The Republic Day celebrations in the rain are over. The POTUS chewed gum and the FLOTUS looked bored. They will shortly fly out with the Beast and 1,600 security gorillas to offer condolences to the new Saudi King, who has dementia, over the passing of the old Saudi King, who was ailing for sometime. While Mr Modi looked tense and fully concentrated on his guest Mr Obama looked relaxed and in control. After all, India has a lot to gain from nuclear and defense collaboration with the US but what the US is looking to gain we do not know. Still, if Obama took time out to come all this way for a full state visit immediately after the State of the Union address it must mean that he expects some good to come out of his visit. India has no hope of becoming an equal partner of the US within a lifetime so the only way to exert influence over Washington will be to become very rich so that American companies can make lots of money over here. That is why China is so strong. Will any US prosecutor dare to humiliate a Chinese diplomat as they did with Devyani Khobragade or torture a Chinese schoolgirl the way they did Krittika Biswas? The Chinese scoundrel, Shang Ming who actually sent those obscene emails went unpunished. To produce wealth we need the best infrastructure, which will cost a minimum of $1 trillion to finance. Some of the money will come from loans from international lenders, some from the private sector and some from our taxes. The trouble is that a lot of the money we pay in taxes is wasted by our politicians and civil servants on themselves. Last year the central government spent Rs 2.54 trillion on wages on its employees. The central government employs 3.45 million civil servants while states and municipalities employ countless more. Despite being billionaires politicians keep increasing their own allowances and perks. It is in the interest of politicians and civil servants, therefore, to keep increasing taxes with which to finance their extravagant expenses. The Comptroller and Auditor General has discovered how civil servants were looting millions by false billing. Our tax fellows cook up new ways to increase taxes on individuals and businesses. They are demanding that companies pay taxes on advertisements and promotions. Why? Companies must be paying service and other taxes on advertisements while television and newspapers are paying corporate taxes. Software companies are being forced to pay both service and sales taxes. So they are shifting offices overseas and are paying taxes there. Including the Vice President the US has 16 cabinet posts and 7 others of cabinet rank while we have God knows how many. To really have a Swachh Bharat take the broom to the dross in government.
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