sanyasi

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Dear all

It is very difficult these days to go to sleep without hearing a debate on some or the other scam. Since last few years we are ‘’fortunate’’ to hear about scandals and corruption debates one after another . Immediately after the telecom scam, we could hear about the commonwealth scam and now comes the coal gate scam. When the bofors scam took place we talked about a scam value of few thousand crores which is now peanut figures and the numbers are now ‘’few’’ lakh thousand crores.

Judith Cook in her seminal book The Prize of Freedom (New English Library publication 1985) , argues that lack of fear (read chalta hai) is a primary reason for the recurrence of corruption which I think is true for our country also. After all crimes related to corruption especially for the political class is no big deal as being in tihar jail or their residence does not make much difference in their lifestyles. Whether it is Kalmadi or Kannimozhi they could spend some vacation time in jail and come back to their life hale and healthy . It is worth a risk if the returns from the corrupt deal runs into crores of rupees.

Allocation of 162 coal blocks freely to the kith and kin of political leaders or to private companies which made the politician’s pocket fat is estimated to be nearly 3 lakh crore rupees is now being called as only an estimated opportunity cost and most of the blocks as unused. The government is brazenly un faced and thick skinned . The media and opposition parties shouts a lot, but, after some time a few of them will be send to jail and the nation shall prepare for the flavour of the next scandal and the cycle starts again.

The larger issue to be addressed here not just corruption , but how could we trust the political system anymore. We are today in a situation of systemic failure and the coal gate is one among such scams which is bound to recur. Whether this cocktail of crime politics and business will eventually retard our economic growth and result in social uncertainty is only for time to say......

For a better understanding of coal gate scandal i recommend you to read Mr Vivek Kaul’s article in DNA Money Ahmadabad edition wherein he has given a beginners guide to this scam which is worth reading

Sanyasi

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crying babies have milk

Dear all, The prime minister''s independence day speech was disappointing to most of the ex service men . According to them the PM did not deliver what he had promised to them during the elections. Yes, I mean the one rank one pension scheme (OROP) . The TV channels showed flocks of ex service men predominantly people from Punjab, Himachal and Haryana cursing the PM as a traitor. We all know that it is easy to make election promises but when it comes to implementation , reality strikes. The same is the case with OROP . This is a great idea in principle , but the cost to exchequer is said to be nearly Rs 10000 Crore . Who will bill this ? Lets now go to Bihar. Our PM has now gone and pledged around Rs 1.3 Lakh Crore for Bihar's development. Well, I do not know whether the learned people from Bihar will bite the bait or whether they too will have to go for a Dharna later. Time and the election results will speak. The larger point here is about the culture of freebies and rent seeking by interest groups. This has been part of India's body- politic since long and have made large Vote banks . Is nt this at the cost of others ? . Guys I am not being parochial. You go to a railway station , airport and any Central Government office , don''t you get a larger taste of Hindi, Bihar and the stench from the cow belt. I am afraid I don't see any diversity here. ( except the occasional face of some dark coloured Southees or marathees in the CISF security team at Mumbai airport). I don't have numbers to throw and prove statistics but the point is that there seems to be a collective bargaining and a reciprocal political blessing based on election needs, be it from UPA or NDA. ( In fact both seems to be two parts of the same coin). If Bihar can claim Rs 1.3 Lakh crore (if at all it happens ) why not Orissa , Bengal and Telengana. Are'nt they also underdeveloped. The resource pledging seems to skew unequally over the geography of India particularly away from the South and East; Well that is for you to think , but what worries me is on the tax that I pay. I don''t mind that the tax taken from me is given to the right people or if the government comes up with some schemes which percolates my income down the pyramid, but what annoys me is that I don't want my tax to be pledged for votes . Anyway as somebody said crying babies always have milk. That is what democracy is for. Jai Hind: