Saturday, September 30, 2017

Tampering with judiciary

NDA is following Indira Gandhi's policy of inconveniencing the judges who dare to pronounce judgments against the powers that be. The latest victim of this obscurantist policy is Justice Jayant M.Patel.

Justice Patel who in the normal course would have become Acting Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in October was transferred to Allahabad High Court. He put in his papers.

This is an unsavoury incident that projects the government in bad light. The Supreme Court collegium seems to have fallen in line. A spineless judiciary guarantees unjust government.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Two Finance Ministers and their sons

Yashwant Sinha, a former bureaucrat and Finance Minister, has pilloried government's economic policies and their implementation. His son, Jayant Sinha, a minister in the central government, has responded to his father's criticism gracefully. Economics is always a slippery subject. The same economic policy may work sometimes and may prove disastrous in less fortunate times. But the dialogue between Yashwant Sinha and his son has been delightful sans any bitterness. They belong to the same political party but are able to bring in different perspectives.

Contrast all this from what another former Finance Minister and his son are doing. P.Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram are spending their time trying to prove why their alleged ill-gotten wealth is not illegitimate after all. No smoke without fire?

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Chidambaram, victim or guilty?

It is widely made known that Karti Chidambaram has amassed assets in many countries misusing his father's ministership. This is vehemently denied by both father and son. They have gone to the extent of expressing their readiness to gift their undisclosed assets if any to the government.

CBI  therefore needs to expedite its trials and favour the public with a conclusion to this political histrionics. The corrupt need to be exposed and legally punished. It is equally important that the innocent are not harassed. The public should not be harassed by keeping the pot boiling indefinitely.

BJP is steadily losing its popularity as it is unable to fulfill its plentiful promises. Unemployment problems are intensifying. The opposition despite its lack of unity must be relishing the opportunity arising from BJP's incapacity to be equal to the promises it has made.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Rahul Gandhi in USA

According to reports appearing in newspapers like The Hindu and The Hindustan Times, Rahul Gandhi is making a favourable impression on his audience in USA. There are atleast three reasons for this lucky break for Rahul Gandhi.

He is intensely tutored by Milind Deora and Shashi Tharoor from minute to minute. Rahul Gandhi is repeating what Americans want to hear about India. "India is intolerant." And third, expectations from Rahul Gandhi were pretty low. Compared to expectations, the performance has been better so far.

Is Rahul Gandhi turning over a new leaf?

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Rahul Gandhi on dynasty

Rahul Gandhi was addressing students of the University of California - Berkeley. Times of India reported as under:

"Responding to a question from students, Gandhi said that he was “absolutely ready“ to take up an executive responsibility if the party asked him to do so. Responding to another question whether the Congress party was more associated with dynastic politics, Gandhi argued that India is being run by dynasties.




“Most parties in India have that problem So...Mr Akhilesh Yadav is a dynast. Mr Stalin (son of M Karunanidhi in DMK) is a dynast...Even Abhishek Bachchan is a dynast.So that's how India runs. So don't get after me because that's how they India is run. By the way , last, I recall, Mr Ambanis are running the business.That's also going on in Infosys. So that's what happens in India.“ "

Infosys is run by dynasts? Narayana Murthy and other founders of Infosys must be dumbfounded by this remark of Rahul Gandhi. A dynast gets hereditary powers. Assuming that Infosys is run by its founders (which is contested by the founders), how can Rahul Gandhi refer to them as dynasts? Is he clairvoyant enough to predict that children of Murthy and others will manage the company? Even otherwise, there is a difference between business dynasty and political dynasty. Business dynasts are owners of the business. Is Rahul Gandhi owning the Congress party?

Friday, September 01, 2017

Murthy's relative in Infosys' Board

Seshasayee has now responded to Murthy's uncomplementary reference to him. Murthy will react to this. The war of words will continue.

In October, 2016 D.N.Prahlad was nominated to the Board of Infosys. He had earlier resigned as an employee of Infosys. He is a relative of Narayana Murthy. There is nothing wrong in this arrangement. When questioned on this, Murthy refused to answer. The 'Father of Corporate Governance in India' could have been transparent about the purpose of nominating a relative as a director.

At that time, there were apprehensions about the role of Prahlad. As the Mint reported,


“The worrying thing of this appointment of an executive perceived to be close to the founder is what message it sends to the senior leaders at the company,” said the Infosys executive. “If the board agrees to have a representative of the founder, then leaders clearly are told who is more important. So, can the CEO really have his team rally around him?”
Surprisingly, Seshasayee went out of the way to defend Murthy:
"To be sure, Infosys has categorically denied the existence of twin power centres at the company. “First, there is no such twin power centres. That is completely wrong, and that will be very unfair to the promoters,” R. Seshasayee, non-executive chairman of Infosys, said in an interview last month. “Because, like I mentioned, Murthy has been an exceptional leader who has chosen to stay away and only give advice when sought from. So it will be utterly wrong (to claim otherwise).” The newspaper added, "Murthy did not respond to queries on the appointment."
Seshasayee must now be ruing why he showered an unmerited compliment on Murthy.
It is interesting to note that Nandan Nilekani was all praise for Prahlad in his first press conference on becoming chairman of the company. He knows how to keep Murthy in good humour.