It pays to work for the government.

A Special Bench of the Delhi High Court awarded compensation of Rs 65 million to an Australian woman who was rendered quadriplegic after slipping in the swimming pool at an ITDC hotel in 1982. " The attempts to prove that Susan Leigh Beer is a liar despite convincing answers from her shows a stubborn desire to somehow wrest arguing points for the final hearing. Line of questioning also showed ITDC in a poor light as callous and insensitive," the judges said. Officials at ITDC, like in any government organisation in India, are completely immune to any punishment. They used taxpayer money to pay lawyers to prolong the case for 32 years so that the original managers would have long retired with their fat pensions. The compensation will be paid by the government so they have nothing to lose. Our munificent judges help by indulging them in this cynical contempt of the law by postponing hearings for trivial reasons. If the judges had asked the money to be paid out of the salaries and pensions of the concerned managers then these callous individuals would start to care. While the sufferings of a white Australian woman was valued in millions the same High Court in Delhi awarded a paltry Rs 300,000 for the death of a woman detained illegally by a state-run shelter. The woman had eloped with a man and her family had filed a false charge of rape against her lover on the grounds that she was a minor. The man was arrested and the woman was sent to a shelter for underage girls. Tests showed that she was over 18 years of age but the shelter refused to release her so that she died in childbirth. No one has been charged with kidnapping or manslaughter and the fine will be paid by the taxpayer. How convenient. Sadly the same facilities are not available for private individuals. While the punishment for death or crippling injury runs into few millions the punishment for contempt of court is Rs 100 billion, which Mr Subrata Roy has to pay if he is to get out of jail. Mr Roy showed his contempt when he failed to attend court to answer his summons but government officials regularly avoid court appearances without any punishment. Trouble is that our judges are sooo sensitive that even the truth is taken as contempt. God help if there has been a genuine mistake and feelings have been hurt. Funnily it is not a contempt of court when Amarmani Tripathi, murderer of Madhumita Shukla, is let out on parole for 2 months and it is not contempt when Manu Sharma, murderer of Jessica Lal, is let out on parole to enjoy nightclubs. When justice is a joke how can there be contempt? We hope that this will not be taken as contempt. We live in fear.

Are we beasts pretending to be civilised?

Couple of days back 2 teenage girls, going to the fields because they have no indoor toilet, were gang-raped and then hanged from a mango tree. Reminds us of the chilling lyrics of Billie Holidays song ' Strange Fruit ' about lynched black men hanging from a poplar tree amidst the scent of magnolias. Then, in Etawah, the mother of a raped girl was stripped and thrashed by the father of the rapist because she would not withdraw her complaint. The police, as usual, refused to increase their workload. Not to be outdone the father and brothers of a pregnant woman in Lahore, Pakistan bashed in her skull with bricks for marrying a man of her choice and not her cousin as they wanted. Right outside the High Court, with the police presumably as interested spectators. Turns out that the husband had killed his first wife to marry this woman. What a life! In Sudan a woman has been sentenced to death because she is a Christian, married to a Christian man who is a US citizen. Because her father was a Muslim so a court in Sudan decided that she has to be a Muslim and is therefore guilty of apostasy, punishable by death under Sharia rules. She has just given birth to a baby girl and her 20 month old son is also in prison with her. All very confusing to us because Muslims and Christians have the same God and presumably believe in the Commandment which says," Thou shalt not kill." It seems to be absolute with no exceptions or exemptions. In an American version of honor killing a student in Santa Barbara killed 6 people and wounded 13 before shooting himself in the head. He wanted to kill women because he could not get a girl friend and was still a virgin. Guns are protected by the Second Amendment and the National Rifle Association, which is so powerful that you cannot get elected if you mention gun control. More than 30,000 people die of gun violence every year and many more must be left crippled. It is not just ordinary people who get shot. President Reagan was shot and his assistant James Brady left in a wheelchair in 1981 while Congresswoman Gabrille Giffords was shot in the head in 2011. A 3 year old boy in Arizona picked up a gun and shot dead his 18 month old brother. But it gets better. A SWAT team attacked a house in Atlanta looking for drugs and threw a stun grenade into a toddler's crib, leaving him fighting for his life. Why should marines have all the fun in Afghanistan, shooting women and children and then calling them terrorists? All this took place within one week. Who needs a world war? 

A worried man.

The Reserve Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan must be relieved that the new Finance Minister sees the need to control inflation rather than indulge in silly tantrums like the previous incumbent in the ministry. In a way it is what the Americans call a ' no-brainer '. After all, the BJP is in government precisely because of public anger with uncontrolled retail inflation and with elections coming up in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi this year it will be stupid not to make a serious effort to control prices. Runaway inflation acts as a break on growth by reducing consumption which forces companies to cut production and postpone new investments, thus reducing employment. People stop saving because the interest paid by banks on term deposits is less than the rate of inflation so savings keep losing value. To control inflation the RBI increases interest rates which increases borrowing cost for industry and reduces investment. But the RBI cannot do it alone. One very big reason for the rise in prices was corruption. There is the everyday bribes that we have to pay whenever we need to access official services. This acts as a tax on transaction and is accounted for in the pricing. The bigger corruption was grabbing of land and resources, such as coal and iron mines. The result was a jump in commodity prices which was passed on to the consumer. Corruption is for politicians to control but Mr Rajan is worried about large flows of foreign currencies into India. Interest rates are close to zero in the US, UK, Europe and Japan so fund managers pour vast amounts into emerging markets in a bid to increase returns for investors. The Indian stock market is booming because Foreign Institutional Investors are buying. Influx of vast amounts of foreign exchange makes the rupee stronger which makes our exports more expensive and encourages imports by making them cheaper. Our industries lose out to cheap products from China. Hot money can flow out suddenly as happened last year when the rupee dropped to 68 to the dollar. Low interest rates abroad and a strong rupee encouraged our businesses to go on a borrowing spree and when the rupee suddenly lost value they were caught in a debt trap. The central bank can buy up dollars from the market to push down the rupee which is what China and Japan have been doing but that increases money supply and pushes up inflation. Inflation in China is below 2% while Japan has been fighting deflation but with CPI at over 8% there is a limit to how much dollars the RBI can buy. This is the dilemma which is making Mr Rajan angry. The good thing is that he has defined the problems and is trying to deal with them. We hope that politicians will support him. If the BJP wants to win again in 2019 it better.

A weapon called Gandhi.

