ARE WE BORN SLAVES?

BY BRIG RS GREWAL

(THE AUTHOR IS A VETERAN ENGINEER OFFICER.

  THE TITLE IS APORTIONED BY ME BUT THE VIEWS 

  EXPRESSED ARE THAT OF THE AUTHOR. 

  THOUGH I DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERY THING WRITTEN     HERE, THERE IS SOMETHING SERIOUS THAT WE ALL 

  NEED  BEWARE AND TAKE NOTE OF)

Webster Dictionary defines Fascism as :

"A way of organizing a society in which a 
  government ruled by a dictator controls 
  the lives of the people and in which 
  people are not allowed to disagree with 
  the government. 

  A political philosophy, movement, or 
  regime that exalts the Nation (Often 
  the race too), above the individual and 
  stands for a centralized autocratic 
  government headed by a dictatorial 
  leader; severe economic and social 
  regimentation and forcible suppression 
  of opposition."

We Indians have developed our own version of fascism. It is, perhaps, a consequence of centuries of subjugation that results in projecting ordinary human beings as icons and then worshiping them irrespective of their shortcomings and faults. Anyone pointing a finger at the icon is labeled as a traitor/antinational.

Indira Gandhi was worshiped as "Indira is India and India is Indira". A painful consequence followed in the shape of Emergency. 

We still did not learn a lesson. Even an Army Commander in his official address to the Jawans referred to Indira Gandhi as 'Mata Ji' and sang praises as if she was a Goddess. The Officer was rewarded with a gubernatorial post after his retirement.

Rajiv Gandhi was the next icon. Despite his justification of carnage in Delhi with his statement' "When a big tree falls the earth shakes" the country heralded him as 'Mr Clean'. It was the Bofors scandal that forced the Nation to sit up and think. But still he was honoured with Bharat Ratna and there was not a whimper from the media or the 'intellectuals' to object to the lowering of national standards. After all, he was an icon!

Even in the States, there are icons thrust on the people by the 'dynasties'. Badals, Yadavs, and many more.

At the Centre we now have Modi. BJP's spin doctors have projected him as an icon that has emerged to save India. So we now have people going gaga over his governance - they are mesmerised at the floating reports that he has forced the Babus to reach offices in time and has cut their extravagant expenditure! It is altogether a different matter that he is unable to overrule them on major policy matters. 

Anyone pointing out the corrupt practice of accepting a gift of Rs 10 lakh-suit is branded as traitor. The same suit is later auctioned and a businessman buys it. The same businessman later gets possession of Government land at throw away prices. That is the version of honesty - courtesy Modi Bhakts! 

No wonder Robert Vadra case has not progressed further. Modi objected to the then Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee writing letters (love letters!) to his counterpart in Pakistan in order to try and improve relations. But as PM he went one step further : Went to Pakistan to do it in person, by giving a 'Jadu ka Jhappi'! 

Were Modi's opposition to UPAs efforts in national interest? Modi Bhakts though would reply with a resounding 'YES'!!!

Despite having savoured independence for almost 69 yrs, we have remained slaves - 
only -
the masters have changed.

BEATING RETREAT : 
THE GREAT RETREAT 
OF OUR BAHADUR SENA

Thanks to the 'Parivar', the age old custom of the battle field, now reduced to beating the tabla and stringing the sitar. What next? Ghulam Ali singing ghazals 'Parivar' style :

  "Mohe jamghat pe chappaniya,
    Chhedgayore...."

The three Service Chiefs, bewteen 

themselves, could not convince the Govt 

of the day, that Beating Retreat is NOT a 

musical concert. It is a battle field 

tradition, coming down from ages, even 

though the present day format is of more 

recent origin.


Originally it was known as 'watch

setting' and was initiated at sunset by the

firing of a single round from a gun in the 

evening.

An order from the Army of James II

(England), otherwise James VII of 

Scotland, dated 18 June 1690, had his

drums beating an order for his troops to

retreat. 


A later order, from William III in 1694 

read "The Drum Major and Drummers of 

the Regiment which gives a Captain of the 

Main Guard are to beat the Retreat 

through the large street, or as may be 

ordered. They are to be answered by all 

the Drummers of the guards, and by four 

Drummers of each Regiment in their

respective Quarters". 

All of you soldiers who solicitously courted and voted-in the present regime to unbriddled power, ('Pradhan Sevak' - Ha! Ha! Ha!), now hang your heads in shame at the monstrosity of it all.

IN MY BENGALI HINDI : MAACHHIKAA POEND CHIPE, RAWKTO DAAN KORTAHAE


Translated into English :

Doing blood donation from squashing the backside of flies !!!

