Commercial banks by corporate houses

I would tend to differ with Mr Raghuram Rajan who has 'ripped apart' the RBI proposal to permit corporate houses to establish commercial banks

Mr Rajan may be a renowned economist and well qualified to offer his comment on the proposal. But , as a former commercial banker (practical banker), I am afraid his fears are misplaced. If proper regulations and restrictions are laid down,  while considering the proposal, which are STRICTLY implemented/enforced and the supervisory/regulatory role of RBI is played properly no corporate house will be able to play truant, i am sure. Even now each bank has its own credit policy involving caps for industry exposure, group exposure etc which acts as proper checks and balances . Role of RBI is to ensure that these covenants are properly followed. In spite of this, there have been instances where business houses have been able to siphon money from banks. So one can say that such things will happen when the stipulations are diluted on various grounds and when the regulator also turns blind eye to such dilutions.

With only one condition that the group entities should not be financed by the corporate banks , the fear expressed can be addressed, i feel. Problem is how far the management will be able to withstand the pressure and what devious methods will be invented to subvert such restrictions !

Electoral reforms

 Now that the local self government elections are expected to be held soon, in Kerala, i would like to urge the government and the election officer to consider the following suggestion to be implemented in the same, on merits.

As per the representation of peoples act persons who are holding office of profit with government or who are drawing emoluments from the government funds cannot contest in an election. Similarly as per the service rules covering the government employees including school/ college teachers, they are barred from entering active political life. 

It is observed that both the above guidelines are blatantly violated in the elections in general and local self government elections in particular. Many aided school teachers become candidates of political parties in the local self government elections, whereas lecturers from private colleges contest the assembly elections as party candidates. In both the above cases , the salary to these personnel are paid by the government and hence all the clauses of the service rules ( including bar on active politics) should be applicable to them and they should be disqualified to contest . Similarly, since they draw salary from government, they should be declared ineligible to contest on the ground that they were holding office of profit with the government . 

I hope the authorities concerned will look into this and take an appropriate action well before declaration of the local self government elections.

Electoral gimmicks by government

 Kerala government has embarked on an inauguration cum advertisement spree in the last months of the ministry. Every day we come across many quarter to half to full page advertisements announcing launch of some programmes , inauguration of some buildings etc. I don't understand why they have waited for the last half year of the five year rule to launch all these initiatives , the last being the plan to create 50000 job vacancies in 100 days! It also says 5000 vacancies will be filled by PSC in 100 days. As PSC cannot initiate the recruitment process and complete it in 100 days, it is obvious that the announcement pertains to filling up of existing vacancies from the list already available with PSC. If that be the case one fails to understand what had prevented PSC from following the vacancies all these days!!

Talking about the newspaper ads, one of today's ads takes the cake! It announces the garlanding of the mahatma gandhi statue by the CM on gandhi jayanthi day!

The ayodhya verdict

 

The much awaited verdict on the babri masjid demolition case came out as a damp squib... After prolonging for almost 28 years, in a 2000 page judgement, the judge , who was on an extension for one year just to dispose of the case, has concluded that the investigating agency could not conclusively establish the accused crime! And all the accused have been accordingly acquitted! 

As a common man I can only say that it appears to be a mockery of justice when the judge maintained that in fact the demolition was done by a mob and the accused leaders actually tried to dissuade the mob from demolishing the masjid

, which should be marked as the joke of the year or the joke of the covid era!

As a layman i feel that in addition to the accused, the prime minister and gone minister of the period also should have been arraigned as accused as accomplices to the plan. Had they really wanted they could have sent the central forces there to prevent the crime from occurring.

Now, this verdict may prove to be a shot in the arm for the hindutva activists who have already started campaign to demolish a durgah in bihar claiming the place to be the birth place of krishna !

Rajya sabha imbroglio

 

In common parlance the Rajya sabha is referred to as 'house of elders' too and hence the common man expects the maturity of 'elders' to be shown by its members in general and by the presiding officer in particular . It is very unfortunate that both have failed him recently as witnessed in the house during the discussion on the so called 'agricultural bills'. While I do not want to go to the contents of the bills and it's merits and de merits i strongly believe it's deputy chairman should have been more accommodative in concluding the discussion of the bill and should have shown more parliamentary diplomacy by deferring the passing of the bill to the next day as the scheduled time of the house was over and extension of time needed the concurrence of all parties as per rule book. Instead of doing this he chose to unilaterally decide on passing of bills with voice vote without permitting the division demanded by opposition. I wonder whether  the was afraid the bill might not have been passed if put to vote given the party position in the house!.

