The Great Indian Political Drama - 1 (Oct 2017 - Mar 2018)

[Supratik]

Haj subsidy is going to be removed next year.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/h ... 977130.ece

Mukul Roy case is still up in the air. His starting point of conflict with Mamata was that he co-operated with the CBI in the Sarada scam case. So the jury is still out on him but Sukhram/Tewari case was unnecessary. The latter are politically marginalized and don't make sense.

[santosh]

Kamala Hussain uuvacha - Extremism has spread among hindus

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/extre ... 171102.htm

Please don't click the link and increase eyeball count for trash Rediff

[shravanp]

I must say I am not pleased with mukul roy's admission into bjp.

+1. Read this along with the Congress corrupt man Sukhram & his son now in BJP. The old mijjile man N.D Tiwari and his son is also in BJP. At this rate Congress Mukt Bharath essentially would become all these corrupt folks landing up in BJP.

It is not the kind of subsidy many people think it is. What Govt does is subsidise travel on Air India, such that it can match the price to Jeddah, offered by Gulf carriers.

To give the devil its due; I have noticed many sensible Muslims now clearly saying that the subsidy should be removed. For one; Hajj is not a mandatory religious need, and secondly the Hajji has to ensure that he is making the travel at his own expense. A subsidy is like a loan taken from others. One information I have heard is that this subsidy itself was introduced when air planes replaced passenger ships. Air planes were expensive (they still are) mode of travel. There was a news last year that GoI may actually buy/build a couple of huge passenger ships and run Hajj cruises using that (and cuts the subsidy completely).

Some Muslims complain of being rediculed and often beaten with this stick of hajj subsidy, that they want this to be over with.

I say, reduce the amount to some paltry and still keep it on for debate sake

[SSundar]

If the Hajj subsidy money is for Air India, the truly secular way to solve it is:

1.Sell off Air India.
2. Implement a transparent bidding process for airport slots and international bilaterals.
3. Let true competition take care of providing the best prices for Hajj pilgrimage as well as others.

Perhaps it won't be a bad idea for GoI to institutionalize a no-interest pilgrimage loan for ALL Indians against some equity. People of all religions would be pleased. More spirituality for all Indians would do India a lot of good.

GoI has no (direct) business helping India's airlines steal business unfairly from foreign airlines.
GoI has no business building ships for a specific religious pilgrimage.

[Hari Seldon]

Here's a puffpiece from HT reeking with pious entitlement, H&D muckraking, naked communalism and impotent rage in certain religiously flavored ghettos.

Gujarat elections: Muslims rely on Congress but unhappy about party ‘dumping them’ for Patidars (HT)

Some gemmy excerpts...

Has the Congress discarded secularism? It is a question that has troubled 40-year-old Sufi Anwarhusen Sheikh for some time now.

And there are many more in this Muslim ghetto, with an estimated population of five lakh, who would like a clear answer to this as they get ready to elect a new government in Gujarat.

Absence of a credible option has once again made Muslims reliant on the Congress despite resentment that the grand old party has dumped them for the influential Patidar community.

Classic perspective of a Zero-sum game. Doesn't end well for anyone concerned.

That apart, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s temple visits during his campaign in the state has also made them think that the opposition party is adopting a soft-Hindutva approach in a bid to counter the BJP.

Hence, the need for a Yogi who doesn't give a flying phak about disapproval either from lootyen chatteratti or the jhulpura momeen alike.

Also, can only hope that the lotus socMedia op is milking past INC anti-Hindu words and deeds to the fullest. The mid-road calf-beheading scene from KL should feature prominently, or so I hope.

He also realises the Congress’ dilemma, that if the party talks about Muslims, the BJP will exploit voters with the Hindutva agenda.

In 2007, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s “maut ke saudagar (merchants of death)” barb on then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi boomeranged in the assembly elections. This forced the party to avoid any mention of the 2002 anti-Muslims riots in subsequent polls.

So courting the Hindu vote == 'exploitation' whereas muslim-pandering is 'secular', hain ji? The days of Indira and Sonia when such BS could be marketed by a creepy-crawly #PaidMedia are gone. Even langoti chokras wield smartphones with whatsapp aajkal.

[political analyst Prakash]Shah, however, adds the Muslims have a “legitimate” complaint against the Congress.

“It is the only option for Muslims but for many years the party has not done much to ensure their adequate representation in mainstream politics,” he says.

