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Benefit of indexation for computation of Long Term Capital Gains has been withdrawn.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.

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.

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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!

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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.)

 

 

 

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 -------.

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.

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.

Sanatana Dharma aka Hinduism

 

Mr.M.K.Stalin and his ministers are in the habit of ridiculing and bashing what they assume to be Sanatana Dharma. According to them, Sanatana Dharma is divisive, hierarchical and dehumanisation of a section of society. If some philosophy is really like this, it has to be condemned and done away with.

The problem is not with Sanatana Dharma. It is with their understanding of what is Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma means eternal dharma. Qualities like truth which are for ever are the constituents of this Dharma. Stalin and his followers interpret this Dharma narrowly and wrongly and then make caustic comments.

These critics attribute divisiveness to Sanatana Dharma by assuming that people are bracketed into different groups by birth. Sanatana Dharma clearly points out that people differ because of their qualities and not because of their birth. For example, sloka 41 of 18th chapter of Bagavad Gita says,

brāhmaṇa-kṣhatriya-viśhāṁ śhūdrāṇāṁ cha parantapa
karmāṇi pravibhaktāni svabhāva-prabhavair guṇaiḥ

Meaning: The duties of the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras—are distributed according to their qualities, in accordance with their guṇas (and not by birth).

Many Azhwars and Nayanmaars who are held in high esteem by believers in Sanatana Dharma were born in what are unfortunately considered as lower castes. People respect them for their qualities and do not disrespect them for the families they were born in. 

One should understand a philosophy first before attempting to make rabblerousing comments.

Medical outcome

 

Medical outcome is at the end of a long chain starting from a patient realizing when to seek medical help. Competent doctor, correct diagnosis, right prescription, corresponding medicine that is not counterfeit, side effects of medicine, attendant problems sometimes mistaken as side effects, availability of a competent doctor at crucial times (an in-patient in a hospital suffering a heart attack on a Sunday morning is more likely to die), etc. are critical variables. With so many impondèrable links in the chain, prognosis is bound to be uncertain. An admission in any hospital will convince even the most rational among us that luck is a critical factor in life (and death). Late Dr.K.P.Misra , a well known cardiologist, would humorously express his pleasant surprise whenever a patient came out of this ordeal hale and healthy.

LIC Policy claimants beware !

LIC keeps advertising that its claims settlement process is simple . The advertisements claim that the nominees need to submit only Death Certificate, Policy, Claim Form and Bank Account details along with proof of identity of the nominee / claimant.  They also claim that the claim can be lodged in any branch of LIC. 

The reality is far from all these claims. LIC insists that the nominee should lodge the claim only in the base branch which has issued the policy. Even within Chennai, the branches require the nominee to go to  the policy issuing branch. Death Certificate is not enough. Hospital should confirm the details of admission and death. ( I do not know what LIC will want if the insured passes away at home.) A person who has seen the dead body should certify the insured is dead and that he or she has seen the body. The challan issued by the crematorium is insisted upon. All these need to be notarised also !

Why is the LIC so thoughtlessly and sadistically bureaucratic? Why is the LIC making false claims in its publicity?

A person on the death bed , thinking about the torture of claim settlement, would prefer not to die. Perhaps LIC wants all of us to be Chiranjeevis !

Rahul Gandhi's theatrics

 

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has made news. It is not possible to say if it was a success because we do not know what its objectives were. Perhaps Rahul himself is not aware.

He observed during the yatra that " women are still being sexually assaulted." This is indeed a serious allegation, the kind that makes other nations sit up and wonder what is happening in and to India.

The police obviously wants to know who are sexually assaulting women so that they can be dealt with legally. Rahul is unable to give details immediately. He only wants to know if the government is crass with him because he is raising the Adani issue.

Rahul Gandhi is unable to abstain from making crude allegations without preparing groundwork. He is coached by advisors who perhaps are misleading him. 

Silicon Valley Bank

 

The unforeseen rapid fall of SVB is an appropriate plot for a business novel. This was caused not by mismanagement. The unholy combination of substantial withdrawal of deposits and drop in value of government securities was the primary cause of this debacle. 

Nearly 95% of deposits were above the insured limit. The government, the FED and FDIC have decided that all deposits will be repaid. This is possibly a moral hazard. There will hereafter be a clamour for such exemptions during any future bank failure.

