agreed overall settlement for $ 470 million for the benefit of all victims in full settlement of all claims, rights and liabilities arising out of the disaster was reached between the Govt. and UCC and accepted and recorded by a five member bench of the Supreme Court on 14th and 15th Feb. 1989, with reasons provided in a further judgment on 4th May 1989. This judgment was challenged by means of review petitions filed by others and not the Govt., but supported by Govt. The settlement was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment dated 3rd Oct. 1991, except that the quashing of criminal charges was set aside. This brought finality to the matter of compensation arising from death and injuries related to the disaster.

Inadequacy of Compensation

For those who had suffered as a result of death of relatives or injuries to themselves, the most important grievance by far remains the inadequacy of compensation. Many of the activists, journalists and others have rather simplistically been telling the world that the per person compensation amounts to a paltry sum. But the real picture can be seen only by a detailed analysis of the entire matter, including the actual compensation decided for various categories of claimants. For understanding the background with more clarity, the SC judgment dated 3rd Oct. 1991 needs to be referred to, without which it is well-nigh impossible to clear the misunderstandings created due to distortions or ill-informed comments by media, the activists and even the political parties. This is more so, when the comments are being made at a point of time far removed from the disaster and its aftermath and without considering the facts and issues in an overall sense. The Bhopal leak case was heard till the judgment of 3rd Oct. 1991 by four different Constitution Benches of the SC.

In mass tort cases like the one related to the Bhopal disaster, the trials are bound to be protracted and urgent relief required would elude the affected parties for long periods of time. “It is interesting to note that there has been no final adjudication in a mass tort action anywhere” and the alternative option of settlement and compensation is resorted to. Common law tort recovery is especially inadequate to compensate victims of toxic exposure. Assessment of compensation in such matters follows an approximation by a rough and ready process as it is difficult to precisely reach a figure of just compensation. The court also considered that a substantial time had elapsed during which the sufferers were without relief. In the judgment, the Court noted:
“When the settlement was reached a group of social activists, the Press and even others claiming to be trustees of society came forward to question it. For some time what appeared to be a tirade was carried on by the media against the Court. Some people claiming to speak on behalf of the social Think Tank in meetings disparaged the Court. Some of the innocent victims were even brought into the Court premises to shout slogans at the apex institution. Some responsible citizens oblivious of their own role in the matter carried on mud-slinging.”

It was also a fact that the Indian assets of UCIL were only about Rs. 100 crores and it was necessary to look to the US Company for compensation. Any litigation based on merits would have carried on for another 8 to 10 years in the lower court and with appeal procedures, 20 years in all, with uncertain outcomes. The legal uncertainties involved in bringing such litigation to a logical conclusion to secure a completely “satisfactory” settlement are too well known. The Court had said:
“Those who have clamoured for a judgment on merit were perhaps not alive to this aspect of the matter. If they were and yet so clamoured, they are not true representatives of the cause of the victims, and if they are not, they were certainly misleading the poor victims.”

In its judgment dated 4th May 1989, the Court has also given some broad calculations based on data available at that time to prima facie indicate that the compensation would be reasonable at that point of time. Subsequently, the government also fixed the compensation amounts for various categories of the victims.

In typical settlement agreements, the corporation agrees to pay an amount that is most often much less than the actual damage. The amount of $ 470 million was arrived at after negotiations between the parties, much lower than the original $ 3.3 billion claimed. There have been suggestions of some inappropriate dealings. There is nothing concrete to suggest that such was the case but it cannot be ruled out. Whatever may have been the real reason, the Rajiv Gandhi government buckled under tremendous pressure. In view of some US experts, even at a $ 1 billion settlement, UCC would not have been worried. At the end of the day, a settlement always depends upon the relative negotiating strength, tactics and urgency of either side, and it is obvious that acting under immense pressure, the Govt. finally yielded to a figure which appears low. The apparent inadequacy of the amount is further heightened by the fact that whereas the settlement was done considering the number of claims at that time and the assumed new claims, as time passed, a far larger number of claims materialized. At one time, the parties approaching the court of stated of their own admission that the numbers in case of ‘death’ as also ‘injury’ were at least five times larger than what was assumed at the time settlement had been reached. It is obvious that no settlement would have been possible on hypothetical number of possible future claims.

It is, therefore, clear that the compensation amount was lower than would have been desirable in the first instance and in the light of actual claims received has turned out to be inadequate. However, this cannot be attributed or blamed on the judicial process. Whether or not the case should not have been allowed to continue to its logical end shall always remain a question without a clear answer but the call for that was that of the Government acting on behalf of the victims.

Distribution of Compensation

A lot of dissatisfaction of many of the victims and in particular the activists centers on the non settlement of the claims. In light of the expectations of a high number of claimants, a special scheme to be managed by a separate authority was formed in 1985 under a special Act soon after the accident. (see here)

The sheer scale of the after effects of the tragedy can be imagined from the data submitted by the concerned authority which had, till 31st Oct. 1990 received 639,793 claims. Stories abound of thousands of false and vexatious claims, even some by persons in high positions, - one of them related to politicians in the party in power who had fled to a safer place during the accident. In its Review Judgment of 3rd Oct. 1991, the SC noted:
“The Additional Director also refers to the attempts by unscrupulous persons to exploit the situation in pursuit of unjust gains and how the authorities had to encounter attempts of impersonation and ‘attempts by claimants to pass of other's urine as their own.’ It was said that there were urine-donors.”

Even today, there are social activists claiming that over 93% of the victims had not received a single rupee. Such wild assertions need to be trashed straightaway considering that the total population of Bhopal at the time was 894,000 and the gas affected areas had a population of 560,000. (see here) According to the Ministry of Petroleum & Chemicals Annual Report 2009-2010, as on 30.11.2009, claims amounting to Rs. 1549.07 were disbursed to 573,894 claimants. (see here)

At the same time, there have also been continuing allegations of delays in payment of compensation. That long delays occurred cannot be denied. The original amount of compensation was deposited by UCC in February 1989. On various claimants approaching the SC in 2004, the SC passed orders in July 2004 for disbursements of settlement funds remaining to be disbursed. Subsequently, the deadline for disbursals was again extended till 30.4.2006 by SC. Social activists have been pointing out to the disbursement delays and sadly, the facts support their contentions. No fully satisfactory explanation for the delays is known to the public as yet. Unfortunately, the entire disbursal process seems to have been handled in a non-transparent manner and it is not known as to how much balance still remains with the Government.

It must also be remembered that the entire compensation settlement process has been a Herculean exercise (total 1.03 million claims registered) as each claim needs to be verified and decided. Thousands of cases may have been decided in adjudication proceedings which in their very nature are time consuming. It is interesting that 15,342 cases registered under “death” category were awarded of which only 5,295 were proved death cases during adjudication.

Relief & Rehabilitation and Long Term Medical Issues

The massive task of R&R for the victims of the tragedy was taken up by the M.P. State Govt. which created a special department for the work, involving medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation and judicial and administrative work. (see here) Over time, voluntary agencies also participated significantly in the effort. An amount of Rs. 512 crores had been spent on these measures till March 2009. Nevertheless, the R&R effort does have shortcomings and inadequacies and this work should form a core of the actions to be taken. In particular, the long term medical issues may need to be taken care of for at least ten more years.

Clean up and Remediation

The cleaning up and remediation of land remains a major issue over which in the 25 years, virtually no attention in terms of real action has been given by the Government. The land which was within the property of the Bhopal plant has been found to have contamination levels 500 times higher than those permitted by WHO. Major issues of soil and drinking water contamination have also arisen causing immense problems relating to future health of the people. The Government had at one point in time abandoned the idea of complete remediation after estimating a cost of Rs. 100 crores, considered to be high.

The issue has been entangled in a legal mess as to the real responsibility for cleaning up the land. The land was given under a lease by the M.P. Govt. to Union Carbide. In 1998, inexplicably the State Government allowed Union Carbide to hand back the leased land without any clean up. (See here)

The neglect of this important aspect reflects a tale of total apathy and lack of focus on the part of the Government as it tries to fix the responsibility for the clean up on Dow Chemicals, successors to Union Carbide while Dow tries to disown responsibility. Although a legal case has been filed by the Government in the M.P. High Court against Dow, what is needed is the actual action on clean up and remediation. A case has also been filed by Janki Bai Sahu in the US which has been meandering through the legal maze there.

Contd: II - Responsibility then and now

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

The Altar of Hypocrisy and Expediency

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 08:44:00 +0000

Modi, Pawar and Tharoor

The fallout from the fight between Shashi Tharoor, the ex-Minister of State for External Affairs and Lalit Modi, virtual boss of IPL, the biggest sports-related Brand that he has created, has highlighted the sway of hypocrisy and expediency in our polity.

It all began when a disparate entrepreneur group, the Kochi consortium ‘mentored’ by Shashi Tharoor decided to gate crash into IPL, which has become a closed group with only the chosen few allowed to own a team. The “bouncer” standing at the gate is Lalit Modi who practically manages how the favored ones get in and others are kept out.

In the latest round of auctions, two groups were to be the favored ones, Videocon and Adani Group. Although some pressure might possibly have been put on Modi from people in BJP in respect of Adani, those familiar with the IPL-BCCI scene know that the man who really calls the shots is the big daddy Sharad Pawar, the unofficial boss of BCCI, the parent body of IPL. Lalit Modi is the IPL boss as far as execution is concerned. He was apparently asked to ensure that the auction was conducted to secure winning of the favored ones.

IPL StadiaCheerleaders to Tearleaders?

A Dirty Game - for the sake of the Game of Cricket
The first hurdle devised by him to eliminate small bidders, i.e. new entry norms of $ 1 bn. in net worth and a huge bank guarantee, was soon removed after the participants protested to Manohar who in turn objected to Pawar. Modi then made friendly suggestions to the bidders to bid specific amounts such that the bids of the favored two would come out at the top. His prompting went unheeded. Sahara and Kochi bid high based on their own calculations and won the bids. While Sahara for Pune was obviously no pushover, a possibility was seen that the relatively unknown Kochi Consortium could be persuaded or intimidated and made to withdraw. A back out option for $ 50 m. was offered by Modi to them obviously at the instance of those who wanted the favored one to be brought back in the picture. Even more sinister and desperate measures taken by others have also come to light. (see here) As the Kochi group was unmoved, Modi started using dilatory and harassment tactics before awarding the bid. When nothing worked, in a totally mala fide action Modi placed the details of ownership of the Kochi Consortium on his Twitter time line, tipping the media about it to give it widespread attention.

Media Prepares the Case
As Modi had intended, the media did blow up the information particularly when pointedly told that one of the shareholders Rendevous had a 25% free equity in the Consortium and that a lady friend of Tharoor was in turn given a part of that part. It was further disclosed that she had the share as sweat equity. The print and television media vied with each other to twist and turn facts and intertwined them with imagination, speculation and half-baked knowledge to present a story to a gullible audience. The “news” story created a strong impression amongst the credulous public that by helping a bidder group, Tharoor was guilty of serious wrongdoing the like of which had not been seen before. To give more credence to the media’s summary conclusions, his friendship with the lady was played up with snide and scurrilous remarks in bad taste.

