Struggle for gender equality must first rise in the minds

It seems that there isn’t a more opportune time than the present to talk about gender equality in India. While the global #MeToo movement was gathering steam in India, with actors and journalists at the forefront, Supreme Court ruling in allowing women of all age groups in Sabarimala temple added a much needed impetus to the national discourse on gender equality.

Yet in your naivety, if you take for granted the newfound spring in the society’s step towards liberalism, you are in for a rude awakening. If you cast a cursory glance at the media – social media or traditional media – you can find that not many among men or among women see these advancements in positive light. There is cacophony of diverse voices casting aspersions on the character of women who are part of the #MeToo campaign. There is a brute majority out there, including women, who call the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala excessive and needless.

Without a significant change in the patriarchal attitude of the society that considers women as second class citizens, no material or moral progress is possible. As is the case with all kinds of resistance against the immoral and unlawful exploits in the history of mankind, the struggle for gender equality must also first rise in the minds.

Revolutions have always sprouted in the minds, where they might lay dormant for some time, but drawing nutrients from the thoughts and challenging the intellects, before rising into action – sometimes peaceful, often violent – in the alleys of institutions and the streets of cities, stirring every hamlet and every soul residing in them.

Renaissance that our society, particularly Kerala society, witnessed many decades back is in serious danger of wilting and disappearing under conservative pressure. The more we change, the more we remain where we are. The progressive society that we assume we have become has turned out to be a myth. Education that aims at ennobling people to an advanced state of progressive existence has apparently brought material prosperity, but hasn’t brought any moral advancement.

Though the allusion may seem trite, it must be reiterated that while Russians are sending women to space, we in India are still squabbling on whether menstruation is impure or not. No society can progress when the majority of its citizenry believes that a physiological characteristic of human body is inherently impure. Every idea that gains traction in the society must pass the twin test of analytical and logical consistency. Nothing that defies logic and reason must be allowed to gain foothold.

In order to gain their rightful space in the society women need to assert themselves. There is much to be admired and to be followed in the way in which Women in Cinema Collective has declared their intention to seize what is their due. In the film industry exploitation of what the society calls the “meeker gender” is entrenched. Financial disparity is obviously present, which is in itself awful, but sexual abuse is widespread, which is ethically and legally criminal. It took such a long time to actors to open up on the abuses they faced shows what is all wrong with this malevolent male dominated society.

It was with enormous shock that we learnt that sexual exploitation is widespread in the field of journalism too, which we had assumed to be a domain where liberal values had its most expansive expression. Women can no longer allow the narrative of victimhood to describe them. An attitude change has become inevitable; they need to take the bull by the horns. 

The womankind must understand that the struggle for justice that women in one part of the world fight is a struggle that has implications to the lives of women in other parts of the world as well. If you abdicate the responsibility of standing with your fellow women in their struggle for equality then you would be committing a historical wrong. It is a struggle women can ill afford to lose.

Esoteric religious texts and their narrow interpretations, together with archaic traditions and customs could be the driving force behind one’s personal spiritual journey, but the basis on which a society runs its business could only be the liberal tenets enshrined in the constitution. Women’s emancipation and gender parity could be achieved only if such liberal values flourish in the society. Real hope for change lies only in a generational shift in the attitude of the young, where indoctrinated conservative dogma takes a backseat and liberal values take over. 

Aravind Ramesh, Age 36 - Getting to the wrong side of 30s

It happens only in movies, or so I convince myself, that on your birthday, while you are fast asleep in the morning, your wife plants a kiss on your cheek to wish you a happy birthday.

In the many years we have been husband and wife, my lady has never remembered my birthday, leave alone kissing me a happy birthday wish. Of course one can’t blame her, for she has hardly remembered even her own birthday any of these years and I had to often resort to many open ended questions like “what do you think is the importance of this day?”, to persuade her to come up with the answer.

Our son is only 4 months old and so I have to wait for 8 more months to see if she could rise above such mediocrity and remember perhaps the most important day of her life.

Having said all that, I never had to depend on anyone’s patronage to remember my birthday, possibly because I am quite self aware. So last Wednesday I became 36 years old, thus formally getting to the wrong side of 30s.

By that age you probably lose all interest in celebrating your birthday, because you figure out by then that age is just a number, that it doesn’t really indicate anything significant, but is only a poignant reminder that you are one year closer to death.

This is also the time when you finally realise it is better to stay alone or in the company of books than in the company of real people, because there is no hatred, no egoism and hence no disillusionment when you are with the former. You would rather look forward to spend some time with your own self, may be musing much about nothing, rather than squandering it on reckless adults of either gender.

But as age 36 is a bit too late to change old habits or reconsider personal convictions, you are trapped in your established dispositions, even when you are aware that they might lead you to a loss of emotional harmony. By that time you would have earned some reputation, which you would not be ready to sacrifice at the altar of any relationship.

When you are at the wrong side of 30s, your sartorial tastes would appear at odds with contemporary fashion. The younger may scorn at you for being obsolete, the older may throw their indignation at you for not doing enough to uphold tradition. By now you are your own man and the opinions of others will worry you less, any comment on your attire lesser.

And once you reach the wrong side of 30s, neither will young ladies hold their breath when you pass by, nor will this world mourn with the words "a good soul snuffed out too early" if you pass away.

As nothing can evoke respect in our country like grey hair, you would constantly be made aware of your age by cynics who would address you ‘Sir’, in every place you choose to venture. There are also the innocent - in office, in park, in public transport and in a crowd – who would pour in their affection, sometimes sympathy, at you by addressing you Chettan (Malayalam for “elder brother”).

One advantage of getting to the wrong side of 30s is that you can leave a party unnoticed, without doubtful eyes following you or questioning words chasing you down. On presenting yourself the following day to the same pack, not a single soul will ask you at what time you left the previous day or not a single tongue will rebuke you for leaving without informing.

Charles Dickens proclaimed, “Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs”. When you are at the wrong side of 30s, you may regret many opportunities you had allowed to slip away when you were young. You may also regret occasions when you should have been more firm and resolute in taking decisions. Regret is not however restricted to life events but includes people as well – those whom you regret for showering affection on and showing trust on and those whom you regret for failing to do so.

When you are at the wrong side of 30s, though quite late, you start appreciating what great men (and women) had said about the vagaries of life and people. You recognize that there is no truer maxim than “familiarity breeds contempt”; you understand that if you do hundred good things for someone and then unwittingly do one bad thing, he/she will forget all the good things you did, but will remember only the one bad thing you did to him/her. And now that you have the experience of many years of making friends, you also get acquainted with the basic fact that best friends can turn to be your worst enemies.

As Mark Twain once remarked, life could have been infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen. With the kind of knowledge one would accrue by reaching the wrong side of 30s, life might follow a different path if one gets a chance to go back, take rebirth and start re-living from his day of birth.

Insofar as my 36th birthday is concerned, let me thank everyone of you who wished me on that day and those who forgot to or chose not to wish me.

By the way, to set the record straight, my wife had risen from mediocrity and had made delicious payasam for me that evening.

She is a star.

Open letter to the Prime Minister

Mr. Prime Minister,

We, people in whom conscience hasn't died yet, are sure that any number of open letters to you on expressing outrage and anguish on the rape of a little girl in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, would not deter you from your inaction on the issue, but we must voice our concern lest history would count us among those who were complicit in that brutal act with our silence.

While J&K ministers from your party joined the protests in support of the alleged rapists, your own cabinet ministers at the centre followed your example with their silence. Spokespersons of your party, as well as your supporters, engaged in shameless acts of whataboutery in social media and outside.

However people who are conscientious have come together to express our collective sense of shame and anger on the unspeakable horror of that young girl being brutally raped and killed in Kathua. We are very much part of the ordinary citizenry of this country who are distressed and anguished about the crimes committed on the minorities and other vulnerable sections of the society including women and children.

As enshrined in the constitution of our great nation, one of the basic responsibilities of the government is to provide safety and protection to the people of the country. But we are afraid, the present dispensation under your leadership has failed miserably in providing it. To add to the tragedy, the state itself appears to be in connivance with the alleged perpetrators in concealing the evidence and in threatening the family of the victim and even the lawyers who fight her case.

The communal hate that resulted in this heinous crime has invariable stemmed from the invidious propaganda unleashed against the minorities by both the fringe and mainstream elements of the Sangh Parivar. That the vicious atmosphere of communal hate and bigotry has worsened in the country since you came to power in 2014 doesn’t put you in any favourable light nationally or internationally. The whole country knows that you are in supreme command of your government and your party. Hence it becomes all the more important for you to exercise your power - political and moral - to make sure that rabid elements of the Parivar are kept under check.

Obviously you have spoken against the crimes, but in the absence of political action to follow your words, it could only be construed as paying mere lip service. It is your ultimate responsibility to make sure that your government responds and acts resolutely not only to bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice but also to thwart any further attempt that aims to destroy the social fabric of our nation.

We call upon you to bring justice to the little girl of Kathua by fast tracking the prosecution of the perpetrators of the crime. We also call upon you to do everything possible to make sure that the vulnerable sections of the society get protection for their life and liberty.

We hope that you will act decisively now, otherwise as a nation we would have failed not only that little girl of Kathua, but all the little angels around us who are India’s daughters.

Sincerely,
On behalf of many conscientious patriots,
A proud Indian

Why supporters of demonetisation are anti-poor

(This essay was first published in UC News)

We shall begin with a mention of those who lost their lives due to demonetisation. As Athenian politician Pericles said in his famous funeral oration, it is both just and proper that they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the present.

It was only a few days back that we mourned the first anniversary of demonetisation (though we must not be unmindful that some celebrated it). As has been the case everyday in the past one year, even to this day debates on whether it was a success or a failure happen continuously in India and abroad. There are enough literature available supporting and opposing both arguments.

This writer is of the opinion that any factual analysis could only be done if and when all data related to demonetisation is available in the public domain. The Reserve bank of India, the custodian of currency policy in the country, doesn’t have enough data with it to evaluate the result of demonetisation. To do a cost-benefit analysis, you need accurate data and the fact that the RBI doesn’t have such data with it is in itself a matter of absolute shame.

However in general parlance of the Hindutva right wing, the main support base of Narendra Modi and the BJP, any critic of the policy of demonetisation is an anti-national. They have the right to hold any opinion and hence one mustn’t waste time in countering that argument. But it must be said in unequivocal terms that any supporter of demonetisation is certainly anti-poor.

We shall see why such an argument is worth debating.

Informal sector - The poor, casual labourers make the majority of the informal sector and demonetisation has hurt that sector very badly. It is the sector that supports 80-90% of Indian workers and it accounts to an estimated 40-50% of the GDP. Though it is desirable to reduce the size and scope of the informal sector, the disruptive way in which demonetisation sought to curtail the informal sector is tyrannical. The lives of those many roadside vendors, construction workers, marginal farmers, cobblers etc. were put in jeopardy by a mindless money policy of the government. The supporters of demonetisation, including many experts, dismiss this harm to the informal sector as mere collateral damage. The notion that someone has to bear the brunt of demonetisation and the formalisation of the economy and let that be the poor of this country is vicious and inhumane.

SMEs - Demonetisation adversely affected the small and medium enterprises sector. With the decrease in demand of consumer durables due to demonetisation, credit to small and micro units fell to 7.7% in the November 2016 itself. So not only was expansion of the business out of question, but even their existence was in danger. As most of the business in this sector is owned by the poorer sections of the society, their livelihood took a serious hit due to demonetisation.

