Terrorists coming via sea in rubber boats with heavy artilleries like AK 47 and AK 56 to Mumbai Gateway of India and then entering heavily guarded luxury hotels and going around the city at peak hours creating havoc with great impunity.
100 plus killed and scores injured. Among those killed were top ranking officers who were heading the Malegaon blasts. This investigation was heading to a greater conspiracy where top who is who of the country were involved.
The Mumbai ATS released information about some top ranking army officials and some Hindu radicals involved in various bomb blasts in the country. The ATS Chief is believed to be having more startling information on some high ranking political figures too who were part of the conspiracy.
But the world will never come to know about that any more. Hemant Karkare, one of the finest officers of Mumbai Police, who had all the information is no more. Along with him died some other good officers who were part of a team that some right wing parties accused of maligning Hindus by arresting sadhus and sadhvis.
It is not palpable how these terrorists arrived from sea, heavily guarded by Coast Guard and the Navy. How top officers were not shielded enough, who ordered them to be on the scene or informed them about this attack, how they got shot from close range? All these questions may perhaps will remain unanswered.
Bhupendrasinh Solanki, the Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from Godhra, Gujarat, was at Mumbai's Taj hotel when the terrorists attacked it. Purushottam Solanki, a BJP legislator was the first to rush to Akshardham in Gandhinagar when terrorists attacked it. He, infact, rushed with a gun as if the terrorists called him before attacking the shrine.
The Akshardham attack remains as elusive as the identity of its attackers. The only person who identified the terrorists and their origin was India’s prime minister in waiting, Mr L K Advani who spelled out their names and their native places within hours of the attack.
India TV immediately released news about a possible international angle to this attack saying the underworld and the locals ganged together to help the international groups to carry out this attack.
But it is yet not clear how they are going to benefit from this attack. Who will benefit from the death of ATS chief? How did he arrive at point blank range and why? What are those secrets that still remains in the files of ATS or perhaps with Karkare whose lips will never be open now.
India is slowly turning itself into another Rwanda. A Rwanda with more liberties and freedom to move around. A Rwanda with closed group conspiracies. When will the Indians come to know the truth?
November 27, 2008
November 26, 2008
India's Anti-piracy crusade worse than 'anti-terrorism' farce!
By NM Sampathkumar Iyangar
Media outfits of India, without exception, have been showering accolades on the brave sailors of Indian Navy. Impressionable citizens are enjoying another bout of euphoria. India has `arrived' as a premier naval power. It is flexing muscles for the cause of "global welfare" by fighting to eradicate the scourge of high seas piracy!
For a people looking for some avenue to `feel high' amidst stark realities of utter chaos and misery, it has come as sunshine. A scan of reports emanating from outside India, however, raises some disturbing questions. The Indian Navy's `feat' of sinking a vessel on Nov 19 off Somalia may turn out to be unwise adventurism. Far from what the establishment makes it out to be, it may have put India in the horns of a dilemma.
Shorn of all patriotic adulation that the Indian media often employs to be on the `right side' of the establishment, there is not much to write home about. The `action' seen by Indian Navy after a long interlude of 37 years since the Bangladesh war has been reported as under:
Commander Nirad Sinha "claimed" in a briefing: "INS Tabar encountered a pirate vessel south west of Oman with two speedboats in tow. This vessel was similar in description to the 'mother vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins. INS Tabar closed in on the vessel and asked her to stop for investigation. Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of the vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar."
It was later clarified that the crew of INS Tabar "REQUESTED that the pirate vessel stop to allow a search" but its crew responded with a "threat to sink her if she came any closer." Tabar fired on the crew, which the Navy described as "retaliatory strike". Even before being fired at, Tabar "defended herself by firing back" and a large explosion occurred on the "pirate vessel".
The Navy speculated that the explosion may have been caused by the "weapons cache of the pirates" but refrained from disclosing its logic in assuming vessel to be of pirates. The attack continued for about three to four more hours and resulted in the sinking of what was claimed to be the pirate's "mother ship". INS Tabar also forced the abandonment of another vessel from which "pirates" managed to "escape via a speedboat under the cover of darkness."
These claims are taken with a pinch of salt by independent analysts, in the context of allegations of "fake encounters" enacted by the cops and officers of the armed forces within the territory. The government has had to refer several incidents, after concerted public outcry at attempts at suppressing them, to courts for transparent investigation. Quite a few of the `adventures' turned out as stage-managed encounters, done in the quest for being decorated, awarded and rewarded with promotions. Also, most passengers in crowded trains have experienced anarchic behaviour of soldiers, moving in groups, towards the common public.
MK Bhadrakumar, a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), is among the very few knowledgeable Indians who refused to be overwhelmed by high-pressure propaganda. He has worked on assignments in the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey and is too rational to buy foreign ministry-speak at face value, unlike typical `intellectuals' of the country, ready to become `proud' at the drop of a hat.
While terming the reports as nothing more than a "carefully worded navy statement", he has drawn attention to some facts. These have been conveniently buried under the carpet to drum up euphoria. Firstly, warships from at least nine countries are currently patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Next, there is no vessel class called "mother ship". Pirates use high speed gunboats to overtake and board their targets and use any vessel – maybe their own fishing boats or a captured ship – to base these gunboats in.
Under UN Security Council resolution 1816, passed in June, only States co-operating with Somalia's transitional government are permitted, for a period of six months, to enter its territorial waters to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea. Only these "international forces" are allowed to use "all necessary means in a manner consistent with relevant provisions of international law." Even they are not supposed to lord over the territory, sinking vessels that refuse to `obey' them. Moreover, there are serious differences on the composition of the `transitional government' itself.
INS Tabar (the word roughly translates to a primitive axe) is a stealth frigate with an arsenal of Barak missiles. It is of the class to be armed with BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles. Only on October 23 did India mark its presence, with this frigate, alongside Russia, Spain, France, South Korea, the US, and NATO. The four-ship contingent of NATO is meant to escort vessels chartered by the World Food Program to Somali ports under UN mandate. Greek and an Italian warships too escort cargo ships chartered by the UN. They conduct `deterrence' patrols along with Turkish and British frigates in the Gulf of Aden. The Fifth Fleet of the US, based in Bahrain, is for policing the coast to secure oil assets of its companies, with several ships stationed in the region,. The US-led Combined Task Force-150 has Pakistan taking part. India is not a part of this initiative.
