INDIAN POLITY : A POWERHOUSE OF SHAMELESS NATIONAL MISLEADERS

The Indian prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh yesterday was candid enough in accepting his government failures in controlling inflation, checking corruption and tackling unemployment which have been the major banes of his government during its tenure all through. In spite of all this how he could bring himself to he singing praises for the achievements of his government particularly when talking about the growth achieved during the last nine years. One starts wondering whether he is an overrated economist or an underrated politician. But one thing is quite clear that he could feed the nation on some statistics which as numbers are true but in true essence totally misleading. When inflation during all this period has been at a level of 10% and more, when the government salaries have doubled on account of increases in dearness allowance alone in the last seven to eight years, is the GDP increase a result of more production or a result of stagnant production with increased prices of goods and commodities due to inflation.The first mathematical guess appears to be suggesting a contraction in the overall produce. The nation will be grateful if the loyal statisticians of this insincere polity give out figures of produce in tonnage and numbers as the case may be, rather than the rupee value. The Indian nation is lucky that the inflation did not reach astronomical figures for then the polity perhaps would have fed the nation with growth rates exceeding even 20% and would have sought credit instead of being ashamed of their total failure.

WE ARE ALL TAINTED, WE WON'T ALLOW OUR LIFELINE TO BE CUT

United we stand, divided we fall. The Indian polity remembers this saying only when their sole life line to existence in politics i.e. corruption and corrupt practices is endangered.The country had a glimmer of hope till such time the politicians were managing to have their will through deft manipulations on the floor of the house as was done in the case of Lok Pal Bill, forced on them by strong public and media pressure to do something to touch their most valued and cherished right, the  right to corruption and corrupt practices. The shameless polity couldn't care less for even Indian polity being branded as  an insincere polity 

As if not letting anything against corruption  happen was not enough, these guys have been emboldened even to negate the rulings/orders of the supreme court of India as was done when Rajya Sabha bypassed supreme court on convicted politicians. These are extremely dangerous trends because somewhere in the back of their mind that they are supreme, above any constitutional authority of the land. These parliamentarians who according to the constitution of India are the servants of people and they acknowledge and repeat the same thing umpteen times when they go asking for votes during elections. Below are reproduced their concerns against the supreme court order, the concerns of two legal luminaries of the country who are behaving worse than any practicing advocate, who is  wedded only to the loyalty to his client, his paymaster. For him ethics, truth, honesty, country etc do not exist. Are they not aware of the number of tainted legislators, the figure is as high as about 40% and still one man sees something wrong with the courts while the other sees a risk to democracy. Their intellect and the combined intellect of the house could not find ways and means so that at least legislature gets rid of such tainted persons.

These two noble men belong to Delhi, live in Delhi, the capital of bribery, graft, tax evasion and black money generation and consumption and yet have failed to see and recognize the demon of corruption and black money. Is the country to understand that one becomes blind to corruption and corrupt practices the moment one becomes a legislator.It appears to be so, perhaps because politics is corruption and corruption is politics.
God bless India, for what irks India's politicians is any thing that can contribute to the nation's fight against corruption and corrupt practices.

WHAT IRKS INDIA'S POLITICIANS

While the word corruption irks the common man because it is the biggest impediment in his march towards end of poverty and miseries, the same word corruption irks the Indian politicians because it is the sole lifeline to their ability to earn a livelihood, to win elections, to come to power and to retain power.The political class as a whole takes a very strong exception when such comparisons are made but do not support any measure that could control corruption even in a small manner.

For achieving success in their lofty dubious goal of not allowing any controls on the demon of corruption, the evergreen goose that lays golden eggs for them, they sing the song of danger to democracy, danger to constitution, danger to principles of jurisprudence in complete harmony and unison. They have the power at their beck and call  to subvert and negate small actions by odd bold bureaucrats to rein in individual cases of corruption, a system under their thumb to neutralize bigger scams and legislative powers to annihilate even the observations/ rulings of judiciary.

And all this in the name of governance and policy making. Following actions and utterances of the polity during the last two years go a long way in showing the glaring differences in the perception of corruption mitigation of a common man and that of the rulers.

