Bihar's Jungle Raj is back in form: Youth killed for overtaking JD(U) leader's son's vehicle

Imagine. You are driving your car on a highway in Bihar. You overtake an SUV. The people in SUV questions you for driving your vehicle faster than their vehicle. As a punishment for your superfast driving and overtaking them, you are shooted and killed.

This is happening in Bihar. JD(U) and RJ(D) alliance has brought the Jungle Raj back in Bihar. The politicians are acting as if they are the kings in the Jungle Raj.

"The Hindu" news clipping on this incedent:

"The incident happened when the son of a prominent businessman of the town, Aditya Sachdeva, a plus-two examinee, was traveling in his Swift car with his friends and allegedly overtook the SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) driven by Rocky Singh Yadav, son of JD(U) MLC Manorama Devi under Rampur police station of the district. Rocky was travelling in his car along with a security guard provided by the Bihar Police for the politician.

“We’re returning from Bodh Gaya and soon after we overtook the SUV they started firing in the air and made us stop. Then they forced us to get out of the car and started punching us. When we tried to leave the spot, someone fired and my friend got hit”, said friend of Aditya Sachdeva who was accompanying him in the car."

This is not a stray incendent. These kind of news are frequently being reported from Bihar after JD(U) and RJD coallition assumed power.

Modus operandi of MGNREGA at Grass Root Level

I don't think it is necessary to explain anything theoretical about one of the prestigious project of Government of India for fulfilling the right to work under MGNREGA- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. You will get millions of pages over internet on the theoretical functioning of the project. But I felt it necessary to draw a sketch on how it actually functions at the grass root level.

The government seems to be relaxing by believing that at least 100 days of guaranteed wage is reaching the beneficiaries after making it mandat

ory to disburse the wage through the bank accounts. When the project was started, the wage was being given in the form of food grains like wheat, jowar and rice. The officials/sarpanchs/panchayat members/local contractors used to complete the works  using the the machines like earth movers or some times completion on on papers and make money by selling those grains. Later wage in the form of money was introduced, it was much easier than earlier. The MGNREGA card holder to put his thumb impression or sign in non vernacular language and get the commission for signing, not the complete wage as guaranteed. No need to say again where it reached?

Did the direct transfer of wages through bank accounts have solved the problem? Yes, off course! That of contractors!

What is the Modus operandi?

Mr B, a Panchayat Member approaches Shri/Smt A, who has MGNREGA card, to open an account in a Nationalised Bank. The bank opens Shri/Smt A's account who had just learned to move the pen to sign in non vernacular language and issues an ATM card. Mr B deposits the minimum amount in the account and pays one days wage to Shri/Smt A for taking trouble of opening a bank account. Mr B grabs ATM card along with its PIN and the bank passbook of newly opened account. Panchayat officials identifies some work say 'cleaning of sewage on both side of the village road' to be done under MGNREGA. Mr B pays the pre-decided standard bribe to those officials and give the list of the MGNREGA card holders along with their account numbers. He, being the owner of the JCB gets it done in the matter of an hour. Or if he is influential, he gets id done on papers. Few days later he visits the ATM and withdraws the wages of hundred of MGNREGA beneficiaries without much effort than entering the ATM PIN. And it repeats.

Rahul save MGNREGA!

Cap on subsidised LPG cylinders is a good move

Industrialist and Congress MP Naveen Jindal- 369
Vice-President Hamid Ansari- 170
Vice-President Hamid Ansari- 62
Former Chief Minister Mayavati- 91
Tihar jail favorite, ex telecom minister A Raja -47
Diseased Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar- 48

These numbers are the subsidized LPG cylinders delivered to the house of the ministers when the subsidy burden on LPG is estimated to be about Rs.25,000 crore. Subsidy is nothing but tax payers money which has multiple developmental use. By supplying one subsidized cylinders every day to rich industrialist like Naveen Jindal, the oil companies did nothing but pushing some tax payers money to industrialists’ house.

There are many small shops were one can get LPG car filled with subsidized LPG. Many restaurants use subsidized LPG cylinders. Many marriage halls used domestic subsidized LPGs to cook food for thousands of people. The tax payer’s money went in drain. If this was curtailed we could have saved thousands of crore rupees and used it for development purpose.

