Perpetually abroad, Modi loses sight of the grassroots mauled by demonetization

[SarthakGanguly]

you are conflating the religion with its adherents.

Nope.

While I find your views to be repulsive

The future of a nation is not built or should not be built on altruism. Pure necessity should decide that.

religion ceases to exist

Forget ceasing to exist. Religion will be strictly adhered to in India as long as Islam exists here.

 

[Soumitra]

The part highlighted by you clearly shows that Muslim personal law can be voluntarily applied in UK.

How can you say it can be voluntarily applied when it is said to have no legal validity?

As to the points you repeatedly raise, the answers are all there in my post. You frame a question as you see fit, I answer it as I see fit. I will not play your game, will I?

I am an engineer. I prefer clear cut things - Yes/No, 1/0, Black/White. You I believe are from Humanities background who prefer the gray area and are afraid of black or white.

Anyways I tried 3 times ut it is clear you will not give clear answers but just beat about the bush because a clear answer will expose your hollow claims. Go ahead enjoy your fake hope in "secularism" I wont bother you again

PS- Modi will win in 2019 so you will have to suffer atleast till 2024

 

[Jacob Martin]

Nope

Dharmic people (term used by you) is different than Dharmic religion. Only the extreme fundamentalist would argue that religion is the ONLY identity a human has.

The future of a nation is not built or should not be built on altruism. Pure necessity should decide that.

It would be onerous to put the burden of proof on you to explain how religious mumbo-jumbo is supposed to protect a nation in the 21st century. So let me just articulate your views so as to remove the haze that surrounds them - you believe that the way forward for any country is to embrace its majoritarian religious identity as the means to protect its "interests". I assume this religious identity will magically confer upon us the education, technology and institutions that other countries need to safeguard their nations. That is entirely plausible, considering the magical truth claims that religion makes.

Forget ceasing to exist. Religion will be strictly adhered to in India as long as Islam exists here.

People forgetting about religion is the only hope for preventing inevitable strife. The demographics of Muslim population are such that before socio-economic progress and education kick in, their numbers would have already grown to an extent that the majority status of Hinduism will be only on paper. It is inevitable. So it would be best if identities were handled in a less adversarial manner.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

It would be onerous to put the burden of proof on you to explain how religious mumbo-jumbo is supposed to protect a nation in the 21st century. So let me just articulate your views so as to remove the haze that surrounds them - you believe that the way forward for any country is to embrace its majoritarian religious identity as the means to protect its "interests". I assume this religious identity will magically confer upon us the education, technology and institutions that other countries need to safeguard their nations. That is entirely plausible, considering the magical truth claims that religion makes.

I dont care about numbers. Religion matters far less than the civilization.

 

[Nilgiri]

http://indianexpress.com/article/op...-proof-required-battle-of-the-elites-4707752/

No proof required: Battle of the elites

The old elite — politicians, corporates, left-intellectuals, academics — won’t give up their privileges easily. They will try to derail the structural transformation happening in India and object at every turn

The present news trend, and expert opinions, are very confusing. You have a marked improvement in agricultural growth, and you have farmer riots in two large states — Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. You have an economy that has been slowing since June 2016, and inflation now at historical lows, and you have economic experts stating that the RBI/MPC decisions have been valid because the wise MPC is looking beyond the “temporary decline” in inflation to 2 per cent brought about by demonetisation.

One of the major objectives of demonetisation was to diminish the role of cash (read black money) transactions. However, if the expert headlines are to be believed, the volume of digital transactions is contracting. What we are witnessing in India is a historic transformation — one that occurs rarely in most countries. It has never occurred in India before, never. But it is happening now. It is a changing of the guard — more appropriately, a changing of the elites.

The single most critical factor in Indian politics, from its independence in 1947 until the birth of the Modi administration in 2014, was that the same elite ruled the country. Regardless of political affiliation, this elite had broadly the same political and economic philosophy, characterised by Western-style social liberalism and Fabian economic socialism. In addition, traditionally, the elite was heavily anti-American.The dominant arm of the elite was,

The dominant arm of the elite was, of course, the Congress, which was in power from 1947 until 2014 except only for 13 years (1977-1980, 1989-91 and 1996-2004). And except for five years (1991-1996), a Gandhi family leader was the PM or in charge (as was the case during the 2004-2014 period when Manmohan Singh was the PM, but Sonia Gandhi was in control).

