Indian Budget- More of a Tradition

The annual Indian budget is out and media discussions are rife about what the government did right and where it could have done better. Political parties are reacting on the predicted lines. I too have my reservations and analysis of this year’s budget. What does this budget mean for the aam aadmi? Do budgets really matter for the common man anymore or for that sake, does the industry take the budget as seriously as before?

            Post 1991, every passing year shows that the Annual Budget is more of a tradition now than a serious financial statement. With markets being deregulated price control is not a major issue and decisions regarding excise duty, import tariffs, subsidies are taken all the year round. Fiscal policy is a major part of the budget where this time the entire tax system has been handled in the old way though promises of gargantuan nature were made before polls and budget by the present BJP government. Though GST was anathema for BJP in the past, it has embraced it enthusiastically now which is “interesting”. How subsides and welfare program spending will be handled is a tricky question which has not been answered substantially by the Finance Minister.

            29 schemes have been allotted 100 crores each which does not make sense as the amount is too small for these projects and there is no roadmap regarding the source of revenue.

            However my biggest concern is the amount given for infrastructure. 27600 crores have been earmarked for various projects. Somewhere the land mafia influencing the budget seems high. Even during the UPA regime, money was misspent and projects took longer than required which escalated the costs. The priority for the government should be to see that implementation of these projects is on time and there are no sidekicks passed out.

            Another allocation which is beyond comprehension is the amount allocated for building the iron statue of Vallabhai Patel. 200 crores have been allocated for this. It was the pet project of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Narendra Bhai Modi for which he also collected iron from all over the country. Now why does the government want to spend so much of the tax payer’s money on such a project and allocate just 100 crores for women safety is beyond logic.

            Similarly 100 crores have been allocated for a survey to be done on inter linking the rivers. We have had many committees and sub committees on this issue, therefore having another survey costing 100 crores is insane.

Making MNREGA more practical and financially viable is a good initiative of the government. Asset creation is a must for these welfare schemes because mere handouts will not lead to poverty alleviation.

If we talk about the state of Madhya Pradesh in this budget, then we find that much has not been given to our state. If just take the railways, we find that we have the lowest railway network of 16.67 km/ 1000 sq kms whereas the national average is 24 kms. We have been kept out of the Golden Quadrilateral which was a NDA program. Similarly our road network is also very poor at 110,000 kms where our neigbouring state Maharashtra which is smaller in size has 250,000 kms of roads. Though we have BJP both at centre and in our state, we have not been given the status of privileged state. We have 21 percent tribal population which is the highest in the country, highest IMR and MMR rate (poor roads is one of the cause for these rates to be high) among other poor indicators.

Budgets have become more of a tradition and less of an important financial statement because it lacks government vision. Policies of the government are not clearly spelt out. Political will is the most important thing for this country which is somehow lacking.

Women- The Punching Bag for All

 

The past couple of years we are hearing more and more stories of atrocities against women. Gang rapes, murders, creating MMS have become part of everyday life. Recently there was this case of Badayun where 2 sisters were raped, hanged to death by upper caste people of the village involving a police man. If these horrific incidences were not enough for us women, we now have our elected representatives asking their men o rape and kill us. Tapas Pal, a celebrated actor of Tollygunj and a 2 time MP of TMC was recorded on camera asking his men to rape and kill women who were Communist sympathizers. In the Badayun case, Akhilesh Yadav asked a female journalist smilingly whether she was raped or not? His father a thespian of politics went a step further and said boys made mistakes and rape was one of them. Babulal Gour, an octogenarian, 8 time MLA from Madhya Pradesh and the current Home Minister of the state is known for his derogatory statements against women. The latest being that women are responsible because of the clothes they wear & men who rape do not inform the police before doing this. The Home Minister of Chhatisgarh echoed his thoughts. A Goan minister is against women going to pubs and drinking. He wants them to stop wearing short dresses. And if all of this was not enough we have a BJP leader O P Dhanker promising Harayanvi men that he will get them Bihari brides if they bring BJP to power in the state.

All these men and their statements are not one off. We can see them regularly mirrored in our everyday lives when constitution gives us the right education but the society takes away our right to apply this education and earn for ourselves. Laws have been made but the implementers of these laws are the perpetrators of such horrors in the society. Women leaders who sit on the citadel of power by breaking norms in the past, now do nothing more than paying lip service. There are agitations, gheraos, fact finding missions, corpus funds, new schemes but no stringent action is taken against any of these men by any political parties.

The thought that comes to mind with regards to these moronic statements is that is our society really so regressive? Are our elected representatives really so insensitive? Are political compulsions so strong that a trail blazing leader like Mamta Banerji does nothing? Is political will so low? Is the divide in the society so wide that women are used as means of destruction?

Over the years we have continuously seen political parties advocating education for girls, bringing them into jobs, giving them representation in elections and reservations in Panchayats. But has all this helped the cause of women at large? Are the leaders echoing what the society really thinks? In my city of Bhopal women have the liberty of moving out for their education and jobs but they are not secure.

Is there a solution to all this? Discussions, seminars, symposiums on gender equality, women emancipation talks about creating awareness in the society, sensitizing the boys, giving self defense courses to our girls, more stringent laws are some of the measures. Yes they all work but we also need to set an example of our leaders. Tapas Pal has a wife and daughter, both in public life and quite liberal. Babulal Gour’s daughter in law is a Mayor, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife is a two time MP. Ehat does this all reveal that it is fine to further the careers of the women of their families mete out Talibanise acts for women in general. Leaders and political parties have to take tough decisions and we women need to come together to fight for our cause.

