Condemned to Suffer

The Government has recently hiked the Diesel price by Rs 5. And now,

"Raise diesel price by Rs 4 a litre, govt panel tells Centre: India should try to completely deregulate diesel prices by the start of financial year 2014/15 as part of a strategy to cut its ballooning fiscal deficit, a government panel report made public on Friday said. The report, submitted to the government on September 3, before a hike in prices of diesel in mid-September, also recommended increasing the price of fuel by 4 rupees a litre. It also suggested cooking gas prices should be raised by 50 rupees per 14.2 kilogram cylinder"

Till the last hike, the reason given for hike of petroleum products was the high oil prices, that leads to a foreign exchange outflow. Now Government is very quiet about this, because the Crude oil price is less than $ 90 per barrel.  If rise in Crude prices is an attributable reason for hike in Petroleum products price, then the corollary should be true. The oil companies have always parrotted that market price should define the price of petroleum products, and as such should we not be reducing the prices rather than increasing it?

Our Government is flat broke. It gave concessions worth $ 1 Trillion to the Big Industries during the recession in 2008-2009. And has continued to refuse taxing the rich. Wasteful schemes like NREGA and many others, initiated by Sonia Gandhi and her irresponsible leftist 'advisors' in the National Advisory Committee has destroyed the Country's finance. Government wants the common man to tighten his belt, while refusing to even make a token effort on its part or the industrialist's part to do so. The highly subsidised industrialists have siphoned off profits made in India to invest outside the country.

The FDI in retail, civil aviation followed by Insurance and Pension will not help Westerners as many thought. The Western companies and countries are broke themselves. They dont have money to pay their debts, forget about investing in India. What will happen is the Black Money stashed outside the country will find its way back to the country as FDI, FII through the opening up of the economy, and this will lead to higher inflation.

We have never seen a Government that is as apathetic to its people as the current one- and that includes the ones led by Indira Gandhi, and later by VP Singh et al. And this is saying a lot. It takes special skills to damage an economy to crumbs in 8 years, as Manmohan Singh has done. He can get his second Ph.D writing a thesis about how he did it.

But when the Country is run by a school drop out dumbo like Sonia Gandhi and a guy with a brain the size of a peanut - Rahul Gandhi, ably supported by downright idiots like Montek Singh Ahluwalia and a team of World Bank (which itself is in doldrums) experienced 'economists' who doesnt know Trivandrum from Aizwal, what else can you expect?

When Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa and wanted to join the freedom struggle, the great Balagangadhara Tilak asked him to travel across India to understand the problems faced by the countrymen across the length and breadth of the country. Gandhi was wise enough to follow the advice, and the rest is history.

If you look at the decision makers, Sonia Gandhi, Radhul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Subbarao, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni, Pranab Mukherjee (till recently) and of course the NAC members, one thing common is that not one of them have any experience at grassroot politics nor do they have any contact with the common man. They just sit in their ivory towers and churn out western theory based text bookish solutions that is far away from the ground reality.

Only when our country is ruled by grassroot politicians, will we have an empathetic government. Till then, we are condemned to suffer.

Reforms? The Government must be joking

The so called 'reforms' supposedly unleashed by the UPA Government is the biggest joke of the year.

How come increasing the Diesel prices that lead to inflation (argument against is that not increasing diesel price will lead to fiscal deficit increasing, which leads to inflation - so it is a case of heads I win and tails you lose to the Government- it is inflation either way - one now, other defered) be categorized as a reform? In the first place why are we not asking the question "What led to the spiralling of the fiscal deficit in the first place?". Why are we not even talking about reducing non-plan expenditure, curbing the cost of the bureaucracy, discarding with the unwanted ministries? Why are we not doing a cost benefit analysis of the porous NREGS, where only less than 15% reaches the beneficiary? NREGS is the single largest culprit for the spiralling fiscal deficit. Why should only the common man pay for the profligacies of a wasteful government? Why are we not hearing about Ministers, including PM and the NAC Chairman doing a cost cutting on their security detail? We may not save much, but at least it gives a feeling that everyone is tightening their belt.

In the first place we need to be transparent about the claims of under recovery that leads to notional losses in the oil industry. I am an ex-oil industry guy myself. With oil prices remaining stable during the past one year, how come the subsidy bill is spiralling day by day?

