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10 Reasons why India must not vote for a Coalition Government

Given the surge in popularity of the BJP in the run up to Indian General Elections, it is understandable that there would be concern amongst opposition leaders who are battling to save their dynasties and their relevance. What is more surprising are the articles that have started to glorify coalitions where authors have started to hope for a coalition government at the centre. A coalition is defined as an act of union between a group of individuals who share a common set of values or a common vision. Political coalitions have adapted the meaning of coalition to mean a temporary alliance for combined action but still with a common set of goals for the larger good of their constituents.

In the forthcoming elections, the now defunct mahagathbandhan has a single point agenda of removing the BJP at the centre. That is it. Unlike earlier coalitions, this time that constituents of the mahagathbandhan have not even been able to come together with a common minimum programme. No one can agree on who will lead the coalition. They blatantly fight in the states and collaborate at the centre.

Coalition governments around the world are always weaker and less decisive. Compromise and tolerance are the general dharma of most coalition governments where adjustment and acceptance of parochial needs takes priority over national needs.

Let us examine the flaws of a coalition government as is evident not just in India but around the world and then make our own assessment as we step out to vote.

  1. Federal Structure is compromised: Coalition governments by their very definition is a group of small parties that come together because no single party can form the government. This leads to the major challenge of who will lead. We have seen chief ministers by rotation so that personal agendas can be met. We must ensure that we do not allow personal agendas of regional parties to determine the path of our nation.
  2. Strong versus Lame Duck Prime Minister: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had famously remarked when asked about the telecom scams that he headed a coalition government and was therefore unable to do anything. The leader has no option but to compromise when faced with a challenge that suits a single party but not the nation. Areas like GST (Goods and Services Tax), Bankruptcy Code, Social welfare schemes like Aadhar, Jan Dhan Yojana, Swachh Bharat, National Health Scheme and others have been on the agenda of successive governments for the past two decades but could not be implemented because of coalition governments.
  3. Constitution of India: The Constitution has clearly stipulated about a hundred areas that can only be decided by Parliament and not by the States. These include Defence, Foreign Policy, Common Currency, Judiciary, Federal Taxes, Airlines and several others. Coalition governments have vested interests on most of these matters. They need to make a change for their constituencies and they always figure out ways to bypass these areas.
  4. Fiscal prudence is compromised: In order to meet the vastly varying financial demands from its coalition partners, governments have been known to compromise of fiscal prudence. Regional and state requirements take precedence. It is common to see high rates of inflation and high fiscal deficits which lead to serious structural flaws in the national economy.
  5. Promises are made with no intention of meeting them: Voters need clear accountability so that they can ask their leaders to deliver on their poll promises. Coalition partners always have a credible excuse for not delivering on their promises. Corruption is also seen as an acceptable practice to meet the needs of various political parties who demand their pound of flesh. No one is accountable.
  6. Health and Education: State controlled subjects like Health and Education are a case in point. Everyone unanimously accepts that Health and Education need everyone’s focus. We can see the huge disparities that exist in states. Why do our politicians believe that all people are not equal, and some states have better health and education and others do not? The same applies to most other areas that have been handed over for governance at the state level.
  7. Personal agendas drive decision making: Given the 5-year duration of parliament and even shorter duration of coalition understandings, the political parties know that they have a short window to maximise financial gains for their respective groups. This is what we have seen in the UPA Government from 2004 to 2014 and nothing gives me confidence that the thinking will change if they come to power in 2019.
  8. Foreign Policy: World politics is changing from a borderless world to a world that is beginning to draw borders again. Only strong countries with strong leaders will be able to carve out a place in this new world that will increasingly respect strong economies and strong defence capabilities. We have seen the criticism of Uri and Balakot. We can already hear rumblings of breaking away in Kashmir if any action is taken on Article 370. A coalition government, by its very definition, will always be weak and therefore will compromise on the country’s interests in the international arena.
  9. Decision making slows down: Understandably, when there are dozens of individuals who believe that they can lead the nation better than others in the coalition, they have their own set of divergent views on every subject. Therefore, decision making on even the simplest of matters needs the support of everyone thus slowing down decision making.
  10. Any party can pull the plug: Coalition governments are frail and always walking on thin ice, not knowing when cracks may appear. They are supported by a group of individuals who have no common ideology. The first step is to start making statements against the coalition, next is to sulk and the final step is to withdraw support thus ensuring that the house of cards will collapse. Several instances of governments hanging in there or compromising their values have been seen and continue to be seen.

