Whispers Forum

DEBATE (1)
2. Sharad Pawar
3. Rajnath Singh
4. S S Aporiya
DEBATE(2)
1. Amit Shah
2. Rahul Gandhi
3. Priyanka Gandhi
4. J Srivastava
Swadeshi or Videshi
Budget After Budget Swadeshi products don’t command consumer loyalty because of quality. Negligible investment has gone in upgrading product and service quality so far because in the domestic market “har maal bik jaata hai”. One compromise on quality can turn the customers away, like a poor zip on the jeans or button on a coat or packaging of edible goods. If the consumer demand is satisfied by videshi products, no amount of exhortation can bring them back to the seller of the swadeshi goods. Swadeshi is no more a matter of sentiments as used to be before 1947 when it filled the youth then with nationalistic fervor. Today nationalism, nationalistic or patriotic are freely ridiculed in the name of liberalism and secularism (both used without anybody able to define authoritatively and includes even violent professors and historians trying to manhandle a governor). The adjective “swadeshi” is similarly ridiculed. It was extensively used during the first 2 decades of independence along with “import substitution” and “self-reliance”, especially in the budget speech of the finance minister to tax what was thought to be “luxury goods” or “non-essential imports”. These categories are in use with the only difference that the list of items keeps changing without any application of mind for genuine high rate of economic growth. It results in stunting upgradation of higher education, research, development, innovation, proto-type development, application of technology. Demand is met by imports. While jobs meant for Indian knowledge workers are lost, the consumer gets either cheap Chinese goods or smuggled high priced goods. The daily seizures at airports are proof of the hunger of the people for imported goods. Import of real essential items like life saving drugs is another matter. The country needs to identify items (not sectors) for domestic production if we aim to provide jobs (har haath ko kaam) or become a real $5tr economy in the next few years. By way of illustration, let us look at “village industries”. The village as an adjective gives an impression as if it signifies backwardness- backwardness of the industry, producer or the consumer. Nothing of the sort. Village industries have the potential of creating millions of high-quality jobs, provided they are given modern technology support. I wonder if there has ever been a fight for the allocation of the village industries portfolio among the ministers, coalition parties or bureaucrats like we witness for Finance, coal & Mining, Home, Rural Development etc. Can we visualize the KVIC as one big MNC of the world? At least think about the artisans who produced with hands what the machines had taken over during industrialisation swallowing millions of jobs and generating unprecedented pollution globally in less than 200 years. Village industry does not mean lack of technology- it can be the state of art technology applied appropriately to strengthen the village industries and sustainable growth. The so called MNCs have developed their village industries to the level of corporations on the strength of technological inputs and sell globally their products.
M L Gupta

DEBATE (1)
After Narendra Modi, second best is Amit Shah and third best is Sharad Pawar.
N K Singh IPS {Retd}
DEBATE(2)
Except Narendra Modi none.
A K Khurana
Regarding the introduction of the Police Commissioner system, It is a long overdue reform that is being undertaken by the UP government. One of the states that has successfully implemented it is Gujarat.
Vijay Kumar
“Pareeksha pe Charcha”
PM Modi, it seems, is now a regular counsellor for children on all matters for their betterment. In his "Pareeksha pe Charcha" discourse of Jan 2020, PM Modi advised all parents to refrain from imposing themselves on children during the examination period. I think, all parents know about these aspects too well in the interest of their children .This is the mandate allocated for HRD ministry. One wonders what prompted the PM treat same symptoms again and again through his famous : “Pareeksha pe Charcha”, a sub-set of “Chai pe charcha” ?
A majority of HRD ministers in the past, never cared to address these concerns. It is their domain. They lack out-of-box thinking. They have done absolutely nothing in the past, suggesting steps for managing stress among children.
Schooling must be made enjoyable to children. HRD ministry must take experts’ advice, draw up guidelines for implementation through its educational institutes. Let it conduct impact assessment studies , carry out mid-course corrections in sync with changing time. A one-time monologue may not help. Parents and teachers have many questions to ask. Schools and colleges must be encouraged to interact with psychologists and professional confidence boosters. Just an unsolicited advice to our worthy, well-intentioned Prime Minister.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