The Navy claims that INS Tabar has escorted 35 ships safely through the "pirate-infested waters." The Indian government is talking of despatching guided-missile destroyer INS Mysore to the region, in replacement of INS Tabar. Significantly, none of the other warships in the scene, far more powerful than the frigate, have claimed credit for deliberately sinking a vessel so far. This month, warships from Europe did engage in a firefight, but that was AFTER pirates attempted to hijack a Danish ship.
Piracy on the high seas is a stark fact of world trade since ages. Sailors take it as a calculated risk as a payoff for providing good life to themselves and their kin. It is true that incidences in the Gulf of Aden have seen a spike in recent times. But, the fall out of piracy there on India's basic interests has been overstated out of all proportion.
To anyone not directly involved in the shipping industry, the main effect of increase in pirate attack is limited to marginal increase in prices of imported items. Insurance companies suffer big losses but their business is to cover losses. They recoup the losses by increasing premium they charge to shippers. Shipping companies pass on their increased costs – ransoms (if not covered by insurance), extra fuel for longer routes as well as higher insurance premiums—by hiking freight charges. Eventually the hikes find their way onto the high street and the consumer pays up.
International Maritime Organisation chief, Efthimios Mitropoulos, has spoken of "a series of negative repercussions" if ships had to reroute away from Aden. Going around the Cape of Good Hope adds about 12 days to a typical Gulf-to-Europe voyage, delaying oil supplies, and potentially raising freight rates by 25-30 per cent. But, it should be noted that freight and insurance are small elements in the total cost of imported goods.
Pirates needs to be tackled with a lot of tact, similar to that in providing security in banks on-land. Precipitate actions on high seas can be compared with a hot-headed adventurist trying to foil a bank robbery `bravely', putting the lives and properties of others in peril. Even the top brass and authorised armed guards are required to follow laid down rules and procedures in case of heist attempts. Civilised societies severely punish any violation of norms. That is what distinguishes civilised entities from pirates! Moreover, deliberate sinking of a vessel, that could well be carrying toxic cargo, could trigger a catastrophe.
Piracy is estimated to have cost the world an estimated $60-70m this year. This hardly justifies any hot-headed action on the part of nation states, at the grave risk of violating rights of citizens of other nations. It is of note that Saudi Arabia's foreign minister declared that his government will not negotiate with pirates who seized the largest supertanker carrying Saudi crude. He added that what the ship's owners did was up to them. Even in the case of MV Stolt Valor (A handsome random was paid to get its crew, including 18 Indians, released after two months.), it was a tangle between the pirates, ship owners and the crew. The governments of Japan or India did not have any role to play, despite all the public outcry.
Subsequent to the dramatic `action' by Indian Navy, a number of media reports were planted to claim it has been `welcomed' by the international authorities. Critical examination of the `approvals' and their origin would bring out reality. London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) did indeed welcome deployment of more Indian warships in the region and hailed the "action that the Indian Navy has taken." What IMB's manager Cyrus Mody added was conveniently ignored. "You don't need to blow the pirate ships out of water. You confiscate their boats and their arms. You disrupt their working. . . You go to them (mother ships), board them if they allow you. You act on suspicion, and confirm your suspicion, THEN take appropriate action."
he earlier incident reported by INS Tabar did conform to this legitimacy. Upon receipt of an SOS from Saudi Arabia-registered merchant vessel "MV Timaha" helicopter-borne commandoes of Indian Navy opened fire on pirates making repeated attempts to board her. When this was going on, the Navy claimed, a second group tried to board a 38,000-tonne bulk carrier owned by India's Great Eastern Shipping Co but did not put up a fight.
Shipping behemoths are aware of the high stakes they have in avoiding precipitate actions. International Association of Independent Tanker Owners too has appealed, "We need immediate action from governments to protect these vital trade lanes – robust action in the form of greater naval and military support." But, acting in concert with an appropriated authority, rather than haphazardly and arbitrarily.
It is now conceded that the problem with Somalia is not with piracy basically, but in robbing its people of their livelihoods. According to Katie Stuhldrehe, an expert in the matter, dense traffic by hundreds of ships rushing through the narrow lane leave a legacy of toxic wastes and oil slicks. While being of no benefit to the population, frequent breakup of huge vessels in accidents, as well as deliberate discharge of highly toxic waste cause untold damage to the coastal environment. Shipping tycoons did not care to control it, as a result of which fishing has been ruined. It was already under squeeze due to the presence of huge fishing trawlers.
Rather than solving the problem justly, aspiring naval powers flexed their muscle in the past, like the Indian frigate has done now. The anarchy in Somalia is due to such blatant aggressions, committed in narrow interests of these powers. It was compounded by big-brotherly attitude of Ethiopia. "Making the coastal areas lucrative for local fishermen again could encourage pirates to return to legitimate livelihoods," Stuhldrehe has concluded. She has warned that as long as Somalia continues to exist without an effective government, lawlessness within the country and off its lengthy coast will only grow.
Experts in shipping, insurance, geopolitics and environment are working hard to find a holistic solution. It is not going to be cakewalk as any flash-in-the-pan type solution may end up creating far more serious problems. International Maritime Organisation (IMO) too has realized the need: "Coordinated and cohesive response at the international level is necessary for the safety and well-being of seafarers and for seamless delivery of humanitarian aid to Somalia."
The volume of India's international trade being less than 1 per cent of global trade, nobody is going to fault the country for not participating in any policing effort in high seas. The country is miserably short of resources to put together a decent naval presence in its own territorial waters to prevent poaching by big-time trawlers, depriving fishermen using primitive gear. There is no coast guard set up worth the name to protect beaches from pollution and smuggling.
Also, the country is groping with enough problems stemming from deprivation of the masses and loss of livelihoods, leading to uprisings in every region. In the circumstances, wisdom lies in making only the contributions as called upon by the UN, rather than trying to upstage others.
Of course, occasional fireworks help stoking the ego of `educated' ones, mainly from the higher strata of society. Inheriting a comfortable living without having to work hard and without having to support kin, this section prefers to never look beyond what sycophants feed them, fearing the starkness of reality. Fishing in troubled waters, which the foreign affairs pundits of New Delhi have a habit of practicing – for the benefit of this constituency – has only masked, rather than addressed the issues.
