CLASH OF IDEAS OR PERSONALITY?

Bikash Choudhury



Rahul Gandhi proceeded on a two weeks of leave of absence from the
Congress Party and important Budget sessions of Parliament. Gandhi
scion is no green horn in politics to behave in so immature fashion.
Apparently he listened to RSS chief’s statement on Mother Teresa
before it was delivered and therefore he immediately planned for his
holidays knowing fully well his job of reviving the grand old and much
tired Congress Party is being done meticulously by Sangha Parivar FoC.
Yogi Adityanath and his ilk are continuously harping on Ghar Wapsi,
India as Hindu Rastra and many others which have started to vitiate
the conducive atmosphere for socio economic progress for which BJP got
an unprecedented mandate on Governance and Development last summer.
Interestingly, BJP member of parliament Yogi Adityanath says “India
does not have problems of poverty or development” and Praveen Togadia
of VHP is very concerned about the marginal fall in Hindu population
without knowing the demography also a function of socioeconomic
progress and the same could happen with Indian Muslims also if they
were put in a fast track upward socioeconomic mobility by GoI and
respective State Governments. Irony is one of the most powerful prime
minister of recent times is helplessly watching his positive mandate
being torn apart non-other than the Sangha Parivar from the sidelines;
and, sadly comparisons  are being drawn of him and Man Mohan Singh,
his predecessor. People are very inquisitive to know what has changed
in these nine months that RSS chief all of a sudden became insecure on
his seat. The answer lies on the massive mandate Modi received on
Governance and Development and his subsequent actions on foreign
policy and domestic affairs that might have propelled  a few of PM’s
ambitious cabinet colleagues to impress upon the RSS chief to test the
waters on the contentious agenda which could clip the wings of Modi a
bit or pull him down a notch lower; knowing fully well that Modi works
to a plan and his agenda on Governance and Development would take
little time to bring the fruits for the people.


Those who have listened to RSS Chief Sri Mohan Bhagwat’s speech on
Rakshaya Bandhan at Bhubaneswar last year that apparently went on for
ninety minutes must vouch for his deep incite on spirituality,
religion, culture, science and metaphysics. His recent pronouncements
must have come as a shocker. One would agree with him on the baggage’s
of history where Hindus have to pay Jijiya Tax to practice their faith
in their own land and their places of worship and globally acclaimed
educational portals like Nalanda University were raised to ground
without any intervention or provocation. Further, tell tale account of
East India Company and British Empire that lorded over our country for
centuries and siphoned off huge wealth of our Nation including
Kohinoor Diamond and Peacock Throne. However, it is neither desirable
nor appropriate to revisit history selectively. One should keep the
current predicament of innocent and loving people of Pakistan
subjugated by their own military in this context. It is said often
that “best of Ideas stretched to the extreme turns toxic” as the
Talibanisation of Islam has become for Pakistan & Afghanistan;
identically, fundamentalism and extremism in Hindu faith would prove
catastrophic for the country. No individual, organization or faith is
above some correction; however, we should accept the same, acknowledge
that and leave to move on for the benefit of a flourishing society. It
is now left to the reader’s judgment if it were a clash of Ideas or
Personality?