Enter the political class
BJP, the main opposition party, which has otherwise been quite ineffective in making any worthwhile impact on issues of real national importance where the Government has failed miserably, then seized upon the opportunity to score some political points from the story. It came out quite aggressively as Ravi Shankar Prasad its spokesman, beside himself with rage, fumed in the press conference at Tharoor’s grave sin almost as if he had given away the nuclear secrets of the country and demanded that he be sacked. The hypocrisy of the party was quite evident considering that it supports or tolerates persons like Yeddy, Reddys and Raje within its own fold and Badal and Soren as allies in the States to stay in power. Regardless, it mounted an attack on the junior minister and other political parties too found it expedient to join them in a deafening chorus baying for blood.

And Tharoor
Smarting from the accusations, the man who wants to provide an example of an honest politician wanting to make a difference tried to defend himself in public and in the Lok Sabha as best as he could. He asserted that he was only trying to offer his informal guidance to an intending bidder group being particularly interested in helping the Consortium which chose Kochi in Kerala in which State he has a legitimate interest as an elected MP from the State. If successful, it would bring benefits to the people of Kerala. He further said that the fact that a friend of his had been given sweat equity was neither an unusual arrangement in such commercial ventures nor was he going to benefit from the same. Further, he said his help did not involve misuse of his Ministry and most importantly, that he was not in a position to affect the eventual outcome of the bidding. His formal statements in Lok Sabha before and after he was forced to resign are given (see here and here). A later interview by the lady who willy nilly faced the spotlight, gives her own perspective. (see here)

Congress Party
As the controversy spread like wildfire, the Congress party scrambled to find a solution to douse it. The party with a history of dubious ethics and indulgence towards corruption was at its hypocritical best - or worst - and suddenly found the need to be seen as clean as ultra pure RO treated bacteria free water of the Ganges. As the Prime Minister was abroad for some work which few seem to care about, other senior Congress ministers pondered over the crisis and sought explanations from Tharoor. He stood his ground and claimed that no impropriety was involved. When the PM came back and was briefed, Tharoor gave his explanation to him too. But no sooner a signal was received from the party chief that Tharoor had to go, than everyone found that his explanation was not satisfactory. The party’s decision was also dictated partly by expediency and inconvenient timing as a lot of important business had still to be transacted in the Parliament. Tharoor was asked to resign which he did. A relatively weak goat was sacrificed at the altar of hypocrisy and expediency.

The party’s hypocrisy is evident from the fact that apart from an overall public sense of corruption having grown manifold in the last over five years, even at this time, it is tolerating persons regarded in public perception as highly corrupt or ‘history-sheeters’ of wrongdoing – from within itself as well as its allies. So great is the Party’s propensity to tolerate wrongdoing that even the Prime Minister had said of one his Ministers that “he is a valuable colleague”, forgetting that the high valuations they place on their colleagues have to be paid for in one way or the other by the people.

After the Resignation
Under the shadow of ignominy at having had to sacrifice one of their own and scalded by accusations of inaction against alleged scandals in the IPL the Government has galvanized the revenue and other authorities into hyperactive mode to take action against all those who may be involved in wrongdoing relating to IPL. As events are unfolding, once again the media has been working overtime to give its interpretations of the events and once again jumping to conclusions that they feel their audiences are willing to lap up. After Tharoor, the next goat – though not weak in any way – Lalit Modi, the IPL boss is about to be sacrificed in a similar way.

And the People…
We, the People, are the ultimate and real protectors of Democracy and have to clearly demonstrate our own maturity after over 60 years of democracy. While the people have every right to vehemently protest against wrongdoing, equally, there is also a responsibility to maintain fairness and objectivity and uphold the sound principles on which democracy thrives.

Consider for example, the case of Tharoor. From the prisms of those prejudiced or those against his party or those who simply believe whatever is said, surely he is guilty based on whatever is in the public domain. But from another perspective, things may appear differently. People in authority, MPs and Ministers are requested by others to help in umpteen matters. Any MP or Minister worth his salt does oblige by rendering his help where possible. Such help is rendered routinely, sometimes even using their own authority, without being considered impropriety. It is also reasonable to assume that those who are helped may derive at least some benefit through such help. Is it fair to assume that if a person getting such help has some benefit, the Minister/MP also necessarily partakes in that benefit? Also, MPs and Ministers are constantly trying to help their constituencies in ways that bring benefits to the constituencies. What Tharoor did and much more than what he did, is done openly or obliquely day in and day out by those with some authority without necessarily misusing their office.

On the other hand, the media, the politicians and the people know full well the massive wrongdoing that is not only being done but is regularly coming within public knowledge. No eyebrows are raised over such cases. Instead, the eyes are just shut. When a minister of a junior partner in a coalition government is found indulging in wrongdoing, such cases are shrugged off. Instead of protesting, people show indulgence on the ground that these are compulsions of coalition politics forgetting that the people’s expectations of a clean government cannot be constrained by such compulsions and they may be of concern only to the parties that form the Government not the people.

In the present case, the media and mass frenzy appear to be creating a new principle that a man is guilty unless proved otherwise. If Tharoor is guilty by our standards of political morality, surely he deserved to go. Fair play also requires a similar fate for those within the Government accused of similar or graver improprieties. Thoroughly swayed by the media onslaught, the people seem to have been carried away and joined in the ritual dance to hasten the slaughter of the sacrificial goat. The media and politicians have damned, condemned and all but lynched a person. While a goat was sacrificed, the vultures and the hyenas of the Carpe Omnia club in the government roam free, waiting for prey including goats in human form. ( see here)

The Cheer-dealers, sharing sweet smell of success

IPL and Modi
IPL is well and truly caught in an unenviable position where the tremendous Brand value it has gained over the last three seasons is in danger of being eroded. As for Modi, he may well rue the spark he provided on the Twitter which started the wildfire that is now engulfing him. A failed bid to dislodge those who had won the bid has landed him on the same altar from where Tharoor was sacrificed. Only, he is not by any means a weak goat. He will certainly need to pay for whatever wrong he might have committed. If BCCI and IPL are shown to be involved in so many dark deeds, all those who are part of the set-up should be made to share the blame and made to pay, including Sharad Pawar, the man with the ScaMidas touch, who has been very much working behind the scenes all along in spite of assertions to the contrary. There is no doubt that Modi has created a legendary brand and in that sense has served the country. He would be doing a much greater service if he took down with him some of those who encouraged or allowed him to commit any wrongs.

At the end of the day, if only the two minor ones are sacrificed, an old proverb may have to be re-phrased:
Caesar’s wife must be above reproach, but what about Caesar ?

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

The New Role Models - 62 years after Mahatma Gandhi

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:10:00 +0000

Mahatma Gandhi 2.10.1869 - 30.1.1948

Gandhi who? Sardar who? Shastri who?

30th January 2010 is the 62nd Death Anniversary of the greatest Indian in recent history, Mahatma Gandhi.

It is time to remember him. It is also necessary to remember another giant of a man Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as well as Lal Bahadur Shastri, the third Prime Minister of India. By coincidence, all these three worthy sons of India were born in the month of October. While Mahatma Gandhi and Shastri died in the month of January, Sardar died in December.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel 31.10.1875-15.12.1950
Lal Bahadur Shastri 2.10.1904 - 10.1.1966

These three true Leaders, models of simplicity and अपरिग्रह, were expected to be the role models for the countrymen in terms of morality in public life.

As the people look back in time and look at the present times, sadly the memories of these three Leaders and other such leaders of earlier years appear to be fading and instead of looking up to men like them, the people seem to be looking up to a new breed of polticians - the unscrupulous, the avaricious and the downright corrupt politicians as the new Role Models - or Rule Models. This new breed of politician-leaders has hardly anything in common with their worthy predecessors except, perhaps, that some of them still wear Khadi.

These are the examples of some such "worthy" political leaders of the present time.

Pawar
Jagan and YSR Reddy
Lalu Prasad
Madhu Koda
Mayawati
Praful Patel
A. Raja
Deve Gowda
Mulayam Singh
Jayalalitha
Amarinder Singh
T.R.Baalu

With a Learner Licence

Yeddyurappa
Sukhbir Badal

The selection of these distinguished persons is naturally based on the larger public perception and does not claim to be complete as the list is constantly growing and bound to grow. It is as subjective as the list of Padma Awardees.

It is possible that a politician or his admirers or detractors may feel that he should not have been excluded from this Gallery of Illustrious Politicians. If anyone has been inadvertently, fairly or unfairly left out, his name could be suggested in the Comments Section for inclusion in the zone of consideration, based on his success in following the Credo of the New Politicians’ Class.

Carpe Omnia: Take it all, seize everythingPecunia vincit omnia : Money conquers all

In lieu of a C.V., relevant web references/links detailing their "achievement" should be adequate. Let the readers then consider whether the person is “worthy” enough or not.

Vultures and Hyenas Waiting

The misfortune of this country will end only if we, the people, decide to banish the vermin, vultures and despicable parasites. No manna will fall nor any heavenly forces intervene for this and the people will themselves have to act. Only when they are effectively hounded out from political life and ostracized in social life then can we say even with half-conviction that:
Saare Jahan Se Achha

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Mile Sur.....Searching for the Soul of Integration

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:35:00 +0000

One of the real gems promoted by Doordarshan, the Government TV channel was the video “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” which was first telecast on 15th August 1988. Doordarshan has been performing a yeoman service for years before the plethora of new commercially motivated television channels made their appearance. This song and video are one of the all time great contributions by Doordarshan for the cause of national integration.

The song quickly became extremely popular and at that time and even now, whenever the song is heard or the video seen, it overwhelms the minds of the people, choking them with emotions for the country that they want to be truly great, not just in hyperbole.

The video was produced by Kailash Surendranath for Lok Seva Sanchar Parishad, the lyric written by Piyush Pande now as then with the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in India. The music was composed by Louis Banks (or Ashok Patki?) and the concept was by Suresh Mullick. It made use of the same wordings in 14 languages other than Sanskrit and featured celebrities from various walks of life including the legendary Bhimsen Joshi and M. Balamuralikrishna who also lent their voices to the magical composition. More details can be found here in a very good article.

The original video and the song can be seen and heard on the following links:

Video Link here

Audio Link here

For those who wish to hear the song here is the recording in 24 kbps.

Phir Mile Sur….

An initiative that deserves compliments is the attempt to re-create the sentiments of the original in the new video Phir Mile Sur which is being telecast on 26th January 2010. Glimpses of the video show that those who thought of and executed the new production have tried to do justice to the theme. The music has been set in the present context and the visuals are using the present day celebrities, although rather sadly, the film personalities get the limelight. The new creation is also nice and may, in time, evoke similar emotions as felt by those in whose minds the original creation - the song as well as the visuals - has been so indelibly etched.

See the video: here

More such initiatives to unite the people are needed especially as even in the 60th year of the republic, the so-called leaders who run the show are failing the people and all is not yet well.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Pawar deserves the Sack

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:50:00 +0000

Not a day passes when the most worthless Minister in the Central Government does not come out with statements designed to help profiteers while in the same breath asserting that he is not responsible for the inflation. This is, perhaps, the first time that the country is facing an unusual situation where apart from the failure of policy and programs of the Agriculture Ministry, utterly irresponsible and alarmist statements by its Agriculture Minister are equally resulting in feeding the fire of inflation as everyone from the aam admi to the Prime Minister, who also claims to be an aam admi, is watching helplessly.

Pawar - Can we project shortage of salt next?