If the establishment continues to serve a limited constituency and be incapable of tackling internal conflicts fairly, India may perhaps be gradually inching in the direction of current-day Somalia. Moreover, cheerleaders of the muscle-flexing overseas must realize that loyalty lies not in the unquestioned lauding of questionable actions. The contagion could rapidly spread to the other arms and erode the basic fabric of society. New Delhi has only to look in the neighbourhood for examples of where such perverted patriotism has led them to.
The Indian establishment has the habit of crushing dissent against injustice in different locations by employing brute force and deadly weapons. Whole communities have been demonized as terrorists, denying them due process of law. Is New Delhi trying to extend the tactics adopted within its territory in the name of fighting terrorism to international waters in the name of fighting piracy? Such Machiavellian tactics need to be probed before it becomes too late.
PS: Reparations to ASEAN crew of the Thai trawler sunk by half wits may work out more than the ransom paid by the Japanese company for MV Stolt Valor. Babus in New Delhi will add their own margins to the sums for covering up what is admitted as "unfortunate tragedy". One question to all these perverted patriots speaking for immature sailors assuming themselves to be British Navy! (It wisely and deliberately advised the trawler owner to bide time): Are they prepared to get job as port workers, rather than in cushy desks and parental gadhis and contribute a percentage of hard-earned wages to make up the money? No, it will only be squeezed out from poor citizens!
copyright : NM Sampathkumar Iyangar
Media outfits of India, without exception, have been showering accolades on the brave sailors of Indian Navy. Impressionable citizens are enjoying another bout of euphoria. India has `arrived' as a premier naval power. It is flexing muscles for the cause of "global welfare" by fighting to eradicate the scourge of high seas piracy!
For a people looking for some avenue to `feel high' amidst stark realities of utter chaos and misery, it has come as sunshine. A scan of reports emanating from outside India, however, raises some disturbing questions. The Indian Navy's `feat' of sinking a vessel on Nov 19 off Somalia may turn out to be unwise adventurism. Far from what the establishment makes it out to be, it may have put India in the horns of a dilemma.
Shorn of all patriotic adulation that the Indian media often employs to be on the `right side' of the establishment, there is not much to write home about. The `action' seen by Indian Navy after a long interlude of 37 years since the Bangladesh war has been reported as under:
Commander Nirad Sinha "claimed" in a briefing: "INS Tabar encountered a pirate vessel south west of Oman with two speedboats in tow. This vessel was similar in description to the 'mother vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins. INS Tabar closed in on the vessel and asked her to stop for investigation. Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of the vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar."
It was later clarified that the crew of INS Tabar "REQUESTED that the pirate vessel stop to allow a search" but its crew responded with a "threat to sink her if she came any closer." Tabar fired on the crew, which the Navy described as "retaliatory strike". Even before being fired at, Tabar "defended herself by firing back" and a large explosion occurred on the "pirate vessel".
The Navy speculated that the explosion may have been caused by the "weapons cache of the pirates" but refrained from disclosing its logic in assuming vessel to be of pirates. The attack continued for about three to four more hours and resulted in the sinking of what was claimed to be the pirate's "mother ship". INS Tabar also forced the abandonment of another vessel from which "pirates" managed to "escape via a speedboat under the cover of darkness."
These claims are taken with a pinch of salt by independent analysts, in the context of allegations of "fake encounters" enacted by the cops and officers of the armed forces within the territory. The government has had to refer several incidents, after concerted public outcry at attempts at suppressing them, to courts for transparent investigation. Quite a few of the `adventures' turned out as stage-managed encounters, done in the quest for being decorated, awarded and rewarded with promotions. Also, most passengers in crowded trains have experienced anarchic behaviour of soldiers, moving in groups, towards the common public.
MK Bhadrakumar, a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), is among the very few knowledgeable Indians who refused to be overwhelmed by high-pressure propaganda. He has worked on assignments in the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey and is too rational to buy foreign ministry-speak at face value, unlike typical `intellectuals' of the country, ready to become `proud' at the drop of a hat.
While terming the reports as nothing more than a "carefully worded navy statement", he has drawn attention to some facts. These have been conveniently buried under the carpet to drum up euphoria. Firstly, warships from at least nine countries are currently patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Next, there is no vessel class called "mother ship". Pirates use high speed gunboats to overtake and board their targets and use any vessel – maybe their own fishing boats or a captured ship – to base these gunboats in.
Under UN Security Council resolution 1816, passed in June, only States co-operating with Somalia's transitional government are permitted, for a period of six months, to enter its territorial waters to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea. Only these "international forces" are allowed to use "all necessary means in a manner consistent with relevant provisions of international law." Even they are not supposed to lord over the territory, sinking vessels that refuse to `obey' them. Moreover, there are serious differences on the composition of the `transitional government' itself.
INS Tabar (the word roughly translates to a primitive axe) is a stealth frigate with an arsenal of Barak missiles. It is of the class to be armed with BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles. Only on October 23 did India mark its presence, with this frigate, alongside Russia, Spain, France, South Korea, the US, and NATO. The four-ship contingent of NATO is meant to escort vessels chartered by the World Food Program to Somali ports under UN mandate. Greek and an Italian warships too escort cargo ships chartered by the UN. They conduct `deterrence' patrols along with Turkish and British frigates in the Gulf of Aden. The Fifth Fleet of the US, based in Bahrain, is for policing the coast to secure oil assets of its companies, with several ships stationed in the region,. The US-led Combined Task Force-150 has Pakistan taking part. India is not a part of this initiative.
The Navy claims that INS Tabar has escorted 35 ships safely through the "pirate-infested waters." The Indian government is talking of despatching guided-missile destroyer INS Mysore to the region, in replacement of INS Tabar. Significantly, none of the other warships in the scene, far more powerful than the frigate, have claimed credit for deliberately sinking a vessel so far. This month, warships from Europe did engage in a firefight, but that was AFTER pirates attempted to hijack a Danish ship.
Piracy on the high seas is a stark fact of world trade since ages. Sailors take it as a calculated risk as a payoff for providing good life to themselves and their kin. It is true that incidences in the Gulf of Aden have seen a spike in recent times. But, the fall out of piracy there on India's basic interests has been overstated out of all proportion.
