The Dichotomy in Running the Last Lap

The article was originally featured in PGurus.com

Punjab's War on Drugs (Part 2): Resurrecting India's First Line of Defense for Narcotics

This article was originally featured in PGurus.com (English and Hindi)

Punjab's War on Drugs (Part 1): Where the Crisis Finds its Genesis

This article was originally featured in PGurus.com (English and Hindi)

Modi's Simultaneous Election Initiative is an Outdated Concept

The article originally featured in PGurus.com

You Cannot Just Pick and Choose your Swamy!

This article originally appeared on PGurus.com

Are Indirect Taxes Unfair and Regressive?

The article originally appeared on PGurus.com

Some highlights:
1) The article is an attempt to debunk the idea that indirect taxes are unfair and regressive. A case is made both on a matter of principle and on a matter of a mathematical construct.
2) The article focuses on the taxes from a lens of prosperity and consumption and not merely the annual income.
3) The article lays a foundation for making a case to abolish individual income tax as it pertains to India by providing a comparative study of individual income taxes across 5 major economies.
4) In conclusion, the article provides a few alternatives to make up for the loss in revenue which come as a result abolishing individual income tax. 

Is Hope Helping Hindustan?

The Article originally appeared in PGurus.com on Feb 06, 2018

Some highlights here:

"Bereft of strong leaders yet servile as ever - this is a paradoxical reality which Hindustanis face today..."

"... An expectation, the fulfillment of which is a result of a natural progression of a (developing) nation and not of a valorous act..."

"...We believe our servility is a necessary antecedent for there to transpire an avatar in the subsequent..."

"... What the common man used Congress as yesterday, is compelled to use BJP as today - TINA (There Is No Alternative)..."

Chicago Welcomes Dr. Swamy - Press Release

The Article Originally appeared in IndiaPost.com.

CHICAGO: A group of Indian Americans led by Prasad Yalamanchi and Ajay Jain hosted a reception early this month in honor of Indian parliamentarian Dr. Subramanian Swamy (PhD Economics – Harvard) at Hanuman Mandir in Glenview. It was attended by a large number of Chicago elite, admires and guests.

Dr. Swamy, who was on a 14 day tour of the United States, addressed a large gathering on various issues revolving around the health of the Indian economy, the vision of the Bhartiya Janata Party, his fight against corruption and the relevance of Hindu identity.

Ajay Jain and Sudha Yalamanchi, the program coordinators for the afternoon, welcomed all the speakers and enumerated the rules of engagement for the audience. Prior to the commencement of the event, Ajay Jain called for one-minute silence in the memory of late Narain Kataria, the pioneer of the Hindu unity movement in the USA.

Dr. Swamy was welcomed by the chairman of GHHF, Prasad Yalamanchi, who narrated his personal experiences with Dr Swamy’s tireless efforts as an anti-graft crusader and an upholder of democracy during the 1977 National Emergency.

Dr. Swamy, who is a six- time member of Parliament, expressed his views on how leading macro-economic practices can be embraced by India in order to advance in its quest for becoming a global superpower. Speaking from his personal experience as a former minister of commerce and industry, he listed some looming economic, political, and social threats that await India and offered targeted measures to thwart them.

He touched upon the history of oppression that Hindus had to endure through foreign invasions and how the same challenges have come to haunt India in the form of seemingly innocuous yet conspicuously pernicious demographic shifts.

A former professor of economics at Harvard, the articulate Dr. Swamy received overwhelming applause and ovation throughout his hour long speech.

His analyses on the interplay of Hinduism and modern society was well received by all sections of the 500+ members of the audience. The former minister of law and justice reassured the Indian community that he will continue to fight for the best interests of the nation and will strive to accelerate the proceedings of longstanding high-profile cases like National Herald, Ram Janmabhumi in Ayodhya, Sunanda Pushkar, etc. Dr. Swamy particularly emphasized the urgency of repealing the archaic and regressive Hindu Endowment Act.

S. Vemuri, former national president of OFBJP, who lead the Q and A session, noted that a flood of questions kept pouring in from the audience throughout the afternoon. In his final remarks, Prasad Yalamanchi thanked not only the guest of honor, Dr. Swamy, but also the large group of supporting organizations, speakers, and volunteers who made the event possible.

Rishikesh Muchhala & Madhu Patel

A case against UBI – Rejecting its premise and promise!

Today, the world is witnessing jobless growth primarily due to Automation and Artificial Intelligence. Advancement in technology is set to antiquate low-level jobs, potentially causing millions of poor low-skilled laborers to lose their livelihood in the medium term. The world runs a risk of perpetually widening the already seemingly irrecoverable gap between the rich and the poor. According to recent studies by Oxfam and Forbes, the richest 60-80 individuals on earth own wealth equivalent to the bottom 50% of the world’s population! In such a situation, how do you expect one to think about higher education and healthcare when availing even the most basic necessities is a growing challenge?

Advancement in technology has led to large scale job displacement since ages. While this problem isn’t new, the dynamic today is very interesting. Up until yesterday, big businesses and conglomerates (read ‘right wing capitalists’) were held responsible for the growing divide between the rich and the poor. The rise in IT (read ‘Silicon Valley’) and the disruptions that it brought along in various industries was hailed as a populist rebellion against the established cruel big businesses. Today Silicon Valley, majorly a bunch of left wing Democrats, lays claim over individual liberty, social inclusion, and charity. But if you observe, the list of the richest individuals on earth is in fact dominated by these very same cool and benevolent IT dudes! Very interesting! Who will the socialists demonize now? Their own people on the left??

For an already failing left-wing campaign, as the recent global phenomena like Modi, Brexit, Trump and others attest, this left vs left implosion will be the final nail in the left-wing campaign’s coffin. So what are they doing about it? From whatever’s left of the left, they came up with UBI!