FIX IT MR. PRIME MINISTER

Bikash Choudhury

Patia is a small hamlet of Bhubaneswar which has recently seen both vertical and horizontal transformation. This locality of the city has attained stardom with the inception and growth of private University KIIT that supports over 20,000 students from across the country and abroad. Prime Minister and Presidents and captains of Industry visit this area while visiting the KIIT University Campus. In last six months this locality has seen a dip drop in house rents and thousands of properties looking for customers at the same time. The booming Real Estate Sector and Education Industry now languish with very poor demand. Job prospects for young professionals not looking all that bright. And, story apparently not much different all across the country. Strange and surprise is in spite of new central Govt. taking some very good initiatives not much has changed on the ground  since the days of UPA and it seems the result of  good economics may take another 18 months to see the light of the day. Apparently, Govt. has not taken a bold move to capture some low hanging fruits like say operalisation of multi brand retail policy taken by previous UPA Govt. and public sector reforms. At least Govt. could leave it to the better judgment of State Govt.  On multi brand retail and chop and chew that public sector which are guzzling public money and produce very little. Union Govt. has ushered in the Digital India program; however, it has not till date pull up the useless BSNL to speed up the broad band speed; most of the time in a city like Bhubaneswar you only get a speed of 10 KBPS against a promise of 100 KBPS. Why this problem can’t be fixed immediately? If this problem were fixed in short term, then union Govt. would look good and economy also would pick up speed. Recently, Mumbai City was under water and its life lines disrupted; how long this city has to wait for good roads and rain water evacuation arrangement? Mumbai city apparently contribute about 25-30% of Union Govt. revenue which ask for basic infrastructure restored. If Chinese can build 44 K.M long sea bridge in 4 years; can’t we build world class roads for Mumbai in 18 months? NDA Govt. got a boot in 2004 for India Shining campaign and once again it can be striped of power in 2019 if it does not deliver in the short run. Fix it Mr. Prime Minister.     

How to speed up Economic growth in the country?

        Bikash Choudhury

  Mumbai and Kolkata are two metros notorious for abysmal standards of
roads that consume road users in flesh and blood and at the same time
guzzle disproportionately high amount of fuel and rubber in
automobiles. There is high probability of these savings can be
reflected in the growth numbers of the country as it did earlier after
2004 on the back of two very successful Infra development programs
viz., Pradhan Mantri Gramya Sadak Yojana and Golden Quadrilateral
Project. Mumbai city has 1889 K.M of roads totally and 90% of those
roads are in pitiable condition on top of it the vehicle population in
the city has swelled to 23.3 lakhs and that tests the robustness of
automobile and its driver and passenger and eventually takes a heavy
toll on the economic life of the city. Identical condition prevail in
the city of Joy Kolkata and this challenges can be turned into an
opportunity for the National economy if this were converted into world
class roads in 18 months time as the gigantic scale of operation for
road construction would kick in the numbers. NDA Govt. should become
proactive and crack the whip to bring around the Civic body of Mumbai,
Maharsatra State Govt. and Private Industry operating from the city to
pool in the necessary resources and technology to give shape to the
biggest infra project in a short period of time. Our activist prime
minister should look at the road project of Mumbai and Kolkata to perk
up the reputation and image of his Govt. in very short period of time.

5th WAVE

Bikash Choudhury

If we travel back in History for little over five hundred years in time then one would have experienced ‘0’ wave  where India was peaking in economically and politically. India was also a maritime power enforcing and influencing the sea lanes of those times. Indian organic Agriculture was highly productive and our principal exports were Food, Agro and Forest products. Apparently, those times Indian rulers were contended economically and believed in peaceful co-existence. However, this did not last long. Soon they were over powered by greed to accumulate land mass and consolidate political power for their legacy; which, later prompted them to scheme one against another and many times in collaboration with foreign/external forces who had designs to rule and exploit the ‘Golden Goose’. Therefore, Europeans attempted to find the safe sea route to India and established trade successfully. Eventually, they became the rulers of India for over three centuries. Wave Zero contained the seed of economic and political decline in the shape of Political Disunity among then Indian rulers. As time would have it; shrewd Europeans captured the opportunity impeccably.

