Nehru is the greatest PM India

The modern history of India cannot be analysed without understanding the decisive roles played by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. These two leaders were the founders of modern India. Among the two, the contribution of Jawaharlal Nehru has been so significant that it will have an impact on generations to come. Nehru pulled India out of the economic crisis after Independence. As a result, India is almost at par with other industrialized countries of the world.

• At the time of independence, India is saddled with poverty, illiteracy and distressed farmers. Hence Nehru prioritized development. His policies always kept the poorest sections of society in mind. He allocated the nation’s wealth without ignoring the poor.
• India was never a poor country. Its wealth was drained after 200 years of colonial rule. 
• After Independence, Nehru wanted the direct involvement of poor people in the process of development. This way their lost self-esteem and pride could be restored. He had a conflict of interest with other party leaders regarding the establishment of parliamentary democracy in India. There was a point where he stood against his father Motilal Nehru’s Swaraj Party.
• India today is just a glimpse of Jawaharlal Nehru’s foresight.
• Some critics hold Nehru responsible for the Kashmir issue. But they forget that Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state. It was Maharaja Hari Singh of Riyat who expressed his desire to join India when Pakistan invaded the princely state.
• It was the education system created by Nehru that enabled students from ordinary families to reach extraordinary heights. Nehru also strengthened the health services like the AIIMS. But today we have destroyed Nehru’s legacy by turning educational institutions as well as hospitals to mere money-making machines.
• Nehru ultimately passed away one and a half years after China’s betrayal in 1962, shaken to the core.
• Indira Gandhi also faced severe economic crisis after the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri. But she tackled it by devaluing the currency for the first time. Indira Gandhi showed that the Partition of Pakistan in 1971 was a political ploy in the name of religion. 
• V.P. Singh who took Indians one step backward as a civilisation by dividing them on the basis of their caste, creed and ethnicity. The country’s economy had already been eroded to a great extent by the policies of V.P. Singh and Chandrashekhar. 
• Notwithstanding the contributions of PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in saving India going bankrupt in 1992 with liberalization, Rao has been the weakest and most inefficient prime minister of this country by far. He opened the markets to foreign investors which in turn robbed the hard-earned wealth of Indians. Narasimha Rao nervously opened the Indian market to foreign companies and agreed to put off foreign exchange payoff. Narasimha Rao completely destroyed the secular heritage by letting Babri Masjid get demolished in front of his own eyes. This has led to communal tensions in the country. 
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government ruled for six years. In spite of this, it could not reduce financial scams in the country. He formed a new disinvestment ministry to sell off government assets. Vajpayee used humour to further parliamentary democracy. Yet to a great extent, he has kept the spirit of Nehru alive in his policy decisions.
• Charan Singh, Deve Gowda, IK Gujral and Manmohan Singh had been ‘accidental’ Prime Ministers. It is not known why Morarji Desai was honoured with Pakistan’s biggest national honour of “Nishan-e-Pakistan”. 

Read the source article by Ashwini Kumar Chopra, Resident editor,

Punjab Kesari and a BJP MP. (Translated by Gaurav Kumar)

Today, I find many people who criticize Gandhi, Nehru, Indira Gandhi etc as the cause for what ever problems we face today but I have no doubt to categorize them as ignorant, blind and mad. It is not our culture to criticize our great grand father's for what they have done or haven't done. It won't be easy to imagine the situations or dilemmas they might be facing at that time given the paucity of knowledge, talent & resources.

Return of protectionism

Prime minister Narendra Modi has applauded India’s latest budget delivered by his finance minister Arun Jaitley, but the parallel chorus is fading out by the day. It was Utrjit Patel, RBI governor last week, this time it’s Modi’s former advisors, Arvind Panagariya, who was also deputy chairman of the Niti Aayog until August 2017.

The RBI's monetary policy committee listed out reasons why inflation could stay well above the RBI target of 4% throughout the next financial year. RBI expects a rise in food and vegetable prices, crude oil prices and cost of health and personal care. Three other factors that will likely fuel inflation emanate from Jaitley’s budget. 

• Proposal to raise minimum support price (MSP) for farm products
• Hike in custom duties for various products including industrial inputs
• Wider-than-expected fiscal deficit

All this assuming that the south-west monsoon will be normal this year. The future of investments is  as bleak as it was before. For Modi government, these  nonchalant jabs from the RBI governor it is yet another sign that its populist budget may not help push the growth pedal. 