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a socialist idea where the government provides a certain amount of basic income to all or some of its citizens. It is an idea that seeks to alleviate poverty and provide for at least the basic living standards to the poorest of the poor in the society. The proponents of UBI hold the view that governments should discontinue poorly managed social security schemes and redirect the funds towards UBI. It is a cause so noble, that no pious a person should protest against it. Well, not really J

UBI is the most demeaning of all policies. It is the rich telling the poor low-skilled laborers that your services and your contributions to the society are no longer needed. But, here, take some pennies and don’t come out on the streets please. We are essentially buying you off for not being able to keep up with the markets!

UBI is worse than cheap capital. We saw in 2008 what happens when you provide interest free loans and easy money to the lower income group. UBI is worse than that. Cheap loans, in theory, was an instrument to create an environment for the poor to flourish. This instrument made risk taking easier and capital freely available, providing everyone with an opportunity to succeed. Yet if someone did fail, they still had to own it up and forfeit whatever they had got from the banks. On the other hand, UBI is an instrument which is a direct transfer of prosperity which will come at the cost of other social schemes and no real focus on the creation of a conducive environment. There will be no sense of responsibility, achievement, or even ownership of the benefits received by the poor and unemployed in the case of UBI.

UBI is tangential to a unified societal direction. If the society identifies a shortcoming or a looming threat, the society must take targeted actions and collectively provide direction to the one’s at risk. Today, if job losses due to antiquated skill-sets is the challenge, then the society must take targeted actions towards providing for skill development, training, and education. If my skills of yesterday are irrelevant today, and if you really want to help me, do something to again make me relevant tomorrow. UBI will not make me relevant tomorrow. If you give me UBI directly, you will lose control over what I do with your money.

UBI is an affront to one’s individuality. Working and earning gives one a sense of identity, dignity, purpose, and contribution. Civilized society should constantly strive towards offering equal opportunity to everyone and not equal wealth. After all, at the end of the day we become who we are because of the choices we make. Even in your personal lives, there are individuals around you who began their journey with you but financially did poorly in life. Of course, both, their choices and circumstances were together responsible for the end result. But the point is tomorrow, if someone were to say that they will get an income from the government commensurate to your salary, you will not like it, and neither will they, especially if they failed owing to their circumstances and not choices! Swaabhimaan!

UBI will be reduced to a political gimmick. Where will this all end? Today the NITI Aayog in India is actively considering UBI. Given the political realities of India, even if UBI is implemented, there will be a huge debate just to bring about an agreement on the list of beneficiaries. Who should really be the beneficiaries? The unemployed? Underemployed? Backward castes? Below Poverty Lines? Religious groups? As if we Indians really knew who is earning how much, who was proselytized when and why, and who has what kind of employment! Going a step further, my biggest fear is that UBI will be such a strong instrument, which any politician can misuse. Secondly, UBI is also an instrument which the beneficiaries themselves will misuse by misreporting their backgrounds. Everybody will want at least some share of the pie.

I have no reason to not believe that the word ‘universal’ in UBI will be meaningless in India’s version of the instrument. Due to the evil of ‘vote-bank politics’, different categories of citizens will receive different amount of benefits. Some will have less privileges, and some more – not for reasons fair and just, but purely for political reasons. The other challenge and potential area of misuse will come from the debate on deciding the actual ‘amounts’. These amounts will end up being revised every election cycle and will never remain constant. These revisions will be made in the name of adjustments due to inflation.

In conclusion, UBI as a concept may still make sense in developed nations where, one, the percentage of beneficiaries is a small number. Two, the beneficiaries are more likely to be well informed and aware. And three, there are less chances of the whole system going bust due to corruption. Yet, recently we saw Switzerland reject UBI in a referendum and Finland essentially has approved for just a 2 year pilot project. 

A developing country like India is not prepared for UBI, because one, there already is a huge load on taxpayers. Two, by now you do have a hunch of how the 2^nd generation of beneficiaries and beyond will misuse UBI, just how they did with the quota system. Once implemented, nobody will be able to undo UBI, even if it failed miserably! And most importantly, the country already suffers greatly today due to a sense of entitlement within certain sections of the society! They behave as if the fellow Indians owe them for being born - where they think their wants, aspirations, and rights take precedence over their own duties and others’ rights!

Modi and Downhill - A Masterstroke in Futility

        Over the years Modi-bhakts have been relentless to the point where they ridicule any accusation made by the opposition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi being too authoritarian in his approach. Even today as his on-going poorly executed demonetization scheme is causing millions of Indians difficulties, his call for nationalism resonates with majority of Modi-bhakts. The idea - that you will be hailed for your gallantry if you stand in a queue outside ATMs and banks doing mala-japa (name chanting) of Modi and that you will be remembered as a martyr for eons to come if you die in one. On the other hand, if you oppose the demonetization scheme, you have black money! - is a conspicuous con job. This propagation of overly-frenetic jingoism will dearly cost both Modi and India. His is another of the many cases in history where a sane right-winger, in the name of nationalism, develops authoritarian tendencies which snowballs by his own success, only to bloat to an extent where even his once-upon-a-time staunch supporters and close allies repent for not restraining him when the time was right.

        In 2.5 short years in his office, Modi took enough strides that all previous Prime Ministers could not even imagine to take, cumulatively! Given his goodwill and credibility, he had more than just three strikes before being declared out. But regarding his demonetization scheme - what for some is a 'historic masterstroke' is an 'exercise in futility' for others. Here is why - 

        Demonetization primarily seeks to purge India of two evils 1) fake currency and terror funding, and 2) black money / tax evasion.

        For the evil of fake currency and terror funding through fake currency, demonetization has successfully bought India essentially 6 months of time (kudos!) before these hostile foreign forces start producing new fake notes. Demonetization, a one-time event, neither has the ability to hunt down these external perpetrators (who print fake money and fund terrorism) and bring them to justice nor does it have the ability to enlighten the terrorists and eliminate the very school of thought. Demonetization also is not a foreign policy change which will bring about a compromise to any of the bickering issues with our hostile neighbors and some agitating insiders. This means before you go around celebrating peace in Kashmir in the last few days, realize that this is just a temporary phenomenon and demonetization cannot and will not solve the underlying issues! Let alone the important questions - how much fake currency is floating around anyway? Are we seriously saying that moving forward we intend to fight terrorism passively like this?