To anyone not directly involved in the shipping industry, the main effect of increase in pirate attack is limited to marginal increase in prices of imported items. Insurance companies suffer big losses but their business is to cover losses. They recoup the losses by increasing premium they charge to shippers. Shipping companies pass on their increased costs – ransoms (if not covered by insurance), extra fuel for longer routes as well as higher insurance premiums—by hiking freight charges. Eventually the hikes find their way onto the high street and the consumer pays up.
International Maritime Organisation chief, Efthimios Mitropoulos, has spoken of "a series of negative repercussions" if ships had to reroute away from Aden. Going around the Cape of Good Hope adds about 12 days to a typical Gulf-to-Europe voyage, delaying oil supplies, and potentially raising freight rates by 25-30 per cent. But, it should be noted that freight and insurance are small elements in the total cost of imported goods.
Pirates needs to be tackled with a lot of tact, similar to that in providing security in banks on-land. Precipitate actions on high seas can be compared with a hot-headed adventurist trying to foil a bank robbery `bravely', putting the lives and properties of others in peril. Even the top brass and authorised armed guards are required to follow laid down rules and procedures in case of heist attempts. Civilised societies severely punish any violation of norms. That is what distinguishes civilised entities from pirates! Moreover, deliberate sinking of a vessel, that could well be carrying toxic cargo, could trigger a catastrophe.
Piracy is estimated to have cost the world an estimated $60-70m this year. This hardly justifies any hot-headed action on the part of nation states, at the grave risk of violating rights of citizens of other nations. It is of note that Saudi Arabia's foreign minister declared that his government will not negotiate with pirates who seized the largest supertanker carrying Saudi crude. He added that what the ship's owners did was up to them. Even in the case of MV Stolt Valor (A handsome random was paid to get its crew, including 18 Indians, released after two months.), it was a tangle between the pirates, ship owners and the crew. The governments of Japan or India did not have any role to play, despite all the public outcry.
Subsequent to the dramatic `action' by Indian Navy, a number of media reports were planted to claim it has been `welcomed' by the international authorities. Critical examination of the `approvals' and their origin would bring out reality. London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) did indeed welcome deployment of more Indian warships in the region and hailed the "action that the Indian Navy has taken." What IMB's manager Cyrus Mody added was conveniently ignored. "You don't need to blow the pirate ships out of water. You confiscate their boats and their arms. You disrupt their working. . . You go to them (mother ships), board them if they allow you. You act on suspicion, and confirm your suspicion, THEN take appropriate action."
he earlier incident reported by INS Tabar did conform to this legitimacy. Upon receipt of an SOS from Saudi Arabia-registered merchant vessel "MV Timaha" helicopter-borne commandoes of Indian Navy opened fire on pirates making repeated attempts to board her. When this was going on, the Navy claimed, a second group tried to board a 38,000-tonne bulk carrier owned by India's Great Eastern Shipping Co but did not put up a fight.
Shipping behemoths are aware of the high stakes they have in avoiding precipitate actions. International Association of Independent Tanker Owners too has appealed, "We need immediate action from governments to protect these vital trade lanes – robust action in the form of greater naval and military support." But, acting in concert with an appropriated authority, rather than haphazardly and arbitrarily.
It is now conceded that the problem with Somalia is not with piracy basically, but in robbing its people of their livelihoods. According to Katie Stuhldrehe, an expert in the matter, dense traffic by hundreds of ships rushing through the narrow lane leave a legacy of toxic wastes and oil slicks. While being of no benefit to the population, frequent breakup of huge vessels in accidents, as well as deliberate discharge of highly toxic waste cause untold damage to the coastal environment. Shipping tycoons did not care to control it, as a result of which fishing has been ruined. It was already under squeeze due to the presence of huge fishing trawlers.
Rather than solving the problem justly, aspiring naval powers flexed their muscle in the past, like the Indian frigate has done now. The anarchy in Somalia is due to such blatant aggressions, committed in narrow interests of these powers. It was compounded by big-brotherly attitude of Ethiopia. "Making the coastal areas lucrative for local fishermen again could encourage pirates to return to legitimate livelihoods," Stuhldrehe has concluded. She has warned that as long as Somalia continues to exist without an effective government, lawlessness within the country and off its lengthy coast will only grow.
Experts in shipping, insurance, geopolitics and environment are working hard to find a holistic solution. It is not going to be cakewalk as any flash-in-the-pan type solution may end up creating far more serious problems. International Maritime Organisation (IMO) too has realized the need: "Coordinated and cohesive response at the international level is necessary for the safety and well-being of seafarers and for seamless delivery of humanitarian aid to Somalia."
The volume of India's international trade being less than 1 per cent of global trade, nobody is going to fault the country for not participating in any policing effort in high seas. The country is miserably short of resources to put together a decent naval presence in its own territorial waters to prevent poaching by big-time trawlers, depriving fishermen using primitive gear. There is no coast guard set up worth the name to protect beaches from pollution and smuggling.
Also, the country is groping with enough problems stemming from deprivation of the masses and loss of livelihoods, leading to uprisings in every region. In the circumstances, wisdom lies in making only the contributions as called upon by the UN, rather than trying to upstage others.
Of course, occasional fireworks help stoking the ego of `educated' ones, mainly from the higher strata of society. Inheriting a comfortable living without having to work hard and without having to support kin, this section prefers to never look beyond what sycophants feed them, fearing the starkness of reality. Fishing in troubled waters, which the foreign affairs pundits of New Delhi have a habit of practicing – for the benefit of this constituency – has only masked, rather than addressed the issues.
If the establishment continues to serve a limited constituency and be incapable of tackling internal conflicts fairly, India may perhaps be gradually inching in the direction of current-day Somalia. Moreover, cheerleaders of the muscle-flexing overseas must realize that loyalty lies not in the unquestioned lauding of questionable actions. The contagion could rapidly spread to the other arms and erode the basic fabric of society. New Delhi has only to look in the neighbourhood for examples of where such perverted patriotism has led them to.
The Indian establishment has the habit of crushing dissent against injustice in different locations by employing brute force and deadly weapons. Whole communities have been demonized as terrorists, denying them due process of law. Is New Delhi trying to extend the tactics adopted within its territory in the name of fighting terrorism to international waters in the name of fighting piracy? Such Machiavellian tactics need to be probed before it becomes too late.