                              Centuries later, our Independence movement took shape which remained largely peaceful with few exceptional violent acts in between that contained the “Wave-1”. That saw great leaders emerge out of the same British education system; however, led Indian men towards complete freedom and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a non-resident Indian took the bull by the horn and integrated disparate Indian people under his banner of ‘satyagraha’ which almost nearly achieved its objective of freedom; however, Lord Mountbatten found to be a smarter operator with much better Idea from colonizer’s point of view and ended up giving freedom to two parts of India having many more divisions and sub-divisions the burden of which we carry even to this day. Britishers clearly out witted Indian leaders in the charms offensive and gave their final seal over freedom with partition in a combo offer which Indian leaders could not refuse to accept. And, Gandhi courted death at the hands of one of his own country men out of frustration and betrayal by his own close followers. Therefore, first wave also ended up being a loser except the limited liability of Independence of a truncated Nation. Despite partition and bloodshed across the borders of India and Pakistan; euphoria of being a free country took the people and their leaders by surprise. However, India was fortunate to have two immensely gifted leaders with towering personality with diverse background and temperament; they come together in the larger interest of their countrymen to give shape to fledging Nation and that became “Wave-2”. Nehru and Patel managed to unite all the princely States behind Indian Nationality; but, could not manage the affairs of Kashmir having seen shrewd lawyer Mohamed Ali Jihnna from very close quarters. Ironically, that has remained the “Achilles Heel” of India even today. But, during this Wave-2 movement great Institutions were established; that took the socio-economic-political life of this country a notch higher and serving the Nation even today. No body could believe that a Statesman and a Global leader of Nehru’s stature could make such a simple error of judgment with our engagement with the Chinese and our North West Frontier Defense which rattled India and finally took the life of Nehru who passed away a sad man.

 “Jai Jawan and Jai Kisan” slogan started the “Wave-3” which was later catapulted by Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her master stroke of “Garibi Hatao” followed by discontinuation of Privy Purse of erstwhile Princely States, Nationalization of Commercial Banks and liberation of Bangladesh. However, Mrs. Gandhi did not help the cause of India by aligning too much with USSR and imposing first and last emergency that suspended democratic rights of people. Mrs. Gandhi was made to pay up for this very expensive mistake and she lost her election to parliament while her party lost power at the centre. She did not get the time to kiss and make up though she returned to power.

                               Rajiv Gandhi credited to have initiated the “Wave-4” with his spotless Mr. Clean image and his visionary steps with introduction of ICT in the country. The benefit of which is being reaped by millions of young people today and they are able to own a house and a SUV before clocking 30 years in their watch. Rajiv also started Ganga Action Plan, Indira Gandhi National Open University and opened a forward looking foreign policy with engagement on USA and China those served India immensely little later. Rajiv was out witted by wily Politician J.Jayavardhane of Sri Lanka and made to fend for himself; that expensive error of judgment finally took his life in his prime. But, Bofors case was foisted on Rajiv by colonial conspirators and some Congress Party & Bureaucratic insiders due to his inexperience, lack of execution capability and skill to judge people; fortunately, his better half gifted with such qualities and immense political skill and maturity. Our only pouting leader in Narasingha Rao and Manmohan Singh together brought the curtains to the 4^th Wave with their relentless pursuit of economic liberalization that managed to capture near double digit growth and creation of jobs after a few years. “M’ae  Atal Bhi Hoon ur Bhiharivi” those were the words of Atal Bihari Vajpayee who managed to over throw the Hindu Rate of growth with his two Iconic initiative of “Prime Minister Gramya Sadak Yojana and Golden Quadrilateral Project” that enjoined our villages with four metro cities and managed to substantially enhance the “Intensity of Human Activity” that resulted in phenomenal economic growth after 2004. A decade thereafter were a series of missed opportunities; Manmohan Singh, one of the most economic literate prime minister drove a nail in the coffin of Indian Economy during his decade long tenure with indecision and silence.

