Monday, August 13, 2012

FM to CM

chandrasekhar bhattacharjee explores the possibility of a power-sharing arrangement in post-2011 polls West Bengal, with Pranab Mukherjee becoming CM first, followed by Mamata

Those, who follow Indian politics at the national level as well as the state-level, are familiar with the rocky relationship that Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has enjoyed with her alliance partners. While the infamous departure from the NDA Cabinet takes the cake, the latest example has been the agitations and street protests against the Centre’s decision to hike fuel prices. But Mamata has matured as a politician and, as a balancing act, said the following on a television show, “If the people want Pranab Mukherjee as the Chief Minister, let him become the CM. I am willing to work under him even as a clerk. I have no ambition for any particular post. I have no personal possession other than my jhola. I am in politics only to serve the people.”

The political grapevine has it that Mamata’s statement should not be seen as an extension of olive branch. The Trinamool Congress and the Indian National Congress might actually be contemplating an arrangement in which the two will share the chief minister’s chair with Pranab Mukherjee taking the seat first. While leaders in both the parties termed this as mere speculation, such an arrangement could actually benefit the state of Bengal, many observers feel.

The dice of the 2011 Assembly polls in West Bengal are loaded in favour of the Opposition. Both the Trinamool and the Congress are aware of the Herculean effort needed to reverse the undoings of the 35-year-old Left Front (Read CPM) rule and lead the state towards betterment. Kumud Bhattacharya, former Pradesh Chhatra Parishad president turned political commentator says, “Mamata may think of utilising Pranab Mukherjee’s expertise and wisdom to give a push at the beginning. She can then take over and run the government without many hiccups”. He admits there are problems though, the biggest being acceptability of such an arrangement by the Trinamool rank and file.

A section of political analysts also feels that Mamata may opt for this arrangement as this will help her play the role of Sonia Gandhi in state politics. It will ensure that the Congress sticks to the alliance. On the other hand, Mukherjee’s wisdom and experience would come in handy in offsetting any situation of lawlessness that may arise out of the Left Front’s electoral defeat. Mukherjee’s proximity to the CPI(M) can also help the matter.

“But, will Pranab Babu, No. 2 in Raisina Hills agree to surrender that enormous power to become a mere chief minister,” questions eminent political analyst Siddhartha Sen. According to him, “Technically, there is nothing wrong in sharing political power of the state. There has been instances of such sharing in other states. But for that a smooth understanding between Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee is most important. But, the problem is in Pradesh Congress itself. Pranab Mukherjee does not have much of a mass appeal. He will have to be dependent on his party leaders which may make Mamata Banerjee jittery.”

Eminent journalists like Dilip Ghosh Chowdhury and Amit Sarbadhikari term such an arrangement as ‘hypothetical’. According to Ghosh Chowdhury, “I don’t think this is possible. People of Bengal do not trust Mukherjee so much, not even leaders of his own party. Apart from that, Trinamool is gradually being dragged into conflicts with the Congress. Inner conflicts in Trinamool-ruled panchayats are also coming up. The two parties have virtually no floor coordination in the state Assembly. I will not be surprised if the alliance is over before Assembly polls.”

Journalist-turned columnist Amit Sarbadhikari said, “Such kind of understanding between the Congress and the Trinamool is very much possible. But in that case, both the parties have to carry the same weight. If they secure nearly the same number of seats, then Pranab Mukherjee can be a contender for the post of chief minister. But honestly, will the people of West Bengal accept such a formula? People, who want to bring ‘parivartan’ and who hit the streets, want to see her in control of Writers’ Building.” Secondly, if Pranab Mukherjee becomes the chief minister, he would have to bank upon mostly on Congress leaders like Deepa Dasmunshi, Abdul Mannan et al who have not really proven their worth.

Noted theatre personality Bibhas Chakraborty has been in the forefront of the anti-CPI(M) movements in recent years, since the Singur and Nandigram days. He told B&E, “As a citizen, I do cast my vote for one party or the other. But, a citizen’s responsibility in India ends there. The winning party or alliance will elect its leader who will go on to become the chief minister. So, where is people’s or citizen’s role in the process? A citizen or a voter has no chance to elect ministers. That’s why I feel no urge to comment on this matter. But recently, Mamata Banerjee herself has said that Pranab Mukherjee might be the next chief minister. If she and her allies win the race, they can elect Pranab Mukherjee as their leader.”


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Saturday, August 11, 2012

An ‘objectiveless’ and timid budget

Shortage of a hundred and fifty million rural employment jobs. Shortage of twenty five million urban employment jobs… Additional Rs.1 lakh crore required to replace urban slums… And Rs.10,000 crore required every year for five years to give justice to every Indian by ramping up the judiciary… Another Rs.20,000 crore required every year to make universal primary education a reality and have equality in education opportunities… And additional Rs.10,000 crore required annually to give some basic access to health facilities… Welcome to India. A country where the hospital beds to population ratio is 1:1422, ranked 161 alongside sub-Saharan African countries, against an ideal ratio of 1:333 prescribed by the United Nations. A country with 2.4 million temples but only 1.4 million temples of education i.e. schools… A country with 30 million cases pending in courts, making life hell for the common man who wants justice, because our courts have only 12 judges per million population compared to 120 judges per million in the developed world.

In the middle of such an environment, what’s the role of an annual budget? Is it to maintain status quo or to give the world a robust signal that we are committed to our people – the 45 crore people who earn below $1.25 a day? If the objective is to maintain the status quo, then Pranabda has delivered a perfect budget, as loudly proclaimed by each and every member of the equally objectiveless and visionless industry organisations like FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM etc. They were too happy that the entire stimulus package had not been withdrawn. As it is, the spokespersons aren’t independent intellectuals. They are timid business men – however rich they might be – scared to ever speak against the government as their businesses are at stake! In most cases, they aren’t even capable of commenting on the budget, such low is their understanding. But they are the people who give the bytes and that’s what next days headlines look like in papers indirectly and directly owned by them and mostly run by sold out editors or editors intellectually incapable of analysing a budget or how it needs to be. So the verdict that they have given is thumbs up!