        For the evil of black money and tax evasion, I want to discuss a factor less discussed otherwise - the reversal of burden of proof. 

        I count with borrowed fingers the number of times Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government is not able to act against the 800 odd individuals (whose names have been acquired from disparate foreign entities and tax havens) because it takes time to build up a case and gather evidence, and that there is a procedure that governments must follow lest the foreign entities will stop cooperating. Critiques have also raised questions as to why is it that Income Tax or CBI raids can't be conducted on these 800 odd individuals (who belong to the ultra-influential super league) based on prima facie evidence? But Jaitley, being the lawyer that he is, always maintained that there are various legal complexities and challenges in taking that route. 

        What was yesterday the prerogative of the government of building a case, is today made a compulsion for all citizens. Throughout these yesterdays, the government said it was difficult for them to prove the super league black money owners guilty. But today that same government's logic is that all regular citizens should queue up to prove their innocence. Why can't this be reversed where these super leagues are forced to prove their innocence based on prima facie evidence? Do you really think putting the onus on 1.3 billion citizens, 98% of whom have no black money and of the 2% who do have black money, it is safe to assume that 80% are mere tax evaders (out of systemic loopholes) and remaining 20% have criminal intent of smuggling, corruption, etc., is the best method?

        Regardless, let us focus on how much of the 'black money' can this scheme actually recover. Black money is but a combination of all illegitimate assets both liquid and fixed. As we see in the matrix below, there are four ways how an individual can possess illegitimate assets. Non-INR (Indian National Rupee) assets include gold, property, other currencies, etc. By definition, demonetization can do nothing about the non-INR assets (red boxes). Demonetization can only invalidate INR if not exchanged for new currency notes in the given time-frame. Estimates suggest that INR - black money is only 6% of all the black money. How much will the country have to go through in terms of 1st order, 2nd order, etc. negative cascading effects in the economy and lost opportunities / reduction in national output for this? RIP ROI!

        Further, before the elections Modi made 2 promises - I will bring back black money into the mainstream economy because this money belongs to the nation and I will catch hold of all these super league thugs. As it turns out, Modi decided to take the third route - I will not target the super league, I will not even bring back the black money! Rather, I will impoverish all thugs by invalidating their black money.

        Say Mr. X has INR 1000 of black money. If Mr. X decides that he does not want to exchange his INR with new currency notes (because his INR black money is anyway close to only 6% of all his black money), this INR 1000 which Modi said belonged to the nation, just vanished! While this is a simplistic case, give it a thought. This INR 1000 was once legitimate output of some activity in our nation and this step instead of bringing it back, threatens to invalidate it. National losses anyone?

        In this piece, I have not even touched upon the poor execution strategy, government's investments into executing this whole fiasco, number of lives lost (even 1 life lost is 1 life lost too many), and the challenges that cash dependent sectors like agriculture, fisheries, transport, daily wagers, etc. have experienced. Our nation was not ready to go in this direction and sustain so much disruption. If you really were open to having such disruptions in just 2.5 years, Dr. Subramanian Swamy was a better choice any day! While Modi’s intent is right, given the timing and the execution of this scheme, it clearly was not a decision taken through due consultation and was definitely not a masterstroke! 

        Of course it is too late to repeal it! Of course Modi will showcase some histrionics on January 1st 2017 and declare victory! Of course this scheme will deter potential defaulters (any other scheme would have done that too)! Of course they will come up with all kinds statistics - 92 % of people are okay with the inconvenience! (A sample set of 5 lakh Modi-bhakts who have Narendra Modi App on their smartphones, in a nation of 1.3 billion people); thousands of crores of rupees have now entered into the banking system (as if people had an option, and let us see how much of that stays in the banks after January 1st, 2017).

        As a nation, we can either choose to ludicrously do a disservice to our PM (out of ignorance or cowardice) and go downhill in excessive nationalism, or we can choose to ask ourselves a very touching question - the soldiers stand on the border in all circumstances for years and can't we even properly execute one sane monetary decision?

Choosing our Heroes of Tomorrow

        It was one of those evenings when I called it a day at 8:20 PM. Given that so much had happened in India (the country where I am from) and United States (the country where I currently reside) in the past few hours, I needed some time to gather myself, to relax under dim lights with my phone set aside, to feel the silence on a cold evening, to take a step back, and ponder.

        I could draw numerous parallels between the Indian general elections of 2014 and the US presidential elections of 2016. The left leaning party held the highest office for 2 terms; through a leader (LLP - leader of the left party) who was a first from his race - a Sikh Dr. Manmohan Singh and a black Barack Obama. A weird case where people loved the LLP as an individual - a family man who was intelligent, highly qualified, and clean; a nice man who was merely incompetent as a premier. Yet, there was a strong vibe of anti-incumbency, because nothing seemed right about the state of the nation within and the looming threats from the outside. The left leaning party's current standard bearer was a woman (Sonia Gandhi and Hillary Clinton), whose husband was once the premier of the very same nation. This woman was looked as someone who had been in politics long enough to have known the game, the rules, and the cheats. The woman, sadly, was not destined to have her husband all by herself in her lifetime, for disparate reasons of course. The woman, sadly, was also accused to have had involvement in the biggest of the scandals in her nation.

        The right leaning party then brought a leader (LRP - leader of the right party) from nowhere, who went on to win the election. The LRP was hated by the mainstream media to begin with. The elevation of this LRP was not taken well by their own party allies - Nitish Kumar and co. for the NDA and the various Republicans for the GOP. Other party veterans too had had to be cajoled into endorsing the LRP, because that seemed to be the need of the hour. The political power centers dug as deep as they could to uncover facts and secrets about this LRP. There arose questions about the LRP's significant other. The media questioned and doubted - did the LRP really create something as awesome as he claims he did in the previous position he held? Or is he making it sound grandiose in his speeches just to gain some public eye? The media took pride in being able to obtain testimonials of individuals who claimed to have lost everything they owned and had because of the LRP's previous position and actions. As the weeks went passed, the media labelled the LRP as a human rights violator, a perpetrator and abettor of numerous ghastly crimes and as someone who managed to conceal the truth through his might!