A week ago the Indian Railways administration banned all agents from booking tickets for passengers.
Agents have even been banned from entering railway stations. This is ostensibly to stop agents buying up train tickets for their customers, leaving none for those who want to buy their own tickets. There are 1265 registered agents, each serving 500-600 passengers per day and employing 25-30,000 people in total. There are 72 agents in Mumbai serving 60,000 passengers everyday. They are very useful because it is extremely difficult for us to queue up for hours at a station counter and the Railways e-ticketing site is extremely slow. Demand is very high during school holidays in May and during the festival season in October. So why not just fly? Jet Airways has just announced the biggest ever quarterly loss at Rs 21.54 billion. With 22% of the domestic market Jet Airways has been losing Rs 87 million per day and Spice Jet, with 20% share of the market, has been losing Rs 27.5 million per day. Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi has taken a controlling stake in Jet and soon we will have Air Asia from Malaysia and Singapore Airlines flying domestic routes. Why are our airlines making such humongous losses when there are millions of people wanting to travel? Because most Indians cannot afford to fly because ticket costs are so high. They are high because of extortionate taxes on fuel, on tickets and airports. This is because flying is seen as a luxury which should not be allowed in a poor country. Another industry which is very highly taxed is the drinks industry. Fellows in Delhi have gleefully announced increase in excise duty so that the price of a bottle of beer will jump by Rs 30, about 45%. Someone has to pay for the obscene salaries, foreign travel and pensions of these fellows. So a cool bottle of beer on a hot summers day will now taste bitter. Already our drinks market has been taken over by 2 foreign companies, Diageo and Pernod Ricard. As taxes go up profits will decline so that local breweries will not be able to compete and sell out to foreign companies. They will maximise profits by increasing prices. So we pay ever more while profits go to foreigners. Why this hostility to luxury? Because MK Gandhi disliked alcohol and loved the poor. What is conveniently forgotten is that Gandhi lived extremely frugally while these fellows live in huge air conditioned bungalows, travel first class and stay in 5 star hotels. Poor Gandhi. Elevate him to Mahatma and then use him as a weapon against the people. How very convenient.

If the cat is found can we bell it?

One of the first acts of the new BJP government has been to form a Special Investigative Team to unearth black money accumulated by rich Indians. There are rumors of trillions of dollars in secret numbered accounts in off-shore tax havens which, if brought back to India, could wipe off all our debt and finance our infrastructure needs. Our roads are decrepit, electricity supply is intermittent, healthcare is available only to the rich, irrigation is so poor that we are still dependent on the blessings of our southwest monsoons and our education system produces millions of literate young people who cannot be employed. All that will require trillions of dollars and it is hoped that if all the money hidden abroad is brought back our economy could grow faster than even China. But is it so simple? Most of the black money is inside India, invested in properties. Last year an 800 sq yard house in south Delhi was bought for Rs 850 million, a price higher than in Manhattan in New York. Although this one was an open transaction most properties in India are bought by paying partly in cash, which is not declared for tax. As long as tax rates are so high people will use any means to avoid paying taxes. In Britain you pay only 1% stamp duty on houses up to 250,000 pounds, which is Rs 25 million, but in India stamp duty and registration charges can go up to 12%. Politicians and civil servants have acquired trillions of rupees from a succession of scams and the only avenue for investing such large sums are in properties. Since black money cannot be declared it must be paid in cash and with so much cash floating around prices of real estate have sky rocketed. The higher the price rise the higher is the proportion of tax and the greater the incentive in not paying it. This has produced a parallel economy, the size of which is unknown. When the Reserve Bank cannot control money supply inflation will inevitably rise. It is not possible for real estate prices to go on rising infinitely so 2 things could happen - either property prices will suddenly slump to more realistic levels or the rupee will fall against foreign currencies to adjust for the distortion in the levels if prices. The only way to stop this happening is to reduce taxes on properties so that the seller has no incentive in receiving a mountain of cash which is difficult to dispose of. Our question is what if some very powerful people are discovered to have billions stashed away in foreign banks. The last BJP government did not have the guts to take on such people, who may have very powerful foreign backers. Will this government have the courage to bell the cat or will the cat continue to enjoy the cream? We are agog.

Europe's politicians cannot fulfil demands by citizens.

Elections for the European Parliament are the second largest in the world after India's elections, comprising of 28 member states. The results of the 2014 elections held last weekend have just been announced and there have been big gains for anti-establishment parties. In Greece, with 30% unemployment, people voted against the severe economic austerity imposed on the country by the IMF, the European Central Bank and Germany. The Far Left Syriza Party, which is opposed to austerity, took 26% of votes and the Far Right neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party, opposed to immigration, took 10%. This was to be expected but what shocked leaders of the mainstream parties was the gains made by Far Right parties in the UK and France and even in Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Finland. In France, which was a founder of the EU, Marine Le Pen's National Front, which wants an end to immigration and Europe, took 25% of the votes. President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party got only 14%. In Britain, for the first time in 100 years a party other than Labour and Conservative came first with 28% of votes cast. In Denmark the Far Right got 27% of votes and the Finns Party in Finland doubled the number of its seats. Immigrants are willing to work in low paid jobs, such as cleaners, waiters or construction workers, which locals are reluctant to do. By working in service industries they are very visible and are blamed for taking away jobs in a recession. European countries have generous social support and immigrants are blamed for taking advantage of such schemes without contributing to the economy. While Abu Hmaza has been convicted of 11 terrorism offences in the US his wife, Najat Mostafa and 8 children, of whom 4 have served prison sentences, are living in a council house worth 1.25 million pounds. For over a decade Abu Qatada fought extradition to Jordan on human rights grounds costing the British taxpayer 1.7 million pounds in legal aid bill. Immigrants try to get into Britain by any means, often dangerous, but once there they try to change the liberal values that had attracted them in the first place. Lurid headlines about headmasters of schools being forced out by a ' Trojan Horse ' plot, to force religious education, cause immense anger. Then there are stories about shops surrendering to demands from minorities to be politically correct but keeping it secret from the majority. In India a flood of Bangladeshis has altered the balance of population in some areas, resulting in riots. Uncontrolled immigration will lead to wars. Politicians seem to have no answers. 

A revolution or merely a change of characters?

At 6 PM today Mr Narendra Modi will be sworn in as the Prime Minister of India, having led the BJP to an absolute majority in parliament, the first time a party other than the Congress has done so. Tomorrow, 27 May happens to be the 50th anniversary of the death of the first Prime Minister of India, Mr Jawaharlal Nehru. We remember that schools suddenly shut, all offices, shops and cinemas shut down and buses and trams in Calcutta stopped running so that we had to walk over 5 km with our heavy school bags straining our shoulders. Even as we walked home some people were celebrating by distributing sweets because Nehru was blamed for neglecting the east of the country, especially refugees from East Pakistan, today's Bangladesh, while refugees from West Pakistan had been given land around Delhi. Noted historian, Ramachandra Guha, an admirer of Nehru, thinks that he is being unfairly vilified because of the rise of other political parties opposed to socialism and the behavior of his descendants. " Only after the last member of his family has exited the stage of Indian politics might a judicious and credible appreciation of Nehru's life and legacy finally become possible," he thinks. But is that likely to happen? One person thinks that The Family is the glue that keeps the Congress united just like the RSS keeps the BJP united. Big mistake. The RSS is an idea while The Family is an anachronism of a feudal era, rather like the royal family in Britain. While RSS chiefs come and go all Congress leaders are so subservient to The Family that the only solution to the recent rout in the elections is a call for Priyanka Gandhi to join politics, regardless of any criteria of eligibility. One Congress MP, one of the few who managed to retain his seat, has described Nehru's birth as divine. The origin of the imperial family can be detected from a sentence by Australian diplomat, Walter Crocker who describes Nehru's reaction to a large crowd gathered to welcome him saying Nehru's " evident satisfaction with the crowd's welcome did not prevent him from pushing - some of my brother officers said slapping - people who got too near him." Whatever his shortcomings Nehru's achievements were many. He established an industrial base, institutes of excellence, a smooth transfer of administration from the ICS to the IAS, a professional and apolitical army and a tolerance for criticism which is the basis of a healthy democracy. Sadly it has been downhill ever since. So, will today be the day when India finally exorcises The Family and Jawaharlal Nehru can really be appreciated for his vision? We shall see.

