Reduce Central Excise on Petrol BEFORE bail-out of King Fisher Airlines

Kingfisher Airlines is in the red, literally, and is reportedly seeking a bail-out from the Indian Government.

If that is true, then, a few of my thoughts on this issue ….

Taxpayers’ money should not be used to bail out private enterprise. If Mallya wants help, he should declare Kingfisher Airlines to be a SICK UNIT and go to B.I.F.R.

It is the Government’s duty to ensure a level playing field, and it has done so, in the airlines sector. Air India is facing a severe financial crunch and the Government has not extended any helping hand thereto. Indian industry seeks greater deregulation and less government control and less interference, and at the first sign of problems, runs to it for help.

Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines can borrow from Mallya’s United Breweries, or his IPL team Royal Challengers, Bangalore or he can infuse fresh capital from his own funds or he can partly disinvest his stake, or he can seek merger with other Indian Airlines.

Under no circumstances, should the Indian Government bail out Kingfisher Airlines, with Indian Taxpayers’ money.

IF THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT IS FLUSH WITH FUNDS, THEN IT SHOULD REDUCE TAXES AND EXCISE ON PETROL.

When Logic went for a toss …. in RA One

In the recent released, Shahrukh Khan movie RA One, SRK plays the character of a South Indian Game Software Developer, “SUBRAMANIAN”, based in London. His wife, played by Kareena, a North Indian, is shown to have performed Karva Chauth.

Subramanian is killed by RA One.

Subramanian’s dead body is carried in a coffin. Now why would a Hindu be carried in a Coffin? Okay, perhaps, the normal makeshift stretcher was not available in London.

His dead body is accompanied by his widow, Kareena, dressed in Black. Why would a Hindu Widow who believes in Karva Chauth, dress in black, when Hindus wear white dress in mourning? Hindu women normally do not accompany the dead body to the cremation ground.

He was presumably buried, but his “ASHES” are immersed in the river, Thames, in London. The widowed Kareena who deeply mourns her husband, anyway returns to India almost immediately, and surely could have immersed the ashes in any Indian river, say at Benaras, at Trimbakeshwar or at Gokarna.

Of course RA One is an International Release, but surely we should present our Indian Culture in the right light.

Why would a very recently widowed Kareena dance to “Chhammak Chhallo” in a bright Red dress, baring her midriff, showing her navel, when presumably, the mourning period is not yet over.

A local train in Mumbai is taken over by RA One and refuses to halt at any station and eventually G-One (SRK) decouples the Commuters’ Bogies from the Main Engine Motorman’s Bogie and this crashes out of CST station because it could not be stopped and was traveling at high speed. The Railway Control Room was shown as being aware of something being wrong and had diverted the train to a separate loop line.

Surely the train could have been halted by the Railway Authorities by disconnecting the Electrical Power Supply to the overhead Power Cables.

RA One had a Gr8 concept, Gr8 Special effects, terrific screen presence of Arjun Rampal, both SRK and Bebo rock, but the screenplay lets us down. Logic goes for a toss … out of the window, or should I say, out of the multiplex.

Still, I can’t deny, that I enjoyed watching SRK in action, even if the movie sucks, in parts. However, I liked and enjoyed watching Rajnikant’s ROBOT, far, far, far more.

NATO kills, or should I say, “assassinates” Gaddaffi

Yesterday, NATO planes bombed a convoy which was running away. This convoy carried Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi. He was wounded in the bombing, dragged by the Rebel Fighters, or should I say, the “DEFENSELESS CIVILIANS”, who killed him in cold blood.

I hold no brief for the Libyan Leader, but NATO quotes U.N. resolutions in its justification for its actions. Did the United Nations authorize NATO aerial bombing? Are there records of any Challenge by Libyan Air-force Planes to NATO aircraft? How many NATO planes were fired upon? How many NATO planes were lost? So if NATO had put in a No-Fly-Zone on the 2nd day itself, and taken out most of the Libyan Air-force defenses and Radars and if No Libyan plane was flying
or could fly as NATO claimed then why did NATO bomb ground forces.

And what unarmed Libyan civilians are we talking about? These “civilians” are carrying heavy guns, portable missiles, rocket launchers and are in armored vehicles and even tanks.

There was a civil uprising in parts of Libya which was an internal matter of Libya. And since Gaddafi was not able to quell the fighting in Eastern parts of Libya for more than 6 months before the U.N. Resolution on behest of NATO, it is clear that there was fighting between armed groups capable of fighting back and that they were not defenseless civilians. Of course civilians were caught in the cross-fire, but they were the responsibility of Libyan Government and it was essentially an internal matter of Libya.

NATO under the fig leaf of U.N. resolution has brought about a regime change in Libya as a means to control Libyan oil. NATO is not bothered about any of the civilians in Libya. This is the plain unvarnished truth.

TRULY, HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY WINNERS

Should BCCI be under proposed Sports Development Bill ?

Badminton Star, Ms. Jwala Gutta is quoted as saying that the Badminton Federation of India (BFI) should learn from the BCCI i.e. the Board for Cricket Control in India as to how to market the sport.

Ms. Jwala said that, one cannot deny that Cricket is a Religion in India and is so popular because of the efforts of BCCI. She has lamented that the BFI has failed to give credit and recognition to the successes of the Badminton Players which means that youngsters have not been enthused to take up sports.

BCCI is often criticised in the media about the announcement of large cash gifts like 1 crore each to players who won the World Cup or the victory procession on an open double decker after winning the T-20 World Cup. But there is no denying that these gestures fire the imagination of the children and youth who then aspire to become cricketers and win fame and success.

