Source: The Uncrowned Queen of India
Month: March 2017
The Uncrowned Queen of India
INDIA, LIKE ALL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD, had its days of monarchy. The memories of kings and autocratic rulers are still in the of minds people. Some seniors alive today were born in the days of ‘Maharajas’ and ;Nawabs’. But by then these were mere titles devoid of real power.
Power they did not have, as the British were the real rulers, but even after Independence the Constitution of India bestowed on them privileges and privy purses till 1972 as The Constitution (26th amendment) Act was passed only at the fag end of 1971.
Diwan Jarmani Dass, who was a Minister (Diwan) of Kapurthala and
Patiala kingdoms, wrote a book in the ’70s, The Maharajas, which gave a graphic picture of the lavish life of perversion, orgies, debauchery and pursuit of pleasure these ‘kings’ enjoyed , especially in Punjab and the North, in return for allowing the British to rule the country.
There were also very good and progressive kings – mostly in the South. Within days of ascending Continue reading The Uncrowned Queen of India
A Yankee ‘Bhakt’ of Modi?
INDIA HAS NEVER SEEN A MORE ACRIMONIOUS and dirty political scene, starting with the 2014 Parliamentary election, which threw the dynasty-ruled Congress Party into the dustbin of history – at least for the time being.
The foreign-born leader and her foreign-educated ‘young’ son leading the party were supposed to be ‘secular’, highly modern and progressive in outlook. An ‘obscurantist’, orthodox pracharak of RSS, Narendra Modi, led a ‘right-wing’ BJP, talking of such outdated issues like Ram temple at Ayodhya, to a convincing victory. Continue reading A Yankee ‘Bhakt’ of Modi?
Sexist View of The ‘Daily Male’
ONCE GLORIFIED AS THE FOURTH ESTATE, the Press is facing a crisis of identity and a struggle for existence today. The electronic media with their greater impact, have changed the context, threaten newspapers’ existence and force the printed word to compete. with images.
The issue was brought into focus again when the Daily Mail, a popular British tabloid putting on the front page a report on the March 27 meeting between UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, reducing it to a comparison of their bodies.
Continue reading Sexist View of The ‘Daily Male’
Coalition ‘Adharma’
THIS MAN IS STILL FREE on March 28 evening – four days after he attacked with a shoe an Air India employee, Kumar, for making him sit with the common people in the economy class of a plane which has only economy class seats.
The Prime Minister is silent. So is Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, a nice, cultured, humble, lady I had seen in Indore going around from house to house in her campaign against a not-so-humble Prakash Chandra Sethi (incidentally, also famous for misbehaving with an airhostess in a plane), an ex-Chief Minister and Central Minister.
She has won then. Now she lost to ‘coalition dharma’.
And all because his ‘party’, the Shiv Sena, is a partner in NDA, the ruling coalition. And many in Parliament and outside, used the occasion to point out how bad Air India service is – as if that justified its employees being beaten with shoes, abused in foul language and almost thrown down from the plane.
The Shiv Sena fully justified Gaekwad’s actions. He has eight criminal cases against him and they will go on for decades. The Congress partly sided with him saying Air India service is bad. After all it has to support V. Hanumantha Rao, its ex-MP, for abusing and misbehaving with police in Hyderabad saying he could not be stopped because he was AICC Secretary. Rao whom I had known in his youth Congress days, does not say ‘one of the many AICC secretaries ‘.
Even Narendra Modi, due to ‘coalition compulsions’ indirectly backed Gaekwad who had insulted BJP saying, when beating Kumar, that he was not a BJP (spineless) MP to keep quiet if not offered a business class seat. The police are “still investigating”. The Speaker thinks it did not happen inside Parliament and so no action need be taken.
So the message is clear. You can beat up your MP if think he/she is not doing enough for the constituency. If a government official is sitting on your file (as they normally do) your shoe can be used on him or her.
When power becomes the sole objective of a party ‘adharma’ can become ‘coalition dharma’.
NDA Should End Coalition With Self-Righteous SS
A FRENCH MINISTER RESIGNED recently when it was found that he had employed his two teen-aged daughters in his office. Bruno Le Roux’s daughters worked as parliamentary assistants during holidays and paid from public funds.
In contrast, most Indian politicians, who misuse their power to accumulate wealth or commit other illegalities, deny it vociferously, defend their acts, get their parties to back them and then quit, only when forced to and disgraced.
Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Ravindra Gaikwad allegedly assaulted a 60-year-old Air India staffer,R.Kumar, on March 24. Kumar did not misbehave, Continue reading NDA Should End Coalition With Self-Righteous SS
All Non-ITax Payers Not Freeloaders
A POST ABOUT MOST INDIANS not paying taxes brought forth a retort from a Chartered Accountant group which wants to dispel the notion that most Indians are freeloaders and that only a small fraction of the population, which pays taxes, feeds them all. It says:
Dear Mr Arun Jaitly
You said in the budget speech that we are largely a tax non-compliant society. You said only 3.7 crores are filling Income Tax Rerurns in this poor country with 125 crore population.
We have 82 crore voters – 75% are agriculturists -61.5 crs (exempted by you directly, but they can also buy cars , bunglows etc. As you said, your political counterparts are also enjoying this)
Balance -20.5 crs. Less: 24% BPL class (Below poverty line) 15-crore population (non agriculturist and non BPL).
Less : senior citizens, non-working wives, unemployed youths, those with income below taxable limit.
In a typical indian family only 1 earning member and 5 to 6 are their dependents.
Balance (15-11.25) is 3.75 crores -the earning class, which can file ITRs.
And… they are already filling it.
So there is almost no gap as Jaitly is stressing unnecessarily without knowing his country!
If jaitly wants more people to come into the tax net, then, instead of foolishly resorting to only rampant raids, surveys, notices, scrutiny demonetisations etc, which are like terrorism, he should defy his negative bureaucrats and–
1. Introduce simple Income Tax on Agricultural Income on large landlords (say 10+plus Acres) – you can add 26% of Agriculturists as tax payers (many politicians are also enjoying this )
2. Instead of introducing penalties of 5000/10000 on late filers of IT returns, he can come out with a positive approach and introduce incentives to early ITR filers ( learn from Pakistan, an IT assessee there gets discount in purchase of car.)
3. Introduce Privilege card to those paying taxes above certain limit, to entitle then with benefits like priority quota in railway tickets , use of airport lounges, subsidised medical facilities, etc etc
Let Tax payers feel proud.
4. Introduce medical insurance / life insurance on basis of average ITR filled… like coverage upto twice of Gross Income in ITR filled for mediclaim and ten times risk cover in case of life insurance
5. Introduce pension after 65 yrs of age on the basis of tax paid by tax payer during his working life..
Let honest taxpayers get certain direct benefits….
As on today, 3.3% of Indians file ITRs as againt 8% of China. Adding large agriculturists to Income Tax net may shoot the figure up to more than 10% . It may help you cool your tax terrorism mindset and make us a tax-compliant nation …😊
“LET’S SPREAD THIS TO EDUCATE HONEST TAX PAYERS” the CAs’ letter says.😀😁😁
Those who don’t pay IT are not beggers. They pay many other taxes at every step, sales tax for all things they buy, road tax, municipal and other taxea plus service tax and cess on al these.
If there are any freeloaders, it is not they but politicians.
😀 Wriien on a cellphone 😊
Jim Reeves or K.L. Saigal?
Kundan Lal Saigal and Jim Reeves
A SPIRITUALLY INCLINED FRIEND WHO had an excellent music system installed in his NGO office created a WhatsApp ground called’Jim Reeves Club‘ and added all his friends to the group, whether they had any interest in music or not.
I had none. Never heard of Jim Reeves.
I was about to write to him that I had not heard of him and am not apologetic about it, just Continue reading Jim Reeves or K.L. Saigal?
Can A ‘Yogi’ Be CM?
A YO
GI IS BELIEVED TO BE ONE WHO HAS renounced all worldly possessions and desires.
The decision of Bharatiya Janata Party to name Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of India’s biggest state came as a surprise and has been called a big gamble by the party as a part of its strategy to win the 2019 Parliamentary elections. Continue reading Can A ‘Yogi’ Be CM?
Paper Democracy, Not Machine-Made
A JOKE IN A MAGAZINE DECADES AGO quoted a laundry advertisement of in the early days of washing machines. The ad said: “We don’t tear your clothes with machines. We do it carefully by hand.” Torn by hand or by a machine, torn clothes are equally useless.
Uttar Pradesh Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati’s declaration that she was defeated by Electronic Voting Machines and not by Bharatiya Janata Party was, however, not meant to be a joke (though it sounds like a cheap one). Continue reading Paper Democracy, Not Machine-Made