What is required are sacrifices made by everyone, starting from the top, including industrialists. There are so many ways to raise revenue. Increasing tax collection ( tax evasion is very high in the country, especially sales and corporate tax), reducing expenditure, spending more money on infrastructure that generates employment, restructuring the government and the bureaucracy, abolishing at least 40 ministries at the centre and many more in the States, reducing interest rates that allows entrepreneurs and small businessmen to invest more instead of banks pampering the big industrial houses......... ............the list is endless............

We talk about FDI retail in another post.....................

Mid term polls in January -February 2013???

Few apparently unconnected incidents/policy decisions indicate Mid-Term Poll in India.

The Coal Scam in which the PM is heavily indicted. Sonia asking Congressment to be aggressive in taking on the opposition (Because the Scam hits close to home???). BJP has upped the ante and has not allowed the parliament to function till MMS resigns, not will it the next session too.

Mulayam Singh Yadav questioning Rahul Gandhi's credentials and announcing the decision to go alone in the next Parliamentary elections, thereby scuttling Congress's plan to form an alliance in UP. Also, the disasterous performance of Akhilesh Yadav's government means every day delay in SP pulling the plug on the UPA Government means loss of seats for SP, reducing its bargaining power in the post poll scenario.

Government deciding to hike the diesel price by Rs 5 and putting a cap on subsidised LPG cylinder to 6 a year. UPA is sure this policy decision will force some of its allies to withdraw support as it is so blatantly anti aam admi. Trinamool Congress and NCP have already made their displeasure known, and both are itching to walk out of UPA.

Now the final nail in the coffin.By allowing 51% FDI in retail, broadcasting and aviation, Congress has left SP, TMC, BSP with hardly any room for manouvre. Their opposition to FDI in retail is well known. They just cannot take this humiliation any more, which means they have to walk out.

Congress knows it will get less than 50 seats if it waits till 2014, knowing how discredited the current regime is. Better to get 100 odd seats now, and hope to support a third front from outside than be irrelevant in 2 years time. And they can take the high moral ground of having been forced to go to the people because of SP, BJP, TMC, BSP claiming they were victims of being reformist, after destroying the economy for 8 long years.

I will stick my neck out and predict that the General Election will be held in January- February 2013, so that Congress can confine Modi to Gujarat, whose Assembly election will also have to be held with it, rather than losing Gujarat now badly, and then having to face a stronger Modi in 2014.

Watch out for January-February 2013!!

Dispelling some myths #2

We are a Secular Country

There can be nothing further from the truth than this. Secularism means the right to follow the religion of ones choice freely. The current version of Secularism that is being practiced is a sham. We have one set of rules for certain communities and another for the majority community. The minority institutions can function under their own syllabus, do whatever they want and they are even supported by the government. The madrassa eduction, which cannot be in any terms called secular, is made to be on par with the conventional education. Even the Christian run schools promote their religion at the expense of other religions. But Hindus, by virtue of being a majority, cannot have any privileges for running their own schools. A veda pada sala, which should be encouraged as it passes on the wisdom of centuries of advanced human thoughts collected as Vedas and Upanishads, is branded communal and left unrecognized. Even the new Right to Education act and reservation in schools for the underprivileged is not applicable to minority run schools. So a minority benefits two fold- he gets reservation in a majority run institution and his seats are protected in his community run institutions.

Even the generic definition  of Secularism is not applicable any more. Would any minority community look passively if one of theirs convert himself or herself to a majority religion? There are numerous cases where people have been killed because of this, and there are many more that are left unreported by the secular media.

And why should the minorities enjoy special privileges in any case? They have as much right as you and me with respect to educational opportunities and employment opportunities on merit. If, after 65 years of reservation, they are still backward and needs protection, frankly they need to look inwards.

India is currently a country not for the majorities and as such not secular.

Dispelling some Myths - 1

We, Indians, tend to fools ourselves by beliving ardently in certain myths. It is time to shatter some of these myths, if we want to progress.

