INDIA CALLING OR CRYING: AT LAST LALU PRASAD CONVICTED IN FODDER SCAM CASE: It was quite heartening to learn that Lalu Prasad along with 44 others has been convicted in the fodder scam case . The case has been hang...

RAHUL GANDHI'S BLAST ON ORDINANCE ON CONVICTED LEGISLATORS : A DEEPLY THOUGHT POLITICAL MOVE

Ever since Rahul Gandhi blasted the ordinance on convicted legislators mooted by the coalition government headed by the congress party, the party headed by his mother and himself on 27th September, 2013, the political analysts of the country have been busy in analyzing the motive behind such a strong outburst. Strangely enough they are zeroing down to something that directly meets the eye and are confining their analysis to plain and simple calculations of the coming national elections in 2014.

But the motives behind such a strong blitz are far too deep. It is certainly not simple undermining the authority of the prime minister and his cabinet or a tussle of supremacy between the party/organization and government. It is the outcome of the war within the party, a war between the constituents that have leaning towards leftist and rightist policies. It is perhaps a result of internal policy rivalries and finding a direction for the national policies. Mrs Gandhi and Rahul feel strongly for the left of centre policies ( socialist and socialistic ) and appear to have reached a conclusion that the experimentation/flirtation with right of centre policies can be suspended. Additionally it is ripe time for putting the blame for all ills and failures of nine year misrule of UPA government on the government and start afresh after dumping some of its active old guard elements.

Excerpts from Rahul Gandhi takes on the Indian government move to shield convicted politicians.

To an unbiased observer history seems to be repeating itself. There is a lot of similarity in the saga of 1969 split of the congress engineered by Rahul's grandmother wherein it was a battle royal between the rightists, mainly the old guard (controlling the party/ organisation)  and socialists/leftists in control of the government. Today again we have the same situation, though the rightists, champions of free economy are mainly part of government and old brigade and the socialists/leftists headed by Rahul Gandhi himself are in the party/organisation. The country still has more than six months to the next general election and it appears that Rahul & co will not have to struggle to attain ascendancy in the power corridors as the family has complete control over the organisation and there is no mass leader with pan India appeal in the government.

RAHUL GANDHI TAKES ON THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT MOVE TO SHIELD CONVICTED POLITICIANS

Ever since the supreme court of India by its landmark judgement of 10th July 2013 declared that the members of parliament ( MP's ) or members of legislative assemblies ( MLA's ) will automatically cease to be MP/MLA if convicted by a court for specific offence. Also such legislators will not even be entitled to contest the election. This created big commotion in the polity for in India about 30% of lawmakers i.e. MP's and MLA's have criminal charges against them and the polity was trying to find faults with this order. Also polity wanted to prove the supremacy of legislature over judiciary. With these dual aims the cabinet committee of Indian government cleared an ordinance to protect tainted politicians

There was a lot of anguish and uproar in the public at large and this became the most debated issue in the Indian media.Sensing the public mood and outcry on this, Nehru-Gandhi dynasty scion Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed a cabinet move to protect politicians found guilty of crimes, embarrassing the government led by his own party just months from a general election.

The nation is witnessing a political drama and every politician, majority with criminal credentials or credentials leaning towards criminality are shouting at the top of their voice that they are totally for nobility and saintliness in polity. But Rahul Gandhi appears to be playing a much deeper game. After all it is not just  for nothing that he has chosen to slight the prime minister and senior cabinet colleagues of his own party government.when elections to three major states and the country are round the corner.Through this calculated outburst he is trying to give the party and himself an image of honesty, sincerity and seriousness of purpose by claiming the right to food, right to education, right to information, land acquisition reform bill etc. being party's initiative. By showing his utter disgust in his carefully chosen words "My opinion on the ordinance is that it's complete nonsense and it should be torn up and thrown out," he said. "I feel, personally feel, that what our government has done as far as this ordinance is concerned is wrong." all the ills of the nine year misrule of the government, be it corruption, scams, policy paralysis, poor governance, inflation and messing up of economic health of the nation have been attributed to the old guard.

