INFLATION AND GROWTH

Inflation in India is likely to reach the level of 1979 when it was more than 16 percent. Some of the government functionaries say it is due to population growth while others think it is a symptom of vibrant economy. Still others think we Indians eat too much but the bellies have remained as they are. Indeed, inflation is a result of mismanagement, corruption and greed. Yashwant Sinha in a debate in Parliament had claimed that food inflation can be brought down in a single day. It is understandable because millions of tons of food grains are rotting in the go dawns and millions of people are starving. Why do the government purchase if they are unable to preserve. Situation of mismanagement in other items may not be different.

Recently they increased petrol prices and tried to explain away that petrol is decontrolled. But, who decontrolled petrol, none other than the government. International price rise cannot be blamed for the hike in India because situation outside is not that bad.

Basic necessities of human beings namely food, shelter, clothes, medicine and education are going beyond the reach of common man. Inflation hurts everyone except those who have the cushion of black money.

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

Notwithstanding the derogatory terminology being used by the government against Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, the fight against corruption is taking a definite shape and the present outfit working as government will have to go sooner than later. The terminology is not new them, they mastered the phrases during Seventies against Loknayak Jai Prakash Narain. History repeats itself, historians say. Let us hope and pray that history of the ouster of corrupt, dictatorial regime will be repeated but the history of the selfish leaders of the Janta Party withering away will not be repeated. The outfit that was ousted by the masses had to be brought back by the same masses.

The Nation is solidly standing behind Anna on the issue of fight against corruption and one can see writings on the wall that this is beginning of the end of the corrupt government. But What Next? Will the other set of disgruntled, selfish politicians take over from the present UPA government? Anna and Ramdev have not created an alternative, honest, non-political set up to take charge of the affairs of the country. If they think, using Janlokpal, it will be possible to make these old dirty hands rather pure and clean, it is naive idea. Let us hope they have this aspect in mind !!!

OSAMA MUST BE SMILING IN HEAVEN

Osama Ji was peacefully living there, said Digvijay Singh, the general secretay of the Congress Party of India. Only naive would agree that it was a sarcastic remark from the man who showed so much sympathy with the accused of Batala House incident in Delhi. Rahul Gandhi says 99% of terrorist attacks have been stopped, all of them cannot be stopped, he says. And, what percentage of train accidents, corruption, day light murders, rape and above all the intelligence failures have been stopped?

When NDA people talk to biriyani being served to terrorists in the Hazarat Bal Monsque, the Congress people retort that a sinior Minister of NDA government escorted Maulana Masood Azahar to Kandhar. What a justification. Guilty-guilty bhai bhai. Osama must be smiling for different reasons. The government of India is unable to prepare an accurate list of terrorists living in Pakistan and makes itself a laughing stock, it is unable to implement the court orders in case of terrorists convicted for life and most important that terrorists can outwit intelligence agencies as our Home Minister says there was no intelligence input for the Mumbai attack.

Another reason for satisfaction to Osama must be the utterences of many important people that harsh laws against terrorism are undesirable, that human rights of terrorists must not be violated, that terrorists come only from across the border and there are none in India, that SIMI people are only as much terrorists as the RSS people and so on. The poor people, both Hindus and Muslims are suffering from terrorist attacks because of these friends of Osama in the ruling party. The ruling party is under illusion that Muslims of India will feel good if care is shown to terrorists who happen to be Muslims. Time will tell.

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS

A single train accident near Bharuch in Gujratr had moved Lal Bahadur Shastri to the extent that he instantly resigned. Value system has changed and resignation of present day railway minister, one would say, may not be a solution of Kalka Express or a remedial measure for the future accidents. But what is the solution?

Railways have been and continue to be the means of travel for those who are constrained to care for money. Lalu Yadav as Railway Minister introdued the concept of profit through gimmicks. Modernization of railways and training to railway personnel occupied back benches. As a result, these days most accidents are either due to so called human errors or due to failure of tracks and trains. The accident during Shastri Ji's time was due to stubborn attitude of passengers.

Much later when Babu Jagjivan Ram became Railway Minister, there were a few accidents and Atal Ji in his style had said a passenger while boarding the train says good bye to 'Jag' after he is in the coach becomes concerned about 'Jivan' and thereafter he says 'Ram' ie when accident takes place. Believe me, the accidents were neither as frequent nor as severe. Present day minister and government is insensitive to human life and they think 5 Lakh is good enough to compensate a human life.What a shame !!