Why is it so difficult when we want so little?

Seems that India is holding its breath for tomorrow when the new Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi will be sworn in. Bookies in the underground satta syndicates are taking bets on who will win cabinet posts and the perks that go with them. For us ordinary people there is only hope and prayers for a brighter future after decades of disappointment and frustration. Yet our lives could be transformed with no effort and little cost. There is a great deal of discussion about pollution and how to reduce the use of fossil fuels but one of the biggest pollution in India is that of noise. All loud speakers must be banned. For indoor functions decibel levels must be kept at a level so that no sound goes outside. Since space is expensive restaurants place tables close to each other and use loud music to cover conversations and give a sense of privacy. In some places the music is so loud that it causes pain. This must be stopped. The minimum age at which you are allowed to drink is 25 years in Delhi. Yet every pub is full of little children who have accompanied their parents. Stupid laws which are not enforced must be scrapped. It is common to see children, usually boys, as young as 10 years of age driving cars or scooters. They are not only a danger to themselves but to other road users. Their vehicles should be confiscated and their parents fined heavily. Every time you travel by air conditioned train inevitably there is a couple with a little baby who want the air conditioning to be turned off because the baby might catch a cold. Since AC compartments are completely closed it rapidly becomes stuffy and unbearable. It will be difficult, maybe even politically incorrect, but all couples with babies should be seated together in a separate compartment. No one must be allowed to dump bricks and sand on roads while constructing a house. Roads are frequently dug up by various departments to lay wires or mend pipes.
There is clearly a nexus between public officials and contractors to dig at different times so as to share the
cost of repairs. This is not only a loot of our money but causes traffic jams and damage to cars. All such
works must be clubbed together and done quickly so as to minimise annoyance for us. One of the
biggest dangers to poor people, especially children, is dog bites. Because rabies is always fatal anyone
bitten by a street dog must have 5 anti-rabies injections, at a cost of Rs 2000, and if the bite is serious you need immunoglobulin which may cost up to Rs 15,000, depending on the dose. All stray dogs must be removed and destroyed. Humanely. Little changes could transform our lives. But is anyone listening?

We need the army but can we trust the generals?

An army is essential for the protection of the nation but how far can you trust the generals. Over 200 girls were kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria 5 weeks ago by Boko Haram thugs and its leader, Abubakar Shekau threatened to sell them as sex slaves or as wives if his men were not released from prison. Despite repeated atrocities the Nigerian army seems totally incapable of defeating a band of few hundred men. Because the army is ill equipped, morale is low, soldiers are poorly trained and not paid for months. Nigeria is an oil economy so why does the government not spend a few millions to upgrade it? That is because the civilian government is more afraid of its army than it is of Boko Haram. Nigeria has a history of coups and memory of Sani Abacha is still fresh. He plundered $4.3 billion from state coffers and his wife, Maryam was caught trying to fly out with 38 suitcases, stuffed with cash. After saying repeatedly that they would stay out of politics General Prayuth Chan-ocha has staged a coup in Thailand. Former Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, her sister and brother-in-law have been detained. Her brother Thaksin was deposed in a coup in 2006 so it is not surprising that politicians, especially in developing countries, are deeply distrustful of their armies. The Congress government panicked when on 16 January 2012, 2 army units moved towards Delhi. On the same day the then army chief Gen VK Singh had moved the Supreme Court to change his date of birth and this was cited as the cause for alarm but it could have been due to fear in the Congress after Gen Singh refused a bribe of Rs 140 million to cover up the Tatra trucks scam. The irony is that time after time Indian soldiers have distinguished themselves by sacrificing their lives to save the country only to be betrayed by the politicians who chose to give away all the gains for nothing in return. Mistrust of the generals was probably the reason why our army was kept deliberately untrained and ill-equipped in 1962 and were slaughtered like sheep by the Chinese. Till today the Henderson-Brooks report is kept hidden to save Nehru from blame. Despite a hostile Pakistan to the west and China to the north the army is denied a joint Chief of Defense Staff who will coordinate all the branches in a joint operation. The Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif has had to take permission from the generals to attend Mr Modi's swearing in ceremony. The memory of being deposed in a coup in 1999 after failing to stop Musharraf from landing at Karachi Airport must be fresh in Sharif's mind. So can we trust the generals? In India we definitely can. It is the politicians who are shifty.

The bully has no clothes.

The Justice Department in the US has named 5 Chinese officials who, they allege, have been hacking into company servers and stealing confidential information, including advances in technology which help Chinese companies to compete unfairly. In response China called the US " shameless " when the Prism program run by the National Security Agency had been snooping on the entire world. " Regarding the issue of network security, the US is such a mincing rascal that we must stop developing any illusions about it," said the Global Times. The word ' mincing ' means ' affectedly dainty, nice or elegant '. So was this a complement or an abuse. Confusing what? The Prism program was designed to tap into all the traffic of the largest internet companies, such as Apple, Google and Facebook. Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff canceled a state visit to the US in fury over spying on her personal correspondence and German Prime Minister, Angela Merkel compared the NSA to the hated East German secret police, the Stasi. India, of course, has been an open book as far as official secrets are concerned. The US likes to project itself as a highly moral country proud of its law and order which was why it refused a visa to Mr Narendra Modi. But guess what? Some of its own leaders have been criminals or intimately associated with organised crime. We know about Richard Nixon and Watergate but Ronald Reagan, still idolised by the Republican Party, was controlled and assisted by the Mafia all the way to the White House. His wife Nancy was also under Mafia control which is really frightening because she was partly running the government when Reagan started to show early signs of Alzheimer's during his second term. But if Reagan was a mobster then Bobby Kennedy, brother of President John Kennedy and the Attorney General paid for the murder of Marilyn Monroe. Both brothers were having affairs with her and then tossed her aside like a rag when she became a liability. Now a new book claims that Bobby Kennedy was there when Monroe's psychiatrist killed her with an injection in the heart. Meanwhile Judith Exner was having affairs with both John Kennedy and Chicago Mafia boss, Sam Giancana. This explains the persistent rumors that John Kennedy was not killed by Lee Harvey Oswald but by another gunman hidden behind a grassy knoll. In contrast to these colorful characters Obama is just a serial killer, using drones to slaughter innocent women and children as if enjoying a video game. Hardly a nation that can claim the moral high ground. But they are expert liars. Credit where credit is due. 

Is there any obligation on journalists to be neutral and honest?

