The Great Indian Political Drama - 1 (Oct 2017 - Mar 2018)

[KL Dubey]

The objective of a forum like this is to discuss all kinds of thoughts and not become a Vyakti Pooja platform.

The feedback I am hearing from people is 2014 redux is impossible. I think so too. BJP will fold at 250, but will still make Government. So 5 more years of Modi and his sabkaa saath sabka vikaas and Babaji ka thullu on Hindutva. Or may be like in Gujarat, Modi will rediscover Hindutva before 2019 GE.

Either which way, Hindus have no option but to vote for Modi. But we have to wonder, why do so called 'Hindu Hriday Samrat' forget what brought them to power the second they sit on the gaddi?

"Feedback from people" is of course subjective. I am hearing feedback from "other people" who say BJP will win an even greater victory in 2019. Before the 2014 election almost nobody was predicting 272+ for BJP. There were many on BRF who swore than anything more than 200 was impossible. I'm glad to see it is up to 250 this time!

[KL Dubey]

UNBELIEVABLE. @narendramodi govt just amended FURTHER its 2016 amendment that RETROSPECTIVELY let parties off the hook on FCRA violations viz donations.

Now the clemency goes back to 1976, to the very day FCRA became an Act. DACOITS.
https://twitter.com/ARanganathan72/stat ... 6739657728

Pure obfuscation and fake propaganada by this "Nanganathan" chap (seems like another compulsively cantankerous "lone ranger" type on social media).

The goremint is not "letting off" anybody. FCRA violations are a much broader issue beyond taxation. The budget provision is simply saying that otherwise legal donations under FCRA will not be retrospectively taxed. Nothing much objectionable there. Regarding that one case, it is indeed subjudice and if the court disagrees then they may overturn the provision.

On the other hand, NaMo sarkar has aggressively cancelled FCRA licenses of more than 20,000 NGOs (nearly 2/3rds of the total NGOs) due to many other violations. Many high-profile NGOs are completely banned from taking foreign funds. The "evanjihadi" world is rife with complaints that NaMo has cut off their funding sources. Which other goremint has had the courage to do that ?

[Trilobite]

one key takw away from Islamic conquest on India is that don't be weak militarily.
Babar was able to defeat Lodhi + Rajput kings due to his archery & canons. He encircled army of Lodhi and fired canons killing many and frightening elephants. War was over in less than half a day due to superior war technique of Babar.
Rajput kings posed a formidable fight but one of them (Silhadi) defected to Babar's side with 6000 soldiers at a critical moment.
Mughals maintained dominance using firepower, archery & cavalry. No idea why Rajput kings could not acquire that. Also there wa squabbling among them.
India must make sure it has formidable military.

We can't really build a strong military by reducing the military expenditure as % of GDP. It is down to just 1.58% of GDP, it used to be around 2.5%. Recall that last time the defence allocation was this low, we suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of Chinese and lost chunk of our land. For comparison USA spends 4.3% of a $18+ trillion GDP.

Union Budget 2018: Defence gets 1.58% of GDP, lowest allocation since 1962

[Suraj]

It is an insurance scheme and not a payment scheme. GoI essentially offers an insurance policy (probably linked to one Aadhaar ID per family) worth Rs.5 lakh in coverage and pays the annual premium for it

I am dead sure that linking this to Aadhaar would be the very next step . And expect more whining from the anti-Aadhaar brigade. For such schemes to fail, I guess only every insurance policy holder making a claim of Rs. 5 lakh in close succession (all across the country) would lead to such an event. And for that to happen there has to be connivance of many Babus at many levels all across the country.

That is an actuarial problem and not a policy problem. "What if everyone falls sick at the same time ? What if everyone dies at the same time ?" etc. At that point, the discussion has gone past reasonable interchange to 'let me throw random sh*t and see if it sticks'.

This universal coverage is going to be basic insurance. It's not going to pay for complex cancer treatment or anything. No branded prescription cover, or any fancy bells and whistles. What it provides is a basic safety net. Anyone with means / need should get a more comprehensive policy on their own money. A basis safety net ensures that the poor are not faced with the spectre of total financial ruin the moment they get sick. It could be as simple as a bad cut that was not properly cleaned and bandaged because they couldn't take so much time to wait in line at the local 'free' hospital.

This is an incredibly real problem to the poor, who grew up malnourished, often are physically stunted, and their adult professions are blue collar ones with physical intensity that taxes their weak bodies and make them ill. They are not dealing with a nose job to look like Hrithik Roshan. They're just getting sick and physically breaking down, and need basic care regularly. This gives them unquestioned access on the power of just the Aadhaar card.