NAXALITES ARE NOT BORN

I am too old to seek justice through direct action but I do get agitated when I see injustice and anarchy all around. The other day dozens of Dalits of my millage Kunaura were helplessly watching when the land they were tilling for decades was ploughed by powerful moneyed man using four tractors.Police was there but not to protect the Dalits but to support the cause of moneyed man. The only fault of the fathers and forefathers of poor Dalits is that they could not get the land transferred to their names from the erstwhile zamidar and the present day wealthy people have claimed the land for themselves. Should the land not have been automatically transferred by government machinery to Dalits' names if they had been occupying and cultivating it for decades? In another case the land of a Dalit was sold somehow to a Savarn who managed to get the title transferred to his name. The Dalit it is said has run gone away to Bihar. The purchaser has now sold the land to another non-Dalit with huge profit. All this could not be possible without connaivance of revenue officers and personnel. Similarly dozens of poor OBC's and Savarn have been tilling the zamidar's land for decades but the government machinery retained zamidars' names in all these cases and some day some muscle man pretinding to be a zamidar would sell the land and poor tillers would have no choice but to cry and sit back.In this age of Dalit loving governments it is possible to oust Dalits and poor non-Dalits may be from their houses and fields. In such circumstances, is there a way to get justice except to join Naxalites and seek justice through direct action? There are other instances but who cares.

RAMDEV AGAIN

Baba Ramdev is heading towards Delhi today, this time to see his injured disciple Rajbala who is recuberating in the G.B.Pant Hospital. He will be wise not to adopt provocative posture at this moment. In the press conference he may explain the circumstances under which his followers were forced to leave in the midnight and he was deported out of Delhi. But, the incident is under the scanner of the Honourable Supreme Court and All should wait for the verdict.

Baba had gained huge popularity for application of yoga in the eradication of physical ailments, a tangible and demonstrable goal, before the incident of June, 4, 2011. His concern for eradication of National ailment of corruption is loudable but as Anna Hazare has aptly described, Baba does not have skill and expertise to handle Satyagrah. Let Anna Hazare handle the Satyagrah and Baba confine himself to yoga, his domain of expertise. RSS, BJP and all the rest can give a helping hand to Anna Hazare as they did to Jai Prakash Narain in Seventies and to V.P.Singh in Eightees of the last Century. Let the Lok Pal as a government agency find out the list of those having black money in the foreign banks and publish the list on the internet. Lok Pal can do no more in the international matters. Nation is watching what comes out of the agitations called Satyagrah. They should not go waste.

SHADOW OF WATER CRISIS LOOMS LARGE

Depleting groundwater and dry ponds in the country side indicate horrifying prospect. Yet, the politicians have no time to think of the thirsty poor. In my village and surrounding areas until a few decades ago, the surface water was effectively used for irrigation, fisheries and cattle use and underground water for drinking purposes. Now the entire pressure of water consumption is shifted to underground water. As a result there is alarming drop in the level of groundwater year after year. Some people believe that the third World War will be for water.

To understand the management of water, we need to have some idea of 'Water Cycle'. The sea water that evaporates to form clouds is condensed as rainwater that falls on the surface of earth. A small part of the rainwater goes under ground to form groundwater and is stored there for future need. The ground water is filtered through permeable rocks and is clean enough for human consumption. The other part of rainwater is stored as surface water in the ponds, lakes and reservoirs. The surface water is suitable for use in irrigation, horticulture, fisheries, industries and cattle consumption.

Recently I visited many villages in the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki and Sitapur and found that the village ponds are filled with wild grasses, hyacinth (jalkumbhi), humus and mud. Several of the old ponds are converted even to residential areas. Millions of rupees spent through NAREGA and MANREGA, have not increased water storage capacity of village ponds. Needless to say, the harvesting of rainwater in these ponds, not the drops of water from roof tops would solve our problem of water scarcity.

Natural storage of rainwater, among other things, has pre-requisite of optimum forest cover and thick vegetation If the ground is covered with thick vegetation, forests and soil cover, the flow of rain water will be slow and time allowed for down percolation of water will be more. Large quantities of water will be stored on the surface as well as under ground. However, if the ground is bald and barren, the run off will be fast leaving little time for rain water to go under ground or to be soaked in the soil.

We need to have 'Water Use Policy ' based on sustainable water supply. We used to have one or more ponds in every village with controlling bodies for management of surface water, something like ‘Pani Panchayats’ Successive Governments of Independent India have overlooked the traditional wisdom of our country.

. Greedy vote catchers provide subsidised and even free electricity to farmers to drive them towards tube wells for irrigation and fisheries. The ground water is pumped out to fill the ponds made by digging agricultural lands.. The Governments encourage such ventures of fisheries by providing financial assistance and grants to influential people.

Economy in consumption of water is an integral part of water management. Indeed, the proper management of surface water is key to the solutions of future challenges of depleting water resource.