Indian journalists are citizens of India, the same as us, and as such have the right to vote for any politician or party. But when they write opinion pieces in newspapers are they obliged to be neutral and truthful, given that there is no counter argument to what they write, unlike on TV, where there are other panelists to debate what they say? One Vinod Mehta accuses the BJP of being communal. Is it? In fact just the opposite. Every political party has been winning seats by selecting candidates depending on class, caste or religion. The Congress is master at it. Just before elections Jats were granted OBC status but the Gujjars have been denied Scheduled Tribe status because Meenas object to it. Having become Chief Minister of Bihar because of BJP support Mr Nitish Kumar decided to break away to get minority votes. The logic of ditching the majority to get minority votes is lost on us. The question these minority lovers are strenuously avoiding is what would happen if minorities voted for the BJP? Various states, not just Gujarat, have had BJP governments for years and minorities have never been discriminated against. Those of us who have lived in Gujarat have seen minority businessmen making pots of money. The truth is that Indians have never been so united since the hatred for the British before independence. The Shiv Sena was formed to protect the ' marathi manoos ' from rapacious Gujaratis yet Maharashtra has voted solidly for Modi. Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal and Uttar Pradesh all voted for Modi. If it was a decisive vote against the divisive policies of the Congress it was also a united desire for progress and for respect. People are tired of living as beggars, surviving on handouts and being grateful to white-skin, bleeding-heart tourists. Then there are those who say that with 31% of votes the BJP is not really entitled to govern but no party has ever won 51% of votes in the history of the country. But it is not just votes gained. You have to see the disdain of voters for some parties. Out of 501 seats contested the BSP lost its deposit in 445 seats while Congress candidates lost theirs in 179 seats showing how their core constituencies have deserted them. When a genuine minority woman can mock Hindu prayers and has lampooned us as ' saffron chaddis ' in the past surely minorities are in no danger. In every profession being wrong carries a penalty but journalists can commit the biggest blunders without any repercussion. Perhaps there licenses should be suspended. 

Inflation is the key.

As Governor of the Reserve Bank Mr Raghuram Rajan is under no illusions. He says that growth, fiscal deficit, current account deficit and inflation are the major challenges for the new government. They are linked in that irresponsible spending by the government leads to deficits as expenditure outstrips revenues so the government borrows more money, which diverts funds from private sector investment, and increases taxes, leading to falling growth and high inflation. Mr Rajan has been trying to control inflation since his arrival. The Congress was profligate with our money creating 51 ministries with 79 ministers to hang on to power. This was shocking as the US, a $16 trillion economy, has only 15 Secretaries and 7 of cabinet rank, making 22 in all. The more the ministers the more the loot as they frantically sweep up any note available in case they lose the next elections. And they were right. The Congress is down to 44 seats from 206, the DMK and BSP have been wiped out and the SP is down to just 5, all from the ruling Yadav family. Vast amounts of black money has led to rocketing property prices so that people on salaries cannot afford to buy their own apartments. As growth slowed companies were unable to service their debts which meant that Non Performing Assets rose in banks who were now reluctant to lend for new investments. Import of capital goods declined. Gold import was severely restricted to control CAD resulting in a rise in smuggling. The Congress was forced to cut productive spending because it could not reduce handouts which had been its slogan from the beginning. The trouble with handouts is that you soon lose control of the distribution because officials who are supposed to implement the schemes see it as free donations and fill their pockets. Some see them as unfair because they pay taxes but get nothing in return and so try to join queue. The collective wisdom seems to be that increasing supplies by increasing agriculture output will being down food prices and will control inflation. But how? Agricultural land is falling as the property price bubble has led to a massive construction boom. Farmers have sold their land for sums resembling telephone numbers. With El Nino expected this year the monsoons may not be as prolific as last year. Genetic engineering is not the answer as the US is finding out with super weeds spreading. The US state of Oregon is trying to ban GM food. The answer is really simple. Those with more children will not be eligible for handouts and handouts should be linked to productive work, such as building toilets or schools. But then where will be the loot?

What is the reason for such hatred?

Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University thinks that the Prime Minister elect, Mr Narendra Modi could bring in a second revolution in India as he proceeds to debunk criticism of the economic development in Gujarat. Arvind Panagariya, Professor of Indian Political Economy also at Columbia University thinks that the victory of Mr Modi will usher in more political freedom. He makes the point that voters ignored repeated attempts to frighten them to vote against him. Ruchir Sharma, Head of Emerging Markets at Morgan Stanley hopes that Modi will make India relevant in the world. He makes the point that our elections were completely ignored by the US media except for jokes by a late-night comedian. The previous Congress government gave no importance to business interests and Ms Sonia Gandhi rarely agreed to meet business leaders. " Ironically, Congress also introduced a thicket of new regulations that allowed well-connected businesses to game the system. In the last decade, India had one of the world's fastest-growing billionaire classes, many of whom were provincial tycoons building fortunes on political connections in corruption-prone industries such as real-estate and mining," writes Sharma. While well known economists are optimistic about India under Modi some are spewing bile in visceral hatred. Modi will apparently lead to soft fascism which is just a step away from hard fascism. " At its core fascism stands for state authoritarianism, intimidation by conservative-minded extra-legal groups, national chauvinism, submission of individuals and groups to a larger-than-life leader, and a Darwinian view of social life ( the strong must prevail )," writes one Kanti Bajpai. A lot of abuse without the slightest evidence. A Gujarati, Aakar Patel writes that Modi is all hot air and nothing has really improved in Gujarat. Apparently he asked Nandan Nilekani of Infosys on how much business they had in Gujarat and the answer was none, because Gujaratis do not know English. Nilekani stood for Congress and lost. Migrant laborers carried the word of Gujarat's development to remote villages in UP and Bihar where they had more credibility than hate speech in English. But why so much hatred? People indulge in hate speech out of fear that they will lose money or their crimes will be punished. Seems that there has been a rash of fires in government offices in Delhi in recent days. Time to burn incriminating evidence before you are caught. If Mr Modi can really make India stronger these people will probably choke on their bile. Poor fellows.

Even poor people want respect.

The Congress Working Committee is to meet today to discuss future strategy following the virtual annihilation in the recent elections. But will anything change? Not a chance. The meeting will be a complete joke with The Family pretending to take responsibility and others shouting them down with vows of complete allegiance. It will be decided that there was a failure of communication wherein the people failed to understand the wonderful policies of entitlement that the Congress had passed which gave people the right to food, education and handouts. There will be regret that they had no time to pass entitlements to free housing and healthcare. What will not be said, but is implicit in the charade, is the entitlement of The Family to live a life of total luxury, protected by the state, without doing a day's productive work or any accountability. Is there no one else in this country of 1.25 billion people with the talent and vision to lead the Congress? It is this servility that blinds them to the reasons for this humiliation. Congress fellows seem bemused by the ingratitude of the people after all the goodies they had distributed. The trouble is whatever they did was in bad faith, designed only to bribe the ' vote bank ' and not to enhance people's lives. It was disrespectful. They are very proud of the MGNREGA scheme which pays the rural poor for 100 days of the year. Thus a man and his wife can get paid for 200 days in the year for doing nothing. Surely, they should be overjoyed. Trouble is that it increased labor costs by putting a floor beneath wages and resulted in food inflation which hurt the very poor they were supposed to be helping. If the scheme had paid for genuine work, such as improving rural roads, putting toilets in every home, securing the dignity of women, or improving school buildings so that children are comfortable then even the most illiterate would have seen long term benefits from the scheme. The Aadhar card was started because migrant laborers have no fixed address and hence cannot access benefit schemes. Other than a person's genetic makeup this is the most rigorous identity card imaginable with photograph, prints of all 10 fingers and iris scans of both eyes. But why were we, the middle class forced to obtain it when we get nothing from the government. If we could obtain a new passport just by quoting our Aadhar number or if it cut out the need for the Know Your Customer irritation when opening a bank account or buying a new SIM card we would joyfully accept it. Instead it was seen as another intrusion into our privacy. Its architect, Mr Nandan Nilekani was soundly defeated by 230,000 votes. Rightly so. The poor are not dumb creatures. They also deserve respect.   