India-awake which has already been following his dismal track record ever since he was appointed as Agriculture Minister, has been highlighting the same since May 2008. (see this article and the links there)

Brazenness, Bluff and Bluster

His oft repeated hackneyed and bogus excuses are no longer fooling anyone except, perhaps, some of his party members. He can hide neither under the drought, nor heavy rains nor floods because regardless of these natural factors which happen every so often, people are beginning to realize that the country has entered a cycle of scarcity which may continue even in normal periods. This is happening because of the havoc being wrecked by this one man.

On 22.1.2010, he made an assertion that in his 40-50 years of political life, for the first time he was seeing price rise being linked to Agriculture Ministry. He may be right, but he (more than his Ministry) is being blamed because he may well be the first Agriculture Minister responsible to a large extent for the state of affairs and the drought and heavy rains have come in handy only to be used as shields. He also said that the Agriculture Ministry was performing its functions (of collecting statistics?).

Incidentally, even if there is drought, there is no famine. It is worthwhile to refer to the following observation in a UNDP publication on drought and famine:

“..droughts are therefore a normal feature of climate and weather systems in all countries, including those generally regarded as being “wet” and “cold” as well as those areas usually associated with the term “drought” – the semiarid areas of the tropics. While droughts may be regarded as unusual in that they do not occur all the time, or in some areas for most of the time, droughts should not be regarded as being “abnormal” and, in fact, should be planned for in all countries.”

( see this publication)

The people have been fooled enough by talks of drought and if the country can become so helpless all due to a drought, it is indeed scary to imagine the situation in case of a real famine, especially with the present Government and ministers like Pawar being in charge.

Pawar planning to import fodder too?

In the last week, he made a statement pointing to an impending increase in the price of milk which understandably drew protests from various States. It also inflamed the volatile Mayawati who promptly and rightly insisted that Sharad Pawar be removed. Mayawati used the term “irresponsible” for his statement. She should have instead used a stronger term.

Cabinet responsibility? – Yes, for not removing him

He has been cunningly trying to shirk the responsibility for the rise in food prices. In the last week, he cleverly persuaded the Cabinet for the Prime Minister to call a meeting of the Chief Ministers of the States to discuss the issue thus pitting one against the other. The underlying idea was to kill two birds with one stone. Such a meeting would imply that both the Prime Minister and the State Governments were the real parties responsible and not him. It would also leave the Prime Minister, rather than him, to face embarrassing protests of the Chief Ministers which were bound to surface. It appears that the Chief Ministers as well as possibly the Prime Minister saw through his game and the meeting has been deferred.

To buttress his position, he also had his sidekicks say that if anything was going wrong, the entire Cabinet was responsible not him, as the Cabinet had the collective responsibility. Sure, his supporters are right. The Cabinet as such cannot escape responsibility. But that responsibility lies on the Cabinet and particularly the Prime Minister for tolerating and continuing an incompetent Minister in a crucial Ministry who only compounds rather than solves the problems. Of course, the overall economic policies also have an influence. For example, he has been implying that the poor are eating more because of the UPA programs for the poor. If that be so, on the basis of collective responsibility, he is also responsible for any failures of the Government related to its economic policies.

Sackfuls of Sugar and Rotten Wheat and other Rotten Stuff

Pawar - a welldoing Minister

Sharad Pawar has been in positions of power for long enough. Even if the general perception about his having done too well for himself and being the wealthiest politician in the country is discounted, he deserves to get the sack with sackfuls of imported sugar and rotten wheat as bonus, purely on the basis of his performance as Agriculture Minister.

A vulture lying in wait for a famine

If the Prime Minister cannot get rid of this man even now, it can only mean that he personally along with the entire Government is truly responsible for this state of affairs.

It can be termed as a misfortune of the people to have such a Government running and ruining the show.

24.1.2010

Even as the ink is turning dry....

Even as the ink of this article is turning dry, the multi-faced Pawar, who has been himself giving excuses for the price rise while claiming to be not conerned with it, seems to have finally realized that nemesis may catch up with him. As reported by a TV channel, he made a statement somewhere to the effect that the because of the inflation, the farmers were getting higher prices! He is further reported to have said to the effect that he would not mind sacrificing his chair in trying to get a fair deal for the farmers. A mercenary trying to pose as a true martyr, no less!

How can any sensible Head of Government take such nonsense? If he can, it only means that he still has confidence in Pawar and shares his views.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Food Prices and Inflation - Govt. Twiddling Thumbs

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:38:00 +0000

There is no surprise that the inflation has been galloping week after week primarily on the back of the back-breaking and uncontrolled increases in the prices of food products almost on a daily basis. The extent of increase in the food prices and overall inflation has once again ceased to have any meaning although for the record, the food inflation has jumped to 17.47% and the overall inflation for November 2009 jumped to 4.78%.

With a Government that is only content with slogans of working for aam admi and expressing “concern” for the inflation, the people can hardly expect their cries of suffering to be heard.

Sharad Pawar

The man responsible for the total mess in Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, is unable to show what he has done to control the prices of food products. In fact, his policies have been largely responsible not only for the immediate problems but also for the manner in which the country is likely to become extremely vulnerable in the future as far as food security is concerned. Yet, in a show of utter indifference, he keeps inventing all kinds of reasons for the failure to curb the price rise.

The aam admi has to be content to see the Memo of Reasons coming from Pawar showing different reasons at different times based on expediency.

Much has already been written about Sharad Pawar in earlier articles (see here, here and here). Far more could be written, if only it would make a difference.

Pranab Mukerjee, explaining away the inflation, says in one breath in Rajya Sabha: “Prices are a major area of concern,” but they cannot be “merely solved by rhetoric. Corrective economic steps are to be taken,”. Who is engaged in 'rhetoric', pray? It is not the people, not the Opposition parties but the Government that should have acted long back but did not and has not. In the next breath he says: “inflation, especially of food items, has gone up because of the “cost push factor” following a high level of government support prices paid to farmers — be it sugarcane, wheat or rice. However, there would be no going back and "farmers will have to be encouraged." Such comments may well fit in the mouth of Pawar but not Pranab who is a more responsible person. Here is a Government implicitly trying to place the blame for the price rise on the doorstep of the farmers! It is playing a dangerous game by projecting that prices can be reduced only at the cost of the farmers, pitting them against the people-at-large! The people have not forgotten how the Government tried to help the farmers with the sugarcane ordinance that led to massive protests from the farmers, forcing the Government to backtrack hastily, less than a month ago. Such are the ways in which the Agriculture Minister makes policies which are meekly endorsed by the entire Government "in the interest of the farmers".

Pranab Mukerjee -confused or trying to confuse?

What do the two contradictory statements from Pranab Mukerjee mean for the aam admi? Do we have to believe that while on the one hand it is the Government which has to take corrective steps, yet at the same time, the prices are rising not because of the lack of corrective steps, but because the price increase takes place due to the farmer being paid more? Is it because of farmers being paid more that prices are increasing on a weekly nay, daily basis?

And then we have the Prime Minister, who seems to be unwilling to call a spade a spade and hold his Agriculture Minister responsible and make him to account.

Helpless, just like the Aam admi?

Unfortunately, the Opposition parties had so far failed to effectively pressurize the Government and whatever little they did so far to highlight the plight of the people does not seem to have made any difference.

The grim situation seems to have woken them up and finally they took the step of protesting in and outside the Parliament on 16th December 2009. Their protests inside the Parliament led to the Lok Sabha being adjourned for the day. It can only be hoped that the Opposition will continue to put the Government under enough pressure to shake up the sense of helplessness that the Government has become used to showing, whenever anything goes wrong, whether it is the safety and security of the country and the people, or the food security.

The Left Parties and SP

In the meanwhile, as Pawar continues fiddling with agriculture policies and cricket while the people's bellies are on fire, the Government appears to be twiddling thumbs hoping...hoping that eventually, the people will be forced to drastically reduce their food intake bringing down prices, and improving their health too!

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

The Mess in Agriculture

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:41:00 +0000

The one who fiddles...

mere desh ki dharti sona ugle

After the recent events coupled with experience of the last few years on the food front, the question in people’s minds is : For how long should the country suffer the continuance of a person who does not have any credibility left nor seems to be capable of meeting the challenges on the agriculture front, as the Agriculture Minister?

Over a year ago, India-awake highlighted in two articles, the inept handling of the Agriculture portfolio by Sharad Pawar, wannabe Prime Minister, and the resulting grim scenario as far as the food security of the nation is concerned. See articles here and here which bear reading. It was clearly visualized even then that due to lack of adequate attention and absence of purposeful policies for long term and sustainable improvements essential to keep feeding a growing population, the country was on its way to food scarcity and recurring cycles of imports as in the distant past. Even as the Minister kept on boasting about record production, Rs. 71000 crores had to be spent to bring succor to suffering farmers and a Government corporation imported under some scandalous transactions rotten wheat bringing back memories of PL-480 days of the distant past. Both had to be paid for with the taxes collected from the aam admi.

Last year when the country was reeling under high inflation, the all-knowing Finance Minister Chidambaram cited the “food crisis” as one of the reasons for the difficulties and the Congress Party was forced to issue a press statement calling for “better agricultural policies”. And yet towards the end of the previous Government’s tenure in April 2009, the clever Pawar managed to get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to praise him with the latter saying that the agricultural growth rate during Pawar’s term had gone up to 3.5% from 1.8% during the NDA regime.

Sadly Pawar has managed to secure the same portfolio in the second term, ensuring continuing suffering for the people. Once again, the food scarcity, high prices and the lame excuses for the disastrous situation are being faced by the people in an uncanny repetition of what happened just last year. Going through the media reports of that time and now, only the dates and the statistics have changed. Qualitatively, the situation is far worse now. Till last year, only the producers i.e. the farmers were forced to commit suicide. This year, perhaps, even the consumers, the aam admi, may have to take the path if they cannot get their daily bread.

All that the Minister seems to have been doing all along is to claim credit for the high support prices the Government paid to the farmers and loan write-offs to the farmers which was essentially a burden on the people arising from government neglect. He thinks of everything only in terms of money and high support prices, subsidies and doles are his panacea. And, whenever there are problems related to availability or high prices of food articles, this master of sophistry is never short of clichéd excuses and song and dance blaming increase in consumption, failure of rains, unfavorable weather conditions, logistics problems, wastage of food grains, market intermediaries, hoarding, failure of the States, shortage of storage etc. many of which are the result of Government inaction. He even lamented that there was a huge wastage due to damages in government warehouses, implying that it was somehow not his responsibility. One gem on the cause of price rise: “prices had risen as the purchasing power of poor people had increased due to welfare schemes such as NREGA and, therefore, the demand had gone up tremendously.” He has also been inventing “new factors” like increase in income, climate change, high energy prices, globalization and urbanization! His latest googly in the Lok Sabha on 7th Aug. 2009 was: “There have been changes in the world, which are having an impact on India too.” With so many excuses available, it is so easy for him to use them in various combinations to explain even if people die of hunger.

When these factors work together to conspire against his efforts, what is the poor man to do other than focus on cricket or other such money-spinning ventures?

The Minister for Agriculture of the country is not there just to give out weather reports, reel out statistics to boast about record production and procurement, higher support prices and subsidies and feed misleading statements in place of food to the people while in the same breath, try to explain away shortages and rising prices.

