Friday, June 26, 2015

Palanquin



What Modi wave? BJP may find it difficult to take on Nitish-Lalu combine in Bihar
Over the last few weeks, politics in election-bound Bihar has taken an interesting turn. One moment, it appears that the BJP is at an advantage, the next as if the party is far from sweeping that state. ..... the issue of leadership remains a major problem for the BJP. The prime worry within the saffron camp is that it does not have a leader to match the stature of Nitish. The lone prominent face with the state BJP is Sushil Kumar Modi, former deputy chief minister but a large section does not support him ....... A dominant section within the BJP wants someone from the Bhumihar community to be projected as the CM candidate. Former minister CP Thakur remains an obvious choice but the problem with the BJP is that if its tries to go with him, the OBC and Dalit voters may turn against the party. ....... the brand value of Nitish who was a no nonsense leader and would discuss only serious matters. ...... Nitish obviously had emerged as the “giant killer” but in the last 2010 polls, he created history when the NDA under him got a massive three-fourth mandate—restricting the opposition to just 37 seats. ...... There is also the possibility of Muslim voters completely dumping the BJP. In the last Lok Sabha polls, some Muslim votes had gone to the BJP but post the alliance between Lalu and Nitish, Muslim voters look more united than ever before. In all likelihood, a strong 16 percent of Muslim votes will go en-bock to the Janata Parivar. But a great relief for the BJP is that the Yadavs, who constitute about 15 percent of the state population, are annoyed with Lalu for accepting Nitish’s leadership and will, in all likelihood, switch over to the saffron camp. Also, a huge chunk of Dalit voters which comprise about 23 percent has now broken ties with the JD-U and will head towards the party where their leader Jitan Ram Manjhi goes.
Bihar: Lalu-Nitish's Janta Parivar may find it difficult to handle Pappu Yadav
Dalits account for some 23 percent of the state’s total population whereas Yadavs’ share is 15 percent. Experts say if Pappu is able to cause a split in the Yadav vote bank, then the Janata Parivar is bound to suffer serious setbacks. ...... Lalu now can’t say with certainty that he commands holds over his fellow caste men. This is underlined from the fact that all the four Yadav candidates fielded by the BJP, such as Ram Kripal Yadav (Paltriputra), Om Prakash Yadav (Siwan), Nityanand Rai (Ujiarpur) and Hukum Deo Marayan Yadav (Madhubani) emerged victorious in the LS polls, defeating none others than the RJD candidates.
Quake rumour triggers panic; half of Patna's residents spend night in the open
The panic was apparently triggered by a WhatsApp message reportedly shared by a former legislator from Narpatganj in Araria which went viral on the social media. The message quoting the meteorological department, Chhatisgarh, said an earthquake of high magnitude with 13.4 on the Richter scale will hit Bihar twice during the night—first between 10.36 pm and 11.47 pm and next between 1.42 am and 2.20 am. It asked the masses to share it with a maximum number of people and take precautionary step...... As all efforts to send them back to their homes failed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar eventually made rounds of various city parks and asked them not to worry saying the government was with them. He even directed the police to keep a constant vigil on the citizens taking shelter in the parks and the open ground and take care of their safety. In fact, Nitish had gone to Delhi to attend a meeting over merger of the six parties but he cancelled all his programmes and returned to Patna on Saturday afternoon after coming to know about the high intensity quake hitting the state.
'Does Modi do yoga?' asks incredulous Vladimir Putin
"He is a good man, and a personal friend," Putin said in reply to questions from visiting wire service reporters from around the world
Believe it or not, Lalit Modi is the best thing to have happened to Indian politics
Lalit Modi has rocked the cozy back-scratching political world by proving that it’s just as dangerous to be Lalit Modi’s best friend as it is to be Lalit Modi’s ex-friend. He is an equal opportunity destroyer. ...... Lalit Modi is the antithesis of Anna Hazare with his Armani suits, his Rambagh Palace suites and jetsetting exile in London and Ibiza and Montenegro. But unlike Anna, he is a consummate insider. And when an insider explodes, the shit hits the fan. ..... that Modi is now being called the BJP’s Robert Vadra proves that Rahul Gandhi is fighting with one hand tied behind his back. ..... The way to mega-success in India is more often than not greased by the same things Lalit Modi accumulated – friends in high places, favours for friends in high places, favours by friends in high places. ..... Lalit Modi, the BCCI alleged that Modi “manipulated due process, handed out favours, ran the IPL for the benefit of a coterie of family and friends ....... Stories abound about how he used his proximity to Vasundhara Raje during her first term as chief minister to great advantage earning himself the title of “Super Chief Minister” operating out of an opulent suite at Rambagh Palace. ....... how Modi would brag “That was P Chidambaram on the phone, begging me to keep the IPL in India. I told him nothing doing.” And then predicted it would cost the Congress 75 seats. ..... As a student at Duke University in the US, Modi had been charged with drug trafficking, kidnapping and assault after a cocaine deal went wrong. But he managed to come back to India in the middle of his probation pleading ill-health. Perhaps that instilled in him an unshakeable conviction that he can fix anything and eventually come out on top. And that gives him the chutzpah now to burn his bridges because he’s sure that in the end it will all work out for him. ....... That might explain why the man who became powerful by name-dropping is now obsessed with name-bombing instead, damning Vasundhara Raje by revealing stories about her kindness to his cancer-stricken wife. That is an Et tu Brute move that requires serious chutzpah. But then this is the man who thinks nothing of summoning India's top journalists to Montenegro where he is on vacation while a political crisis with him at its centre rocks India. ....... Lalit Modi might end up as a red-corner-notice bhagoda today