The influential English-language press shares the basic Congress worldview. Thus, they could not possibly believe that Modi, an unabashed Hindu leader, would win in 2014. There was a parallel belief that the BJP could not possibly win in the largest state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in 2017. Of course, the rise of a new cosmology represented by Modi wasn’t an overnight phenomenon, as things were gradually changing. Starting with Narasimha Rao, India began to distance itself from heavy state involvement in economic activities. Economic reforms (especially for industry) were introduced in 1991, tax reforms in 1997, and the beginning of disinvestment in 1998. With the signing of the nuclear deal with US President George Bush in 2008, the first major step towards the American camp was taken by India.

As time went on, however, it became increasingly clear that the old elite had failed to notice and respect that India had changed from the illiterate and feudal order prevalent at the time the Nehru dynasty assumed control. There are complex factors feeding into each other to explain the public’s increasing mistrust in the old elite, but it can safely be pointed out that the educational level of average Indians has risen; the old elite mismanaged the economy — and power corrupted the old elite.

The Indian people are asking more questions and demanding greater accountability from dynastic political leaders. But the old elite — politicians, corporates, left-intellectuals, academics — cannot be expected to give up their privileges so easily. They will try to derail the transformation and object at every turn: If that means fake analysis, they will do so. If that means intellectual gymnastics, they will do so. The key point is that they must do so.

This is a long drawn-out battle, and a healthy battle. This is what checks and balances are all about. Should the new elite emerge without being questioned? No. Can the new elite just be allowed to roll over the old elite? Definitely not. Will the old elite use all its instruments, and cash in all the old I-owe-you(s) in order to influence the debate, even with fake news and even flakier analysis, if need be? You bet. This is one movie India has never seen before. Sit back, learn, comprehend and enjoy.

The battle is joined from all sides. Even from within the BJP. The new elite wants to rewrite history. That is its privilege. But do they have to distort history as much as they claim the Congress did? And do they have to ban documentaries, just like Indira Gandhi did with the banning of Louis Malle’s nine-hour documentary Phantom India? Or, the later banning of The Satanic Verses?

It is important that history be re-written — all new-born elites have done that since time immemorial. But why write history in as distorted a manner as the previous 70 years — by obliterating any mention of Nehru? And will you next sink as low as previous historians who find that the actions of General Rawat (defending parading an innocent as a human shield) and General Dyer (who oversaw the Jallianwala Bagh massacre) are comparable? Invoke Savarkar if you will, but also mention that he was not opposed to cow slaughter. And remember your Hindu Vedic ancestors, who not only did not infringe on the diets of others, but also ate beef.

In my previous article (‘Just why are farmers rioting’, IE, June 10), I documented that because of good weather, agricultural growth in 2016-17 was much better than the previous two years (4.9 per cent in 2016-17 vs an average of 0.5 per cent in 2014-15 and 2015-16). Farmer incomes had improved — so, riots now and not before? Some experts pointed out that flower sellers had suffered because of demonetisation — true; some others pointed out that vegetable sellers had suffered, especially those cultivating potatoes, onions and tomatoes. And many, indirectly or directly, attributed all of the price decline to the disruptive policy of demonetisation.

The same experts are silent on what happened to fruit prices, also a perishable crop and subject to bad demonetisation — fruit prices (wholesale and consumer) are up 5 per cent y-o-y. And they are silent on sugar, rice and wheat farmers — their prices are up 10-15 per cent. How many vegetable farmers in India? Less than 4 million. How many rice, sugar and wheat farmers — close to 90 million.

Now, demonetisation. This is a parallel to the “farmers-are-justified-in-rioting-with-record-crop-output” flake news. And that is that demonetisation was a comprehensive failure because its simplest goal — reduce cash transactions — has not been achieved. The evidence offered by several experts — RBI data on cash and non-cash transactions since November 2016.

There is a basic flaw in this lazy approach to ideological analysis. The “experts” only process data from November onwards, and are not willing (because of the results?) to look at the change in non-cash transactions over the last three years. They compare April to March 2017, find the volume of transactions lower, and conclude that demonetisation was a failure. The old elite could not possibly do a worse job!

The accompanying table documents RBI data on all non-cash transactions (by volume) since 2014. For each year, the data reported is an average for the months January-April. Card usage is only for POS transactions (as emphasised by the RBI in its weekly releases). You be the judge. Total non-cash transactions increased by 53 per cent over last year, January-April. And non-cash transactions “induced” by demonetisation — debit and credit cards (POS), prepaid and mobile — are up 173 per cent. Your sixth-grade daughter will tell you this is doubling every eight months. And you maintain that demonetisation has failed to move India rapidly towards less cash (less black money) transactions?