PS: Reparations to ASEAN crew of the Thai trawler sunk by half wits may work out more than the ransom paid by the Japanese company for MV Stolt Valor. Babus in New Delhi will add their own margins to the sums for covering up what is admitted as "unfortunate tragedy". One question to all these perverted patriots speaking for immature sailors assuming themselves to be British Navy! (It wisely and deliberately advised the trawler owner to bide time): Are they prepared to get job as port workers, rather than in cushy desks and parental gadhis and contribute a percentage of hard-earned wages to make up the money? No, it will only be squeezed out from poor citizens!
copyright : NM Sampathkumar Iyangar
November 19, 2008
Rural employment or waste of manpower
The government may have started the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and club it as a success but the question remains about the productivity of the scheme.
There are various audits by different agencies as to the scheme is implemented but there are fewer checks on where and for what purpose the labourers were used.
Though the government is claiming 3 crore families benefited from NREG, the matter of fact is that the government has lost all these money because the work carried out under these schemes were not only unnecessary but was completely futile.
At some places the contractors had to give minimum wages and so the labourers were asked to till waste land and few days later they were asked to level the same land again.
Instead the government should have formed a pool and supplied labour to the necessary sector like agriculture or construction etc or its own road building etc.
The tax payers money is distributed without any productivity
There are various audits by different agencies as to the scheme is implemented but there are fewer checks on where and for what purpose the labourers were used.
Though the government is claiming 3 crore families benefited from NREG, the matter of fact is that the government has lost all these money because the work carried out under these schemes were not only unnecessary but was completely futile.
At some places the contractors had to give minimum wages and so the labourers were asked to till waste land and few days later they were asked to level the same land again.
Instead the government should have formed a pool and supplied labour to the necessary sector like agriculture or construction etc or its own road building etc.
The tax payers money is distributed without any productivity
October 06, 2008
Ripley’s Believe it or not
When some organizations with no identity claims it planted bombs in various parts of India, every Indian believes it and more so the police and the media. The media doesn’t even cross verify and pronounces the verdict even before any trial begins. The television cameras act more as AK56 guns than shouldering the responsibility of the fourth estate. But when a Maoist leader publicly claims again and again that they have killed a swami in Orissa, no one believes. The Hindu outfits very convincingly say the Maoists have not killed the Swami. How can they be so confident in saying this? Unless of course they themselves are involved.
Today the police and the sham investigations in India have become a national past time for television channels to boost their TRP rankings. Though none of the television channels make money, more channels surface every month. This results in more mics which prompts police and politicians to come to a conclusion before the trial begins. When Akshardham was attacked, L K Advani visited the site and declared the names and origins of the two terrorists killed. Now years after this unfortunate incident, there is no clue of what happened in Akshardham. No body has questioned from where Advani got that information and how could he be so accurate in declaring even the names of places in Pakistan from where they came from?
But one thing which has changed is the way terrorists are ‘made’ to operate. Earlier every terrorist will come with some dates in a plastic bag bearing the address of some Muslim locality with magazines made in Pakistan. They will also have a letter written in chaste Urdu saying they want to destroy India and they will also have a geographical map. No, I am not narrating a Bollywood film story but what happened across India. Now that this style of operations are pretty familiar and will be ‘caught’ in the public eye, the terrorists come in cycles and plant bombs. The irony is that each state catches a master mind and arranges a press conference to declare that they have caught the main person behind all the blasts. No one in the media cross examines the police theory. Those who attempts to do will be a black sheep. But well before the dust settles, another state catches another master mind and declares the same claim. Now the joke is that behind every blasts, there is a mind, an assistant master mind, a deputy master mind, a chief master mind, a Inspect General mind and a Master Mind director general. If this hierarchy can be followed by establishment why not the terrorists?
The more media entering into the arena, we see more surrendering tactics. Earlier we had a few newspapers and magazines but they put the establishments on their toes. Today we have thousands but none of them effective. The reason is the brand of journalists we have today. The earlier commitment and passion of journalism has now turned into a money making profession. Nothing wrong in that because everyone needs money, why single out journalists alone. But the institutions that functions as journalism schools today are nothing but sham institutes, producing nothing but craps.
Journalism is dead in this country. RIP
Today the police and the sham investigations in India have become a national past time for television channels to boost their TRP rankings. Though none of the television channels make money, more channels surface every month. This results in more mics which prompts police and politicians to come to a conclusion before the trial begins. When Akshardham was attacked, L K Advani visited the site and declared the names and origins of the two terrorists killed. Now years after this unfortunate incident, there is no clue of what happened in Akshardham. No body has questioned from where Advani got that information and how could he be so accurate in declaring even the names of places in Pakistan from where they came from?
But one thing which has changed is the way terrorists are ‘made’ to operate. Earlier every terrorist will come with some dates in a plastic bag bearing the address of some Muslim locality with magazines made in Pakistan. They will also have a letter written in chaste Urdu saying they want to destroy India and they will also have a geographical map. No, I am not narrating a Bollywood film story but what happened across India. Now that this style of operations are pretty familiar and will be ‘caught’ in the public eye, the terrorists come in cycles and plant bombs. The irony is that each state catches a master mind and arranges a press conference to declare that they have caught the main person behind all the blasts. No one in the media cross examines the police theory. Those who attempts to do will be a black sheep. But well before the dust settles, another state catches another master mind and declares the same claim. Now the joke is that behind every blasts, there is a mind, an assistant master mind, a deputy master mind, a chief master mind, a Inspect General mind and a Master Mind director general. If this hierarchy can be followed by establishment why not the terrorists?
The more media entering into the arena, we see more surrendering tactics. Earlier we had a few newspapers and magazines but they put the establishments on their toes. Today we have thousands but none of them effective. The reason is the brand of journalists we have today. The earlier commitment and passion of journalism has now turned into a money making profession. Nothing wrong in that because everyone needs money, why single out journalists alone. But the institutions that functions as journalism schools today are nothing but sham institutes, producing nothing but craps.
Journalism is dead in this country. RIP
For the namesake
If America took a big hit with Osama Bin Laden practical approach of terrorism, the impact has started appearing. No, it is not any murderous attempt but the namesakes. Take for example Obama which rhymes with Osama. Biden is a shortened form of Bin Laden who stays in the Barracks of Pak-Afghan border. And all these three are major players in American politics. Surprised by three? Yes, this includes Bin Laden too.
July 28, 2008
Is Alexa the most reliable tool for web statistics?
