IT IS DYNASTIC RULE, NOT DEMOCRACY

     On election of Mr. Pranab Mukherjee as President of India, his Lok Sabha seat (Jangipur in West Bengal) fell vacant.  Similary, when Mr. Vijay Bahuguna became Chief Minister of Uttrakhand, his Tehri Lok Sabha seat became vacant.   Now two things happened in this connection which I consider unethical.  First, on both the seats Congress fielded sons of Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Bahuguna from their respective seats.  This shows that these political parties don't have internal democracy in their parties.  They are behaving as if these seats are their personal assets and should be inherited by their sons or other family members.  This is not at all acceptable.  They are treating the country as their personal property.  We the ordinary citizens of this country should make sure that this dynastic politics is put to an end..  What are the credentials of Rahul Gandhi, Jitin Parsad, Milind Devda, Sachin Pilot, Akhilesh Yadav, Anurag Thakur, Supriya Sule, Ajit Pawar and Agatha Sangma, Sukhbir Badal and Jyotiraditya Scindia?  These people owe their position to their parents.  These are the new rajas of this country and unless we realise the gravity of the situation, our country will not have real democracy but dynastic rule.
     Second unethical thing in this incident is that Ms. Mamta Bannerjee did not field any candidate from the Jangipur Seat.  Though she is not supporting Congress at  Center but she supported Congress candidate (Pranab Mukherjee's son) in the bye-election.  Had she fielded  a candidate from that constituency, Abhijeet Mukherjee  would have lost the election (won by only 2536 votes).  Is this not a betrayal of public sentiment.  These politicians give and take personal favours at our cost.  Is this democracy or Collective Dynastic Rule?  

Good Luck to Kejriwal & Co.

     By launching the political party, Arvind Kejriwal has done our country a big favour.  When Anna, who was the face of this movement against corruption, backed out of the idea to provide a political alternative to the country, many people like me were frustrated.  Frustration of the people stemmed from the fact that all the present political parties are corrupt, and they don't want  laws like Jan Lokpal Bill to be passed.  This practically means, that poor people of this country will keep suffering for another 3-4 decades, when another Anna or Kejriwal will come on the scene.

     But in this fast paced word people cannot wait for that long.  Sensing this feeling of the people, the Kejriwal and his friends took a very courageous decision to launch a political party.  I have heard certain, people talk negatively about this new set up.  They say that it is very difficult to fight elections without black money, and they will have to resort to the same means to which they are opposed right now.  To these people, I simply say that if these people can remain honest till now, why we can't hope that they will remain honest in future.

     The least we can expect from this party are: 1. honesty, 2. people with criminal records will not be given tickets,  3. efficiency in administration and 4. no division of society on the basis of caste, religion and region.  If these four  things are achieved, then all our problems can easily be tackled.  If this party achieves high standards, then others will have to raise their standard also.  This will be good for our country.

     So, if you are a Congress or BJP loyalist, open up your mind, think again and vote for this new party in the next elections.  If you don't do so, you may have to repent later for letting this God sent opportunity go waste.  Good luck to Kejriwal & Co.

     

Anna Please Give Us a Political Platform.

With a very deep feeling of sorrow, I learnt that Team Anna has split.  Anna Hazare backed by Kiran Bedi and Justice Santosh Hegde holds the view that Team Anna should not enter politics.  Anna says that going into politics is selfish and running an Andolan a public service.  I agree that most of the politicians are into politics for money and position and they really don't care about the public welfare.

I am not able to understand one thing, why Anna and others do not want good people to enter politics. It is very easy to stay away from the fight and avert defeat.  But that is not the sign of brave people. Brave people don't fear the failure.  Anna's Andolan (agittion) has raised the expectations of this nation.  This is the time Team Anna must take lead and give this nation an honest and strong leadership.  If Anna does not grab this opportunity, he will be remembered in history as a man who faltered at the finishing line.

I fully support Kejriwal's idea to float a political party because now at least I know whom to vote for next time I enter the polling booth.  He is showing  a direction to the people of this country. 

Unreasonable Price Hike

Hike in Diesel prices by Rs.5/- will affect the prices of transportation and will have spiraling effect on items of daily consumption like vegetables, milk and almost everything an average consumer requires. Along with this is another bombshell from Government. Now ever family will get only 6 subsidized cylinders and for more than 6 cylinders one will have to pay market price, which is going to b

e around Rs.750/- per cylinder. This will effect an average family by Rs.2100/- per month (Rs.750 - Rs.400) X 6 = Rs. 2100/-. Add to this Rs.2/- per liter hike made by Mother Dairy 2-3 days back. Just imagine the plight of a man who has to run a family and earns only Rs.7000 - Rs.8000/- per month.