The representation of Muslim legislators in the Gujarat assembly came down from 12 in 1980 to just two in 2012.

Then why not invite JihaDidi' TMC or even better Owaisi's AIMIM to contest Guj polls, hain ji?

“BJP is like cyanide for us and Congress is like slow poison,” says Peerzada Mazhar Ahmed, a 50-year-old tailor who lives in the Maulana Azad Park Society.

Boo-hoo. Cry me a river. Onlee.

[Chandragupta]

If they want Islamic rule, then Gujarat borders Al-Bakistan, the heaven for Indian Muslims. Why don't they just cross the border? Why stay here under evil Kuffar rule. Just go man!

[svenkat]

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu- ... 22985.html

The plight of Dalits of Jammu and Kashmir, who constitute 7.6 per cent of the state’s population that is 1.25 crore, is terrible as compared to other parts of the country, but their condition has rarely caught the attention of academicians and the civil society.
Miseries of Dalits have gone unheard as the civil society never tried to look beyond the exclusive Kashmir-centric problems. They are virtually being sandwiched between competitive politics of separatism and ultra-nationalism.
“The special status granted to J&K is brazenly being abused by the ruling elite to bulldoze constitutional rights of weaker sections of society in the state,” said RK Kalsotra, chairman of the J&K chapter of the Confederation of SC, ST and OBC organisations.
Kalsotra pointed out that reservation in services for the Scheduled Castes across the country was executed with the enactment of the Indian Constitution on January 26, 1950 but Dalits of J&K were denied this constitutional right till 1970 by the then democratic rulers by citing the excuse of the special status of the state
Unlike other parts of the country, J&K has three categories of Dalits —the real natives of the state, those who crossed over to this side from Pakistan and those who were brought from outside the state to serve here.
Valmikis fall in the third category and West Pakistan refugees in the second. The first category of Dalits, who are natives of J&K, are entitled to citizenship but the remaining two categories are debarred from this privilege despite the fact that they have been living in the state for decades.
Amid nationwide outrage over suicide of Rohit Vemula recently, a Phd scholar at University of Hyderabad, Dalits of J&K have reasons to blame civil society and activists of the country for being “selective” and “biased” in highlighting their troubles.
“We support the agitation launched by some groups to fix responsibility on those who are the real culprits behind the suicide of Rohith Vemula but we are against the selective support by activist groups for the cause of Dalits,” rued Garu Bhatti, a leader of Valmiki Samaj of Jammu.
Valmikis and West Pakistani refugees are glaring examples of the communities, which are being deprived of constitutional and human rights.
“Reservation rules are brazenly being violated. Funds sanctioned by the Centre under the Special Central Assistance (SCA) for their uplift are being diverted to general components. Why is nobody looking into those issues?” asked advocate Pawan Kundal, a crusader for the cause of weaker sections.
Unlike other parts of the country, SCA, which is now called as Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP), is not implemented in J&K due to the special status granted to the state.
The SCSP was introduced for channelising the due share of the plan benefits and outlays to the Dalits but it is not introduced in J&K, thus depriving the deserving section of opportunities of growth and development.
While pointing towards the plight of Valmikis and West Pakistan refugees, Kundal regretted that in the modern world, these two communities were being deprived of all basic rights, which were required for the socio-economic growth of a human being.
Living in different localities of Jammu for the last 58 years, Valmikis are being debarred from applying for any government job, except sweepers, in J&K because they have been denied Permanent Resident Certificates (PRCs).
Same is the condition of ‘stateless’ West Pakistani refugees, 90 per cent of whom are Dalits.
They have a significant presence in Hindu dominated districts of Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur and Reasi. Their number is considerable in other parts, including erstwhile Doda district and mountainous belt of Poonch and Rajouri.
They constitute 19.44 per cent of Jammu’s population of 53.50 lakh. Dalits are divided into 13 sub-castes.
Problems of the West Pakistan refugee Dalits
At the time of partition in 1947, a large number of Dalits from West Pakistan had entered Jammu and Kashmir. Those who went to other parts of the country have been enjoying all constitutional rights but they are deprived of basic rights in J&K.
They are neither considered citizens of J&K nor are they entitled to any government job in the state. They are also deprived of all state and Centre-sponsored schemes, especially formulated for the socio-economic growth of weaker sections.
Problems of Valmikis brought from Punjab
Valmikis were brought from Punjab, way back in 1957, when local safai karamcharis went on an indefinite strike.
They were promised all constitutional rights like other citizens of J&K but nothing has been done so far.
Living in different localities of Jammu, except sweepers, they are being debarred from applying for any other government job in J&K.
Their children can study up to graduation but are not eligible to apply for government jobs. Their children cannot get admission in government-run professional institutes.
Woes of local Dalits
They had to agitate for 20 years to get reservation. The SCA, which is now called as Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP), is not implemented in J&K due to the special status being granted to J&K.