IPL has also spurred many youngsters who see money in cricket and see a professional future. The same cannot be said of Badminton or most sports in India.

Therefore, you should not only succeed in sport (which is a given) but also market your success, so that you develop that sport.

At the other end of spectrum, Sports Minister, Mr. Lalit Maken wants to bring cricket and BCCI under the Regulatory Control of Government under the proposed Sports Development Bill.

The recent 4-0 whitewash has little to do with BCCI since we achieved the No.1 status in Test Cricket, won the ODI World Cup under the same BCCI, so what was good yesterday cannot become bad today.

We were outplayed by a better team on its home turf and we were hit by a spate of freak injuries, especially that of Gambhir. Zaheer’s injury at the very beginning was also unexpected. Pujara was also unavailable due to injury. Badrinath failed in ODIs in the Windies and Kohli failed in the Tests in the Windies. Raina after a successful tests series in the Windies failed in England. SRT and VVS did not get going in England and had an ordinary tour by their standards. No excuses, but it did happen.

So, BCCI is not fully to blame. So many young and fringe cricketers of India are earning reasonable money thru IPL who otherwise would not have.

So to take a series loss, albeit a 0-4 whitewash, as the end of the world and a BCCI failure is just fishing in troubled waters or adding fuel to fire.

At least, this should not be a reason to bring BCCI under Government’s Regulatory Control. Do the right thing for the right reason and not for the wrong ones.

India Inc. in urgent need of Electoral Reforms

Electoral Reforms are necessary to take our Democracy forward.

All political parties demanding their own smaller separate states must be necessarily asked to furnish a charter of their proposals as to how they are going to generate revenue to administer and develop their new states.

Simultaneously, Parliament should initiate electoral reforms to ensure that regional parties cannot contest national elections under any guise.

Only those parties who have got 25% share of the polled votes in the last general elections should be entitled to put up candidates.

Elected MPs should compulsorily be required to put up N number of questions pertaining to their constituency in their 5 year term.

MPs who have posted questions should also be required to be present in question hour.

Party whips should ensure that the Budget Session should be compulsorily attended by 90% of their MPs. Otherwise such political parties should be derecognized.

Finance Bill should be considered to be passed only if at least 75% of the parliamentary strength is present and voting.

MPs should not be allowed to abstain in a Confidence Vote and Vote on Budget.

MPs privileges and perks should be linked to their attendance.

Rajya Sabha Members are supposed to be the States’ Representatives in Parliament. Rajya Sabha in its present form should be done away with. After all there are going to be several smaller states and Rajya Sabha in its present form would be ineffective.

Instead, Rajya Sabha should be reconstituted so that political parties should be allowed to nominate candidates to the Rajya Sabha in the same proportion of the national votes obtained for the Lok Sabha (not of the seats). In this way, Technocrats, Professionals, Intellectuals, Social Activists, Media Persons, Military Strategists can participate in the legislative process. Special Interest Groups like Scheduled Castes & Tribes, Religious Minorities, Women, Third Gender can also be accommodated and the Parliamentary process can become truly inclusive.

Of course, those who have lost Lok Sabha elections should be disqualified for being nominated to Rajya Sabha for the same term.

No person should be allowed to be nominated for the Rajya Sabha for more than 2 consecutive terms.

No person should be allowed to contest for the Lok Sabha for more than 3 consecutive terms.

60 years have passed since we gained independence. AB TO JAAGO NETAJI and get down to the business of governance.

Or else we are doomed to be a failed nation. We would not require either Pakistan or China to do this to us…..

Why India should conduct further nuclear tests …

We should remember what happened on 26/11. The few police at CST Railway Station who did try to fight back at the terrorists with their Enfield-303 Rifles failed on two counts….. First, they had not practiced at the firing ranges AND second the rifles were old, hardly used, not cleaned regularly and therefore jammed.

Now to draw an analogy with India’s Nuclear Weapons. Two Tests in 35 years. First in 1974, a single device (Technology Demonstrator), Second in 1998, five devices, whose success and yield is still being questioned.

In the event of war, are our nuclear weapons and missiles going to work? Or will our nuclear weapons fail, like the policemen’ rifles did on 26/11? When we find the answer to that, it will be too late to matter.

India needs to first decide whether it wants to be respected as a nuclear weapons power, and if the answer is yes, then we should publicly change our No-First-Use Policy.

We should have a Command and Control Structure in place for First-Use as a part of a Stated Nuclear Doctrine.

Who is going to take us seriously if our own scientists say that our test was a dud. So we need to test again … and … again … and … again.

And we have to make the world believe that we are ready and ruthless enough to use them. Then, and only then, would the world respect us and then a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council would be offered. Countries like Australia which are denying Uranium sales to us will be more than willing to supply us.

Nuclear Weapons are Weapons of War and undoubtedly cause mass destruction of life and property. But in a war there are no rules, there are only winners. Rules are there only in Sport.

Therefore in order to formulate a Nuclear Policy, we should have a clear defined role for the Nuclear Weapons. Are we going to use them at all or not, OR only showcase them by threatening their use.

Second Strike in reality is meaningless, because, by then, the enemy has already made the first strike and your assets have already suffered. Making the enemy suffer by a possible second strike cannot undo the damage already inflicted by the enemy. Second Strike as a capability is a deterrent only if it is credible.

A fitting reply by a wife to a Momma’s boy …

My cousin sis, Jyotsna, forwarded me a very interesting poem, which I found compelling enough to share …

A fitting reply by a wife to a Momma's boy