Substantial liberalisation under PV Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India became the first democracy to achieve 8% plus growth for nine years beginning in 2003-04. The top industrial tariff rate fell from 355% in 1990-91 to 10% in 2007-08 and imports and as proportion of the GDP expanded to 30% and exports to 24% by 2011-12. Sadly, a new generation of bureaucrats seems to have now replaced its more enlightened predecessor. It is on course to erect the wall of protection all over again. 

Those who cannot remember the past,
are condemned to repeat it ... George Santayana 

Much is said about liberalisation and globalisation which benefited only one half of the world population while leaving other half in distress. What is visible is the constant economic growth that had eradicated extreme poverty and at the same time helped rich to become extreme rich, albeit unjustly. The casualty is environment, over extraction of non replenishable natural resources and workers with stagnant wages in developed nations. Today, US has accumulated trade debt of $20 trillion, up from $1 trillion during 1980's and has no clue or any forward looking plans to repay that debt and trade gap of $100 trillion is likely in next few decades and is saddled with huge industrial work force with stagnated wages. On other hand, China armed with huge trade plus faces deterioration of social values, degradation of landscape & environment and over exploited 150 million labour force with no human rights for over 30 years. Economics are complex and any change usually has unintended consequences. Over dependence on either exports or imports, for prosperity, is detrimental to any nation. The prudence lies in living within means and/or maintaining manageable trade gap at all times. Economic growth is never a true indicator of progress, development and wellness of any nation.

Modi insult Advani, a national shame

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Tripura on Friday March 09, 2018 to take part in the oath-taking ceremony of Biplab Deb, who was has been sworn as the state's new chief minister. Narendra Modi and several other senior BJP leaders including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, party president Amit Shah had participated in the swearing-in ceremony of Biplab Deb as Tripura Chief Minister. As greeted by everyone on the stage, PM Modi responded to them individually. However, when LK Advani greeted him, PM Modi snubbed him without responding to his greetings. The video of Modi snubbing Advani has received flak from netizens who rebuked Modi's head-strong attitude. Many Twitterati recalled how Modi had traveled with Advani as his assistant carrying Advani's microphone.

• Had Modi intended to really insult and humiliate LKAdvani, he would not have invited him in the first place.
• It was Advani who made Modi, not even an MLA, chief minister of Gujarat. How Modi manipulated Advani to pull down Keshubhai Patel is all together a different story.
• BJP won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections of 1984, in the aftermath of assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1983 and in the resultant sympathy wave BJP was washed away. 
• It was Advani's Rath Yatra of 1990 that helped BJP win 120 seats in 1991 general elections. Later in 1996 elections BJP won 161 seats and in 1998 midterm elections it won 182 seats to form NDA govt headed by AB Vajpayee.

• Riding on the popularity after Rath Yatra, in 1996 he could have got chance to become PM but he got his senior Vajpayee's name for leadership. He was rightful claimant for the position for building the party but gave up. Vajpayee was only a face of the party, Advani was brain and real organisation man.
• In 2002, when PM AB Vajpayee had prepared the ground for removal of Modi, seen as presiding over the worst communal riots the country, it was Advani who saved the day for Modi. Vajpayee, who had asserted that Modi should adhere to “raj dharma”, bowed to Advani's pressure.

It is clear the future of all parties lies temporarily in coalitions. Coalitions demand consensus, adjustments, the fine art of political management and statesmanship. It is clear that Mr. Modi is not a carrier of such values. It is also clear that the BJP is a graceless party.

Once you get past charm, good looks, intelligence and sense of humour, 

it is modesty that stands out.

Culture of a person, society or the country
is the way they treat their women, disabled, aged and weaker sections.

Pranaam ka parinaam Aashirwaad ... Mahabharat

Modi insults Advani at BJP CM swearing in ceremony at Agartala 

It is a matter of national shame that our prime minister, Narendra Modi, is a manner less and culture less person who insults 90 year old man, LK Advani, who was also Modi's mentor and protector until yesterday on a public platform at Agartala. India's future is unsafe in the hands of this culture-less and ill educated person thy name Narendra Modi.

This is a kind of economic collapse

JNU professor Himanshu says the economic slowdown is not the result of a one-off event like demonetisation, nor a technical problem but the slump began almost two years ago. This is a kind of economic collapse. The first step to tackle it is to acknowledge it.

