On 21/8/2010 in Lok Sabha there was a demand from Laloo Prasad Yadav and some MPs that the government pay salaries to imams of government-aided mosques on the basis of Supreme Court verdict in 1993. It is not known how this verdict came about. Laloo Prasad Yadav did not raise the issue when he was Railway Minister and member of UPA. Bihar elections are coming near and that may be the reason for raising the issue.
Tag: Indian Politics
The world is not enough for MPs
The cabinet decided to increase MPs’ salaries from Rs.16,000/- to Rs.50,000/- p.m. and double some allowances. Many MPs want more. They want Rs.80,000/- p.m. Very few MPs like Gurudas Dasgupta have opposed pay hike for MPs. He said MPs are not employees and those who can not afford should not become MPs.
The decision to increase MPs’ salaries from Rs.16,000/- to Rs.50,000/- p.m. was itself unjustified. They get many allowances and when everything is considered they are well paid.
If MPs want Rs.80,000/- p.m. because Government Secretaries get Rs.80,000/- p.m. there should be compulsory retirement for MPs when they become 60 years old. In a previous article I had written about MPs’ salaries.
Reservation in private sector
The Government of India wants 5% reservation for SCs/STs in private sector. Reservation in government jobs itself is a bad idea. Once the reservation begins there will be demand for increase in percentage and extension to other communities like OBCs. It will divide people. There will be further demands to be declared as OBCs or STs. We know the damage done by Gujjar agitation.
Reservations began for a period of 10 years. They got periodic extensions and more people came under reserved category. SCs/STs changed a lot over the years but reservations continue. Then came OBC reservations.
If government thinks that companies benefitting from government incentives have to reserve seats it should stop incentives.
WikiLeaks and India
WikiLeaks on 26/7/2010 made public many secret documents dealing with Afghan War. Some of them have relevance to India.
ISI played a role in terrorist activities against Indians. ISI paid the Taliban and Haqqani network to target Indians, Indian Embassy, Indian Consulate in Kandahar and other places. Indians have died. India has suffered loss of property.
It is futile to expect Pakistan to act against ISI or USA to do anything significant. India has to act on its own…
Commonwealth Games
India should have quit Commonwealth when it became a republic. It continued in Commonwealth.
Commonwealth Games are to be held in Delhi in October 2010. Mani Shankar Aiyar wants the games to flop so that India does not bid for Asian Games and Olympics and waste its money. He has said that India paid one lakh dollars in bribes to each delegate to get votes for staging Commonwealth Games. He was Sports Minister and foresaw that the games will be a disaster due to the functioning of Indian Olympic Association (IOA). His predecessor Sunil Dutt had a tough time and he died. IOA officials did not want to interact with Mani Shankar Aiyar and they told him to send Sports Secretary and he also died. Mani Shankar Aiyar wanted a special committee be set up to oversee the preparations for Commonwealth Games as India did for Asian Games 1982 but that did not happen. In 2006 Commonwealth Games Federation chief had expressed concern in private that IOA was lagging behind in preparation. In March 2009 it was public. After that various deadlines were set to be extended further. Now just around 60 days are left for games. Stadia are not ready and rains have exposed the shoddy construction…
Abolish Planning Commission
Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath has called Planning Commission an “armchair advisorâ€. On 5/7/2010 he publicly criticised the Planning Commission. He was not happy with its approach. He gave the example of Delhi Airport Terminal 3. He asked one official “How did you do it?†He got the reply “Planning Commission and their people had nothing to do with it.â€
End of India?
USSR was a superpower. It split into 15 countries in 1991.
What was once Yugoslavia is now seven countries.
India can end up like USSR and Yugoslavia.
Large parts of India are not under government control. There is trouble in Kashmir. Different groups extort money in North-East. They call it taxes. Muivah who wants sovereignty for Nagalim is given z plus security. Many districts are under Naxal control. Separatists are active in Punjab.
Protest against price rise
On 5/7/2010 there was Bharat Bandh. Parties belonging to Left Front, NDA and some others had called for bandh. The bandh was in protest against rise in prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG. Many leaders courted arrest. Buses were damaged.
The bandh was supposed to be for the common man of India. Bandhs disrupt life and do not benefit common man. There is loss of day’s work. People who had to travel long distance by bus, car, train or plane suffer. Some book tickets months in advance. Many people do not get medical attention and sometimes people die.
Madras High Court and Tamil
There is a demand in Tamil Nadu to make Tamil the language of Madras High Court. According to the constitution of India English is the language of High Courts and Supreme Court. Making Tamil the language of Madras High Court requires constitutional amendment.
If UPA decides to go for constitutional amendment to make Tamil the language of Madras High Court other states will demand their languages be made languages of their High Courts. The amendment will have to apply all High Courts.
Fuel Price Hike
On 25/6/2010 the government of India increased prices of petrol by Rs.3.50, diesel by Rs.2/- kerosene by Rs.3/- per litre and LPG by Rs.35/-per cylinder. Petrol and diesel prices were decontrolled.
The increase has come at a time when food price inflation is about 18%.
The increase was avoidable. For the week ended 18/6/2010 foreign exchange reserves increased by $3 billion. If the government had not increased foreign exchange reserves the dollar value would have gone down making oil import cost less and there would have been no need for price increase.