• Handling of Lok Pal Bill : The society wants it. All politicians want it as a public posture but nobody wants it in actual. In fact no body can deny the fact that An insincere polity is the crude Indian reality and it will never its own hands with any of its actions.
• Political parties under the Right to Information Act ( RTI ). The national government and the congress has been boasting for bringing in RTI but when Central Information Commission brought political parties under the ambit of this act, the same party along with all others has introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to keep political parties out of the purview of RTI act. Divided on everything else, political parties unite against RTI act as corruption and corrupt practices are their fundamental right.

• Supreme court directions on decriminalisation of poltics
• Supreme court directions to poll panel to act against election time freebies
• Giving autonomy to Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI ), the caged parrot speaking in its master's voice.
• Politicians do not want Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG ) to keep a check on their dubious deeds,so much so that most of them say that CAG has no right to challenge government policies  even though they may be deleterious to the national interest and bordering on the realm of corruption and corrupt practices.

HEARD ON THE STREET

Throw away your principles, values, virtues and imbibe all the baser instincts of life to give a go to all kind of lusts and be successful in all walks of life.

We, the people of India elect you to legislature to be our masters, to rule us, to have access to all the luxuries of life at our expense and in return give us all miseries.

A politician was once asked by a friend as to which profession he will choose for his academically brilliant son. Pat came the reply,' A good job in a multinational after doing an MBA'. 'Why not Indian civil service for him', Quipped his friend. 'No, I would not like him to be at the mercy of Indian polity, a vast majority of whom has no respect for any professional excellence, any human virtue or even a human being who does not subscribe to the principle of  'you scratch my back I will scratch yours'.

Of late a question on the supremacy of democracy vs bureaucracy is being raked up by certain politicians. One fails to understand as to what is the bone of contention. To any true Indian whosoever talks and performs in the national interest is supreme. Loyalty to the nation is the first and last expectation from all citizens of the country and different organs of state machinery have been created in the constitution to ensure that national interest is supreme. And each and every member of the machinery is supreme at his own place. When will the powerful individuals, power centres and lobbies understand this? 

MERA BHARAT MAHAAN

UP Welfare minister Azam Khan," Mines are open to loot in the state and everyone who can loot is free to do so". Utterly nationalistic!!!!!!!!

Another SP leader, Narendra Bhatti has lashed out at the suspended SDM saying it's the Chief Minister's prerogative/right to transfer/suspend officials to suit their whims and fancies. After all it is a crime to be honest in Mera Bharat Mahaan.

Nitesh Rane,"Those Gujratis who sing praises of Modi's development model should leave Mumbai and go back to Gujerat" What about 25 million Maharashtrian BJP supporters who like Modi and his model? Where do they go????

FREEING CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (CBI) FROM GOVERNMENT'S STRANGLEHOLD

Freeing central bureau of investigation, the premier investigation agency of government of India from the government's stranglehold has drawn a lot of attention during the last couple of decades. The issue was a major bone of contention between the government and majority of Indian polity  and Anna Hazare and civil society activists during the discussions on the Lok Pal issue. Now that the apex court of the country has come heavily on the government regarding the meddling into the CBI's investigations by one and all mighty and powerful of the government. The court had called CBI, a caged parrot speaking master's voice and that it had too many masters. The government has been compelled into setting up a committee of 'Group of Ministers' (GoM) after sacrificing its Law Minister over the issue.

How sincere is the government's effort is anybody's guess? One thing is absolutely clear. The establishment will fight tooth and nail to retain control over its strongest political ally i.e. CBI, which has been used in political emergencies from time to time by simply tightening or loosening the noose around the neck of its adversaries at appropriate timings, if not for something more deleterious to the national interest. It is not for nothing that the country finds strange bed fellows whenever the government is tottering in numbers in the parliament.The effort will perhaps be to provide some semblance of insulation from external influence rather than giving it autonomy. The motto of loyalty to the chair/master/vested self interests rather than loyalty to the national interests will come to fore during all deliberations on the issue.

