Whispers Forum

Watching inane TV debates 24x7 involving second rate politicians, professing third rate ideologies, is making us insane. The media wants us to eat, drink and breathe politics and die like morons. To hell with this intellectual terrorism.
No right-thinking Indian should support subtle manipulation of gullible minds of voters. Freedom of speech is a farce. And, so is the sham democracy. We are filled with hatred, anguish and contempt for politics. Media is sold out to media barons remote-controlled by politico- criminal- bureaucratic mafia.
Corruption grows many times over during elections. And, so do communalism, casteism and sub- nationalism causing permanent damage to country's secular fabric. Some politicians demand a separate Prime minister for Kashmir. Election Commission is speechless, helpless. Permanent executive has failed, as always, awaiting orders from the political class that is presently pre-occupied with politics.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
An excellent officer
Dr. Ravi Kanth is an excellent officer and has done well wherever, he was posted.
DB Sabharwall

The latest institution that has come under the hammer is Information Commission, it seems. The right to information was a great step towards making citizens empowered. Its dilution started a few years ago and perhaps is on its wayout. That two committees comprising of bureaucrats will probe the complaints against CIC and information commissioners. This is certainly an onslaught on the Independence of the commission without which the commission is useless. As it is the Commission had become a parking lot for retired civil servants. Still it did exercise its role mostly in an impartial manner true to its role. the citizens including the aggrieved civil servants could ask for the information denied to them otherwise and why should they not get it when it affects them personally. For example an officer is not empanelled for Joint Secretary's post inspite of best of reports simply because opinion about him or her was sought from someone senior or junior without him knowing from whom and that someone gave unfavourable opinion maybe out of malice ,,jealousy or simply cussedness. Had the officer known the names he or she would have the opportunity to explain why the other person was hostile to him or her. The present Government has done some great things but some policies and actions have ruined many institutions which is not good for Democracy .i hope better sense prevails and the activists who were responsible for forcing the government to enact right to Information Act stop its dilution.
Aarti Khosla
Excellent gesture
Excellent gesture by UAE and an resounding success of the policies of PM.
Srinivas

Apropos WIC News item dt April 2, 2019.
DOP&T has invited applications from officers of organised services subject to fulfillment of certain criteria. Those interested may apply to DOP&T with an “ Essay “ (300 words) to justify their suitability for the assignment.
But, who will evaluate the essays? This remains a riddle inside an enigma wrapped in mystery. Babus in DOP&T, Cab Sectt or PMO ?
A small suggestion. Personality tests of written-qualified shortlisted candidates must be conducted by a three- member committee headed by the PM, with CJI and LOP ( or Rahul baba) as members.
Civil Services aspirants should be available for providing free coaching to the applicants in Essay writing. They have a compulsory paper on essay writing in UPSC’s civil services examination.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

The Appellant sought information regarding tariff chart for parking of cars at Terminal 2 Delhi Airport. The PIO submitted that DIAL is a private authority and is entrusted with the responsibility of looking after all operational matters etc. of IGI Airport and therefore it is free to fix tariff as per Chapter XII of the DIAL Operation, Management and Development Agreement. He referred the RTI Application to Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) under Section 6(3) of RTI Act while mentioning in the same letter that DIAL is not a public authority under RTI Act. The CIC took grave exception to the reply of the CPIO observing it as absurd and admonishes the CPIO for his gross non-application of mind in dealing with the RTI Application. The CIC noted that Ministry of Civil Aviation has regulatory powers over all airports in India. The CIC held that if the PIO maintains that DIAL looks after all operational matters of IGI Airport, the Ministry of Civil Aviation should be in a position to access the information from DIAL if the same is not available with their office.
Comments
If DIAL is not a public authority under RTI Act, by implication Section 6(3) of the RTI Act has no applicability for the said authority. The definition of information under the RTI Act is wide. Under section 2(f), “information” means not only any material in any form held by the public authority but also any information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force.
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: http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/

In a recent case the Bank and its Central Pension wing had asked the widow to submit the documents that are for persons other than the wife of the deceased. DOPT should clearly and firmly tell the Banks that as long as the pension account is jointly held by the deceased and his wife, only death certificate is necessary to release the family pension. Asking for life certificate, employment certificate, non-marriage certificate etc should be clearly avoided. The purpose of indicating family pension in the PPO is defeated if the Banks decide to impose its own rules.
Lakshminarayanan