Can India afford to have a weak, unstable and selfish set of coalition leaders with their own personal and private agendas run this nation and fritter away all the significant gains we have seen in the past 5 years?

Remember the old line “Too many cooks spoil the broth?” Do we want to see musical chairs for the chair of the Prime Minister? Are we willing to see a new Prime Minister every 6 months?

Most governments are elected with less than 40% votes. However, simple mathematics does not work. If two warring parties add up their votes in the previous elections, they will automatically assume that they will sweep the next polls. They also assume that their voter is gullible enough to vote for a combined party and forget all that has been said by their fearless leaders against one another in the past.

We need a single party that has the required 272 seats in Parliament. This will ensure that the leaders will not have to compromise on decision making or take decisions that suit their regions but are detrimental to the nation.

We need to vote with our heads and make sure that we vote for a single party with a strong leader that can help millions of young people achieve their dreams.

Parliamentary elections can usher the change that Kashmir is yearning for

The one good take away from election campaigns is that the truth with attendant skeletons starts tumbling out of the closet. In Kashmir, this happens at a much higher degree in view of the negativity on which the campaigns are based.

Engineer Rashid, patron of the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Ittehad Party and fighting the election from the Baramulla Constituency as the sole representative of his party, has said that the mainstream political parties (National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party) are, “behaving like concubines of BJP and Congress and disgraced Kashmiris in every forum.”

Sajjad Lone, chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Conference, has accused the National Conference (NC) of doublespeak, “The dynastic rulers are best separatists when out of power and worst cruel mainstreamers while in power,” he said.

The BJP has raised questions about the rationale of the NC and PDP in contesting parliamentary elections after having boycotted the Panchayat and Local Urban Bodies polls. “It is because the LS (Lok Sabha) polls will empower them and the ULB (urban local body) polls will empower the people. They are against the empowerment of people,” said BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav.

There have been instances of the selected candidates invoking allegiance to Pakistan as a part of their election rhetoric. In this context the BJP has declared its intention of registering an FIR against National Conference leader, Muhammad Akbar Lone, for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans.

A summation of the statements by political leaders of various hues gives a clear indication of the fault lines that exist in the political spectrum of Kashmir. Small parties with limited popular reach are at each other’s throat. Each considers the other to be self-serving and opportunist. In effect, this implies that all are self serving and opportunist. The only statement holding merit is the one made by Ram Madhav in questioning the rationale behind the mainstream local parties contesting the parliamentary elections after having boycotted the Panchayat elections. After all, nothing has changed on ground for the parties to have a change of heart. The people should definitely pose this question to the parties concerned during their election campaigns.

The main issues on which parliamentary elections are fought deal with creation of infrastructure and taking on big projects which can bring up the standard of living of the people, especially so, in terms of  health, education and sustainable development aspects, among others. None of these is coming out in the campaigning being done by the prospective candidates in Jammu and Kashmir, more so in the Kashmir Valley. 

A derivative of the aforementioned narrative is that the political parties have nothing to show as achievement and for this reason they rely on mud-slinging at each other to gain the necessary visibility.

The people of Kashmir, especially the youth, are looking for affirmative action from their elected representatives to usher peace and prosperity in the region that has witnessed turmoil and violence for too long now. The youth are looking for integration to become a part of the success story of their nation. They wish to derive benefit from the nation’s march towards becoming one of the largest economies in the world with the biggest market share. The youth have the qualification as well as the will to take the plunge. What they require is the necessary push, for which the local Member of Parliament (MP) can play a big role.

It is in this direction that the entire narrative of the election campaign should be channelised and the best man should be selected for the job. The people need to compel their elected representatives towards seeking responsibility to bring about the necessary change. If they are allowed to carry on with the old rhetoric of raising passions through articulation of non-issues then the forward movement will not be possible.

The second serious aspect of the election is the voting itself. If the people come out to vote in large numbers, a message of their trust and faith in democracy and freedom will go out to the entire world. It will also pave the way for state assembly elections which the Union Government and the Election Commission have already committed to hold within a month of the parliamentary election process getting completed.

There are security concerns raised due to the call given by certain terrorist and anti-national elements for boycott of the elections. People should lay their faith in the security forces who have, with great cost and sacrifice, created an environment where there is no need for the common man to be scared. Terrorism has for long been eradicated from all regions of the state except the Kashmir valley and there too it is at the lowest ebb. Security forces, especially the army have infiltration well in control and the situation is absolutely stable for a political process to be launched. The centre has boosted the paramilitary strength to the required degree to give security to the electors from the house to the booth level.