HSBC (UK) has agreed to purchase SVB (UK) at a nominal price of 1 British Pound. SVB (UK) earned profit of 88 million pounds last year. Its deposit is 6.7 billion pounds and advances 5.5 billion pounds. HSBC has made a sensible decision.

There are two features in the American banking system which deserve a revisit. The moment loss exceeds the capital, a bank is declared insolvent and final rites are set in motion. Secondly, there is rarely any regulatory forbearance. The Indian system gives time for the bank to recover. The RBI does not hesitate to provide forbearance to a deserving bank.

The FED hopes that the SVB problem has been contained and there will not be any major fallout. But banking events have a tendency to upset the regulator's calculations. 

Pegasus again

 Rahul Gandhi has raised the Pegasus issue once again, this time from Cambridge. He states that his mobile had Pegasus earlier and some opposition leaders are spied on even now. He has even clarified that some intelligence officials had approached him with the information that they were recording his mobile conversations. When the Supreme Court - appointed Committee had earlier asked for the mobiles of opposition leaders to see if they were subject to surveillance, they preferred not to hand over their mobiles. 

Too many allegations without evidence trivialises governance in a democracy. Since the Supreme Court is a sentinel on the qui vive to protect and nurture democracy (evidenced by its order on appointment of Election Commissioners) and governance (evidenced by its appointment of a committee to investigate lapses in capital market regulations), it should suo motu ask Rahul Gandhi to identify, under oath,  the intelligence officials who warned him that they were recording his mobile conversations. This will enable the nation to know the truth.

Teesta Setalvad

 The Supreme Court has sharply questioned the bona fides of Teesta Setalvad  in the Gujarat Riots case. The court has also observed that those who unlawfully instigated cases against the then chief minister need to be brought to book.

Consistent with the court's observations, Teesta Setalvad has been taken into custody. It is surprising that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders has called for her release and an end to "persecution by the Indian state." Can compliance with a court directive be called as persecution by the state? Does the UN want anarchy in India?

Crusade against Modi

 Opposition parties in India have been failing the nation by focusing exclusively on Mr.Modi and blaming him for all ills of the country. This adversarial strategy has only antagonised the public.

Now that the Supreme Court has finally exonerated Mr.Modi of any guilt in the Gujarat riots case, one hopes that non-BJP parties will give up their obsession with Modi and start acting responsibly. Responsible opposition will enhance the polity in any democracy.

Bail or jail ?

 "If it is bail vs jail, it is always bail" is a populist nostrum. It all depends on the specifics of a case and the law which governs the particular case. Unlike the general criminal law, grant of bail in cases under UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act) is exceptional and rare. Similarly, in cases involving sedition and incitement to violence, bail ought to be the last choice.

In Disha Ravi's case, Judge Dharmender Rana, has reasoned that dissemination of information is encouraged by Indian ethos and has quoted the Rig Veda which says, "आ नो भदाः कतवो यनतु िवशवतोऽदबधासो अपरीतास उिददः। (Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions).” The Hon.Judge has concluded from this that we must welcome divergent thoughts. This is a wrong conclusion because the Veda refers only to noble thoughts and not any divergent thought.

N.Ram's advice

 N.Ram has cautioned Sachin Tendulkar that he should stick to cricket and matters he is knowledgeable about. This is in the context of support extended by the God of Cricket to the Farm Laws. Many have criticised Ram for this. I think they are grossly mistaken.

Ram being a non-partisan observer is actually sending a hidden message to Rihanna and Greta Thunberg. He is telling Rihanna, "Confine yourself to pop music. Indian agriculture is not your cup of tea."

His advice to the climate activist is "You are only 18 years old. Wait till you grow up and start understanding what is what."

In the meanwhile, Ram undertakes to stick to his knitting whatever it is.

Governance and Activism

 The year 1991 is notable in India's economic history. It was during this year that substantial reforms were introduced in the industrial and financial sectors. Opinion is divided on who deserves the credit for these path-breaking moves. P.V.Narasimha Rao or Manmohan Singh?

