Act

What and which are the greater threats to future India? How do we categorize this? How do we itemize these? Do we try to identify on the basis of importance to the general populace or national threat or divisiveness?

Anyone would reel off inflation and price rise, corruption, governance, Maoists, terrorists, religion, china in the pecking order.

Is the present price rise the cause of supply shortage or excessive demand? MGNREGA and increased remunerative prices to farmers are also listed as reasons by the ‘experts’. While there is a small case for the increase in buying capacity, inflation and price rise should not have be more than 7% in the ultimate analysis. The real inflation of 10%+ is not in the calculations of ‘experts’ but on the street. So even if MGNREGA has given the poor some purchasing power on paper, I doubt if they actually get what they are supposed to get.  Even if we take the price for produce to farmers that has increased, with the year to year bumper crop in essential crops or cash crops, the market prices should not be more than an addition of 2%. Now, we need to add the issue of unacceptable quality of products under the PDS, pilferages at godowns, middle men, rotting of food grains and all perishables at FCI and other godowns.

No farmer or grocer or vegetable vendor wants to see unsold perishables rot. The difference between wholesale perishables at the market yard and the local seller is a huge 20%. With the PDS in a shambles and the quality unfit for human consumption, it is but natural for people to go to the local seller.

The periodic increase in fuel prices is another case. But here although there is merit in de-regulation of fuel prices, it is not carried out the way it should be.

Petrol should be de-regulated. Diesel should be de-regulated in various methods, ie: regulated for mass transportation of people and goods, but totally at higher than market prices for expensive four wheelers as they can well afford this and to prevent misuse it is not difficult to have a proper mechanism in place in this electronic age.

LPG, CNG, PPG for higher income groups should be at market price. Pilferages-One can also see instances where multiple CNG cylinders are available at any eateries, various other shops and so on, which is not meant to be while the actual beneficiaries are deprived.

Why are the oil producing and marketing companies allowed to get away with huge expenditures and perks? How much fuel is wasted by the Government on a daily basis ferrying the officials and ministers? Why are duties so high?Why are state taxes so high? The actual fuel prices will be affordable if (1) Excise and other Duties are reduced by 10% (2) State Taxes are reduced by 2% (3) If the basic price actually moves with international prices of crude. One can also remove the ad-valorem aspect on the Excise and duties, but fix it at Rs.X for 3 years and not change it. 

The unnecessary increase in interest rates by RBI, standard tactics to stem flow of money, is not the practical way for containing inflation across the board though the theories say so. It should have been calibrated to target excessive flow into real estate, market speculation, acquisition of expensive assets and hoarding activities. Instead it is harming the various loan EMI’s and prospective applications for home loans. It is affecting manufacturing and expansion. With increased demand for higher wages it affects the WC requirements. It increases prices of all goods across the board, and for no reason. Added to this is the Re fall and the loan portfolio of corporate shoot up. They will have to pass it on the consumers and if the consumers do not buy, the corporate lose. So who the heck has benefitted? RBI should have instead of raising interests every time one spells its name concentrated on Mauritius.

I am not going to go bombastic into corruption. It is there to read everywhere, has been around and will continue to be omnipresent. Consider this. If one happens to go to an Excise office or a sales tax office or get some work done at the sub-registrar’s office, or the RTO, it’s massive and the turnover would put even a successful jeweler to shame. All other Government offices, offices of the oil companies, private corporations, law and justice, come on, these are huge! It is a huge issue and envelopes in its embrace all other activities that get an F.

Armed Maoists are the illogically self anointed custodians of justice and deliverance. The activists came in to cash in on the funding boom. In reality they are products of corruption, misgovernance and apathy. Today they are the very symbol of ingrown terror, destruction, takeover of democracy. I feel 50% of Maoists can be brought back to the sane world by counseling, good governance and developmental activities, livelihood. The rest are a troublesome lot and have to severely dealt with as terrorists in a swift and concerted strike and here we need to be deaf to the NGO’s and activists.  

 Terrorists are a totally mad. They have nothing else to do as they know nothing else. We, the government and public on the other hand do nothing. So unless we act, finish these guys, there is no use running into someone else’s arms for succor.

Religion, especially the fundamentalist type of VHP, SRS, BD, etc are along-with the Deobandi types an ingenious and serious lot who harvest on the uneducated and educated illiterates. If we can just book some of these for even instigative utterances, we can have AlQ, Saeed on a platter.

  Last comes China. Well these slit eyes are what they actually are and you can’t see them see. If you need to hear them, then, see their actions. They only know the language of commerce and that is the way to deal. They have no political ideology except territory and commerce. We can go on for another 50 years about 1962. They could have run over us then but did not. They would be pleased to do it now if they want and Pak is waiting and hoping for that to happen. And we will also not have any nannies no more. Diplomacy is not known to them, they only respect those with power: commercial muscle.

Therefore we have a smaller pecking order which will be Governance, Terrorists, and not allow religion to go overboard. Today Chanakya, Ashoka, Sankaracharya, Vivekananda, and Gandhi are forgotten.