        I realize that the parallels that I drew omit the uniqueness of all these personalities. I also realize that these individuals themselves are really really really different people. I only wish to highlight the sheer arrogance of the mainstream media and their modus operandi here. The three major world events in the last two years - Narendra Modi becoming the Indian Prime Minister, Britain's decision to vote leave, and The Donald becoming the POTUS-elect were predicted only and only contrarily to what actually eventuated (which curiously happened to be favoring the left in all three instances BTW) by the mainstream media. There are two possibilities here - either they genuinely did not know what the people felt, or they knew and were hence trying harder to condition the minds of their consumers by their own endeared delusions. Media should ideally be taking in what they saw as is, and ideally be distributing what they took in as was. If that is true, how could they have not known?

        Before I lose any of my readers here, let me put in a disclaimer - I do not wish to tangentially rant on about the insatiable desires of the media and their supposed reach that their arrogance finds genesis in. I also do not wish to discuss the dichotomy and righteousness of right and left - there are good and bad things about both. Today, I ponder upon how will we choose our heroes of tomorrow if this is what is the current state of how and what gets fed into our brains? Where will we get the realities from? What would we base and not base our decisions upon?

        Think about it. Two decades from now we will have candidates who would have had social media presence since they were fifteen or seven or soiling themselves. Imagine the kind of images, videos, and statements that we would uncover about them then, that they once had themselves willingly made public. Imagine the extent of micro-aggression that can be induced upon these candidates by ways of memes and trolls which are majority of the times half-truths and irritating manipulations. The targets of these memes and trolls are not limited to political figures. Imagine what we would discuss on public forums tomorrow about candidates if today is what is the nadir for many consumers to be able to take! The way I see it, I don't see it in any election interminably which won't make us choose that candidate which is the least of all the evils. The world moving ahead will only and only have evils as candidates / celebrities.

        Today the media, as we have now established, has leaned so far left that more than of propaganda, theirs seems to be a strategy of denial - a contagious disease so unrelenting that it obviously would take nothing but bitter to antidote, and reason alone would obviously not suffice. I look at them more as diseased and less as propagandists. And here is the catch - what will the mainstream media and the diseased, now that they are unveiled, do next to contaminate our minds and systematically condition us and preoccupy us?

         Brand managers and social media influencers, and NOT the mainstream media are our biggest threats going forward. The new challenge will come from both the troll makers supposedly leaning left and working for the left and the troll makers supposedly leaning right and working for the (pay attention here) left. There will be media persons and celebrities who will develop belated wisdom and try to keep themselves in good books with the new power centers like twitterati and the right. Beware of them! While the mainstream media and the mainstream supposed prime-time funny-men have lost relevance and have imploded in their own slander-propagation, there still are forces which will try to contaminate by their mere presence any new platform that most neutrals, truth-seekers, and rationals adopt and look up to.

        The future ain't what they said it would be!

Chai(wala)nomics vs Dosanomics - the grand tug of war!

        Saturday, 18th June 2016 – the day when chai(wala)nomics subjugated dosanomics – a recurring phenomenon that found its first manifestation on 16th May 2014 – the day the Narendra Modi led NDA government came to power. There are some, well read and meritorious included, who are yet to come to terms with this. How and why on occasion after occasion chai(wala)nomics continues to subjugate innumerous such dosanomics’ in India are questions that baffle many an elite and a common man alike. So here is a tale of the grand tug-of-war among the four most important individuals in this game, their wins, and their losses.

        The tug-of-war, long overdue, has begun only to get uglier. It is convoluted because though everyone seems to be pulling and pulling hard, nobody knows where to. In one corner we have the once upon a time tea-seller (chaiwala) turned now full time Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. In corner two, we have the virtual number two in NDA, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. In corner three, the man of the moment Dr. Raghuram Rajan, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) who announced on 18th June that he will not seek a second term. Lastly, in corner four, the unguided missile (as they call him) and the big time anti-graft crusader Dr. Subramanian Swamy.

PART ONE OF TWO: WHY REXIT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN.

        There is a reason why bureaucrats of high standing fail to get (forget get into) politics. Their solutions are limited by their reach and not their intellect. It is their reach and position which prevent them from looking at the bigger picture and the greater good. Dr. Rajan, as dynamic as he is, while taking a stab at the new world order failed to gauge the new India order post May 2014. What he did during the UPA regime was well timed and apt. But the problems that the majority of the Indians identified with this country that the NDA promised to solve had nothing to do with monetary policy and the ancillary institutions. A tight monetary policy to induce stability and discipline in the market was desirable under the incapable and scam laden UPA/Congress government. But these very policies proved to be impediments under the new and popular Modi government.

        Dr. Rajan, in his defense (or offense, if you see it that way), would attribute majority of his decisions to one of these three – crony capitalism, current account deficit and forex reserves (in the first half of his term at least), and of course inflation. For crony capitalism: How much has he been able to achieve as a governor of RBI to stop the phone calls from Delhi from getting loans passed? How much of an influence has he been in terms of getting the inefficient and corrupt bosses/babus fired from public sector banks? How many willful defaulters has he been able to bring to justice in his capacity as the RBI governor? Logic tells me that the ones mentioned above are the prerogatives of the government and not the governor.

        For current account deficit and forex reserves: The only meaningful way how monetary policy can help diminish CAD is by devaluing currency to decrease the cost of exports. Nobody in their right minds is a proponent of currency devaluation in India. Other important factors, which Dr. Rajan clearly has no control over but the government does, include anti-dumping measures, FDI, and some fiscal stimulus (i.e. increase in government spending and/or reduction in taxes). Secondly, thank god that unlike Congress the Modi government did not participate in appeasement politics by immediately transferring the benefits of the savings from plummeting oil (that India has traditionally had a huge appetite for being one of the biggest importers) prices to the consumers. The government chose to divert the benefits to other indirect measures like CAD, forex reserves, and infrastructure investment. Needless to say, an immediate transfer of benefits would have led to nation-wide and multi-sector price disruptions and would have followed by knee-jerk responses from the market, all proving counter-productive from stability standpoint.

