An Open Letter to Kanhaiya

Dear Kanhaiya,

I am writing this letter to you as an honest taxpayer of this country who has been giving almost a third of his annual hard-earned income to fund the fellowship stipend that you receive. I am sure that this stipend goes a long way in funding your education since I hear that your family income is mere Rs 4,000-5,000 per month as against a stipend of more than Rs 20,000 per month that you receive.

You clearly have borne the brunt of poverty and have seen the hardships of your family – I have seen your paralyzed father and working mother; I pray for their good health and long life. I would have been amongst the happiest if you were using this stipend for engaging in studies and research instead of politics.

I understand that you are in your late 20’s or early 30’s (most people are honestly earning their bread and paying taxes by this age) and are studying for a PhD at JNU. I don’t know what your specialization is but from an outside perspective, it does seem that politics and not studies is your main occupation. I would really like my hard-earned tax money to fund a deserving student who devotes his time in study and research to contribute to the society.

I do not know if you raised any anti-national slogans and whether sedition charge is misplaced (anyway, the matter is sub-judice and better left at that without any innuendoes). However, I do believe that as the head of the student body, you should have stopped people from raising such slogans at an event where you were present. You should have registered a police FIR against such hooligans because you claim to love this nation and the freedom (of speech or otherwise) that it bestows as much as anyone else.

I know that you mentioned Rohith Vemula as your icon; I see Rohith’s sacrifice as a lesson for our nation that every educational institute needs to take care of its students to prevent such cases. It also reminds us that politics and studies should be kept apart.

You mentioned that you are with the armed jawans and policemen who are just like you; I am not sure if I see it in your actions or support. I see our men sacrificing their lives against Naxals who engage in bloodshed in the jungles of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh every day. I have experienced the havoc that such Naxals create in the name of Maoism since I grew up in those very areas of Jharkhand.

You are clearly a gifted orator who knows how to use punches and connect with the audience; you use your skills in word craft and theatre to great hilt. This very ability took you to the post of JNU President and I would urge you to put this great skill to good use and negotiate with the Naxals to convince them to stop bloodshed. I am sure that if you are able to save the lives of our armed men and stop this violence, even the current government (with whom you differ ideologically and I respect that) would praise you.

Lastly, I would urge you to rethink whether you are a politician or a student and then take the path that you choose and shed off the mask.

Regards,

A tax payer.

Independence Day - Dedicated to our Mothers and Sisters

I was eagerly waiting to hear the first independence day speech by Narendra Modi and he far exceeded my expectations on all counts. He inspired the whole nation and did not use the platform to achieve petty political gains. It was neither a report card of his 100 day government nor was it a laundry list of new government schemes. Rather, it was a vision laid out by the supreme leader of the nation rightly raising the pertinent issues and chartering the path ahead.

Narendra Modi has truly shown a great ability by not getting intoxicated with success. He has shown a great promise by indulging in consensus building (which many believed is not his style) and by strengthening the federal structure (replacement of old, ailing and ineffective Planning Commission with National Development Reforms Commission). Though the biggest highlight of the address was his emphasis on women safety and sanitation.

NaMo through his speech has given a message to all the khaps and politicians such as Mulayam that rape is not a fault of women (as it is made out to be) but of men. This is a stern message for the deviated because I strongly believe that our man will follow his words with strict action.

His second best act of the day was emphasis on sanitation, specially for women. I personally know of remarkable results achieved in terms of girl student enrollment, reduction in drop out rates and increase in attendance that have been achieved in schools managed by Infotech Enterprises Charitable Trust in Hyderabad through provision of separate toilets for girls. If all corporates decide to honor their CSR obligations (2% of profits) and dedicate it towards construction of toilets in schools, the country will achieve a remarkable milestone in promoting girl education and strengthening the future of our Nation.

Here is a PM who despite being 60+, has the courage to commit on a public platform to deliver more man hours than the government staff. Unlike many previous PMs who were rote readers of the written notes, the current PM has invigorated the nation and reminded everyone of their duty to contribute to nation building. Look forward to many more such inspiring speeches from the man for years to come.

Jai Hind.