DEBATE(1)
Subramanian Swamy, Rajnath Singh and Uma Bharti are my choice for prime ministership of the biggest democracy of the world
Shreya Singh
DEBATE(2)
Sharad Pawar is my candidate for pm of india
Sharan Gupta
Progressive step by CBDT
It is welcome step by the Govt. withdrawing amendments issued on 3rd January 2020 for filing ITR1 by salaried class considering the concerns of salaried class who owns house in joint names. This will give relief to large number of tax payers. Similarly Govt. may also consider bringing back Sec 112A in place of earlier sec 10(38) in drop down menu under the "income for reporting purpose" in case LTCG is less than 1 lakh related to transfer of equity or equity oriented MF to avoid the hardship of tax payers as no tax liability as per Sec 112A and are required to file lengthy ITR2 form. This will save lot of resources. In such cases Govt. do not receive any revenue only wasting man power and time. In case of mismatch, notices are likely to be issued in e-assessment procedure and may lead to unnecessary correspondence. This can also be simplified adopting old time tested system simply in column of income for reporting purpose only. Taxation is completely Govt. prerogative but submission can always be made to the Govt. for considerations. Govt. may also give some relief to salaried class like professionals getting 50% deduction whose income is upto 50 lakhs. Govt. employees can never aspire to reach near this level. Relief can be given in terms of standard deduction. Fiscal deficit can easily be reduced just by amending income tax act 1961 bringing all NGOs, truts, parties etc. under income tax regime ie donations, contributions etc received will be counted towards income and liable to pay tax as decided by Govt. This much is sufficient to reduce fiscal deficit but it is bold step. These organisations are already serving the society at large but now they will also contribute to the Govt. for Nation Building. Halwa Ceremony Budget 2020 is likely to take place next week. Let us hope for good budget. Good luck.
Naveen

DEBATE(1)
1. Nitin Gadgari 2-5 yrs
2. Kamal Nath 2-5 yrs
3. Rahul Gandhi 5-10 yrs
4. Sachin Pilot 5-10 yrs
5. Yogi Aditanath 5-10 yrs
6. Akhilesh Yadav 5-10 yrs
Vivek Dhawan
DEBATE(2)
Dijvijay Singh, Shashi Tharoor, and Nitin Gadkari could be the three PM candidates according to me.
Nancy Sharma
Unification of cadres in Railways needs to be re looked
A Railway Official Trained in the aspect of Finance, Traffic Transportation and HR together, will be a totally confused person. If he is transferred from one Department to the other and then to another on a regular basis, he will loose touch with the latest developments and may not be able to perform upto the mark. Unification of cadres in the Indian Railways needs to be re looked into. IRAS officers are sent on deputation to other Ministries/Departments to look after specifically into financial matters. What is being envisaged for the Ministry of Railways cadre is to create a Mister 'know all' like IAS cadre but in the bargain we are going to create 'non specialists' officials.
BBS