Most media planners in India depend on Alexa rankings to determine the website ranking. But the media planners or those who use Alexa use it because there is no other way one can determine the traffic except from the owners of the domain themselves. In most cases the domain owners exaggerate the traffic figures. The other option is to ask for google analytics which is the most authentic figures since Google pays for the ads that is displayed on the domains. Now again the traffic that you see at the first instance is for home page while there are various sub pages which should be calculated cumulatively to get to a conclusion of web traffic.
Now this traffic doesn’t calculate the quality of traffic to your sites. Take for example a person with annual income of 3 lakhs visiting a site and a person worth 10 billion visiting the same site. How do you judge the quality of these two individuals? In other words the person with 10 billion is worth traffic of thousands. It is not possible to determine that. But it is possible to guess who will come to a particular site according to the nature of the site. If it is a media site, it will be media players, if it is a logistics site, it will be logistics industry and same goes with commodity players. Now the best way is to judge is to see how rich is the particular sector.
Want to see how Alexa is limited to those who have their tools installed in the sytem? By the admission of Alexa on their site, ‘Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day.’
Now read again. It says unique Alexa users and not the users of your domain name.
It further says ‘ Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.
It adds that Alexa's traffic rankings are for top level domains only (e.g. domain.com). We do not provide separate rankings for subpages within a domain (e.g. www.domain.com/subpage.html) or subdomains (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) unless we are able to automatically identify them as personal home pages or blogs, like those hosted on Geocities and Tripod. If a site is identified as a personal home page or blog, its traffic ranking will have an asterisk (*) next to it: Personal Page Avg. Traffic Rank: 3,456*. Personal pages are ranked on the same scale as a regular domain, so a personal page ranked 3,456* is the 3,456th most popular page among Alexa users.’
Now here is the Alexa tool bar which you have to download and install in order to determine which sites you visit : http://www.alexa.com/site/download/
So there is a toolbar community of Alexa users who gives web statistics to Alexa. Simply by using the Firefox and IE toolbars each member contributes valuable information about the web, how it is used, what is important and what is not. This information is returned to the community as Related Links, Traffic Rankings and more. The Alexa ranking is a relative measure of the number of Alexa toolbar users that visit the site. If your visitors include a high percentage of people using the toolbar, you’ll have a disproportionally low Alexa number. There are even automated bots that can game the Alexa ranking without you even having to visit your own site.
So why is everyone bothering so much about their Alexa ranking? Just because the web has developed but some tools are yet to be developed. For that to take place there are some copyright infringements involved. If IE and Firefox, two of the most used internet tool has to integrate collection of web statistics, you are automatically given to understand that it is intruding your privacy. So that is not taking place for want of legal issues. But that is the only way to truly determine the web statistics, not Alexa.
Now this traffic doesn’t calculate the quality of traffic to your sites. Take for example a person with annual income of 3 lakhs visiting a site and a person worth 10 billion visiting the same site. How do you judge the quality of these two individuals? In other words the person with 10 billion is worth traffic of thousands. It is not possible to determine that. But it is possible to guess who will come to a particular site according to the nature of the site. If it is a media site, it will be media players, if it is a logistics site, it will be logistics industry and same goes with commodity players. Now the best way is to judge is to see how rich is the particular sector.
Want to see how Alexa is limited to those who have their tools installed in the sytem? By the admission of Alexa on their site, ‘Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day.’
Now read again. It says unique Alexa users and not the users of your domain name.
It further says ‘ Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.
It adds that Alexa's traffic rankings are for top level domains only (e.g. domain.com). We do not provide separate rankings for subpages within a domain (e.g. www.domain.com/subpage.html) or subdomains (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) unless we are able to automatically identify them as personal home pages or blogs, like those hosted on Geocities and Tripod. If a site is identified as a personal home page or blog, its traffic ranking will have an asterisk (*) next to it: Personal Page Avg. Traffic Rank: 3,456*. Personal pages are ranked on the same scale as a regular domain, so a personal page ranked 3,456* is the 3,456th most popular page among Alexa users.’
Now here is the Alexa tool bar which you have to download and install in order to determine which sites you visit : http://www.alexa.com/site/download/
So there is a toolbar community of Alexa users who gives web statistics to Alexa. Simply by using the Firefox and IE toolbars each member contributes valuable information about the web, how it is used, what is important and what is not. This information is returned to the community as Related Links, Traffic Rankings and more. The Alexa ranking is a relative measure of the number of Alexa toolbar users that visit the site. If your visitors include a high percentage of people using the toolbar, you’ll have a disproportionally low Alexa number. There are even automated bots that can game the Alexa ranking without you even having to visit your own site.
So why is everyone bothering so much about their Alexa ranking? Just because the web has developed but some tools are yet to be developed. For that to take place there are some copyright infringements involved. If IE and Firefox, two of the most used internet tool has to integrate collection of web statistics, you are automatically given to understand that it is intruding your privacy. So that is not taking place for want of legal issues. But that is the only way to truly determine the web statistics, not Alexa.
July 27, 2008
Yet another, yes - yet another blast
Yet another day and yet another series of bomb blasts. And yet another number of casualties and yet another enquiry and yet another report and yet another memory loss and yet another election – every thing rotates around yet another unknown, unseen power that runs the country – despite all its ill falls. Yes this is the story of Bangalore and Ahmedabad bombs. Now it is not clear who has planted these bombs though an organization named Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility. Different people have different opinions. My neighbour says it is Pakistan while his employee says it is the Congress or BJP. Very interestingly my maid says it is Asaram Bapu who wanted to divert the attention.
But who will benefit from these blasts? Actually no one. Everyone will have only misplaced stories to tell on the blasts.
Winners
Political parties : Blame game on each other especially in the election y ear. Parties like BJP can even take advantage of this situation though the people of Gujarat cannot be foxed as it has done in 2002. So relax, there cannot be another sectarian violence
NGOs : Yet another opportunity to send press releases and condemnations from their plush offices. Yet another chance to show case and seek more funds for communal harmony and brotherhood
Losers
Common man
But who will benefit from these blasts? Actually no one. Everyone will have only misplaced stories to tell on the blasts.
Winners
Political parties : Blame game on each other especially in the election y ear. Parties like BJP can even take advantage of this situation though the people of Gujarat cannot be foxed as it has done in 2002. So relax, there cannot be another sectarian violence
NGOs : Yet another opportunity to send press releases and condemnations from their plush offices. Yet another chance to show case and seek more funds for communal harmony and brotherhood
Losers
Common man
April 25, 2008
Any Simon Wiesenthal for Gujarat?