The creative reforms were possible not because of presence of these two. They were made possible by the absence of people like the climate activist Greta Thunberg who has an eye on Nobel Peace Prize, pop singer Rihanna and the writer Meenakshi Ashley Harris. These international busybodies think they have a divinely ordained right to comment on anything happening anywhere. Ignorance about the Farm Laws in India would not stop them from making uninformed criticism. (In a televised discussion yesternight, a participant supporting these nosy parkers ridiculed the other participants for pronouncing Rihanna's name incorrectly. When asked whether she (the participant)  was aware of the Farm Laws, she brushed aside the question!)

A celebrity is not necessarily an expert. In addition, expertise in one field does not make one an expert other fields. The 18-year old phenomenon, Greta Thunberg tweeted a toolkit to make the farm protests effective. The agenda was stated as standing up against India's failing democracy ! It called for boycott of products of Adani and Ambani ! The objective of these global meddlers is clear.

Governance requires that the government push through reforms despite these obdurate protests. The government carried on 11 rounds of discussion with the protesting farmers. These farmers are stubborn that the laws should be repealed. An additional demand is to make MSP obligatory till eternity. The flexible government is termed obstinate and the unyielding farmer leaders are called flexible!

Narendra Modi does not have the advantage (namely the absence of intervention by global busybodies) that P.V.Narasimha Rao had. So he has to strive twice as hard to get even half the yield for the country. Governance is not easy! It is clear that the reforms budgeted now  (privatisation of public sector banks and an insurance company) will face rough weather. We need to apply for approval from Greta, Rihanna and Meena.

Budget 2021-22

 Budget 2021-22 has received widespread welcome. The habitual naysayers have mostly been unable to pick holes in the budget. This is surprising since the budget is a political document that has no guarantee  against criticism. 

There are two reasons why the Finance Minister has escaped criticism this time. COVID-19 has conditioned us to be prepared for a higher than usual Fiscal Deficit. In fact, the general feeling is that the government should have spent more and that the FD must be more. The second reason is everyone was expecting a COVID Cess to improve government's finances. The absence of an expected negative constitutes a positive. Thus, though a budget traditionally attracts many justified and unjustified criticisms, Budget 2021-22 has a teflon quality that ensures that no criticism sticks to it.

However, some persons always go overboard in either direction. Shankar Sharma, co-founder, First Global exclaims that this budget is equivalent to Kapil Dev's 4 sixes in the Lord's test. P.Chidambaram bemoans that "this is a letdown like never before." Both must be aware that what they say is nowhere near the truth.

There are some ominous portents. External debt was raised in the current year for Rs. 54,522 crore against the Budget Estimate Rs.4,622 crore. India's economic strength has always been the fact that our borrowings are mainly domestic. Foreign borrowings are exposed to currency risk which might upset our plans.

Revenue Deficit for 2021-22 is budgeted at 5.1% of GDP. This is uncomfortably high. Revenue Deficit crudely means that we are borrowing to pay revenue expenditure like salaries and pensions. If we borrow money to meet revenue expenditure, how do we generate funds to meet repayment liability? We will have to borrow more to repay the present borrowings. A typical Ponzi scheme!

Rating the Budget

 There are different methods which are used to rate a budget. One easy method is to note the response of a prominent person and then to interpret the message the person betrays. Prannoy Roy is a fail-safe bellwether.

If Roy criticises a government move, one can safely conclude that the move is positive. If he is disappointed, it means the government is on the right track. 

Today he was extremely unhappy that the panellists in the post-budget discussion on NDTV Profit welcomed the budget wholeheartedly. A tax expert gave 7 to 8 out of 10 for the budget. The discussion was anchored by Srinivasan Jain who always obliges his boss. Even he could not extract negative comments from the discussants. Roy nudged Kiran Mazumdar - Shaw saying that she always comes up with the best observation. All that she could say was that she expected some incentives for R & D in private sector which were not offered.

In hindsight, it appears that everyone was expecting introduction of Corona cess. It was a big relief that it is not there. Roy had to find something negative. Otherwise he would not justify his raison-d'etre. He found two and not just one. The first criticism from him was 'what matters is implementation' and not the contents of the budget ! This is true for any budget. The second denunciation was that some expenditure was related to 3 or 5 years and not just one year. "She cleverly mentioned the amount and then sotto voce said 'in three years' " Prannoy Roy knows this trick because he employs this often.

The Finance Minister must be happy that her budget has made Prannoy Roy unhappy.