Cashless economy woes - Though PM Modi didn’t mention cashless even once in his 8 November address to the nation, one of the avowed intentions of demonetisation, we were told later, was to move the country to a cashless economy by encouraging digital transactions. What makes a cashless economy an indispensable goal in the fight against black money is the myth that any money transaction without a digital trail is inherently suspicious. The poor, particularly in the informal sector, makes their transaction with paper cash and that doesn’t make those transactions illegal or suspicious. In fact the move towards digital transactions has seriously afflicted the poor’s transactional ability due to low telecom penetration and poor connectivity across India, particularly in the rural area. Without efficient infrastructure in the telecom sector, no government must unilaterally impose digital transactions on a society.

Agricultural prices fell - When money was sucked out of the system during demonetisation, prices of agricultural products came crashing down. As there was lesser demand for the vegetables and fruits there was excess supply and this led to reduction in prices, which badly affected the marginal farmers. As the rainfall was good, the farmers were able to make good harvest, but demonetisation made sure that there would be less demand for the products and hence huge loss for the farmers.

Job loss - A study conducted by Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has found out that demonetisation may have resulted in the loss of roughly 1.5 million jobs. Particularly in the unorganised sector job loss has been severe. Many small and medium enterprises were shut down due to cash crunch. The slump in the real estate sector due to demonetisation has further accelerated job loss in the sector. Even before the introduction of demonetisation the record of Modi government in job creation was rather dismal. The poor in the informal, unorganised sector has thus been severely burdened by demonetisation.

The government’s apathy for the poor who lost their jobs due to demonetisation was clearly displayed by Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad when he said recently that only those who couldn’t enhance their skills lost jobs.

Did government’s lower oil price bonanza help the poor?

One of the main arguments put forward by the government and the supporters of demonetisation is that once all the black money is back into the system, the government will put that money in schemes that would be beneficial to the poor of the country.

But here the question that needs to be asked is what the government has done for the poor of the country with the money it has saved from the crude oil price bonanza it has received owing to the crude oil price crash in the global market. Can we expect a government that hasn’t utilised huge savings from cheaper oil imports to benefit the poor to use the windfall from demonetisation to their benefit?

In whatever way you may look at it, demonetisation has caused enormous misery to the poor of this country. It is them who have lost lives standing in serpentine queues and it is certainly them who have lost jobs and livelihood. So if you’re supporting demonetisation, you are supporting the suffering of the poor of the country, or in simple terms, you are anti-poor.

Protest against fuel price loot must come from the citizens

Any government that is hell-bent on looting its own citizens deserves nothing but ridicule. Petrol and diesel price hike that happens every day, is a prime example of such an open loot. When administered price mechanism was removed by the UPA government, a policy which the present government follows with greater alacrity, it was said that fuel price will change according to the global crude oil prices. That is, fuel price in India will increase when global crude oil price increase and vice versa.

However today, when global crude oil prices are crashing and are at one of the lowest points in its history, fuel prices in India are increasing day by day. When the government allowed India’s state-run oil marketing companies to revise fuel prices on a daily basis, called dynamic daily pricing model, it was allowing itself to loot the public in stealth. The elevation of Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Cabinet rank by PM Modi was a recognition for his successful implementation of this policy of open loot.

On 1 March 2014, two months before Modi government came to power, global crude oil price was $108.6 per barrel and price of petrol in Delhi was Rs. 73.16 per litre. While on 11 September 2017, global crude oil price was $54.2 per barrel and the price of petrol in Delhi was Rs. 70.30 per litre.  (Though we consider Delhi’s fuel price for comparison, it must be noted that in Delhi, fuel prices are less in comparison to a state like say, Maharashtra as the VAT imposed by Delhi state government is must lesser than that imposed by Maharashtra state government.) 

Exchange rate is also a factor that must be considered when we compare crude oil price per barrel and petrol price per litre. But there has been rather insignificant change in dollar exchange rates between the two periods - the rupee was trading at 61.76 against the US dollar on March 1, 2014; it was 63.90 on September 11, 2017.

The major factor that explains the divergence between global crude oil prices and fuel prices in India is central excise duty. Excise duty on petrol was Rs. 9.48 per litre in April 2014, which has risen to Rs. 21.48 per litre today. While the excise duty on diesel was Rs. 3.65 per litre in April 2014, it has now been increased to Rs. 17.33 per litre by Modi government. 

While we consider the share of taxes in the retail price of petrol and diesel in India, we can find that it is 55.5% and 47.3% respectively, of which the major share is central taxes, particularly excise duty.

If we compare fuel prices in India with that of other emerging nations like Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka etc., we can find that they are much lesser than that in India. Our government imposes more taxes on the petroleum products and loots its own citizens like no other major nation in the world.

These facts essentially show that what our government does to us is nothing but open extortion. (Disclaimer: Though I invoke the term ‘extortion’, I am by no way alluding to the leader of BJP who was once charged with extortion.)

Money generated from taxes on petroleum products are used for development purposes is an argument that governments use often. But no government in the history has given statistics that show how this has been achieved. Like Krishi Kalyan cess imposed on us has not assuaged farmer distress, taxes generated from petroleum products cannot be expected to fuel welfare schemes. Particularly from a government that has consistently dragged its feet from spending more on welfare schemes like MNREGA and National Health Mission.

When a national level agitation against this fuel price loot is not forthcoming from the opposition parties, the onus for such a protest rests essentially on the citizens of India. Opposition to his open loot by the government is brimming in social media and many online groups are planning agitations on the ground as well. We must all take part in such protests and put pressure on the government to alleviate our burden by reducing the taxes it impose on petroleum products.

Fleece the middle class, caress the corporate defaulter

Few weeks ago SBI was back in the news for all the wrong reasons. A circular that appeared on its website was the reason for all the chaos. In the said circular, SBI had announced that it will charge Rs.25 for every ATM transaction. Due to public outrage, later SBI clarified that the circular was not about savings bank account holders, but only about State Bank Buddy customers, who will be charged Rs. 25 for every ATM transaction.

