WHO NEEDS SUBSIDIES LPG?

Bikash Choudhury

Does Mukesh Ambani household in “Anatolia” need subsidized LPG? While millions of our countrymen live on the streets of our cities and in the slums. And, millions or more teenage children go to work on the roads of our towns and megalopolis, men who build our homes, offices, airports, roads and railway net work fail to send their children to school and mothers in Delhi send their young girls to flesh trade to eke out a living. It is about time for those left with little sense and sensibilities to think about these people who are also equal citizens of this country. Island of prosperity with a sea of deprivation can’t make a happy Nation possible. Therefore, Govt. at the center and states prepare a “Negative” list of people and organization that can’t avail any public subsidies and on top of the list should be Member of Parliaments and State Assemblies and individuals and organizations having income of a million rupees and above. Further, there should be provision for people and organization to declare themselves into the “negative list” voluntarily by virtue of their inherited wealth or those who amassed wealth subsequently to reduce the transaction cost of enforcing such a policy.

The Tibet Card

Bikash Choudhury

 Apropos “dangers of Sino-Pak nexus” I entirely agree with the strategy of playing Tibet card. Buddhism had its origin in India and Indians keep Dalai Lama in high esteem and love him a lot; therefore, Indians have a moral duty towards Tibetan people and Dalai Lama. Our goal should be return of Dalai Lama to Tibet in his life time. I wish time will come when Dalai Lama would visit Beijing with Indian Prime Minister to directly negotiate with Chinese authority about his return and autonomy for his Tibetan people. As regard to Pakistan, my belief is “violence as State policy would always create more violence” and Pakistan is currently stewing in its own terror policy as a day does not pass without some incident of bombing or violence in some parts of Pakistan and on top of it its defense establishment has been attacked by home grown extremist twice with disastrous consequence. Rather, Indian Govt. is pursuing a pragmatic policy with Pakistan which is sustainable and yielding result. However, we can not afford to lower our guard ever.              

Communication with Usha Padhee, Bureaucrat

Dear Mrs. Usha Padhee,

This is with reference to your article “we can still do it” in Orissa Post, 5^th Sep 2012.

I entirely agree with your contention that if we were to target, making the class and content interesting for the students then first of all we must try to kill cynicism among educational administrators, bring respectability to the teaching profession and introduce continuous evaluation system. For this to happen, we need to look at the load factor in the school curriculum (I guess 60 % of the essential/ core content to be retained and balance 40% left for the student to learn out of own need and interest; need to check how developed countries like New Zealand does on the subject)

              Recently came across a news report ‘school children making full length feature films and documentaries’ and those have been recognized by international film festivals. I feel this is about creating passion among children and leave them to do wonders in their chosen field/ or area of interest.

In my opinion, this is not a question of resources; but, an enabling mindset in the entire delivery mechanism of “school & mass education dept.”. That require “leadership” and I believe the same is in safe hands.

Warm Regards,

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

Activist

FAULT LINE

Bikash Choudhury

Events in Assam had its repercussion in Mumbai and little later in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad; with mass exodus of students & workers from North East. As reported in the media; there was threat to life and property of people of North East from some unknown extremist forces largely spread through social media and internet tools.  Biggest tragedy was none of our intelligence forces could get a wind of such an act. This is one of the biggest failure of intelligence after 26/11 and most dangerous among all; as it pose direct challenge to our Nation hood, its unity and integrity. What ever happens; Govt. should and must go after the perpetrators behind the act and annihilate them silently. The important message & learning from the incident are: there are some known & unknown adversaries of our country who work in land, air and in the seas round the clock and 24x7 and more importantly, below the surface there are deep fault lines in our society and between various regions of our country; this is some thing which is not unknown to politicians and administrators. Frightening thing is this fault line is deepening with growing economic disparity and social inequality which could pose serious challenge to our security and economic prosperity. What is the solution? The solution lies in Political Unity at the highest level on important National issues and a firm resolves by all concerned, not to politicize sensitive matters for short term political gains. Further, it is imperative to work systematically to bury the fault lines sooner than later. Both Govt. at the centre and States could encourage social dialogue among regions, religions, communities and languages. This social interaction, over a period of time would certainly fortify inter & intra community relations despite the disparity and inequality. Eventually, it is for the Govt. to unleash sustained and equitable development of the country through good Governance to eliminate the fault line for good. 

