Eroding Institutions: Dead Souls Can't Report The Dying

For the first time since 1984 the earth shook in India again. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke in the Parliament after some three centuries, after he was chided to speak by the Opposition. Like a hen-pecked husband who finally vented, he gave out a Howard Beale scream: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore”. True to Congress culture he blamed anybody and everybody, including the Opposition and Syria for the broken and shattered economy, the fallen rupee and everything that’s destroyed. The GDP growth for the first quarter of this financial year stood at 4.4% but he said things would be brighter next year. For the last few years MMS and his party have been dragging the people through a desert to a mirage and are now making them drink the sand to quench their thirst. And the slaves in the MSM clapped like a box of parrots like they usually do. It is impossible to narrate all the failures of this Congress govt in a short post. It will take a ‘trilogy’ of epics.

Unlike the bootlickers on TV channels the online folks were quite harsh. Tags like #PMChorHai or #ChorPM trended for the last 2 days. On a TimesNow debate when someone asked how the PM still claims “fundamentals” of the economy are still strong the answer by Congress spokie Renuka Chaudhary replied that it’s the “BJP Fundamentals” that are weak. So you can imagine what kind of brains run this govt. The most appropriate comment on the PM’s conduct came from The Jaggi. His tweet explains the exact predicament MMS is in as also his misdirected madness. It’s not just the economy fundamentals that are rotting but democratic institutions too. On the economy front organisations like LIC have been used to fund the govt without much success. Many are being used to fund parties of private companies. Banks that were exposed for involvement in handling black money and hawala transactions face no punishment.

Whenever the govt has been in a spot, the media has used distractions and diversions to cover up real issues. On August 29 they found the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal a handy tool and the last 3 days have also been a celebration of the case against Asaram as if all other issues were redundant. The ET reported on August 30 that the IB didn’t want to release the information of Yasin’s arrest as they didn’t want to alert other sleeper cells. Your guess is as good as mine on who leaked the information to the media so that they could splurge on the event. And stupidly enough NDTV in a programme by Sunetra Chaudhary asked if UPA is tougher on terrorism. Who knows how many terrorists were alerted by the leak. The IB has been compromised to meet political ends. The CBI has become a mere tool in the hands of ministers who dictate its affidavits to Supreme Court. Nobody is even sure about the RBI anymore. While searching information about the new Governor-to-be of the RBI (Raghuram Rajan) their site makes a startling revelation. There is one Rajeev Gowda, a Congress member, who was nominated as a Director sometime in 2011. Interesting, eh?

This Rajeev Gowda is a well-educated guy and is also the co-founder of the website ‘Hamara Congress’. He comes from a prominent political family in Karnataka and his late father, M.V. Venkatappa was a Speaker in the Karnataka Assembly. He is also a professor at IIM Bangalore. Do IIMs allow their professors to become Directors in RBI or in other organisations? What should strike people the most is that Rajeev Gowda is also the official spokie of the Congress party.

Gowda (on the right in pic above) appears almost on all English news channels as the Congress spokie and is also a director at RBI. The media chases everyone, like N. Sreenivasan or MS Dhoni, on conflict of interest issues but they don’t ever mention that Gowda is also an RBI director. How does an RBI director get to be the spokie of a political party? The media doesn’t care to even ask or inform viewers that he is one. IIM-B  Board of Governors lists Mukesh Ambani as its Chairman. Wasn’t it a Mukesh Ambani man who grandly said “Congress toh apna dukaan hai”? I am not aware if a political party spokesman is allowed to be the Director of RBI but it does make me wonder how independent RBI is; as we do with other democratic institutions. Next stop: Judiciary.

Sometime back the Congress party organised a meeting for all its legal cell members and other sundry lawyers. The plans coming out of this meeting is nothing short of sinister. A stray mention here and there in the print media was all this news got. There have been cases in the recent past where the SC judgements have been leaked before being pronounced. This quote of SC lawyer Gopal Sankarnarayanan from a report makes dangerous reading:

“There is really no polite way of putting this. The Kabir court has seen a return to the questionable practices prevalent in the Balakrishnan era – oral mentionings of matters pending before other Benches, unexplained moving of cases from one set of judges to another, the return of the dalals to the registry and an overall erosion of the credibility of the Apex Court”.

When you read that in the context of the fact that the Congress wants to fill the judiciary with members associated with the party it has to be shocking how the judiciary is being toyed with. Here’s an excerpt from the TOI report titled “Cong to pack courts with party loyalists?” (March 2010):

Congress-leaning lawyers have raised the pitch for assignments from the government. A Congress convention, which brought together lawyers from Congress legal cells in the states, was set abuzz when populist voices were raised, with one directly asking for party-affiliated lawyers to be accommodated in various panels, and even in the judiciary. Union law minister Veerappa Moily urged the AICC's legal department headed by Abhishek Singhvi to create a national database of lawyers affiliated with Congress. ''... we can form domain expertise using their experience; we can train them in different fields and ultimately bond them into mainstream of judiciary,'' he said. The call, with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the dais, led to murmurs in the gathering as it was interpreted that there will be a preference for lawyers affiliated with the Congress in the selection for judiciary.