The slogan to the extent it says 'Na khaunga' could be correct. But 'Na khane doonga' is a purely a myth, a bunkum. .
Paarth
Wanted 545 Chowkidars
Voters in India have to select and elect 545 Chowkidars to guard the Republic, public money, assets, governance, policy and democracy for the next 5 years. They should henceforth be called the Chowkidar, not people’s representative or simply members of parliament. These Chowkidars do their duty. They examine, debate, support or oppose all legislation. They ask questions in Parliament on all matters concerning the vast variety of subjects from defence to economy included in the Union List of subjects in the Constitution of India and the Concurrent List. They supervise governance of state/s under President’s Rule. They force adjournment of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha to consider any matter of urgent public significance. They move call attention notice to discuss matters of importance. They move No Confidence Motion against the government, thereby keeping a strict vigil on government functioning, and remove any corrupt or inefficient government. They grant funds for public expenditure. They decide on all matters of taxation. They go into minute details in Committees of the parliament which have expert advice available to them on the issue. They provide oversight to every department by way of Parliamentary Standing committee on each department of the government, whose chairperson is the minister of the department. They have the power to impeach the President and judges of the SC/HC. They can exercise all the powers on any residual matters not allotted specifically to any authority. If these 545 Chowkidars were to work honestly and do their duty as by law cast upon them, no scams of any kind can ever happen. It depends on the voters to make the right choice, elect only persons of such integrity and character and capability. The voter can then rest in peace for 5 years. The shor/noise being made by the chors/looters will fall silent the moment these 545 chowkidars start working as per the mandate of the Constitution of India.
M L Gupta

This Congress Party and AAP by not having alliance have as on date gifted atlaeast 3 Lok Sabhs Seats in Delhi to BJP. Only if they contest together, certainly AAP and Congress will get at least 6 lok sabha seats from delhi. BJP getting even one seat is remote. Hope they change their decision and contest together.
Pankaj Kumar
This is my personal number,you can speak to me directly!
Public-men are usually very liberal and generous in telling the people and also giving them their phone numbers, to contact them directly ,in case of need. But generally, such people, high-ups, bureaucrats, dignitaries, remain elusive to the people in need. They seldom personally pick up the phone to respond and rather their personal attendants would come out with the age- old excuses of the dignitaries about their being extremely busy in meetings of seniors or still more important people. Such people ,so often, would get the taste of their own medicine, when the persons ,whom they want to contact, come out with better inventions of not responding or responding in a very strange way. There was a principal secretary, whose phone will respond with a recorded message. He would never respond to any message, unless and until, it was said in the message that his minister or chief minister had given a message for him to perform certain job. There is another category of people, who do not pick up the phone at all. About four decades back, a prime minister was to visit a place in Himachal Pradesh. For any emergency landing on any airport, Adampur was the nearest place. So ,as per the protocol, all necessary arrangements were made at Jalandhar, as if prime minister would stay there. A hotline phone was to be provided from the circuit house to the prime minister's residence. The telephone authorities fixed up all the apparatus and rang up prime minister's residence to check, if the line was fully operational. But in spite of dialing the prime minister's residence a number of time, no one responded. The telephone authorities sent their senior officer from Delhi to the place. It was only then that the grave panic ended and everyone heaved a sigh of relief. A chief minister wanted to speak to his chief secretary very urgently. His staff tried its best, but only recorded message was heard. A special car had to be sent to the chief secretary's residence to tell him to speak to the chief minister. Many legislators and ministers, so often, very grudgingly rue that chief minister played like Aladin's treasure and remained inaccessible to them. There are, however instances ,when the dignitaries responded adequately ,even at the oddest hours. A message of the prime minister office was received by the deputy commissioner through the chief secretary. The message was conveyed to the concerned person at 1 AM at night. It was to be told to the Chief Secretary. The deputy commissioner told me to convey back the message to the chief secretary. Since , I was junior to the deputy commissioner, Ivery diffidently rang up the chief secretary. I never expected that he would personally pick up the phone and do it so quickly. But IC Puri, who was then chief secretary spoke in a highly dignified way at that odd hour. Another example of easy and effective accessibility of the officer came my way, when i had to travel with him ,after attending a meeting at Chandigarh. After every few minutes ,he would get a call at his mobile. Most of the calls pertained to the unlawful use of loud speakers. He would immediately get in contact with the concerned police officials directly and continued pursuing till the police parties departed for taking action. He would also tell the concerned sub divisional magistrates to monitor.We were near the Birowal religious place, when he received a call from a bitterly crying girl. He stopped the car to carefully listen to the panic struck girl. The girl lived in a village near Banga. She had told that her in-laws had turned her out along with two small children at that hour of the night. It was 10.30.pm then. The officer, who was deputy commissioner, immediately spoke to the senior superintendent of police. He later on directly spoke to station house officer of Banga police station too. He rang back to the girl twice to reassure her. He told me that he would first go to Banga police station and then proceed to the village of the girl. He seemed to be man possessed to help a person in deep distress. At Banga ,he told the girl that he would be personally coming to the place of her in-laws and would call her there. I got down from his car at Banga to sit in my car, which was following. I had to go to Amritsar. On the way , i rang him up. He told me that he had gathered the panchayat at that time, who got the responsibility of the safety of the girl and her children and her living in the house honourably. He looked fresh at 3.30am.There cannot be another person like him. He was, the then deputy commissioner Nawanshehar, Krishan kumar.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar

In recent times, a lot of concern has been raised on the Indian Statistical System. On the one hand, there are people questioning the methodology and data and on the other hand, we have people who are questioning the withholding of data. Barring the former members of the NSC, who had the courage to resign from the NSC on the question of ethics, the majority has no concern for the Indian Statistical System. They just want to exploit the system for their vested interest. All governments, present as well as past, have paid little attention to the Statistical System. Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis, the father of the Indian Statistical System, has demonstrated that for large scale surveys, sampling is better than census because it is carried out by skilled manpower. But, NSSO was long back forced to compromise and go for unskilled manpower because the successive Governments refused to bear the cost of skilled manpower. The system of Economists being appointed as CSI further eroded the system because they were neither interested in the development of the statistical system, nor had the prior exposure of dealing with such a system. This has put the present leadership in a tricky situation where they have to defend the indefensible. It is time to assign due priority to the Indian Statistical System to ensure proper infrastructure and functional space. In spite of all the limitations, the system has scored distinction because it is based on sound footings. It just needs necessary support and importance. The Statistical System in general and ISS Cadre in particular is not getting due functional space and liberty in various ministries and departments. It is time to set this right. Otherwise, statistics as a tool is bound to fail again and again because it remains no one’s child. –
A. K. Verma, ISS (Retd.)
Der aye durast aye
At last Yasin Malik has been put in the jail and his JKLF has been banned. It is thirty years since he gunned down four IAF officers near Rawalpura on the Srinagar Airport road while they were waiting for their vehicle to pick them up for their office. Yasin Malik not only got away but had been enjoying life, getting married to a Pakistani woman as also being taken care of for his medical needs and security by the state. This was due to misplaced belief of our bureaucrats who held sensitive posts and handled Kashmir that any action against separatists would further alienate them. These gentlemen as also the so-called Track 2 gentry involved in 'solving 'the Kashmir problem thought that these separatists should be treated carefully with kid gloves to win them over. As a result they not only got money and respect from Pakistan but also from our agencies as admitted by one such bureaucrat in his book. As far Yasin Malik, I have seen him being hosted by some worthies in India International Centre where he will trot in like a hero. It angered me whenever I saw him here on quite a few occasions a few years back. How could anyone befriend a fellow who killed our Air Force Officers and was involved in other acts of terrorism. At last this Government burst his bubble. It is for too long that he was left untouched but 'der aye durast aye'.
Aarti Khosla

Your write-up is absolutely true even in the present day. Our system is so horribly corrupt that even some well meaning political leaders and bureaucrats can hardly do anything. I am a resident of the great city of Bangalore right from my birth seven decades ago and I know how money takes care of everything.
Srinivas
What media exhibits is far from reality !
I beg to disagree that Rahul Gandhi met Chinese Ambassador during Doklam happenings. The reality is no political leader especially of this high stature can meet without the knowledge of the MEA/MHA and allied agencies of MHA. What media exhibits is far from reality.
Harish Kumar

It's because they want to play for their administrative Ministry in a defensive wicket and they have no other role play for now. I heard some of the signatories in the TV channels who argues without knowing ABC of official statistics. Even they have misled so much to our Finance Minister that he claims even IMF and World Bank accepts our statistics. I would like to bring to the notice of the policy makers and administrators of this country that the international organisations like IMF, World Bank and UN bodies have to accept the official statistics provided by the sovereign states as it is, they can only manipulate, interpolate or extrapolate the statistics for those time points which have no data reported by Member States. As far as Indian Statistical System is concerned, it is not going to be cowed down by a few politicians or other professionals for long. It's a testing time for the official statistics fraternity in India and this time will pass away. But surely, there is only take away point from this debate: the institution of official statistics represented by National Statistical Commission, MoSPI and other statistical Units/Divisions in the Ministries are being weakened/bypassed and if this issue is not taken seriously, one of the best statistical system in the world would be damaged beyond repair.
PC

I have been seriously reading and enjoying your posts which are based on experience and our day to day life. But what is the remedy. It is a failure of our system whether in selection, election, nomination or postings of officials (especially those holding tenure posts as in the case of IAS ) or politicians . We elect politicians but we do'not have choice. The politicians are self proclaimed reformers and social workers who are paratroopers of political parties. They are forced on masses. Similarly, senior officials are posted with a fixed tenure. Their tenure is divisible into three parts ie initial tenure when they pick up implementable duties and study drawbacks of the system they have inherited or predecessor, second implement the programme according their wisdom and lastly get ready for next posting to repeat the same cycle else where in State or Central Government. They are not liable for any failures till they superannuation. They never ever get adverse ACRs as long as they are not head on against their bosses. Their is a strong affinity and bond among Indian Civil Servants. They believe in hierarchy more than any uniformed force. Politicians are hungry for their popularity and look deep into pockets from where they can extract pecuniary benefit. They are easily be fooled by strong officials. What is lacking in our society, as late FM SAM Maneckshaw once told, is the national character. He had defined 'character' also in a very simple way ie when you see a wrong thing and ignore it is our 'character'. We see a lot of wrong things/ doings and yet choose to ignore them. We all the Citizens will have to rise above petty gains and stop ignoring even the smallest of wrong things only then our society our villages can improve. Imposing schemes and ideas wont do any thing, we have to be self motivated whether it is government officials or politicians or a commoner.
Ravinder Pal Batra