In the last one month, the people are being fed with different projections of rains and production, none of which are reflected in the ground reality which is that the people are suffering even before the effect of the failing monsoon on the crops. On July 11, 2009 Pawar said: “there was nothing to worry about the availability of food grains in the country even though the monsoon situation was not normal.” Even later, on August 4, he informed Lok Sabha that the Centre had raised the food grains target to 238.12 million tonnes for the current year against 233.88 million tonnes in previous year. Everything positive that has been said about record production and procurement by Pawar is simply not matched by the prices which have been literally shooting up in a short time. He has also declared that the country has enough stocks of wheat and rice to last for 13 (or 30?) months. But after conveying a false sense of security on the food front for a long time, now he says that there is a problem and the people should expect high prices, directly stoking the high price fire. It is no use blaming hoarders or the monsoon.

The cases of two essential items of daily needs, namely, Tur Dal and Sugar, provide a clear insight into how the matters are being mishandled.

Tur Dal

In the case of Tur dal, the Government awoke from its slumber (self induced?) when practically overnight, the price mysteriously shot up to an unthinkable Rs. 100 per kg rising by 40% in one month, bringing untold miseries to the people. There is a fear that it may reach even Rs. 140 per kg. Indications about shortfall in production were available as early as January 2009 and in important growing areas like Karnataka, the production was expected to fall by as much as 40%. With rising demand for pulses where the country has been required to resort to regular imports even to meet normal demand, no serious efforts have been made to increase the production while the focus has been to increase the production of cereals and other grains. While talking about the situation Pawar, adept in sidetracking real issues gave in the Parliament the usual spiel known to everyone about domestic production being short, consumption growing, the country having to import, only a few countries having surplus in pulses, making efforts to produce more in the country etc. none of which could actually explain the specific question about the huge price increase in less than two months. And when the media reported about lakhs of tons of pulses lying at the ports even as the prices shot up, the Minister made a deliberate carefully drafted statement in the Parliament, that whatever quantity was procured by the government agencies was “not rotting” and also got the Pulse Importers Association to issue a denial which actually confirmed that “an estimated 3.7 lakh tonnes of pulses were currently lying at various ports and at port-towns and are in the process of being distributed to end-users in the hinterland”. Huge stocks lying at the ports were supposedly “in the process of being distributed” which ‘process’ can take an indefinite period of time. The seriousness of the situation was confirmed when the Government recently gave a belated ultimatum to the importers to lift the stocks in a certain time. According to one report, the price of Tur dal was Rs. 34 at the time of elections and has only since been rising continuously to touch the level of Rs. 102 in less than two months. There are many who think that the timing of the price rise tells its own story. It is also significant that the price increased even before the real situation of the monsoon was visualized.

The people, left to their own devices could respond in the only way possible: they have been forced to reduce their intake of this essential source of proteins. Some State governments are talking of distributing tur dal through PDS shops in a limited way but the people-at-large have no option but to pay the high price. The helpless Agriculture Minister, apart from talking of augmenting imports after the prices have reached these levels, is twiddling his thumbs allowing vested interests to rake in huge profits.

Sugar

The bitter case of sugar is more mystifying, and needs to be looked at, keeping in mind the fact that Pawar has long standing involvement with the sugar industry and as such there is prima facie a conflict of interest.

The economics and politics of sugar are determined by a complex web of government policies including import, export, MSP mechanism, levy and release mechanism, futures trading etc. which determine the prices that the consumer pays. Any wrong or untimely decision, deliberate or unintended, can result in the people having to pay dearly.

During 2007-2008 the sugarcane crop was 348 million tons creating a sugar surplus situation. In December 2007, Pawar himself asked the industry to reduce its heavy reliance on sugarcane cultivation owing to severe constraints on land, asking the industry to turn to alternative crops such as wheat, rice, cereals and oilseeds especially when the country would have to import them (all of these) in future. On 7th August, he told Lok Sabha: “Last year, when this Government had announced Rs. 1080 per quintal price for wheat, a sizeable section of the farming community, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, shifted from sugarcane to wheat.” (Lok sabha debates 7.8.2009). He is complaining now about what happened as a result of his own actions and advice! How did he handle the MSP mechanism? The table below is revealing.

Product	MSP 05-06	MSP 08-09
Paddy	570	850
Wheat	650	1080
Tur	1400	2000
Sugarcane	79.50	81.18

Note that the MSP for wheat has gone up by 66% whereas sugarcane is practically negligible. Was it not logical and anticipated that with such MSP changes acreage might move from one product to another and create shortage of one product and surplus of another? Surely, this could not have been an oversight. What may be the logic? Increase the MSP of other products first. This will inevitably result in acreage diversion from sugarcane and create shortages and panic. It may then be easier to bring about changes in sugarcane MSP as also overall sugar policy without appearing to show any favors and without questions being raised.

During 2007-2008, there was a surplus in sugar for a second year in succession. Unmindful of the cyclic nature of sugar cane production which could see a fall in production in the next year, he allowed sugar exports even by giving subsidies on exports after denying earlier that there would be subsidies. He was also pushing for allowing production of ethanol also from sugar cane juice apart from molasses and in favor of increasing the mandatory limit of ethanol blending in fuel from 5% to 10% ensuring either a rise in the sugar price or reduced availability.

Export and import policies are also being tinkered with, which somehow by accident seem to benefit the producers and traders. In Sept. 2008 he rejected an industry demand to allow duty free sugar imports saying there will not be requirement for imports.

When seen together with the prodding by Pawar to shift the land use and other actions like pursuing the higher-ethanol-from-sugar argument and rejecting import demand in Sept. 2008, allowing exports, do all these not look like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle created by a master?

On 31st July 2009, he made a statement in the Parliament, about the expected shortfall in sugar production shockingly stating at the same time that the lower production “has put pressure on sugar prices”. He could not be blamed for taking the Parliament in confidence on the situation. At the same time, it was an unmistakable cue for prices to shoot up locally as well as even internationally as he very well knows that India being a huge consumer, any such official pronouncement would have a big impact. The following chart shows what happened to international price of raw sugar in two weeks following 31st July (Friday).

The price of white sugar also went up from $ 492 (31.7.09) to $ 577 (13.8.09). They have since reached a 28 year high. It is not difficult to guess that those in the know would have covered up good quantities of sugar from international markets just before the announcement, to make huge profits in a short time. And when the prices rose, the Minister started blaming speculators for spreading rumors. The following chart shows the actual sugar balance situation.

Another intriguing aspect of the situation is the response of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). The website of ISMA was carrying a press statement in effect saying that the sugar supply was comfortable. In June 2009 too, they had made a statement to this effect.

Yet, suddenly, within just a few days after Pawar’s statement, the press statement was withdrawn completely from the website. Does this not tell a story?

He has been also less than transparent in letting the people know of the real situation. As late as 19th August, 2009, he merely said “Some shortfall in production of oilseeds and sugarcane is also expected” .

Earlier, on 31st July 2009 while listing various steps he told the Lok Sabha: “With these decisions, domestic availability of sugar will get augmented and sugar prices in the country will remain reasonable” A lay person is left wondering as to whether Government was not aware of the shortage which is claimed now, much before July 2009 as it was based on the crop from the earlier monsoon. Even a senior Congress functionary has blamed him for misrepresenting the sugar situation.

Now, to show that efforts are being made to augment the supply of sugar, he has entered into discussions with the sugar producers. He has proposed increase in the levy sugar target from 10% to 25% to augment availability with the Government. Several rounds of discussions have taken place and what is emerging is that the sugar industry not only wants a higher price for the levy sugar but at the same time also wants the government determined release mechanism for the non-levy quantity to be removed. The idea is clearly one: to get a higher price for levy portion and substantially free the controls on sugar whereby the industry can take maximum advantage in the open market. This actually seems to be the plan and the timing of the discussion is such that due to the approaching festive season, the Government will feel pressured to take a favorable decision just to avoid public ire.

Many people believe that the repeated meetings taking place with the sugar industry appear to be a scripted charade just for effect, with the objective of achieving substantial decontrol, a decision on which was deferred by the Cabinet earlier. Pawar has already revealed his mind as just last year he had called for abolition of levy system despite the cabinet deferring a decision to decontrol the sugar sector at that time. He had also said at that time: “We have got good stocks of about 11 million tonne as carry-over and we expect a good production. So this is the proper time when there is ample stock of sugar, one should take that decision,” Should such a major policy decision be taken considering just one-two years' supply balances? All the surplus somehow appears to have disappeared. It is just as well that the Government did not take a decision based on such short term considerations.

As rightly speculated by some in the Congress party, such a policy decision would leave the people at the mercy of sugar producers in times of such shortages. It is for the people to be aware of and guard against such perfidious plans.

The Prime Minister has already put the nation on notice that hard times can be expected while assuring that no one will go hungry. In whichever form the Government comes forward to help, it is the people who will pay for it and it is no credit to the Government.

crisis calling

One thing is clear. This would-be* Prime Minister Pawar either does not know exactly what is going on or, more likely, knows exactly what he is doing. In either case, he hardly has the credibility left to handle such a crucial Ministry. It is now for the Prime Minister to oversee and monitor the decisions and actions of this Ministry closely to stop the Government being discredited further.

For the profiteers - happy days ... sona, hire-moti

While Sharad Pawar has done poorly in the Agriculture Ministry, his man Friday and coadjutant in the Civil Aviation, Praful Patel has done worse. But that is another tale.

* Would-be: Unfulfilled or frustrated in realizing an ambition

Update: 19th Sept. 2009
The latest news article about rotting imported essentials in the ports puts paid to Sharad Pawar's bluff. ( see here)
सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Help yourself, it is public money

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:32:00 +0000

The U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati has been on a spending spree using public funds amounting to several thousand crores of rupees, to create parks, memorials and statues in the State. The Congress party as also her other political rivals have rightly condemned such a huge misuse and wastage of public funds.

Digvijay Singh of Congress Party said: “Public money is being wasted. They will not forgive her”. Chidambaram termed the statues ˜shameful”. He said that in a state like UP which is reeling under power shortage and lack of health facilities, this amount could have been used for development. “She is spending Rs 1000 crore on establishing statues of elephants and herself. Can there be something more shameful than this in Indian politics.” Well yes, there are more shameful things indulged in by his own party in such matters over the years. It is a case of pot calling the kettle black.

Public assets, plans, projects, schemes, institutions...

Whose money is it anyway?

Over the years, the Congress Party has usurped the credit for hundreds of Central and State projects and programs funded with public money, by naming them after its own leaders from a particular family to secure their place in history and in the people’s minds. According to Mayawati’s party, at least 125 national institutes named after just Rajiv Gandhi are run with public funds, not Party funds. The latest instance is the move to name the Sea Link in Mumbai, costing Rs. 1650 crores, just four times more than the original estimate, after Rajiv Gandhi. Ironically, while criticizing Mayawati’s project to create statues of just over 50 elephants, the Congress Party wants to have the privilege of naming the Sea Link, said to weigh the equivalent of 50,000 elephants, after a member of the family which the Party holds in awe. Although Mayawati’s abuse of position and misuse of public funds particularly for personal idolatory is wrong, she is right in pointing fingers at the Congress party for doing exactly the same thing all this time. The Congress party is habituated to unabashedly venerating its party leaders at the cost of public money.

More shameful ...

Not content with naming public assets after its leaders, the Congress party has progressed into systematically promoting its leaders through huge advertisement campaigns in media. This is done not with Party funds and in the name of the Party but misusing public funds and also misusing the name of the Government of India. Chidambaram, the custodian of the public exchequer till not long ago, must be fully aware how his party, through the Ministers, has been helping itself with funds under his custody, to promote its leaders. Taking a cue from his Party, other parties have been doing the same in a free for all.