In this rather calculated move there is much more than what meets the eye. It is a war within congress between the rightists and leftists to guide the country in their own way and preferred directions. To an unbiased observer history seems to be repeating itself. There is a lot of similarity in the saga of 1969 split of the congress engineered by Rahul's grandmother wherein it was a battle royal between the rightists, mainly the old guard (controlling the party/ organisation)  and socialists/leftists in control of the government. Today again we have the same situation, though the rightists, champions of free economy are mainly part of government and old brigade and the socialists/leftists headed by Rahul Gandhi himself are in the party/organisation. The country still has more than six months to the next general election and it appears that Rahul & co will not have to struggle to attain ascendancy in the power corridors as the family has complete control over the organisation and there is no mass leader with pan India appeal in the government.

NUCLEAR LIABILITY DILUTION : IS INDIA'S RULING POLITY A BUNCH OF FOOLS OR A DISHONEST BUNCH WEDDED TO ITS OWN CAUSE AND ASPIRATIONS

The recent news of India further diluting the as it is insufficient and meaningless liability clause has come as a shocker to all the well meaning citizenry of this country. The basic  idea of meeting the energy security of any country in the 21st century through nuclear route is an idea which is near obsolescence and totally out of sync with the latest concepts. The Indian government at the time of declaring nuclear power as the only viable option for country's energy security committed an act of great folly. The coming generations will not forgive these leaders on two counts, firstly giving in to nuclear power generation when nuclear fuels are a curse on humanity and secondly denying India the god sent opportunity to become global leader through total reliance and super thrust on renewable energy.

As it is every developed country is shunning the nuclear energy option, those who have no stake in nuclear energy technologies do so openly and those who are the sellers of this technology do so clandestinely. It is no secret that USA has not added or replaced even an iota of nuclear power on its soil during the last thirty years because it is said that no nuclear power generation firm can exist if liability clause is put in use with a meaningful perspective.The Indian polity must explain the reasons to go in for nuclear power, the worst available option for energy security and all the more now when they are committing national hara kiri by diluting the liability clause in favour of US firms.

FIVE DEFICITS : THE BANE OF INDIAN ECONOMY AND GROWTH STORY

The potential of Indian growth story and chance of India to become a global economic superpower has been a hot topic with the economists and analysts all over this globe. The forty year opportunity window is at India's doorsteps just waiting to be grabbed for fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of 1 billion plus Indians. This great opportunity window exists simply on the back of huge demographic advantage of cheap skilled manpower both in the technical and managerial cadres and the world economies looking for new economic order in the face of diminishing old order energy resources and global warming associated with them.

The demographic advantage of today will become a major disadvantage after a few decades when the bulk of the population becomes old. After all no sanity can deny the fact that ultimately for about 35-40 years of productive life, the same individual is going to be a burden on the national resources for next 25-30 years. The number of aged individuals and non productive years of these aged individuals will keep on increasing as a nation marches on road to prosperity. The problems of developed and industrialized economies mainly emanated from this crude reality of life. Whereas these countries fully utilized the opportunity window that came their way and grew old after becoming rich, it looks quite likely that India may grow old before becoming rich and prosperous unless and until some wisdom prevails on Indian polity and they start addressing the five deficits, the bane of Indian economy and growth story at the earliest in a sincere and earnest manner. If the polity keeps harping on their  vote bank politics with subsidies, doles and freebies  for another decade or so, India would have missed this golden opportunity and all because the nation could not produce leaders who could keep their baser instincts of lust for power and money away while serving/governing the nation.
No doubt India has complete wherewith all to make use of this god sent opportunity to erase poverty, become prosperous and be an economic superpower. But till such time the challenges before India, the potential economic superpower of 21st century are dealt with in an effective manner, nothing worthwhile is going to be achieved. Intelligentsia from all spheres like politics, economics technology etc. talks about the growth drivers of next generation, namely, the corruption mitigation and good governance, infrastructure and human resource development and Energy security but precious little has been done or achieved in any of them during the last decade or so. The following deficits are the biggest impediments to the growth of Indian economy.

• CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT :
• FISCAL DEFICIT
• COMMONSENSE DEFICIT
• GOVERNANCE & POLICY DEFICIT
• TRUST DEFICIT

The first two deficits namely the current account deficit and fiscal deficit are the sole measures of economic health of a nation. Let nobody forget that they are the manifestations of the governance and policy deficit, trust deficit and commonsense deficit which has engulfed Indian rulers. No amount of patchwork solutions through monetary policy and (Reserve Bank of India) RBI actions can provide lasting solutions and are in fact disastrous in the long run as seen in the case of trying to fight inflation through monetary policy. At best these actions can give the rulers some breathing time.