DEBATE(1)
S Gopal
DEBATE(2)
Presently there does not seem to be any replacement to Narendra Modi. So Modi for this term and next term and after his retirement the name of Amit Shah appears in my mind.
Madhu Kapoor
DEBATE(3)
POLITICS IN INDIA is always been really tough for the last few years. Different regions and north-south divide political discourse have coarsened are self-evident. There is the greater intrusion of the media into public and private life, & a lot of what they serve up is degrading, rather than enlightening or redemptive. In the outcast when there was no high involvement of media in anyone’s life, Nehru started the tradition for exhibited the prime ministerial candidate. Since the process has been ruining. Many intellectuals from different fields came and fade away, few of them had taken the position for a long time on one hand and on another hand, and some held the position for quite a little time.
Indian politics have never been that dramatically changed; now politicians are burgeoning from every district, villages and so-called cities of this great land and serving with their highest calibre. In my view, if there is a chance other than Mr Modi to be the Prime Minister candidate for the 2024-25 elections. I would like to present three names- 1. AMIT SHAH (BJP), 2. JAY RAM RAMESH (CONGRESS) 3. ARVIND KEJRIWAL (AAP).
Consequently, Present scenario extirpates many stalwarts among all the national political parties due to combusting issues like CAA. The central govt. already cedes its decision on the CAA and planning further to implement NPR throughout India rigorously. There are two cynosures in the present government, firstly, the implementation of policies which were mentioned in the BJP led government manifesto in the last election. Secondly the predominant financial reforms for the Indian economy.
In 2019 BJP mentioned in its manifesto about many policies which will be followed by them for its term, to make this country great again. They stated zero-tolerance policy against terrorism, creating an opportunity for youth; a roadmap to becoming five trillion economies and etc. clearly being a law-abiding citizen of this country, every citizen must feel proud for these reforms furthermore we are taking it too seriously because somehow sooner or later it will be affecting every life in our country. Now the question arises, where are we now, are we really thriving towards development or it is just a myth that put in our mind due to accumulating votes.
Now come to the point, Prime Ministerial candidate for 2024-25,
My first name - Amit Shah
He is the second in command in BJP. A businessman-turned-politician, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah was made the Union home minister in the second term of the Narendra Modi-led central government. Also referred to as the 'Chanakya' of modern Indian politics, Shah, a close aide of Modi, is credited with leading the BJP to victory in several elections as the party's president. There was a time when barely people know about him, he was just a member in Gujrat legislative assembly. Was part of many controversies, in and out from jail, arrest and exile.
Jay Ram Ramesh.
There were days when people used to vote for the candidate rather than the party name. Most of the intellectuals politicians in our society follow the path sincerely with their dedication towards work and he is one of among them. He was an integral part of the UPA government and held the various important positions in UPA governance. His powerful devotion towards work and magnificent style of working, makes him a suitable candidate for the prime ministerial candidate for 2024-25.
Arvind Kejariwal
As the name suggests itself, Arvind is also paramount part of India’s present-day politics. Being a chief minister of Delhi, he has done quite meaningful work for the well being of Delhi citizens. His Mohala clinics, work over water and electricity is quite encouraging. He has completed his tenure successfully with flying colours, implemented many polices for the poorest of the poor, females and students on small scale. Delhi govt. relationship with the centre always was in the headline, relationship with the LG is itself not easy to forget. Hence AAP still needs time to get settled in. Being a prime minister is not that easy task, it needs a wide platform, an abundant amount of workers, nationwide approach and most important a vision with great aspiration. Which seems highly less in the AAP in the present scenario.
Being a prime ministerial candidate of India is a very complex task. There are many other politicians laid down in the way. Only time will tell who will be the next prime minister of India but the candidate must have the quality to make us unite and productive.
Govind Yadav
Regressive steps by CBDT
Continuing from earlier feedback, It is to mention that many salaried husband and wife depends upon their earnings from service and interest income. Almost all such couples are having a house in joint names ie house property is held in joint ownership. Through recent notification by CBDT has made them ineligible to file ITR1. It is not clear why such step has been. taken. Is there any increase in revenue by such measures? It does not look so. Tax authorities are not looking where are maximum tax leakages. It is not known to tax authorities which categories of people are minting and playing with money. It is very easy to harass the service class with so many complexities knowing well the tax compliance is highest in this category where as Govt, has no plans to assess the correct income of professionals like film stars, sports persons, doctors, lawyers, traders, contractors etc. They do not have any methodology or tools to assess the correct income. Another discrimination is professionals earning upto 50 lakhs are given 50% rebate ie 25 lakhs whereas salaried class gets Rs 40,000/- as a standard deduction. It looks very much unjustified. Govt. should remove such discrepancies and make the ITR filing simpler. Sec 112 A upto 1 lakh to be brought back (instead of Sec 10(38)) in drop down menu in income for reporting purpose not to be insisted upon filing ITR2 if there is no tax liability under LTCG on transfer of equity or equity oriented MF as per Sec 112A. Such irritants should be filtered out for better compliance and simplification of assessment when we have adopted face less scrutiny and e-assessment. Take the implementation strategies such that the policies initiated by Govt. are successful.
Naveen
Modi won due to many positive reasons
PM won the election due to many other positive reasons which have a profound impact on the Indian electorate, not because of Pakistan agenda alone.
K Srinivasa Rao