Though SBI clarified later that the circular was the result of an inadvertent mistake on their part, it is quite difficult to believe it. In all probability it was done only to test the waters to see how customers would react to it. If the reaction was subdued, they would have continued with charging Rs 25 per ATM transaction, but as the reaction was rather fierce, they stepped back from the proposal.

After demonetisation the challenges that banks face are manifold. Even before the disruptive policy of demonetisation added extra pressure on the banks, they were reeling under their non-performing assets (NPAs), which mainly include bad loans of large corporate houses. Credit growth has gone down to 5.4% by 31 March 2017, which is the lowest rate in the past 60 years. This is in contrast to what advocates of note ban had predicted. Their argument was that, with note ban, banks would be flush with money and hence they will offer lower interest rates, which would catapult credit growth to magnificent levels. But that didn’t happen and because of the shock that note ban gave to the economy at large, productive activities slowed, which further reduced demand for credit.

In addition to the debilitating pressure of the NPAs, banks are also faced with the prospect of spending a lot of money as interest payments to its customers. With the note ban, most customers have put all their money in their bank accounts. Banks will have to give interest to all such customers, at a time when there are few takers for bank loans, with which banks would have gained loan interest.

Foreign credit rating agencies as well as international monetary agencies are putting a lot of pressure on the government to act and reduce NPAs of public sector banks, which they claim is affecting investor confidence in the economy of the country. Crony capitalists, who are the main defaulters of bank loans, are adding to the pressure on the government to waive off their loans. A clear pattern can be seen among the comments of the bureaucrats as well, whereby they support reducing the NPAs of the bank by waiving off loans of corporate defaulters. At the same time, they are adamant against waiving off farmers loans in the various states of the country.

In a bid to reduce their working pressure, banks like SBI are increasing all service charges that would affect the ordinary customers badly. Getting back money from corporate defaulters, thereby reducing the NPAs is not easy, particularly when the crony capitalists have great support and backing from the political class. So the only way out for the banks to reduce their financial burden is by fleecing the middle class with exorbitant increase in the service charges. 

RBI has failed to protect the customers from the rapacity of the banks. Also, there hasn’t been any significant protest from any quarters when the banks increase their service charges. The opposition parties have completely failed in organising any mass movements. In the absence of such protests, banks and the central government think that they can get away with anything. The social media has been the only saving grace as far as the objections to the fleecing practices of the banks are concerned. 

It is high time for the middle class to come together and form pressure groups to prevent the banks from making it the scapegoat for saving big corporate defaulters.  

Understand the divisive agenda behind the development facade

Some political commentators expressed great surprise at the elevation of Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The Yogi is known as a political rabble-rouser and as a polarising figure in Indian political scene. The poster boy of Hindutva politics, Yogi Adityanath is often considered as the leading divisive politician in the country. BJP’s selection of such a person as the head of the government in the most populous state in India raised many eyebrows, even among some of the staunchest supporters of Narendra Modi’s party.

However it must be said that anyone who is aware of the Hindutva project envisaged by the Sangh will not be surprised by the selection of Adityanath. With former Sangh pracharak Narendra Modi at the helm in the centre and with a handsome electoral win in UP for the Sangh ideology, this is the most favourable time to put Hindutva to the centre stage. This writer has written earlier about Sangh’s two-pronged strategy of gaining electoral wins. They use development facade, engineered mainly by Modi, to gain the votes of the young, aspirational class while using the Hindutva card, carried on effectively my Adityanath and his ilk, to garner the votes of those who are easily manoeuvred by communal and casteist agenda. 

The most important advantage of such a strategy is that BJP can easily avoid appealing to the minorities, who are anyways absent in BJP’s core ideology that focuses solely on Hindutva prominence or crude majoritarianism. That BJP didn’t field even a single minority candidate in the UP elections speaks volumes about this electoral strategy. When they have swept the polls with such blatant majoritarianism, it is certainly a signal that the majority people of UP wanted a Hindutva icon as their CM. So in that regard it must be accepted that the BJP has shown that they are honest to the people of UP by bringing Yogi Adityanath as the CM.

With the elevation of Yogi Adityanath as the leader of the government in UP, the fringe elements of the Hindutva brigade has ceased to exist, as the fringe has now become the new mainstream. The apologists of the BJP government at the centre, including many leading journalists, actors and businessmen, who had meticulously defended the divisive comments made by the rogue elements in the party, will now have their task cut out. If the re-emergence of cow vigilantism, with increased vigour and amplified brutality, is a sign of things to come, then we are certainly looking at a bleak future. While the fringe is creating mayhem with their vigilantism, the mainstream is virtually supporting them with their increased call of bringing in vegetarianism as the uniform food habit of the nation. The covert support that the state provides to vigilante thugs is not helping the matter either. The whole project of cow vigilantism is aimed at imposing the Brahmanical view of Hinduism to the entire nation, including the Dalits, the Muslims and other minorities.

In the face of such large-scale thuggery, the silence of the media is deafening. The shameful opportunism of the media makes them crawl in front of political power. However when the history of our present times will be written, what will come for serious criticism will be the silence of the aspirational class, who are inherently liberal, but are shockingly averse to raising their voice against the attack on the constitutional values and on the concerted efforts towards destroying our social fabric. 

The facade of economic development that the present regime has erected has blinded them to the methodical erosion of all the values that this great country had kept close to its heart since independence. The liberal ethos of our nation, which helped us to focus on scientific advancement and the resultant systematic, albeit slow, upliftment of the poor, is under grave danger. We have started our hazardous journey down the slippery slope of communalism and religious bigotry. Unless we act with great alacrity, we are in danger of becoming a Hindu Pakistan, where chaos is the rule, order, an exception.

Daylight robbery of the middle class

After demonetisation banks were in the forefront of bringing back calm in the lives of the people affected by the surprise decision by Government of India. Kept out of the loop of the decision making on demonetisation, banks did all they could to bring back normalcy to the financial system of the country. Though remonetisation isn't complete, banks and bank employees were largely appreciated by the common man for their efforts. However many decisions that were taken by the bank after the demonetisation chaos subsided were purely anti-people.