Myth # 1 - We are a democracy

Are we really? True, we have elections once in 5 years, but more often than not the choice is between tweedle dee and tweedle dum, both nominated by autocratic leaders. Does any of the parties have a democratic set up? Do they conduct elections of their office bearers or are they nominated by someone in Delhi? How are the candidates selected by the parties for a constituency? Ever heard of a thing called primary, which is common in US and UK, where card holding party members of a constituency vote for the candidate of their choice, who will fight the elections? And who gets elected? A guy who gets 35% of the votes polled, which itself is 60% of the total voters (meaning the winning candidate gets 19.8% of the total votes!!). This means the guy who is elected as MP or MLA has been rejected by 80% of the electorate!!! And we call this guy a 'representative'? Why can't we have a system where we have candidates elected by each party based on primaries, then have a first round of polling, and then allow the top 2 contenders to have a face off in second round, with a minimum 51% of the total votes polled mandatory for election?

The myth of us being a democracy doesnt end there. What happens in Parliament and Assemblies are nothing short of a national disgrace. Hardly any debate takes place, governance is done through ordinances, as no one is bothered about their primary duty, law making. Even a simple thing like a vote of confidence to prove the majority of the government cannot be held with dignity!

Then there are the cases of failed Loksabha candidates entering the parliament through the backdoor - Rajyasabha, by giving fake addresses. Our third longest serving prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has headed the Government for 9 years WITHOUT WINNING EVEN A MUNICIPAL ELECTION!! And then we have our current Finance Minister whose election was rigged and the courts have not found it fit to pass a judgement for the past 3 years, and he has taken decisions that affect millions without a proper mandate. Both A K Anthony and the till recent trouble shooter of the Government, Pranab Mukherjee are/were both not members of the Lok Sabha. And to cap it all, the real decisions are taken by Sonia Gandhi and her cocus who have no statutory rights whatsoever.

And how many States have conducted local body elections and have working gram panchayats? Your guess is as good as mine.

We are not a participative democracy. We need to rechristen ourselves as a Fully Autocratic Limited Democracy

We are not independent!!!!

Another Independence Day has come and gone!

While it is admirable that we are a politically free country (at least from foreign powers - well with the exception of the Italian lady), it is a moot point whether we are independent in the spheres that ought to be.

Economically, our policies are not independent of the Western powers, whose lackeys in the Government and the Bureaucracy has ensured our policy framework being allowed to be dictated by failing Western Countries like US and the Eurozone. Instead of dictating terms to these failed states, as China does, and asking them to open their economy to our products and services, we fall head over heels to oblige them, as the flawed nuclear deal, FDI in retail, FII liberalization shows. We search for the non-existant Western FDI, while the Indian Businessmen are busy investing the Capital appreciated in India, all over the World, except in India.

We are not independent from the political and dynastical tyranny of a few self proclaimed elite. Scams after scams have shown UPA government to be brazenly and shamelessly corrupt, but we citizens are impotent. Inflation has been very high for years now, but when have we seen a mass protest against this? Gone are the days when people took to the street in lakhs. Now, all you see is 10 people marching, and that too for the cameras. I remember waiting for hours to cross the road in Palakkad in 1980s, when a political jadha (procession) takes place, as it was not in order to break a jadha.

Our Police is not independent any more. They have lost all their credibility. CBI is a lap dog of the powers that be. Less said about the local police the better.Political interference and corruption has destroyed our police force forever.

Of late one suspects even the judiciary is not independent. How else could one explain the undue delays lasting decades that denies justice to the victims - Sikh riots, Bhopal Tragedy, Telecom Scam, Cases of the high and mighty (remember Sanjay Dutts, Salman Khans and scores of other cases which are yet to see the light of the day) .............. the list is endless.

We are not independent to acquire the knowledge that we seek. Our textbooks are highly concocted to suit a particular ideology. Studies about our ancient culture is scoffed at. Intellectual debates at the educational institutions are stiffled. I read recently that the Quit India movement of 1942 was a colossal failure!!! This is backed by solid data and research. But we were taught all these years that we got independence because of its success.

We are not independent from our diffident and apathetic attitude as a nation. We dont have pride in what we do. We dont feel the pain a young kid feels when Sushil Kumar lost his Gold medal bout in the recent olympics. He wanted India to win one gold at least and shut himself up in a room crying when he lost. The adults were like...............well, at least we got a Silver!!!