DEBATE(1)
2 Manish Sisodi
3 Yogendra Yadav
Mridula Agrawal
DEBATE(2)
Besides Narendra Modi my choice is Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and Dr Raman Singh.
S C Agrawal former DGP
Modi led the country astray
Narendra Modi retained power in second term as there was no strong leader to take on him. But he led the country astray with looming spectre of a financial crisis. I hope that Kejriwal may emerge as one of the strongest leaders against Modi in 2024. Modi may lose this election due to his retrograde policies.
Rajesh Kumar
IT returns be made easy
I agree. IT returns should be made easy rather making it difficult. FM should look into this and review this decision of CBDT.
S Gopal
JNU related developments confusing
Unable to understand as to how two groups affiliated to different ideologies adopted same method of violence as also attires covering their identities. Secondly, the police could not catch even a single hooligan when the violence was going on. Had it been done, the truth would have been unearthed behind this vandalism. Thirdly, enquiry is being held by a party whose role is under cloud.
Raj Kumar Thakur

The PIO informed that the copy of Charge Memo and other documents connected with the relevant departmental proceedings were provided to the Appellant during the hearing of departmental proceedings, hence not provided in response to the instant RTI Application. The CIC observed that the PIO has erred in denying the information sought citing the matter as sub-judice. The CIC expressed displeasure over the conduct of PIO in citing Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act for denying the information sought. The PIO was directed to provide copy of Charge Memo and other documents connected with the relevant departmental proceedings sought in the RTI Application.
Comments
There is no provision in the RTI Act, 2005 which allows denial of information on the grounds of the matter being sub-judice. Further, if copies of certain documents are being sought under the RTI Act, they cannot be denied claiming that copies were already provided under some other proceedings.
Citation: Musabbar v. CPIO, Remount Training School Depot, CPIO, Remount Training School Depot in File No.: CIC/IARMY/A/2018/143104, Date of Decision: 02/01/2020
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com.

DEBATE(1)
2 Arun Shourie
3 Arvind Kejriwal
A K Agrawal
Debate(2) Narendra Modi and Digvijay Singh
G S Mathur former DGP
People who speak against RTI are corrupt
I have worked for 13 years in the Government post coming into existence of RTI Act-2005. As long as you are clear and have not indulged in any malpractice, the question of you being sadlled with RTI application does not arise. Reply to RTI application can be made within minutes. People who speak against RTI are themselves corrupt and want to go away with public money scot free.
BBS
Campus Violence And Politicians’ Tears
After administering heavy oral dosage of ideological toxicity for more than 70 years and destroying the culture of quest for learning in institutions of higher education, buttressed with physical violence, the politicians are now shedding tears over violence on campus blaming others and protecting their and charging at the police. Ideology, indoctrination and seductive communist rhetoric affected the faculty also. Over the years, the leftist jargon has weakened and the communists have been reduced to a pitiable minority and generally isolated. Communism has died long ago the world over. Only a few remnants of it survive in poor countries like India. The Indian students have lost a lot in left driven strikes and other forms of verbal and physical violence by every political party. Every political party today gets the blame for disturbing learning and violence on campuses whether JNU or Jamia or AMU or HCU. Instead of blaming the police, the political parties should introspect and abjure entering campuses and let the academic work progress unhindered. Loss of left flavour in debates among faculty and students has created a vacuum that is sought to be filled by irrelevant issues fomenting violence on campus rather than research. Incidentally, the science faculty and students are not known to be involved in these non-academic activities? Is it a message to other faculties? Peace can be restored in a moment on the campuses only if the politicians and the parties appeal to the students to go back to their classes and take a solemn vow not to sponsor/ finance/support union elections or interfere in student or faculty politics.
M L Gupta

