LPG Rafale and French Toast
The 4th estate increasingly tends to act as a 5th column for India’s financial moguls, says ANTHONY SIMOES
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From about mid-November, LPG cylinders have been hard to come by. Thanks to the increased tourist arrivals, delegates for IFFI and pilgrims for St Francis Xavier’s feast. So from now on, local Goans will have to wait for weeks on end, for a refill. Or else you can pay a premium of Rs 100 to Rs 150 per cylinder. And this is for regular card-holding consumers. For the newly-arrived and itinerant population, it costs Rs 600 per cylinder against a marked-price of Rs 360 per cylinder. This is the kind of LPG problems, that come up every now and then. It lasts for a few weeks or thereabouts and then, things come back to normal. A lot of people are inconvenienced and they get fleeced, while a tiny minority makes a tidy profit, from the loot.
There is, however, a big LPG problem that started 18 years ago and affects our lives on a day-to-day basis, without being seen, but only being felt. The year 1992 was a water-shed for our economy, because of the ‘economic reforms’ that led to LPG – Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. The Bank of England had the audacity to tell India, that they would have to deposit gold, to back-up the rupee.
That’s when the government of India decided to vacate the commanding heights of the economy and hand it over to entrepreneurs, businessmen, traders and industrialists, of the country. That’s when they decided that profit was no longer a dirty word. In fact, profit had become the soul of economics. The purse and policy strings were given into the hands of ex-World Bank people like Manmohan Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia. They called it re-structuring. Another WB/IMF terminology, parroted by their pimps in India.
Today, 18 years down the line, the results of this abortion are there for everyone to see. Every week, there is a financial fraud, involving tens of thousands of crores, perpetrated by our elites by leveraging the profit motive – the alleged soul of economics. We all got carried away with the promises of 7-10% GDP growth, year-on-year, as opposed to the 3% Hindu growth rate, we had got used to. They fooled us with another WB/IMF construct, which they called ‘per capita GDP’. This is the sleight of hand technique of dividing GDP, by the population. The underlying assumption of equity is unsustainable, given the fact, that in India, the rich get richer and the poor get children.
Why-oh-why then, are we in this present predicament? Why do we have 50 million unemployed and 250 million underemployed people in Bharat? Why is everyone working so hard and still struggling to make ends meet? Why do half the people in this country not have access to potable water and sanitary living conditions? Why do hundreds of millions of our people live in shanties or in the open? Half of the ‘houses’ in the country come down with a few heavy showers of rain, and a strong gust of wind.
63 years of independence has gone by, and we are yet to have clean drinking water. Our policy makers did not recognise our strengths, and our God-given natural assets.
Here is a land, which enjoys 240 days of sunlight. It has untold sources of fresh water in its rivers – great and small – in its lakes, streams, springs and nullahs. Besides this surface water, we have huge reserves of fresh water in our underground aquifers. We have falling rain and melting snow, as seasonal sources of water. This country has huge areas of arable land. The lands are not only fertile, but also provide a huge variety of soils, which allows agriculture on a massive scale, with a huge variety of crops, that can be grown. There are grains, vegetables, fruits, flowers and medicinal plants to meet everyone’s needs. And we have much more for export, if required.
This country has all the minerals needed to support a happy and prosperous lifestyle, for all our people. Most importantly, we have human resources, with high levels of inventiveness, initiative and ingenuity waiting to be tapped by proper incentives. 55% of our population, is below the age of 20.
And yet today, India is close to the bottom of the list of nations, when it comes to measuring a variety of human developmental indices. The elite Robber Barons have their billion-dollar homes, their private jets, homes overseas, their houses on the beach, with provisions to harbour their yachts. They have private armies of lawyers, lobbyists, bankers, chartered accountants, CEOs, PROs, goons, bodyguards and political pimps, who share some of this loot. In the meantime, the peasants, peons, porters and poor in general, can wallow in their human degradation and deprivation. Suicide is an option for them, with the state guaranteeing a blind eye.
A few weeks ago, Obama/America was the flavour of the month. We bartered a place at the high table, for billions of dollars of purchases, from Uncle Sam. We are happy to get Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s cheese burgers and US pizzas. Don’t forget the promise of a seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). By the time that promise is kept, I bet the UNSC will have lost its veto powers. We will find ourselves at the high table, but minus the cutlery, crockery and the main course of veto power.
Now all that is French, is flavour of the month. Not just French cuisine, but Haute Couture. Never mind the unwashed millions, dressed in rags. We look right through them. Our government calls it transparency. Fashion gurus call it ethnic chic.