In the last year, particularly during some months before the elections, an estimated around Rs. 400 crore which could have been used to prevent farmer suicides or for development was diverted for wasteful advertising by Government Ministries, other public authorities as well as PSUs. Rainbow colored full page advertisements were splashed in print media all over the country day after day ad nauseam, to further political interests in the garb of informing the people of the plans or achievements of the Government. Many newspapers carried four or more of such full page advertisements on a single day. Ministries concerned with the so called aam admi oriented programs spent more recklessly by having two full color pages in a newspaper on one day.

These advertisements carried pictures of the Prime Minister, Ministers and a motley assortment of politicians in various permutations, some showing as many as 20 faces. Above all, the advertisements prominently displayed the picture of the Congress Party’s Sonia Gandhi. Taking advantage of the Congress Party’s urge to misuse public funds in this manner other parties did the same. Laloo Yadav used advertisements by the Railways to show pictures of Rabri Devi and others from his party. Sharad Pawar got ICAR under his Ministry to release advertisements from its meager budget to project pictures of himself, his daughter and other senior members of his party. His man Praful Patel, made the Airports Authority and the ailing Air India along with a few private players contribute for a massive 20 crore plus campaign on civil aviation, featuring his picture (see here). A. Raja asked BSNL, a PSU under his Ministry, to show in its advertisement the picture of the DMK mentor Karunanidhi who holds no office in Central Government. Other ministers also participated in this “Help Yourself” project to show images of themselves and their favored ones through their Ministry advertisements.

But the prime objective of the entire campaign by the Government of India (even some Congress ruled State Governments) was to glorify the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who does not hold any office in the Government or any of its organs whose advertisements carried her picture. A clever subterfuge was used to mislead the people by describing her as “Chairperson of UPA” as if it is a position in the Government although it is not. The advertisements were supposedly meant to inform about various government schemes, projects, policies and plans. If that were really so, it could well be done economically and effectively by the Press Information Bureau without using full color full page advertisements. Even if recourse was taken to advertisements, there was no need or justification to show pictures of even any Ministers in advertisements meant only “to inform” the people. These pictures were intentionally placed and purposive where the official "information" was incidental. The Government went even farther by showing pictures of persons having no connection with the Government at all.

It is evident that the campaigns were not released in the ordinary course of Government’s activities. They were just an artifice to idolize the Congress Party President at public expense. By linking her picture in advertisements of the Ministries and other authorities, it was sought to be conveyed that effectively she is the one to be credited for the work done by the Government even while being outside of it!

It is worth understanding how the Government is being used to systematically create her image with campaigns obviously conceptualized by the Party’s spin doctors. Consider just one campaign entitled “Nuke-Pact”, a set of five advertisements released nationally in December 2008- January 2009. There is a very clever use of the advertising technique known as association principle. All these advertisements have a common tagline “A step even time salutes”. It is an obvious attempt to create by means of association a favorable image of the present President of the Congress Party by virtually putting her on the same pedestal as Mahatma Gandhi and for that matter Nehru and Indira Gandhi, although no one would say that she can hold a candle to any of these illustrious leaders. Notice, that the campaign shows four personalities including three Prime Ministers from a single family. It is meant to suggest that no other Prime Minister made any worthwhile contribution and to strengthen the "brand-image" of one family that the "time salutes" and "shall salute". Why is Manmohan Singh appearing? He is there, being the present Prime Minister and Nuclear Deal is acknowledged by his Party and even its President to be solely his baby and he has been given the entire credit. Why then is the picture of Sonia Gandhi there? It is there to snatch some credit for the deal (as for everything else) for her and the entire campaign is to build her image. Why is Mahatma Gandhi there? He is there only to avoid the campaign from appearing as a "family affair" and to more effectively use “association” by linking the common surnames of the present Gandhis with the great Mahatma Gandhi. Clearly, it is a most scandalous example of official Government sponsored image building of an individual and a family.

Serious Issues

The abuse of official machinery and public funds to apotheosize their own leader by the Congress Party is utterly reprehensible although it may be justifiable in its own book of morality and ethics. What Mayawati is doing by putting up her own statues is being done also by the Congress party by placing pictures of Sonia Gandhi in advertisements for the same purpose. The big difference is that whereas Mayawati holds an official position and spends public money through budget provisions, Sonia Gandhi being not in Government, has to inspire her minions in Government to use public funds by abusing their authority. Qualitatively too, expenditure on media advertisements is utterly wasteful as it does not create any value. The amount of money spent by either is just a matter of degree and the net effect is the same viz. diverting resources away from essential purposes as the need of resources for development is equally acute for the States as well as the Centre.

What is the difference?

But in the case of advertisements for Sonia Gandhi’s image building, there are more disturbing issues. The first serious question is whether a Government can undertake such promotional activities to blatantly glorify anyone and that too someone who is nobody in Government? Advertisement space paid for by the Government belongs to Government and if it is used even indirectly for private purposes under the cloak of some official purpose the expenditure is illegal. The second issue relates to the bureaucrats who really provide continuity to Government and who are expected to protect the System against improprieties by transient political superiors. They cannot escape their accountability and culpability if such illegal expenditure is incurred under their charge.

However, there is another issue of a fundamental nature at a higher level. When official advertisements consistently show the picture of a person who is not part of the Government, the role of the person in Government functioning is implicit and gets a certain legitimacy in people’s minds over a period. In the present case, the Prime Minister who heads the Government, by merely allowing such advertisements, accepts the de facto role of Sonia Gandhi in his Government, clearly lowering the authority of the High Office and the Cabinet. See also an article here in another but related context. It is not a personal issue, it concerns a Government Office. The most serious aspect is the fact that the advertisements are released in the name of the Government of India. It means that the Government itself accepts the existence of an extra-constitutional authority and is effectively sanctifying such a position. In a democracy having clearly defined structure of the Government and other constitutional authorities, such legitimization of something which the Constitution does not envisage, can have a deleterious effect on the polity not only at the Centre but also in the States.

This aspect needs to be carefully pondered over by constitutional experts, opinion makers and even the general public. It is futile to expect the present day politicians in power to be concerned about such "technicalities" that could restrict them from misusing their authority at will.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Time for Testimonials

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:32:00 +0000

Every General Election in the country brings in its wake personal attacks, mud-slinging, name-calling, accusations and allegations of all kinds amongst and against political parties and individual candidates standing for the elections. In the surcharged atmosphere where the fate of 500 plus representatives of the people as well as members of several State Assemblies hangs in balance and the stakes are high, such events are almost unavoidable as the campaigning reaches a crescendo. The people have also come to cynically accept even a fair share of violent incidents and acts of intimidation as if they are as inevitable as the Elections.

The present General Elections 2009 for the 15th Lok Sabha have, however, brought new lows in no holds barred campaigning where the fault lines and weaknesses of the opposing parties and candidates have been ruthlessly highlighted before the electorate.

One such issue that has become a high point of campaigning during the on-going Elections is the highlighting of Sardar Manmohan Singh as a weak Prime Minister. The main Opposition Party BJP has made it a particular point to constantly hammer at this aspect throughout its campaign as a weighty argument against Congress Party and a Government led by that Party.

Sincere and honest that he undoubtedly is and capable that he is reputed to be, the fact that Manmohan Singh is weak in the position of Prime Minister does not need to be proved. His actions or inactions in key matters of the State Policy such as internal security and terrorism, his benign approach towards some incompetent, corrupt or otherwise wayward colleagues (which may be partly but not in all cases due to the compulsions of coalition politics) and his apparently servile attitude towards his Party Chief and her son in full conformity with the Party norm of sycophancy, leave hardly any doubt on this score. As far as internal security is concerned, it is amply clear that the ambivalent, almost non-existent, policy of the Government led by him with regard to dealing with terrorism did nothing to curb it but in fact emboldened the terrorists to strike at will during the last few years. No one needs to give a certificate about the abject failure of the Government led by him to deal with terrorism which is so very evident. The weak-kneed approach could have been due to his own unwilligness to take a firm view in the matter. Or, he could have been prevented by others against his own better judgment from doing what should have been done. In either case, in the net result it clearly shows his own weakness. Apart from issues of governance, to cap it all, he has not thought it necessary to face the people by standing for the Lok Sabha although Mr. Rahul G. apparently with his poor understanding of the electoral situation claimed that Manmohan Singh could be elected from any seat if he stood!! (see this article too)

As far as his attitude towards the Party Chief and her family is concerned, Manmohan Singh does not let go of any opportunity to affirm that he is beholden to them personally for the opportunity to be the Prime Minister.

Read this:

When asked who between him and Rahul Gandhi would be the next PM, Singh said, "You have heard the Congress President and you have heard Rahul Gandhi. I think the answer is quite clear." (Times of India, 20th Apr. 2009)

Unfortunately for the Congress Party, regardless of whether Opposition parties highlight this point or not, the public perception about Manmohan Singh being weak as Prime Minister is too strong. So pervasive is this perception that even political allies by their actions show that they too concur with the people.

Even for his own Party; this particular issue has been giving cause for serious concern to the extent that even the Congress Party President has been going to great lengths to repeatedly make it a point to spring to his defense. Since the last couple of weeks, strenuous efforts are being made by the Party and in particular its President and "her family" to emphasize that he is not a weak Prime Minister.

The views of the Household members at 10, Janpath

To thwart such attacks on Manmohan Singh, the Party also went to the extent of twisting the matter by saying that an insult to the Prime Minister was an insult to the country, forgetting completely that not the Prime Minister but the person who would still like to occupy that chair was being referred to. His mentor also blamed L.K.Advani of BJP of being a slave to RSS(why accuse only Singh of being a slave?). It was nothing short of a tacit admission of the reality of Manmohan Singh's position.

On his part, Manmohan Singh himself has been trying to assert that he is not a weak Prime Minister.

He has also been suitably showing his admiration for his mentors as a member of this Mutual Admiration society.

Mutual Admiration Society

His latest unabashed quote: “Rahul has all the qualities to be a good prime minister”.

Their combined efforts have so far failed to impress the people in spite of reaching almost farcical proportions.

Whatever testimonials these actors on the electoral stage manage to exchange amongst themselves, it must be hoped that the people will see the realities and vote responsibly without getting carried away.

On the Campaign Trail of Rahul's fiefdom.......

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Coping with uncertainties and tough times

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:46:00 +0000

Finally, even the normally gullible Indian people who believe everything that the Government say, are finding out to their distress and disappointment the hollowness of the wonderful stories of economic growth dished out by Chidambaram from the time he became the Finance Minister. He showcased the growth story mainly touting the rising Stock Markets which grew to such high levels as could not be justified by the realities on the ground.

Then slowly, the reality hit the aam admi as well as the not so aam admi in the form of back breaking inflation for which this man acting as Finance Minister kept on blaming global situation and everything and everyone but his own mismanagement. This was followed by the crash in the Stock Exchanges and finally by the huge reduction in Industrial Production reflected in the IIP.

Even now, this man Chidambaram is in the denial mode and keeps on spinning fictional stories to calm the common man. It is doubtful if he on his own can come out with any worthwhile action plan to provide succor to the suffering millions. More likely it is that under the garb of reviving the slump in activity, he may just focus on giving steroids to his favorite housing sector so that they can sustain their price levels which are crashing now. He will also do his best to ensure that the Stock Exchange Indices rise, once again giving everyone a false sense of euphoria that the country is making progress.

