"Should you protect
profits? Yes. But run for the hills? No."
— Phillip
Roth (American, 1933 - )
Word for the day
Lateritious (adj)
Of the color of brick;
brick-red.
Malice towards none
If the opposition does
manage to unite for 2019 general election and we have a Mahabharta type two
groups fight - who will be the Krishna in that case?
PS: No comments on which
group would be Pandava and which is Kaurava
First random thought this morning
BJP members and leaders seem exasperated at the shenanigans of
opposition leaders, media and critics over fuel price rise (and the Cut!).
They want everyone to believe and accept the fact that now the
fuel pricing is completely market driven and "normalization" of taxes
on transportation fuel and "rationalization" of subsidies is way
behind.
But the fact remains that they suspended price hikes during
Karnataka elections and thereby totally obliterated the credibility of the
whole argument, themselves. Playing victim in this case would not help!
Four years of Modi rule - 9
Before I share my views on the mistakes of commission and failures
of omission of the incumbent government, let me ask you "what would be
your reaction to the following situations?"
(1) Your housemaid comes to
you and tells, "I have cleaned more than half the utensils. As you
yourself told me that before hiring me, you were cleaning the utensils yourself
and would do the job only every alternative day. In that light my performance
is excellent. So, appreciate my effort and order a pizza for me".
(2) You are a branch
manager of a bank. your clerk comes to you and tells, "I have cleared more
than 65% of the checks presented today. In my view, it is an outstanding
performance. Please allow me to leave early today."
(3) A young girl in your
neighborhood gets molested and killed by goons. The area police inspector comes
to the condolence meet and claims, "this year the number of heinous crimes
in your area is lower by 30% as compared to the average of previous five
years".
While you contemplate your responses, I may tell you mine - I will
be incensed. My education & training that makes me acquiescent, may not
permit me to react violently, but if someone does I might not hold him back.
The incumbent government got the massive mandate for
implementation of an agenda of transformation, development, inclusion,
cooperation, non-discrimination and zero tolerance on corruption. The prime
minister personally promised an environment of mutual trust and harmony.
In my view, the performance on most of these parameters has been
below average. I would argue here not in comparison with the performance of
previous governments, but in light of the opportunity available and the promise
made.
I find the entire government (also BJP members and leaders)
suffering from what I call Deewar Syndrome. In this Bollywood
blockbuster of 1970s, the protagonist has a challenging childhood and youth.
Tired of fighting hunger and injustice, he joins a gang of smugglers and
becomes rich.
His mother and younger brother though refuse to compromise their
ideals. The younger brother eventually becomes a police officer.
A day comes when the police officer brother gets to know the
business of his elder brother and asks him to confess and surrender to law. The
elder brother agrees to sign the confession statement but not before the
younger brother gets the confession from all those who coerced him to take the
path of crime. He famously says - "भाई पहले उसका sign ले कर आओ, फिर मैं sign
करूंगा."
"Go ask them what they did and delivered in 70yrs, then we
will account for our 4yrs" is the most common refrain of the ruling party
and its leaders.
I have already made it clear that I find the shield of "what
did they do in 70yrs", which BJP leaders and supporters frequently use to
defend their below par performance, totally hollow and weak (see
here)
Trust deficit widened
Economic growth which is not sustainable and equitable has little
meaning, in my view. Such growth, whatever statistic shows, brings only misery
and dissipation.
A harmonious and peaceful society enjoying a decent lifestyle
should be the ultimate goal of economic growth and development. Otherwise, it
has little meaning, regardless of the statistical achievements.
Swami Jagadatmananda in his famous work “Learn to
Live” extolled the readers - the sincerity and honesty of the means to achieve
a goal is equally important as the goal itself.
The government has mostly failed in promoting an environment of
mutual trust and harmony. It is rather unfortunate to see that the prime
minister himself leaves no opportunity to position himself as a lone crusader
fighting an army of corrupt, unethical and unpatriotic citizens. Every sentence
the BJP leaders and ministers utter mostly translates to "we" vs.
"they".
The trust deficit in the country has widened substantially in past
couple of years.
Poor planning and inadequate consultative process in
implementation of major initiatives like GST and Demonetization have widened
the rift between businesses and administration.
Unabated aggression shown by the "fringe" right wing
elements, has certainly made people from all religious communities extra
cautious and to some extent fearful.
The acceptance of contrarian and dissenting views has also not
been worthy of a government and leadership whose main plank was "sabka
saath, sabka vikas". I may be failing in appreciating the sublime message
PM is conveying, but the narrative at the surface is "if you are not with
me, your nationalism credential are inadequate."
The urban youth and middle classes enthusiastically participated
in 2014 general elections. They however look mostly disenchanted and apathetic
to politics, four years later.
Reforms mostly administrative corrections
Reform is the most abused buzzword in Indian context at least. The
governments, policy influencers and opinion makers, politicians, popular commentators,
and media experts have misused this terminology to classify all administrative
changes and corrections, including insignificant steps as eliminating or adding
few columns in the return to be filed annually by the tax payers.
Assigning the task of cleaning railway stations to private
contractors, in order to save some cost and fix accountability to ensure
cleanliness on such contractors is also listed as "reform" in some
government papers.
Replacement of Rs1000 and Rs500 currency notes with Rs2000
currency notes is cited as the biggest reform by the government.
I have been insisting that the reforms must be distinguished from
mere administrative corrections. A policy measure must change the status quo
materially, in order to qualify as "Reform". Only transformative
changes that change the status quo materially qualify as "reforms".
In economic context, reforms include fundamental changes in the
processes and practices of doing business and consuming goods and services. But
reforms are not only economic. Historically the social reforms have proved to
be rather more transformative.
When faced with the task of catapulting the economic activity to a
higher orbit it is imperative for the policy makers to distinguish between
"administrative corrections", "systemic efficiencies" and
"reforms".
For example, transfer of de jure power to fix prices for
transportation fuel to IAS officers at the helm of public sector oil marketing
companies from IAS officers assisting the Prime Minister and Cabinet Committee
on Economic Affairs is merely a administrative change. A 25-30% rise in global
crude prices from here will most likely cause this change to reverse, as was
the case in 2003-04.
A reform in this area would be implementation of an integrated
energy policy that motivates and (where necessary) forces changes in the
consumption patterns.
Similarly, selling 10% shares in public sector undertaking and
listing it on stock exchanges for trading, without actually changing the way it
functions, is not reform. It is actually reverse of reforms if we consider the
case of banks and energy companies where interests and concerns of the minority
shareholders are totally disregarded in functioning of these companies.
Tolerance on corruption
This is a sensitive subject and I can't afford the risk of a multi
million defamation suit! Nonetheless, I would still mention that all those who
regularly deals with tax authorities, judiciary, civic authorities, law
enforcement agencies, etc., candidly maintain that there is little change in
the level of corruption in past four years.
We all have seen the conduct of professionals and bankers during
demonetization. There is enough evidence of misuse of GST by ingenious
businessmen and professionals.
...to conclude on Tuesday
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