डिग्री ना होना बुरी बात नहीं

It is not about what degree you have or do not have, it is what you accomplish or do not accomplish. Judge Smriti Irani on her work since she took office. भाड़ में जाए डिग्री ---- वो तो मोदी के पास भी नहीं ---- अमीर खान भी बगैर डिग्री के ही घुम रहे हैं। बिल गेट्स भी तो। लेकिन PK को देखो, दुनिया भर में वर्ल्ड रिकॉर्ड कायम किया।



Trouble for HRD Minister Smriti Irani: Delhi court to hear complaint over her degrees on 28 August
Smriti Irani's degrees should be probed: PM Modi's brother

Long Live The Roti?

हिन्दी: देश के उप राष्ट्रपति मोहम्मद हामिद अंस...
हिन्दी: देश के उप राष्ट्रपति मोहम्मद हामिद अंसारी पटना में पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री सत्येन्द्र नारायण सिन्हा(छोटे साहब) की 94वीं जयंती पर आयोजित व्याख्यानमाला श्रंखला पर पूर्व सांसद किशोरी सिन्हा और मुख्यमंत्री नीतीश कुमार के साथ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Bihar: BJP’s Mission 185 under threat as allies fight over seat sharing
The top leadership of the party is taken by surprise by the aggression being displayed by junior NDA allies with only marginal presence in the state. They have stopped being docile and it does not augur well for the BJP which is caught in its own low intensity conflicts over leadership. Poor handling of the situation could rip apart the umbrella alliance of caste-based outfits, rendering the NDA weak against the combined might of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar........ As if offering himself as the NDA’s chief minister candidate was not enough, Upendra Kushwaha, leader of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), has even come up with a formula for distribution seats among the allies. As per his formula, BJP should contest on 102 seats—the number of seats it had been spared by the JD(U) while both were parts of the NDA, 74 seats should be allotted to the LJP whereas the remaining 67 seats should go to his party. He even suggested that all the three partners should spare seats in a proportionate way in case Jitan Ram Manjhi becomes parts of the NDA. .... Kushwaha, a creation of Nitish Kumar ..... the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) headed by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan too is trying to extract its pound of flesh from the BJP. The party with no legislator in the Bihar assembly has announced that it would oppose five candidates from Manjhi’s party ....... LJP, which corners five percent of votes on an average, is scared that Manjhi may emerge as a taller Dalit leader than him. Manjhi represents some 23 percent of Mahadalit population comprising 23 sub-castes of Dalits but he too remains to be tested as his newly-formed Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) is yet to join any election. Manjhi formed the HAM shortly after his rebellion against Nitish in February this year. ...... Right now Manjhi and Paswan, two coalition partners of the BJP, are now engaged in bitter verbal duels on the streets much to the merriment of the grand secular alliance. While the LJP has declared to oppose HAM candidates, Manjhi has dared Paswan to do that ....... Past records show that the BJP has grown up in Bihar more due to bitter rivalries among various splinter groups of the Janata family than its own strength. The party, which enjoys its support primarily among the upper castes and the Bania community, banked on the support of either Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United) or the LJP for its success. This is the first time in 20 years that it will be facing a united Janata family comprising Nitish and Lalu with the Congress and the NCP on their side.
Infographic: Here's how much our MPs lunch is subsidised
items like 'puri sabji' being sold at 88 percent subsidised rates

India: Is The Private Sector Being A Drag?