• The economy is in a trough. GDP growth dipped to 5.7%. The Index of Industrial Production for July came in at 1.2%. Consumer Price Index showed that the inflation rate had risen to a  high of 3.4%.
• While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley acknowledged that the GDP numbers for the April-July quarter were of concern, BJP president Amit Shah told that the slowdown in the economy was due to “technical reasons”.
• These numbers might be an early warning of possible stagflation with low demand, high unemployment, decline in GDP and persistently high prices.
• There are many reasons for the collapse of domestic demand and the economic crisis India is facing and the government has limited room to manoeuvre and bring the economy back on track.
• RBI has confirmed, what all of us knew, demonetisation caused much pain without any gain. But demonetisation was not the trigger for the economic collapse one is witnessing today.
• It is a kind of economic collapse. The data is clear on this. Since 2015-16, growth rates have been going down. These numbers represent a very serious set of problems with the economy that have been neglected for a long period of time, which is why they have come to bite us today.
• Some of these problems started in 2013-2014. Wages had started turning negative in real terms since 2013. The problem of non-performing assets had appeared by then. The global recession was visible. These factors were well-known. The one big trigger was in August 2014, when primary commodity prices collapsed following a fall in oil prices. This hit farmer incomes hard.
• The droughts of 2014 and 2015 were difficult to deal with and agriculture GDP contracted and these factors severely dented agricultural incomes. With wages going down, rural demand collapsed by 2015.
• Jobs were not being created and wages were turning negative in real terms – growing slower than the rate of inflation.
• The government neglected the severe depression in rural demand for a long time that eventually spilled over to other sectors. Exports had been falling and the government ignored the trouble spots. Private investment has slowed down and credit growth is at its lowest.
• Construction has been the bulwark of employment in the non-agricultural sector in the past 10 years. But the government was in denial till chief economic advisor accepted the possibility of demand deflation in the economy. But this admission should have come earlier.
• In a normal monsoon year in 2016 after two consecutive droughts, when the situation was improving, demonetisation broke the back of the informal economy. It acted almost like a drought does on the economy. Demonetisation delayed hopes for the revival of the economy, and demand deflation was extended.
• Surely, GST has impacted the informal sector in terms of taxes and cost of compliance, which basically means hiring consultants. If it hits the unorganised sector, then manufacturing will be in deeper trouble in the coming quarters.
• The current scenario is uncertain about the next two to three quarters with no signs of private economic activity reviving. Worse, agriculture will make a very low contribution to growth with food grain production remaining flat. The livestock sector has been hit by political beef controversy that could contract the livestock sector as well. Excluding cotton, all major kharif crops have shown a decline in acreage.
• This year even though monsoon was good but its distribution is unlikely to contribute much to GDP in the next quarter.
• There are no visible signs of green shoots right now in the economy. The SBI has already pared down the growth rate for the entire year to 6.5%. There is almost a consensus emerging that the mess in the economy is far more serious than what people had assumed earlier.
• Farm loan waivers by nine states have sucked up the resources of state governments – there is a decline in capital formation in the states. That is telling us that state government expenditure towards investment is going down. The spending capacity of states has been squeezed quite dramatically and total fiscal deficit of states has increased. This impact the government’s ability to ramp up expenditure in the coming months to revive demand. By the end of June, the Central government had already reached 92.4% of its fiscal space. So, there is not much manoeuvring room left for either the states or the Centre.
• Government might have to breach the fiscal deficit target to revive demand. The government is hoping to collect more from non-tax revenue sources. It had a lot of hope for one source initially – dividend from the RBI which has been dashed. Two other sources the government is banking on are telecom auctions and disinvestment of PSUs. Both depend a lot on market conditions. Even though it has floated the idea of selling off Air India, it may not materialise soon. Given the market situation and the heavy squeeze on the telecom sector caused by the launch of Reliance Jio these decisions could get delayed.
• This is similar to what happened during the time of the AB Vajpayee government (1998-2004). At that time, too, the government failed to recognise that there were problems. The “India Shining” slogan came out of not recognising the economic situation. Inflation was low, wage rate growth was low, agriculture had almost collapsed. Foodgrain production on per capita basis had turned negative. This is true with this government also. Foodgrain production was 265 million tonnes in 2013-2014 and it has been projected up to 276 million tonnes for this year. So in four years, it has gone up by just 10 million tonnes, the lowest in the last 15-20 years. This is lower than the rate of growth of the population. In terms of per capita, that means foodgrain growth is negative. Incomes are negative in real terms. Agricultural investment is negative. This is similar to the NDA government period 1998-2004.
• But 2008 was different because the problems that hit our shores spiralled out of a global crisis. We had one of the best runs of growth between 2004 and 2008. The government distributed a lot, it earned a lot. The agriculture sector was clocking around 4% growth. Incomes were rising. Global commodity prices were rising, so terms of trade shifted in favour of the agricultural sector and farmers benefitted. Construction and manufacturing were growing at their fastest rates. That gave us the cushion to go in for a fiscal stimulus and revive demand.We were not so directly exposed to the financial crisis in developed economies and domestic demand was the prime driver. Right now, the engine of the economy – domestic demand – has collapsed.
• 2018 will be the last Budget the government will be presenting. In 2019, it would be a vote-on-account. The first thing is to acknowledge the gravity of the problem. The government has played blind for long to what has been happening in the economy. The finance minister has come on record to say that these are of concern. That is the first time the government has acknowledged such concerns. But if they actually have a very good idea of the magnitude of the problem is unclear. Right now the engine of the Indian economy, domestic demand, has collapsed.
• The share of private final consumption expenditure as a share of gross domestic product, it was roughly 62% during the third quarter of 2016-2017 – this is the festive season, so private consumption is usually high. Then, mid-way through this quarter, demonetisation happened and sucked out buying power. Compared to the third quarter of 2016-2017 with severe disruption in its second half, the share of private final consumption expenditure in gross domestic product has come down now. in the last quarter, it was down to 57%. That should be a worrying sign.
• There have been too many disruptions in the economy at the same time. What is needed is somebody who can work hands on with the economy.
• The entire economic policy-making group including the RBI in it. The policy-making is never one individual, it is a collective effort. Unfortunately the government’s ability to tap into a pool of economists and experts is very limited. Niti Aayog is in transition now, RBI is already under fire, the chief economic advisor may change now. There needs to be a point where experts, economists and policy-makers come together.
• Differences are bound to be there. No two economists are going to have the same opinion. This government has far less differences than the previous one and that is its problem. Somehow the government must seize the moment and act fast. If this continues for long, it will take a disproportionately greater effort to recover to what is now considered a normal 7% growth rate.