The man on the street, of course, has no voice. And his concerns are of no importance to politicians or media. Media has no vision to effectively and constantly focus on their cause in order to effect a change. They are more interested in rapes, murders and sex, which keep the readers confined to intellectually dumbed-down dustbins of these media houses.

The truth, however, is that if we were to look at this budget from the perspective of people – those 45 crore that I mentioned above and another 35 crore who are just marginally better off – then this budget is a hoax for them. Allocations to the best scheme of the Sonia government, or for that matter any government in ages – the NREGA scheme – wasn’t even increased enough to cover the inflation! What was done was a mere increase from Rs.39,000 crore to about Rs.41,000 crore. At a point of time when the common man is being made to pay an astoundingly scary Rs.50 per kg for sugar and Rs.100 per kg for dal, when the food inflation has touched horrific proportions and when they were looking up to the budget for some relief, forget immediate relief measures, there were no signs of any long run relief either in this budget. No lip service even to stop hoarding. No measures to stop speculation in food. No recommendation of strict punishment to the hoarders and no announcement of using the country’s huge forex reserves to import basic food necessities to increase supply and reduce prices. In other words, totally shocking. The reference to the aam aadmi went missing. It was clearly a budget for the mango people who live in India and not the aam aadmi who lives in Bharat.

The long-run steps to increase agriculture growth through a new green revolution got a token Rs.400crore. Nothing could have been more hilarious. Now, NBFCs (non banking financial institutions) can open banks and Rahul Bajaj must be very happy with his part of lobbying. But the real requirement of financial inclusion, which reaches a rotting low of less than 200 million people compared to the required 900 million people, still remains unsolved.


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, August 10, 2012

EXTEND TAX HOLIDAY

A NEEDED STEP TO MAKE HOUSING A REALISTIC PROPOSITION

In order to support developers’ efforts of promoting LIG/MIG housing projects, there is an immediate need for a tax holiday under section 80-IB (10) to make LIG/MIG housing a more realistic proposition. For the same, the cut-off date for eligibility should be further extended and tax holiday eligibility, based on project completion condition, should be restored. Even the tax holiday benefit under section 80-IA (4) (iii) is only for industrial parks notified up to March 31, 2011. We suggest that the time limit for notification of industrial parks under the New Industrial Park Scheme 2008 should be extended up to March 2015 as during the slowdown in 2008–2009, there were certain delays in the execution of the projects.

Integrated townships projects should be given incentives at par with infrastructure and single window clearance mechanism should be introduced for such integrated townships to ensure efficient execution. Integrated township projects deserve infrastructure status since while developing integrated townships, developers also develop the infrastructure comprising of roads, lighting, water drainage systems, et al, in and around the township.

Measures such as tax incentives should also be extended to developers who take initiatives for improving social infrastructure through Slum Redevelopment Projects/ Dilapidated Housing / Social Housing. Growth in commercial space during 2007 and 2008 was driven primarily by IT and ITeS sectors. But following the slowdown over the last two years, IT spending, particularly in the BFSI sector, has been hit. Therefore the minimum tenant requirement should be reduced to 10 units. Also, the time limit for notification of industrial parks under the New Industrial Park Scheme 2008 should be extended up to March 2015 and benefits under section 80-IA should be extended to developers.

Further, section 56(2) – section 56(2) of the Act should not be made applicable to the transfer of immovable property. In addition to the existing deduction of up to Rs.100,000, a separate limit up to Rs.200,000 deduction should be permitted for repayment of principal portion of housing loan for self occupied residential property.

Read more....

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, August 09, 2012

GREEN TRANSPORT: AIR TRAVEL

A takeoff towards greening the aviation sector is not financially viable. Can we ensure its sustainability?

According to Germany’s central environmental office, a day-time average sound pressure level of 60 decibel 
has the ability to increase the incidence of coronary heart disease by 61% in men and 80% in women, while a night-time average sound pressure level of 55 decibel increases the risk of heart attacks by 66% in men and 139% in women. Surprisingly, flights still take off with noise pollution levels of as much as 150 decibels on an average.

Ironically, aviation has an inextricable link to the key industries of global trade and tourism. So state governments are reluctant to tax and regulate the industry either on the basis of environmental impact or on the basis of health issues. Although governments have woken up to the need of keeping residential colonies away from airports, with the growing population of many metropolitan centres, it is but inevitable that the civilian population reaches the fringes of airports. Now, as the issue of climate change is gaining prominence, governments too are expressing concerns. The European Council asked airlines to take part in the Kyoto emissions reduction scheme to reduce emission levels by 20-30% by 2020. Leaders in the G8 summit also expressed their expectations from the International Civil Aviation Organisation to do more beyond state governments’ requirements. Airlines are increasingly incorporating alternative fuel-efficient engines using biofuel, hydrogen and other renewable sources. The DHL group is buying eight new Boeing 777-200 LRF and six 767-300ERF under its GoGreen initiative to increase carbon efficiency by 4%. France has developed Electra, a single-seater battery-powered experimental plane. Virgin flew a Boeing 747 part-fuelled by bio-diesel from London to Amsterdam. Airbus has pledged to produce more greener planes before 2020. These are but niche initiatives. However, long term success will depend on the role of governments in improving infrastructure and encouraging alternative energy engines. The environmental cost will have to be incorporated heavily in air travel fare – and that’s inevitable!


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)