RAILWAY MINISTER RESIGNS AT LAST

At last the railway minister of India, Mr Bansal resigns. The media is happy, the opposition is happy and even the ruling combine is happy, for all of them can beat their drum and further fool around the simpleton masses to carry on with their respective march to glory. The media seeks greater viewership through this success, the opposition seeks some credit for getting more votes in the next elections whereas the Congress party will seek credit for being the only party which has taken action against its own minister in the light of corruption charges against the individual. But the fact is something else. The railway minister has been sacrificed at the altar of the demon of corruption by these wise men only to give themselves a chance of carrying on with the national loot at all fronts. It is a measure that is only to calm down the gullible masses and kill the very seeds of a silent revolution that is brewing up within the citizenry to find an end to the colossus corruption, bribery, loot and even the high handedness of the powerful and mighty of the nation.

Corruption is not confined to a few odd  individuals and actions. It is the whole system, it is the entire gamut of activity of governance, activity of allocating natural resources in the name of national good. The involvement in corruption activity is so large and widespread that even if India devotes half of its human resource in probing, investigating and prosecuting  those involved in the art of corruption, it will take ages to achieve something more than simply touching the tip of the iceberg.

Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of the tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

And unless and until there is a systemic change in the method of finding out the corrupt and guilty, to bring them to book and putting the loot back into the national exchequer, India and its hapless masses will keep on suffering the pangs of hunger and pain. This change will not come through merely begging/asking all those who have tasted the blood of corruption but has to be wrought by forcing them to write their own death warrant of complete removal of corruption, corrupt practices and black money. 

COALGATE INVESTIGATIONS FOR PROTECTING NATIONAL INTERESTS OR INTERESTS Of RULING COMBINE

India has witnessed a host of scams during the rule of the present government. It is a pity that no investigation seems to be reaching the desired conclusion of booking the rogues and extracting best value from allocation of national resources. While all the nations which have been endowed with rich mineral resources have managed to become prosperous courtesy rising international commodity prices, the Indian nation seems to be getting poorer and poorer courtesy gross mismanagement and vested interests and hidden agenda of those in power. Much to the chagrin of all well meaning citizens of India, the battle goes on with all professional advocates belonging to the executive including legislative executive defending all the actions with the sole motto of saving the guilty rather than nailing them. It will not be out of place to add here that  all successful professional advocates have never sided with truth and all their brilliance comes into play for sowing the seeds of doubt and inadequacy of proof by intentionally ignoring or side tracking everything that could go against their client. They are definitely partially true to their profession in looking after the interests of their clients/paymasters/masters to the best of their ability but woefully untrue to the profession and humanity when it comes to finding out the truth.

The nadir of values in the Indian rulers is all the more inevitable when you see them sticking to the principle of loyalty to the chair and not the nation. Their allegiance to the party gets strengthened with the fear of not only losing power but also the credibility of their electability in future. After all do people at such high and responsible positions need be reminded that country comes first and the government, party and their colleagues do not matter and can be sacrificed at the altar of the nation if need be for the sake of truth.

Whatever is going on in the matter of affidavit of Central Bureau of Investigation submitted to the apex court of the country is a typical case in point. The contention of the street smart advocates in the ruling elite smacks of their concern for retaining their ill gotten position at all expense rather than working for the interests of the nation. One is left wondering if the coalgate investigations are for protecting national interests or interests of the ruling combine. Is their some agency or organ of the government meant for working whole heartedly in the interest of the nation? Only some true legal luminary can throw some light on this, if at all we have one in the country. To a normal man we only have a bunch of street smart advocates who only know how to twist, mask or shroud truth to uphold their baser instincts and distorted values.

JUDICIAL CASES' PENDENCY IN INDIA : APATHY OR COMPULSION OF POLITICIANS

While inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of bar council of India, the prime minister showed concern to the huge pendency of cases in Indian courts and urged the legal fraternity to devise ways and means of solving the problem. While on one hand it was heartening to note that the chief executive of the country is aware of the problem but equally painful was the fact that instead of the government finding a solution to such a major problem, a problem which nullifies all efforts of the government in fighting corruption and criminality. In fact it is the biggest thorn in improving the citizenry satisfaction index of governance and government.

Corruption mitigation and a war on corruption may have many impediments from unwilling polity to formulate new, effective legislation measures which will be to the detriment of their ulterior motives. A solution to judicial cases' pendency does not require any legislative action but action is needed to fill up all vacant judicial positions quickly and increase the number of vacancies commensurate with the increase in population at all levels of judiciary. Understandably, a large number of legislators may not like this but they are in no position to block this action for it does not require their nod or approval. In the light of all this, the apathy and compulsion on the part of ruling polity to tackle judicial cases' pendency in India is not understood.