                                                        May 16 2014 was the day when the unfinished agenda of 5^th Wave got started once again under the dynamic leadership of Sri Narendra Modi who own the election with thumping majority; but, a little earlier he took the Nation by storm having over 400 huge public rallies in each nook and corner of our country covering nearlyr 4 lakh kilometers in just 8 months and raising the hope of people that 5^th Wave would eventually redeem all his promises—“Apka Pyaar Sudh Sameth Wapas Karoonga”. Modi has managed to take some extra ordinary steps in the domestic and external affairs of the country and now he should follow his own maiden speech in parliament to keep the politics for the last six months of the tenure and make a fresh bid in collaboration with Congress Party as Sardar Patel did with Nehru in National interest. Let the Parliament function effectively to deal with the billions of problems of a billion plus people. Modi also need to bring his execution capability of Gujarat Model to see Mumbai and Kolkata minus their infra bottleneck to give a leg up to Indian economy in the short term. Modi would do well to take some regional satraps under his wings like Mamata and Naveen in the East, Chandra Babu & Jayalalita in the South, Fadnavis & Anandi Ben Patel in the West and Yadavs in the North to make the 5^th Wave successful to put India in its original Orbit. Modi does not have the luxury to make mistakes like his predecessors.

If You can’t Beat Them----Join Them

        Bikash Choudhury

Chanakya has written in his Artha Sastra that “you can’t measure how
much water fish drinks in the pond; identically, it is extremely
difficult to find out the corruption in the bureaucracy” It was a
valid hypothesis then two thousand years ago and the same equally if
not more holds good even in current times. Our Govt. finances have
deteriorated from bad to worse at the back of populist schemes which
is good money down the drain as no durable assets gets created out of
such huge expenses from the Govt. treasury; further, the salary bill
alone some day would drive the Govt. to bankruptcy. The one lakh crore
Indian Rupee annual salary bill of our central Govt. alone could throw
spanner at fiscal prudence. Is their a way out? Yes, there can be a
long term solution if we can take a bold decision of accepting the
reality as a functioning society. Taking and giving bribes has become
second nature to Indians without looking at the Peking order in the
Transparency Index for Most Corrupt Nations; very unfortunate (can we
blame our colonial masters for this ill?) and therefore, preventing or
controlling corruption any time soon to spike up our economy is nearly
impossible. However, the gigantic size of the booty involved is hard
to ignore. If we assume that each government employee makes about
Rs.2000.00 in a month apart from his legal salary & perks of housing
and medical allowances; then, if we multiply the number of Govt.
employees both in Central, State Govt. and Local bodies then we will
arrive at a mind boggling figure of Rs. 20,000 Crores annually. This
sum would be much bigger than a few State Budgets put together.
Further, this speed money finds its route to political leaders and
political parties that once again intoxicate our entire polity and the
cess poll of illegal and criminal conspiracy of defrauding public
treasury gets repeated with few additional dimensions in each orbit.
Government employees not only the beneficiary of such a spurious
system; they, have become victims of such practice as well.
In one stroke we can do away with such a venal system by legalizing
all receipts of cash and gifts by Govt. employees over and above the
statutory requirements wherever it is applied; as a ‘token of service’
by the employee with a entitlement of 35-50% of such gain and rest
remains with the Govt. treasury. If this aberration were corrected
successfully then Govt. would earn additional revenue of over 10,000
crores of rupees without burdening ordinary people with any fresh
taxes and won’t have to worry about the salary hike of employees
through the 7th pay commission; while, greatly straightening our
administrative and political system for the benefits of all citizens
including the Politicians. There could be a windfall gain as economic
multiplier effect would operate in the private sector with merit based
activity in Industry and Service sector. Crony Capitalism could be
given a burial with ultra competitive forces based in meritocracy and
survival for the fittest principles would apply; that, should create a
research & development mindset across the polity & economy; thus,
creating substantial amount of wealth for the Nation to pursue its
social and secular goals. However, unfortunately politicians are going
to play the ‘bull’ in the house that intends to decide in favor of
such a new paradigm. Can we debate this at least in our so called free
media?