        For inflation: The problem starts when the magician starts believing in his own tricks. I am wondering why nobody is talking about the significance of sharp global decline in commodity prices on declining Indian inflation. And inflation is one issue that I personally do not understand. Modi government has cheated this country because prices of aloo-tamatar-daal (potato-tomato-pulses) are still high but Dr. Rajan is the great savior because he controlled inflation? If I were Rajan, I would know it is time to take it easy and be an enabler to the finance minister because mehengayi, rozgaari, beti-ki-shaadi, nal-me-paani, etc., ever since Modi came to power, were anyway going to be his problems and not his.

        But then he is Dr. Raghuram Rajan and he does what he does (as he famously claimed on Sept 29, 2015). But also then there are other things that he does that tend to get him into trouble. I did not want this blog to be a rant against him, because after all he took the right decision in the end; that while he deserves a goodbye, he deserves a good good-bye. But his is a classic case reemphasizing the importance of having your nose and mouth at the right place along with your heart. The man who claims to be in love to be in the realm of ideas ironically and eloquently has been repudiating countless Modi government initiatives like Make in India. His view reduces to his belief that all Modi is seeking is to clone the Chinese model. Again, it is not Rajan’s intellect but his reach that abandoned him. While being aware of the implausibility of the success of such a replication, had that been the case in the very first place, he turned parochial towards the bigger issues that Modi targeted like job creation, reverse brain-drain, foreign investment enticement, technology and knowledge exchange, along with ever increasing self-reliance, which ultimately lead to his decadence.

        Though people think it is Rajan’s supposed strength and resistance to pressure that make him more enemies, I hold it is his sugar-coated oratory and a facile comportment that make him more friends –friends who target Modi placing a gun on his shoulder.

       EDIT (July 06, 2016) - Dr. Rajan is welcome as a public intellectual and critic. In our country, India, we welcome difference of opinion and encourage debate. I, by no means, intend to encroach upon anyone's freedom of speech. My contentions, broadly, are two - 1) Don't mislead the people by trying to project yourself as a hero for something that you in your capacity never could have accomplished. 2) Have a sense of the chair that you occupy and know that there are times when you are much more than your thoughts and speech. You represent some entity and your words and are not taken as your alone but that of the very institution that you are a part of and are employed by. If you violate this unwritten rule and choose to take jibes at others in public forums out of your self-righteousness, be rest assured the same will happen to you. It is natural that Digvijay Singh and Arvind Kejriwal get treated differently than Dr. Manmohan Singh and Dr. Shashi Tharoor. India, after all, taught the world the concept of Karma!

      The takeaway: being oblivious to the fact that there is only so much that monetary policy can do as a growth propellant as compared to fiscal policy, can result in something of Dr. Subramanian Swamy style and magnitude happen to you, especially if you are the RBI governor.

(PART TWO, COMING SOON)

P.S.: I dedicate this piece to my elder brother Chirag Bharat Muchhala. Copying your ideas and presenting them as mine is my birthright!

US Democrats, get this straight!

Original article: 29th  January, 2016 | Revised : 24th February, 2016

        ‘Your three main priorities during the first 100 days?’ was the first question to the Democratic Presidential candidates on January 17th 2016. ‘To defeat ISIS’ said none! Not O’Malley, not Clinton, not Sanders. This fact alone killed all my eagerness while watching the Democratic debate as I knew what was to come. We already are bored of the same old rhetoric – increase income for middle class, Glass Steagall, equal pay for women, climate change, healthcare, faulty campaign finance system, Trump, Trump, and Trump.

        But yesterday, 15 minutes into the Republican debate, Marco Rubio was the first to utter the word ‘ISIS’, and the issue of foreign policy pretty much was the central theme of the whole debate thereafter, as it should have been!

        Every election has a premise. The premise becomes increasingly more obvious only as the primary reaches conclusion. But this time is special. The premise that should be chosen is out there in the open, in bright sunshine, all alone, quite obvious, and up for grabs. No matter who you are – Democrat or Republican – you will sway towards the candidate who grabs that premise. But why aren’t the Democrats grabbing it?

        More than it being a matter of pride for the United States citizens, it is a moral responsibility (being the wealthiest country and biggest democracy in the world) of the POTUS (President Of The United States) to take steps towards making this world a better place to live in – a responsibility, sadly, many of the candidates either are not qualified to or are not willing to take. It will send out a very negative message to the world if the next POTUS says, ‘We have learnt from our past mistakes and we will no longer work as the world’s police because it was never our job.’

        Every time a candidate plays this card, I see that as an insult. An insult to everything what the generations before stood up for. Those were the days when the POTUS Ronald Raegan declared that US is the country best positioned to promote peace, not because of its tolerance but because of its strength. A strength that they then took pride in. A strength that brought down the Berlin wall. A strength that stood up against colonialism, communism, and sheer filthy cannibalism in the name of government. Never will we be able to comprehend the number of wars that the world averted because of the US leadership. It is a shame that a few tactical errors in the recent past made the US rethink its whole stance.

        And what are we discussing during the ‘foreign policy’ segment of the Democratic debates? Whether it is ethical to call it ‘radical/jihadi/Islamic terrorism’ or not. Whether you call it ‘ground forces’ or ‘boots on ground’. As if all you had to do was call it the right name and that was it. You dare call it the wrong name and you are doomed for this election. Violent and peaceful ways are not distinguished by what you call your adversaries as. You can take an aggressive stance and yet embrace peaceful, just, and humane ways to defeat them. You change your strategies if you had had false starts, not your stance.

        The world has currently been successful in pinning the US down by making the citizens feel guilty for what has happened in the middle-east. Doubting its own abilities and decision-making is the last thing the US would want to do. The world would rather have the leader of the strongest democracy take world decisions than have Russia or China do that. The void that you will create by taking a step back will not be filled by any saner power mind you!