Youth in the age of 18 to 35 years form a bulk of the voting population in the Kashmir Valley. These are educated boys and girls who know what is good for them. This is the best opportunity for them to take control of their own lives and ensure that their representatives are such who can give a shape to their aspirations and dreams.

The elections can usher the change that Kashmir is waiting for. The environment is also such that facilitates evolution of new ideas and concepts. The candidates who are most receptive to the changing environment should be chosen. Politics of hate and dissension should be replaced with positivity and forward looking thought. Coming out to vote is as important as selecting the best candidate. The elections bring with them hope and an opportunity that should not be lost.

World’s first 5G district in Shanghai

Mobile communication is set to revolutionize in the near future with the introduction of 5G coverage for the first time in China. Shanghai on Saturday claimed to have the world’s first district with 5G coverage and a broadband gigabit network. It conducted trial runs of the 5G network, backed by telecom services provider China Mobile.

It is reported that Shanghai’s vice-mayor Wu Qing made the network’s first 5G video call on Huawei’s Mate X smartphone, the first 5G foldable phone.

The city aims to build over 10,000 5G base stations by the end of this year and the number of 5G base stations could cross 30,000 in 2021, said Zhang Jianming, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Informatization Commission, the telecom and industry regulator.

Bank of Baroda now a key player in banking sector as third largest lender

From April onwards, state-run Bank of Baroda is set to play a larger role in the Banking sector with the merger of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank with itself from March 31.The Reserve Bank had on March 30 said branches of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank would function as BoB outlets from April following the amalgamation. After the merger it has become the third largest bank in the country after State Bank of India and HDFC Bank.

After the amalgamation, BoB will have over 9,500 branches, 13,400 ATMs, 85,000 employees to serve 12 crore customers. The bank will have a business mix of Rs 15 lakh crore of balance sheet, with deposits and advances of Rs 8.75 lakh crore and Rs 6.25 lakh crore, respectively.

Post-amalgamation BoB will have a 22 percent market share in Gujarat and 8-10 percent market share in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This is second merger of state-run banks in the recent years in the banking sector after State Bank had merged five of its associate banks- State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore and State Bank of Hyderabad and also Bhartiya Mahila effective April 2017.

Lok Sabha Elections: Parties still looking for strong issues

The election process has begun and the ruling party as well as the opposition parties have started reaching out to the people with their claims and counter claims.

The government is claiming to have done a lot for the people, during the last five years, and boast that these five years have been different. As per the data available, the government claims that over 19 crore have got ration cards, 22 crore LPG connection, eight crore duplicate cards and connections detected, 34.7 crore Jan-dhan account have benefited the poor, 27.5 crore have debit cards and of them 18 crore are women; MUDRA loans of Rs 50,000 to Rs 10 lakh have helped 15 crore people and 70% of them are women; 50% villages are digitally connected and roads link up 91% villages. It looks an impressive data, but how far the voter gets impressed by it, only election results will tell. The opposition has not yet started firing its salvos. But they do not agree with all the claims. The Congress and Samajwadi Party have said that they had started many of these programmes and the BJP only carried it forward.

To project itself as a development oriented party, the BJP says that it has taken the benefits to the grassroots and in a graft-free environment. Farmers they say have been given 1.5 times of the cost as minimum support price and 14 crore soil health cards issued. The government has also announced minimum income guarantee of Rs 6,000 to farmer even as the Congress, TRS and other parties have been showering them with loan waivers.

The political mud-slinging would heat up the poll arena but whether these would result in votes for a particular party – nobody is sure. Voters are silent listeners but apply their own logic to accept or reject the claims – some real, some imaginary and some out of the blue.  Voting is a complex phenomenon in India and different set of factors play vital role in the political outcome in different parts of the country. In some areas national issues might influence the poll outcome, while in other local and regional issues might be the deciding factors.

It seems, due to lack of a strong national issue except nationalism and military honours, regional and sub-local issues might play a role that party leaders might not have even considered. These local factors might be influencing the lives of common people strongly. Let us take the issue of roads. These are being constructed and entailing huge budgets. It is also burdening people with huge costs in tolls and raking up never heard questions. People now have started questioning why a road should cost beyond the estimates of the NHAI. They wonder why the national highways and even some expressways are not as good as they are claimed to be. They are also questioning why connecting roads built by the state governments are in a state of dilapidation. Even the toll roads are far below the standard. Should people have to shell out extra to get the basic?