INDIAN RULERS - ALL SAINTS ??

Every day, the Indian scene is jolted by one scam or the other and surprisingly the polity and rulers of the country will appear on the media to convince the gullible Indian citizenry that there is nothing wrong in the country and the whole matter is nothing but an attempt of casting aspersions on Indian rulers who are all saints. These shameless guys pretend to be unaware of the reality of Indian nation when every hapless common citizen of the country is aware of the fact that nothing, I dare say nothing, including getting an audience with an officer to getting payments for the jobs done or material supplied to the government fructifies without resorting to a bribe in cash or kind.

There was a time when one could think that India being bestowed the epithet of A Land of Scams was perhaps a little too harsh but today with more and more scams emerging and the couldn't care less attitude of the rulers one is left with no option but to accept this harsh reality. India is perhaps the only country on this globe where being corrupt is an asset for success in life in any sphere and politics being no exception. If it weren't so, India will not have 40% Parliamentarians and legislators with not only dubious and shady records but criminal and economic offence cases pending against them. The others are guilty of camouflaging/ ignoring such malicious activities of their esteemed colleagues for the attaining and retaining power. The lust and the illegal perks associated with the power motivate them to ignore everything that is shady according to normal social and economic norms.

In fact a small beginning has been made by social activists and civil society to awaken the country on the pros and cons, implications and the remedies of the phenomenon on being corrupt in India and unless and until all saints of Indian rulers and polity change their thinking or are coerced to do right things towards corruption mitigation through a political revolution, India will not only fail in its poverty alleviation goals but miss its rightful place as a global economic superpower of the 21st century also.

Preventing Nuclear Accidents in India: Because or Despite the ‘Preparedness’?

Despite a behemoth of bureaucracy called the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the nuclear facilities in India are a disaster in waiting. Eminent experts Dr. EAS Sarma and Prof. T. Shivaji Rao tell us why:

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) are both headed by the Prime Minister. NDMA is a statutory authority set up under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. DAE and NDMA are expected to put in place an internally consistent, credible and operable plan of emergency preparedness for each nuclear power project in the country, in coordination with the local authorities.

Such a plan should take into account the capabilities of the local administration. The public should be fully involved in being aware of the plan and the modalities of its implementation. If a Fukushima-like accident takes place, NPCIL and the State administration should be able to evacuate people as per the plan within hours.

NDMA recognises that, if such an accident is triggered either by a natural event, or by a terrorist attack or sabotage, or by a human or mechanical lapse, it will be a serious disaster that will be beyond the coping capability of the State authorities.

At Kudankulam, the mock drill intended to establish the feasibility of emergency evacuation of people in case of an accident, which is a prerequisite for grant of permission to operate the reactors to prove nuclear safety, was conducted for a short period of half a day for a very minor accident, that too at one village 7km from the plant site, although the regulations required that a full fledged mock drill should be conducted for a maximum credible accident covering an area with a radius of 30km around the project site. Such an exercise must last for at least three days as per the international standards because even the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents continued emissions for about ten days during the explosions. Thus Kudankulam mock drill failed to comply with this and therefore cannot be assumed to have proven the feasibility of the emergency plan for the safety of the people. The court order on Kudankulam pointed to the need for such a full-fledged mock drill up to 30km. Japan evacuated people upto 40km.distance from Fukushima accident site.

The clean-up and the compensation costs for Fukushima have so far come to Rs. 4 lakhs which is several times more than the cost of the reactors. To the best of our understanding, neither the Centre nor the State is financially prepared to meet such a large contingent liability in the event of a major disaster.

There are internal inconsistencies in the plans of NDMA and NPCIL. Neither seems to be aware of the latter’s plan as no mention has been made of this. Similarly, the averments filed on behalf of Tamil Nadu government before the courts has no clarity w.r.t. the financial and the logistic requirements of a full-fledged mock drill. The fact that neither NPCIL nor NDMA has cared to update their respective emergency preparedness plans post-Fukushima give the impression that neither of them has accorded due importance to safety.