Hard times are coming and the people themselves will have to find ways to deal with the developing situation as the Government that has lost all credibility cannot be relied upon any more.

Some practical thoughts on some ways to handle the present situation which is becoming more difficult are given below.

These suggestions are not for:

Those who are blessed with means far more than what they need
Those who know what is best for them
Those who think they know what is best for them

Investing money

1. Keep away from the stock markets. Do not buy shares in a bear market for the present. The prices of shares are a complex result of many factors:
a. The actual situation of a company
b. The actual situation of a specific sector and the entire economy
c. The expectations for the future with regard to the company, the sector and the overall economy
d. The sentiment of the investors which also takes into account global factors
e. The activity of FII (foreign institutional investors), which is a key factor influencing price movements. The FIIs may park their funds temporarily in the Indian sock markets or may be ‘hit and run’ players out to make a quick buck or may invest for speculative purposes. Some FIIs who might have invested for medium-to-long term may suddenly exit for any number of reasons including exchange rate changes, their own distressed conditions or more profitable avenues in other countries.
f. Domestic speculators and market players who may work with specific objectives and influence price movements even during a particular day.

The chart below shows the huge price movements on a single day in Sensex.

Do you have the wherewithal to track the market fluctuations every hour, every day and sustain variations of 1000 points in a single day?

If you are still adventurous enough to take your chances for any rise in prices in the short run, be also prepared to lose close to everything and bring distress to yourself and your family in case the present slide continues. Also note that what is important is what happens to the price of shares you buy and not the Sensex. Prices of certain shares like Realty have lost 75%- 90% in a short time. The uncertainty and risk are simply too high at the present time and to avoid losses and earn even a moderate return you may have to wait for two years. Pure gambling may be another option!

2. If you have money to invest, place the same in a Fixed Deposit in a nationalized bank after comparing the rates offered by a few banks as well as the penalty or loss of interest in case of early withdrawals. Investing in Gold would be the second option. Do not go under any circumstances for Multi Level Marketing Schemes which promise fancy returns for making certain members and carrying forward the chain.

3. Do not purchase a house at the present time when the market is crashing. Defer purchase. Consider the fact that the prices have gone up in the last three years by 350-400% which can not be justified on any grounds at all. The prices have been propped up just as the Sensex. (read article here for a background). The Realty Sector is facing hard times with buyers having disappeared. The Rentals in large cities are also dropping fast as the demand for rental places from domestic or international companies particularly in financial services and other service sectors is drying up. Many major builders are facing financial distress and are unable to meet their commitments. The shares of major Realty Companies have dropped between 75 to 90% since January, which shows the realities. Considering all these factors, it is advisable to KEEP AWAY from buying a house for the time being but keep a watch on the market to buy in case the market begins to rise due to Government policies that have enabled the builders to raise the prices artificially in the past. Buyers’ resistance is necessary to bring the prices down to a realistic level which is broadly 50% of the current levels.

4. DO NOT take a loan to buy a house even if the interest rate goes down. Your loan is what actually fuels the rise and helps the builders to increase their prices artificially. A Housing Loan creates a demand at a price which is not justifiable. Remember that what is really important for the person who takes a loan is not primarily the interest rate but the principal sum that is borrowed. It makes little sense to gain a small advantage in interest rate if the sum borrowed is too large to service. The borrower ends up paying higher interest in absolute terms, the interest saving is gone and more amount is borrowed to finance the unwarranted profits of the builder. This is only one aspect relating to taking a House Loan. The second and more important aspect that affects you for the entire life of the loan is servicing of the loan and interest i.e. EMI. Housing Loans have to be normally repaid over a period of 20-30 years. The borrower has to have a perspective of the entire period of the loan. The longer the period, the greater the uncertainties. Consider that a young professional couple engaged in a service industry and earning a very decent combined income takes a loan. Typically, most of the income of one partner is utilized for paying the EMI to the bank. For successfully servicing the loan, it is necessary that the same comfortable income situation continues for a period of 20 years or more. Most housing loan borrowers taking an optimistic view of the future assume that in normal conditions, they would continue to service the loan over this long period. Is it possible to predict the future over such long time horizon? Is it safe to assume that the conditions would be normal throughout? Will there be no business cycles? Everyone must have become aware that surviving in the fiercely competitive globalised world is becoming an increasingly demanding task. Job security cannot be taken for granted. Whether it is the general economic conditions or the situation of a particular employer or the ability of the employee to perform better or worse relative to others, the uncertainties have grown as much as opportunities. While the decision to take a housing loan should not be influenced by pessimism, but certainly, optimism needs to be balanced by practical considerations, prudence and caution. In our typical case, if for some unfortunate reason one partner loses the job or is required to look after family responsibilities, how would the loan be serviced? In the anxiety to get a house, many borrowers would take a view “we shall see” or “we will manage”. If that happens, all to the good. If the situation cannot be managed and if there are loan defaults and distress when children are at a critical stage in their own career development, how would the situation be resolved? Extensions in EMI installments could be obtained only at a heavy cost, further aggravating the problems. It must also be remembered that in case of defaults in loan servicing, there can be a voluntary repossession or forced repossession. In either case, the consequences can be unpleasant. While the house is repossessed, the liability for the loan still remains. Everyone has seen the disastrous effects of an economic downturn. In USA, many owners who could not make the payments simply abandoned their houses and left. The genesis of the sub- prime crisis in the USA that has had reverberations all over the world and has virtually brought the entire developed world on its knees lies in defaults in repayment of loans taken by individual borrowers. It would be unwise to ignore what is happening before our eyes and which is greatly affecting everyone at this point in time.

Weigh the factors carefully

Normal Expendiure

1. Do not use credit cards to buy things unless you have money in the account. Do not buy with credit cards to spend tomorrow’s income today. Credit cards are convenient as they enable you to make cashless purchase and avoid hassles with handling cash. This must be taken as their limited purpose. Going on a shopping spree on the strength of merely a Credit Card not backed by money in the bank, is financial irresponsibility. To spend today out of future income is to leave that much less for the future. Further, many credit card owners simply pay the minimum amount payable to continue the Card and let the bills pile up. This has a heavy cost in terms of delayed payment charges and penalties collecting of which has become a fine art with the credit card providers. The more the penalties and delayed payment charges, the less money is left for genuine needs. There are many who believe that the more Credit Cards they have, the better off they appear to be in their own esteem and in the eyes of others in front of whom the cards are flashed. This is not true. You need only one good Credit Card or Debit Card to see you through most situations, unless of course, you are defaulting by turns on the many credit cards you collect. Then again, there is a cost to having a credit card which can be easily avoided. Before deciding on the Credit Card to take, it is also advisable to know their charges and penalties policy in advance. Avoid Net Banking unless you are thoroughly familiar with the pitfalls and are able to secure yourself completely against fraud.

2. Do not take any bank or private loans to buy durables, cars, houses, etc. The future is uncertain. Do not buy if you do not have the means to buy today.

3. When buying gadgets, durables or cars, look for the basic functionalities which you require. Any added features that are offered in different models or by different brands need to be compared with the higher price that you may need to pay. Only you can decide whether a particular added feature is actually needed and whether it is worth the price differential. In Metro cities, buy a car only out of necessity, not just for comfort or as luxury or status symbol. The availability of parking places for cars whether in the place of residence or on the roads is woefully stretched and will get worse. There is also an increasing tendency to buy Laptop computers in preference to the Desktop. When you buy a Laptop, you end up paying around 50% more compared to a Desktop, feature-for feature. Buy a Laptop only if you really need it and a Desktop will not do the work. Many branded Laptops have serious servicing issues and the service is oftentimes shoddy and slow. Again, if you are used to traveling with the Laptop and it is stolen or lost, apart from the Laptop itself, you can lose large data created after hundreds of hours of work, unless you routinely back it up on a Desktop.

4. Avoid posh hotels and restaurants where you end up paying atrocious prices just for the ambience and for the pleasure of being seen in such places. Go to more moderately priced restaurants serving quality food at the same time. Try to discover the pleasures of cooking more often at home.

5. Mobile Mania: As in the case of other gadgets, pay only for the features you actually need. Do not be lured into frequently buying new models when your existing mobile exactly does what you need it to do. Avoid getting tempted to go in for various schemes which the service providers constantly keep on pushing through telemarketing at all hours. Remember, for any scheme that they propose as a favour to you, the idea is simply to fix your bill amount at a certain level so that it generates a regular minimum income to them from you. Avoid using the SMS service to send various comments to TV channels over their 5xxxx numbers. Do they care for what you say? It is simply a revenue sharing arrangement between the provider and the TV channel as these SMS are charged at a higher rate. Avoid SMS quizes to win huge prizes for answering simple questions. They are just meant to increase the revenues of the service providers. The more you SMS, the more you spend. Even if the mobile is handy, do not be tempted to talk or call someone or the other unless you really NEED to.

6. Gift Mania: Use your discretion about giving gifts. Do not indulge in needless gift culture by giving gifts indiscriminately. Avoid celebrating Husband’s, Wife’s, Father’s, Mother’s, Brother’s, Sister’s, Teacher’s, Lover’s, Hater’s or Friend’s Days. These are just meant to generate sales for vendors of gifts and cards. The sentiments towards your near and dear ones can be expressed at every opportunity and having a particular day to celebrate for the same is unnecessary.

7. Mall Mania: Malls are pleasant places to shop and pass time with your family on holidays. However, when going to a Mall, take a shopping list with you and buy only what you need and what is there in your shopping list. The shops in the Malls are very adept at using scientific techniques of merchandising and display. The primary intention is to lure and tempt you into impulse buying and somehow make the visitors spend more and more. Do not buy simply based on impulse when you see an article which you do not need. Go home, think, decide whether that article is worth buying and then buy it the next time.

8. Avoid Multiplexes. There is little need to pay 100% higher prices when you can see the same movie in a normal cinema hall which also is quite modern.

9. In general, look to get VALUE FOR MONEY whatever you buy, whether products or services.

10. Take up jobs in your own town or other town where you have a place to stay on a permanent basis. At any rate, avoid Metro cities tempted by somewhat higher salaries. The poor level of infrastructure in these cities makes for harsh living conditions apart from the physical traveling distances and lack of permanent accommodation.

While most of those who read these suggestions may find them mundane or unnecessary, they are given in the hope that a small minority may find them useful. These suggestions do not call for any real 'sacrifice', just for sensible use of what you have. In any case at the end of the day, it is for the people to think deeply and use discretion based on common sense and their own prudent thinking and in the light of their own realities.

If the article is useful, forward to others.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Home Ministry - A Farce Carried Too Far

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:27:00 +0000

Delhi, the Capital of India - Safe and Secure

Blasts in Delhi 13th Sept. 2008

Expendable Human Lives

After the event .... The Soap Opera

12th Glorius Episode

"The ROAR of a Purring Cat"

Prelude

Meetings...ACT I

More Meetings....ACT II

Grand Finale...... The End Result

In the last five months, India-awake has been highlighting the miserable and pathetic performance of the Home Minister.

The first article was written on May 20, a week after the blasts in Jaipur but much before the three terrible blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi.