 

[pothead]

The accompanying table documents RBI data on all non-cash transactions (by volume) since 2014. For each year, the data reported is an average for the months January-April. Card usage is only for POS transactions (as emphasised by the RBI in its weekly releases). You be the judge. Total non-cash transactions increased by 53 per cent over last year, January-April. And non-cash transactions “induced” by demonetisation — debit and credit cards (POS), prepaid and mobile — are up 173 per cent. Your sixth-grade daughter will tell you this is doubling every eight months. And you maintain that demonetisation has failed to move India rapidly towards less cash (less black money) transactions?

Similar to how Islamic terrorism apologists bringing data to show how lightning kills more people than terrorism. The date they will pick conveniently be between sept 12 2001 & now, for comparison, since adding sept 11 2001 would add 3000+ people killed by Islamic terrorists.

 

[wiseone2]

Perpetually abroad, Modi loses sight of the grassroots mauled by demonetization
P K Balachandran, June 16, 2017

With an insatiable thirst for foreign travel (over 64 jaunts since he came to power three years ago), India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have lost sight of India, particularly, the real India living its villages.

Though he claims to be a small town man of humble origin, Modi would rather rub shoulders with heads of state and prime ministers of distant lands than look up farmers in his own country, who, burdened by debt caused by his decision to demonetize 86% of the currency in circulation in November last year, are committing suicide at an alarming rate.

Between 2014 and 2015, there have been suicides from 12,360 to 12,602. States ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have the dubious distinction of being in the top seven of suicide-prone states. Maharashtra, a BJP-ruled state, accounts for 37.8% of farmer suicides and tops the list. Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, also ruled by the BJP, are in the top seven.

The single most important cause of suicide among farmers is debt/bankruptcy accounting for 38.7%.

Debts is due to draught, fall in the prices of cash crops, and the inability to sell produce because of a shortage of cash in the market, is a situation suddenly created by Modi through demonetization.

Also Read: Alleged suicide by farmer in Chouhan’s home district

The agricultural sector employs 50% of India’s workforce, and this workforce is paid in cash. Out of 1.2 billion Indians, 600 million have no bank accounts, and 300 million have no government identity cards to enable them to open a bank account. These millions were caught unawares and left in the lurch when demonetization happened over night.

Demonetization struck when farmers had harvested the kharif or winter crop and were going to sell the produce. But in the absence of cash in the market, buyers were scarce and the produce had to be given away at throw away prices. Cauliflower was going at Rs.3.5 per kg. Seventy percent of perishables had to thrown away in some states. In poverty stricken Chattisgarh, vegetables went for 0.25 per kilo. A report from Mumbai said that 70% of workers in some of the textile mills had to go back to their villages as the employers, who paid them in cash, had no cash.

Modi has not bothered to visit Madhya Pradesh, a state ruled by his own party where five farmers were recently killed by the police in an agitation for debt relief. He has not issued a statement sympathizing with them but is all set to travel to Israel and the US for photo opportunities with Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump.

For all the overseas marketing of his “Make in India” project, Modi has little to show by way for Foreign Direct Investment to boost the organized sector. Research shows that the big FDI figures touted are only pledges and not actual investment. And much of the infusion of foreign capital is in the purchase of shares in existing Indian companies.

India’s private economy (leaving out the government and agriculture sector), grew by a mere 3.8% in quarter 4 of the 2016-17 financial year. For the same quarter the previous year, the growth had been 10.7%. Economists attributed this to the “incredible” effect of the demonetization of Rs.500 (US$ 7.5) and Rs.1000 (US$ 15) notes on November 8, 2016 which accounted for 86% of the currency in circulation.

Modi tried to market demonetization as an anti-terror financing measure. But this claim is yet to be tested for validity. However what is clear is that demonetization had hit India’s informal, agricultural and small scale industrial sectors below the belt.

Also Read: India scored “own goal”- China media comments on India’s economic slowdown

As on September 30, 2016, the annual rate of growth of bank credit was 12.1%. That fell sharply to 5.4% by March 31, 2017, according to the daily Mint. Growth in rural loans in the second half of 2016-2017 (October-March) was 2.5% as compared to 12.9% during the same period in 2015-2016.

Agricultural growth, which was 6% in the previous year dipped to 3.8 %. Manufacturing fell from 8.3% to 6.9%. Real Estate saw a dip in growth from 7.6% to 3.1%. Small and medium industrial sector suffered the most because this sector, like the agricultural sector, is based on cash transactions and the absence of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes made payments extremely difficult, a difficulty made worse by a shortage of notes of lower denominations.