Government says that they have to increase prices of diesel and LPG because prices in international market are rising. This is not the truth, near about 40-50% consists of Taxes Government imposes a lot of taxes on petroleum products. If Government was successful in tackling corruption, the level of taxes would have been lower and Government would not have increased the prices like this. Our present political class is totally insensitive towards the hardships borne by an average person. We must find new alternatives.

Loss On Account of Coal Block Scam

I am surprised how learned people like P. Chidambram and Kapil Sibbal are saying that no loss has been incurred in case of Coal Block Allocation.  Their logic is since no coal has been mined, hence no loss.  Do they mean to say that loss will occur only when mining will be done?  They should not try to make fool of people.  Government has transferred the legal rights to private parties and valuations of those companies has sky-rocketed.  Can M/s Chidambram and Sibbal explain the increase in valuation of these companies?

This also speaks about the mentality of our leaders, who believe that they can fool masses.  But by doing so, they are making a fool of themselves.  India has seen through their designs.

Why BJP is waking up now?

     BJP is stalling parliament on the issue of Coal Scam.  It seems BJP came to know of the scam only after CAG uncovered it.  Only naive will believe it, because on the matter of auctioning of coal mines Chief Ministers of BJP ruled states like Rajasthan,  Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were against auction.
    If BJP was against coal block allocation without auction, they should have protested at that time.  This brings out the fact that both Congress and BJP are involved in Coal Scam.
     Tomorrow Team Anna is protesting outside the houses of PM and Nitin Gadkari, President of BJP,  on the issues of coal scam.  Kiran Bedi is of the view that Team Anna should concentrate only against the misdeeds of ruling coalition.  I differ from this view.  I think that when both the parties are involved in the issue, protest should be directed against both the parties.
     Delhi Police has asked Delhi Metro to close 6 metro stations during the day.  This is definitely to stop people from reaching  Jantar Mantar for protest.  This is most undemocratic and people are taking note of this.   

Why Waste Public Money

Today morning when I was reading Times of India, I found so many advertisements in the newspaper by various Ministries and Government agencies/departments on the occasion of birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister of India..  I would like to give you the details of advertisements relating to Rajiv Gandhi appearing in Times of India.

 Page No                                 Ministry/Department

 2 (half page)                            Ministry of Tourism, Government of India
 4 (half page)                            Min. of Housing & Urban Poverty Allevi. GOI
5 (half page)                             Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GOI
9 (3 Advts. 75% of page)         Rajiv Gandhi Center  For Biotech, Kerala
                                                Department Renewable Energy, Haryana
                                                Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GOI
11 (full page)                            Ministry of Power, GOI  
15 (half page)                           Ministry of Steel, GOI
17 (half page)                           Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GOI.  
 21 (half page)                          Directorate of Inform. and Publicity, Delhi Govt.
 27 (full page)                           Ministry of Social Justice & Empow., GOI
                                                Government of Jharkhand  

These kind of advertisements of Government keep appearing at regular intervals.  How these advertisements do public good, I fail to understand. I support Government advertisements for educating masses or creating awareness about schemes of which people can make use.  But I am definitely against such advertisements which unnecessarily waste public money which could be used for better purposes.  It seems Government just talks about austerity, but when it comes to action, they fail completely.

                                             

Height of Corruption

       Now CAG has now brought out the amount of loss this country has suffered due to corruption of our political system.  The estimated loss is 1.86 lac crores.  Do you  know why this loss occurred?  This loss occurred because Government did not allocate these mines after competitive auction.  The Government allocated these mines using their discretion and not competitive bids.  Surprising part is that Government had taken a decision to allocated coal mines through  auction in 2004.  Having taken the decision, why this decision was not implemented?  It is not difficult to understand that these mines were allocated at throw away prices in return of kickbacks.  Government is denying this scam and the figure of loss, just as they were denying the 2G scam.
       Due to this corruption (negligence?) some private parties have gained (including who received kickbacks). Had Government received this money, it could have used it for social sector or reduced the level of indirect taxes (like on petrol etc.) giving much needed relief to the common man (aam aadmi). This corruption is increasing the disparity between rich and poor. This is one case.  If one accumulates the figure of all the scams which have come to notice in recent times (forget about those which have not come to light as yet) one can imagine the level of corruption in our country.
        We must congratulate CAG for its wonderful work.  Due to CAG only these things have come in the public domain.  I hope more and more Government Officials follow in the footsteps of Mr. Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India.