We are not independent from poverty. We are not independent from ignorance. We are not independent from corruption. We are not independent from the 'chalta hai' attitude. We are not independent from the 'it is like that only' shrug off.

It is only when we gain independence of our thought process, start questioning, and provide solutions that we can celebrate our independence day with a proud heart.

Till then we are confined to the sham Independence Day celebrations like the one in Red Fort where only highly vetted and sanitized people attend an hour of the most pathetic speech by the most ineffective Prime Minister of India, who does not even have the courage to walk with ordinary people without security cover.

Well, even he is not independent!!!

Watching Olympics always gives me immense pleasure. I was crazy enough to travel 48 hours in 1984 from Palghat to New Delhi to watch Olympics on TV!!! And my father was equally crazy to send me all the way to satisfy the whim of a sports crazy boy.

The very sight of World Class athletes, their joy and sorrow, their grit and determination is inspiring. Sometimes the learnings from it is carried forward to life. This is true of many other sports. I wrote a post on thinking from a different perspective 4 years back. I reproduce some excerpts,

It was cricket that taught me to think unconventionally to start with. Being a reasonably active player in the Age group tournaments, I was a permanent fixture in the summer coaching camps.

As batsmen, we were always told to look out for where the fielders are positioned to avoid hitting the ball in the air to them. Then one day our regular coach had a bereavement in the family and he was replaced by a new young coach who was considered to be a bit of a maverick. He scrapped the regular net session and replaced it with matches every day. While I was waiting for my turn to bat, he came sat with me and said, "Raja, try this out. When you go out to bat, don't look at where the fielders are, but concentrate on where the GAPS are. Since you are so obsessed with fielders, you tend to subconsciously hit straight to them. Think only gaps". Even as a youngster, despite my upbringing, I always had a rebel streak in me and was (and is) game to any scatter brained ideas. I went out, fixed in my mind only the gaps and the runs flowed. Anything and everything I stroked that day pierced the field beautifully. Score 1 for lateral thinking.

The next instance came in an inter zonal match. The pitch was turning square and the spinners were turning the ball a mile and beating the bat my the same margin. It was all 'oohs and aahs' but we just didn't pick any wickets as the ball was beating everything and the spinners, eyes lit at the sight of a square turner, putting more vicious spin into each ball. We came in for lunch and were quite animated. The coach didn't say anything at first. When we were about to go out, he said, "don't spin the ball, use your arm balls and top spinners more. success in a spinning track lies in not spinning the ball." I was leading the team. In the middle, I called my left arm spinner and leg spinner for a chat and asked them to try out the coach's advice for at least 4 overs. I changed the field accordingly. The slip was straightened, the short leg move a little squarer and left the mid wicket open. My spinners carried out the coach's advice superbly, they mixed up the odd turning ball with a majority of straighter ones and bamboozled the batsmen who were playing for the turn. We took the last 8 wickets in 41 balls after lunch for next to nothing. Score 2 for out of the box thinking.

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The most critical thing in football is off the ball running and positioning, not the actual ball play. Always analyse the teams from this angle.

Back to cricket. The dictum in spin bowling is that "spin is in the air and break is off the wicket". The spin is all about how much revolutions you can give to a ball in the air. The more the better as it will allow the ball to drift and dip, bite the wicket and then turn(break). Good spinners always beat the batsmen in the air, not off the wicket.

I was amazed at another wonderful analysis in the TV this Olympics. I had just watch Usain Bolt, the Jamaican, virtually decimate his opponents in the 100 m Sprint Final, and win by a good margin - a rarity in 100 m event which finishes in less than 10s ( 9.63s was the winning time this time around). Heck! he got at least 2 strides lead in less than the time it takes to count upto 10!!!. I have seen some great sprinters in my time - Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson etc...........But Bolt is something amazing.

But what was revealing was Carl Lewis's analysis of the sprint. While everyone was talking about how Bolt accelarated towards the end, Carl Lewis refuted the stand and said that 'in 100 m, sprinters actually decelerate towards the finishing line, and it is actually the sprinter who decelerates slower than others who wins'. Take that for a different perspective