Major Gogoi Case - Why are we taking a back foot?

This debate over Major Gogoi, I am not at all happy. Is this what we patriotic Indians are supposed to indulge in? The most important thing we are missing in this is, those who are questioning the Major are angry that the Major hasn’t opened fire, killing at least 500. Had the 500 been killed, the outrage would have been massive and they will, finally, succeed in diverting the attention of the world towards the funded movement in the state of Jammu and Ladakh. The Chief of Army’s personal intention in this case is an indication how precarious the Major’s position has turned. What exactly did we do wrong here? What are the open issues regarding this?
1. No one is questioning those questioning the acts of the Major why they are interested in the deaths of at least 500 Kashmiris. How exactly are they getting benefitted?
2. Why was a voice given to the yob forced to grace the bonnet? Army should have taken him to Delhi and forced a medal around his neck, in gratitude for the service he provided to Indian Army in saving the lives of many. Punishment will come, say, like a government job in Abujmad or Nagaland.
3. This happened, fine. Why are we giving the mercenaries a voice in mainstream media? Why are we allowing them, first of all, to present their views? All those who are spewing venom on mainstream media should be voluntarily boycotted by everyone.
4. What sort of action is being taken on those people spewing venom online, on mainstream media and elsewhere? These are recorded statements and should be used to charge them.
5. The biggest question is not even that. An FIR is filed against the Major and J&L govt is humming and hawing to take back the case. If he is a soldier and if he is under the jurisdiction of Indian Army, why is the power to file FIR given to a state government? The case should have been filed by the Army police and investigated. As a byproduct, does this also mean J&L govt can order his presence under his jurisdiction till the case is not settled? Is this not against the national interests?
At least now, I think we need to come up with a concerted attempt to sort this issue out. We need the government to be creative like this Army Officer. This is a festering wound which needs to be urgently taken down.

Economic Offenders - What’s the Solution?

SBI was supposed to file detention orders on Monday. Vijay Mallya escaped the country on Saturday and rejected all summons. ED & CBI raids are going on against Karthi Chidambaram. He scooted away out of the country while the raids were going on. These are but names. There are many such - some relative of Adani, the one who bought Peerless(he was caught fleeing, relieveingly), Lalit Modi and many such.
There are a few serious issues regarding this.
1. How did they get the opportunity to run away from the country?
2. Why are the charges that strong enough for them to have a second thought before committing the escape act?
Let’s forget why they turned as economic offenders - whoever may be responsible for the situation to turn such, the bottomline is that they are guilty by absconding.
There are two aspects for this - prevention and containment.
Economic offences are a consequence of auditing - in the case of Ramalinga Raju, someone didn’t notice the transfer of money to Maytas. In the case of Vijay Mallya, someone didn’t bother to look at the loan repayment potential of the business.
The first act is to set up something like CAG which audits the books of every entity having a total value of, say, more than 1000 crores. The auditor should also be responsible if the books are cooked up and things go kaput.
Next is to set up a ten point scale, the outcome of which tells whether a loan should be given or not. Let it have a 1000 parameters and let it take a month to fill all the parameters, but the outcome should be binding. It should cover everything from loan amount to the health of business to domestic/global health of the field to number of employees to annual turnover to everything. If the number is above 7, loan should be given. If it is between 5 and 7, loan will be given against a collateral, unrelated to the business in question. If it is between 3 and 5, government intervenes and if it is less than 3, no loan should be given. There should be an annual review of the formula involved to keep it updated. By attempting to standardize the loan issue potential, we can, to a maximum extent, nullify the effect of issuing loans to caustic entities.
Coming to absconders. What exactly can we do? First thing is, if you are planning to initiate proceedings, the first act is to block the passport and put it on a watch list.
If he has already escaped the country, issue him, say, three summons to turn back. He doesn’t heed. First block his passport. Then seize all the property in India, both movable and immovable. And that includes all his shares in a joint venture. If need be, give a permission to all foreign governments to seize his assets in their territories. This will deincentivize them from granting the person asylum. Give him one year to stand trial in lieu of getting the title for his Indian properties back. And if he is capable enough, let him fight his case with foreign governments - India won’t involve. Else, there will no turning back - the assets will become the property of government of India with no scope for judicial recourse.
Is this extreme? Is this a good deterrent? Well, I won’t hazard a guess. But, I will tell one thing. The bill we are going to get is going to be insipid because the father of one such offender who has escaped is going to lobby with opposition to dilute it as much as possible.

OBOR & CPEC - What Should India do?

It looks like the OBOR story is getting interesting by the day. It has already been proven that Shanghai to Dubai by sea is manifold cheaper than CPEC. And it also knows it’s day dreaming to expect Pakistan to pay back $5 billion dollars per year. So, what has China got in that? Why is China pouring in billions? The road goes through Xinxiang and Baltistan, the hotbed of Chinese separatism. In a flagging economy, CPEC creates jobs. By bringing in as many neighbours as possible on board, China is trying to reassert it’s position in the Chinese Mandala System.

And coming to the Pakistani angle. There is a joke in Indian government circles over Pakistan - China finds India till the last Pakistani. China wants to ensure that India can’t replace India as an economic power. Pakistan is always ready when someone says anti-India. And, Pakistan wants someone to tackle the unrest in Balochistan and Illegal Kashmir. This road will help do it. By bringing in as many countries as possible into it, China is trying to see India will not create problems to the road in Balochistan and Baltistan - many countries will lose their investments and the pressure one can put on India will increase manifold.

India can’t join CPEC because CPEC goes through Indian territory. Joining it is a tacit agreement that Baltistan is a part of Pakistan. And India is not going to accept Chinese mediation because the mediation package doesn’t involve Aksai Chin. China’s game is India’s isolation and put massive pressure on India. The question is what will India do.

The game boils down to interests and nothing more - small countries want money, China wants it’s preeminence, Pakistan, a point over India.

Is it fine for India to join CPEC? To assert it’s position, what can India do to accept CPEC? Demand China to have representatives of Tibet and Balochistan in their independent capacity? Ask China to eject Pakistan from Illegal Kashmir and accept Indian sovereignty? Yes, those are in Indian interests. But, can India force it’s way through? India should take a hard stand. And for that you need absolute self-reliance in case matters come to blows. Jingoism apart, are we sure India is ready?