An Unwarranted Remark

The Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram has thrown the blame of the rising crime incidents in Delhi on the people who have migrated to the metropolitan town. Later however he took his statement back. Few days ago, Sheila Dixit too had blamed the citizens of UP and Bihar for disorders in Delhi. It seems that people like Chidambaram and Dixit want to assert that the immigrants, especially the people of Bihar and UP, that are unwanted in the Indian capital. Is it not strange that attempt is being made deliberately to stop the arrival of the external people who already constitute 3/4th of the population there? Nothing is more unfortunate that the country’s capital is sending a message to the outsiders that they are not welcome to the capital. It is shameful that there is an attempt as well to prove these innocent people criminals. It is a truth that the crime rate is on the rise in Delhi day by day but how can it be proved that all the crimes in Delhi are committed by the external people only? Has Delhi Police found out that the recent criminal incidents like the Blade Episode of Mangolpuri and the Noida gangrape were committed by immigrants from Bihar and UP? If someone is responsible for this maladjustment then that is Delhi Police which is controlled by the Central Govt. It is ridiculous that the failure of Delhi Police and also the Union Govt. is being covered by making senseless allegations on the immigrants.

THE NEW TREND OF ECONOMY

Earlier, the share market and the values of silver-gold used to go in reverse mode. The share market used to go up with the upward speed of economy. Along with that the value of properties also used to increase. In such atmosphere people previously used to invest on properties by selling the silver-gold kept in their lockers. Due to this, the prices of silver-gold used to go down. On the other hand when the economy suffered from depression the investors used to start disposing off shares and buying silver-gold .Thus, the prices of the shares used to go in reverse mode, but today the prices of both shares and bullion are high. Recently, the Mumbai share market closed on a historical high index of 21,000. Side by side, the prices of silver-gold and properties are also going up. The explanation of the increase in prices of gold along with the prices of shares lies in the globlisation of economy. Before the economic reforms of 1991, the impact on our economy of the global conditions was not much. In those days the Govt. had put restrictions on the investment of foreign capital and import of gold. As a result the fluctuation in the price of gold in the world market hardly had any impact on Indian market. Now the import of gold is under no restriction. As a consequence the price of gold in India fluctuates in line with the global prices.

The foreign investors always look for safe investment areas. Before the Second World War, the British pound was considered safe for investment. After the world war, the American dollar replaced it as a world currency. Till ten years before, the investors considered that their investment in the US Treasury bond was safe. So the investors used to buy shares of American companies, American properties or bonds issued by the American Govt. only. There were mainly three reasons of the strength of the US economy. The first reason of this was that the US was inventing newer and newer technologies like atomic energy, jet air plane, personal computers etc. The USA was earning a lot by selling these hi-tech products. Secondly, she was far ahead in the use and discovery of natural resources like mineral oil which was earlier mostly found in Texas alone before the First World War. The third reason of her strength was that its market was based on open economy. The American companies used to produce high quality products in the cutthroat competition created by an open economy. During past 4-5 years, the conditions have fundamentally changed. The inventions are now static. There has happened no great invention after the invention of the Internet during the 90s. Other countries are engaged in discovering their natural resources. For example India established off-shore oil wells. Many countries have adopted in the system of market based on open economy. Thus the uniqueness of the US economy is now no more there. The USA is now always mired in debts. Nevertheless, she has continued issuing American Treasury Bonds in a big quantity due to its increased demands. Some experts say that the US economy is going to collapse. That is why the investors today are hesitating to purchase American shares, bonds and properties. On the other side, there is no constant and strong currency. As a result, the investors are purchasing gold and silver as security and so the prices of these metals are touching the sky. Whether this increase would remain constant or go down in the coming days fully depends on the rise of the second global currency. At present, the rise of a new strong currency seems impossible. The economy of China has no transparency and openness. Europe is in peril as we have seen in the cases of the piteous economy of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. India has no social stability. Russia is broken. So the common sense says that the investors would keep investing in the silver-gold and their prices would continue rising. Today, the Indian companies are in great profit while companies of the US are not in a good condition. We have cheap labor and high-end technologies. The income of the Indian laborers has less chance to increase. In select big cities, the normal income does not increase with the increase in the demand of labors. In comparison of the developed countries, the income of our laborers would remain low for long. So our products would be cheaper and our companies would keep earning profit. The investors are purchasing the Indian companies’ shares and our share market is on the high. This pleasant condition would hopefully continue. The only danger is that of the internal explosion. The soul of the poor people burns because of cheap labor and rising richness. We must formulate such a policy immediately that would help India in taking the benefits of the present boom directly to the poor people.

