Caterories of Government Servants and Leaders

I have a friend, who works in the Government. He is witness to all the corruption that is happening around him and in his cryptic succinct manner, he put forth his analysis of different type of people.

The first category is the honest, efficient, do-gooder - A rare and vanishing breed. These are the guys who maintain highest integrity, care for the public, are utterly uncorrupt and do their work efficiently keeping in mind the public interest.

The second category is the utterly dishonest, supremely corrupt - They are multiplying exponentially. These people dont do any work unless they are 'taken care of'. But once they are paid their 'due', they do all within their abilities to get the things done for their benefactor.

The third category is the efficient, not so honest - These are people who go about their job efficiently. They dont demand money for the work done, but dont refuse if given to them. It is not a pre-condition for them to get money for delivering a service.  They dont demand, and are happy with whatever is given to them, but most accept the money only only on completion of the task. This used to be the major chunk a decade ago, but has dwindled during the recent times.

Then there is the inefficient, corrupt - The ones who expect, demand money but cant/wont get things done even if paid. A growing breed.

Finally, there is the honest, no-gooder - The guy who maintains highest standards of honesty, has spotless integrity but doesnt do any work as his main objective is to maintain his integrity and honesty, even if it means not getting any work done.

My friend says, the last category is the most hated by even the public, as he is a pain in the ass and puts one stumblic block after another in the way of getting things done by either him or anyone. The consequence is even routine things getting piled up.

I can add another category. It is the honest, silent spectator, facilitator - The guy who keeps quiet and allows others to exploit his honesty as a cover for indulging in rampant corruption and he through is inaction, facilitates it. And, if he happens to be the CEO, or worse Leader of a nation, then it is catastrophe.

And you know, whom I am talking about.

Auguring well for the Country.............

The resounding victory of Nitish Kumar led NDA in Bihar is a positive sign in Indian Politics. It is a vote for developmental politics, as it should be.

Though, Congress under Narasimha Rao, brought the concept of growth as the focal point in governance in 1990's, it was not out of conviction, but out of necessity - he was forced by the World Bank and Western powers to reform the economy to avail the much needed financial assitance from them.

The Vajpayee led NDA, genuinely made an effort to shift the focus to development by initiating the Golden Quadrilateral/N-S/W-E Highway projects and inter linking of rivers.

The UPA 1 and UPA 2, under Sonia (I refuse to say Manmohan, as he has hardly any say in framing the policies) unfortunately reverted back to the vote bank politics of aam admi, religion and caste. They went back to welfare economics, giving out doles in the guise of NREGS, and sounding populism cliches. All the while, development took a backstage. Initially, the blame was put on the Left Front, their partner in UPA 1, but post Left going out of UPA, things have only worsened. Unwisely, Sonia and her team of Advisors took the route of 1970 kind of slogans of Indira Gandhi of 'Aam Aadmi', 'Garibi Hatao' to polarise the people and try to reap dividends. But people have seen through these empty meaningless slogans that give them no benefit whatsoever. They have also understood that Congress has a vested interest in keeping the poor, poor forever.

With Narendra Modi winning successive elections in Gujarat, and Nitish now winning in Bihar, people are inclined to give a positive vote wherever plausible. True, they still vote negatively. But that is when they dont have a choice, like in Tamil Nadu where there is hardly any difference between DMK and AIADMK or in Kerala, where the LDF  and UDF are both corrupt and inefficient, or in UP where Mayawati and Mulayam are unmitigated disasters.

We are seeing the rise of new leadership that is focusing on leading and developing the country, rather than polarising the country on the basis of Caste or Religion or Creed. This can but augur well for the Country in the long run.

Compromising Constitutional Instituitions the Congress Way

More than the corruption, a bigger concern is the compromising of the Constitutional Authorities under the UPA.