Reforms should match with Governance

                                                       Bikash Choudhury

“Unleash the animal spirit of the economy” said the Prime Minister a few weeks ago while temporarily looking after the Finance Ministry, after the exit of Pranab Mukherjee. This Friday on 14^th Sep. 2012 PM walk the talk while clearing slew of majors by cabinet and cabinet committee on economic affairs; most controversial among them was 51% FDI in multi brand retail. PM took such drastic step of his own sweet will or under duress is not the matter of concern; but, eventually he made up the mind of his Govt. on critical issues much expected and against determined opposition was captured in his expression “ if we were to go; must go fighting”. There should not be any illusion that recent decisions of Govt. are good ones and expected to benefit the people over time. Opposition to such move can be attributed to current and growing partisan politics and respective vote banks. However, opposition is within its rights to draw the attention of the Nation to corruption in Govt. which is in scale and size never imagined before and UPA Govt. would remain answerable to people and parliament. Senior people from opposition benches should know that certain decision of Govt. can’t be deferred indefinitely without hurting the National interest. People will welcome bold steps of Govt. more if it were matched with improvement in Governance. The current state of economy is not only due to macro economic mismanagement; but, on poor governance. Therefore, PM should now burn some mid night oil to plan a face lift of his Govt. After 65 years of independence our country has multiplied four times in terms of seer numbers (120 crore population) and complexities actually no body accurately know. One prime minister does not have actually time and scope to administer the country properly; it would be appropriate to induct four Dy. Prime Minister to look after the developments of states in four geographical regions apart from looking after their respective ministries. It would be ideal if we could create Dy. Prime Minister-Economy by grouping the ministries of Finance, Industry & Commerce, Dy. Prime Minister-Infrastructure by grouping the ministries of Road, Rail, Aviation & Shipping, Dy. Prime Minister-Energy by grouping the ministries of Power, Petroleum, Renewable energy and Mining and  Dy. Prime Minister- Security by grouping the ministries of Home and Defense. This would help the Prime Minster to take more strategic decisions while leaving the day to day running of the Govt. to four senior colleagues while matching individual ambitions with political expediency. There are many expected benefits of such a system; this would facilitate appointment of younger Cabinet Ministers under over all guidance of DPM, better inter ministerial co-ordination and synergies while lifting the image of Govt. and delivery of better Governance. Current UPA Govt. has very senior and experienced members in the cabinet like Chidambaram, Pawar, Antony and Farooq Abdullah who could be elevated as deputy prime minister. Though, election is just two summers away Govt. should not shy away from taking hard decisions in the larger interest of the Nation.

Twitter: @ideasofhope Blog: www.ideasofhopebikash.blogspot.com  E-mail:streben.market@gmail.com

Mobile: 009853426657/009238912647 Address: flat # 105 Kalpataru Nivas (apartment) Patia Bhubaneswar Odisha INDIA-751024

BOLD & BEAUTIFUL INDIA

Bikash Choudhury Apropros "India Flounders at NAM" (6th Sep.2012, in The New Indian Express)                                          . Can't agree more. People would say, what more could you expect from a glorified cabinet secretary? God

willing there should be a PM in 2014 at the helm; who would redefine Indian
Foreign Policy vis-a-vis NAM and Globally.India could occupy the moral
high ground by pursuing "Peace & Development" with "Disarmament &
Reduction in Defense Expenditure Globally" while emphasizing on broad
religious understanding and racial unity. India could actually
propound a new paradigm " Long term National Interest of a country
can't be in conflict with the interest of Humanity". That would be a

bold and beautiful India.                                                                                                                                                                             

ODISHA CONGRESS IN DEEP FRUSTRATION

    Bikash Choudhury 

UPA chairperson & Congress President before leaving abroad exhorted her Member of Parliament and party cadres to be offensive against opposition or more specifically for BJP with their vocal cord; rootless, listless and leaderless Congress Party in Odisha understood that for blanket mandate for violence for which their leader would remain answerable at a later point of time. 6^th September 2012 Congress rally at Bhubaneswar turned violent and poor police men and women were at the receiving end of their fury in full public view and camera glare. The timing and scale of violence perpetrated by Congress activists proves violence were pre-meditated, planned and incited by their leaders to present the union Govt. with a law and order situation to clamp Presidents’ rule; however, Congress managers failed miserably and measurably with pants down as the National media peaked up their entire antiques and telecasted in the prime time news. Odisha Police managed to keep their cool and restraint in the face of great provocation which put paid to, otherwise Congress plan to sacrifice the lives of innocent workers; who would never come to know the design of their leaders. As the Congress leaders would have understood by now; that, this unruly incident would not go unanswered in the court of people of Odisha as and when next election takes place. UPA II led by Congress has lost the mandate by half to rule at the centre and in the State of Odisha it would have lost mandate to remain the principal opposition by larger than half or little more; it just remains to be seen, how many Congress candidates would loose their deposits. The forward looking socio-economic policies of Naveen Patnaik Govt. and its emphasis on tribal up-liftment in north & south Odisha would certainly rob Congress of its traditional support base further down hill leaving the party high and dry. Therefore, the entire Congress leadership in the State is deeply frustrated and entirely clueless. There is a need of an active opposition in the State as an oversight mechanism over the Govt.; I wish to offer two suggestions to State Congress. One, they should choose a young, thinking leader and a man of letters for themselves and two, they should think of a constructive program to gain the confidence and trust of ordinary voters. Congress, which swears in the name of Gandhi and Nehru, certainly can’t regain its lost laurels with the help of senseless violence and rowdies in the State.