The government's job is to ensure that service delivery also improves, since it is paid for coverage. If that works out visibly, it would dramatically benefit GoI's political fortunes. So far this admin has shown great focus on addressing efficiency of implementation, and in particular the ability to learn from and fix early concerns in first implementation. Hope it carries on here.

[Sachin]

another BJP member killed today in KA: taking toll to 24 since last year.

One among the accused are "peacefool", while another is an X'ian. The KA police has been quite desperate and saying there is "no communal angle" to the murder. There are also stories that the murderer and the victim had fights earlier as the murderer was also the friendly neighbourhood drug peddler.

In the meanwhile very "peacefool tenants" (father & sons) kill their land lord who had the audacity to ask rent. They chopped of the head, and the torso was found in a storm water drain some where else. Man, sons behead landlord for demanding rent

[Trilobite]

Will this help in election in Karnataka ? My personal opinion is that as more and more people are able to see through these events, such strategies will produce diminishing returns. It may have worked in the recent Gujarat elections but Karnataka is very different state than Gujarat. BJP instead should try to focus on development agenda and highlight the shortcomings of Siddaramaiah govt. on development front.

BJP to hold cow protection yagna in Bengaluru

[SSundar]

This universal coverage is going to be basic insurance. It's not going to pay for complex cancer treatment or anything. No branded prescription cover, or any fancy bells and whistles. What it provides is a basic safety net. Anyone with means / need should get a more comprehensive policy on their own money. A basis safety net ensures that the poor are not faced with the spectre of total financial ruin the moment they get sick. It could be as simple as a bad cut that was not properly cleaned and bandaged because they couldn't take so much time to wait in line at the local 'free' hospital.

This is indeed a revolutionary move that, as you pointed out, leaves the poor with more of their earned money in their pockets.

I do have a few concerns that I hope to see addressed:

1. Double-dipping - With a basic insurance cover paid for by the Center, all similar programs run by states should be terminated with extreme prejudice. "One Nation One Insurance" should be the motto. Let the states use the money for more productive causes. (Added later) In fact, the states could be guided strongly towards using the saved money for the unaddressed elements of Swacch Bharat - trash removal and drain sanitation.

2. Triple-dipping - States run "free" hospitals which are often cesspools with unsanitary conditions and counterfeit medicines patronized by politicians, and they are hardly ever "free" since people pay bribes to get basic facilities. Shut them down or make them independent units that need to balance revenues & expenses, including payroll. The same should apply for the primary healthcare centers they are proposing to create now.

3. Middle Class - The honest, tax-paying middle class too can occasionally be financially crippled because of unexpected hospital expenses. Some form of subsidized medical insurance scheme (a'la ObamaCare) would have opened the door to leaving more money in their pockets. Now, they are left dangling.

4. Population Control - 10 Crore families and 50 Crore beneficiaries sends the message that the government is accepting that "some" Indians will have more than 2 kids. This was a golden opportunity to restrict benefits to only 2 adults + 2 kids per family.

Overall, this entire budget is an excellent, visionary one. I just hope that history does not repeat itself and the Congis derive the benefit of these long-term transformations BJP put into motion.

[SSundar]

Will this help in election in Karnataka ? My personal opinion is that as more and more people are able to see through these events, such strategies will produce diminishing returns. It may have worked in the recent Gujarat elections but Karnataka is very different state than Gujarat. BJP instead should try to focus on development agenda and highlight the shortcomings of Siddaramaiah govt. on development front.

BJP to hold cow protection yagna in Bengaluru

It does not hurt, does it?

This is a Yagna conducted inside the premises of a Hindu Temple with the goal "to create awareness about the importance of cow and the need to protect the cattle population in order to strengthen rural economy".

Even a marginal ROI is better than none.

[Suraj]

1. Double-dipping - With a basic insurance cover paid for by the Center, all similar programs run by states should be terminated

This is fairly SOP. Even NREGA was a creation made up of several prior partial programs being cobbled together into one large highly publicized program. The new insurance plan will subsume a lot of existing state level spending so that it's not a fresh line item in the expenditure budget.

2. Triple-dipping - States run "free" hospitals which are often cesspools with unsanitary conditions and counterfeit medicines patronized by politicians, and they are hardly ever "free" since people pay bribes to get basic facilities.

Yes, as I mentioned previously, service delivery will define the effectiveness of this program.

3. Middle Class - The honest, tax-paying middle class too can occasionally be financially crippled because of unexpected hospital expenses. Some form of subsidized medical insurance scheme (a'la ObamaCare) would have opened the door to leaving more money in their pockets. Now, they are left dangling.