The following lines described the performance of Shivraj Patil:
"The Home Minister seems to be all at sea and has so far succeeded only in enhancing the doubts and fears of the people. On the other hand, he continues to fumble when cornered by media with difficult and awkward questions like the delay in giving a recommendation to the President on the petition by Afzal Guru. Under his leadership, the Ministry even does not have an assessment of the extent of infiltration that is taking place from across the borders, especially Bangladesh. By no means is the task of the Home Minister of India is easy. But the task has to be done and cannot be left to someone who does not have a strong personality and a clear mind. The kind of wishy-washy image that Shivraj Patil has, could certainly be a factor that will embolden the terrorists to do worse than what they have done already." (see here)

True to the foreboding, the terrorists struck on 25th July in Bangalore and on 26th July in Ahmedabad.

Once again, on 28th July, two days after the blasts in Ahmedabad, India-awake said:
"Shivraj Patil, who…, has developed the subtle art of putting the blame on the States, continues to dole out meaningless comments on how terrorism will not be allowed to succeed, where facts suggest a completely different picture.Shivraj’s lack luster performance has brought the country the trauma of experiencing loss of lives and property at the time and place of choosing by the anti national forces." (see here) Also see related article (here).

True to anticipation, the strike force of the terrorists and anti-national elements has reached the very doorstep of the seat of power.

And yet, not only the Home Minister, whose apathetic ways are known to the entire country, but even the slothful Government continues to prevaricate and procrastinate a week after the event.

Such is the tragedy of the people of the country that as of now, the Government does not exist as far as their safety and security are concerned.

Deeply angered and frustrated and yet utterly helpless in changing the Government at least for now, the people are left to fend for themselves and pray.

This is what comes from trusting an uncaring, incompetent and impotent Government.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Cash - for - Votes Tapes, At Last in the Open

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:24:00 +0000

The TV Channel that participated in the sting operation to expose the murky goings on in the political arena to ensure a victory for the UPA Government in Lok Sabha Trust Vote, finally decided to show the tapes on all its channels on 11th August, 2008। (see the details here)

The Channel, in its wisdom had decided not to show the tapes immediately after the Trust Vote. The political party concerned, BJP, whose MPs had in the first place suggested to IBN7, a sister channel of CNN-IBN to participate in the operation, was obviously upset at the Channel’s decision.

Those who watched the CNN-IBN channel in the afternoon of 22nd July, 2008, where Rajdeep Sardesai strenuously argued with his colleague Ashutosh from IBN7 about why the tapes could not be shown at that time, were surprised at the reasoning put forward by Rajdeep who, amongst other things, said that the channel did not want to appear to be taking sides with any political party. Considering that the tapes were about politics where several political parties were involved, it is strange to suggest that the channel did not wish to take sides because obviously the tapes were bound to show one or more parties in unfavorable light. The viewers also saw him on the screen leaving the studio saying that he was rushing to the Parliament straightaway to hand over the tapes to the Speaker. The Channel also claimed that the tapes were the property of the Lok Sabha and hence it would be improper to telecast them. As it happened, the tapes were inexplicably not handed over on the same day but this was done on the next day. The channel also claimed that the operation was a part of a wider investigation started by it much earlier on its own initiative when rumors about horse trading started floating around. It is a different matter that its own investigation, other than the sting, apparently did not yield anything at all.

Amongst the arguments advanced by the Channel, it said that they could not show the tapes as their investigations were incomplete and that they needed to verify more. Even to lay people such a facile argument did not cut ice because after the Trust Vote, there was hardly any further possibility to continue the investigation and whatever the channel managed to tape till that time was all that it could hope to get. The Channel also claimed that it could not work on a time table of a political party but had to take its own decision on the timing. That is essentially correct but for a news media nothing is more important than bringing the news, particularly on larger issues, to the people in time. It is a hall mark of good news journalism to bring the news as it happens, ‘hot from the oven’ and fresh. So even for the Channel itself, it would be logical to telecast the tapes around the event rather than delay it.

The arguments and logic appeared so weak that people just did not believe that the Channel's decision was genuine. To buttress its stand, the Channel even got a former Solicitor General to give a written opinion in the matter, which basically was more of a subjective view and not strictly a legal opinion.

The Channel, respected for its high credibility and programming quality, and its Chief Rajdeep Sardesai have been roundly criticized by the people. The stand of this major Television channel has brought out important issues on the media’s freedom and its responsibility in the context of the public's right to know. Surprisingly and sadly, the other channels and media in general did not appear to seriously debate the issue of the Channel's stand on a matter of great public importance. It is indeed strange for a channel to say that it wanted a complete investigation before presenting it to the people. The media is certainly not an investigating authority. Sting operations have been done in the past and have been telecast too, but there was no claim that the operations presented a fool proof story. A recent case which comes to mind is that of the sting in the R.K.Anand-Kulkarni episode in the Nanda case.

It is true that media has the right to publish or not to publish a news item and the timing when to publish a news item. However, the freedom and the right has to be exercised considering what is in the larger public interest. As in the instant case, it could hardly be used based on whether the channel will be seen to be favoring one or another political party. The Channel’s decision not to publish (show, in this case) a news of topical and great public interest was also in stark contrast to the media’s actions (particularly Television) in the Aarushi murder case. That matter was very sensitive for the persons concerned but the media did not think twice before hounding the family that was in grief over the loss of their daughter. Not only did they persist in hounding the traumatized family, most of the TV channels gave an almost daily dose of their sick and speculative theories based on their own "investigation" including IBN7 pointing fingers at the family being involved in some way. On a TV current affairs programme, most of the media persons present including Ashutosh of IBN7 vehemently and vociferously justified and defended their actions in the Aarushi murder case, claiming that the people’s right to know was paramount and that they virtually had a legitimate right to invade people’s privacy to the extent that it made normal life practically impossible for them. No one can deny that the media has more than one standard and is fully prepared to defend its actions, howsoever indefensible they be. The Fourth Estate appears to believe that it is always acting responsibly.

In the end, when CNN-IBN finally telecast the tapes, it once again gave unconvincing excuses and in essence said that now that a reasonable time had elapsed after the event, they had decided to show the tapes. It also said that they were not passing any judgment and it was left to the people to come to their own conclusions. THAT, IN ANY CASE WOULD HAVE BEEN SO WHETHER THEY DECIDED TO SHOW THE TAPES ON THE FIRST DAY OR AFTER AN ETERNITY. Rajdeep Sardesai certainly did not have to get the illustrious Soli Sorabjee, Fali Nariman, B.G. Verghese and Harish Salve essentially saying the same thing, to add weight and respectability to his decision. The situation would not have been different even if the tapes were telecast on the 22nd or 23rd of July 2008. Even if they were telecast then, the people would have had to draw their own conclusions.

Dealing with politicians all the time, Rajdeep also appears to see merit in using a bit of politics by defending his position vis-à-vis BJP’s displeasure. However, where he has lost his credibility is in the eyes of the people. Whether or not he gets a reward either in the form of a nomination for the Rajya Sabha or in some other manner for his timely exercise of the media's discretion, remains to be seen.

Incidentally, by a coincidence, possibly to demonstrate CNN-IBN's independence, IBN7 telecast on the 10th Augusut 2008, a programme (see details here and here) giving details of some apparently dubious dealings concerning a senior UPA Minister, Lalu Yadav. CNN-IBN can only hope that its dented credibility will be restored eventually.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Another Home for Home Minister?

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:44:00 +0000

The internal security situation of the country is continuing to deteriorate.

aiming in the dark - at no one

Apart from the rising incidents of blasts in various cities across the country, the J&K situation also continues to boil due to a completely insensitive approach and the absence of any serious attempt on the part of the Govt. to bring peace to the troubled State where conditions are going from bad to worse.

One of the clear options before the Prime Minister, if at all he is half as serious about the internal security as about the Nuclear Deal, is to find another home for the present Home Minister. He is one of the three Ministers for whom the Prime Minister needs to find suitable positions urgently as suggested earlier.

This single action by the Prime Minister will show to the country that he is indeed serious about preventing a further downhill slide.

And incidentally, it will also show that he is capable of taking action in respect of a Minister who happens to be in the good books of his party boss.

Postscript:

The ruling of the Tribunal of the Delhi High Court on 5th August 2008, in the SIMI matter that the Govt. had failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify the continued curbs on this known fundamentalist group is yet another indication that the Ministry of Home Affairs cannot be relied upon to ensure the safety and security of the people of the country and that anti-national elements will continue to have a free run to do what they please to tear the fabric of the country apart.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

BJP on a pernicious path

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:31:00 +0000

The blasts that happened in quick succession over two days, 26th and 27th July, 2008, have shaken the confidence of the people in the Govt., whether Central or State, being able to protect their lives and thwart the evil designs of the anti-national elements.

This is a time for serious reflection and deep thinking to decide what can be done to eliminate the scourge of terrorism.

In this background, the statement made by Sushma Swaraj of the BJP in a press conference that "The blasts are a conspiracy to divert attention from the cash-for-votes scandal” as they have taken place in the BJP ruled States within a few days of the Trust Vote, is a pernicious attempt to bring crass politics into a serious issue. All right thinking persons will justifiably feel that these politicians are trying to stir up trouble by bringing up such far fetched and incredible theories. If at all Swaraj had any proof or was hoping that the ‘truth will out’ as stated by her, she should have waited for that to happen rather than making such a wild statement. Although Arun Jaitley softened the statement by saying that he saw it as a much wider conspiracy unrelated to any political party, this does not detract from BJP’s effort to sensationalize the issue without basis.

To be fair to the Govt. and the Congress in particular, this time round, they had behaved in a restrained and responsible manner fully recognizing the sensitivity of the matter. Apart from giving out subtle hints about the State Govt.’s responsibility, they had scrupulously avoided saying anything that would divert attention and bring the issue on the political football field.

Swaraj’s baseless and irresponsible statement, therefore, needs to be condemned and the BJP’s blatant effort to politicize the issue, for which there is no need, is bound to be viewed by the people with contempt.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Home Ministry - Hum nahin sudharenge

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:26:00 +0000

The motto of the Home Ministry seems to be:
“Hum nahin sudharenge”.

Blast after blast after blast after blast, the Ministry comes up only with meetings and conferences within the Ministry and the States. Because the Ministry is bereft of any ideas on tackling terrorism and naxalism, the meetings and conferences always come to naught. The participants in this farcical drama, whether the officials of the Ministry, the intelligence agencies or the police as well as the State officials go back ever more frustrated and not knowing whether the Govt. has any notion or concept of fighting terrorists and naxals.

Shivraj Patil, who aided by the spokesperson of the UPA, has developed the subtle art of putting the blame on the States, continues to dole out meaningless comments on how terrorism will not be allowed to succeed, where facts suggest a completely different picture.

Shivraj’s lack luster performance has brought the country the trauma of experiencing loss of lives and property at the time and place of choosing by the anti national forces. This has already been discussed earlier in an article here just two months back before the present series of blasts.

It is high time those in power show the spine, if not to face terrorism, at least to replace Shivraj with someone else. Possible contenders for the position from the Congress stable would be Pawar(nominally NCP), Chidambaram and Arjun Singh. Even if they do not succeed in improving the situation significantly, at least this change will keep one of them away from the present Ministry where none of them have performed.

The dark horse (who also helped Govt. win the Trust Vote sweepstakes) , of course, could be Mulayam Singh, who has at least been the Defense Minister of the country earlier and a Chief Minister too.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

A blot on the UPA

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:37:00 +0000

waiting to be led

The entire country is utterly disgusted at the way in which the ruling UPA has managed to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha.