Is corruption an issue? It is but not at the level it was in 2014. Graft and Ram temple have become far softer issue or the barbs are hitting all. The Lok Sabha elections despite pan-national approach are to be fought on clans, classes, castes, religious groupings. Economy and development may be a concern but parochial group interests always sway the minds. Democracy is a game of numbers.

The Mahagathbandhan is still emerging. In UP the SP-BSP may look formidable. There is a third element – Congress. With Priyanka Gandhi entering the fray and softly cajoling and reassuring the people, it can make a change in electoral arithmetic. If Congress does even a little better, its tally, according to observers, can swell.  Congress approach this time is soft, persuasive attack. It also is trying to develop an emotional connect with the people against the BJP’s high patriotic emotional sentiments backed with extolling the uniformed people.

One solace for the BJP is that the opposition still does not look to be a unified force to match aggression and sharp attack of prime minister Narendra Modi. The scenario may change if the opposition suddenly starts sprinting. Whatever the election outcome be, this time elections are more complex and both – the ruling dispensation and the opposition parties are gasping to have a grip over the issues.

The Fallout of an Unprepared Mind, and Nation

As reported by Nature, in the case of a nuclear catastrophe, the United States of America is woefully unprepared as a nation, because of the current severity of the problem and the statement of the potential response to nuclear threats by the US; this leaves the leadership with unprepared minds and the nation with an unprepared infrastructure and, potentially, will in order to combat this great threat, among the greatest alongside overpopulation and anthropogenic climate change/global warming.

We are in a lot of trouble. We do not need incompetent antics to prevent the work to reduce the risks of nuclear proliferation that increase the risks of a nuclear attack. As reported, “The United States is not prepared to deal with the aftermath of a major nuclear attack, despite North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons and the increasing tensions between nations overall.”

This was the assessment, not the judgment, of public-health experts taking part in a meeting on nuclear preparedness organized and, presumably, hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. An expert in disaster nursing at John Hopkins University, Tener Veenema, described the meeting as “an acknowledgement that the threat picture has changed, and that the risk of this happening has gone up.”

Veenema was the co-chair of the conference. As the reportage notes, with the decline and fall, and collapse, of the former Soviet Union, the central concern since 1991 of the United States in terms of research and preparedness for the possibility of a nuclear strike has been on terrorist attacks. The focus there is with what is called a dirty bomb. Those 1-kilotonne weapons that can then spray radioactive material.

Nature continues, “But North Korea is thought to have advanced thermonuclear weapons — each more than 180 kilotonnes in size — that would cause many more casualties than would a dirty bomb (see ‘Damage estimates’).”

Obviously, this increases the magnitude of the concern and the risk in terms of thermonuclear devastation. With thermonuclear warheads on the development horizon, potentially, the next response, according to Cham Dallas of the University of Georgia, is simply to shrug and then act as if nothing can be done.

“The US government’s spending on nuclear-weapons research and response has dropped drastically over the past few decades — as has the number of health workers with training in radiation medicine and management,” Naturereports, “According to a 2017 study1 by Dallas, more than half of emergency medical workers in the United States and Japan have no training in treating radiation victims.”

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

Policy misadventures causing irreparable economic and ecological loss

In the last few years India has seen an unusual spurt in infrastructure projects. Be it expressways, townships or airports – there has been a spree of announcements and launch programmes. But how these projects are benefitting the economy or improving the lives of citizens of the country, no one knows. On the contrary, if we go by the recent developments, these big-ticket infrastructure projects seem to be pointing out to a bigger economic and ecological malaise.  

Economically, the most recent example of deliberate policy mismanagement is that of IL&FS, a major infrastructure development and finance company. The IL&FS exposure is apparently expanding everyday from the initial Rs 91,000 crore. Now it is established that even insurers are not safe. The IRDAI chairman SC Khuntia says insurers need to be proactive to policy holders’ interest. The LIC alone has over Rs 13,000 crore exposure to IL&FS, in other words this money of insuring people as of now is lost and chances of redemption is thin. The functioning of IL&FS has been unusual as it virtually gave unsecured loans to the road builders, who were supposed to collect tolls and repay. Tolls were collected but the loans were not repaid!

IL&FS does not have the money to pay back. Rating agencies have classified the equity of IL&FS as ‘junk’, which means it is absolutely un-redeemable. The common man’s money deposited with the LIC and SBI is virtually lost. Ways are being found to protect the funds of foreign investors. It is strange that major stakeholders LIC, SBI and Central Bank did not act to stop this. Financial analysts estimate that Rs 57,000 crore is the NPA (Non Performing Asset) or money virtually lost.