After the entertainment back to dal roti.

Everyone in India has been breathless during the last 2 days of tumultuous events. Journalists have been engaged in contests to see who can scream the loudest, so as to attract commercials for their respective channels. Every self appointed savant has been giving advice to Mr Modi on the best policies his government should follow. The exit polls were spectacularly wrong except for one called Chanakya. Much to our relief astrologers were much closer. Now that we have a chance to settle down the old problem of survival is again occupying our minds. The Consumer Price Index increased to 8.59% in April compared to 8.31% in March while the Index of Industrial Production was down by 0.5% in March compared to a fall of 1.8% in February. Production of consumer durables fell by 11.8% in March and by 12.2% in the whole of the financial year showing that rising prices are killing off demand. More worrying was the fall of Capital goods  by 12.5% in March and by 3.7% in the whole fiscal, signifying a fall in new investment. The Congress never understood that high inflation kills demand, reduces investment, reduces employment, reduces growth and increases poverty. The Wholesale Price Index fell from 5.7% in March to 5.2% in April due to a fall in vegetable prices but retail food inflation increased to 9.66%. The WPI maybe important for politicians but for us only the CPI matters and inflation, especially in food, acts as a huge tax on everything we buy so we stop spending. The good news is that economists are predicting a slight fall in inflation numbers in this fiscal because of measures taken by the Reserve Bank and due to a high base effect. The bad news is that a weak monsoon due to El Nino could lower GDP growth by 0.5%, lower agriculture growth by 2.5% and increase retail inflation by a full 1%. Falling demand will reduce profits and lead to more bad debts. Around 5-6% of bank capital will be erased once bad debts have been written off. The good news is that manufacturing can improve as labor costs are still cheap in India, especially as wages are rising in China. The non-financial private sector debt to GDP ratio in China is 181% compared to just 57% in India. Public debt in China is around 53% compared to 70% in India so that the total debt burden of China is 240% of GDP compared to half that in India. Vietnam also has enormous debt burden. If the new government controls inflation, invests in infrastructure and has a low stable tax regime India could boom. We can only pray.

Judgement day. Payment for bad deeds.

Today's newspapers are full of the astounding election results. The BJP, with Mr Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister, has won 282 seats, which gives it absolute majority on its own. With its electoral allies it can count on 335 seats. Does that mean it can do whatever it likes as its opponents are saying? No. Because the BJP has no majority in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha. It will have to listen to the concerns of other party chiefs to get its bills passed. Mr Modi has already said that he intends to work with everybody and that there are no friends or enemies in running a nation. The Congress has a paltry 44 seats which means it cannot even be the leader of the opposition which needs a tenth of 543, or 55 seats. Although both mother and son of The Family won, most of those who lost absolutely deserved it. The Speaker, Meira Kumar, famous for her trips to Switzerland lost, as did Kapil Sibal who destroyed school education in India by getting rid of examinations. The standards of reading and writing in children in rural areas declined because there was no way of judging what teachers are teaching. The Congress passed the Right to Education Act which mandates that fee-paying schools must reserve 25% of seats for poor children. This was not done to help the poor but as a blatant bribe to win votes and as a surreptitious tax on the middle class. Since 2004, when the Congress came to power, school fees have risen by 450%, putting an unbearable burden on middle class parents. Most of the teaching is done at home so children of illiterate parents will compare very poorly with children of educated parents, so exams were abolished to mask the difference. Mr P Chidambaram was Finance Minister from May 2004 to November 2008, a fact he chooses to forget, concentrating on the last 2 years when he took over from Mr Pranab Mukherjee and boasting of how he stabilised the economy. Yet he is the man who started the MGNREGA scheme costing more than Rs 2.5 trillion, forgave loans to farmers at a cost of Rs 750 billion, started subsidies on petrol, which the BJP had stopped, and increased the Minimum Support Price on cereals creating soaring inflation, rising deficits and falling growth, while he and his cronies were swanking about in Davos. He did not have the guts to stand for election this time but his son, Karti got hammered into 4th place while Mr Mukherjee's son, Abhijit won. Everything the Congress did was in self interest and not for the nation. They deserve to be annihilated. Pity Mr Nitish Kumar allowed his personal feelings to cloud his judgement. Why would you trust a party that so cheerfully betrays the nation? The DMK was wiped out. Crime and punishment.

We would gladly follow ND Tiwari.

Supporters of Congress have tried every trick to belittle Mr Narendra Modi to ensure that he does not become prime minister. The latest trick is the constant discussion on whether the US will grant him visa as though the US will do a great favor to India by welcoming its Prime Minister. How humiliating is that? Many Indians living in the US, especially Bengalis, have actually lobbied against giving a visa to Modi while living in a country whose President is the biggest serial killer in the history of the world, using drones to slaughter hundreds of innocent women and children in Waziristan, Yemen, Mali, Niger and Somalia. And who are all the dead? Muslims, of course. If you want to go to the US you would want to go as Raymond Davies or at least as Amanda Knox but not as Devyani Khobragade and definitely not as Krittika Biwas. And who was responsible for sending the hateful emails that Krittika was brutalised for? It was a Chinese student. No case was filed against the Chinese scoundrel? Why? Because 1. China will react equally brutally to US citizens living in China and 2. US companies, such as Apple, have billions of dollars of trade with China and will put enormous pressure on politicians not to upset the applecart. The so called ' American Dream ' seems to be over. According to a World Bank report China is going to overtake the US economy by next year. It is based on Purchasing Power Parity so is not a true reflection of the size of the economies but then why is Bloomberg so upset. The US middle class is no longer the richest in the world because wages have stayed stagnant while the rich 1% accumulate ever more wealth. While the middle class grows poorer rates of syphilis keeps climbing. It is simple. Mr Modi should not show any desire to travel to the US and send representatives instead. Just concentrate on the economy. Lower inflation, lower taxes, cut out useless expenditure, link all handouts to the number of children to bring down the population and increase spending on infrastructure. As long as we are included in the Fragile Five we will be ignored but once the economy starts to grow watch how the American baboons come come crawling for business. The Congress should learn a lesson from the drubbing they are getting. Junk The Family and make Mr ND Tiwari the president. He got married yesterday at the young age of 88 years. There were allegations in 2009, denied by his office, that he had 3 ladies from the hills in various stages of undress giving him a massage. What a man! Who would not want to be virile like him? Mr Tiwari is greater than Bill Clinton. So there.