In the essay Banks' daylight robbery of the middle class, this writer argues how banks' decision to put penalty on all those who can't keep minimum balance in their accounts is nothing but daylight robbery of the middle class.

No demonetisation windfall, will the government accept its failure now?

Demonetisation was introduced as a path breaking policy decision on 8 November 2016. What should have been announced by the RBI governor through a press release or a press meet was announced by the Prime Minister of India in a televised live address to the nation. Though Prime Minister Modi’s penchant for high drama is well known, a policy decision that resulted in 86% of Indian currency going out of circulation within a few hours from the announcement of the decision may well have warranted a direct message from the PM.

Since the announcement of demonetisation, the supporters of the decision were unanimous in their assumption that the government will receive a windfall gain from the decision, which it would be able to pass on the people of India. Other than big infrastructure investment, the windfall gain of the government was assumed to be used to spur demand and growth and to give tax breaks to genuine tax payers of the country. It was also believed that government will announce schemes to write off debts of farmers or will put Rs.15,000 in every Jan Dhan account. However Budget 2017 has put to rest all such assumptions of windfall gain for the government and subsequent benefits for the common man.

Even after two income disclosure schemes in this financial year, the net tax revenue of the government grew only by 17%, which is exactly the rate it grew by in the previous financial year 2015-16. The taxes on domestic petrol have increased by 152% from June 2014 to November 2016. The major share of increase in net tax collection could be accounted to this enormous increase. So it becomes clear that demonetisation had no significant influence in the growth of net tax revenue of the government.

In order to adhere to the fiscal deficit target of 3.2% of GDP, the total expenditure of the government is projected to fall from 13.4% of GDP in 2016-17 to 12.7% of GDP in 2017-18. If there was a windfall gain for the government after demonetisation, why should the government restrict itself in revenue expenditure?

Other than curbing and bringing back black money, demonetisation was also declared to be a step taken for containing terrorism and neutralising fake currencies. Even after 8 November, we are not seeing any reduction in the number of terrorist attacks. Reports state that fake currencies, even of the newly introduced 500 rupee and 2000 rupee notes, are available in the country now. The constant shifting of the demonetisation goal posts by the government has now resulted in a new target - cashless economy.

Initially, marketing demonetisation as war against black money had seen most citizens of the country blindly supporting the decision. The government was able to project those against demonetisation as worshippers of black money. But as demonetisation chaos spread to the streets, people started to understand what a stupid economic decision it was. We can see now that in the election campaign trail in UP, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand, no BJP leader is speaking about demonetisation. Any mention of demonetisation, the leaders believe, will put the common man against the party.

From the silence of RBI about the amount of money that has come back to the system after demonetisation, we can safely assume that almost all of 15.44 lakh crore of demonetised money has come back. So where is the windfall gain for the government? Are we to believe that all the difficulties we faced since demonetisation were the result of the stupidity of a group of men in the government? It is high time we hold the government responsible for such irrationality.

Commuting woes of Infoparkians

They say that the corporate life of a techie is a bumpy ride. Deadlines, client expectations, performance appraisals, office politics, backstabbing and the likes make it a very difficult proposition altogether. Education institutions of our day have been following a practice of giving training to the students to help them prepare for this difficult ride of corporate life. By following such a salutary practice, Infopark Kochi seems to have embarked on a similar mission – of preparing employee mentally to face the bumpy corporate ride. For that they have meticulously prepared approach roads to Infopark that give the employees of Infopark, the Infoparkians, a bumpy ride, quite literally, during their daily commute to their offices. 

If you are relatively new to Infopark and its immediate neighbourhood, you could only watch with envy the skill with which Infoparkians ride and drive their vehicles through the Infopark approach roads besmirched with potholes of all sizes and variants. The deftness with which they negotiate those potholes, though often jumping into them, but emerging out unscathed, is some sight to behold. An Infoparkian’s commute to Infopark is no less perilous than a soldier’s patrolling the frontiers of our nation, both facing similar threat to life, though with dissimilar probability of occurrence. Those who have laughed at the foolishness of driving tests in Kerala – through ‘8’ shaped track for two wheelers and ‘H’ shaped track for four wheelers – are now marvelling at the long-sightedness of those wise men while they travel through these Infopark approach roads. If not for that well practised pyrotechnics how we would have traversed these bumpy roads?

The Kakkanad-Edachira road to Infopark is so much in shambles that if you tell a person that once there had been a well-laid road there, he/she would find it almost impossible to believe that. The road has been deteriorating for so many months now that it is a grave crime that the authorities haven’t done anything to restore the road. To make matters worse, recently two deep pits have been dug out on that road, with concrete slabs on top of them, thereby raising their height by at least by 5-6 inches above the residual road. These two pits have made sure that vehicles are unable to pass from both sides simultaneously, thereby causing terrible traffic blocks. For what purpose those pits are dug, God only knows.

By the stroke of luck, if somehow you reach The Carnival building (formerly Leela building) after that arduous journey through the Kakkanad-Edachira road, a new challenge awaits you. The Infopark-Brahmapuram road has been awaiting beautification and the laying of 4 lane road for quite some time. The process of tarring the road was started some two months back, but the work is not complete till now, resulting in lot of dust particles floating around in the air. Infoparkians who have the misfortune of walking on that road are in grave danger of contacting lung diseases. To add up to the chaos in that road, you have illegal car parking on both sides of the road. As there are no enough space for car parking in the Carnival building, employees working in that building are forced to park their vehicles on the road. The whole affair shows the terrible absence of proper planning.

