Saturday, July 27, 2024

Budget

 Union Budgets presented in the parliament continue to draw a lot of attention. Public meetings are held in various fora to discuss the pros and cons of the budget. Such meetings are attracting less crowds these days. This is perhaps understandable because very few discussions are objective and non-political. 

Ms. Nirmala Seetaraman presented her seventh consecutive budget on July 23rd. The major departure in this budget is address of the need for demand-stimulation. Earlier budgets focused on the supply side. There is more focus now on employment.

The government wants 1 crore internships to be offered by 500 companies in the next 5 years. This means an average of 20 lac internships every year. This translates, on average,  to 4,000 interns in every company. This just cannot happen.

Benefit of indexation for computation of Long Term Capital Gains has been withdrawn. Apart from its controversial nature, the Finance Minister justifies the move as a measure to ease computational burden. This is a cruel joke. Assesses look for tax relief and not computation relief.

The Chief Economic Advisor who prepares the Economic Survey wants that price of food items may not be used as an input for measuring inflation to be monitored by RBI. This is in connection with the target to RBI on inflation management. This suggestion is abhorrent as the common man continues to struggle because of food inflation.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

T.M.Krishna

 

There is no denying that TMK is an extremely good singer. It is not correct to demand that a good musician should be honoured whatever be their foibles and chicanery. 
Many great musicians have been ignored for Sangita Kalanidhi including giants like Flute Mahalingam, MDR, Ramnad Krishnan and Rajaratnam Pillai. Good musicians are a vast community and always present an ample choice for awards.

Some were deliberately overlooked because of their unbecoming utterances like Veena Balachander who belittled Semmangudi and Bala Muralikrishna.
Thus a tradition of excellence and geniality dictated the decision on awards of Sangita Kalanidhi.

TMK belittled (I am using an euphemistic term) MS Amma and many other musicians. He condemned what he called Sabha culture and in 2015 decided to boycott Sabhas including the Music Academy. The boycott of MA lasted till last year. This year, thanks to the ascendancy of N.Murali in the MA power equation, TMK is sought to be rehabilitated with an award and with the privilege of presiding over the December conference.

 You would have noticed that Ranjani and Gayatri did not oppose the award being given to TMK but could not bear the insult of an insulting musician presiding over their Kutcheri. Veena Balachander's misdemeanor was a trifle in comparison to TMK's. But, Balachander did not have his buddy and benefactor as MA President then.

Kindly read RaGa's tweet and Murali's off course response and listen to Dushyant Sridhar's interview to Barkha Dutt. You will be convinced that the award is atrocious.


Krishna Leela

 

The proposed award of Sangita Kalanidhi title to T.M.Krishna and his consequent presidency of the music conference in December, 2024 has become very controversial, and deservedly so.

T.M.Krishna has been saying that Carnatic music is in the vice-like grip of Brahmins and as such is not inclusive. He has held the Music Academy, Chennai also responsible for this. As if doing amends for this ignoble collusion, the Music Academy has decided to honour TMK. (Of course, there is no denying the musical genius of TMK. His music deserves the award and much more.)

Being a fan of TMK for his magnificent music, I go by TMK logic. I suspect that the Iyengar President (N.Murali) of the Music Academy has chosen to honour an Iyengar musician . (In addition to being of the same caste, both of them possess the names of Krishna.) The incestuous relationship between the two goes further in that TMK is a contributor to The Hindu wherein he is given unrestricted freedom to propagate his views on all issues. (Trichur brothers have sought equal access to The Hindu.)

By accepting the award, the musician is creating one more illustration of the non-inclusive nature of the Music Academy. So far, TMK has not declined the award. He would not decline because the duo seem to have conspired to engineer a coup to herald the return of the musician to the Academy.

TMK has boycotted the Music Academy for the past eight years because of its "non-inclusive" nature . Many musicians feel that rewarding his boycott with an award that includes Presidentship of the Conference is an insult to them. TMK has spoken insultingly on various musicians who in his opinion exhibited Brahmin qualities as defined by him. The revered M.S.Subbulakshmi also attracts his ire and ridicule because though a non-Brahmin, she was fair-skinned and therefore, in TMK's opinion, she was accepted by the Brahmin group. What a lofty thought!


Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Yamuna's petition

 

In the second week of July, Delhi Chief Minister stated that experts had concluded that an ominous increase in the water levels of the Yamuna was improbable and therefore flooding of Delhi was not expected. Yamuna had other plans. Soon the river crossed the danger mark and breached her bank in many places.

Delhiites started fretting and fuming. They started cursing the river, unmindful of her uninterrupted blessings to Delhi in the form of supply of water and nutrient-enrichment of the capital’s soil. Yamuna realised that neither the government(s) nor the citizens would come to her rescue and therefore she had to approach the courts of law to get relief from people’s anger. The waters of the Yamuna entered the Supreme Court confident that the Court being the sentinel on the qui vive would protect the interests of all. In her desperation for immediate succour from people’s wrath and governments’ insouciance, Yamuna overlooked the judicial protocol that required her to go to the High Court first.

