Friday, December 16, 2016

A total washout!

Curtains have come down on the winter session of Parliament that saw no business being transacted! What a sad state of affairs? They could have:-

     (a) Legislated pending and new bills, towards tautening the governance.
     (b) Cleared the GST bill.
     (c) Discussed demonetisation threadbare - the government stating as to what has been achieved
           thus far, the pitfalls noticed during the drive and the necessary corrective actions to make it
           100% successful. The opposition could have given valuable inputs to streamline the
           implementation and thus, become part of a well intended move.

But these are the things done by responsible lawmakers, whose sole interest is the country's good and the well being of its people!

Do any of our parliamentarians care? It's an emphatic 'No'! To add to that, what do we see? Let's take a look:-

       (a) Sickening amounts of the new Rs.2,000/- notes retrieved from quite a few people, across the
            country and what's evident is that the culprits did get the support of the banking officials!
            Now, are these officials the frauds within that system or were they - at least a few of them -
            playing out the drama because of their political affiliations?
       (b) Congressmen demonstrate before the Governor of the RBI at Calcutta.
       (c) The co-operative banking sector has taken its grievances - at not being allowed to accept
             the old demonetised notes of Rs.1,000/- and Rs.500/- - to the Supreme Court. Thankfully,
             all the petitions filed on demonetisation at various courts of the country will now be dealt
             with by a Constitution Bench of the apex court.
       (d) Meanwhile, the media has been reporting about the tremendous(?) hardships suffered by the
            poor and the common man because of the erratic ATMs and the non availability of cash.
            During the recent trip to my village, after speaking to a cross section of the people, these
            were the inputs that I could get:-
                    (i) In such governmental drives, there will be difficulties but we must overcome it by
                         co-operating with the government agencies that are trying to implement a noble
                         cause!
                   (ii) It's good to see a PM who's decisive and takes bold decisions!
        (e) So, are the actions taken by the opposition the result of being rattled by the tremendous
              support the PM is getting for his actions?
        (f)  The Congress' unsubstantiated claims of Modi's corrupt dealings during his stint as the CM
              of Gujarat. They neither tabled the details on the floor of the Parliament nor have they come
              public about the insinuations, denting Rahul Gandhi's credibility which is sad!

Almost simultaneously, following have also happened:-

        (a) More details are emerging about the corruption-mired Agusta Westland Helicopter deal.
             Former defence minister, AK Antony's statement that only the IAF has to answer about
             the deal shows a degree of panic and gross ignorance(Simulated, to be precise) because
             how does that service initiate a project like buying choppers for civilian VVIPs, not at all
             connected to the IAF and hence, become answerable?
        (b) Adv Prashant Bhushan's caveat in the Supreme Court that the chief justice-designate should
              recuse himself from the cases related to demonetisation was unnecessary.
        (c) The sudden breakup of the opposition unity on the last day of the winter session of
              parliament is unfortunate because it has taken the pressure off the government to
              remove the glitches on the implementation of the demonetisation drive.



Tailpiece.

Sadly, not even one channel of the media mentioned the importance of this day, the Vijay Diwas(It was mentioned as a one line news in a couple!) It marks the end of the spectacular Indo-Pakistan conflict of '71 when our armed forces ensured the emergence of a new country, Bangladesh! It has became an event celebrated withing the confines of the defence establishments only!! Sad, shame on us, Indians for having let down our armed forces, yet again!!!
       

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