DEBATE (1)
Lucy Singh
Priyanka Gandhi can be good choice for Prime Minister as politics is in her genes. Her grand mother and father, both ruled the Indian state with vision and wisdom which is lacking in present day political class.
Sanju Ahuja
Shashi Tharoor is totally PM material as today's time needs a leader who is well read and well informed and what better person than him.
Rahul Garg
PSB should have members from other departments
Postal Services Board should also have members from other departments of the GoI and from outside the government
vox populi
Govt should brush aside opposition
Government should simply brush aside the opposition to this landmark decision. If the officers were really as good/ coveted as they claim to be, the Railways wouldn’t have been in shambles the way it is today. For such officers nothing is more important than plush postings and their career. In most cases their honesty is also an afterthought and hides absolute incompetence in their assigned roles. Disappointed at the response of self styled leaders of the organization
Amit

DEBATE (1)
None other than Narendra Modi followed by Amit Shah. Second best is Sharad Pawar.
N K Singh (DG) Retd
DEBATE (2)
Any one from Gandhi family.
V G Gandhi
Some Rly officials worried unnecessarily
The officers of IRTS, IRAS &IRPS are unfoundedly and unnecessarily worried on their future from posts of Members and GMs. They have wider opportunities to become Members and GMs since these become open to all equally based on merit. So far Railways have suffered because of departmentalism both technical and non technical. The decision is a welcome and bold decision to benefit customers. These need to be implemented as fast as possible..
Shiva Prakash
Regressive step by CBDT
Notification for issue of ITR 1 and ITR 4 for AY 2020-21 has been issued. There are many comments from print media, views for CAs about the eligibility of filing ITR 1. One of them is being cited that joint ownership of house makes an assessee ineligible to file ITR 1. ITR1 is filed by salaried class, pensioners, Sr Citizens, most of the housewives who have income from interest etc. Most of these people are having the house property in joint names either husband-wife, father-son, father-daughter. It means nearly 90% in this category will become ineligible to file ITR 1. Is FM so ignorant that 90% of people in salaried class are having joint ownership of the property and making them ineligible to file ITR 1 for AY 2020-21 as per print media. If it is so, the modification in ITR 1 for AY 2020-21 to be withdrawn immediately before the matter gets escalated further. Let us simplify the filing system instead making more difficult and complex, ITR 1 has been developed after very detailed exercise and reiterations and any modification to ITR 1 to be done only after detailed discussion and inputs from professionals to avoid any undue complexity and difficulties to assesses. The matter requires immediate attention at appropriate level. Hoping for the best.
Naveen

DEBATE(1)
Modi. Just no replacement of Modi - give him some time, he will show his true nationalism.
Krishna Garg
DEBATE(2)
Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi.
Shobha Rani
“Republic Day 2020”
Tableaux proposals received from Bengal, Maharashtra and Kerala for the Republic Day parade 2020, have been rejected by the Centre.
The States complain “You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours”.
The vendetta politics ultimately harms the Republic of India.
Is India sliding from Co-operative federalism to Competitive federalism ?
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
Debroy committee recommendation will lead to lesser heartburn
Of the 8000 officers in Indian Railways, less than 2000 are from the Civil Services viz. IRAS, IRTS and IRPS the rest are from the Engineering services, SCRA, Medical and RPF. The Engineers have an age advantage over those from the Civil services. Already the majority of general management posts like GM's and DRMs are with the Engineering Service officers. Now with the merger of the cadres it is feared that all top posts will go to the Engineering service officers because of the age advantage they enjoy. Debroy committee had suggested a two service formula with the technical services looking after train and track maintenance and operations and the combined Civil services looking after finance, HR and Commercial functions in the Railways. This recommendation, if adopted, will lead to lesser heartburn and better management than the concept of single service.
Vox Populi

DEBATE(1)
Nitin Gadkari, Priyanka Gandhi and Venkaiah Naidu are the three Prime Ministerial candidate for me.
Girish Parmar
DEBATE(2)
Yogi Adityanath is my choice for Prime Minister since he is truly a nationalist and I love his dedication and commitment fort the country.
Nidhi Jain
Every RTI application be responded separately
Since an application fee is paid for every RTI application, it has to be responded separately and independently but this should not give an unfettered right to an individual to file repeated RTI applications on the same issue. Therefore, this may be technically or legally a good decision, but may lead to difficulties for a pubic information officer who is saddled with numerous RTI applications on the same issue.
Sushila Katiyar