THE UNFINISHED PORTRAIT OF A DALIT STAR

THE REWARD FOR STATE ENGINEERED MURDERS : THE SECOND HIGHEST CIVILIAN AWARD OF THE COUNTRY

THE UNDERHAND BUSINESS

 OF 

DEFENCE PROCUREMENT

The article on def procurement in india at : 

(http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2012/05/5137),

is interesting, but I have reservations about the following part of the piece :

"Not that India is incapable of indigenizing, but for that to happen it must be willing to make do with what is possible. And this means its armed forces must not insist on state-of-the-art weapons systems right away. That is the crux of this problem. Not infrequently, our top brass will simply say that without a particular weapons system the defence forces cannot guarantee the outcome of a conflict. Often, this argument is just a fig leaf to obscure other intentions."

Our armament has to keep up with that of the enemies around, and we have two of them. We don't want a repetition of 1962. for that matter even 1965, when spirit and skill won over superior equipment of the enemy.

The solution to the problem, as brought out by the author is not in the scaling down of rewuirment by the Armed Forces but in upgrading the capabilities of DRDO. 'Arjun' to decades to develop, not due to the Army. 'Tejas' has been on the envil for three decades not because of the Air Force. When the world around is upgrading their fighter aircrafts to the fifth generation, the Indian Air Force cznnot be expected to make do with second generation ones, just because the DRDO are unable to go beyond it. Import, thus becomes imperative.

The rampant bribery in defence procurement can easily be eliminated by the present govt by making it a punishable offence and resorting to govt to govt transactions.

Those who are hell bent on destroying the Nehru-Gandhi legacy and as a part of that excercise, malign Indira Gandhi, forget that, but for her, we would not have 1971 as the crown jewel of Indian Military and Political History, since both were created in one master stroke by Indira. Not for nothing did Vajpayee compare her to Ma Durga!

Even as I write this, can the Nation forget on the Republic Day, that the 'Amar Jawan Jyoti', where the PMs of the Country have gone to pay lip service to the Martyres of the Nation and lay wreath, year after year, was the idea of and creation due to Indira Gandhi and remains the only National War Memorial, more than three decades after her death, .

TO ALL MY SISTERS, BROTHERS & FRIENDS 

OF 

BHARAT

On the Eve of the 67th Republic Day :

"THEY" WHOSE STATE POLICY IS UNDILUTED ADMIRATION OF HITLER CALL US ANTINATIONAL!

They have not spared even the soldiers!!!

MISMANAGEMENT OF ECONOMY

THEN OR NOW?

In the last twenty months, we have often heard, with increasing intensity, the die hards mouthing platitudes, defending, not only the performance of the present Govt, but also blaming the lack of visible change in economy to the disasterous performance of the two previous UPA govts. UPA (Actually Congress) bashing has become fashionable mostly for those who understand nothing of the performance indicators of governance, the historical figures and what is prevalent now.

Speaking of historical figures, the perusal of these over the years, speak for themselves. GDP for the year 1950 - '51, at prices of 2013 - '14 was Rs10,036 crores. In the next 27 yrs, the GDP grew ten fold. the % GDP grew at an average of 3.54. During the next three years of Janata govt saw the growth drop to 2.59. In the next 9 yrs of Congress Rule, the GDP grew nearly three times, with the % growth averaging 5.52. Again during the five years of Narasimha govt, (The formative years of liberisation), the GDP almost doubled, with the % growth averaging 5.23. In comparison, during the next 2 yrs of Opposition govts, the GDP, despite liberisation, grew only at 5.75. During the next 6 yrs of NDA I & II, the % growth averaged 5.5. Despite the world vide severe recession post 2008, when growth rates went negative in most of the Western world and most of them still trying hard to recover from it, the UPA I Govt ensured that GDP almost doubled and % growth averaged 8.43. The post recession 5 yrs of UPA II, the GDP grew 1.71 times and % growth averaged 6.68. In all its 10 yrs, the two UPA govts averaged 7.56.

True to its colours, the NDA III, by taking the prices of 2011-2012, (GDP-wise, the worst year), as the base prices, changed the goal posts and artifcially boosted its own growth figures 2014 - 2015 to 7.3, to make the growth figures of 2012-2013 & 2013-2014, as per the earlier base year of 2004-2005, look poor in comparison. Earlier, the base years were changed every 10 years. As per that norm, the new base year should have been 2014-2015, but the tricksters picked on the year of worst performance, be it GDP, WPI or CPI.