After getting so much troubled by commuting through such terrible road if you decide to change your track to office and make use of the Express Way to reach Infopark, you will be faced with a more serious threat. If at Kakkanad-Edachira there is only some probability of getting killed, journey through Express Way has in reality taken some lives in the recent past. It was only a few days back that two lives were lost in an accident at Express Way. Accidents have become so much of a routine affair that the district administration has taken special attention to find solutions for this menace, after many complaints from the citizens.

All in all, daily commuting to Infopark has become a matter of life and death for Infoparkians. It is a shame that the Thrikkakara municipality, under which the Infopark comes, is not taking adequate care in making life any easy for them. Professional tax deducted from the salaries of these Infopark employees accrue to the coffers of Thrikkakara municipality and still they are unwilling to spend money to build good roads, to do maintenance works and to create better traffic system. Employees at Infopark are not organised and hence district administration and municipality tend to disregard their grievances. However if things continue in this fashion Inoparkians would be forced to organise themselves and agitate against the authorities. We have seen how the workers of Munnar organised without the banner of any political party and succeeded in gaining their rights. Infoparkians could well follow suit.

Picture Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle

Ache Din dream sinks once again in dearer petrol

Petrol and diesel have become dearer as petroleum companies have increased their prices owing to, in their opinion, the increase in international crude oil price and a depreciating Indian rupee. Since the UPA government removed Administered Price Mechanism (APM) for fuel pricing, petroleum companies have a near free reign in deciding the price of petrol and diesel. 

Though in theory the prices would be decided on the basis of the market forces of demand and supply, our practical experience suggests that the companies are not always inclined towards passing on to the end customers the gains they receive as a result of decreased crude oil prices, but they always show great alacrity in raising the prices when there is an increase in global crude oil price. Moreover, only a naive observer will assume that the central government has no influence on the petroleum companies vis-a-vis their power in deciding fuel prices in India. Therefore the government can hardly put the whole blame on the petroleum companies in a bid to save its face when there are protests against fuel price hike.

In the last two weeks fuel prices were increased twice resulting in an aggregate increase of Rs.7.91 for petrol and Rs.5.69 for diesel. When asked about the fuel price hike government managers in channel debates are pointing out that petrol prices were decreased when there was a major decrease in global crude oil prices and they complained that people didn’t appreciate them when that happened. However, even a cursory glance at data for the past one year will show that when crude oil prices were reduced up to 54% (prices have since increased), fuel prices in India were reduced only up to 10%, which would mean that the advantage of decreased crude oil prices were not passed on to the end customers but were used to fill the coffers of the petroleum companies. 

Now let us see some calculations to find out how the petroleum companies, with the connivance of central government, fool laymen and increase their profits. On 16 May 2014 when international crude oil price was $109.75 per barrel, petrol price and diesel price in India were respectively Rs.71.41/litre and Rs.56.71/litre (Delhi price). When today, exactly one later on 16 May 2015, international crude oil price is $66.57 per barrel, petrol price and diesel price in India are respectively Rs.64.24/litre and Rs.52.28/litre (Delhi price). Therefore, when international crude oil price has reduced by 39.34%, petrol price and diesel price have reduced only by 10.04% and 7.81% respectively. If the companies were to pass on the whole benefit of reduced global price of crude oil to the common man, they should have sold petrol for Rs.43.31/litre and diesel for Rs.34.40/litre (Delhi price).

Modi government also can’t excuse itself from the blame of increase in fuel prices. When the global crude oil price decreased the government had increased the excise duty to claim a part of the benefit that lay Indians had received. Now that the crude oil price has increased the government appears in no mood to reduce that increased excise duty to lessen the burden on the people. Modi government came to power riding on the huge wave of resentment against the UPA government largely due to its inability to control price rise. But once in power, Modi government is treading the same path of economic policies that UPA had travelled. Decrease in global crude oil prices had eased out inflation in India and the Modi government was boasting about the said reduction. Now with this increased fuel prices inflation is all set to come back.

Weakening rupee has been cited as another reason for the rise in fuel prices in India. When pre-poll surveys had predicted the probability of Narendra Modi assuming the role of Prime Minister of India, some financial experts had predicted about rupee growing stronger and even reaching 40 per dollar (this view was even endorsed by lifestyle guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar). But as of now no such positive movements are seen arriving.

A perusal of the balance sheets of major public sector oil companies in India, which are available in their websites, will show that the loss they claim to be making because of volatility of crude oil prices is a farce. They are by no means incurring huge losses but only a reduction in profit volumes. When the government remains silent on the face of such blatant deception from the oil companies it becomes clear that it does so for the benefit of private oil companies like Reliance and Essar and for the public sector oil companies.

Ache Din was supposed to come to Indians once Narendra Modi became the PM, or so he and his supporters had claimed. But till now it doesn’t appear to come even from the very distant horizon. Any dream of ache din, which those poor people who had voted for Narendra Modi had in their minds during voting, is in grave danger of being sunk by the avalanche of costlier petrol and diesel.

Obama’s India visit has taught us ‘bromance’ and ‘megalomania’

It is the habit of English media in India to dig out queer words from the dictionary and keep on harping on them whenever any news event of rareness unfolds. For a language lover, such occasions are certainly exciting times as he/she will get a great opportunity to add to his/her vocabulary some beautiful words. American President Barack Obama’s visit to India has certainly been the most newsworthy event of the new year and the media hasn’t disappointed us even this time. The bonhomie between the American President and the Indian Prime Minister as well as the controversy that was kicked up after Modi’s extravagant suit with his own name etched on it came up have resulted in the arrival to the scene of two incredible words – ‘bromance’ and ‘megalomania’. Let us look into these words one by one, taking the positive word first.

Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘bromance’ as “intimate and affectionate friendship between men.” The Indian media was quite gung ho about this bromance which was on display between Barack Obama and Narendra Modi. Obama is the first American President who is the Chief Guest of India’s Republic Day celebrations. 