Congress will never fight corruption

It is unprecedented that the winter session of the Parliament was paralysed continuously for 3 weeks because of 2G spectrum scam. Last time, the parliament was disturbed for 19 days for brokerage of cannon deal. The opposition has warned the Government that it would place its demand of investigation of the spectrum scam by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) in the budget session. It means that the fate of the budget session would be similar to this current session. BJP is satisfied with itself to be a reason of deadlock of the parliament but the reality is that there were legislative works also going on. The Govt. has offered to form a committee under the chairmanship of a retired judge to investigate the irregularities in the distribution of spectrum during NDA regime. It cannot be said that the formation of such a committee would create a pressure for BJP or not but it is clear that the effective argumentation on issues of corruption could not be done in the parliament due to the adamancy of the two sides. The political parties do not seem concerned in solving the corruption issues rather they are busy in accusing each other. Meanwhile in this boring scenario, an institution namely Transparency International has again given India the first rank among the most corrupt countries. Though everybody knows that corruption is the biggest hurdle in the development but nobody comes in the front to eliminate it. Overall, the Right to Information Act. launched by the Govt. to control corruption has failed to be effective in checking corruption. The cases of corruption are by and large the same in number as ever before.

The spectrum scam is upsetting because it involves many politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists. When the tapes of the corporate lobbyist Neera Radia became public, the faces of many esteemed people turned dimmed and Ratan Tata started issuing clarifications. His clarifications however were fully dismissed by another industrialist Rajiva Chandrashekhar. Tata replied against all the charges imposed on him; but irregularities in the spectrum distribution became more complex. But it is for sure now that cases of obliging the Govt. and influencing its decisions through lobbying are going on for a long period. Ratan Tata has even questioned the process of spectrum distribution during NDA regime on which High Court also seems to be agreed. At present, it is difficult to say that the scam of illegal distribution of spectrum would be ever uncovered as the Govt. is so indifferent to its investigation. Instead of finding the truth of the matter, the Govt. is trying to hush up the reality. Corruption cannot be stopped easily in this current stage. An agency must be formed which must work in its own way to combat corruption without any influence and intervention on the part of the Govt. At present CBI or CVC both are under the control of Govt. CBI raided the residents of A. Raja and his colleagues only after 13 months of the filing of the report. The reason of this delay lay in the fact that the green signal of Govt. came only after it was pressurized due to public debate on the matter. A section of politicians sitting in the high positions are exacting money from the corporate world in the name of political compulsions. From the whole episode it is clear that if corruption flourishes at the apex level, it is bound to flourish at the lower levels as well. Corruption can be uprooted only when the public at large take initiatives in its hand and wages a war against the corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists.

A typical Indian Attitude

I do not know why Indians react like they are treated badly when they go through the security check in the foreign airports or somewhere else. USA security has played a commendable job to prevent any kind of terrorist attack after 09/11. Meera Shankar did not go through any pat down search. It is a normal process of security search in US from which everyone goes through, even its citizens. The Indian Bollywood Superstar Shah Rukh Khan has also objected for questioning in Newark airport in the US. It is a wrong attitude. We must learn what a strict security check means in such an atmosphere of insecurity of terrorist attacks. So we can also avoid the recent blast like Varanasi after 26/11.