When the animal in us comes to life

Such is the human race, often it seems a pity that Noah... didn't miss the boat. ~Mark Twain

By Ashwin Dewan - India Syndicate Sun 1:25 PM

Perhaps, a saying that most aptly sums up what some people are becoming day by day and more so in my country of India which is renowned for its rich cultural heritage and tradition. But, recent events that the dictionary defines as and the world knows as "rape" has got me thinking and thinking hard... Is India slowly slipping back to the dark ages.



Trust me. I am justified in saying this because when a 23 year old girl is brutalised (am not using the word "rape" here because i want to stress on the epic proportions of this horrendous act) by using the word " brutalised". How else can one react when one reads about a young girl who did nothing wrong but was raped violently by a gang of animals(calling them men would be respecting and putting them on par with us normal human beings), beaten up to the point that her intestines have to be removed..Sheer disgust and horror.

As the young and brave girl fights for her life, my thoughts just recollect other such events that have blackened the year starting from February when a woman was raped at gunpoint inside a car in Calcutta. There were widespread protests just like the protests that we are witnessing right now. The media was constantly on the case and as the protest grow louder and if I may add, more violent by each passing minute...can we blame the protestors?

Every day, we hear cases of rape from all over the country. Of girls being raped by beasts, of fathers raping their own daughters and what's more the brother...Oh!Brother​...too decides to join in the act of animals and proceeds to rape his own sister. Perhaps, we are being slowly dragged to the dark ages. After all...how can u justify actions when apart from young girls being violated, the female form is being seen so much as an object of sexual gratification that can be violated anytime, anyplace that even age has ceased to matter. Case being in point...Everyday in the papers, I read of how six to even as small as three year old girls being violated...Horror and more horror.

Courtiers vs Politicians

TK Arun
27 December 2012, 10:04 AM IST

Courtiers vs Politicians

What recent events in Delhi show is a rare shortage of politicians in the leadership of the government and an abundance of courtiers.  How to tell one apart from the other? It’s not always easy, true: only the jester wears a conical hat with a tassel at the very top. The difference lies in to whom their antennae are tuned. The courtier is focused on the throne, the politician on the people. When home minister Shinde boldly went where no man has gone before and asked a couple of television anchors if the home minister of the country should rush to address a few hundred people whenever they agitate, whether in Delhi or Garchiroli, he proved people are nowhere on his radar.

The politician would know when a few hundred give vent to the pent-up feelings of millions and when they articulate their own arcane concerns. He would respond accordingly. Minister of state for home RPN Singh said on live TV that he would deign to meet protesters in the flesh if someone would provide an ironclad guarantee that there would be no violence. If meeting real people is a risk that he or fellow refugees in ministry woodwork cannot take, why are they in this business of the people, by the people and for the people? Courtiers, of course, are accountable only to her highness.

The politician instinctively knows when a vote bank is stirring. Even if he himself stands for no strenuous principle, he knows to raise his voice in support of one when a vote bank rallies around it. In India, women are rarely considered a vote bank. They constitute half the voters of the country — actually a little less, thanks to violent social bias that kills off little girls in the womb, puts the little girls who do make it to the world on tight rations so that their brothers can go to school, forces them to rely on their own immunity to battle disease, so that whatever little the family can spare for healthcare goes to protect the male child, and generally reverses the natural tendency for women to outnumber men in a population. This is a vote bank that today is both stirred and shaken. Raisina hill unfortunately has turned concave under the weight of its worthy occupants and they cannot see this huge, agitated vote bank beyond the rim of the depression they have created for themselves.

State vs people

Exploding tear gas shells, water cannons, men in uniform beating up men, women and children, the jackboot of brute authority stamping down on democratic protest Tahrir Square, Cairo, where the ‘Arab Spring’ has become bitter winter? No, it was India Gate, New Delhi, last Sunday, when the police clashed with largely peaceful demonstrators protesting against the savage rape of a young woman in the city.

As protestors uprooted the wooden barriers erected for the Republic Day parade and set fire to them, the symbolism couldn’t have been starker; it was the people versus the state. And the battle didn’t take place somewhere in the remote, rural ‘badlands’ where self-styled Maoist insurgents combat para-military forces. The battle took place in the heart of the country’s showcase capital, the seat of our democracy.