Share of financial sector in gross domestic pr...
Share of financial sector in gross domestic product 1860 to 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
मोदी तो अपना काम कर रहे हैं। ढेर सारा FDI देश में ला रहे हैं। Infrastructure का काम तेजी से हो रहा है। प्राइवेट सेक्टर को क्या चाहिए?
  • Simplified Land Acquisition बहुत जरुरी है। 
  • Hiring and Firing should be a simple process. Entrepreneurship is not a government job scheme. 
  • FDI चाहिए और बहुत चाहिए। 
  • भारत के financial markets में तो कोइ त्रुटि नहीं? मेरेको उतना knowledge नहीं। मैं सिर्फ पुछ रहा हुँ। 
  • You need a well educated and healthy population. वो प्राइवेट सेक्टर की जिम्मेवारी नहीं। 
तो लैंड acquisition के बात पर तो विपक्ष वाले टांग अड़ाए हुवे हैं। उसी तरह labor mobility पर भी तो। उसके अलावे मेरी instincts कह रही है कुछ fundamental financial sector reforms की जरुरत हो सकती है। Bad loans are a bad idea. Corrupt governments tend to accumulate a lot of them. Big banks with lots and lots of bad loans accumulated through crony capitalism tend to be a major drag on the economy overall. The policy framework should encourage the create of small, agile, numerous financial institutions. Maybe there are banks that are too big and should be broken up into smaller pieces through policy initiatives. Market competitiveness has to be maintained in the financial sector, and that is the government's responsibility. 

But I have been impressed with people like Adani and Ambani being able to tap into the global financial markets for some pretty large scale cheap loans. Bond markets में आप को ५% पर बिलियन के बिलियन डॉलर मिल जाते हैं। वो तो सस्ता हुवा। And unless you have a healthy company you can't get those loans. So they must be maintaining strong fundamentals inside their corporate environments. 

और कुछ फैक्टर्स हैं जो काबु के बाहर होते हैं ------ जैसे कि oil prices या फिर मॉनसून।

Bankruptcy laws भी कैसे हैं? It should be easy to launch companies, it should be easy to run companies, and it should be easy to bury companies. कि मैंने प्रयास किया लेकिन नहीं हुवा। When your company goes bankrupt, after that you don't owe anyone anything. And that is fundamental to capitalism. The number one aspect of the Silicon Valley culture is that there failure is celebrated.

Private sector को किस किस्मका policy reforms चाहिए ओ तो private sector को आगे आ के कहना होगा। किस किस्मका policy framework चाहिए। Entrepreneurs create jobs, they should be part of the policy making conversation. They should have a seat at the table. They should not have the only seat at the table. But their not having a seat at the table also is a problem.

Why Economists See PM Modi's Second Year as More Challenging
Domestic companies have posted disappointing earnings for the March quarter that does not match the upbeat headline GDP figure. Industrial production is at five-month low, exports are declining for five months in a row and bank credit offtake remains at two-decade lows.

नीतिश और लालु को अनुशासन दिखानी होगी

First President of India Deshratna Dr Rajendra...
First President of India Deshratna Dr Rajendra Prasad,Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru & Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Dr Anugrah Narayan Sinha at Anugrah babu's residence in Patna(Bihar) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(Sitting L to R)Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Na...
(Sitting L to R)Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha during Mahatama Gandhi's 1917 Champaran Satyagraha (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Bihar Districts
English: Bihar Districts (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
"उड़ती चिड़िया को हल्दी लगाती है बिहार का वोटर!"
---- श्री लालु प्रसाद यादव

नीतिश और लालु को अनुशासन दिखानी होगी। अभी देश में सिर्फ thoughtful Opposition के लिए जगह है। जब तक देश में गरीबी है। नहीं तो मैं चाहुँगा मोदी को राज्य सभा में भी बहुमत मिल जाए।

३०-७० पर थे दोनों जब झगड़ रहे थे। झगड़ा खत्म हुवा तो ४५-५५ पर आए। Bihar@2025 कहा तो ५५-४५ पर आए। बीजेपी कैम्प में झगड़ा शुरू हुवा तो इनका पलड़ा भारी पड़ा, ये ६५-३५ पर पहुँच गए। लेकिन अभी समय है, बीजेपी वाले वो झगड़ा सुलह कर लेते हैं और जितन और पप्पु को भी साथ ले लेते हैं तो फिर ५५-४५ पर शायद आ जाएँ।

Bihar@2025 is key. वो मैसेज जितना बुलन्द रहेगा नीतिश की स्थिति उतनी ही मजबुत है।

लेकिन ग्रोथ रेट को hurt करने वाला कोइ काम ना करें। गरीबी को कब तक कायम रखे रहिएगा?