" Marriage is like
putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel."
—Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519)
Word
for the day
Kerfuffle (n)
A fuss; commotion.
Malice
towards none
Assuming the Babri
trial will get completed in next two years.
Then what?
It will take
another 10-12years in Allahabad High Court and then in Supreme Court.
Whom are we
fooling, in the name of justice?
First random
thought this morning
Got the opportunity to attend a fat Delhi wedding.
At the entrance to the party venue there were some white
(apparently east European) girls standing (just standing not doing anything)
dressed as peacock. I am told, it's a common practice these days. While many
guests choose to ignore their presence, there were some whose red eyes were
gnawing them rather conspicuously.
The party was attended by some politicians and
politically connected people. No one appeared bothered about the humiliation of
these girls or human rights. No one also appeared concerned whether these girls
have work permit.
I will share my thoughts on Delhi fat wedding and its
economic implications some time later.
Well begun, but little done.
My numerous travels through the vast lands of India,
often remind me of the famous Anton Chekov's short story "The Malefactor". Most of youth and middle age people we interacted
with, behaved like Denis Grigoryev the protagonist in the story.
"Denis Grigoryev!"
the magistrate begins. "Come nearer, and answer my questions. On the
seventh of this July the railway watchman, Ivan Semyonovitch Akinfov, going
along the line in the morning, found you at the hundred-and-forty-first mile
engaged in unscrewing a nut by which the rails are made fast to the sleepers.
Here it is, the nut!. With the aforesaid nut he detained you. Was that
so?"
"If I hadn't wanted it I
shouldn't have unscrewed it," croaks Denis, looking at the ceiling.
"What did you want that
nut for?"
"The nut? We make weights
out of those nuts for our lines."
"Who is 'we'?"
"We, people.... The
Klimovo peasants, that is."
For once everyone appears to be a
free spirit – as if no rule of law exists. They would do whatever suits them –
some would do it sheepishly, but most would be audacious in their defiance of
rules.“Don’t bother…yahan sab chalta hai” almost appeared to be the
national anthem.
On probing a little deeper, one
would discover that these are billion people who are in great rush to move
forward. The youth in particular is very diligent and eager to grow out of the
perennial constraints that have afflicted the country since independence.
In my view, this defiance and
consequent non-compliance has traditionally come from three major sources,
viz., (a) Distrust in
political establishment; (b) inequalities in opportunities; and (c) unreliable
law and order machinery.
There is adequate
empirical to show that this habitual defiance and non-compliance has impeded
the economic growth of country to a significant extent. For example consider
the following—
(a) Non-payment of statutory dues
and taxes, non-payment for utility services like electricity and water has led
to severe fiscal constraints and mismanagement; fall in standards of public
services; frequent defaults; civic unrest and prolonged litigation.
(b) Non-compliance (theft) by
electricity consumers has resulted in perennial problem of T&D losses and
sickness of public utilities.
(c) Unauthorized construction and
encroachment of public land has resulted huge congestion, environment
degradation, non-payment of taxes, and protracted litigation.
(d) Non-compliance by norms by
pharmacies has resulted in epidemic of self medication, causing serious risk to
health of citizens.
(e) Non-compliance by the norms for use of underground waters, flow
effluents in public water bodies, like rivers, etc. has landed us in a situation
that could spell disaster of epic proportion for the economy.
(f) Non-compliance with road safety & safe driving norms leads to
thousands of deaths and serious disabilities every year.
The incumbent government has taken
some commendable initiatives in improving the compliance standards. For
example—
1. National
Cleanliness mission has been launched to make the country open defecation free,
and inculcate the habit of cleanliness amongst citizen.
2. Tax
administration has been made easier to use and penalties for non-compliance
have been made stringent to encourage voluntary compliance. Many other measures
like abolition of currency notes, implementation of GST, and better (wider and
deeper) use of technology etc. shall also improve compliance with tax laws.
3. Restructuring
of state electricity boards and public electricity utilities and making state
government accountable for T&D losses will likely improve compliance level
materially.
4. Material
amendments in the Motor Vehicle act to promote road safety.
5. Use
of Aadhar and digital platforms for more and more public services, entitlements
and subsidies shall definitely plug the leakages and improve the compliance
standards.
While many notable initiatives
have been made to improve the general compliance standards in the
socio-economic sphere of the country.
Though we still have a long way to
go to achieve a satisfactory level of compliance, nonetheless the beginning is
encouraging.
I personally see many impediment
to growth being removed in next decade or so, insofar as habitual
non-compliance is concerned.
Read with the following
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