        Yes there are issues at home. Yes it is time for the other richer nations in the middle-east to take action. I too urge the Muslim countries – It is time to prove to the world that yours is the most misrepresented religion; that you will be the first line of defense for the world; that you are for peace; that you disown ISIS and extremism. But for how long exactly is form. Sec. Clinton planning to wait for them to wake up? And how are you planning to support their initiatives? By supplying arms? Intelligence? Seriously? Since when have we started believing, to fight the biggest terrorist group ever, in those militaries who have hardly been in a successful war all by themselves?

        The world definitely will witness a political and diplomatic hiatus for a couple of months in toto during the transition phase for the next POTUS. How long are we expecting the ISIS to pause while we get our stuff together? And, by show of hands, how many of us feel that we can persuade the ISIS and the other states involved by reason and dialogue? Who are we kidding here? I will tell you what true Democratic hypocrisy is. It is when you discuss the immigration of Muslims in the same segment as that devoted for ISIS. No matter what you call what. This fact in itself speaks and proves all that it has to.

        The premise of the election is, frankly, very clear. This election is not of the next POTUS, but that of the next commander-in-chief, as rightly said by Ted Cruz. The stance of the new commander-in-chief on war will set the record straight for all the other leaders of the world. This is no time, as there never was and as there never will be, for on-the-job-commander-in-chief-training for the POTUS. This is no time to tell us Sen. Sanders that you were against the Iraq war in the very first place. This is a different kind of war. This is not a war where you invade a country on the assumption that they possess something or that they may be on the verge of doing something. This is a war against an established organization which comprise terrorists and only terrorists, who have forced millions out of their country, orchestrated countless atrocities on women and children worldwide time and again, and who FYI have declared your country their first nemesis! Get this straight.

The Transformation (full article)

<<  This Article was a part of an old series called 'Kartavya Dharmadhikari' which is now discontinued  >>

A first hand account by Kartavya Dharmadhikari...

       This morning when I was having breakfast with two of my colleagues, on the table next to us were a few students, discussing on the hottest topic - whom to vote this general elections. They had the most intense of the discussions. Though such discussions are extremely enlightening, we hardly tend to reach at a conclusion. Most of us are bored of hearing and reading about what's the obvious, yet we know we cannot not think about it.

        I did not get my voter ID for two years after I had applied for one. When I inquired, they told me that I must apply again as something in my application must have gone wrong. Being a lawyer and the son of a martyr, it made me furious that in the two years I wasn't even notified about it. Nonetheless, they made it up to me by sending me two voter IDs together !

        Anyway, there are 3 prime ideas that I wanted to share with everyone.

The Great Indian Joke :-

        " Democracy is like a swimming pool. If you don't change the water periodically, it becomes a stinking pool. "- Ram Jethmalani.

        India got independence in 1947. We are a country of almost 1.25 billion people, which makes us the largest democracy in the world. In our 67 year old history, only on 4 occasions we have had a non-congress government ( I've considered only those occasions where the government lasted for at least 6 months ).

1) 1977- 1979 , Janta Party ( Morarji Desai ).

2) 1979- 1980 , Janta Party ( Charan Singh ).

3) 1989- 1990 , Janta Dal ( V P Singh).

4) 1998- 2004 , NDA ( Atal Bihari Vajpayee ).

        So effectively we have had only 10 years of non-congress rule in the 67 years. When I say congress, it includes Indian National Congress ( INC ), United Progressive Alliance ( UPA ),etc. Being the largest democracy, I am not sure whether we are setting the right kind of example for the rest of the democracies. In fact I am not even sure whether we are fit to being called a democracy at all. The essence of democracy itself lies in difference of opinion and change. So either we have had tyranny all these years and not democracy, or I believe India has accepted that only one family in a nation of 1.25 billion people has got the DNA to produce supremely intelligent, deeply patriotic and highly motivated children who can carry the ' legacy ' on their brave shoulders.

        We are still very proud of our ancient culture, our saints, our scientists, our tolerance, and our value system. We are proud that we gave the world the first 'zero', while we are almost about to give them the second one, you know, just to carry on the legacy.

The AK-45 Assault Riffle :-

        A leader is not only the one who can take decisions, but is also the one who can rationally overrule somebody else's decision. But the concept of 'a strong leader' is alien to us. In India we have a prime minister who hates to be called decisive. And if ever he takes a decision, there is a high probability that his decisions will be overruled by someone having half his age and a quarter of his IQ.

        So then the 45 year old 'made in India' assault riffle - both literally and figuratively - transcended the Delhi throne. The AK-45, did something that somebody should have done long ago - ask questions. But now that we have arrived at the above-mentioned fact, people failed to realise what he really intends to do. Ours, I believe, is the only nation which has not witnessed a truly massive civil movement after independence. Most of the superior countries, after having achieved independence, have had some major people movements, which initially bring in the chaos only to bring in order one day. Our nation is going through this phase at the moment. Sadly, I fear, the longer it takes, the more violent it gets. AK-45 is simply trying to bring in this chaos, so that the guardians of the legacy should know that winter is coming and that it's time for everyone to wear a muffler around your head - again both literally and figuratively.

        

But what happens when there is no scope of effective discussion? 

        " Democracy when assessed in terms of public reasoning, leads to an understanding of democracy as 'government by discussion' "- Amartya Sen.

But what happens when there is no scope of peaceful discussion?

        " Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable "- John F. Kennedy.

But what happens when there is no scope of sensible discussion altogether?

        " You are not getting my question. Let me re-iterate it for you "- Arnab Goswami.