That Governors are hand-picked and works as stooges of the Congress Party is a known fact - even without H R Bhardwaj making an ass of himself in Karnataka. Besides this, the Election Commission was severely compromised when Navin Chawla became the CEC. That the Government will be so brazen by appointing an IAS officer whose integrity is in doubt as Chief Vigilance Commissioner was not anticipated. Or, perhaps we should have.

The pathetic performance of the Attorney General of India in the Supreme Court virtually blackmailing the Supreme Court when they were quite right in questioning the wisdom of appointing a dubious CVC should be the pits for this Government. The AG  had the temerity to insinuate that the Judiciary comprises of people with question marks over their integrity was totally uncalled for, especially when he was defending the indefensible.

The Media, which used to play the role of the vigilante, has been bought over with advertisements and other honours. The only saving grace is the Judiciary, which is not in the best of shapes. But, at least, we do not have 'committed' judiciary as envisaged by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. Let us  be thankful for that.

Need of the hour

Why is it that there is still widespread poverty in India, despite the 7-8% per annum GDP growth rate over the past decade? Nearly 60% of our population lives around the poverty line, whether slightly above or below doesnt matter.

A country's economy goes through the phases of Agrarian -> Industrial -> Services Economies.  The skill sets/education required of the population for each phase varies from Basic School Education in the Agrarian phase, to Technical/semi technical skills during the Industrial Era to the higher level service oriented MBA/CA/Legal etc in the Services Sector.

Normally, this transition happens over at least 2-3 generations, whereby giving time for the respective governments to plan, upgrade the skill sets of successive generations in advance, so that they are employable when the transition from one phase to another happens.

In India's case, the rural India has been stuck on the Agrarian phase since independence. The transition to Industry and Services has been too fast and too quick, for it happened within a decade or at best a decade and a half. And the beneficiaries were the urban , semi urban population who were better equipped and possessed the right skills to exploit this transition. The poor rural population saw their opportunities shrinking, the sector is growing at 2-3%, the sector has the least priority amongst the policy makers, and unfortunately for them, the Government, instead of tackling the root cause of retraining and upgrading their skill sets, is trying to have a quick fix by giving doles, subsidies and ensuring they remain where they are.

Need of the hour is massive retraining of the rural population. But is someone listening?

Peter's Principle and MMS

Peter's Principle says that 'Everyone (employee) raises to his level of incompetence'

It is so true in the case of our (dis)honourable Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh. A career bureaucrat, he has held many posts including that of RBI Governor, Finance Minister till he reached his level of incompetence - the Prime Ministership of a resurgent India, which is crying for dynamic leadership.

So, while he continues to blunder his way around in the upper echelons of the Country, as a walking example of Peter's Principle, we - the people suffer silently.

Is allowing corruption a political strategy?

One is almost certain that Congress is allowing its alliance partners to indulge in unlimited corruption as a leverage to sustain its government, in the Centre and in the States.

The Congress strategy is simple. Allow Alliance partners to hold plum portfolios like Railways, Food, Airlines, Telecom, Highways etc where there is tremendous potential to indulge in  massive corruption. While the Ministers are looting their Ministries, the 'honest' PM condones the action by being a silent spectator, irrespective of the fact that, as per Indian constitution the Cabinet has collective responsibility, and the individual ministers basically put up the proposal to the cabinet, and implements the Cabinet decision. So there is no way Raja could have taken a decision on allocation of 2G spectrum without the knowledge of all, including the Cabinet and the Prime Minister. Being 'led' by a nominated weak Prime Minister, who cannot even say 'boo' to his personal assistant, let alone a minister, the Ministers run riot.

The fun starts when the media, most of whom are in the payroll of Congress (Is there any logical reason why Times of India, which bends over backwards to please Congress and the Sonia, should embarass them by running a relentless campaign against Raja and DMK?), are encouraged to leak selective documents exposing the alliance partner. Then ,after much noise has been made, a deal is struck with the alliance partner and the threat of a CBI (Congress Bureau of Investigation these days) enquiry is used to get the best possible deal for the Congress in the seat allocation to the oncoming elections. For example, it is an open secret the Congress has manipulated the CBI cases to keep Mayavati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav et al to support the government at various stages. It is also clear as a daylight that Congress used the telecom scandal to strike a deal with Karunanidhi in the Assembly elections due in Tamil Nadu in 2012.