Later, police spokesmen blamed the shameful episode, which left more than 60 people injured, on ‘lumpen elements’ who instigated violence. There could well have been troublemakers in the crowd of largely peaceful protesters. But the reference to ‘lumpens’ sought to tarnish all the demonstrators with the same besmirching brush. When citizens demonstrate people power, as distinct from the state which claims a monopoly on power, they become ‘lumpens’. However at election time, the same ‘lumpens’ become the lauded ‘aam admi’ whose votes politicians covet and desperately vie for.

Scaling the ladder of corruption

Postnoon | December 9, 2012 | 0 Comments

Criminalisation and corruption, the twin evils, have been eating into the vitals of India for some time and successive ruling parties have made no effort to rein in this scourge.

UPA’s rule has taken India up on the ladder of corruption. Transparency International, a world watchdog, has placed India 94th among 174 countries surveyed in 2012. India was at 72nd among 180 countries surveyed in 2007. The only consolation is that all our immediate neighbours — China, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka — fared as badly or worse.

Public corruption has deepened in India in the recent past with no meaningful steps taken to curb it. Electoral reforms remain a far cry with the political spectrum getting liberally sprinkled with criminals and the corrupt.

This year, India has a score of 36 out of 100 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), which is a result of an average of 10 studies, including World Bank’s Country Performance and Institutional analysis.

India is ranked below Sri Lanka and China, while Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh fared much worse than India when it came to corruption in public sector undertakings.

Sri Lanka, which is slowly limping back to normalcy after

a three-decade civil war, is ranked at 79, while China is ranked at 80.

STRANGE ARE THE WAYS OF POLITY

In democratic India, we seem to come upon different meanings of democracy every now and then depending upon what suits us at a particular moment. Today after the voting on Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ) in retail wherein the government managed to win the motion against FDI by a big margin. This win is being termed as a technical one as it was scored on the basis of the strength present in Lok Sabha at the time of voting. It is being referred to as a moral defeat because government could not muster support of half the number of total strength of the house. If this is what democracy is, then what is the locus standii of all the members of parliament as they get elected by getting much less than half the votes polled. Getting the support of more than 50% of the strength of total eligible voters of a constituency is something simply unimaginable. But then a reference to the constitution and the provisions contained therein are cited. Surprisingly when a majority on the floor of the house is concerned everything about the Indian democracy provisions finds a back seat and the morality comes to focus.

India has a federal structure and dangers to this constitutional provision are felt when the union government wants some radical reforms like FDI and Lok Pal. Surprisingly no component of this federal structure has taken up a fight against corruption, black money, favoritism, nepotism by bending the rules. In this matter perhaps everybody wants to excel the other in perpetuating this malaise to the utter chagrin and discomfort of common man. In fact the hidden agenda and ulterior motives motivate the ruling class to even assert that  all is well and the malaise is insignificant to demand their attention.

Every now and then, when we have elections in states or centre all kind of false promises are made whereas the fact is that even after 65 years of wonderful democratic rule the nation could not provide basic necessities of life, like food, shelter, cleanliness, drinking water, electricity, education, medical facilities etc.. Yet the political class claims to be selfless workers in the service of the nation and common man while in actual practice they are only working towards managing a lifestyle and amenities for themselves, equal if not better to the ones enjoyed by the rulers of developed nations at the expense of national exchequer. Can somebody explain and throw some light on where from and how funds for these big promised dole outs will come or it is still an effort to fool the gullible masses as had been done during last six decades.

The nation has learnt to live a rotten life, a life which comes across false promises and hopes every five years. It has also learnt that the motto of these men in the service of nation that promises are a means of getting power, a means of fooling the masses and are meant to be broken.It is only the fools who take their  assertions seriously.

TRUE FACE OF POLITICS AND POLITY

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first. 

I always used to wonder about the relevance of such harsh comments on the noble profession of politics by none other than Ronald Reagen, former president of USA. But today witnessing the discussions on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multibrand retail in India and the subsequent voting in the Indian parliament, convinces me about the absolute truth of the above quote.

Two parties namely the Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj party and their leaders were seen opposing the decision of the government on FDI in multibrand retail tooth and nail during discussions but when it came to voting against the decision, they preferred to walk out of the house and enabled the government to have its way. Why this double talk? What are their compulsions? Either these leaders are convinced about the good it can usher in the lives of common man of India but feel that maintaining an anti FDI posture in public is a much valuable vote catching rhetoric or they are being manipulated and forced into helping the government for the favour of condoning some of their misdeeds/acts or perhaps they are not wanting to forego the perks of power and authority that come along with for their being people's representative before the expiry of the house. Whatever be the truth it is a sad commentary on the politics.

