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Saturday, June 7, 2014
Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'The new cabinet ministers should set an example' that was published in Newsband
The new cabinet ministers should
set an example
Prime Minister Narendra Modi single handedly led
Bharatiya Janata Party to a thumping victory in the Lok Sabha election. Hence when the time came to choose the
council of ministers nobody could challenge him. The allies were in no position to ask for prime portfolios, and power
centres within the BJP were no longer powerful enough to question the decisions
of a man credited with leading the party to victory.
Modi chose a leaner and younger team drawn from
across India.
Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, who were
most loyal to him, took their place immediately behind him. Singh got the
powerful Home Ministry and Jaitley was put in charge of not only finance and
corporate affairs but also defence. Sushma Swaraj, who was among the few
dissenting voices in the party, was given charge of the Ministry of External
Affairs. The influence of the RSS in the BJP was evident only in the choice of
Nitin Gadkari.
Thus Modi has done a remarkable job. He has
satisfied RSS, allies, his senior ministers as well as country too. Merging
ministries seems to be a brilliant move as it will bring more accountability
and better control of Modi himself.
Ever since Modi has become Prime Minister, we have
been looking at a somewhat different picture of Modi as compared to what has
been portrayed by the opponents. Immediately after winning he extended out his
friendship to all the neighbouring countries as well as Russia, US, Japan,
China, UK and others.
Only the news that 15 ministers included in cabinet
ranks are those having criminal charges doesn't suit well for Modi.
Given the big majority the Bharatiya Janata Party
can play it safe and sensible to address the various issues on socio-cultural
and economic fronts. The PM has made a good start with a leaner and younger
ministry and by sharing the power portfolios and other ministries between the
BJP and its allies. Only time will tell whether the clubbing of various
ministries is a wise one or not?
The ministers should work with the closest possible
coordination and carry out their duties with consensus of the entire
parliament. The composition of the present Lok Sabha offers a unique
opportunity to conduct the proceedings peacefully and productively with decent
debates and conduct of the elected representatives and to set up the finest
example in parliamentary democracy. Ministers should issue statements outside
the parliament, leaving no scope for retraction or further explanations that
their statements were misinterpreted or they were misquoted. So here is an
opportunity for the new cabinet to set an example for the future
parliamentarians.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Is the govt really serious about unearthing black money?' that was published in Newsband
Is the govt really serious about
unearthing black money?
Narendra Modi’s government has appointed a Special
Investigation Team (SIT) to unearth black money stashed away in tax havens
abroad.
The previous government was not serious
about retrieving ill-gotten wealth deposited abroad.
SIT’s primary responsibilities include the
investigation and prosecution of cases involving unaccounted money. It should
be borne in mind that a significant chunk of the illicit assets stashed abroad
may already have been laundered and round-tripped back to India as legitimate money. In some cases though
the corrupt official/politician moves to a foreign destination to reside -
London being a preferred one - but in other cases, the corrupt individual
chooses to remain and use it in India, after the laundering.
Government of India needs unaccounted money. SIT
should find out any unaccounted money and government should immediately bring
them and put it in National development fund for creating infrastructure of
roads, waterways, railways, ports, dams, canals, hydroelectric power plants,
atomic power plants that will lead to prosperity of the country.
SITs of various stripes have come and gone but have
little lasting effect to show. SITs and commissions are made after every riot,
every incident that captures the public imagination and every scandal. And in
the context of confiscation of black money, when politicians constitute a
committee to enquire into stolen assets, that is akin to asking the fox to look
after the chickens.
Indeed it is bold step towards bringing black money
to India. There are enormous hurdles underneath. At the outset, SIT must come
to know about places and sectors where black money is invested in foreign
country. It is very difficult task to achieve. It has to get the cooperation of foreign
countries in revealing the registered bank accounts.
This could be a futile endeavour done merely to
convince a gullible public that something is being done to recover black money.