Women Safety - An open letter

माननीय मोदीजी ,

बदायूं की दुर्घटना से आप भली भाँती अवगत हैं।  यह अपने आप मे पहली घटना नहीं है।  और शायद दुर्भाग्य की बात है कि आखिरी भी नहीं।  लेकिन आप से यह उम्मीद है कि आप यह प्रयास जरूर करेंगे कि ऐसी वारदाते भविष्य मे ना हो।

मुझे आपके वो शब्द याद है जब आपने मुझे यह विश्वास दिलाया था कि गुजरात की तरह पुरे भारत वर्ष मे मेरी बहने स्वेछा से विचरण कर सकेंगी।  उन्हें कोई भय न होगा।  कोई अपराधी उनकी ओर आँख उठा कर ना देखेगा।  आज वक़्त है कि आप अपने वचनों को पूरा करें।

आपसे यह उम्मीद नहीं कि कानून व्यवश्था को राज्य सूचि का विषय बताते हुए आप इससे पल्ला झाड़ लेंगे। आप कृपया उत्तर प्रदेश की सरकार से जवाब मांगिये।  दिल्ली की निर्भया बहन की तरह बदायूं की घटना के लिए दुर्त्गति कोर्ट की स्थापना कीजिये।  बलात्कार जैसे दुष्कर्म के लिए फांसी की सजा का प्रावधान बनाइये , देश आपके साथ है।  आपने देखा है कि मुलायम सिंह (लड़कों से गलती हो जाती है) जैसे नेता को देश ने क्या जवाब दिया है।

देश ने आपमें एक सशक्त नेता चुना है, मुझे विश्वास है की आप देश को और अपनी माताओं बहनों को निराश नहीं करेंगे।

जय हिन्द।

अच्छे दिन। …

Signs of action

Media had accused NaMo in the worst possible manner for being a dictator, a self-centred egotist. The same person has replied not in words, but through action - by humbly asking to request for removal of story of his life from state textbooks in his tweet.

The best news of the day was his plan to introduce performance based incentive for government employees. This is truly in line with his mantra of "minimum government, maximum governance". Currently, there is nothing in the government system which provides recognition and reward to well performing capable officers. The current system does not reward hundreds of good deeds but a single error despite being well-intended can finish the career. Organizational experts would tell you such an organizational design is recipe for a high cost, low performing organization which is what we have been getting all along from the bureaucracy in this country. I have seen the movement from "Cholbe na" in Bengal to "Can do, Will do" attitude in Gujarat and let me tell you, it fills you with energy and enthusiasm. But, let me not be biased and not take away the credit of the last UPA government for "in-principle approval" of this scheme. But, the key would be honest execution wherein this does not become a tool in the hands of seniors and politicians for rewarding their cronies. After all, any policy or strategy is only as good as its execution. Post successful execution at the centre, the state governments irrespective of political affiliations must emulate the same and must try to make the whole government system "performance oriented".

Being a majority government not dependent on any bargaining, the government has already started taking decisive action as seen by news of FDI in defence, rail & infrastructure. FDI should not be viewed as selling out assets of the nation or mortgaging the family silver to the foreigners. Rather, it has to be seen as a means for channelizing global capital (both financial as well as technical) for fast-tracking of growth plans. Today, the country is importing critical defence equipment from foreign players by spending from our foreign exchange reserves. By attracting FDI, it will be able to develop domestic manufacturing in these segments. This will lead to multiple benefits such as - (i) Generation of large number of jobs (ii) Strong development of technical skills (iii) development of an ecosystem which in future can even be used for export of these products - thus changing an FX consuming stream to an FX generating stream (current account deficit reduces). Obviously, this will take a long time to materialize and will need a positive and favourable environment at every stage.

Achche Din....

CEO of My Nation

The new PM has duly started acting as a responsible CEO within first few days of running this nation:

• Firstly, he duly created the SIT on black money - fulfilment of one of the poll promises, truly a low hanging fruit in terms of creation of a committee
• A less publicised but equally potent act was his dictat of asking his ministers not to fill the positions with their cronies / relatives. Only DNA gave it due attention but this is a really important act which promotes meritocracy, accountability and inhibits corruption.
• Obviously, the CEO has laid out his 10 point agenda and asked his deputies to prepare their 100-day plans. My guess is he will duly evaluate these plans and their implementation. Post the plan period and some leeway (may be 6-12 months), I am sure non-performers will be shunted out and the performers duly rewarded.
• Education, health and infrastructure have duly got the right importance in his agenda while Mr. Jaitley has rightly started prompt communication with RBI Governor for guiding the nation towards balanced growth and controlled inflation.