The organizing body headed by Abhishek Singhvi demanded that an Alternative Disputes Redressal system be formed and named after Rajiv Gandhi. Government sources said there is an International Centre for ADR lying dysfunctional and the Prime Minister is unhappy about it… DPCC chief J P Aggarwal got a thunderous applause when he said Congress needed to bring its lawyers on official panels and appointments. Aggarwal, speaking at a working session on ''Human rights, common man and contemporary exigencies'' chaired by home minister P Chidambaram, said it was found that lawyers who were with the Congress were ignored at the time of selection for various panels. ''Why will they carry your flag?'' he asked, making a forceful plea. At the end of the day, Singhvi assured the meeting that the law minister agreed with the demand made by Aggarwal and steps would be taken in this direction in future.

Hmm! Abhishek Singhvi is the AICC’s legal head. Is that a surprise? The Singhvi sex episode was completely buried by the MSM till Singhvi’s videos got posted on the internet for the whole world to see. The media dismissed that as a “private and consensual affair”. The affair may have been private and consensual but were any favours promised in return? Not just that, Singhvi demanded that the Alternative Redressal system be named after Rajiv Gandhi. Why don’t these people just rename the SC “Rajiv Gandhi Court”? That would be cheered by all the cronies in the Congress and media. One at least hears about the big institutions that have been eroded. No one knows how many smaller ones have been gobbled up.

The media willingly and deliberately covers up all acts of the govt that are eroding important institutions. They willingly accept a party spokie without disclosing full information about the positions he holds. They witch-hunted N. Srinivasan of the BCCI for a full 21 days as if BCCI was the Watergate of India but when it comes to the killing of democratic institutions they couldn’t find even one day to report or discuss the terrible dangers of such destruction. With the introduction of Bharat Nirman-2 ads which will run till the elections more cover-ups can be expected. NDTV will sell you passionate stories about Yasin Bhatkal. CNN-IBN and TimesNow will continue mindless ranting over Asaram and cover-up inaction of Ashok Gehlot. HeadlinesToday is running a stupid satire on Modi’s dreams of PM which are being smartly destroyed by MMS and Sonia Gandhi. Of course, HT won’t dare to report on the destruction of democratic institutions.

MMS recently applauded the media as a watch-dog. SoniaG said the “the media made the political class uncomfortable”. Both are wrong. The MSM is not a watch-dog. It’s just a bunch of lap-dogs who are comfortable in their studios with crumbs thrown by the govt and the Congress party. I have said it before and I say it again; pet poodles who survive on crumbs are unlikely to have the nose of a blood-hound. Collectively, the MSM is another institution that has been destroyed. Naturally, dead souls can’t report on other deaths.  

  

RBI's Cruel Intentions

Take a look at the images of the two coins on the left. These were reportedly issued during the rule of the criminal East India Company. Surprising! Considering the British had only two motives; loot India and spread Christianity. If you have these coins, treasure them. You are unlikely to see Hindu figures Vishnu, Lakshmi or the young Krishna on coins ever again.  Oh, don’t forget to look at the third image of a currency note. It has an image of a famous Hindu temple from Thanjavur (TN). You may never see such images on currency notes again either. Our secular govts have and are still working very hard to bury Hindu culture.

Since those days Mahatma Gandhi has silently smiled on all our currency notes. Not a bad idea. Post-independence MKG did want the Congress to be dismantled, so fair to say he was above petty politics. He was on our coins first and then is on our currency notes. Only the Queen of England compares with such a place on all the currency notes and coins of UK. 

Currency note with Thanjavur Temple

Then came times when we were proud of our agriculture and our farmers. Ears of corn or maize and the progressive farmer with his tractor adorned our coins and currency notes. While PM Shastri did say “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” I am not sure I have seen any symbol of our army or our soldiers on our coins or notes. I guess our soldiers have only one purpose mostly: Die! If they manage to survive a battle or war then most times life can get even more painful fighting for compensation and even normal pension. Never mind all that!

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has suddenly announced that ‘people from all walks of life’ want to see new figures on our currency notes. Umm… let’s see, they want figures like B.R. Ambedkar, Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Shivaji on our notes. Who are all these people from all walks? That’s a recent report in the EconomicTimes of June 17,2012. Alright, the demand for Ambedkar’s picture on currency notes is not new. It came from a relatively unknown NGO in 2010 as DNA reports.

The DNA report quotes: “Ambedkar was not only the leader of the downtrodden but was also the architect of modern India. And what better way to honour his contribution than to give him an esteemed place on the Indian currency,” said Saira Patel, general secretary of Mumbaikar Asanghatith Gharelu Kamgar Union, a NGO working with Dalits and Muslims in Andheri. Okay, Ambedkar has already been credited as “architect of the constitution” and slowly this has morphed into “architect of modern India” and in some poll by CNN-IBN he tops the votes as the ‘Greatest Indian’. Now, I can argue and debate all that but then I won’t be alive to write this post any further. So, let it be.

