Action plan for the next three years.

All that BMC has to do is to fulfil its mandate of providing civic services :

1. Cleanliness - collecting, sorting and disposing solid waste in a scientific way. Associating NGOs and local people in every ward would help in cleaning Mumbai.

2. Water supply - rain water harvesting should be compulsory for all CHS and leakage to be plugged in every possible way.No new construction to be given water connection till after the next mansoon.

3. All contracts for roads and municipal works should be included in the BMC website for the information of the people - who won the contract, duration of the project etc. Recently President Obama has appointed Earl Devaney, the former secret service agent, as the head of the stimulous monitoring board, and Devaney is setting up a website so that people and journalists can monitor how every dollar is spent." The website will unleash a million citizen IGs( inspectors-general), says Devaney. If we had such a system, what happened in Thana would not have happened at all.

4. Encourage builders like Tatas, who offer houses for Rs.4 lakhs, to have cheap housing for the poor.

5. Promote more tree planting, gardens and play-grounds.

The suggestions were sent to Karmayog.

December 26,2009.

BMC Governance.

I entirely agree with Mr.Akshay Wadke that there should be transparency in all government activities. Everything should be available on its website for the citizens to monitor and interact with the concerned authorities.

Though RTI has given some access to the decision taken by the Municipal Administration, the RTI commisioners, who are mostly retired bureaucrats, have tried to protect their fraternity and their erstwhile masters, the ruling politicians.

Transparency in the administration and eternal vigilance by the people can only bring down corruption and bring about good governance. Without good governance,people will lose interest in democracy as is evident in the recent state election.

A comment sent to Karmayog.

December 26,2009.

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India's tax-GDP ratio among the lowest in the world.

That India's tax-GDP ratio is small is no doubt, true. Agriculture cannot get much revenue if it is taxed as it contributes about 20% to the GDP and most of the agriculturists are in dire strait.Almost 60% of the people depend on agriculture and their income is negligible. Yes, service sector contributes more than 50% and it is taxed now. The real problem is not the taxation but spending the tax money.The famous economist, Huge Dalton, ( he resigned as the Chancellor of Exchequer when his tax proposals were published before he could present it to the UK parliament) has said that the problem of public finance is not taxation but of expenditure. The government can always increase taxes, but how it spends it is more important. A recent headline says, 40% of the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is being siphoned off. This is the sad fact of India. Without good governance increasing the tax has no meaning.

A reply sent to Karmayog.

December 26,2009.

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How can the World Bank be useful to India?

The World Bank is a long-term funding agency and a lending agency at a low interest. It does not have any mandate to supervise how we spend the money. Since India does not have proper legislation to bring the politicians and the bureaucrats to account, public money is being wasted or misused. See the headlines in today's and yesterday's newspapers. Everybody is aware of Koda's Rs.2000 or 4000 crore scam. 

"Who sits on CVC corruption complaints ? Railways,Delhi Govt.top the list" says Indian Express (2/12/09). Last year the Central Vigilance Commission imposed 2649 penalties - the highest ever - on corrupt and errant Government officials. The CVC annual report tabled in Parliament remarks, "complete apathy" and " procrastination" by ministries and departments in processing these cases.

" PSU bank's NPAs since 2007 : Rs.25,000 crore" says Times of India (3/12/09).

Why do we want World Bank money. We have all the money in the world but we don't use it, but misuse it.

" Japan's PM to face political funding probe" says another headline in Today's Times of India. In Japan and other democratic countries nobody is above the law. Here in India politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen are above the law. Only peons and clerks are punished for corruption. How many politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen are behind the bars ?

All we want is good governance. We have to fight for it. World Bank cannot do anything about it. 

December 26,2009.

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Positive and negative developments in the Indian economy.

Karmayog, a website which promotes NGOs and reaches some 20,000 people had asked its readers for commnets on an article by Shri Subir Gokarn, who has been now appointed as one of the Deputy Governor of RBI, in the Business Standard on three positives and three negatives on Indian economy. I have sent the following response.  

Shri Subir Gokarn's views presented in the Business Standard are from the narrow perspective of the middle class. He said that there are three positives in the Indian Economy - massive increase in the economy's capacity to absorb shocks; economic developments do not depend on political developments;increase in the scope, depth and innovativeness of the private sector. The three negatives are : slow growth of the middle class; Indian economy is not yet an engine of growth in South Asia; growing mismatch between the demand on the state's resources and its capacity to deliver on them.  

Let us look from the perspective of a common man. How empowered is the common man today compared to his position a few decades ago.

The positives are :
Indians need not go to the ration shop to get food-grains;

middle class people can get their bike/cars off the shelf and need not wait for years;

almost 300 million people have a mobile and earlier phone was a luxury;

industrialists need not go to Delhi for every license and permit but of course they have to depend on the state governments for power,water,land etc which leads to conflict of interest ;

transport - air, bus and train- has improved but yet to get clean and decent airports, railway stations and bus stations.       

However, there are many negatives :

Almost 50 percent of the people in Mumbai and other cities live in slums;

There is water scarcity everywhere - cities, towns and villages; we have failed to use monsoon waters and harness our river waters

Village people are not empowered with health and education facilities and with employment avenues, and they come to cities and towns in search of work; 

Almost 60 percent of people depend on agriculture and agriculture contributes about 20 percent of GDP. That means 40 percent of people from cities and towns contribute 80 percent of GDP and there is vast gulf between cities and villages;

Agriculture is not remunerative and agriculturists have no knowledge of modern agriculture. They use more fertilizers, they use wrong seeds, they don't get credit at reasonable interest and commit suicide.