The Supreme Court was aghast that the Yamuna waters had entered it and that the Court was also subject to nature’s fury. The Court dismissed Yamuna’s petition in limine and asked her to maintain judicial discipline and approach the High Court first. So, the holy Yamuna who was willing to give way to Lord Krishna soon after His birth despite heavy downpour but was unable to contain herself now, filed her petition in the Delhi High Court.

The petition was an essay partly in pathos and largely in legalese. Yamuna bemoaned in the petition, “I have constantly been of service to citizens of Delhi without expecting any reward from them. At the same time, I did not expect them to curse me as they are doing now.” The petition stated three reasons why Yamuna had a Constitutional right to be protected by the court.

1)     Idols have been accepted as juridical persons by the courts. Just like idols, rivers are also worshipped by people. Therefore, in recognition of their divinity, rivers also need to be recognised as persons. Under Article 21 of our Constitution, “no person shall be deprived of their life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Personal liberty includes the right to free movement within India. Hence neither the government(s) nor the people have a right to frown upon Yamuna for breaching her banks.

2)     Under Article 51A(g), it is the duty of every citizen of India “to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living creatures.” Though as a Directive Principle this duty is not enforceable, the petition pleads that as a measure of judicial progressivism, the court may issue a writ of mandamus directing the government to ensure that citizens discharge their duty for the sake of sustainable environment. Redirecting the rivers to facilitate construction of buildings must be stopped as an immediate measure. Condign punishment should be meted out to those throwing waste and pollutants into the river.

3)     Unprecedented torrential rains inundating almost all parts of Delhi during July, 2023 were an act of God (force majeure) and therefore Yamuna was freed from the obligation to provide trouble-free service to Delhiites during this crucial period. People do not have any right to blame the river for the havoc caused by the act of God.

(Though this is an imaginary petition, this essay is written with a view to sensitising us to the need for keeping our rivers clean and protecting them  from the greed of real estate developers.)

 

 

 


Saturday, September 16, 2023

Do courts command respect?

Recent pronouncements by various High Courts are causing concern. The Calcutta HC has fined the W.Bengal government Rs. 50 lac for not carrying out its order to transfer a cooperative bank fraud case to CBI. Does the state government not know the implications of disobeying a judicial order? Will the fine be borne by the person responsible instead of being debited to the government account? In all likelihood, the recalcitrant government will go on appeal against this levy.

The situation in Tamilnadu is equally, if not more, scandalous. The Chief Justice of the Madras High Court has lamented that an alleged criminal now in prison continues to be a minister in the state cabinet. The Chief Minister only looks askance. A puisne judge of the same court has reopened corruption cases against former and present state ministers which were closed unauthorisedly and unlawfully. The ministers are upset that they are also held accountable for corruption. Another judge has expressed surprise over a minister's  outburst against a religion. It is time for the Supreme Court to advise the governments to behave or else -------.

Friday, September 15, 2023

Learning leads to negative amortisation

 

Amortisation means reduction in value of an asset or a liability. Suppose you have taken a housing loan. When you pay an instalment (say an EMI), the loan liability comes down by a certain amount. In other words, the loan is getting amortised. In this process, the EMI should be more than the interest charged. Otherwise, the loan amount will never be adjusted; rather, the loan liability will keep increasing. This is called negative amortisation.

When we learn something new, the stock of what we do not know ought to come down. But it does not happen. We start realising that what we do not know is more than what we thought we did not know. This is why the more we learn, the more we want to learn.

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Sanatana Dharma (contd.)

 The war of words on Sanatana Dharma is continuing. Mr.A.Raja has reinforced Mr.Udhayanidhi Stalin's argument comparing Sanatana Dharma with diseases. N.Ram quotes from convenient books to claim that every word of condemnation of Sanatana Dharma is valid.

This is no doubt an emotional issue. Therefore, we need to be clear on what is meant by Sanatana Dharma. According to the detractors, Sanatana Dharma is nothing but Varnashrama Dharma cloaked in a different nomenclature. The detractors do not stop there. They go on to define Varnashrama Dharma in a casteist way.

There are two mistakes here which of course do not cancel each other. Rather, they aggravate and mislead. Sanatana Dharma is different from Varnashrama Dharma. As repeated ad nauseam, Sanatana Dharma consists of eternal values or principles like adherence to truth, non-violence, respect for parents, teachers and guests and so on. I do not think that Stalin or Raja or Ram is against these eternal qualities, though they may not practise them. So, Sanatana Dharma is not Varnashrama Dharma. The detractors claim that Varnashrama is defined by birth. As already quoted from Bagavad Gita, the fourfold classification of society is based on profession and practice and not based on birth. This truth does not support the critics' tirade and therefore they misinterpret. Thus, it is a deliberate ploy to mistake one for another and then indulge in misinterpretation.

Ram claims that he is a non-believer in God and therefore can view this objectively. Atheism is not a licence for misinterpretation and falsehood.