Perhaps regretting his decision to demonetize Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes, the Modi government this month issued new Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes with special features to distinguish them from the pre-November 2016 notes.

This will go a long way to ease business transactions. But indebtedness and distress caused by demonetization have to be addressed as these lead to suicides. Loan waiver is being considered. But this will inevitably be a big burden on the Central Exchequer as only the Center has the money. The amounts sought by the states go into tens of thousands of crores. If loan waiver is done in Maharahtra and Madhya Pradesh, both BJP ruled states, other states will also demand and have to be catered to.
http://southasianmonitor.com/2017/0...loses-sight-grassroots-mauled-demonetization/

it is easy to throw stones. Modi attempt at demonetization puts some fear in the hearts of corrupt elite

 

[pothead]

it is easy to throw stones. Modi attempt at demonetization puts some fear in the hearts of corrupt elite

The ones throwing stones are the one who have lost huge amounts of money.
These people spent nearly 50% of their illegal cash as payment to middle men to convert their money into new currency.
Their biggest fear is Modi scrapping 2000 rupee note.
This move is nothing but a pre-emptive strike from shoulders of farmers by corrupt coterie to ensure the next Demonetization does not happen.

 

[wiseone2]

The ones throwing stones are the one who have lost huge amounts of money.
These people spent nearly 50% of their illegal cash as payment to middle men to convert their money into new currency.
Their biggest fear is Modi scrapping 2000 rupee note.
This move is nothing but a pre-emptive strike from shoulders of farmers by corrupt coterie to ensure the next Demonetization does not happen.

Demonetization has to be accompanied by digital payments, checks on real estate & foreign currency etc

 

[Jacob Martin]

I dont care about numbers. Religion matters far less than the civilization.

I don't want to engage you in a long-winded discussion on issues that will have no conclusion either way. I am sure neither of us have the patience and fortitude for that.

However, just out of curiosity, can you mention a few aspects of civilization (as it currently stands) that are exclusively derived from religion?

 

[pothead]

I don't want to engage you in a long-winded

A windbag complaining about long-winded responses...

 

[SarthakGanguly]

few aspects of civilization (as it currently stands) that are exclusively derived from religion?

Can't say about other faiths.

But in this place it has been the opposite. The 'Religion' has been derived from the civilization.

 

[Jacob Martin]

Can't say about other faiths.

But in this place it has been the opposite. The 'Religion' has been derived from the civilization.

Yes, but there must be at least a few things that one can hold forth as artifacts worth defending, since you surely seem okay with all possible consequences. Adversarial relations coupled with demographic shift is a recipe for conflict. So one must at least know what you are willing to fight for.

I am not someone who denies that there is indeed a war of ideas. Free speech, civil liberties and equality before law are the ideas I am willing to fight for. None of these arise from religion. Cow vigilantism and moral policing does. So either you wish to appropriate my claims as yours, based on some non-established civilizational claims, or you stand for the aforementioned protection of bovines and thuggery.

 

[pothead]

Free speech, civil liberties and equality before law are the ideas I am willing to fight for

By banning or ignoring anyone with contrarian views? Well genius, let's hear how you will do all this by closing your eyes and ears to the other side.
Typical left shit.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Yes, but there must be at least a few things that one can hold forth as artifacts worth defending, since you surely seem okay with all possible consequences. Adversarial relations coupled with demographic shift is a recipe for conflict. So one must at least know what you are willing to fight for.

I am not someone who denies that there is indeed a war of ideas. Free speech, civil liberties and equality before law are the ideas I am willing to fight for. None of these arise from religion. Cow vigilantism and moral policing does. So either you wish to appropriate my claims as yours, based on some non-established civilizational claims, or you stand for the aforementioned protection of bovines and thuggery.

Don't you think that the eventual demographic shift, that you are alluding to, wouldn't even leave you with a choice to debate - since by then you will be forced to 'believe' and failure to do so will lead to a lot of misery and a painful death? Think again if you think we will have another debate on secularism when that 'shift' does happen! And think again if you think you (God forbid, as an atheist) can co-exist peacefully with marauding herds of 'believers'.

For me, it is a case of sticking with your own nonsense, seeking safety in numbers and as a bulwark against the 'believers' OR being force-fed the imported, far worse, perverted 'believing' nonsense.

I am, what I call, a reluctant Hindu. Not because I am religious, but because I believe the alternative is far far worse. Isn't that worth fighting for?