The Generator :-

        I will state this in a very short and simple manner. We need to give that man the charge of our nation who is a living example himself. We need to give that person the power who has already proved his credibility, someone who looks ahead, someone who believes in 'no none-sense'. After all, it all goes by this good old saying - ' If it has taken you 12 years, then you are not an overnight wonder, but a well deserved one ! '

The summary :-

1) Being a democracy, we first feel the need for change, 2) Then follows the much needed and much justified chaos and 3) Then comes the action.

p.s. :-

Dedicated to my those 2 colleagues- Prahalad Prabhakar and Rahanik Vora... :)

        

Sindhutai deserves Bharat Ratna, Not Sachin...!!! (full article)

<<  This Article was a part of an old series called 'Kartavya Dharmadhikari' which is now discontinued  >>

A first hand account by Kartavya Dharmadhikari :-

        " Finally the verdict of Aarushi Talwar case is out. The Jan Lokpal bill will be passed any day now. The honourable Supreme Court of India recriminalized homosexuality and the people are hence disappointed . Arvind Kejriwal gave a stunner to the Congress, much like Stone Cold Steve Austin, leaving those stone-hearteds cold. In all the recent state elections, we got to see numbers that this nation had never seen before- all the states having atleast 60%+ voting. Never has there been more gung-ho about any politician of free India than about NaMo. Right from successful space missions to Sachin's retirement, so much has happened in the past few months. It is very evident that young India has started asking for a change in our ideologies altogether...", I said. 

        The "India News" arranged for a special show for 5 weeks. They invited 4 of the most prominent young socialists and activists of Mumbai for an interview each week, followed by a debate the 5th week. I was one of the four. And during my interview, which was broadcasted live, I made the biggest political blunder of  my entire career, antagonizing millions at once...!

        " With so many student movements and agitations across our nation, it is also very evident that young India wants to change the way in which we are looked down upon by the world. ", I said.

        The interviewer joked, " But what has Sachin's retirement got to do with the change in ideologies? The people were so disheartened because of his decision to retire. It's a good thing that he has been honoured with the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna."

        " Who said it's a good thing??? In fact the decision taken by the Government of India in 2011 to change the criteria to allow sportspersons to receive the award itself was inappropriate! ", I said. And there was absolute silence in the studio. God, I shouldn't have said that. What should I say now to back that up? 

        I continued," I fail to understand what are sportspersons and singers doing in the list of independence activists, physicists, philanthropists, philosophers, educators, social reformers, scholars, jurists, economists, historians, engineers and scientists? All these people have done things which have contributed in some way to the betterment of the society. If I am not wrong, Sachin Tendulkar is the only Bharat Ratna awardee who has appeared in commercial advertisements. And also probably the richest of them all." Facepalm, the studio was in Mumbai, and I said something terrible about the Mostestest favouritest Mumbai mulga. Also, Lata Mangeshkar is a Bharat Ratna awardee who also lives in Mumbai. Facepalm again.

        The interviewer asked me, " So what ? And who according to you should be honoured with the Bharat Ratna then?"

        I replied," Let me tell you one of the most astonishing stories ever. SINDHUTAI SAPKAL was born on 14th Nov, 1948 in a small village Pimpri Meghe, Wardha district, Maharashtra. Born in a very poor family, with great difficulty she studied till 4th grade. When she was just 10, she was forced to marry a 30 year old man, with whom she had 3 sons by the age 20. She was well known in her village by then because of her famous agitation against the local mafia on the issues of misuse of the forest resources and collection of dried cow dung. So much so, that the then district collector had to intervene and pass an order. Due to a lot of threats from the mafia, Sindhutai's husband abandoned her when she was little less than 9 months pregnant, expecting her fourth child. She gave birth to a baby girl on a cold night in a cow shed, all by herself. Even her own mother refused to shelter her."

        "Sindhutai survived with her 4 kids by begging on a railway platform. There she realised that there were so many such abandoned/ orphaned children. She resolved since then to take care of all the orphaned kids she ever comes across. As of today, she has adopted over 1050 children, raising all of them as her own !!! Her children include doctors, lawyers, PHDs and some of them have their own orphanages. She has been honoured with more than 272 awards (Ahilyabai Holkar award 2010, etc). Also a marathi movie ' Mee Sindhutai Sapkal ' was released in 2010. "

        " Have you ever met someone, having any level of education, holding any kind of position, having any level of wealth, who could have dealt with so many heart-wrenching problems with more dignity, optimism, compassion and other-orientedness? Sindhutai, affectionately addressed as 'Sapkal Mai ', still fights for her next meal. Bharat Ratna is got to be attributed to contributions and not accumulations !" , I said.

        I did not have to add anything else. After 4 seconds of silence, I received a thunderous applause from the studio audience. And not a single counter question was asked to me after that. Not really that big a political blunder it seems now.

        It's a sad thing that politicians and even the media are so focused on pouncing upon and commercialising innumerous such Sachin Tendulkar retirements. Already there was a petition filed by an RTI activist claiming violation of model code of conduct, since elections in many states were due when the announcement was made to honour SRT with Bharat Ratna, given that SRT is a Congress nominated MP. But which party would have spoken against this decision, when we all know that SRT has got such a hugeee fan base? Facepalm vote-bank politics. After all, India did virtually nothing else during those 5 days of his last test match. By the way, I really do respect SRT for all his achievements. Nothing against him!

        The change in ideology revolves exactly around such important issues- where the people who are supposed to take care of the society are extremely busy doing nothing, while the true heroes are left to fend themselves in the forgotten corners of the world !!

        The future Ain't what it used to be...wait and watch...

The Capital Of My Country- A Stunning Confession (full article)

<<  This Article was a part of an old series called 'Kartavya Dharmadhikari' which is now discontinued  >>

A first hand account by Kartavya Dharmadhikari :-

        "Yeah I admit that I had never known that even I could be the target one day. It was much easier to watch this happen to others.", said Jaspal Singh.

        To begin with, I did not like when anybody raised their voice in my office. Only I could do that here!  Jaspal Singh was not helping huimself. He could not afford to behave in this manner over here if he needed our help. He strongly demanded that he will talk only to me and not to anyone else. Tens of people visit my office everyday. But my team forwards only a select few very sensitive and high profile cases to me. That's the protocol that we have been following. But Jaspal Singh was in no mood to obey.