Dangling ? They can pay for the basic plan as explained here, which is being provided free of cost only to the poor (tracked by their Aadhaar information), or any other plan with greater comprehensive coverage. The middle class can afford to pay the premium at least for basic/middle tier coverage. With a large insured pool and government that itself wants to push down premium costs, the middle class gets to deal with a positive confluence of interests giving them the ability to get coverage at competitive prices.

4. Population Control - 10 Crore families and 50 Crore beneficiaries sends the message that the government is accepting that "some" Indians will have more than 2 kids. This was a golden opportunity to restrict benefits to only 2 adults + 2 kids per family.

Politically impossible.

[Suraj]

GoI's first estimate of premiums was right in the range I suggested: Rs.1100 vs my range of Rs.1000-1500:
Modicare: New health insurance plan may cost Centre, states $1.71 bn a year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious plan to provide health insurance to 100 million poor families would require Rs 110 billion ($1.71 billion) in federal and state funding each year, a government official told Reuters.

The National Health Protection Scheme, dubbed "Modicare" and announced in Thursday's Budget 2018, would provide 100 million families, or about 500 million poor people, with a health cover of Rs 500,000 ($7,850) for free treatment of serious ailments.

The government has estimated the premium for insuring each family would be about Rs 1,100 ($17.15), said the government official with direct knowledge of the matter.

[KL Dubey]

We can't really build a strong military by reducing the military expenditure as % of GDP. It is down to just 1.58% of GDP, it used to be around 2.5%. Recall that last time the defence allocation was this low, we suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of Chinese and lost chunk of our land. For comparison USA spends 4.3% of a $18+ trillion GDP.

Indigenization has increased substantially due to "Make in India" and other initiatives. The defense forces are getting more "bang for the buck", as Piyush Goyal said in reply to the question from Republic TV's p0rnob (the master[de]bator, and formerly the chief pimp of the Newswhore).

US military spending is a bloated pig with billions of dollars in wastage. I don't think we need to look to them for comparison.

[Indrad]

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busine ... 97637.html
Budget 2018 - what it means for Indian Agriculture
The focused budgetary measures directed at rural India aim to realize the 2022 goal and give the desired push in an election year –thereby killing two birds in one shot.

[Indrad]

yesterday;

1. Chandan shot dead by Salim in Kasganj

2. Ramesh beheaded by peaceful assailants in Hyderabad

3. Santosh murdered by Wasim in Bangalore

4. Manjunath beheaded by Altaf & sons in Bangalore

5. Ankit beheaded by peaceful gf’s family in Delhi

[Trilobite]

We can't really build a strong military by reducing the military expenditure as % of GDP. It is down to just 1.58% of GDP, it used to be around 2.5%. Recall that last time the defence allocation was this low, we suffered a humiliating defeat at the hand of Chinese and lost chunk of our land. For comparison USA spends 4.3% of a $18+ trillion GDP.

Indigenization has increased substantially due to "Make in India" and other initiatives. The defense forces are getting more "bang for the buck", as Piyush Goyal said in reply to the question from Republic TV's p0rnob (the master[de]bator, and formerly the chief pimp of the Newswhore).

US military spending is a bloated pig with billions of dollars in wastage. I don't think we need to look to them for comparison.

I cited US expenditure just to give an idea what % of GDP the strongest military in the world spends, ofcourse we could not afford anywhere near that amount in absolute terms but India did consistently spend around 2.5% of the GDP on defence.

Now with the expenditure down to only 1.58% of GDP, make in India or indigenization notwithstanding, I think we are shafting the military, specially when we are confronted with the prospect of a two front war with Pakistan and China simultaneously and an increasingly belligerent China.

[chetak]

yesterday;

1. Chandan shot dead by Salim in Kasganj

2. Ramesh beheaded by peaceful assailants in Hyderabad

3. Santosh murdered by Wasim in Bangalore

4. Manjunath beheaded by Altaf & sons in Bangalore

5. Ankit beheaded by peaceful gf’s family in Delhi

and what exactly are you complaining about, saar??

The minorities are well and thriving. They are upholding their rights as guaranteed by our sicklular laws.

[chetak]

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/busine ... 97637.html
Budget 2018 - what it means for Indian Agriculture
The focused budgetary measures directed at rural India aim to realize the 2022 goal and give the desired push in an election year –thereby killing two birds in one shot.

the point missed by us is that the health insurance scheme to be rolled out by the GoI is mostly rural centric and will depend to a large extent on "missionary " hospitals, thereby pumping uncounted crores into their coffers, to be fed right back into their other "missionary" activities.