If there was one casualty of this tremendous bromance, then it was protocol. Many a time protocol was broken to make way for this magnificent expression of bromance between the two leaders. In the beginning of the visit, Modi broke protocol and drove in to receive the American President immediately after Air Force One landed on the runway (during 2010 Dr. Manmohan Singh also broke protocol and went in to receive Obama). The bromance was again palpable when the two leaders greeted each other with a spontaneous hug. Observers were quick to point out the growing personal relationship between Obama and Modi when the two went for a brief walk on the lawns of Hyderabad House. They also observed that the bromance between the two became all the more evident when Modi addressed Obama by his first name ‘Barack’, whereas Obama addressed the Indian PM as ‘Modi’. Protocol once again bit the dust when Modi chose to sit to the right of Obama during the Republic Day parade, when protocol would have wanted the chief guest (in this case Obama) to sit between the President of India and the Vice President. Modi appeared so much immersed in his bromance with Obama that he even shoved away the Vice President to gain a seat near Obama. During the parade, Obama and Modi were seen chatting together, smiling away and applauding jointly like two men joined together after many years of painful estrangement. The bromance between the two men was so deep that even Jai and Viru would be jealous of them.

The word ‘megalomania’ has been in vogue in Indian media since Narendra Modi’s expensive suit, with his name etched on it, became the talk of the town (and the international media). Oxford English Dictionary will come to our aid once again to explain to us that the word ‘megalomania’ means “delusions of power or self importance.” 

If someone who wears a suit with his own name embroidered on it is not someone who excessively believes in his self importance, then who is? Designers say that even by conservative estimates the suit would have cost around 5-8 lakhs and when a man who roamed around India on a stupefying election campaign claiming to be a man of frugal lifestyle wears such a costly suit, questions are bound to arise. Washington Post reported that “Prime Minister Modi wore a suit that takes personalization to a ridiculous extreme.” Such flagrant show of megalomania must have shocked even his most ardent fans. It must be seen if Narendra Modi would ever don the suit again and if he is not going to wear that ever again, spending so much money on such a cheap show of flamboyance should be questioned. Another pertinent question is who sponsored this suit for Modi and if it has been brought using the tax payers money, then Modi should come under serious scrutiny for such a shockingly narcissistic display with the use of public money. With the kind of self endorsement and self promotion that our PM Modi has made a habit of, we can rest assured that the media will not allow us to forget the word megalomania anytime soon.

As a common citizen of India, this author would hope that the bromance between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi would flourish profusely, if that could provide some gain to the country. He would also wish whole-heartedly that PM Modi would take himself a bit lightly, relinquish pomposity and would get on to work for keeping the big promises he had made during the election campaign. However as an English language enthusiast, this writer welcomes the emergence of both ‘bromance’ and ‘megalomania’ with equal relish. Let us prosper; let the language prosper.

When to use “I” and when to use “me”

What will be your answer if you knock on a closed door and the person inside the room asks you, “May I know who that is?” Will you say, “It is me” or will you say “It is I”?

If your answer is “It is me”, then grammatically it is wrong. The correct usage is “It is I”.

But grammarians will probably forgive you because almost everyone says, “It is me”, so much so that it has generally been accepted as correct.

Then when to use “I” and when to use “me?

“I” is first person subject pronoun, which means that it refers to the person who is performing the action of a verb.

I can speak Tamil.

In the above example, “I” is the person who is performing the action of the verb “speak” or “I” is the subject.

Similarly, “You and I can speak Tamil.”

Here, “you and I” are the persons who are performing the action of the verb “speak”.

So whenever you are the subject of an action, you should use “I”.

“Me” is first person object pronoun, which means that it refers to the person that the action of a verb is being done to.

Anand told me to leave.

Here “me” is the person on whom the action of the verb “told” is being acted on or “me” is the object of the verb (whereas “Anand” is the subject).

Anand told Arjun and me to leave.

Here, “Arjun and me” are the persons on whom the action of the verb “told” is being acted on.

So whenever you are the object of an action, you should use “me”.

Confusion

Generally confusion comes when you have “I” or “me” connected to another name or a pronoun as in above mentioned sentences,

“You and I can speak Tamil.”

OR

Anand told Arjun and me to leave.

Whenever you are confused on deciding which one to use, you remove the other person from the sentence and then try to make the sentence. When that is the case you are less likely to make the mistake of using

Me can speak Tamil OR Anand told I to leave.

Those sentences really sound wrong, don’t they?

Alternate Method

One of this writer's friends, Raji Stephen offered an alternate method. The following is how he explained it. 

Take the following sentences.

That was I who called you yesterday.
That was me whom you called yesterday.

In order to check if your usage is right or not, you can simply take out the "action" part and make a question by adding "who" (e.g., who called?, who can speak?). If the answer points to self or a group including self, then the usage should be "I" and if the answer points to another person or a group excluding you, then the usage should be "me".  

Hope this helps.

British Council’s Website to Learn/Improve Your English

If you are one of those who are keen in learning/improving your English, both written and verbal, then ‘Learn English’ website of the British Council is a great place to be in.

You can find information and easy learning materials on grammar and vocabulary, can find interesting grammar exercises and listening activities, can learn the language with games, jokes, stories, can watch videos that will help you learn how the native speakers of the language use the language, can find resources to improve your business writing and academic writing skills and can even find IELTS tips, interview skills and mock papers. You can also find expert advice on your language related questions.

Click on the following URL, register and create a free account to learn and have fun.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org

Hope this helps.

How to Use “a” and “an”

We have learnt in our grammar classes that one should use the article “an” before words that start with vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and “a” before words that start with consonants (alphabets other than the vowels). But it is not as simple as it sounds. 

The grammar rule is that you use “a” before words that start with a consonant sound and “an” before words that start with a vowel sound. So it does not depend on how we write a word but on the way we say it.

Therefore it is simple enough when it is

• a cat
• a game
• a human being
• a very tall man
• a pot

and

• an apple
• an extremely good sound
• an interesting snap
• an old man
• an umbrella

However things get complicated when words that start with vowels are spelled with consonant sounds and words that start with consonants are spelled with vowel sounds. Here we have to judge whether to use “a” or “an” on the basis of the sound.

