Are our MPs so jobless ?

I don't intend to point fingers at anybody or do any mudslinging but i do have this peculiar observation: I can't seem to digest that a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) can go for a month long hiatus, come back and still get involved full time with some other work for a long period of time.

It just makes me ask: "Are our MPs so jobless ?"

Specifically this is about Mr. Navjot Singh Sidhu (MP, Amritsar) who went on to a month long break for a Television reality show named Big Boss and even after coming out of it, he is busy with commentating duties for the India-England Cricket Series.

I understand that the Parliament session is to begin from 22nd but still is a incumbent Member of Parliament so free ? Aren't we still a developing country ? Isn't 30% of our people still below poverty line ?  Don't we see a outcry of hopelessness towards our country everyday ?

And all such questions make me feel that our leaders certainly can't be that jobless, on the contrary there is so much that they can do, a lifetime might seem less.

With a country like ours where there is so much scope of work, improvement in almost all areas, one expects his/her elected representative to devote his/her full time to the duties bestowed upon by the Constitution. And even if there is some free time one would expect our leaders and people with such high stature to actually work, take some initiatives for the betterment of the people, their constituencies, and society in general.

Getting elected to such a high office certainly comes with a lot of responsibilities and power, but more importantly it gives them a big platform to do all they can for the best of our country. And taking such "breaks" doesn't seem to do our country any better.

Going Hi-Tech are we?

This post refers to the recent Mobile Application launch by the Gujarat wing of Congress for poll publicity in Gujarat.

Considering the soon to be held elections, the Gujarat chapter of Congress has launched a mobile application for Android, Blackberry, I phone etc etc. And even though i appreciate their efforts to be getting technologically advanced, but the question is: who is the target ?

In a country like ours, where we have more than 30 percent people below poverty line, more than 60 percent not even earning 2 dollars a day, how many people actually have these smart phones ? The rich and elite who already have access to all sorts of media and don't necessarily need a mobile application to tell them about party agendas.

This also reflects one of the biggest problems of our society today : the gross Inequality especially in economic scales.

And instead of putting resources for pleasing the elite, wherever possible more and more efforts should be placed to get the economically weak sections to catch up with the others (irrespective of their caste, creed or religion).

Autonomy of the CBI ?

Is CBI, the premier investigating police agency of our country being used & manipulated for Political gains ?

This is the allegation being put on the CBI and the current government by the prime opposition parties (BJP & group)  and the social activists. The claim being that the SP & BSP are only supporting this government because the government is threatening them with CBI cases. And various cases are being downplayed and even closed for political gains. These are the claims and allegations of even the senior most leaders of the BJP.

However my question is : BJP was the ruling party from 1998-2004 and if they claim that the ruling party has undue influences over the CBI and it works according to the wimps and fancies of the ruling politicians,  then did they not see/do that during the time they were in the Government ? and even if they themselves (as they claim) didn't do anything like that but still knew that such abuse is possible then why didn't they make the CBI much more autonomous, something like the Election Commission or the Judiciary ?

And even if they have just noticed the problem now, the Agenda No. 1 in their election manifesto for the 2014 elections should be "making the CBI autonomous" ! and if not done so will only mean that they want to do the same thing they are alleging the government to be doing right now.

Fear is good !

Without going much into the details of the various corruption and other charges leveled against the big ministers, politicians and prominent people, this post refers to the 'Aura' of corruption created nowadays and its consequences.

During the past few days there have been numerous allegations against many people be it politicians, bureaucrats, social activists etc. and there have been many "media trials" going on 24*7 with people from all the involved sections defending themselves and accusing others.

I might not agree with these things being almost put to trial in the media instead of the proper judicial system, or even the fact that some people just want to gain some political points or play the politics of perception. But instead of all that i can see a merit in these.

With the sudden burst of all these corruption cases and their trials being held so openly in public domains, and with people digging out something almost out of nothing, what is being created is a 'fear' - fear of getting caught.

and this fear is good ! it is good for our society and our Nation.

With such rampant vigilance and the fear of being caught, people will refrain from getting involved in corrupt practices and quid pro quo(s).  The Right to Information act, the media and the social activists have been and will continue to play a major role in this direction.

And in a country like ours where we have huge amounts of corruption almost everywhere and public policies never actually reaching out to the target people this is the "need" of the hour.

However as our Hon. Prime Minister pointed out as well that a fine balance is required to be maintaied between RTI and personal privacy, similarly huge amount of care (proper proofs & evidences) needs to be taken before such public allegations and charges.

Subsidies & Reservations ?

This post is about the most sensitive topics of India Politics - Subsidies & Reservations. Recently we saw the hike in diesel prices & a cap in the number of subsidized LPG cylinder (i.e. cutting the subsidies on them by the Central Government) and a huge uproar went around and we are seeing mass protests and bandhs till date. The justification for such protests is that the middle and lower class (stratification on the basis of Income) of our society can't just afford a hike.

Whereas the upper-middle and upper classes don't mind about a cut because even when they can afford it very comfortably they are still enjoying a huge subsidy.