The Wire: Wide Angle: Episode 10: Demonetisation Anniversary

Modi: Killing in the name of gau bhakti not acceptable

My View:
BJP, RSS, Bajrangdal - all same has always resorted to violence and mob killings of Muslims for consolidating their positions or achieving new heights. 

• 1992: Advani spearheading rath yatra that ended up demolishing Babri Masjid with precision and speed of six hours, without any casualties, unleashing violence catapulted BJP from 2 in 1984, to 84 in 1991 and to 120 in 1991 and eventually landing in power in 1996, 1998 & 2000. Advani couldn't become PM in preference to his senior and mentor AB Vajpayee.
• 2001: Modi succeeded in dislodging Keshubbhai Patel and backstabbing Sankar Singh Vaghela and became CM of Gujarat. He consolidated power, to some extent, by resorting to elimination of his minister Haren Padya. Amit Shah's controversial role in murders resulted in Supreme Court debarring his entry into Gujarat for two years 2010-2012.
• 2002: Gujarat riots that lasted two months killing about 2,000 Muslims by Hindu mobs led by Bajarangdal, facilitated by Modi, his Cabinet, his Administration and Police. Maya Kodnani, who spearheaded single biggest Naroda-Patiya massacre of 90 Muslims in a single day was rewarded with Minister's berth by Modi. Later Kodnani was sentenced and Modi facilitated her bail is another story.
• 2002: Even though 100,000 Muslims were displaced during riots and haven't returned to their homes, how Modi pressurized Election Commission agree for mid term poll and convinced them all refugees returned to their homes and rehabilitation completed (even today some 15,000 displaced Muslims are living in outskirts of Ahmedabad), through Advani's Home Ministry for midterm poll in Dec 2002, is a mystery.

All BJP leaders who ever resorted to violence against Muslims during past two decades are now enjoying powerful positions, the latest being Yogi Adityanath, CM of UP.

Hence Modi's talk after two months of Vigilante groups massacring beef eaters etc is nothing but an eye wash and delayed condemnation of attacks tantamount to approving the attacks on minorities especially Muslims in the name of gau rakshaks or any thing else.