[sanjayC]

Aadhar helped prevent major financial bungle by Maharashtra Govt.

Banks give wrong UID numbers of 20 lakh loan waiver beneficiaries

The Maharashtra government with the help of Aadhaar averted a major financial bungle in its farm loan waiver scheme by detecting in time that data provided by banks on distressed farmers seeking waiver had wrong or inconsistent Aadhaar numbers.

Banks in the state had fed wrong Aadhaar numbers of nearly 20 lakh farmers of a total of 25.57 lakh applicants in their records. The consequence is that the state’s farm loan waiver rollout may now be delayed. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis pulled up the state level-bankers committee on the matter on October 25, the state government informed the Centre.

Out of records of 25.57 lakh farmers submitted by the banks along with their Aadhaar numbers, 19.85 lakh records were found with either invalid or junk Aadhaar numbers after upon cross-checking with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a senior government official told ET, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Due to incorrect Aadhaar numbers provided by banks, the process of matching the farmer data with bank data has become cumbersome and error prone, leading to delays in finalising the list of beneficiaries and the computation of benefit amount that will flow to each applicant. The state government said these errors could lead to excess or short payment,” the official said.

Officials in the Centre commended the Maharashtra government for making Aadhaar mandatory for the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana (CSMSSY) for farm loan waiver which proved instrumental in preventing the massive misallotment. Farmers in the state have been protesting for loan waiver amidst a spate of farmer suicides. The state government had asked farmers in July to register on the CSMSSY portal using Aadhaar e-KYC authentication – nearly 1.05 crore people did so.

Banks were asked, separately, to provide information regarding pending farm loans in a 66-column template. Banks have so far provided 30 lakh records to the state government, and provided Aadhaar number of the loan account holder in 25.57 lakh records.

“But the state government found that the data provided by the banks in 80% of these records having serious errors and inconsistencies,” the official quoted earlier said.

Errors were found mainly of three kinds after the bank data was validated by matching it with the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of UIDAI. One, simply the incorrect Aadhaar number was provided by the bank.

Two, the same valid Aadhaar number was provided for multiple individuals. Third, the same invalid Aadhaar number was provided for multiple individuals.

There are cases of a random 12-digit Aadhaar number like ‘100000000000’ or ‘111111111111’ or ‘123123123123’ provided for multiple individuals.

“Banks did not realise that UIDAI does not allot Aadhaar numbers starting with 0 or 1. It seems wilful forgery by banks. If the data was not cross-checked with UIDAI, the state government may have credited the loan waiver amount to banks while actual beneficiary farmers would have struggled to get the benefit,” an official said.

The state’s chief minister told the state level bankers committee on October 25 to ensure that all subsequent data provided by them is free of such errors and inconsistencies. This may lead to further delay in the loan waiver roll-out in Maharashtra.

Grave irregularities have earlier been detected on part of the banks, both government-run and private, during the demonetisation exercise, like allowing huge deposits and withdrawals by lakhs of suspect companies.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/in ... n=ETTWMain

[Sachin]

Kamala Hussain uuvacha - Extremism has spread among hindus

And another actor now short of both movies & awards also agrees with him .

[AbhishekC]

Aadhar helped prevent major financial bungle by Maharashtra Govt.

The real scandal is that junk aadhar numbers are now part of the system. This is being spun into a positive news that a major scandal was prevented using aadhar. The farmers who were conned into believing they had proper aadhar numbers are not going to get loan waivers (at least for months when their case is cleared up). This is another scandal.

[SRoy]

I posted about the same issue of poor data quality in the Aadhar system.
The same effort could have been used to re-verify and clean up PAN and EPIC databases, instead of jumping into a new system.
But, bhakts are all knowing. Who are we to complain.