For e.g. before the hike the government was providing a subsidy of almost Rs 17 per litre on Diesel (as mentioned by the Hon. Prime Minister in his address to the Nation) and after the hike it is still more than Rs. 10 per litre to everybody irrespective of the fact whether you are a rich SUV owner or a poor tempo driver.

And this screams a question : Why are we giving subsidies to people who don't need it ? and as a consequence of that we have to cut the overall subsidies and make life much more difficult for the overly burdened poor people.

Shouldn't we try to move towards an economical way of giving subsidies i.e. people with a certain level of income don't get any subsidy and people below that level get a subsidy.

Such a move will not only help our poor and will be step in the way to decrease the huge gap between the rich and the poor in our country. I can understand that implementing this in a country as big and diverse as ours will be a very difficult task but we have to move towards it.

One possible way i can see for this would be to use our Unique Identification card Aadhar when it is fully distributed and functional. We can link the income levels of a person/family with his/her unique identity and that will determine whether they will get a subsidy or not.

I understand that this is being very ambitious but such ambitious aims on the one hand might take a long and hard time for implementation but will prove to reform our country for the better on the other.

Similarly for the reservations we have in all sorts of things be it higher education, government jobs and now even the recently talked about reservations in promotions in government jobs etc. Reservations are from the time of our Independence and are aimed at giving opportunities to the weaker classes to come up but everyday we see huge misuse of these reservations. We can easily see well off people belonging to weaker classes who don't necessarily need any reservations taking advantage of such reservations and in turn causing the policy to never reach the actually needy people (despite measures like creamy layer etc). Also nowadays we have all sorts of people in need in almost all sections and types of classes, so how do we take care of them ?

Again i think time has come & we have to think about handling reservations in a economical way rather than on the basis of caste etc.

And as evident above, I truly believe that our upcoming Unique Identity card has huge potential to support & facilitate such Institutional changes in our country (maybe another post in the future)

Coalition Dharma ?

Even though i personally might not agree with the way UPA coalition parties like TMC, BSP start giving ultimatums to the Government and block major reforms but I appreciate the fact that they stand by their principles and ideologies irrespective of something called "Coalition Dharma"

They feel something is done wrong, they oppose - as simple as that ! 

However on the other hand, recently on the issue of the CAG report of Coal Blocks allocation & subsequently BJP blocking the functioning of the Parliament. BJP was adamant on "NO Debate" and constantly kept asking for the Prime Minister's resignation and thereby completely ruining the Monsoon Session of the Parliament.

And on this very issue, one of the leaders Mr. Sharad Yadav of JDU (one of the Coalition party in NDA) gave a statement that even though they are in favour of a "Debate" and Functioning of the Parliament but since they are in the NDA coalition, so going by their "Coalition Dharma" they'll oppose it as well.

How illogical, undemocratic & materialistic is that ?

Even if you believe in A, but your coalition and the bigger party believes in B, so you'll blindly support B irrespective of what you think is better in terms of National interest. This is just ridiculous and makes a complete mockery of the principles and ideologies the political party claims to have.

Pure & Simple Vote Bank Politics !

This post refers to the Hike in the Diesel Prices (by Rs 5) and Capping of the subsidized LPG cylinders to 6 per family per year and the followed criticism by BJP & TMC.

Let's first look into why this rise was necessary ? The diesel prices haven't been increased for more than a year and the international crude oil prices have been souring up, to add to that rupee has gone significantly weaker in comparison to the dollar making the imports much more costlier. And as a result of all this, the oil companies are facing huge losses which are covered by the Government in the form of subsidies.

However the amount allocated for subsidies this year has already been used up, the fiscal deficit is rising & the economy is in a very difficult situation. The subsidies almost amount to more than 2% percent of the GDP which is way too high. If no steps were to be taken, we'll be no where near the target fiscal deficit of 5.1% of the GDP. Even more the investment sentiments would keep dipping down and India would have been in a high risk of a "Downgrading" by the rating agencies which would have meant much more fatal to our economy.

All the economic experts view this as a very essential move especially in the current economic environment.

And i agree that this will mean more inflation and more monetary problems for the middle and lower classes of our country but this is the price to be paid to avoid a much bigger economic mess.

And now after the price rise, the BJP & the TMC (maybe others as well but i've seen specific comments from Mr. Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) & Ms. Mamata Banerjee (TMC)) opposing & condemning the rise and asking for a roll back.

And I believe this is just Pure & Simple Vote Bank Politics ! Don't they realize that this is very much needed for our economy and we will be in a much bigger mess in the future if no action is taken. And if at all they have any another solution for the problem, why don't they suggest that. But no, they'll just oppose the hike and gain points with the people.

BJP on the one hand criticizes the Government for not taking tough decisions and on the other hand criticizes those tough decisions  once they come in. As a opposition party one doesn't necessarily have to oppose each and every move of the Government irrespective of whether it's right or wrong for the country.
 
We should realize that becoming leaders is more about working for the betterment of the Nation and not just trying to win points for next elections every time one gets a chance.