They will be overconfident! Congress doesn't have the organizational capability remaining....BJP will see its rise in West Bengal and UP!
Abhishek
Hathras tragedy: Faster follow-up action needed
The stampede killed 121people, largely women and children, injuring hundreds others. Not an isolated incident .Such incidents will continue to happen in future unless exemplary action is taken against the primary, secondary and tertiary offenders for exploiting the superstitious, illiterate devotees. Strangely, the kingpin is still at large. His name is not included in the FIR by the UP police despite the former's dubious antecedents. Failure of local intelligence unit, must be looked into? A combination of factors have contributed to the disaster. First and foremost, the high turnout of devotees is disproportionately larger than the “guestimate” submitted by the organizers to the offices of DM and the SSP. Second, lack of expertise in crowd management by the unprofessional sevadars. Third, the poorly managed venues and infrastructure. Was prior exercise on access control at the venue, carried out by the authorities? There was reportedly a single common entry and exit route. Many questions arise whether the Standard operating procedure was followed? Why was adequate police force not deployed at the venue? Was prior inspection carried out by the district authorities before granting permission? DM, SSP will have much to explain. A tragedy of such gigantic proportion calls for a judiciary-monitored inquiry by a professional, independent agency like the CBI. The inquiry by the State machinery is not advised especially as district officials are directly involved. A time limit should be fixed for completion of inquiry and conviction of all concerned by the authorities. The officers and their subordinates cannot be let off with mere warnings. Departmental proceedings should be initiated straightaway to fix their culpability, negligence and dereliction of duties .This could take place along with criminal proceedings in the court of law. The CBI, one hopes, would, no doubt, scrutinize the sources of disproportionate assets acquired by the Godman over the years and the sources of funding..There are several unauthorized buildings belonging to him in several States across the country. Where did the capital come from? Inter-states ramifications. Why were these assets and sources of funding not brought under the radar of income tax authorities and ED? It looks like concrete action is being avoided for inexplicable reasons to protect the offenders. One trusts, a bold Forum like the WIC puts its best foot forward for bringing about Ethics in governance, liquidation of corruption, probity in public life and rule of law. Laid back approach will mean travesty of justice.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

Aviation business is a loss making business and the Government shouldn't be in that because Taxpayers Tax money will be used to reduce losses and pay salaries which can be used in a better place! So selling Air India was a good choice! And that to Tata even better ! The Government should be focused on Increasing the BSNL services ! Leaving a telecom industry to private hands completely in India is a bad Decision Govt should focus on revival of BSNL alone or they can go for a PPP model with Adani. It will be best according to the current scenario.
Divyansh

The cost of higher education and professional degrees is too high. But when they start earning, they are punished for high earning as if high income is a punishable offence. The pain is aggravated when the returns are poor. Rather they are negative unless rules are broken at convenience. On a humble flat in Delhi or other state capital the buyer has to pay close to 3 Crore including registry charges. The buyer has to take a loan for it and pay instalments for 20 years. The cost of a professional degree comes for more. They are called the national talent pool- in whom the politician is always quick to take pride, especially in international fora. Is such a pool entitled for reimbursement of this huge financial investment in acquiring high skills and education? They are, regrettably, penalised for it by high income tax leaving little to service the education loan taken. They were expecting a new Finance Minister this time but Smt Nirmala Sitaraman is back again! The approach of the Finance Ministry has been anti-growth, devoid of innovative initiatives, outdated mostly. Talent has long been driven out of the country. The Finance Ministry never regretted such flight of talent/brain drain. It is absurd to take pride in Indians heading the world’s top MNCs abroad. They could have done it in India also provided the Finance Ministry ever thought out of the box. The nation suffered on research and development, invention and innovation, manufacture and patent etc. A person worried about finances and living the life of a middle class person can’t afford to think highly about such issues and if s/he decides to fly away for high remuneration and growth opportunity, nobody can complain. Our national loss is their gain without investment. Can the finance ministry change income tax laws and its attitude to the wealth creators’ pool? Education abroad costs India billions. The money spent could have created newer educational institutions to meet the requirements. If the new government ignores the demand for huge income tax relief to make the ROI for self-financed higher/professional education financially sound, contribution to make India World’s Third Economy and Viksit Bharat can’t be accelerated.
M L Gupta

Recently, there has been a spate of incidents of collapse of bridges, pillars of airport terminal, flooding of under passes etc. across the country. This clearly shows gross negligence and lack of proper planning/ supervision and maintenance on the part of all technical persons involved in the project. Added to this is the clearing of bills etc without proper scrutiny for "Consideration" by the accounts and other technical persons. Mere suspension of officials is nothing and the individuals are not bothered by it.( It does not pinch them monetarily. It is therefore necessary that the Government amends its Conduct Rules to impose heavy monetary punishment on all individuals starting from the lowest level to the Highest ie Corporators, MLA's and Ministers. Probably this may instill some fear amongst officials and they may do their job sincerely.
S Gopal

Modi can’t answer on Manipur, inflation, NEET. I do not agree with the views expressed by Faiz in Whispers on July 5, 2024. It is incorrect to say that BJP had allowed their Members to intervene during the speech of LOP and why aren’t the opposition members allowed to do the same during the PM’s speech. Perhaps Faiz does not watch the live proceedings of the Houses of Parliament or he watches it with one eye open only. I had watched the debate in both Houses. Whenever some Members of BJP tried to intervene, there was a signal from Jitendra Prasad to keep quiet. In fact from day 2 of the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, not a single Member from BJP benches had intervened particularly when LOP was speaking despite the fact that he was giving false statements. On the contrary, at no time, perhaps since 2014, when the PM was allowed to speak undisturbed. Whenever he rose to speak, the opposition party members raised unnecessary slogans and many times they entered the Well of the House and many times they stood in front of the PM. As regards Manipur and NEET, our PM had clearly spoken about it and the need to take corrective action. Perhaps our friend forgets that the situation of Manipur has remained equally bad in the past too and that the Government had to resort to President’s Rule in the State. There is now a need to open both eyes to see and contribute to the development of our country Bharat.
Pradeep

You may continue to spread wisdom through the RTI Column and the public information officers will continue not to follow them. The Information Commission will continue to overlook the deliberate and continuous lackluster performance of the PIO. It is shocking if the PIO does not follow the instructions of the FAA and no action is taken against him. Hail RTI Act.
Shamsher Singh
Mumbai Police very professional in dealing with crowd
Celebrations for India’s World Cup victory. We saw a huge gathering of citizens of Bharat in Mumbai yesterday (04 July 2024) at Marine Drive when our winning team travelled from Mumbai Airport to Wankhede Cricket Stadium. All had travelled to cheer our cricket team who had brought laurels to Bharat. There are two lessons to be learnt from this. One, the Mumbai crowd was very disciplined and the Mumbai Police had managed this huge crowd very well. There was no incident of stampede, like the one which had taken place in Hathras. And, two, the unity shown by the crowd. If this unity is shown by the people of Bharat, Bharat can very soon become the world’s number one country. Pradeep
Pradeep

Large number of people died in the stampede during the satsang of Bhole Baba in Hathras, UP. According to preliminary information, to prevent the crowd from reaching Baba, his personal security personnel and sevadars pushed some people, due to which they fell. It is unfortunate that despite about 60 percent literacy in the country, hypocritical babas organize such gatherings. The question is why such babas become successful in the modern era? The reason for this is that there is tension and unrest in the society due to many reasons. Apart from this, the common man of the country is struggling with basic problems. In such a situation, he easily trusts the babas. Babas exploit this innocent faith of the devotees.
Nancy Singh