We should do what minorities do.

Kurdistan Regional Government is digging a trench, 11 miles long, 2 yards deep and 3 yards wide to keep Islamists from crossing over from Syria. Surely, when you are from the same minority you should be welcoming your brothers in arms. Israel has a castle strategy where a moat separates it from the enemy. " From the Straits of Gibraltar to Khyber Pass, it's very hard to come by a safe and secure area," said Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu. In India we have opened our borders to Bangladeshis so that in parts of Assam and Bengal Indians are in a minority. This is known as increasing the ' vote bank '. We see Pakistanis on our TVs daily, commenting on IPL games and probably being paid handsomely. Pakistanis have been working in Bollywood films while the ISI continues to send terrorists across the border. There are actually  some Indians who want to move to Pakistan to listen to music. They should. Permanently. In recent days there has been outrage throughout the world at the kidnapping of over 200 girls by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The Arabic name for the group is Jama't Ahl as-Sunnah lid-da'wa wal-Jihad which translates to The Fellowship of the People of the Tradition for Preaching and Holy War. Tradition for Holy War! That is probably the reason for the trench. Syrian rebels fled the city of Homs, where the fighting started, while blowing up the Carlton Hotel in Aleppo by digging tunnels under the building and packing them with explosives. No one wants such people. But why such ferocity in Syria, apart from brotherly love that is? Why did the whole of the Middle East bloom in Arab Spring which has now withered away to winter? From 2006 to 2010 there was drought in Syria and Syria's UN Food and Agriculture Representative, Abdullah bin Yehia warned that the economic and social fallout from the drought would be " beyond our capacity as a country to deal with ". When there is less food the prudent course of action would be reduce the number of mouths to feed but in the 3 years of civil war more than 21,000 babies have been born to Syrian refugees, at the rate of 1 baby per hour.  The earth cannot produce enough food for the exploding numbers of humans. There are some who have a childish belief that genetically modified food can feed infinite numbers. Until millions of acres are run over by ' super weeds '. There is no doubt that we humans are destroying this earth.
With minorities producing at this rate further wars are certain. Perhaps that is the solution.

Maybe cheap but can we afford it?

In a report titled ' Random Walk: Mapping the World's Prices 2014 ' Deutsche Bank has compared prices in India with other countries. Prices have been compared based on Purchasing Power Parity which takes the exchange value of the Indian rupee against the dollar into account and it seems that India is cheap compared to many other countries. This is true for foreigners coming to India with dollars, euros or sterling in their pockets but for us, Indians most things have become unaffordable. Earnings in India are a fraction of those in other countries. The average annual salary in Australia is 49,000 Aussie dollars. At Rs 55 to the dollar it comes to Rs 27,00,000 per year. Only 35 million out of a total population of 1,200 million people pay income tax in India of which more than 80% on income of less than Rs 500,000 per year. Income tax starts on annual income of Rs 200,000 per year whereas in the UK tax starts on income above 10,000 pounds or Rs 100,00,00 per year, which is 5 times as much. Then there are huge taxes on every goods and services. A pint of beer in a pub costs $3.28, which is Rs 200, in India compared to $7 in New York but it costs less than Rs 15 to manufacture a bottle of beer, the rest being taxes and profits. A meal in a restaurant will attract at least 25% of the bill in various taxes. Profits of Shoppers Stop dropped by 47% in the last quarter of 2013-14 because of costs of expansion and interest. Rent at midtown Manhattan in New York is $128.85 per sq foot while in Delhi it is $135.93 per sq foot for commercial properties. That is because of a shocking rise in property prices in the last 10 years which is probably why the Consumer Price Index last year was the highest in India at 10.10% compared to 1.46% in the US. So brutal has been the inflation that consumption levels have dropped drastically so that clothing retailers are cutting down on offers, which will reduce demand even further. Sales of cars have been dropping for months now as people spend more on essential goods and the interest on loans is very high as the Reserve Bank battles to control inflation. The bad news is that retail inflation has increased to 8.6% in April from 8.3% in March while industrial output fell 0.5% in March. Manufacturing fell 1.2% in March. There is a lie spread by the Congress, and endlessly repeated by the freeloading media, that low interest rates increase investment. In 1995 interest rates were at 12% but companies were still borrowing as the economy expanded on very high savings. We hope that the new Prime Minister will be truthful and put people before self.

Will our hopes fade along with the black mark?

At last the general elections are over. Tens of billions of rupees have been spent on campaigning by politicians hoping for returns many times the expense. Media fellows tried to influence results by biased reporting. Pollsters made lots of money trying to predict who is going to win. Stock brokers think they know already. The indices have been hitting record levels everyday. But what about us? After the circus has left town will we be left with just a fading black mark on our left index fingers as our expectations fade away? Just as they have done since 1947 while Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and others pulled away. We hope that Mr Narendra Modi gets a decisive victory so that he does not have to depend on erratic regional leaders, motivated by pure self interest, to form a coalition. We do not want another government dependent on ' coalition dharma '. Mr Modi has several things going for him. He is an Indian and does not have an escape route to another country. Just as the pilot of a commercial airline tries his utmost to save the plane because he does not have a parachute Modi will have no excuse for failure. He is single and cannot pass his position on to anyone. He is going to be properly elected to the Lok Sabha and is not sneaking in through the Rajya Sabha. He has experience of administering a state and he has experienced poverty as a child which will make him respect the poor and not treat them as beggars by throwing handouts at them. It is not going to be easy. The economy is in desperate state. The Congress passed laws making handouts permanent which will make the subsidy bill uncontrollable. Once people are used to handouts it is impossible to wean them off. Civil servants are so used to the extra income generated by corruption that they will do everything to subvert any discipline. There is apparently an 80% possibility of an El Nino later this year which may affect agriculture and prevent attempts at controlling inflation. Those who have lost will be plotting revenge. A few stories will illustrate what may happen. In Monaco the head of one of the wealthiest families was shot by a gunman. In Cosenza, 3 people, including a 3 year old boy, were shot dead in January because the grandfather could not repay a loan. In November a gangster in Calabria was beaten with rods and then fed to hungry pigs while still alive. These are facts. Mr Modi will have to move quickly to improve the economy and improve security. Let us hope that at last we will be truly independent and proud to be Indians.

We are born unequal. Justice makes us equal.