The people have understood the Govt. for what it is. The UPA allies may celebrate to their heart's content and pat each other on the back but the Aam Admi has seen it all. There is no need for the Govt. to say anything in its defence.

Counting the gains

Behind the scenes, ensuring success

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Speaker of the Lok Sabha as Party Member

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Lok Sabha and the Speaker, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has taken the extreme decision of expelling Mr. Somnath Chatterjee from the primary membership of the party.

Mr. Prakash Karat, General Secretary, CPIM

The decision has understandably led to strong reactions from various sections of the polity. with many political parties expressing strong feelings against the expulsion citing his good work as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

While most people view his expulsion in the light of his position as Speaker, it must be recognised that Mr. Chatterjee is actually wearing two hats and there is a clear distinction between his position as the Speaker and his position as a member of the political party to which he belongs.

Mr. Chatterjee is a duly elected to the constitutional position of Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Clearly, therefore, regardless of his party affiliation, the party cannot remove him as the Speaker, for that depends upon either him or the body of parliamentarians that elected him.

Mr. Chatterjee is a veteran and highly respected Parliamentarian with a distinguished record of over 40 years standing. During his tenure as the Speaker , many believe that he has enhanced the dignity of the Chair of the Speaker. It is a different matter that despite trying very hard, he has not succeeded in bringing the weight of his seniority and authority to bear on the MPs of the present Lok Sabha who have made it a habit to show their unruly and undisciplined side at every opportunity. In any case, there is a strong consensus in favor of his continuing as the Speaker.

A political party can, however, ask a member to cease to hold any office occupied by the member if it decides that it is justified in doing so. When the party decided to withdraw support to the Govt., it took the view, rightly or not, that Mr. Chatterjee being first and foremost a member of the political party should also quit as Speaker. It is true that the Speaker is above political affiliation when performing his Constitutional duties. Moreover, the position relates to the Legislative Body which is distinct from the Executive. That in itself was a good enough reason for the Party to let him continue as the Speaker. The withdrawal of support of the Party was against the Govt. and the party ought to have distinguished that withdrawal from the fulfilment of the obligations of the Office of the Speaker of a Legislative body by one of its members.

However, the party took a view also considering the value of his vote in any upcoming Trust Vote and mounted pressure on him to resign as Speaker. Mr. Chatterjee, whose ego was already hurt because the Party did not show him the courtesy of consulting him before including his name in the list submitted to the President, did not oblige. On the other hand, he gave a rather frivolous reasoning for not resigning, namely, that he did not want to be seen voting together with the BJP. To say the least, this stand completely lacks in logic and it is surprising that such a senior and seasoned politician and parliamentarian even thought it fit to advance such a reason. Did he mean to say, that just because the Left parties see themselves as sworn enemies of BJP, they should give up fundamental positions on political issues because BJP also happens to have the same position for its own reasons? Taking this argument to the extreme, suppose that the Centre places West Bengal (perhaps along with a BJP ruled State) under President's Rule under Article 356 and if the BJP decides to bring a no-confidence motion in Parliament, would his Party have to oppose such a motion just because BJP is supporting it? It is quite absurd to propose such a flimsy excuse for not resigning. He also suggested that he was elected as Speaker unanimously. However, once he is elected as Speaker by the House, the fact that he also happened to be elected unanimously does not lend any more weight to his position as Speaker or to his decision not to resign. Such explanations, even in the eyes of objective observers were seen as reflecting his desire to simply stick on to the high position. Coupled with the fact that he refused to bow to the party’s express wishes on a crtitical issue, the eventual failure to defeat the UPA in the Trust Vote clearly seem to have led to his expulsion.

In so far as the action taken by the Party is in accordance with the constitution of the Party to which a member is bound, the expulsion is purely an internal affair of the party and the party would surely know all the implications of its actions. Many have tried to ascribe it to the personal egos of some, but really speaking in a Party with so much emphasis on party solidarity and unquestioned submission to the party discipline, such actions are not ruled out. While many feel that such harsh action should not have been taken against such a senior member, there is another side to the coin too. After all, being one of the senior most members of the Party, Somnath Chatterjee more than anyone else, ought to have known and anticipated the results of his failure to follow the Party's express wishes, also considering the surrounding circumstances.

On the other hand, despite the action taken by his Party, at this stage he would do well not to give up his position as the Speaker nor is it even necessary or desirable to do so. As seen during the Trust Vote on the 22nd July 2008, it is essential to have a person of his stature as the Speaker to give the proceedings in the House at least a semblance of credibility and a modicum of discipline to maintain the dignity of this august Institution, which has taken a severe beating in the last few years.

UPA -Boosting a sagging morale

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:15:00 +0000

IN FAIRNESS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY, THIS GOVT. NEEDS TO GO AND ELECTIONS NEED TO BE CALLED IMMEDIATELY.

This is simply an attempt to boost the sagging morale of the UPA two days prior to the Trust Vote in Lok Sabha on 22nd July, 2008 and keep them in good humor.

(without responsibility)

Last minute appeal by Uncle Sam

All parties are keeping their fingers crossed, not knowing whether they will be able to use them to make the "V" sign or left twiddling their thumbs.

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Sorry state of agriculture and food security

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:21:00 +0000

In the last few years, agriculture has suffered seriously due to a combination of apathy, indifference and lack of adequate attention by the Govt. This is largely seen as a personal failure of the Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar. (see related article)

Chidambaram has cited this as one of the reasons for the Govt.’s failure to manage the situation(see here) and even the Congress party by a resolution called for “better agricultural policies”. As a result of the situation which has aggravated in the last few years, the Govt. has been obliged to commit from the public treasury, over Rs. 700 billion towards writing off loans given to farmers.

The country had to import large huge quantities of sub-standard wheat due to inadequate procurement but ostensibly to create a so-called strategic reserve. On the other hand, the situation within the country remains uncertain. A famine-like situation prevails once again in key states such Maharashtra. There are protests in various parts of the country over non-availability of fertilizers and seeds.

Here are some pictures which highlight the present situation.

Results of the earlier famine

Waiting for the rain Gods - year after year

Food and Fertilizer warehouses

Finally...

Chef not responsible for price, quality, contamination, or anything else

सारे जहाँ से अच्छा, हिंदोस्ताँ हमारा

Words of Wisdom from Finance Minister

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:05:00 +0000

It is not surprising that even after the Govt.’s many failures, especially on the Inflation front, Chidambaram, instead of focusing on doing what he is supposed to do, keeps dishing out at the slightest opportunity his glib talk trying to justify the situation.

Of the many ministers in the Cabinet, this popinjay is the only one who cannot stop talking about how he has achieved so much despite the whole world virtually conspiring to frustrate his good work.

Some of his remarks and homilies in a recent statement are worth noting, if only because they highlight how he is trying to perfect the art of blaming others and of self-approbation.

The common thread in his statement, as usual has been one of woes brought about by global factors:”India has been hit by the global financial, food and fuel crises and anybody who thought the country would not be affected by the global turbulence would be "naive".”

Sure, India would be affected by global factors but if the economy is managed well, timely actions are taken instead of basking in false glory and the Govt. policies are judicious enough, the effects would be far less than what the country is facing now. It is no use saying that other countries are even worse off than India. If that argument is stretched to absurdity, our pompous Finance Minister could even say “Look at Zimbabwe… we are much better off”.

In his statement, he has highlighted world food crisis, saying “the world food prices have increased by over 100 per cent but India is the only country where the food rates are relatively stable.” This point hardly needs mention as a factor in our present plight because the country is not so much reliant on imports as some other countries. This point is made only to add to his arsenal to mislead the people.

Apart from this he has mentioned in one breadth, the global financial crisis, the fuel crisis and other global turbulence. He has blamed the sub-prime crisis in the USA as having affected India, although exactly in what manner and to what extent, remains uinclear. The country, he added, could have "weathered even that storm as it did in the second half of 2007-08. But then beginning March there was a food crisis and fuel crisis, adding to financial sector crisis.” By the "food crisis" he is referring to the domestic crisis due to the Agriculture ministry's mishandling.

"Rising Sensex is the be all and end all of economic development." - By a present day genius.

The rest of his statement as already mentioned above, is meant to show that all the progress that the country may have made is implicitly due to him. He also said that if the country achieves 8% growth, it is like getting a silver medal at the Olympics.

His next homily was “We will have some good years, we will have some difficult years. We must learn to manage our economy through good times and not-so good times." That's quite a revelation Mr. Finance Minister, we never knew! Finally he made one more profound statement: "Growth would slow down this year, inflation will be more than the tolerable level and that is why we are going through difficult times”. He seems to be last person in this country upon whom this realization has dawned.

In spite of whatever he might keep saying, he has lost credibility of himself and the Govt. of which he is part, amongst the people. Anything more or less he says will not change the ground realities either. It will help if the Prime Minister told him to just shut up before he becomes more of an embarrassment. People are getting fed up with his boasts and words of wisdom.

Democracy in Action - A Case Study

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:14:00 +0000

The debate on the Nuclear Deal has brought into the open and in sharp focus, the dark and ugly side of Indian Politics.

The debate which started ever since the proposal for the deal first came on the table in 2005 steadily turned to hardening positions on both sides and neither side can be faulted for holding onto the respective positions. The irreconcilable differences within the country on the subject have finally culminated from an issue based fight to a fight which threatens the survival of the Govt.

The machinations of the Political parties in the last couple of weeks have heightened the disgust which the people feel for those whom they made the mistake of choosing to be their representatives. The disgust and alienation of the people at large in not just confined to one or two political parties but across the entire spectrum.

The entire episode, when it finishes, will surely become a Case Study for students of Politics especially, the would-be deal makers of the future.

What follows is a part of the sordid spectacle that is unfolding which, the people of the country are watching now. The real show to be seen on the 21st and 22nd of July, 2008, may well be remembered as the REAL REALITY SHOW.

And for the politicians who have made this happen, there will be neither shame nor remorse.

Think before you enter this area....

And the prized Horse is....

No prizes for guessing...

For Mehbooba..a special Reward for bringing down J&K Govt.

We are waiting for the bids...

The stray ones waiting for their chance...

Apologies to those whose pictures did not find place in the above Gallery of the Politicians' Page Three.

Lollipops for those who cannot make a deal

Update:

It is understood that many Congress Ministers at the Centre , including Deora, Chidambaram and other non-performing Ministers (of whom there is no shortage), are jittery at the prospect of being eased out to accommodate some of those who are going to vote in favor of the Govt. Several sitting Congress MPs and MLAs in states are also having sleepless nights for fear of their claims for tickets in the next elections being ignored to accommodate the understanding with other parties.

The tensions have eased somewhat with a White Knight's assurances on the 15th, of support of some Dark Horses in the trust vote.

Nuke Deal and Political Scene - Update

noreply@blogger.com (india-awake) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:14:00 +0000

See previous here and here

The Nuclear Deal impasse seems to be leading to some bizzare consequences on the Politics of the Country. While the utlimate result cannot be predicted with certainty, what is clear is that the Indian polity is achieving new lows.

A perspective in pictures...........

Left - UPA Coordination Committee
Going round and round

One that got away...
The Left Parties...

No U turn permitted

A slippery Road

The New Kids on the block

Meanwhile in the Stock Markets...

The New Mantra for the Politicians

Building a new road for DEMOCRACY