        After the whole hubbub I anyway decided to listen to him. We would first thoroughly interrogate anyone who came to us with a case. I made Jaspal Singh sit in the room. I was asking him questions while 3 of my subordinates were taking notes. Jaspal Singh said," I left Delhi at once with my family. It was no longer safe for us over there. The mob had almost killed me." It was really fascinating to hear 'the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Delhi), Jaspal Singh' say those words. Frankly, it sounded very funny to me. Here in front of me was a 56 year old police officer, trying hard to gather himself after all what life taught him so late. In our lives, some events can be so bizarre that we are forced to do really very weird things. I mean look at this man. He met me for the first time and he was giving me some really classified information. Information which can be an overnight blockbuster in the media. Information about people who are really strong. And I mean it- Stronggg !! And information of that level which will make them want to kill you if they knew that you knew.

        No matter how tough you are, you really can not see an old man, a family man, cry. The case: a girl was gang-raped near sector number 1234, Delhi. Sector 1234 falls under the jurisdiction of DCP Jaspal Singh. There was absolute outrage in the whole country after that incident. Yes, we all know about it. I was aware that there were protests against a few police officials and politicians of that area. Little did I know that DCP Jaspal Singh was attacked by a mob. A mob sent by a politician whose Jaspal was a loyal servant of for the past so many years. The politician's name was Satyadev (ironically). And Oh Boy, Satyadev gave up on him...!! That too big time...!!

        Though I did feel pity for the old man, I told him straight on his face that whatever he was telling me will not be taken as an excuse or justification for his sins. With tears and rage in his eyes he said," People blame the police for inaction. And if nothing else prevails, they blame the judiciary of our country. Kartavya, tell me the truth. What happens when a police officer in Mumbai arrests, for any damn reason, a man who is politically powerful ?" I admitted that somehow they are set free. Let alone arresting, even if such a powerful man is caught for traffic violations, he will make a few phone calls and eventually he does not get any punishment.

        He said," Exactly. Kartavya, there are three types of people- citizens, police and politicians. When there are more citizens and less politicians, the police remains police. But do you know what happens when there are more politicians and less citizens? The police no longer remains police. The police becomes a part of the powerless poor citizens. " I understood where he was going with this. It must be impossible for these police officers to bring the wrongdoers to justice when most of the times the wrongdoer is- either a politician himself, a member of a political party, a very rich industrialist who provides funds to the polician or a relative of any of the three.

        " Do you know why Satyadev targeted me ? I have had close association with him for the past couple of decades. I know about all the hooligans who provide support to Satyadev. And one such group of these hooligans is involved in the gang-rape. I can easily identify the ones involved. Due to so much pressure from the media and the public I was about to disclose their identities. Satyadev started threatening me. But I was certain that I will go ahead and speak it all out in the press conference. Even my seniors did not support me. They were all busy doing a lot of brainstorming on not how to protect the people but instead on how to fool the people by applying delaying tactics. They were scared of Satyadev and now I know why !! Not only there was pressure, I knew that it was both- my moral responsibility as a human to speak the truth and also my duty as a police officer to not let off the criminals. But before I could speak up, netaji Satyadev had already given a speech mentioning everything against me. There is no denying that crime is on a all time high in the capital of my country. And it was really very easy to point this out and prove my lack of capabilities. In public, he demanded my resignation and condemned the whole act. In private, he showed green flags to the hooligans to mob me and my family at my residence. The sadest part of the story is, the citizens accompanied the hooligans. They believed in Satyadev."

        " Kartavya, I know many things about you. You guys have made it to the news quite a few times. And that's why I am here. Please see if there is a way out. My only desire is to let the people know the truth. I want them to know the sequence of all events that occurred. I want to regain my respect. I am a father of three. And I want them to be proud of their papa. I anyway don't want my job back. And I will be more than happy to settle here in Mumbai."

        I am a man with very high ideals. Deep inside my heart I repeated that I am not going to accept his statements as an excuse for his previous sins; For all the good that he could have done as a police officer but he didn't; For not performing his duties in a righteous way. Deep inside I also feel that he did deserve something like that for being a puppet of someone like Satyadev for so long. Sad that his family had to suffer. But the mr. Enlightened should have resigned long long ago if such has been the scenario always. I also believe that the source of this enlightenment of his is not a noble one. He turned good only when bad happened to him. Else I am sure he would have not changed even a bit in his entire life.

        But still I did not utter these words to him. It was none of my business anyway. My job was to make this incident public and see if we can legally sue Satyadev and his men for what they did to DCP Jaspal Singh. Though I do agree on many points told by Jaspal. Firstly, when you question our judiciary, it is really a question on our democracy itself. People need to realize that judiciary is and will always remain an independent body. It is the investigative bodies which are pliable. Though these investigative bodies perform great when it comes to investigating a less powerful man, strangely their performance drops drastically when it comes to investigating the really powerful. The judiciary simply gives the judgement based on what the investigative bodies and the public prosecutors present to it. Secondly, there is also no denying the helplessness of the police when it comes to dealing with the very powerful. I still maintain respect for the police.

         And there are many such accusations which suggest that such issues are rampant in the capital of my country. Let us see what another day brings to me...

      

The day of Absolute Truth of Swaansh's life...

<<  This Article was a part of an old series called 'Dr. Swaansh Aatman' which is now discontinued  >>   



        He hardly knew how he reached there. 'Numb' is the word. He abandoned his scooter along the roadside and started walking. It was 6:30 P.M. This road gets very busy around this time of the day. But amidst the fast moving vehicles and pollution and honking, Dr. Swaansh Aatman was living the moment of his life.
        He had dreamt about living this moment a million times before, but he could not control his emotions when it happened for real. He did not know where to go, what to do, whom to call. He went to the place where he regularly went to take walks. The place had both, the serenity of the setting sun when the sky turns orangish-blue and the hurried traffic which reminded him that he had to always be ready and up to face the fast-paced world. Whenever he walked there, he admired everything around him. The tall building where he wished he'd someday get to live, the expensive luxurious cars and the suited individuals on board. He everyday dreamt of being that person. More than the money, he wanted to be that bright a brain.
        The top management had had a long extended meeting today. They had to take the call whether Swaansh's project was 'the big thing' or not. Swaansh, a few minutes ago, had received a call that his project, 'Aragon', was accepted and they were ready to purchase it for a 100 crore rupees. And numb he went.
       
        <<  The remaining part of this article is no longer available >>