On the part of the members, they also should have exhibited more maturity and should not have indulged in tearing the bill , throwing the rule book to the presiding officer, destroying the mike etc. There are other ways to show their objection including a walk out or boycott of the proceedings which would have definitely earned them better goodwill in the minds of the common man.

Now since the unfortunate things have already happened, the vice president who is the chairman of the house should take a practical and impartial view of the entire thing and ensure an amicable solution to the present deadlock as the opposition has declared a boycott of the remaining days of the session . Hope better sense will prevail on everybody to uphold the prestige of the house.

Postponementof elections

 

It is reported that all the political parties in Kerala have reached a consensus in asking the election commission of India to postpone the proposed bye election to Chavara and Kuttanadu seats.  I fully agree with the stand of the parties in this issue, as the general elections to the state assembly is to be held by April next year and anybody getting elected in the bye election proposed to be held in November will get hardly four months to work, the expenses incurred by the state as well as the candidates in this election will be a sheer waste of resources. This amount can very well be used for some other more.beneficial purposes .

However , the condition put forward by the UDF to support the government in the above move, viz postponement of election to the local self government institutions which is due in november too, cannot be appreciated. While UDF is taking shelter under the covid pandemic for such a demand , i am not sure whether they have considered any alternative, as the existing elected members will cease to be in office by november and after that there will be no elected body at LSG level to coordinate or implement actions for fighting the pandemic. This may lead to a chaotic situation, i am afraid.

And , if the government can successfully conduct the public examinations like SSLC,HSC, KEAM, NEET, JEE etc which involved congregation of thousands of students at one place, without much problems, i fail to understand what can be the problems in holding the elections which involves hardly a thousand of voters at each booth spread over a period of about 10 hours. If this is conducted with proper care like wearing masks, maintaining social distance , ensuring separate queues for senior citizens etc I do not anticipate any massive spread of the disease by holding the elections. Staggering of voting time for voters based on their serial numbers in the voters list also can be considered to avoid crowding in the polling stations. I hope better sense will prevail over UDF leaders and they will see reason in the issue. And in the present situation where medicine or vaccine for COVID still remain a far cry , UDF should explain when do they propose to hold the proposed postponed elections..

Voluminous charge sheets

This refers to the report " NIA files charge sheet in Pulwama attack case" 

The report says the charge sheet comprising more than 13000 pages has been filed in a court by the investigating agency. I wonder why such a voluminous charge sheet had been prepared, which may unnecessarily delay the proceedings. The preparation of so many pages of charge sheet itself has already taken more than a year for the agency. Now the accused have to reply to the charges before the court decides about the further proceedings. The accused can take a stand that they have to go through the entire charge sheet before submitting their responses and this itself may take months together, i am afraid. I feel the judicial process should be revisited to ensure that the charge sheet filed in the court is crisp and to the point. Any supporting points, records etc.can be produced or submitted at the time of detailed hearing of the case. For that matter, i presume that majority of the charge sheet may be in the form of annexures , being the documents supporting each charge. If that be the case, the body of the charge sheet can be 10 or 15 pages only and while reporting the reporters should mention that fact only instead of mentioning the total number of pages in the document.

Similar is the case observed in pronouncements of judgements in various cases. The learned judges do make references to many previous cases of similar nature and quote from these judgements which had influenced them in reaching a final decision. I feel all such judgements can be made part of the judgement as annexure and only a preference be made to them in the body of the judgement so that an ordinary person can peruse the bare fact of the judgement and of anybody was interested in any casw under reference could perude the annexure too. In the present scenario , reading a judgement becomes a very boring experience for an ordinary mortal. I hope the judiciary will consider both the above aspects and initiate suitable steps to make the entire process simple and 'light

Covid protocol

Reports about people objecting to the cremation of bodies of those died of covid are very alarming. The latest such report cane from kottayam where people resisted cremation of a body in the church cemetery for fear of the virus speeding through air. Finally the district administration had to cremate the body rather surreptitiously and initiate action against many people under the epidemic prevention ordinance. It is quite unfortunate that even peoples representatives side with such people , may be because of lack of awareness.