Binu Alex
A number of movies all over the world depict how one man can change the system or the world. Well, that is not as easy task as depicted in movies. You cannot have a screen Arnold Schwarzenegger in real life. But there are people who try and try till they live. Simon Wiesenthal was one of those fighters who died at the age of 96.
He lived and died for a cause. He was a holocaust survivor turned Nazi-hunter. He brought to book many Nazi war criminals who would have otherwise got unpunished. But on the sidelines, it is also true that many of the survivors or their generations were least bothered about the pain and agony their forefathers have gone through. A few of the concentration camp survivors followed Wiesenthal in his mission. Though there will be hardly any Nazi war criminals left to be punished, the fact that many of them went without any punishment is itself a blot in the history of justice.
That was during World War II. Information age was yet to catch up during those times. But today at this modern age where religion, caste, nationality ceased to exist in a competitive world, we still have Adolf Eichmann and Franz Stangl types around us, alas we don’t have a Wiesenthal to enact a rewind.
If Eichmann and Stangl were some of the architects of the Holocaust we have far too many today.
Take the case of Sikh Massacres in 1984 or the
If anyone had the chance to visit any commission hearings, they will agree to this. The latest hearing is in the Nanavati-Shah commission where there are thousands of affidavits to be heard and cross examined. Prosecutors, one after the other, put up questions as if they are conducting an interview for a civil services examination. Many witnesses are dummies created by the government and those survivors who muster courage to come up for the examination cannot withstand the onslaught. Days, weeks and months and perhaps years, the commission drags on and gradually people forget what had happened to them and life gets back to normal until one day the commission presents its reports, mostly decades after the incident, and it becomes a tool for the opposition parties to play with for a short period of time.
That is democracy at its best. A democracy cannot provide justice to victims of such holocaust. What it can do at the best is to give the country people like Justice B N Srikrishna but at the same time trash his report on the riots in
It is sad for
Public memory is short. That is the reason that the victims of holocaust forgot that they endured the worst crime ever possible to humanity. But Wiesenthal did not. He slogged and slogged to bring the war criminals to justice.
But then how come the victims of Indian holocausts, whether it is
“You can forgive crimes committed against you personally, but in my opinion you are not authorized to forgive for others.”
These are the famous quotes credited to Simon Wiesenthal and how true it plays in today’s world is evident from the fact that we have forgiven – knowingly or unknowingly- all our criminals. So much so that some of them have contested and won elections. More than 89 of Wiesenthal’s’ family members - including his mother, stepfather, stepbrother and his wife - died in the Holocaust and perhaps this gave him the inner courage to fight. But compare that to the Indian scenario. It is not the survivors or the victims who are fighting for justice but rather people who have not lost anything in the mindless violence. Perhaps the survivors may not endure to fight in the melee of a huge number of NGOs who look for such opportunities to make name, fame and money. In the deluge of such unscrupulous organizations, genuine NGOs sink with no trace to know which one is genuine and which one is not.
Wiesenthal’s efforts bore fruit. Jewish
If we can produce a Wiesenthal, then we may perhaps avoid producing Eichmann and Stangl type of villains or else we need to produce a Schindler on whom we have to depend heavily to prepare a long list.
© Binu Alex
Health shops Vs Beauty shops
Dial for Health, Planet Health, Health Conscious. These are some swanky shops that sell medicines – oops, sorry, they don’t sell medicines but beauty products.
I think everyone of you have gone through this experience of getting into one of these chain of shops to buy a life saving drug and then returning with a shampoo, soap or a napkin. Yes, because the chances are they may not have the drug you have asked for. They are just an extension of the big mall culture that is coming up in the country. You will need to go to the medicine shop nearby your home or office to buy that tablet.
Planet Health claims it is a niche distributor of natural health products selected for their quality, reputation, innovation, ethics and philosophy. But I don’t see any of these. I always got a no to any sundry medicine I asked for. Instead they push for their membership card saying it has lot many benefits.
Dial For Health says they will deliver the products home. But the pity is that they don’t have any health products. They have beauty enhancing products instead. Go to any shop and you can yourself see how much space is consumed by health and how much by beauty. The biggest problem, as I see, is that many of these shops are owned by pharmaceutical companies. Dial for Health is by Zydus Cadila. But the irony is that even their own products are not available in these shops.
I think everyone of you have gone through this experience of getting into one of these chain of shops to buy a life saving drug and then returning with a shampoo, soap or a napkin. Yes, because the chances are they may not have the drug you have asked for. They are just an extension of the big mall culture that is coming up in the country. You will need to go to the medicine shop nearby your home or office to buy that tablet.
Planet Health claims it is a niche distributor of natural health products selected for their quality, reputation, innovation, ethics and philosophy. But I don’t see any of these. I always got a no to any sundry medicine I asked for. Instead they push for their membership card saying it has lot many benefits.
Dial For Health says they will deliver the products home. But the pity is that they don’t have any health products. They have beauty enhancing products instead. Go to any shop and you can yourself see how much space is consumed by health and how much by beauty. The biggest problem, as I see, is that many of these shops are owned by pharmaceutical companies. Dial for Health is by Zydus Cadila. But the irony is that even their own products are not available in these shops.
Who benefits from a Pay Commission?
Since the First Pay Commission was established in 1956 it is generally believed that all government employees benefit from it. Their salaries are revised and determined from time to time, here in this case for a ten-year period. But who are these government employees who benefits?
It is the creamy layer of the government employees who benefit from this pay rise. Take the case of a Chief Commissioner of Customs or Income Tax. The new pay commission will fix his salary at around 80,000 per month plus the perks like official car, accommodation and the usual extra income that comes unofficially. Now what is his work? No body has really examined what work these creamy layers of large organizations like Income tax or Customs are assigned or function. Their primary job is to waste at least a dozen employees at their disposal. There will be two peons, a driver, an officer on special duty to him and the staff under him and his personal secretary and junior personal secretary. He signs hardly two files a day but chats for hours with colleagues all over the country and perhaps orders service tea on an hourly basis. A service tea basically serves for at least three people and so the peons take the advantage of the rest of the tea and milk. Some of them pack the sugar and tea daily home or else it goes waste.