These guys are entrenched in those places in the rural hinterland where there is maximum ROI on their conversion investments because the target population is destitute and poorly educated and otherwise susceptible to inducements

Is this going to turn out to be something like a RTE version of healthcare??

The concerned guys should see this as an opportunity to correct such social imbalances and invest heavily in private and semi private healthcare infrastructure, moving into educational areas as well.

This opportunity gives them an hitherto unprecented opportunity to expand their sphere of interests without hinderances from interested lobbies working against such interests as it may have just become financially inclusive as well as a viable proposition.

[hanumadu]

Why bring minority, kashmir?? Why do you think people pay taxes? It's not for the govt to spend it on others as freebies. People pay taxes so that the amount is spent on them in terms of infra, security, etc.

I'd rather pay full ticket amount, think about it, that subsidy bill is paid by some tax payer. All subsidy bills are.

My point is stop spending on freebies and minority schemes etc. Even if the tax bracket is as wide as possible. what was it, 80k crore package for Kashmir? What's the revenue from that state? Spend only on things that'll help the economy grow.

If people pay taxes so the amount is spent of them and on them alone, then the super rich paying higher taxes than most people should demand infrastructure and facilities that caters to them only no. We are city people, we don't need no rural roads, we don't need no irrigation. Food security be damned.

Ah, you'd rather pay full amount. It's all about you isn't it? Perhaps, your family was always well to do. You never needed subsidized travel or education. Then you are the lucky minority. Well, we needed the cheap fares when we were young. Now that we can afford to pay the full price, I am not going to turn around and say others less fortunate should do so too.

How about roads? Don't you need them too or do you want your money to be used only on the roads you travel?

Do you have a comprehension problem? What did I say, spend on things that help the economy grow, so it includes your roads etc. I said don't spend on freebies. I know many rural "farmers" who have many acres but don't pay tax. BTW let's not talk about each other personally, i don't know you and you don't know me.
When your tax bracket is limited, don't spend that revenue on appeasement and freebies.

You are the one who brought in your personal situation. So naturally I will ask if you never needed or used any subsidy and will continue to do so. Is free public education a freebie or a necessary expenditure? Is food subsidy a freebie that you approve or should it be stopped all together? Is farmer subsidy necessary for food security or are you among those elite who will be unaffected by a Venezuela like situation? If all subsidies are stopped, there will be plenty of money for all the infrastructure you want, except there will be no people who can afford or even want to use it.

[shravanp]

yesterday;

1. Chandan shot dead by Salim in Kasganj

2. Ramesh beheaded by peaceful assailants in Hyderabad

3. Santosh murdered by Wasim in Bangalore

4. Manjunath beheaded by Altaf & sons in Bangalore

5. Ankit beheaded by peaceful gf’s family in Delhi

Had this happened back in 90s, it would have triggered massive riots. Looks like Dharmics are losing street power and peacefuls have gained quite a lot of ground post 1992 riots.

[Indrad]

both MuftiMehbooba & Omar Abdul competing with each other to prove loyalityl to Kashmiri junta by pledging more support to stone pelters than army
https://hindi.news18.com/news/nation/ca ... 57186.html

[Karthik]

If people pay taxes so the amount is spent of them and on them alone, then the super rich paying higher taxes than most people should demand infrastructure and facilities that caters to them only no. We are city people, we don't need no rural roads, we don't need no irrigation. Food security be damned.

Ah, you'd rather pay full amount. It's all about you isn't it? Perhaps, your family was always well to do. You never needed subsidized travel or education. Then you are the lucky minority. Well, we needed the cheap fares when we were young. Now that we can afford to pay the full price, I am not going to turn around and say others less fortunate should do so too.

How about roads? Don't you need them too or do you want your money to be used only on the roads you travel?

Do you have a comprehension problem? What did I say, spend on things that help the economy grow, so it includes your roads etc. I said don't spend on freebies. I know many rural "farmers" who have many acres but don't pay tax. BTW let's not talk about each other personally, i don't know you and you don't know me.
When your tax bracket is limited, don't spend that revenue on appeasement and freebies.

You are the one who brought in your personal situation. So naturally I will ask if you never needed or used any subsidy and will continue to do so. Is free public education a freebie or a necessary expenditure? Is food subsidy a freebie that you approve or should it be stopped all together? Is farmer subsidy necessary for food security or are you among those elite who will be unaffected by a Venezuela like situation? If all subsidies are stopped, there will be plenty of money for all the infrastructure you want, except there will be no people who can afford or even want to use it.