Commonsense Deficit is a crucial factor in marring the destiny of a nation and it has been proved time and again that redistribution of national wealth is not the answer to poverty among the masses of India. As no army can be effective and efficient with a low  tooth ( combat soldiers ) to tail ( support and supply manpower ) ratio, no economy can grow and prosper with a low productive to consumption fund ratio. The polity has to learn to control their baser instincts of vote bank politics and bring in austerity in spending on all subsidies, doles, freebies and government expenditure. The policies and directions of government spending have to concentrate on the force multiplier principle of compounding to reap the benefits for positive gains and not allow it to work for the detriment of economy. Oil pricing policies are a typical case in point. The Indian government decided not to increase the prices of petrol,diesel,cooking gas and kerosene for a very long period just to keep the vote banks happy, even though the international prices were soaring and the rupee was weakening at a fast pace.They even forgot that oil economics could be a thorn in Indian growth story and the resulting impact on fiscal deficit, current account deficit and the national economy is there for all to see. Similarly, the recent food security bill with constant prices to the beneficiary will make the exchequer poorer by Rs 15000 crores every year at an inflation of 10% and will have value reductive effect on the economy.

Governance and Policy Deficit: The Indian government has all these years harping upon the fact that compulsions of coalition government and global economies not being in good shape were responsible for bad state of economy, whereas the basic fact is that the country suffered badly as a result of governance and policy deficit prevailing in the country.It is sad that decisions that were supposed to be good for the country in the eyes of ruling polity were also kept pending  to realize there full impact on the vote bank politics during the ensuing elections in 2014. Now all of a sudden, after destroying the economy for a number of years, lot many legislations and policy measures are seeing the light of the day, the compulsions of coalition politics and tottering global economies not withstanding. In fact during the last month alone projects worth approximately 4.00 lakh crores in infrastructure sector alone have been cleared simply demonstrating 'where there is a will, there is a way'.
Trust Deficit: The biggest negative for the government of the day is the syndrome of trust deficit it has acquired by its actions, deeds and a non coherent approach so much so that the various state governments have no faith its intentions. No body seems to be willing to invest in India, be it the Indian or foreign entrepreneurs/investors. The government seems to be majorly banking on (Foreign Direct Investment) FDI and (Foreign Institutional Investors) FII's for all its economic woes including CAD and propping up economy but the naked truth about FDI is something not very comforting because of huge trust deficit it has built for itself over the years. 

WHO WILL STEM THIS ROT???

The Indian national elections to the 16th Lok Sabha are still about nine months away and all political parties are busy fooling the Indian voter and maligning each other in the murkiest of the manner. The well meaning honest Indian is witnessing  the high voltage drama going on everyday wherein the biggest howlers disguised as spokespersons are at their worst best and keep the nation amused by their daily quota of prowess of gift of the gab with half lies and no truth whatsoever. The hapless common man is all the more helpless as he fully knows that he has no choice of an honest government, and with the choices available his aspirations will just meet the fate 'out of the frying pan into the fire'. All such people would like to vote for the best man but sadly enough either this best man is not a candidate or is not allowed to be a candidate by the system of goons and buffoons ruling/ruining India.

The country which boasts of a galaxy of economists and a committed  polity ( committed to what? Your guess is as good as mine ) is passing through one of the worst economic crisis and the leaders of the advanced western countries of our globe are thoroughly enjoying the hara kiri acts of the Indian government towards destroying the Indian dream and chance to become world leaders. Isn't it really ironic that instead of present advanced countries and economic superpowers working for maintaining their coveted supremacy and global leadership, it is the Indian polity that is helping them all out by not doing anything to meet the challenges before India, the potential superpower of the 21st century. 
The need of the hour is to have somebody who could say with Charles de Gaulle, "In politics it is necessary either to betray one's country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate". It is a pity that political masters of India betray both, the country as well as electorate just to be in power by all kind of foul means. How one wishes that Indian polity too has some statesmen in its ranks, for 
Statesmen think of next generation and create opportunities, Leaders Seize opportunities that come their way, while Politicians think of next elections and fritter away these opportunities and dirty politicians who are the core of Indian polity simply mess up everything and this is what separates wise men from men, men from boys and boys from impudent louts in the realm of changing fate of a nation.