Restricting subsidized LPG to 6 cylinders a year is a good move by Government of India. Six cylinders may be the minimum requirement for a small family of 4. On average one LPG connection per family got 8 cylinders a year last year. While getting 6 on subsidy a family can get another two cylinders by paying full amount. This will definitely curtail the misutilization of subsidized LPG.

For government, reducing the subsidy expenditure will help in maintaining lower fiscal deficit. Lower fiscal deficit lowers the external borrowing. In total, though it is viewed as a tough decision by the government will definitely help in country’s prosperity.

Government should take some more brave steps to pay subsidy amount directly to the beneficiary through their bank account. This UID- unique identification – Adhaar number based subsidy scheme is already under pilot run in Mysore. This will definitely give justice to both the tax payer’s money and subsidy.

Akhand Bharat- Dream and the Reality

Akhand Bharat is a dream of many Hindu organizations in India and abroad. They want establish a Hindu Nation by uniting the Indian subcontinent which includes Pakistan, Bangladesh and some times even up to Malaysia where there are traces of monarchy of Indian kings were present. I strongly believe this idea of Akhand Bharat is unrealistic and be harmful to the nation. Recently Narandra Modi has revealed another face of Akhand Bharat.

In his most famous interview to Shahid Siddiqui of Urdu weekly Nai Dunia, Narendra Modi expressed his views on Akhand Bharat “My dream is that from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, people should be ek and nek (one and good)... It is the imperialists in Pakistan who are running a campaign for Akhand Bharat, so that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh can become one and this can be a Muslim-majority country... These people want to place Indian Muslims on the frontline and create tension.”

In reply to this opinion working president of Vishwa Hindu Parshad Dr Pravin Thogadia tweeted “No Hindu votes to him after he said: Those who campaign for Akhand Bharat are Pakistani Imperialists: In interview given to Shahid Siddiqi”. This tweet shows the tensed relationship between the Hindu organization and Modi. But Narendra Modi is partly right in his opinion about the Akhand Bharat. If Pakistan and Bangladesh unites with India the situation in India worsens as the majority Muslims of these countries will be welcomed by
pseudo secularists of the country and the life of citizens of India becomes miserable. We are already experiencing the tension in Assam due to the soft corner towards the Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam.

But John R Schmidt who served as political counselor at the US embassy in Islamabad, in his latest book ‘The Unravelling - Pakistan in the Age of Jihad’ tells the day might come when Pakistan might be reabsorbed into India the political unrest it may face in the future. Islamic terrorists might be able to seize a warhead and either use it for nuclear blackmail. Then US and India will be left with no other alternative option than “destroy all that was left of the Pakistani armed forces through the use of air power, with the US providing the air power and India the bulk of ground forces” He also tells "Once the dust had settled, the Indians and their US allies would then face a critical political question: what to do about the areas of Pakistan that had been brought under their control," they might incorporate the occupied territories into India, bringing about the final unravelling of the Pakistani state.

If it happens, dream of Hindu organizations may partially come true. Nothing can be ruled off in the present situation of terrorism and unrest in Pakistan. But I wish it won't happen.

Bhutan is all about Happiness

Public policies of governments in any nation should aim at the happiness of its citizen. Though many governments tell, their every policy is meant for creating happy nation, most of the times it fails. Our policies aimed at development of the nation in terms of GDP fails to keep the citizens happy, fails to meet sustainable development and protecting culture and environment. But in Bhutan "gross national happiness"(GNH) is important than Gross National Product.

I came across Bhutan's GNH and National Happiness Commission very recently when I was reading some piece of article on development. I was ashamed to be ignorant of such a beautiful system of governance, present at the neighbouring and most friendly country to India.

I was also surprised to read there is no National Planning Commission like one in India. Instead Bhutan has Gross National Happiness Commission. Every government policy has to pass through NHC so that the policy is in accordance with the four pillars of GNH viz promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.

Bhutan has the policies that least 60% of the country's land must remain under forest cover at all times. It imposes the tariff of $200 a day for each foreign visitor to control the tourist and protect the environment and culture. Sale of tobacco products is completely banned. All Bhutanese are required to wear the national dress, and all buildings must conform to the national architecture to preserve the country's distinctive culture. Can we even expect such policies from our governments? Or ever our government will be think of implementing such policies against the hypocrisy?

It is not surprising fact that Bhutan is better in terms of life expectancy, GDP, GNI and Per Capita Income than other neighbouring Asean countries. One can google the data.