Thomas Piketty, a Professor at the Paris School of Economics is the latest heartthrob in economics. His book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, has generated enormous interest as well as anger. Since we do not have the knowledge to understand such abstruse economic theory with detailed mathematical analysis we have to be satisfied with a newspaper interview with the professor. Piketty has assembled vast amounts of data to show that inequality is increasing in the 21st century and will be the same as in the 19th century. The 2 great wars of the 20th century destroyed a large part of inherited wealth so the reconstruction that followed the wars brought a much more balanced economic growth in Europe. Now returns from capital is rising faster than return from labor, leading to an increase in inequality. He recommends a redistribution of wealth based on a high rate of tax on the rich. We beg to differ. This is precisely what the Congress did in the last 10 years when it has taxed us heavily to fund its handouts, such as the MGNREGA scheme costing around Rs 2.5 trillion, the Minimum Support Price paid for grains and waiving all loans to farmers at a cost of Rs 750 billion. But all that did was to increase fiscal deficit, reduce savings and increase inflation, leading to increased poverty and reduced growth. The trouble with clever professors is that they reduce economics to mathematics, ignoring biology which is at the basis of human behavior. We are all born unequal. The Tutsis in east Africa are the tallest people in the world while the Pygmies in the west are the shortest. Thus the Tutsies have an easy way to become rich playing basketball, which Pygmies cannot avail. Differences in intelligence is even more stark since only 1% of people have an IQ above 130. These are the people whose inventions improve our lives. If they are not rewarded adequately for their efforts they will stop trying and all progress will come to a halt. That is why communism was a total failure, whereas in the US inequality was celebrated as the ' Land of Opportunities ' because if you worked hard you could succeed. It was when bankers were paid bonuses while banks failed that the ' Occupy Wall Street ' movement was born. It is not just economic inequality that makes people unhappy. Yes, governments must ensure everyone has decent food, clothing, education, healthcare, security and opportunities for advancement but it is inequality in justice, where the powerful get away with crime, like Rathore got away with pedophilia, that makes people really unhappy. Nature made everyone unequal but we should be equal in opportunities and justice. Therein lies the secret.

Indian share markets, is it all bull?

The stock markets in India are scaling record heights almost on a daily basis. On Friday the Sensex surged 650 points to touch 23,048 before closing at 22,994. Foreign Institutional Investors bought shares worth Rs 12.69 billion on this day alone. This is apparently because exit polls conducted by a television news channel, predicting a victory for the BJP in the general elections, was leaked. Whether it was done deliberately to manipulate the markets we do not know. Perhaps the SEBI will investigate whether some people bought large volumes before the leak and then sold out when markets reached their peaks, a practice known as insider trading. When elections are drawn out over more than a month all kinds of rumors are bound to proliferate, affecting results as well as markets. However, as foreigners were buying retail investors in India were selling Rs 3.54 billion worth of shares. Number of depository accounts fell by 60,000 in February while 4 million folios in equity mutual funds were closed in 2013-14. " Retail investors completely missed the bus as they have not understood the dynamics of equity markets. They don't understand market cycles," said one Suresh Sadagopan, a financial adviser. Are Indians so stupid that they cannot see money growing on trees? Not so. About 95% of stocks have not gone up in value, some are trading at a fraction of values in 2008 so that investors are sitting on huge notional losses. While the Nifty index has gone up from 6250 in 2008 to 6800, DLF has gone from Rs 1140 in 2008 to Rs 145 today, Tata Motors has dropped from Rs 780 to Rs 230, Bhel has dropped form Rs 2480 to just Rs 170, L&T from Rs 4300 to Rs 1345 and Bharti Airtel from Rs 960 to Rs 300. " The retail investors were anyway not there. Now HNIs have also been trapped as most blue chips are quoting at huge discount than the level achieved in 2008," said Kamal Parekh, Chairman of Stewart Securities. Our markets are dependent on the whims of foreign investors who can sell out at a moment's notice, leading to a collapse in prices. Companies controlled by the government are milked by ministers for political gain, leaving them with no capital for long term investment. When retail investors, and even High Networth Individuals, have lost so much money why did the Congress try to trap ordinary people into investing in shares which are very high risk because of the high degree of manipulation? Because it could take out even more money for handouts. People can see through the mirage.

Governance means patriotism. Nothing mystical about it.

As the elections are coming to a close there is a lot of discussion about ' governance ' and the role of the National Advisory Council under Ms Sonia Gandhi. As Congress President Ms Gandhi had the real power which she exercised through the Council. The Prime Minister was merely a front man who was ignored by his cabinet colleagues most of the time. He was even insulted in public when Mr Rahul Gandhi said that the ordinance on corrupt MPs was " complete nonsense ". " If you want to fight corruption in the country whether it is Congress or BJP, we cannot continue making these small compromises. Because if we make these small compromises, then we compromise everywhere," he said. Wise words, but why only now? Why not during the last 10 years that the Congress hung on to power with the support of the corrupt and when people protested in the streets they were ruthlessly beaten up? When asked about the various scams the Prime Minister invoked " coalition dharma " as a cop out, meaning that coalition partners were misbehaving. Yet it was the Congress that forgave all loans to farmers which saddled banks with bad loans as farmers took more loans in the belief that they would be forgiven again. Honest farmers saw themselves as fools and rushed to take advantage of future waivers and so in one move a culture of dishonesty was born. As elections loomed the Congress, faced with certain defeat, quickly passed the Land Acquisition Act which makes it almost impossible to acquire land for infrastructure projects and set up the Seventh Pay Commission to increase salaries of useless civil servants which will add to the fiscal deficit. In an attempt to discredit Mr Narendra Modi the Commerce department asked Accenture to look into land acquisition in various states. The report says that Gujarat has the best policy so our most revered Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma said that his ministry did not set up the commission. That apparently is a blatant lie.
However, the biggest puzzle is why the Prime Minister allowed communist policies of the NAC to destroy the economy. After all he is an economist and has many highly intelligent people to advise him. He must have known that vast handouts will create soaring inflation which would stall growth completely. He could have threatened to resign as he did on the nuclear deal. But he hung on. " I have never felt like quitting. I will stay the course," he said. In response to charges of corruption he said," You cannot suggest your preferences and you have to go by the choice of the leader of the party." They say that Ms Gandhi chose Mr Singh because he was not strong like Mr Narasimha Rao. She may yet discover the extreme danger of his weakness. 

Cannot work without full immunity.

In recent years a disease called ' policy paralysis ' has afflicted civil servants in India. Fear that every decision will be alleged to have been taken because of bribes has been acting as a brake, so nothing gets done. Apparently it is ' tough to be decisive and honest ' at the same time. One is likely to hear such rubbish only in India. It is true that civil servants take decisions involving trillions of rupees and if a contract is given to one business then rivals may claim bias, induced by bribes. Our investigative agencies are useless, even dangerous. They are unable to apprehend villains like Ottavio Quattrocchi and lost an extradition case only recently but brought a succession of false cases against Mr Narandra Modi and Mr Amit Shah at the instigation of the Congress. They are giving up now probably because officers are afraid that they may be held to account. In 4 years till July of last year 555 cases of fake encounters, in which police shoot criminals dead under the pretext of self defense, were registered in India of which Gujarat had only 12. UP had 138 cases of fake encounters but the CBI has been hounding Modi and Shah for 10 years, ever since the Congress came to power. So the fear of false allegations of corruption are well founded, but only because the public sees all civil servants as crooks and they receive no sympathy or support. While politicians come and go civil servants are permanent so they should be providing a solid backbone of development for the people. Instead, they cooperate with politicians to devise policies detrimental to us while enriching themselves. An excellent article shows how the government lies constantly to misuse our money for political gain while we lose out from life insurance and our savings in banks or post offices. An application for a new passport quickly proves how rules have been changed to defraud us. You have to apply online but need an advanced Adobe software to download the form. Filling the form is bad enough but getting an appointment is impossible because the window opens at 6 PM and closes within seconds. So you pay a tout who can magically get you an appointment for Rs 1200 and probably passes on a share. Fees have more than doubled for this privilege. If it is impossible for educated people like us imagine what it is for the illiterate who are in the majority. Doctors take life and death decisions everyday with the threat of Consumer Court hanging over them. The remedy is in their hands. Be transparent, love your country, treat people with respect, answer your mail and expose those who are corrupt. Not so difficult, is it?