“Hindi” Diktat for Social Media

Language is a means of communication, where one person wants to get his thoughts across to another. In 1947 when India got freedom from the Brits, Hindi was chosen as the “Rashtriya Bhasha” , not only because it was spoken by a vast  majority but also to come out of colonial hangover. In recent days, the newly elected Modi government came out with a diktat that Hindi is to be used for social media interactions by all the state governments. Next day it said that only Hindi speaking states should be doing this. But if we go through the tweets of M.P. CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, we find that he too is not following this absurd diktat.

Why this order is absurd has to be understood on many levels. In spite of Hindi being the declared national language, we all know that our country does not have a national language.

Secondly it is only Northern India for which Hindi is the first language. For the rest of us we have our mother tongue as the first language & many amongst us have learnt Hindi from Hindi films, songs and TV serials, therefore using this language does not come easy.

Thirdly pitting one language against the other is the recipe for disaster. When non Hindi speaking people are asked to use English, however pathetic they might be at it, they do not mind but when asked to speak Hindi, they rebel (Tamil Nadu is a good case study). English in India is a language that kinds people together.

Fourthly, it is important to be proud of one’s language but practicality always wins over nationality. Youngsters want to learn English because the one’s with the knowledge of English stand a much better chance of getting a job than a Hindi speaking or any regional language speaking person.

Mr. Modi using a translator while meeting international leaders & delegates is a smart move and he should continue with using Hindi but asking common man to do so is not fair.

  

VYAPAM Scam – The Biggest Scam in the Education Sector

VYAPAM is the Vyavasayik  Pariksha Mandal or the Professional Exam Board (PEB) of Madhya Pradesh which was established in 1970 for conducting professional exams especially for engineering and medical entrance. However over the years this board has made exams professional. 2013 proved to be  a watershed year for the board as well as the BJP state government when irregularities were found in pre-medical tests. Slowly the can of  worms opened and irregularities were found in police exams , teachers, postal department & others. Lacs of students are affected by it. When the kingpins of the scam, Dr. Pankaj Trivedi, Dr. Jagdish  Sagar, Nitin Mahinder, O.P.Shukla and others were arrested, the nexus with BJP ministers,  gunda,  mafia kings also came to the fore.

Now in this entire episode, there are 3 things which are very disturbing.

Firstly STF is under pressure to perform and catch all the culprits without succumbing to the pressure of the incumbent government. Therefore it is sifting through the call details and the statements made by the crooks caught and catching hold of the students. They are to be blamed, their degrees need to be taken away but they should not be treated as criminals. And this is what STF and police are doing.

Secondly what is the government going to do with the students who lost their chance because undeserving candidates with money were given preference. There are large number of genuine, hard working, meritorious students who were declared unqualified in various government jobs. Doubt has also been raised on the candidates who have passed on merit but the general perception in the state is that every person who is pursuing medicine or has become a doctor recently is a fraud. How will Chief Minister re-build this faith? How is he going to repay to all those students who lost opportunity?

Thirdly why are all the stakeholders that is the students and youth who are affected silent on this matter. We Indians as a society are quite volatile and we take to streets with the slightest provocation , then why are we not coming out on the streets over this grave issue? Is the youth so indifferent that he is not bothered about his career or his future? Political parties in the opposition are raking this issue but till the effected party does not become vocal on the issue, nothing concrete will get done.

Now the next obvious question that arises is how to clear the mess. And the simple answer to that is political will. If the ruling party and its leaders decide to take some harsh decisions in which may be their own kith & kiln may have to go to jail, but in the large interest of the state & society, it will be a huge step. It will also help to reestablish the lost goodwill of politicians and political parties. For the future online exams is being contemplated but a state besieged with problem of power shortage, computer shortage will take time to build the entire infrastructure for such large scale exams. Till the set up gets ready, the government and the administration has to be in high alert and checks  & counter checks have to be done.  

Economics of Populism

The year 2013 and 2014 are the years of election. And as election season comes, announcement of sops is in full swing. Most of the sops that are declared have no economic logic behind them and the most unfortunate part is that even after 6 decades of independence, the common man falls into this trap and then ultimately curses the political system.

Narendra Modi has been declared as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP and he is being marketed as the man who delivers good governance and has excellent economic model which would catapult the economy to double growth figures overnight. However one thing that is missing is this very economic model that he talks about from various platforms. Is it only based on the dictum of privatisation where the state will decide on its economic policies on the basis of the needs of the corporate sector. Or the need of the common man will be given priority. The recent recommendation coming from his camp are absurd to say it politely. Scrapping income tax, opening up of all the sectors to private players, supporting and then opposing FDI in retail, taking away land from farmers in the name of industralisation, building a tall statute of Vallabhbhai Patel on the banks of Narmada and diverting the attention from Sardar Sarovar Dam, giving away government land at throw away prices to private players, building roads on PPP model and charging exorbitant toll tax are some of the economic policies of the various BJP led state governments and PM in waiting.

In the past 10 years, the Congress led UPA government has been targeted for corruption especially in the distribution of telecom spectrum and coal. Crony capitalism has been highlighted by the opponents and to a certain degree it is true. But crony capitalism is just not the character of central government, it is very much evident in BJP ruled states too. In my state of Madhya Pradesh, ironically all the road contracts go to the same builder and all the mines go selected few. As a result corruption is at its highest in the state.

Coming back to the economics of populism, the common man has to understand that the sops declared by whichever party are mere allurements for getting votes. They do not lead to capital formation and therefore do not aid in economic development. Moreover the cacophony over growth figures is misleading. The real test for any economy is its performace on developmental parameters. While we exercise our democratic right of casting our vote, we have to think about the policy measures declared by a party and its past record. I firmly believe that we are having too rightist mindset which is not helping the cause of the common man. The role of the state needs to be increased especially in sectors of mass connect.