The strategy is to give a long rope, and praying to the God that the Allies will hang themselves.

What a fall for a Party that was built on honesty, ethics and moral values by Mahatma Gandhi, Tilak, Bose......

Where to use Which Knowledge?

Use Scientific Knowledge for Solving Problems in our Life and,
Use Spiritual Knowledge for Attaining Immortality through Philosophical Outlook - Eesaavaasya Upanishad, Yajurvedam

Go after the money trail

So finally Telecom Minister Raja resigned. As did Ashok Chavan, the Maharashtra CM.

But that should not be the end of the story. We need to punish the guilty in the case of Adarsh Housing Scam, and the punishment should be exemplary. The money that changed hands should be recovered, and all the politicians and bureaucrats put behind the bars and do voluntary social work for say 8 years at least.

In the case of the telecom scandal, Raja was only a pawn. The money trail (1.7 lakh crores is quite a bit of money) definitely has reached the top echeleons of the Congress Party and the DMK. This needs to be uncovered. While I dont believe that bribes of that amount were paid to get the licenses, it is clear that at least 25% of that amount would have been paid as bribe by the licensees. This ought to have been public money and needs to be tracked. The best way out is ask the companies who got the licenses to cough up this money within 6 months or else face strict penal action and involve the courts so that these companies cant delay the implementation through court room stalling. Set up a fast track court with a time frame of one year. Once the licensees are asked to pay the money, then they will ensure that the politicians whom they had bribed repay the money to them or at least they will be forced to divulge their names. It is worth a try.

What we should not do is to accept that these two guys have been punished enough. Losing the ministership is nothing.

Stay away from Stock Market

Stay away from the Stock Market. The current boom is artificial, funded by US Financial Institutions borrowing money at near to 0% interest in US and investing in India, a high interest regime. A situation similar to what happened when the stock market crashed in 2008 due to outflow of FII money is strongly indicated.

If you have bought stocks earlier when the Sensex was around 17000, book your profit, and stay out of the stock market. Wait for the inevitatable crash to buy again low.

And disregard the statement of the honourable PM that the foreign money inflow is not a cause for worry. He is bluffing, and using the artificial rise in stock indices to prop up a beleagured Prime Ministership.

How one Acquires Knowledge?

Achaaryaath paadam aadatthe
Paadam sishya swamedhayaa
Paadam sa brahmachaaribhya
Sesham kaala kramena cha


This is from smruthies. A loose translation is as follows,

A person can get  one quarter of knowledge from Achaarya – the teacher,
Another quarter by analyzing self,
One quarter by discussing with others and
the last quarter during the process of living by method -addition, deletion, correction, and modification of already known aachaaraas or new aachaaraas

Lighting in an Old Souk Alley - Surreal

The play of lights on the alley of an old souk in Mattrah was surreal

Mattrah - Oman by Night - A Photo Feature

Matrah is one of the oldest port in Oman, and is in Muscat. It used to be the commercial centre prior to discovery of oil. The place has an old world charm. I took some pictures on 10.11.10 late in the evening.

  

An illuminated Double Arch Greets you when you enter Matrah Harbour



We Drive through the Arch - An eerie feeling



A fort on the left of the Arch

Matrah Harbour Street is busy at 9 pm

A Passenger Liner berthed on the Dock

Same Liner but Close up

An Ancient Fort atop a rock overlooking the Harbour

People Enjoy a Stroll or a Quiet moment by the harbour.

Do you know how many Zeros are there in Rs 1.7 Lakh Crores?

Two news items caught my eye.