After the damage was done in the minds of the Indian diaspora, the Govt did upgrade the growth figures of these two years to 5.1 & 6.9 from the original figures of 4.5 and 4.7 with the earlier base years.All the improvement that the NDA III, therefore made with the help of sharply falling crude prices is a mere 0.4%, for which they have bragged no end!(http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/base-year-change-pushes-201314-gdp-growth-to-69/article6839570.ece).

If recalculate the pre-2012 figures with the prices of 2011-2012 as the base, the average of the 10 yrs of the two UPA Govts would be a whooping 9.93. Compare that with the 6.9 of the NDA IIIs first year in office or, for that matter, with the average growth figure of 7.74 of the NDA II, (Upgraded by change of base year). This despite the world wide recession with effect from 2008, which affected our economy for 6 out the 10 yrs of the two successive UPA Govts.

The two UPA govts were headed by an internationally acknowledged economist. His international stature shall not diminish an iota by UPA/Congress bashing or the canard spread by the members of the Parivar. Whom does the NDA III have? The two Js? Or is it the man himself ?

Let us look at the a few key economic factors during the life times of the NDA II (1999 - 2004) and UPAs I & II, as tabulated below :

Ser No	Item	NDA II (1999-2004)       Av	% Change      in 5 yrs	Values at Biginning of UPA I (2004)	Values at End of UPA I (2009)   Av	% Change in 5 yrs	Values at End of UPA II (2014)    Av	% Change in 5 yrs
1.	GDP(%)	5.74	12.7	6.2	8.48	36.77	7.17	- 15.45
2.	Crude Price $/brl	25.88	54.50	37.66	60.85	61.58	110.00	80.77
3.	CPI Inflation	3.87	723	3.78	14.97	296	5.86	- 60.85
4.	US$-Re Exchange Rate	45.90	4.83	45.13	48.37	- 7.17	61.00	- 26.11
5.	Nifty	Av – 1278          ’04 – 1819   (5 yr Growth-71%)	Av –20  @’04 rate-71.1	1819	3211	76.53	7359	129

Table 1

Ser No	Item	Values at the Biginning of NDA III (2014)	Values at the End of First Year of NDA III (2015)	% Change	Value As on Date (Jan 21, 2016)	% Change Since 01 Apr 2015	% Change Since May 25,  2014	Remarks
1.	GDP(%)	7.17	7.46	4.04	7.40	- 0.08	3.20
2.	Crude Price $/brl	110	50.95	- 53.64	27.88	- 45.27	- 74.65
3.	CPI Inflation	5.86	5.84	- 0.34	5.61	- 3.94	-4.27
4.	US$-Re Exchange Rate	58.41	64.12	- 9.78	67.88	- 5.86	-16.21	Espected to fall further to 70/$ in the next 6 months
5.	Nifty	7359	8586	16.67	7276	-15.26	-1.13

 Table 2

PROVISIONAL OUTCOME FOR 20013 – 2014 & 2014 - 2015

Particulars	Absolute No. (INR in Crores)		Remarks
	2013-2014	2014-2015
Revenue receipts	633,933	693,773	Increase mainly due to – ·    Sale of – ·  PSUs ·  Auction   of resources ·    Excise duty  on POL
Gross tax revenue	743,709	795,686
Capital receipts	529,858	542,615
Total receipts	1,163,791	1,236,388
Revenue deficit	371,242	401,775
Fiscal deficit	516,390	532,381

    

Table 3

Exports declined 3.77% YOY in Dec 2014; it further declined by 14.75% YOY in Dec 2015.

Both Sensex and the Nifty are below the May 2014 levels. Infact, bith are on a 29 month low. Investers have lost billions in the Market with its prolonged bear run, with no sign of revival. 

In addition to the oil import bill having been slashed by about Rs5 lakh crores, the auction of 2G spectrum and the coal blocks, ordered by the SC, has fetched another Rs2 lakh crores to the Govt's coffers. And yet, The GDP still refusing to budge and inflation is threatening to spiral up, specially with the purchasing price of Re having been sharply reduced by over 16%.

Arhar dal prices rose from Rs60/Kg in May 2014 to Rs120/Kg in May 2015, an annual inflation of 100%. It further rose to Rs220/Kg by Dec 2015, a whopping annual inflation (Projected) of 143%.

Tomato prices rose from Rs10/Kg in May 2014 to Rs40/Kg in May 2015 and further skyrocketed to Rs80/Kg by Dec 2015.

Prices of onions, which had gone up to Rs100/Kg, have fortunately come down.

Despite the crude prices having nose dived to 1/4th of the prices prevailing in May 2014, the retail prices of petrol and diesel have been reduced only by about 20%. 

It is cheaper now to be non-veg than be a vegitarian!!!

More profitable to be a Politician than a Professional!!!