What personal situation? Don't waste your time extrapolating views to personal background. So can I extrapolate and say you lived off your entire life on freebies, on other people's money based on your posts? Let's not go there.
I repeat again as you don't seem to get the point, anything that promotes economy is fine, setting up funds for startups, low interest loans to SME and insurance cover to poor families etc. Regarding farming, every big state waives off billion dollar worth loans, still those states witness numerous farmer suicides over few thousand rupees and it takes people like nana patekar to help them, I assume you know this and associated scams regarding who actually takes the loan, so is the subsidy ending up at right pocket? In this way aadhar is good in eradicating leakages Nobody will complain if govt is helping farmers. BTW perpetual subsidy is not the answer, technology (ex: Israeli tech) is, good govt is thinking in those terms. Why you need 4000 crores minority fund? I posted a pic yesterday regarding various minority schemes. Those guys don't have any inherent disadvantages w.r.t education or other things. UCC is required, but seeing how this govt is pu$$yfooting on these matters, don't think that'll happen. Every paisa spent on SSSV will go down the drain. Also, a salaried class, general category hindu student is the biggest victim of discrimination in every sense of the word. There was a line I read somewhere, "to reserve or to educate". So the money that you talk about can be used differently here. BTW, will be great if you ask govt to rectify RTE, if you are so worried about education, thousands of schools are being shutdown.

Our subsidy bill IIRC is $60B for a country with such a tiny tax base, and not saying all the money comes from IT paid by salaried class, nonetheless that's a huge amount. There's a fine difference between subsidy and freebie.

[hanumadu]

For people who say salaried class bears all the burden, the personal income tax comes to only 1% of GDP or less than 20% of total tax revenues, a fraction of which is from salaried class.

Who bore the brunt during DeMo? Its not the salaried class. It's the daily wagers, the small business men and farmers. And all you heard from them was, if its good for the country we are happy to suffer any inconvenience. Who got affected the most by GST? Not the salaried class. They took the inconveniences in their stride. They believed in Modi and stood by him. But the salaried class keep whining day after day, year after year in spite of being a privileged section of the society.

[MehtaRahulC]

One has to just read a random line from some lengthy post. And then make a wild guess if it is RM. Wohoo! Indeed it was him. Same rants.

let us take a vote .... I support separate threads for RM bhai... they will be quarantined and a volunteer moderator (if there any mards still left ( ) can then move that post to appropriate thread.. Let the voting begin
For Against
1 ------ 0

Reported both posts to admin. I did NOT complain, nor did I ask for any action. I only told admins that posts like above are polluting the thread, NOT my posts. I write only 1-2 posts per day in whole forum and only 1 post per day here. So my posts do NOT cause any noise pollution. The posts like above cause pollution.
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And my reply to both gents is --- your insults dont bother me at all. If you think that by throwing insults on me, you can stop me from exposing Modiji's defcuntness and corruption of RSS-leaders and RSS-workers, you are wrong. I have rhino skin. Your insults do NOT effect me at all.
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The main strength to Missionaries comes from huge amount of land they own and that there is zero wealth tax on their land. Next source of strength is CSR. The usuk-elitemen have 1000s of companies in India, and they give busloads of money to Missionaries. Also, BIF have also managed to get a huge amount of money from temple donations by bribing IAS who control temples. Modiji's jihad against FRCA is largely an eyewash given that NOTHING has happened to crush the above three sources of their financial strength --- most important being land
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Solution is to impose wealth tax of 1% on ALL plots, minus say Rs 100 per devotee per year. So with this rule, most temples, gurudwara, wakfs will face zero tax because the plots they own are proportional to number of devotees they have. But missionaries will be crushed. SoMoKe arent interested in such laws. Neither are congress/rss/aap workers.
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Have a nice day

[Indrad]

নীলসুনীল
‏@trunils
17h17 hours ago
More
Residents of Suri in WB were living in fear of dacoits, hence decided to patrol the night. They caught two mullahs, Jhapu Khan & Sheikh Basir who were badly beaten by patrolling squad while trying to enter a house for robbery. Now both mullahs are struggling for life in hospital.

[Indrad]

Karni Sena takes U turn, now agrees to support Padmavat: withdraws protest. http://www.moneylife.in/article/karni-s ... 52978.html
https://twitter.com/bhak_sala/status/959667895012937728
and there were some who took these frauds for true.

[sanjayC]

It was a Congress operation through and through. There were no disturbances in Congress ruled states, only in BJP ruled ones. Karni Sena will pop up again just before 2019 elections