Real estate is a major sector known for dubious investments and financial dealings. The RBI in 2016 found that over Rs 5 lakh crore in the real estate and infra is locked in NPAs. A big group alone has Rs 1.21 lakh crore un-redeemable debts. Many of these have linkages with IL&FS. No lesson has been taken from the collapse of Jaypee group which took loans over Rs 95,000 crore in building Yamuna expressway and large townships. Now it is in trouble looking for an exit through acquisition again by government agencies.

Infrastructure like roads and flyovers are becoming source of illicit revenue generation by private parties. In fact, the tolls and road building sector may be emerging as the largest scam in the country, possibly larger than the 1992’s Harshad Mehta stock scam. It thrives on state acquiring land with public money, building roads with NHAI money in participation with some private agency and then lease out the public funded project to the private player for 30 years for collecting toll. Nobody answers why toll is needed for 30 years when not only Delhi-Noida Direct company but also many others recovered investments in three years.

Political masters have their vested interests in these projects and they make the required changes in the law to facilitate the private parties. The recent Supreme Court observation on Haryana Assembly amending the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) 1900 removing protection to the forest cover in Aravali and thus opening up more than 28,000 acres of land in Gurugram and Faridabad to private builders, is a glaring example of this. The court asked the government not act on the amended provisions and described the move as a misadventure by the state government.

The Haryana action is to virtually loot the pristine environmental preserve of the Aravalis for the benefit of a few developers and their cohorts. It is none of their concern that the NCR, suffering severe environmental degradation as aquifers are choked and forest devastated for benefiting the sharks by causing severe pollution. In fact, the worst is happening in UP. Entire stretch of Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Noida, Hapur, Meerut, Agra and Aligarh are being turned into desert as mesh of roads, highways, expressways and airports are constructed. And who pays for it? The common man – who has no other option but to live in this degraded environment.

The high tolls, parking charges, airport tax and other levies are leading to the exploitation of the masses. It helps groups engaged in the collection of all these, who thrive at the cost of public funded companies or the model called PPP, which simply is private pilferage of public wealth. In monetary terms alone, nation has lost over several lakh crore in such ill-thought of non-projects. If GDP is today shrinking to 6.7 percent these mega failures are responsible for it. The IL&FS, tolls and many infra projects are symptomatic of a larger disease. Whether IL&FS debts are declared NPAs or not, its redemption is difficult. National discussion on IL&FS, Haryana, UP or other infra projects are needed to immediately to stop perpetual loot and regression of the development process.

Salman Khan promises to give work to choreographer Saroj Khan

Veteran choreographer Saroj Khan, who is not getting much work in the film industry, recently met superstar Salman Khan, who promised to give her work in his future projects. Actor Salman Khan and choreographer Saroj Khan, have worked together in films like Biwi Ho Toh Aisi (1988) and Andaz Apna Apna (1994).

Saroj Khan is known for her magical pairing with Madhuri Dixit in songs like Ek Do Teen (Tezaab), Choli Ke Peechey (Khalnayak) and many others. Recently, Saroj had reportedly said that the industry had stopped giving her work. When Salman got to know of it, he asked her to meet him.

Speaking about the meeting, Saroj said: “When we met, Salman asked me what I was doing nowadays. So I told him honestly that I don’t have any work [film offers], and that I am teaching Indian classical dance to young actresses. Upon hearing that, he said, ‘Now, you will work with me’. I know he is a man of his word, so he will keep his promise.”

Interview of Sadia Hameed: Spokesperson, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain

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Twitter suspended the account of Sadia Hameed, Spokesperson of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB) on frivolous grounds. In an interview with News Intervention, Sadia Hameed describes how Wahhabi influence is affecting the policies of social media giants.

Delhi Horse Show till April 7

Delhi Horse Show is back and will continue till April 7. The show is being conducted by the Army Polo & Riding Centre at the Army Equestrian Centre here. Over 500 competitors would display their skills in four different categories at the show. Participating teams and contingents include those from the Army, paramilitary, police forces, riding clubs, institutes, schools and colleges.

Over 400 horses are participating in the event which got underway on Friday. Competitors are grouped in four categories senior, young rider, junior and children. The events will be conducted in the early morning and late in the evening under floodlights

The Delhi Horse Show has been in existence since the early part of 20th century. It was discontinued in 1979 as the grounds of the Red Fort were no longer available and as a result the public interest waned. The show was revived in 1986 under the aegis of the President’s Estate Polo Club.

This show will feature events ranging from the more serious Dressage and Show Jumping events for India’s top riders to fun gymkhana events for children and teenagers.