Given the sharp acumen of NaMo and his astonishing ability to communicate his achievements directly to masses, I am sure that good deeds of this government will not go unnoticed by public.

I am sure these regular broadcasts are just like quarterly results for a company but the mega event (next elections) would be a well-orchestrated story of transformation for the world to see and appreciate.

I remember participating in a school debate about India becoming the next super power when Atalji had led the nation to become a nuclear power. I had mentioned that we were far from reaching there, I still feel we are far today but have the faith that we have got a leader today for taking us to the right path.

Achche din...

Decoding the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cashflows of India

The new finance minister is due to present his first budget shortly and here are some thoughts:

• India still follows cash based accounting system when it comes to national accounts. Any student of finance 101 will be able to highlight the multiple issues it brings and why accrual based accounting (followed by almost all the corporates) is better suited to present the true health of the economy.
• Our statement of accounts treats every cash outflow as an expense irrespective of whether it is recurring expense for running the nation such as salary of bureaucrats or it is an outflow for asset building such as creation of infrastructure assets.
• Current representation of the statement of accounts of the nation does not represent a complete story because we do not fully know the drivers of deficit whether it is subsidies, funding of losses of ailing PSUs like Air India or building of bullet trains and interlinking of rivers for the nation (hopefully, these will happen soon).

Given the strong focus on infrastructure creation of the new government, I wish they would highlight the asset build up being undertaken by the country through differentiation between capital investment and expenses.

One needs to think of the nation as a really big corporate being run from an extremely long term perspective where all its citizens are equal shareholders. In order to create long term assets (Howrah bridge still serves the purpose of providing strong connectivity, so is Mullaperiyar dam) for the nation, one should not be treating them as an expense and stifling them for cash rather one should be willing to mobilize long term debt funds for the same (just like the age old asset liability matching principle).

I think the country should borrow heavily primarily by channelizing the domestic savings through proper incentives (long term tax free bonds is a good idea and may be continued) and deploy it efficiently in building the national infrastructure.

Clearly, the country needs to work towards long term sustainable increase in GDP which is a combination of two things - capital deployment and labour efficiency. Hence, two key objectives for this government have to be infrastructure creation and skill development among masses. 

Mega projects and star institutes hog all the limelight but I think a distributed model suits our country the best. We need to create better schools and colleges in every village and well-lit roads from every field to every mandi - हर किसान भाई की फसल को पूरा दाम मिले और सही समय पर मिले, उसके बाजार में मिले और इसके लिए किसी सरकारी बाबू या दलाल की जरुरत ना पड़े 

Why should the government be in the business of food procurement and food supplies? We should enable every farmer to rightly extract the price from the market and enable every mouth to earn its food through its hands.

Achche Din....

The new beginning

The elections in India, Mahakumbh of the largest democracy in the world finally culminated in the swearing in of a new government - a stable government with a new beginning, riding on the hopes of more than a billion people. Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 15th PM of the nation. And the first signs of change are already visible:

1. The new PM has already started dis-intermediation in communication with a new revamped website which will be used for directly reaching out to young people and the whole world. This will help in delivering the message straight to the masses without the medium of TV and newspaper media who at times can have vested interests.
2. Sticking to his mantra of minimum government, maximum governance, NaMo has kept a small government and I am sure he will take regular account of everyone's performance.
3. Strong capable leaders have been well rewarded with both finance and defence handed to Mr. Jaitley who unfortunately lost Lok Sabha elections. 
4. This government has amongst the highest levels of women representation in the ministry. Mr. Modi believes in acting and truly providing women empowerment instead of just lip service. Two of the most important ministries - MEA and MHRD would be with women leaders.
5. This ministry would have General V K Singh as MoS - independent in charge of North East. I cannot think of a better person than an army general to understand the intricate issues involved in North East while at the same time, a strong focus on North East will go a long way in assuaging the concerns of our brothers and sisters in these regions.
6. Lastly, I believe that NaMo would continue his mantra of Karma and run the country like a strong responsible CEO with focus on results and responsibility, truly in the interests of all the stakeholders.

Achche Din Aa Rahe Hai...Jai Hind.