This is all small-fry. The big fish is in Jaitapur. A minor port in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. The French giant AREVA will build a 9,900 MW (6×1,650 MW) nuclear power park from where the energy generated, will be evacuated to feed the industrial belts of the state. This will cost us a cool Rs 120,000 crore. This does not include the 10 square kilometres of land that will be handed to AREVA on a platter, by the government of India. The port facilities will be thrown in as an added bonus, along with clearances from the MOEF. Don’t forget Dassault’s offer of a few dozen Rafale multi-role military aircraft, which will cost us a few billion dollars. Talk about the French connection!!!
A secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office said, “Manmohanji SAR has a very kozy arrangement with his French counterpart.” He told me that even Letters of Intent are being written in French. Apparently, the French ambassador convinced the PMO that a French letter can obviate the need for an abortion in future, if the honeymoon goes awry. After all, the ‘bride’ and ‘groom’ are ephemeral characters in a same-sex, marriage of convenience.
Barkha, who has an inside track on this entire French Frolic told Radia that her sources on the PMs domestic staff heard the Sardar singing in the shower; “Tum Carla hai toh kya hua. Mai toh Dilli wallah hai.”
Today, the great danger facing India is the growing tendency of the 4th estate to act as a 5th column for the political and financial Moguls of the state.
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What’s the problem?
By Venita Coelho
The final Regional Plan has been released in two parts. Firstly, the overall plan that applies to the whole state. And specifically the finalised plan for two talukas – Pernem and Canacona. But the problem is that a whole lot of changes have been inserted. Many of them are very suspicious.
Whodunnit?
A State Level Committee was set up to finalise the plan. Their job was to take the draft Regional Plan, look at all the inputs from the villages, the suggestions, and the individual requests – and draft a final plan. Nowhere in their mandate were they supposed to change the RP2021 – which is what they have done. These changes substantially subverted the spirit of the Draft Regional Plan. What are the changes?
The biggest one is that VP3 status has vanished from the Final Plan. Villages were given a choice of VP1, VP2 and VP3 status, to choose from. VP3 status meant that only 50FAR building permission, would be given. Villages are up in arms over this being dropped, since they were repeatedly told that this choice was part of ‘peoples participation’ in the RP2021 process.
What else?
A new category called ‘Non PDA ODP’ has been added. So have ‘Eco Tourism’ areas. ‘Zone plan’ is yet another new category. And so are Micro Industrial Zones (MIZ). None of these have been adequately defined.
So what’s the problem?
The first problem is all these new areas fall out of the purview of the Regional Plan. That means we will have a RP – with large chunks of land, that do not come under its rules. All ODP and PDA ODP areas also fall outside the RP, so that means the RP will actually be in force, in less than half of Goa.
The second is that all these categories, look suspiciously like attempts to sneak in, all that we fought to begin with. Villages from the South have produced documentation to show that ‘Eco Tourism’ areas are the same, as those bought up by five star hotels. If not, minutely defined MIZ areas could be a way to sneak SEZ back in. And nobody seems to know, what a ‘non PDA ODP’ is.
The third is simply that after four years of battle, we had a Draft Regional Plan that we had studied, given inputs to and finally got shaped to our satisfaction. Now four years of hard work has been subverted entirely by one SLC, that has made changes it had no business doing.
How could they do that?!
Well, the Chairman of the Draft Committee for DRP-2021 was CM Kamat. He is the chairman of the SLC and minister for TCP. He made created the Draft plan by wearing one hat and also made changes to the same, by wearing another. He made sure that the ground reality was something else. Now you know, Whodunnit?
So now what? Do we have to fight again?
To put it clearly – fight the changes, not the plan. The Draft RP2021 was a good plan that we worked on, long and hard. The Eco Sensitive Zones demarcation was excellent. A lot left of this plan, is good.
We should stand by it, and not scrap it. Just fight the changes. Demand a complete explanation of each change. Demand that checks and balances be put in that will not allow the changes to be used to the wrong ends. Scrap the changes that prove too double edged.
The great danger in scrapping the entire Final RP2021 is that what will then continue is the RP2001 – which is ten years out of date and which is the document on the basis of which, the rampant rape of Goa continues. We desperately need a new Regional Plan. The need of the hour is not to jump the gun. Fight the changes, and not the whole plan.
Sounds never ending, isn’t it?
What did you expect? Look at the huge business interests that are at stake. This plan basically will draw the final map of what bits of Goa are protected, and what are not. Of course, big money is still going to try to sneak in their hidden agenda.
Did you really think mining was going to roll over and die, because the Draft RP2021 said that it should be phased out entirely in five years? That entire para has gone missing from the Final RP2021.
Remember, we were very effective when we chucked out the first RP2011. It’s time to use people power again.