"Decks were on Wednesday cleared for impeachment proceedings against Calcutta high court judge Soumitra Sen with a judicial committee set up by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari finding him guilty of misappropriating "large sums" of funds and making false statement regarding it. The indictment of Sen paves way for Parliament to take up the impeachment of the judge who has been found guilty of collecting Rs.33,22,800 from a purchaser of goods, keeping it in a savings bank account and misrepresenting facts to the high court" - This is great news. We all know for quite some time that the higher judiciary is corrupt and has been hiding behind laws that makes taking action against them extremely difficult. So Justice Sen has to go. If that means impeachment, so be it. Remember, Justice Dinakaran is still around, and many of his ilk.

In another news item, "the Comptroller and Auditor General has held the Telecom Minister Raja personally responsible for the sale of 2G spectrum at dirt cheap rates in 2008, resulting in a loss of up to Rs 1.70 lakh crore to the national exchequer" - and pray what is the action taken against Raja? None!!!! Because the PM cannot sack him as he belongs to one of the alliance partners party-DMK.

I would be aggrieved if I were Justice Sen. He misappropriated only a paltry Rs 33 odd lakhs and gets impeached. 33 lakhs is loose change compared to Rs 1.70 lakh crores. And the culprit goes scot free.

P.S: Do you know how many zero's are there in 1.70 crores? Well I didn't. But I found out. It is Rupees 1.7 followed by 12 (Twelve) Zeros!!!!

Are we becoming a Failed State?

In politics, and in life for that matter, it is the intent that matters, not the action itself. And it is the wrong intent that makes many actions not achieve the desirable results.

Take the latest resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, following the disgraceful Adarsh Housing scam. The Congress dilly dallied for ten days, citing Obama's visit, before giving Chavan the heave ho. Chavan was unfortunate that the scam came out ten days before the Parliament was to meet for the winter session. If it had been any other time, he would have weathered the storm, for his resignation was accepted (he was forced to resign) NOT BECAUSE he was corrupt, BUT BECAUSE Congress dont want to be seen on the back foot in the Parliament. Poor Sashi Tharoor. His scandal came out while the Parliament was in session, hence he had to go. Contrast this with the case of Suresh Kalmadi and Sheila Dikshit - the faces behind a much much bigger scam - the CWG. They continue, though there has been a token action against Suresh Kalmadi as he was stripped off some inconsequential Congress Party Post. Despite claims that IOA is an independant body, Kalmadi would not have resisted a move if PM or Sonia were to have asked him to put in his papers as IOA President, which they should have. And Sheila Dikshit cannot be absolved, as she was very much part of making Delhi a laughing stock prior to CWG.

Thus the intent is political expediency, and not the will to tackle corruption. It has to be surmised that a lion's share of all these booty ultimately ends up in Congress coffers or in the Swiss Bank accounts of the powers that be.

Never before had we seen such a rotten, corrupt government - and that is saying a lot in a country that has seen some real scoundrels as Ministers. These days the corruption is in thousands of crores, not in lakhs.

As a country, we are slipping into anarchy. We have seen what happens to a country when the rulers are totally rotten and corrupt - we just have to look across the border at Pakistan, a failed State.

Does anyone want India to be a failed State?

Fruits for Health

Make Fruits a part of your Diet for a Healthy Life.

Picture taken by me on 07-11-10

A few images of Muscat

Like India, Oman is a beautiful country - Sea and Hills hardly a few Kilometers apart, modern and ancient structures co-existing and inhabited by couteous people - a few images captured by me

Swiss Money the root cause of the inflation?

There must be something wrong with the macro economic conventions. The conventional wisdom is that when the interest rates go up, money will be sucked out of the system, leading to a release of inflationary pressures.

The RBI has increased the rates in six phases during the past year to the tune of nearly 200 base points (that is 2%). By all logic, inflation should have come down to less than 8% by now, especially in view of the more than fair monsoon.

This has not happened. This could mean two things. Since we can rule out major supply side constraints, and unnatural demand spike, as there are no visible signs of both, the only logical conclusion is money flow in the market is higher.