[SSundar]

Aadhar helped prevent major financial bungle by Maharashtra Govt.

The real scandal is that junk aadhar numbers are now part of the system. This is being spun into a positive news that a major scandal was prevented using aadhar. The farmers who were conned into believing they had proper aadhar numbers are not going to get loan waivers (at least for months when their case is cleared up). This is another scandal.

Sorry, I seriously don't get it. You are suggesting that these are real farmers who were cheated by UIDAI by giving invalid Aadhar numbers? Why would UIDAI do that?

Is there a possibility that these are fake accounts with the real beneficiary being some pawarful people?

[Dumal]

I posted about the same issue of poor data quality in the Aadhar system.
The same effort could have been used to re-verify and clean up PAN and EPIC databases, instead of jumping into a new system.
But, bhakts are all knowing. Who are we to complain.

Is this a question to MMS/Nilekani and the UPA govt about why not extend PAN or EPIC db instead of creating Aadhar? Didn't know they were generally called bhakts.

But also note that PAN only covers taxpayers and if you ask all to get PAN, that will be panned as overreach. EPIc probably came into being because there was no Aadhar... Makes sense to ask EPIC to be junked once Aadhar takes root...

[sanjayC]

Aadhar helped prevent major financial bungle by Maharashtra Govt.

The real scandal is that junk aadhar numbers are now part of the system. This is being spun into a positive news that a major scandal was prevented using aadhar. The farmers who were conned into believing they had proper aadhar numbers are not going to get loan waivers (at least for months when their case is cleared up). This is another scandal.

This is a simple case of undeserving people being listed for loan waivers. They are providing fake Aadhar numbers in collusion with bank officials. The same officials may even have created ghost beneficiaries by cooking account books to pocket the loan-waiver money themselves. Earlier, this practice was rampant - everybody participated in the loot. Now, they are all caught once their Aadhar numbers were verified. This is same as people providing fake PAN numbers while shopping in cash. Which part of the following is unclear?

“Banks did not realise that UIDAI does not allot Aadhaar numbers starting with 0 or 1. It seems wilful forgery by banks. If the data was not cross-checked with UIDAI, the state government may have credited the loan waiver amount to banks while actual beneficiary farmers would have struggled to get the benefit"

[SSundar]

But, bhakts are all knowing. Who are we to complain.

Please do not use the B word. IMHO this is as derogatory as the N word. Digvijay Singh coined this phrase to please his Catholic boss and imply that only Hindus will support Modi. The word Bhakti has a profound spiritual meaning in Hinduism. It does not have any connotation in Abrahamic religions. This phrase was designed as an insult to Hindus. Use it if your intention is to insult all Hindus.

[sanjayC]

Piyush Goyal‏Verified account @PiyushGoyal 7h7 hours ago
Aadhaar Exposes 5 Crore Ghost Accounts: Govt, after making Aadhaar mandatory, has captured fake 3.5 cr LPG connections & 1.6 cr ration cards

[Deans]

If the Hajj subsidy money is for Air India, the truly secular way to solve it is:

1.Sell off Air India.
2. Implement a transparent bidding process for airport slots and international bilaterals.
3. Let true competition take care of providing the best prices for Hajj pilgrimage as well as others.

Perhaps it won't be a bad idea for GoI to institutionalize a no-interest pilgrimage loan for ALL Indians against some equity. People of all religions would be pleased. More spirituality for all Indians would do India a lot of good.

GoI has no (direct) business helping India's airlines steal business unfairly from foreign airlines.
GoI has no business building ships for a specific religious pilgrimage.

I had dealt with internal Haj flights in Go Air. ( flights taking hajis from places like Patna or Srinagar to International airports like Delhi).
There is no subsidy there. The Haj committee in that particular city shops around for the best rate they can get from competing airlines.
Flights typically take place late at night, when the aircraft might otherwise be unutilised and flights are full, so the airline makes money even at a
lower fare. All male cabin crew on those flights for obvious reasons.

[Deans]

Piyush Goyal‏Verified account @PiyushGoyal 7h7 hours ago
Aadhaar Exposes 5 Crore Ghost Accounts: Govt, after making Aadhaar mandatory, has captured fake 3.5 cr LPG connections & 1.6 cr ration cards

Nandan Nilekani, who is no fan of the Govt, has quantified the savings from weeding out fakes at 57,000 crore.
The state with the highest no of fake ration cards is, Surprise surprise, West Bengal.