Going by the experience of other countries which have tried to recover illicit
assets, the cost of trying to recover these assets will often be a lot more
than the value of the assets recovered. Few depositors deposit in their own
names but rely instead on a complex web of offshore companies and untraceable
nominees behind which they hide their assets. Tracing these assets, freezing
them, confiscating and then repatriating them back to India will entail
significant costs and need an honest, skilled and competent bureaucracy to do
so. Whether such a bureaucracy exists in India is one question. But a more
relevant question is whether black money, the very oxygen of Indian politicians
will be allowed by politicians and their crony capitalist backers to be
recovered.
Thus it is not clear
whether the government, by appointing SIT, is really serious about unearthing
black money. Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movies to get released in Navi Mumbai’ (Filmistaan, Holiday, Edge of Tomorrow and The World Before Her) that was published in Newsband.
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New movies to get released in
Navi Mumbai
By Dinesh Kamath
Filmistaan
Filmistaan is a 2013
Indian film written and directed by Nitin
Kakkar.
The movie has an
interesting plot. In Mumbai, affable Bollywood buff and wanna-be-actor Sunny, who works as an assistant
director, fantasizes on becoming a heart-throb star. However, at every audition
he is summarily thrown out. Undeterred, he goes with an American crew to remote
areas in Rajasthan to work on a documentary. One day an Islamic terrorist group
kidnaps him for the American crew-member. Sunny
finds himself on enemy border amidst guns and pathani-clad guards, who decide
to keep him hostage until they locate their original target. The house in which
he is confined belongs to a Pakistani, whose trade stems from pirated Hindi
films, which he brings back every time he crosses the border. Soon, the two
factions realize that they share a human and cultural bond. The film shows how
cinema can be the universal panacea for co-existence.
The film has Sharib Hashmi as Sunny, Inaamulhaq as Aftaab, Kumud Mishra as Mehmood
and Gopal Dutt as Jawwad
Holiday
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Holiday: A
Soldier Is Never Off Duty is a Bollywood action thriller film
written and directed by A.R. Murugadoss,
and produced by Vipul Shah. It
features Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead roles, along
with Govinda in a supporting role.
It is a remake of the 2012 Tamil film Thuppakki.
What's the movie
about? Captain Virat Bakshi, an army
man comes back home to Mumbai for his holidays. His family takes him to see a
bride, and he feels the girl is too soft and an introvert. Later in another occasion,
he finds out that she is actually a boxer and is surprised by her personality.
Having a police man friend, and the love he develops for this girl, the film
revolves around the fun that happens among the three, until at one point, an
anti social activity in the heart of Mumbai city gets him involved into
something huge.
Virat Bakshi being a patriot and a special agent in
the Indian Army, is dragged into a huge network of terrorism. The rest of the
story is about him fighting against the wittiest of Terror head, and how he
swipes out the city of Mumbai from Sleeper cells. The film ends with a
dedication to the Indian Army.
The film has Akshay Kumar as Virat Bakshi, Captain in D.I.A., a wing of Indian Army, Sonakshi Sinha as Saiba, a boxer, Govinda
as Virat Bakshi's Senior Commanding
Officer, Sumeet Raghavan as Virat's friend also an Inspector, Mumbai
Police, Freddy Daruwala as the
leader of the sleeper cells, Gireesh
Sahedev and Zakir Hussain.
Pritam collaborated with A. R. Murugadoss for the songs of this film. Lyrics penned by Irshad Kamil. The film has songs like Tu Hi To Hai sung by Benny Dayal, Aaj Dil Shayrana by Arijit
Singh, Blame The Night by Arijit Singh, Aditi Singh Sharma and Piyush Kapoor, Palang Tod Ke by Mika Singh
and Ritu Pathak, Tuhi Toh Hain by Kunal Ganjawala, Ashq Na Ho
by Arijit Singh and Palang Tod Ke by Mika Singh and Ritu Pathak
Edge of Tomorrow
Edge of Tomorrow is a 2014
science fiction film starring Tom Cruise
and Emily Blunt. The US-backed
production is directed by Doug Liman.
It is based on the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.
Major William Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is
unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within
minutes, Cage now finds himself
inexplicably thrown into a time loop — forcing him to live out the same brutal
combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again.