Without going into the merits or worthlessness or the disadvantages of having FDI in retail, whatever be the reason of this manipulation of voting whether personal or political or coercive, it is a true reflection on the unprincipled nature of political activity on the part of ruling party as also the two parties mentioned above.

Have we accepted corruption in public life? -- Prof. K. C. Mehta

Published: November 17, 2012 23:42 IST | Updated: November 18, 2012 00:01 IST

Have we accepted corruption in public life?

Professor K. C. Mehta

The Hindu Social activist Anna Hazare. File photo

Political corruption was there even during the time of Pandit Nehru. But later a rapid erosion in the selfless dedication of leaders led to the growth of corruption in the entire body politic. National interest became nobody’s business. Welfare schemes turned the biggest source for siphoning off public funds.

Scandals of free India

In the post-independence period, only six out of the 14 Prime Ministers had a term of five years or more: Nehru about 17 years, Indira Gandhi 16, Rajiv Gandhi five, Narasimha Rao five, Atal Behari Vajpayee six, Manmohan Singh over eight years to date.

Out of these six Prime Ministers who really matter, five were from the Congress, accounting for 51 years of Congress-led governments. Out of these 51 years, 38 years belonged to the Nehru dynasty. The article gives an overview of corruption during their tenure. All figures are converted to the 2011 price level to make them comparable. The Wholesale Price Index Numbers are used for the purpose.

Govt. of India should act now to stop illegal mining of Atomic Minerals

IAEA Estimates of thorium reserves in tonnes (2005)

Depletion of nation's mineral wealth in placer sands

The note calls attention to a serious issue of depletion of nation’s wealth by illegal mining of placer sands. The illegality is primarily related to avarice of certain individuals controlling corporate entities resulting in a monopoly situation, and failure of government agencies and operatives to enforce the laws of the land to ensure that public interest is served by controlled and regulated but sustainable use of resources of mother earth.

When the fence eats away the field, who is to save the crop for present and future generations? This is the crux of the issue of fighting corruption leading to depletion of nation’s wealth in many sectors. This note is about such depletion of nation’s wealth in minerals of national importance, including Atomic Minerals.

Immediate action is required from Govt. of India:

• To ban mining of Minerals of National Importance (MNIs) from placer sands
• To seize the mined quantities of such minerals from the miners and their associates
• To hand over control of the mining areas to a paramilitary force
• To levy fines on the parties involved in illegal mining activities
• To constitute a Mines Regulatory Authority for Minerals of National Importance
• To cancel and withdraw the illegal notification of DAE issued in Jan. 2006 which transferred ilmenite to Open General Licence treating it as a non-Atomic Mineral (issued in anticipation of Amendment of Act No. 67 of 1957, an amendment which was not approved by the Parliament) which violates the provisions of Act No. 67 of 1957 (List of Atomic Minerals detailed in Item B of First Schedule of the Act of 1957: Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development Act)
• To constitute a Commission of Inquiry on Atomic Minerals and other Minerals of National Importance, on the lines of Justice Shah Commission inquiring into iron and manganese ore mining

Modus operandi of the Rs. 1 lakh crore loot

Is Chidambaram our next Muhammad bin Tughlaq? -- R. Jagannathan

Is Chidambaram our next Muhammad bin Tughlaq? -- R. Jagannathan

Is Chidambaram our next Muhammad bin Tughlaq?
by The Business Blog Sep 10, 2012

By R Jagannathan
Under pressure from a worsening fiscal deficit, Chidambaram will not only be printing more money than ever, but even the money he collects as revenue from disinvestment may be really be little more than an IOU for money to be printed in future. PTI

Every schoolboy has heard of Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s early exploits with debased coinage. Our history texts tell us that the Delhi Sultan (reign: 1325-51AD) issued brass and copper coins to people against gold and silver in the treasury in what was one of the world’s first experiments with fiat currency. The idea was to enable easier commerce with cheaper coins representing underlying gold and silver.