This unfounded fear might have been created in the minds of the people due to the extra precautions taken by the authorities while cremating such bodies under 'covid protocol'. The precautions taken are only to ensure that nobody contracts the virus by coming into physical contacts with the dead body. I do not believe there is any basis for the fear that virus from the dead body will spread to the surroundings during the cremation. However the medical professionals and the health authorities are the best person to disseminate information in the matter.

I would request the authorities and health professionals to educate the public in this matter too along with the other advices like using mask, washing hands and observing social distance to avoid any such unfortunate incidents in future resulting in showing disrespect to the dead person .

Rajasthan drama

The political cum judicial drama being enacted in Rajasthan is crossing all limits, i feel. The political crisis created by the challenge of Mr Sachin Pilot has reached absurd levels when the Chief Minister and his supporters chose to hold a demonstration in Raj Bhavan demanding urgent convening of the assembly to prove his majority. I wonder since nobody has challenged the majority of the minister why the CM should waste his precious time and energy in such uncanny actions. It is true that the speaker has sent notices to the diffident MLAs on the request of the ruling party to disqualify them as MLAs which has been challenges by then in high court. The High court in all its wisdom has restrained the speaker in proceesing further with the disqualification request. The speaker's effort to get this quashed by supreme court has not met with success too. It is at this juncture the CM has requested the governor to summon an urgent meeting of the house to prove his majority . As one understands, a minimum periods notice is required to be given for convening the assemble and hence how the CM can urge the governor to call an emergency meeting in 3 days?

All this events have led to display of money power (the source of which needs to be probed) first by herding of MLAs of both camps to resorts on all expenses paid holidays. Then comes approaching the high court and supreme court engaging eminent advocates paying them huge fees!

The high court has also knowingly or unknowingly played into the hands of the politicians when it prevented the speaker from taking further action on his notices to the dissident MLAs. Nobody knows the locus standi of judiciary in the discharge of the speaker's duty under anti defection law, which needs to be suitably explained by the high court. And what is such an urgency to hear such petitions when thousands of other petitions of even more important issues are pending in the courts for years together? Isn't it high time the judges opened their eyes to reality and accord priority to long pending cases and not become pawns in the political games played by all parties ? When seen from a common man's side i feel importance should be accorded to cases where even the very subsistence of the parties are involved and not to such political dramas.

Kerala budget

Dr Thomas Issac needs to give lot of answers on the proposals mentioned in his penultimate budget. Though acclaimed as a good economist, i wonder why he has not shown any economic sense while proposing many items .

My first query to Dr Issac would be, why he is silent about the repayment obligations of KIIFB.  He had successfully sourced large funds for KIIFB (through masala bonds) which is expected to be utilised for infrastructural development of the state. Well and good. But at the time of raising the funds as well as while presenting the budget he has not mentioned how KIIFB proposed to meet the repayment obligations when it becomes due. Or is it that Dr Issac thought it better to leave it to the next finance minister ?

Regarding additional revenues to be raised, he has sought to impose additional taxes on bikes costing less than rupees two lacs and cars costing less than 15 lacs! Two questions arise here. In the GST regime has the state any power to levy additional tax on goods covered under GST? Even if state can do this, why has he chosen to tax the lower segment instead of vehicles in the higher segment ? That would have made more sense as people who spend more money for high end vehicle could be expected to pay more tax too!

One also wonders why the minister has chosen to leave the liquor untouched to raise resources.

While he has chosen to increase the welfare pensions by rupees one hundred (probably keeping an eye on the local self government bodies election to be held later this year), he has also mentioned to save rupees 700 crores from this category by removing the in eligible people from the list. If that be the case is he not admitting that the state made wrong payment of rupees 700 crores per year in the past due to the lapses on the part of officials or elected representatives? Would he dare to recover such wrong payments made from the beneficiaries concerned or the officials or politicians concerned?