But with each
battle, Cage becomes able to engage
the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each
repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
The World Before Her
The World Before
Her
is a Canadian documentary film, released in 2012. Written and directed by Nisha Pahuja, the film explores the
complex and conflicting environment for young girls in India by profiling two
young women participating in two very different types of training camp — Ruhi Singh, who aspires to become Miss
India, and Prachi Trivedi, a militant
Hindu nationalist with the Durga Vahini.
The World Before
Her
— her third film, after Diamond Road and Bollywood
Bound — dives deep into two Indian subcultures that outsiders may not
know, and the questions about both came fast and furious from fascinated viewers
who wanted to know more about each side of the story. Half of the film goes
behind the scenes at the 2011 Miss India beauty pageant, where contestants
participate in a 30-day beauty boot camp. The focus is on polish, poise, and
grooming, but Pahuja speaks to some
of the contestants — particularly Ruhi
Singh, whose parents are unusually devoted and supportive, and Ankita Shorey, the eventual winner — about
how the seemingly superficial contest represents a rare chance for a woman in
India to have a voice, a place in society, and earning power equal to a man’s.
The other half
of the documentary follows Prachi
Trivedi, a leader at a religious fundamentalist camp, which trains young
girls in physical skills and gun use, and teaches them about the Durga Vahini’s militant Hindu beliefs. Pahuja catches prepubescent girls,
caught up in the fervor of their teachings, talking about their desire to kill
Muslims who disrespect Hinduism, and “slit the throats” of anyone who tries to
claim Kashmir from India. But she spends more time at home with Prachi, a woman in her early 20s who has
found purpose and self-respect as a camp leader, after finding none at home
with her father, a traditionalist who repeatedly says her purpose is to get
married and make babies. In the movie’s most chilling sequence, he calmly
describes disciplining her by burning her feet with a red-hot iron rod;
meanwhile, Prachi smiles on the
sidelines, checking her foot for the scar.
The World Before
Her
is full of such startling moments, but Pahuja’s
greatest accomplishment is in the way she finds parallels between two Indian
movements that have open contempt for each other — one traditionalist and
nationalistic, one openly Westernized — that both rely on disenfranchised young
women looking for power and an identity in a modern India where girl children
are still regularly aborted to make way for sons.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Work well begun is half done' that was published in Newsband
Work well begun is half done
The new government under Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has done a great job in the matter of selecting priority areas and fixing
deadlines to meet targets. But drawing
up plans is always the easy part. The
main challenge is implementation.
The PM has instructed his Cabinet colleagues to
respond promptly to representations from Chief Ministers, to take the views of
Members of Parliament seriously, and to involve Ministers of State in
decision-making.
At present, Modi’s party has a majority
of its own at the Centre and only a few States under its control. But Modi has succeeded in forming good relations
with States ruled by rival political parties by not concentrating all power at
the Centre. Modi realizes that decentralisation
and transparency go together, and are integral to good governance. He had learnt this from his experience as
Chief Minister of Gujarat.
One should appreciate the ten-point charter of the
new government that includes growth, education, energy, infrastructure and
price control that covers all important sectors. It is left to be seen as to how
the charter will be implemented in the days to come.
People of India have selected Modi for the top job
of country because of his good governance and development record in Gujarat. He
is well aware of nitty-gritty of running government. There is no doubt that
running government at center is totally a different ball game than running a
state government. In state CM could form/fold/implement any policy which is
required for the development of that particular state. However, to achieve the
same at the national level consent of all the states is required.
Modi is known to convert the obstacles in to
opportunities, if his past is any indication. One more plus point of this
government is that there are no more coalition compulsions and high command
directions. A fresh government with innovative ideas is always welcome.
India is world’s most diverse and complex country
and has world’s largest number of poor people. This makes the responsibility of
the new Indian central government really herculean. The real challenge for Modi
– who critics call sectarian and divisive – lies in ensuring inclusive growth
that reduces inequality and generates high-quality jobs for all, including
minorities and marginalized populations. Will he be able to achieve this goal?
Anyway, Modi and his party have begun well. There is
no doubt about that. And work well begun is half done.
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