More money is being pumped in from sources, that is greater than the money that is sucked out of the system by the interest rate hikes. There are many suspects.

Pakistan has been very active in printing Indian currency and introducing them into our system. But the amount is too negligible.

With interest rates at an all time high, Foreign Institutional Investors have ensured that there is considerable dollar inflow to the Indian Stock Market (undesirable though), that has seen the stock market touch a record high. This means, the producers are not wanting in capital, which would have been the case when interest rates go up, leading to reduction in production, and wages paid leading to less money in ciculation. But if this were the case, then industrial production should have seen an unprecedented growth, which it hasnt.

The story about National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, increasing the purchasing power of the rural population, leading to inflation is pure humbug. If at all, it has to do more with the money siphoned off by the middle men finding its way back.

But my finger of suspicion points to the money stashed in Swiss Banks finding their way back. Swiss Banks are not safe as before and the black money hoarders, ranging from politicians to businessmen to middle men are jittery. With a pliant government that turns a blind eye to corruption, I guess huge sums of money is being drawn out of Swiss Banks and pumped into our system. There is no other plausible reason.

Deepavali ............................in Blunderland

I wish the news on the economic front during Diwali is good. But unfortunately it is not.

The government has been promising that the inflation will start coming down after the Kharif Season. Despite a good monsoon, and a more than fair Kharif Season, the food inflation remains above 12%. When will the Government ever understand that there is a major supply and distribution side concern. Despite getting a rap on the knuckle from the Supreme Court, and despite the Agricultural minister Sharad Pawar wanting out 5 months ago, Government has adopted an Ostich like policy or putting its head under the sand and refusing to believe that a crisis exists. There is a criminal negligence on the inflation front.

We have surplus food grains but the poor are starving for want of foodgrain. We have not heard of a single initiative from the Government to construct/augment the foodgrain storage facility or to have a master plan for foodgrain logistics across the country. It is amazing how the whole issue has been swept under the carpet.

Manmohan Singh has two things going for him - he is 'clean' and he is an 'economist'. But his tenure has seen the worst of the scams. The scamsters from Raja to Kalmadi to Chauhan are having a field day. CWG was a national loot, and the Maharashtra CM and many in the Congress party and the Armed forces party to even swindling Kargil widows, and the 2 G scam is at another level of corruption altogether. All through this the PM has been a silent spectator, to the point of turning a nelson eye to the whole sordid corruption saga. It is almost as if he is facilitating it. It is nice to be personally clean, but as a leader of a great nation that is aspiring for global leadership, one should take leadership and responsibility in rooting out corruption. So the balloon on his being clean is pricked. I have written about his non performance as an economist before. So what do we have - a weakling who cant even say boo to even the lowest in the ministry. We get the leaders we deserve, but frankly even we dont deserve such nincompoops.

The RBI has gone and increased the interest rates upwards again. We live in one of the highest interest rates, highest tax rate, highest inflation rate regimes in the world. This is reminiscent of the bad days of early 1990's. Frankly, but for the comfortable forex scenario, the situation is actually worse than when the reforms started.

Politically, the Government blunders along. No initiatives on the Maoist front, and absolute disaster on the Kashmir front. And the Congress is up to toppling non congress governments using the Governor and money power, as happened in Karnataka of late. We have lost the war of words and policy game with Pakistan, and has not taken on China despite them harassing us on various fronts. Why, we have not been able to convince Bangladesh to give back our territory that they have forcibly acquired from us.

We need to leverage our Economic and Military clout. But instead what we will see is fawning on Obama when he visits tomorrow - the leader of a Country in decline, shorn of his political, economical, moral, military clout. What a shame!

Deepavali is a festival of lights. At least on the Deepavali day, that is tomorrow, let us hope for some light out of the darkness we find ourselves in. A darkness created by our indifference as a citizens.

But Life moves on. It has to

HAPPY DEEPAVALI!

Warning : Practice safety while lighting crackers and don't indulge in sweets