So we could say that NGO represents people from “all walks of life”, where Ambedkar is concerned, as RBI claims. I have no clue about the other “people from all walks of life” who want Shivaji, Nehru and IndiraG on our money. In the ET report RTI activist Manorajan Roy says: “Ironically , before the Mahatma , the Ashoka Pillar used to be the most dominant feature on our banknotes”. He tried to find out how and when the Mahatma took pride of place , but he drew a blank, with the RBI telling him there was no document that recorded the change . Silly Roy, how is he expecting the RBI to keep records of demands from “people from all walks of life”? That would be absurd, wouldn’t it?

In a time when the rupee is crashing, there’s economic sluggishness all around what inspires the RBI to think of images on our currency notes? I’m still wondering! 

Now, the images of all the coins and notes you saw were from prior to 2004. In case you forgot, 2004 is the year the Congress party came back to power under the UPA alliance. What have we had since then? Take a look at the images. The first one is that of the one rupee coin. And what does it have? That’s a cross from the Catholic Church, a religious symbol. Not bad, you could pay someone, drop it in a box at temples, mosques and churches and say “With blessings of the Lord”. Hmmm! After some protests by the so called Right wing communal fascists that symbol was scrapped. But that will remain in numismatic history forever. 

St. Alphonsa

Next, in 2009 we had the image of St.Alphonsa, the first of Indian to be canonized by the Catholic Church. I would say an honour that is fair. Still, a religious figure. I’m not sure millions of Indians even remotely know who St.Alphonsa is but it’s always nice to educate our unwashed masses on glorious religious figures under our ‘secular’ constitution. Oh, it doesn’t end there. Before that, we had the new 10 rupee coin where the Cross surfaced. I believe that is still in currency. What can I say! I am only reminded of Warden Norton from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ telling illiterate Indians – “ I believe in two things – discipline and the Bible. Put your faith in the Lord, your Ass belongs to me”.

So what’s with RBI’s new intentions of Shivaji, Ambedkar, Nehru and IndiraG? First, the 2014 elections aren’t too far away. Shivaji won’t campaign and is universally respected in India, maybe more so in some places so I don’t think he’s gonna win too many votes. But hey, I am not sure about Ambedkar, Nehru and IndiraG. Our political parties have made these illustrious figures their political icons to divide the nation. There is no end to the number of streets, monuments, memorials, universities, airports and chawls named after these figures. Nehru and IndiraG, in particular, cannot be missed in India no matter where you go. Even buses in cities are under some JNURM scheme. The Congress would love to have them on our currency notes and coins. And there is Ambedkar. His legacy has largely been consumed by the BSP and to some extent the Congress. The election campaign can count his image on the currency notes as an important contribution and uplift of the lives of Dalits. Bingo!

In reality both Nehru and IndiraG are politically divisive figures, unlike MKG. Their contributions to India are doubtless. But there are certain issues that cannot be wished or wiped away. Nehru’s foreign and domestic policies and vision are mostly ground to dust. The taint of Emergency is a serious blot on the legacy of IndiraG. But symbols and symbolism are important, especially when elections are looming. Nominate Sachin Tendulkar to the RS, make him call on SoniaG, give him a house next to RahulG (which bombed, of course). Invite actor Aamir Khan, the new-born social reformer, to address parliament or give them suggestions. And put political figures used in election campaigns and to divide people on caste and religion on our currency notes.

Now, if MKG were alive he would ask RBI to burn all the notes bearing his image and put the farmer on the notes. Ummm… with a minor difference though! You see, our farmers are now known for the troubles they face and the exploitation at the hands of land grabbers and other politicians. Debts, suicides, lack of irrigation, droughts, poverty – you name it and you’ll find it in most farmer households. So I believe a pic, like the one I’ve put up, would truly be a symbol of this day and age in India. And what’s more? Each time you spend money it would remind you of the hapless farmer and his dire straits. I strongly recommend RBI use that image on our notes.

The other group that Shastriji ‘Jai’d’ has been  a long suffering one without proper due even in death or in serious injury. Politicians hardly inspire pride anymore. Nothing would do the nation proud in seeing a tribute being paid to the Amar Jawan in our currency notes. Neither the Kisan nor our soldiers are divisive forces. In fact they tend to unite people regardless of all their political and religious beliefs. We don’t need any more politicians on our currency notes. Figures that instil national pride would help.

But knowing how well many institutions have been destroyed under the current UPA govt. the RBI’s cruel intentions of politicising our currency may still succeed. This must be stopped. Of course, you have seen strong protests by our mainstream media against the designs of RBI, haven’t you? And you’ve seen all the TV news channels screaming against them, haven’t you? The only thing RBI hasn’t yet managed to say on our currency notes is “Vote for….”.
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