Failed Security Network

Varanasi blast is unfortunate but redeeming aspect of this tragedy is that still we can take a sigh of relief that this explosion led to minimal human loss. This scenario would have been so dreadful when unsuspecting people would have caught in a stampede. The terrorists might have expected a greater loss but were unsuccessful. But it is a mere chance. The security agencies had alerted the Indian Govt. against this attach. Even then the terrorist perpetrate this crime. The organisation called Indian Mujahideen has owned the responsibility for this attach. This organisation had already given a threat to the Indian Govt through email sent after the blast in the tourist bus near Jama Masjid, Delhi on 19 September. This is not a subject of a normal concern for a country which is directly under the radar of terrorists that this attack was made even after a threat. The Indian government has failed its fiduciary responsibilities to the people and to the states. The real meaning of a good security we can learn from USA. US intelligence officials tracked suspicious parcel sent from Yemen last month. The parcel was a bomb parcel that cannot be easily detected even through the scanner. It is the vigilance of US security that they found the hidden bomb and saved many lives. About six conspiracy of attacks are failed this year in the USA. The terrorists were even run away after planting bomb in a car to demolish the Times Square in the New York city. But not only they were caught from the airplane going to Dubai, their whole plans of destruction were failed. Indian Government must upgrade and reform its security level. We really don't want to see any kind of human loss again.

Palestinian roadblock

The views of "right" and "left" in Israel are of course not very similar; but this nation is always desperate for peace and some territorial concessions by Israel during 1990s' are the best examples to prove it. Israel often face terrible threats from his neighborhoods. East is Iran, where the President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to eradicate Israel anyhow. North is Lebanon which has strengthened its military power with huge amount of Russian-made rockets supplied by Iran and Syria. South is Hamas, whose ruthlessness was evident when they drove Fatah their political opponents, out of the Gaza strip from which Israel had withdrawn as part of a peace deal which Hamas has systematically breached. The intentions of the Israel's neighborhoods are clear enough. So the veteran leader Mr Yossi Sarid's belief that the giving up land would bring peace sounds so ridiculous despite he knows and has already experienced the truth of Oslo experiment. Expecting the Arabs would sit calm after the geographical sacrifice by the Israel would give the latter nothing. The division of Jerusalem into two cities -Jerusalem and Al-Quads (which would serve as the capital of a new Palestinian Arab State) would not change the mindset of Islamic regions. The solution of this crisis does not lie in the creation of a separate Palestinian state. But still, the majority of innocent Jeweish Israelis support territorial compromise in Jerusalem if it would bring a true and lasting peace. In fact, the separation would lead to more hatred. If this separation occurs then conflict of area's distribution would come forward. Old city contains the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, and the third holiest site in Islam. Still it is premature to say anything about these issues. The UN demands racist division of Jerusalem and says that it needs to be sorted out impartially for the overall benefit of all the three parties satisfaction. All we want that this issue needs immediate solution as it had been dragged too long for nothing. I truly hope that some sort of an equitable solution can be worked out between the adversaries with the guidance of neutral parties.

INDIA PRIVATISES EVERY PUBLIC GOOD SHAMELESSLY

Poor Lalit Modi. He went a little too fast with his scam and partied a little too hard in front of public eyes. As per a confidential income tax report,he bought a luxury yacht, a private jet, haveli's in Rajasthan, a fleet of Mercedes S-class cars and what not! All in the last three years! He gave every possible deal to do with IPL to his relatives and family and friends or to people whom he owed money-so that they don't come behind him. Again, this is as per that report which came out in The Economic Times. More, he took personal stakes in disguise in three of the IPL teams and is supposed to have been himself involved in fixing the outcomes of IPL matches along with a prominent page 3 personality; again according to the same report. He is linked to Betfair- a UK firm that runs one of the world's largest betting syndicates on the internet- and is helping it to enter the casino and hospitality business in India! This is what the Income Tax Department scooped out from Latli Modi's email box. And all this an unbelievable six months back. But then the government didn't take any action till Modi in his stupidity tried to puplicly challenge Tharoor because Tharoor gate-crashed into Modi's IPL party while he wanted to give that franchise to another big industrial house along with a couple of more film stars!

To undo the IPL scam, what we must do minimum is take away all the franchisees given unfairly and re-auction them fairly including those given out in the first round of auctions. And see to it that such shameful privatisation of everything public through unfair means should stop with immediate effect. Otherwise, we will only have more and more of BPL while IPLs and such similar scams keep thriving. Utter shame!