The Drone Master vs Vlad. Who wins?

The civil war in Ukraine is based on the assumption that every person in Ukraine desperately wants to be ruled by the European Union and if some people want to be close to Russia then they are agents infiltrated across the border from Russia by Vladimir Putin. As an example of self righteous arrogance it is breathtaking. Putin is referred to as Vlad, in a subliminal comparison to Vlad the Impaler who was the inspiration behind Bram Stokers' Dracula, by propaganda channels, such as the BBC, not mentioning that Vlad is regarded as a hero in Romania. But hang on. British Prime Minister, David Cameron offered to hold a referendum to decide whether the British want to remain in the EU. Does that make him a ex-KGB thug as well? The right wing neo-Nazi government in Kiev is waging a war against its own citizens with helicopter gunships and heavy weapons. In scenes reminiscent of Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 ordinary people stood in front of tanks to stop them from massacring pro-Russian activists. But they were unsuccessful in preventing 46 people from being burnt to death in the Trades Union building in Odessa by extreme right wing, Right Sector thugs. People trapped in the upper floors of the building were pleading with these criminals to open the doors and save their lives but the thugs stood around, protected by heavily armed Ukrainian troops, taunting the terrified people. Special forces have been sent into the east to hunt down pro-Russian activists. The right wing government in Kiev, set up by western countries, is blaming Russia for all the deaths and NATO is using this contrived emergency to station troops permanently in eastern European countries. It is no wonder that Russia sees western countries as enemies who are trying to humiliate it, much like Weimar Germany did, leading to World War II. With some justification. After the fall of the Soviet Union Boris Yeltsin became president. He was a drunk and a buffoon and western countries treated him with contempt. Instead of helping Russia develop strong institutions they helped thieving oligarchs flush their banks with hundreds of billions of looted dollars. As the economy plummeted Russians voted for Putin, a strong man, who brought about some stability. Since then there has been a systematic propaganda of vilification against Putin. Western media sees this as the perfect opportunity to attack Russia and finish it off. Obama has been named ' Drone Master ', like some comic villain, because he has used drones to kill thousands. He has been a gasbag so far so will he see this as his opportunity to prove his manhood. We hope not.

Will China's end come suddenly?

Prof Nouriel Roubini, also know as Dr Doom for predicting the sub-prime crisis of 2008, is predicting that a future global conflict is most likely to start in Asia. Europe had its bloody wars but has been peaceful for 69 years, probably the longest period of peace in its history, because of common institutions of the European Union. Also Germany apologised for its role in starting the 2 World Wars. No such rapprochement took place in Asia. The issue of ' comfort women ' is still a thorn between Japan and China, Philippines and Korea. But it is China which is most likely to be the source of any future conflict. Instead of using its wealth to protect its weaker neighbors and build a peaceful Asia China is using its muscle to expand its hegemony by illegally claiming territory belonging to other nations. In response to an agreement between Vietnam and ONGC of India China has set up an oil rig in Vietnamese waters. According to some reports it is preparing for a ' short, sharp war ' with Japan. After asking US forces to leave some 20 years ago the Philippines has just signed an agreement with the US to allow them back again in response to Chinese aggression. But why are the Chinese behaving in this uncultured manner? They maybe uncivilised, barbaric, brutal cockroach eaters but they are not stupid. Is it because the Chinese economy is not as strong or stable as the Chinese government makes it out to be? Some analysts believe that the property bubble has already collapsed as vast swathes of newly built houses lie empty. If property prices do indeed fall precipitously millions of people and many real estate companies will default on their debts. Banks will not cope with the tide of bad loans as the level of debt in China is now 244% of GDP. Air pollution in China is so bad that it is harming agriculture by reducing photosynthesis in plants, the lowest rung of the food chain. Not just air. About 2.4 million sq miles of land in China which is 16% of the country's soil and 19% of its arable land is contaminated with heavy metals, according to an official report. Is it possible that heavy metal in food and low oxygen levels in air is causing subtle neurological changes in Chinese leaders, resulting in wild, aggressive behavior? At some point countries which are victims of Chinese aggression will combine to push back, maybe resulting in war. Or maybe the fall of the North Korean regime with nuclear weapons in rogue hands will suddenly destabilise the country as neighbors react violently to protect themselves. The demise of China is fervently to be hoped for but may result in a lot of destruction. However it happens it will be good for us in India.

The vast business of poverty.

We have been writing that our politicians contrive to keep people poor because it makes it easy to buy votes by throwing handouts at them. On taxpayer money, of course. Television channels lap up poverty porn where a billionaire politician shares a frugal meal with a poor woman, preferably of a lower caste. Apparently the Congress has managed to lift 150 million people out of poverty in the last 10 years, although this was by giving dole, such as the MGNREGA scheme, and as such was completely unproductive and resulted in rising fiscal deficit and inflation. The Congress was extremely reluctant to take credit for this achievement because then it would not be able to justify promising more handouts to win the present elections. But they did. Their manifesto promises to expand social spending to include rights to healthcare, pensions and housing. It is easy to understand the profound reluctance of the Congress to ditch socialist policies because they have enabled it to grab power for 56 out of 66 years since independence. Raise revenues by levying heavy taxes and then distribute the money in the form of largesse to win the gratitude and votes of the masses. This was the ' garibi hatao ' slogan of Indira Gandhi which brought her to power but led to bankruptcy in 1991 when we had to pawn our gold to survive. That is what the present Gandhis did but it swiftly brought the threat of a credit downgrade to junk status and they were forced to retrench. Normally any party likes to expand the economy before elections to generate a feelgood effect but the fear of a downgrade enforced fiscal austerity leading to further fall in growth. So the Congress campaigned on average growth rate over the last 10 years which even the usual Congress supporters found hard to swallow. The mystery is the refusal to learn from the experience of other countries. Across the world every country that has fallen for socialism, with its seductive logic of distribution of wealth so that there is no poverty, is poor. To distribute wealth you have to create it first which means low taxes to allow people to spend which increases demand and stimulates companies to invest in new production, thus increasing employment. As sales increase indirect tax collections increase in tandem and increased employment leads to increase in direct taxes. The government can then use the increased revenues on infrastructure, further stimulating the economy and creating more jobs. By its policy of wanton handouts the Congress did exactly the opposite, creating inflation and reducing jobs. The business of poverty is probably dying. Which can only be a good thing.