Now imagine a scenario without this post. His salary would employ at least a dozen employees and he already has a dozen. So altogether each top officer wastes twenty-four employees. Believe me we don’t have a dearth of such top-level officials in any department. Consider this. The number of Chief Commissioners of Income tax in Gujarat is more than the number of Lower Division Clerks in that particular department. Out of 3.3 million employees who will benefit from the implementation, 80 percent of the money will go to seven percent of this workforce. What a waste?
That is also the reason why the federal government's wage bill for serving and retired employees shot from Rs 218.85 billion in 1996-1997 to Rs 435.68 billion in 1999-2000 after the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented.
These are the creamy layers for whom the pay commissions work. And who threatens the government with dire consequences for setting it up? The poor class three and four employees. A World Bank report indicates that Indian government employee strength may not be too large but lacks balance in the skills. It pointed the Fifth Pay Commission as the 'single largest adverse shock' to India's strained public finances. The report says 93 per cent of the civil service comprised class III and class IV employees which means only seven percent takes away more than what they deserve. So 93 percent will strike work to serve for seven percentages!
Many wondered after the disbursal of arrears of the last pay commission why there was no improvement in the functioning of the government servants. Well it was because the creamy layer took the chunk of the money and it is anyone’s guess why its implementation destroyed the finances of the central and state governments.
But then why no corrections are made even after decades of such anomalies? That is primarily because the creamy layer group is so powerful that they lobby the government decisions in their favor year after year, commissions after commissions. Want an example to that? The Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations for reducing the government workforce by 30 per cent (which included the creamy layer too), abolishing around 350,000 vacant posts(which included the creamy layer too) and reducing the number of pay scales from 51 to 34 were never implemented.
On the contrary, the retirement age was increased from 58 to 60. Any government employee retires even before his retirement. During the period from 58 to 60, he prepares for the retirement and hardly is involved into work, especially the creamy layer. These creamy layers, during this two period, makes retirement plans in various ways which includes how much they can gather as quickly as possible, how much stationary they can get before they relinquish their office, how much tours they can undertake officially with their family to tourist places and how they can place themselves on a top position in any private firm after retirement so that their incomes that is shown mainly as agricultural incomes from non existent farms can be made legal.
If at all the government introduces a law to bring agriculture into the tax net, it will not be the big farmers – who take immense benefit from this – that will be objecting to this. It will be the creamy layer of the government service because if that option is done away with, it will be hell of a job for these babus to hide their wealth and at the same time show it in their property returns.
Another recommendation of the fifth commission or for that matter any commission will never be implemented is to link salary hikes to efficiency and administrative reforms. So another pay commission may not be the answer to the burgeoning problem of this disparity. What we need is a study of efficiency and working style of the government employees and how well they are placed to work and how much work each person is doing and whether it is justified. That will solve the problem forever.
Binu Alex
It is the creamy layer of the government employees who benefit from this pay rise. Take the case of a Chief Commissioner of Customs or Income Tax. The new pay commission will fix his salary at around 80,000 per month plus the perks like official car, accommodation and the usual extra income that comes unofficially. Now what is his work? No body has really examined what work these creamy layers of large organizations like Income tax or Customs are assigned or function. Their primary job is to waste at least a dozen employees at their disposal. There will be two peons, a driver, an officer on special duty to him and the staff under him and his personal secretary and junior personal secretary. He signs hardly two files a day but chats for hours with colleagues all over the country and perhaps orders service tea on an hourly basis. A service tea basically serves for at least three people and so the peons take the advantage of the rest of the tea and milk. Some of them pack the sugar and tea daily home or else it goes waste.
Now imagine a scenario without this post. His salary would employ at least a dozen employees and he already has a dozen. So altogether each top officer wastes twenty-four employees. Believe me we don’t have a dearth of such top-level officials in any department. Consider this. The number of Chief Commissioners of Income tax in Gujarat is more than the number of Lower Division Clerks in that particular department. Out of 3.3 million employees who will benefit from the implementation, 80 percent of the money will go to seven percent of this workforce. What a waste?
That is also the reason why the federal government's wage bill for serving and retired employees shot from Rs 218.85 billion in 1996-1997 to Rs 435.68 billion in 1999-2000 after the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented.
These are the creamy layers for whom the pay commissions work. And who threatens the government with dire consequences for setting it up? The poor class three and four employees. A World Bank report indicates that Indian government employee strength may not be too large but lacks balance in the skills. It pointed the Fifth Pay Commission as the 'single largest adverse shock' to India's strained public finances. The report says 93 per cent of the civil service comprised class III and class IV employees which means only seven percent takes away more than what they deserve. So 93 percent will strike work to serve for seven percentages!
Many wondered after the disbursal of arrears of the last pay commission why there was no improvement in the functioning of the government servants. Well it was because the creamy layer took the chunk of the money and it is anyone’s guess why its implementation destroyed the finances of the central and state governments.
But then why no corrections are made even after decades of such anomalies? That is primarily because the creamy layer group is so powerful that they lobby the government decisions in their favor year after year, commissions after commissions. Want an example to that? The Fifth Pay Commission's recommendations for reducing the government workforce by 30 per cent (which included the creamy layer too), abolishing around 350,000 vacant posts(which included the creamy layer too) and reducing the number of pay scales from 51 to 34 were never implemented.
On the contrary, the retirement age was increased from 58 to 60. Any government employee retires even before his retirement. During the period from 58 to 60, he prepares for the retirement and hardly is involved into work, especially the creamy layer. These creamy layers, during this two period, makes retirement plans in various ways which includes how much they can gather as quickly as possible, how much stationary they can get before they relinquish their office, how much tours they can undertake officially with their family to tourist places and how they can place themselves on a top position in any private firm after retirement so that their incomes that is shown mainly as agricultural incomes from non existent farms can be made legal.
If at all the government introduces a law to bring agriculture into the tax net, it will not be the big farmers – who take immense benefit from this – that will be objecting to this. It will be the creamy layer of the government service because if that option is done away with, it will be hell of a job for these babus to hide their wealth and at the same time show it in their property returns.
Another recommendation of the fifth commission or for that matter any commission will never be implemented is to link salary hikes to efficiency and administrative reforms. So another pay commission may not be the answer to the burgeoning problem of this disparity. What we need is a study of efficiency and working style of the government employees and how well they are placed to work and how much work each person is doing and whether it is justified. That will solve the problem forever.
Binu Alex
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)