So when a word starts with a vowel letter but spelled with consonant sound you should use "a" as in

• a user (sounds as 'yoo-zer')
• a European (sounds as 'you-ro-pe-an')
• a one-day conference (sounds as 'won-day')

Similarly when a word starts with a consonant letter but spelled with vowel sound you should use "an" as in

• an honest lady (sounds as 'on-est')
• an hour (sounds as 'our')
• an FDI enterprise (sounds as 'eff-dee-eye')

Hope this helps.

A Trivandrumite Prays to Those Who Have Come to Lay a Siege on Secretariat

Dear brothers and sisters,

You have come from many parts of Kerala to lay siege on government Secretariat, for you think the Chief Minister of Kerala should resign and should face judicial enquiry on account of his alleged involvement in the Solar scam. To you all, the brave soldiers of the LDF, this writer, being a Trivandrumite, has a special prayer to make. 

You have come in large numbers and this great city has welcomed you all with enormous goodwill as it had welcomed many a human being from time immemorial. For most of you this city will be a stranger; a place where you have come for a few days after which you will go back to your cities and villages, leaving behind things that you have brought from your home, but would no longer be of any use to you. You have come in vast numbers and it’s a known fact that your political parties have not been able to arrange all facilities for you. But this writer, for the love of his beloved city, prays to you all to keep the city as clean as possible all along your stay in Trivandrum. 

Like most of you, neither the man you want to dethrone, nor the one who have called upon all of you to dethrone him, considers this city his home. But for us, who had the privilege to have born and brought up in this city, who have the pleasure to call this city his/her home, the city of Trivandrum is our soul and heart. This is the city where our parents were born or this is the place they decided later to call their home. This is the city where we were born, this is the city through the pavements of which we took our baby steps and learnt to walk, guided by our parents. This is the city that taught us to dream; this is the city from which we learnt to read and write and gathered our knowledge. This is the city that taught us life and this is the city that taught us to win emphatically and to lose gracefully. This is the city that gave us a lot of friends and brothers and sisters; this is the city that gave us our teachers, who have guided us all through our life. This is the city, though the streets and roads of which we walked alongside our boyfriends and girlfriends, hand in hand, dreaming about a future of togetherness. This is the same city through which we walked around with tears in our eyes thinking about our lost love. This is the city which sowed in us seeds of great thoughts and ideas and this is the city where we learnt how to agree to disagree. This is the city, whose every nook and corner are so familiar to us that we will traverse them as if we are traversing inside our home. This is the same city with many great landmarks that have a proud past and a rich history, about which when we were young our parents had told us with enormous pride and we listened with innocent enthusiasm. This is the city where our fathers have died and where we hope to die one day.

When the government calls in the military and orders them to fire, it is the heart of the city that gets hurt; it is the hearts of those who love this city that bleed. When you throw stones on to the buildings of this city, it is not the glasses that get shattered, it is the hopes and aspirations of the Trivandrumites that get shattered. So this writer, on behalf of his other fellow Trivandrumites, requests you to keep the city as clean as possible, as safe as possible and as destruction-free as possible, for this city may be a temporary shelter for you, but this city is our heart and soul and each and every inch of this city is quite beloved to us.

With lots of prayers,

Your brother.

Subject-Verb Agreement in English

We know the basic principle that singular subjects need singular verbs and plural subjects need plural verbs. Therefore we know,

• My book is new & my books are new.
• My sister reads novels & my sisters read novels.

However all subject-verb agreement principles are not that easy. We will deal with that topic here.

Indefinite pronouns like anyone, everyone, everybody, someone, no one are always singular and they need singular verbs.

•  Someone has left his book here.
• Everyone associated with the project is proud about its successful completion.
• Everybody is here. (Everybody certainly feels like more than one person and hence we may tend to use plural verb, but it is actually singular and hence requires a singular verb)

The subject each is always singular and hence will require a singular verb.

• Each of the employees is responsible for the successful completion of the project.

The verb that follows pronouns such as some and all is determined by whether the pronoun is referring to something COUNTABLE or not. Countable subjects need plural verb and uncountable subjects need singular verb.

• Some of my books are old.
• Some of the grain was ruined by the flood.

(Books are countable hence a plural verb, while grain is not countable hence a singular verb)

None is generally considered singular, but it can also be used as plural pronoun.

• None of the representatives is honest OR none of the representatives are honest.

With fractional and decimal expressions, the verb will be determined by what is being measured – is it COUNTABLE or not.

• Two-fifths of the grain is ruined. (Grain is not countable, hence singular verb)
• One-half of the employees were trustworthy. (Employees is countable, hence a plural verb)

When either and neither appear as a subject alone (without or and nor) they are considered singular, though the subject seems to be two things.

• Neither of these answers appears to be satisfactory.
• My company will offer me extra pay or will allow me to take a compensatory day off. Either is fine with me.

However when either and neither act as correlative conjunctions (that is when they combine two subjects), the subject that is CLOSER TO THE VERB determines whether to use singular or plural form of a verb.

• Neither the principal nor the teachers are at fault (the plural subject teachers is close to the verb, so the plural verb are)
• Neither the teachers nor the principal is at fault (the singular subject principal is close to the verb so the singular verb is)
• Either the members or the leader has to take the responsibility.
• Either the leader or the members have to take the responsibility.

At times many modifiers may come between a subject and its verb, but they must not confuse the agreement between the subject and its verb. For example,

• The leader, though he has not been successful in completing many projects and has not been the favourite of most of the team members, is still in charge of the project.

If your sentence combines a positive subject and a negative subject and one is singular, the other is plural, the verb must agree to the positive subject.

• The teachers of the department but not the principal have decided not to teach on a hartal day.
• It is the speaker, not his words, that has provoked the listeners.