INNVOATION-EXCELLENCE-ENTERPRISE

Bikash Choudhury

‘Sundar Pichai, an Indian has been chosen as the next chief executive officer of Tech Multi-National Google’ this was the headline of many news papers recently. Perfectly it was another celebratory moment for all of us after Nadella became the chief of Microsoft. Our tech savvy Prime Minister also congratulated Sundar Pichai for this extra ordinary achievement in his Twitter post. This author does not have any argument against the celebratory mood in the country or being a party popper for genuine stupendous achievement of Indians in foreign soil. Just to remind my readers there have been scores of Indians at the helm of top 50 Mega American Corporations after Indira Nooyui, Vikram Pandit and Ajit jain However, the fundamental question remains that if Indians are so good in running highly specialized consumer product, technology and services firms; then, why not a single innovative product or service having global foot print emanates from Indian soil?? Indian minds no longer remain inquisitive or, Indians are too happy to train their mind at the problems of the world and its suffering masses or, the over powering Indian spirituality has put a full stop towards the pursuit of material progress and wellbeing. Either one of these points or, all of these were true against gross failure of India and Indians at the Global Market Place for Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise. The next obvious question comes how could India turn the table around? First of all let Indian corporations including the SME pay their taxes to the Govt. honestly and adhere to the environmental laws strictly. These initiatives would eventually spur the competitive environment and thus, compel Indian corporations to focus on innovation-excellence-enterprise through greater investments in research & development; that would shape a culture of innovation in products and services in the entire country. Eventually, we may be able to contribute some product or service to the mankind. Further, our schools and colleges should start Innovation and Entrepreneurship Labs to first create awareness and thereafter, encourage & promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the entire education supply chain to develop a much needed mindset for Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise over a period of time. At the end, our 24/7 media must highlight the case studies of successful Indian entrepreneurship in cities & towns and even, inside the countryside to make India the next hub for new Global products and services. Those who think we can should raise their hands.

DANGER TO UNITY OF ODISHA

Bikash Choudhury

Odisha strong man, Kalinga Putra and former chief minister of Odisha late

Sri Biju Patnaik took the initiative to expand the number of Districts from 13 to 30 during nineteen nineties; with a vision for better administration, to deal with the regional imbalance in development and also to receive more funds from the central government for development. Even a partially successful Bandh for a separate Koshala State in 10 districts of western part of Odisha put a question mark on the intent of a great leader like Biju Babu and actual delivery of justice in administration in the remote areas of our State including western Odisha. The political agitation for a new State out of Odisha—howsoever, fragile may be could be a threat to the unity and integrity of Odisha in the long run; if it were not managed well in advance. Those, who fight for a separate State Koshala for lack of development and regional imbalance, may be partially right; in a sense our western districts have not matched in the development process in comparison to coastal districts of Odisha in social and economic infrastructure. However, it would be futile to argue that a smaller State of Koshala would better manage the process of development and regional imbalance as scores of smaller States would prove to the contrary. The agitation for Koshala State could also be an emotive ploy by an ambitious leader to nurse his political ambition on a very divisive issue that provides instant gratification.  To be fare with the activist pursuing a separate State of Koshala; it is good to flag an emotive issue to generate awareness and drawing the attention of our political masters at Bhubaneswar; but, division of the State is not the answer for delivering faster development in the western part of Odisha; because, with each new State we add to our bureaucracy and in case of a small state the salary bill alone eats into the revenue leaving a very meager resources for development and therefore, the smaller States sink into a debt trap. Koshala State would be financially unviable, administratively untenable and therefore, should be dropped altogether. As there are scores of other avenues to constructively deal with poor record of development in the western parts of the State. Both State & Union Govt. have made the first attempt in this direction by locating the IIM at Sambalpur. The other important step need to be taken is to bridge the distance between Western Odisha and Coastal areas & State Capital by civil aviation as soon as possible. This would remove the sense of alienation, facilitate better administration of development with improved mobility of bureaucracy and politicians and finally, over a period of time, civil aviation connectivity of western Odisha would open up avenues for large scale & focused Industrial activity and create opportunity for skilled manpower and other resources which are abundantly available locally. Further, it would be prudent for both the Govt. and Opposition in the State Assembly jointly attempt to address the aspirations and concerns of Western Districts of Odisha in time bound manner that would bury the demand for a separate State once and for all.