Saturday, September 24, 2011

Law of the land

State owned public transport bus talks about footboard travel as a punishable crime. Similar is the case with Railways. However reality is that there are inadequate buses and trains. So people have no other option but to travel on footboard.

And years ago there was a railway official who stopped operation of new trains in Tambaram-Chengelpet section which were announced in the budget citing that only recently they increased the number of cars. Still at peak hours footboard travel is inevitable in this section.

Any vehicle can be stopped by policeman asking for vehicle documents. In most cases while some flee the scene without stopping for the policemen its those who are law abiding take time to show all the documents and then get clearance before proceeding further.

Day before yesterday the signal was already at red and a traffic policeman was stopping vehicles, a black scooter unmindful of both these just proceeded when I was waiting to walk across the road. Instead of stopping/chasing such people, policeman resorted to asking documents for vehicles that stopped.

Who is to be punished - is it really the people ? As per law more punishment is to be given to the one who forces others to commit a mistake. Going by this for each individual who is traveling on footboard during peak hours shouldnt such officials be caught and punished/fined.

Another policeman in un-uniform (or at least thats what I had to assume seeing the traffic policeman salute the person on the vehicle) who right royally comes through a one way. Its ok if he is urgently chasing a criminal but very often I see this when such privileged people enter the nearby police station and wonder who gave this guy the power not to abide by the law of the land.

Cant we create an environment where good acts are encouraged and its the people who commit mistakes have to bear the brunt.

What is the government doing for loyal tax payers ? Instead of encouraging them, they introduced VDIS to regularize the people who did not pay a single pie as tax. They are talking about Aadhar cards to properly distribute the tax money to the people citing inefficiency in the system. When there has been so much inefficiency in the system why till now we have been promptly collecting taxes and filling the treasuries of some rich people.

British rule encouraged people who supported British and were ready to work against their own people. It is at this stage most of our current official machinery was built which continues to be a pain in the neck for the good people. Long after they were gone still there is opposition in the country to do any good to the people.

Centuries ago in monarchy, people who were brave were serving the Kings but what is the fate of people who are brave and question the system today ? Just a quick reality check - Can I ask the policeman who crossed right royally on why he did not abide by the rules ?

Recently Arundati Roy wrote in "The Hindu" about foreign conspiracy in the anti-corruption campaign but I wonder when there are millions in the country and outside who are interested in seeing India corruption free what is her problem ?

In fact this happens very often - The same incident is reported by media from quite opposite directions. This is all the more true in case of Tamil Nadu where political parties have their own television channels airing perspectives that are beneficial to their party. So where is the discussion of paid news channels when already something similar is in place which works for select people's benefit. Isnt media confusing people ?

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Thursday, September 01, 2011

Which is top economy in the world

I hope a lot of hands will raise when this question is asked..

Lets go back a bit - at the dawn of 18th century country was the top economy in the world - China. Its coming back on top. All the best..

In 17the century...


Surprisingly it was India.

I happened to read this economic history of India which unraveled this fact
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India

What kind of structure was there then ? There were a lot of traders and trade unions in India which were quite autonomous and not under the control of governments as was the model adopted by the West. Even today we follow the strict norms for business that were there during British Colonial rule to stop India from growing.

What was the basis of British economy ? British took all the land taxes (valued at more than 40 billion pounds) and cotton from Bengal and returned them as clothing back go India. They imposed heavy taxes on local clothing from being sold. They killed many people in that - this can also be seen in the film on Gandhi.

Surprisingly wikipedia also talks about 1777 when India faced a harsh famine and East India company took all the money out to wage war with Napolean and 5% of the population in India died due to this negligence. Thats a cold blooded massacre of innocent lives.

At the dawn of 20th century, group of countries declared themselves as superior currency countries and anybody who trades with them will be subjected to undue financial stress. Is there any fairness ?

I am not sure why such vital points are missing in history books in India which only projects things such British introduced Railways.

But time and again my mind revolves around one thought - what if guns were not discovered..

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