Focus should be on agriculture, empower village youth with education, not just literacy, but vocational education including modern agricultural knowledge. PURA - Providing urban facilities in rural areas - mooted by our former President Abdul Kalam should be adopted in all states. He has suggested knowledge connectivity (education), physical connectivity (roads) electronic connectivity (telecom) and economic connectivity (trade).

Lack of economic development in villages leads to Naxalite violence and slums in cities 

We cannot have island of prosperity in the midst of poverty.

November 23, 2009.

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Who are Rakshasas?

A friend sent me the following query:

Please see the attachment and there is a link in the attachment pointing to Rigveda, a PDF file. I also found 18 references to Rakshasas in Rigveda, and you can find them in the attachment. I wonder who are raksasas? Are they our ancestors who fought against the invading Aryans? The blood flowing in our veins belong to raksasas? Time has come to reread our history. Rigveda is the first Aryan Sanskrit book and the hyms filled with how they drank 'Soma' and destroyed raksasas. The Avestan literature(old Iranian) said the Rakshasa (Asura) warriors fought against the Aryan invaders. Deepavali is a celebration Krishana killing Narakasura ( asura) warrior. Are we celebarting the death of our own warriors because history was written by Aryan victors? Reading these hyms gives the impression that Rakshas were the Bagath Singhs of their time. Were they warriors of noble kind?

I sent him the following reply :

I have gone through the attachment and your views on our history. I am no expert on history or Vedas. Hymns could be allegories. If an European who does not understand the nuances of the language may translate it literally and deduce different meaning. It is said that dashavatara is nothing but evolution of man and even many stages of man's life - from the conception to death.

One thing that our history professor told us in the college and school was that Indians or Hindus have not kept a record of their past. However, there have been considerable literature in Sanskrit and in Pali on contemporary affairs of that time. There were visitors from China and from the Arab World.- Huensang, Ibn Batuta etc. Then came the Muslim invaders and their chroniclers.So when the British came there was a fertile field for them and other Europeans to write our history. We read our history written by the Europeans.

Sometime ago I read about the famous book, "Orientalism" by Edward Wadie Said, famous Palestinian author and English professor in the Columbia University, where he argues that the studies of Europeans on the Arab and Islamic people were tinged with their prejudices and had implicit justification for colonialism and imperialism. Much the same could be said about the our own history mostly written by V.A.Smith and others. Now after Independence, many Indians have started writing it from the Indian point of view.

One of the thesis of the British historians was about Aryan invasion of India. This has been disproved by B.B.Lal, DG (Retd), Archaelogical Survey of India, in his paper, Why Perpetuate Myths ? You can read his other paper, Let not the 19th Century paradigm continue to haunt us, a paper he read at the 19th International Conference on South Asian Archaelogy,University of Bologna in July,2-6,2007. This you can access by goggling B.B.Lal.

Hindus or Indians have never been exclusive but inclusive. They believe every one has a right to his belief and the worship.That is why so many deities are in India - village deities and weird customs. One of the English writers, Valentine Chirol says : " The supple and subtle forces of Hinduism had already in prehistoric times welded together the discordant beliefs and customs of a vast variety of races into a comprehensive fabric sufficiently elastic to shelter most of the indigenous populations of India, and suficiently rigid to secure the Aryan Hindu ascendancy." You see two things here - one of appreciation for inclusion and also his prejudice - Aryan Hindu ascendancy. Contrast this with how the Americans and the Spaniards have dealt with Native Americans - most have been exterminated and now some live in small enclaves. Pope when he visited South America apologized for the same.

The quote from Valentine Chirol is from the book, The Hindu View of Life by Dr.S.Radhakrishnana. It is slim book of 105 pages and explains Hinduism in a nut-shell. It is based on his Upton Lectures in 1926 at Manchester College,Oxford.

December 24,2009.

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Caste& Hinduism.

Caste & Hinduism.

 

Kancha Ilaiah, professor of political science in Osmania University and the author of the book, Why I am not a Hindu, has said in a interview with Subodh Varma of the Times of India ( December 4,2009)  that Hinduism is in a crisis facing a kind of civil war due to the stranglehold of varnashram ( caste system)  which keeps 750 million Hindus subjugated and humiliated.

 

The learned professor has identified caste with Hinduism though Hindu scriptures and Hindu thought always proclaimed that every individual is a spark of the Divine Flame. The varnashrama or the caste system is not central to Hindu religion but was just a division of labour which degenerated into water-tight compartment much like our political dynasties distorting our democracy. We have to get rid of the caste system in our society as it is prevalent among all religious communities in India.

 

Some of the great saints and savants of Hinduism are half-castes and hybrids, says Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, the great philosopher and our past President, in his book, Hindu View of Life." Vasistha was born of a prostitute, Vyasa of a fisher-woman, Parasara of a Candala girl. Conduct counts and not birth." 

 

Hindu way of life seem to be gaining more adherents abroad, specially in USA, where in a  recent article entitled, "We are all Hindus now", Lisa Miller of Newsweek writes that 65 percent of Americans believe in many paths to God, 24 percent believe in reincarnation and 33 percent like to be cremated like Hindus. Yoga and meditation are more popular in USA than in India. Essential concepts of Hinduism like dharma and  karma will survive the ravages of time and outdated institutions.

 

December 8,2009.

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