[Sicanta]

I have no qualms in saying that the fault here lies with the bankers. Banks were given 31st march 2018 to feed the aadhar number into all accounts. It maybe that when the gov needed the data of these 25 lakh farmers, banks bypassed all the basic steps like cross checking with original and just fed the data to the system left and right.

[AbhishekC]

Sorry, I seriously don't get it. You are suggesting that these are real farmers who were cheated by UIDAI by giving invalid Aadhar numbers? Why would UIDAI do that?

Is there a possibility that these are fake accounts with the real beneficiary being some pawarful people?

Aadhar cards are generated by private contractors, not UIDAI itself. However, I don't think that is where the problem came from. Most of the farmers are illetrate or not literate enough. They may have coughed up money to touts and paid them to get aadhar. They pocketed the money and gave them a template print-out after changing the name and photo of the farmer - IMO.

I believe the intention was to make the governance system unstable by infusing this poor quality data into every facet of government. Modi is either compliant in this game or is too dense to understand how aadhar will create destabilising effects. Or my favourite - Modi is a control freak mentality person - he just gets off on making a system that controls everybody.

[AbhishekC]

I have no qualms in saying that the fault here lies with the bankers. Banks were given 31st march 2018 to feed the aadhar number into all accounts. It maybe that when the gov needed the data of these 25 lakh farmers, banks bypassed all the basic steps like cross checking with original and just fed the data to the system left and right.

Even so, if the aadhar number had been generated by the centralised system - then they would be unique numbers, right? The fact remains that aadhar data itself is wrong.

There are plenty of TV news programs on this topic. Some should be available online if you want references.

[Sicanta]

Sorry, I seriously don't get it. You are suggesting that these are real farmers who were cheated by UIDAI by giving invalid Aadhar numbers? Why would UIDAI do that?

Is there a possibility that these are fake accounts with the real beneficiary being some pawarful people?

Aadhar numbers are generated by private contractors, not UIDAI itself. However, I don't think that is where the problem came from. Most of the farmers are illetrate or not literate enough. They may have coughed up money to touts and paid them to get aadhar. They pocketed the money and gave them a template print-out after changing the name and photo of the farmer - IMO.

Aadhar was designed by an incompetent team. And I believe the intention was to make the governance system unstable. Modi is either compliant in this game or is too dense to understand it.

wrong, this one is the fault of banks fullstop. I know for a fact that which is why ekyc is now being compulsorily introduced in all banks - private or public as far as aadhaar is concerned while opening new accounts, or making any changes to previous ones.

[AbhishekC]

Please do not use the B word. IMHO this is as derogatory as the N word. Digvijay Singh coined this phrase to please his Catholic boss and imply that only Hindus will support Modi. The word Bhakti has a profound spiritual meaning in Hinduism. It does not have any connotation in Abrahamic religions. This phrase was designed as an insult to Hindus. Use it if your intention is to insult all Hindus.

Sir, what would you about the 'people' who used to say "Har Har modi"? These people happened to be Modi fans (bhakts). Were they also brainwashed by missionaries?

It took a call from a Shankaracharya to not use the udghosh of Shivji, for Modi, to stop the nonsense.

[Sicanta]

I have no qualms in saying that the fault here lies with the bankers. Banks were given 31st march 2018 to feed the aadhar number into all accounts. It maybe that when the gov needed the data of these 25 lakh farmers, banks bypassed all the basic steps like cross checking with original and just fed the data to the system left and right.

Even so, if the aadhar number had been generated by the centralised system - then they would be unique numbers, right? The fact remains that aadhar data itself is wrong.

There are plenty of TV news programs on this topic. Some should be available online if you want references.

Only thing the bank software was previously designed to check was if aadhaar number has been previously linked to any other account. Nothing else.

[AbhishekC]

Sicanta,

If the bankers were pushed into feeding a huge amount of aadhar backed accounts into the system, then the problem is definitely in planning - which is the government's area of responsibility. If the government/Modi is incapable of understanding how things are to be executed at the lowest level. This is definitely a governance problem.

This incompetence is something that pervades everything that this government has attempted, whether it is the ham handed way in handling pakistan, the near loss of Russia as a partner, GST (pathetic beyond extreme), demonetisation (something Tughlaq would have been proud of), job creation.