Zero tolerance towards crimes against women a top priority.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: After years of indecision in governance and policy making, the 55-minute address by President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday was music to many ears. It had all the ingredients to lift sagging morale that had dipped to new lows over the past decade as Mukherjee outlined the work cut out for the new government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was thankfully and obviously a clean break from the past.
Echoing the Modi ethos of minimum government and maximum governance, the President spoke about zero tolerance towards crime against women, especially in the wake of the latest rape of two sisters whose bodies were found hanging from a tree in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh. Crime against women had peaked during the UPA regime and is still continuing incessantly and with a certain degree of impunity that had caught the attention of the international community, including the United Nations. The spate of incidents of human rights violations has had an adverse impact on India and its position in the global rating indices.
Bequeathing an economy in shambles from the previous government, the NDA has been seen (earnestly) to work towards resurrecting the house back into shape with immediate effect. Mukherjee who had been a Finance Minister too during his long career as a politician, stressed on building a strong economy.
“Putting the Indian economy back on track is paramount for my government. We will work together to usher our economy into a high growth path, rein in inflation, reignite the investment cycle, accelerate job creation and restore the confidence of the domestic as well as international community in our economy,” the President said.
The deadly cocktail of a low GDP, poor tax collection rates and an untamed inflation had played havoc with the economy, which is today limping through an “extremely difficult phase”.
The paralysis in decision making that was the hall mark of the previous government had left many foreign and Indian investors in the lurch. To mitigate this and send out a business friendly signal, Mukherjee said the government will create a policy environment which is “predictable, transparent and fair”.
Further the tax regime would be simplified and made much more rational that would be “ conducive to investments, enterprise and growth”. The government would also put in place the much delayed GST regime, he said.
Long pending financial sector reforms like Goods and Services Tax (GST), which would subsume indirect levies such as excise, service and local taxes, has been highlighted as important agenda of the Modi government.
“My government will make every effort to introduce the GST while addressing the concerns of states,” Modi has said.
States have raised concerns over losing their autonomy once the new comprehensive indirect tax regime or GST would be introduced.
Manufacturing or the lack of it had been the bane of the Congress led UPA government which had in turn refused to provide a strong back bone to the economy. Addressing this need for a strong manufacturing base for the country, the President has promised to promote labor intensive manufacturing hubs. The new government will set up world class investment and industrial regions, particularly along the Dedicated Freight Corridors and Industrial Corridors spanning the country. It will strive to move towards a single-window system of clearances both at the centre and at the states through a hub-spoke model.
Similarly, infrastructure had been one of the main victims of neglect which had contributed to the negativity of the general investment climate of the country. Constant delays in getting roads, rail and power projects cleared had taken the companies to the edge during the UPA government. Modernization and revamping of railways – one of the largest networks in the world – is on top of the agenda where a ‘Diamond Quadrilateral’ project of high speed trains will be launched. The National Highways would soon get a fast, time-bound and well monitored programme for execution of projects. Besides low cost airways connecting smaller towns there would be efforts to launch waterways along the coast and via the rivers, the President outlined.
The energy sector needs a massive overhaul too especially with the spate of blackouts reaching unprecedented levels in the country.
With India still depending heavily on electricity generated via fossil fuels’, the shortage or unavailability of this source of energy had hit power plants and ultimately generation (which had been hit by a massive coal scam during the period of the previous government). With a focus on energy security, Mukherjee said the government would strive for a judicious mix of both conventional and non-conventional sources of energy while the coal sector would be overhauled. Already, global consultants are at work to restructure, Coal India Limited (CIL), the state-owned company that had been a victim of the multi-million dollar scam.
And with an eye for raising the levels of livelihood, the government has promised to give shelter to all water connection, toilet facilities and 24×7 electricity supplies.
Finally, it was the rejuvenation of Brand India that the new government wanted to spell out and the President who was outlining the government’s agenda in his address to the joint sitting of both houses of the parliament did play it up.
“Will revive ‘Brand India’, riding on its strengths of five ‘T’s — tradition, talent, tourism, trade and technology — and will pursue foreign policy on the basis of “enlightened nationalism” and mutually beneficial relationships…In 60 months from now, we should be able to say with confidence and pride that we have done it.’’
Yes, it’s time for rhetoric to take a back seat. Let the action begin.
1 Comment
(2nd Update) A SUGGESTION TO THE UTTAR PRADESH CHIEF MINISTER
CIA-RAW had removed my comment from the following stories in TehelkaDOTcom:
1) from a story titled “Brutality Looks Like This” about a woman in India’s tribal Northeast having had her head blown off, because my comment refers to the physical assault and brutalization I suffered in a Harvard University seminar which I described in my letter dated July 27, 1982 to Indira Gandhi as prime minister as “the equivalent of an annihilatory nuclear first strike on India“; in her reply dated July 29, 1982, she wrote “Dear Mr. Chandra, I have received your letter dated July 27, 1982 and am passing it on to my Principal Secretary to deal with it. Sincerely, Indira Gandhi“ ;
2) from a story titled “Tyranny of U.P. and Bihar” because my comment refers to the tyranny, including 24-hour surveillance by satellite, forced starvation for up to 3 weeks at a time, etc. under which I have been living for the past 37 years.
The Uttar Pradesh chief minister has complained that the media only seem to see the rapes that occur in Uttar Pradesh. He should ask the media how much reporting they have done on the following (‘India’s Traitor Government and Media’ : IndiasTraitorGovtAndMediaDOTblogspotDOTcom ):-
“”India’s greatest scientist and greatest living Indian publicly tortured in Harvard seminar, systematically and totally starved for up to 3 weeks at a time, made semi-starved and homeless and even blind for years, kept under 24-hour audio and video surveillance as well as surveillance of [and interference with] communications and electrical typewriter and computer use, document creation and photocopying, etc., by satellite for more than past 3 decades, systematically harassed and in poverty and neutralised and robbed of his work at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, robbed of crores in his money and property in India by C.I.A.-RAW, forced back into exile in the U.S., all with full cooperation and participation of India’s RAW and India’s C.I.A.-RAW-controlled prime ministers, politicians and media — to keep India poor, weak and enslaved” and how this means the nuclear destruction of New Delhi and then the coast-to-coast destruction of the U.S.; see my blog titled ‘Nuclear Supremacy For India Over U.S.’ which can be found by a Yahoo/Google search with the title; my biography can be found in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the World, 2014 and earlier editions.” In the past few years I have had India’s nuclear forces emplace India’s nuclear warheads in Washington, New York and other U.S. cities, ready to be exploded. Destroying Washington, New York and New Delhi (RAW headquarters, South Block and North Block) with a warning that additional U.S. cities will be similarly destroyed, with nuclear warheads already emplaced in them, if there is any retaliation or sign of retaliation, will immediately make India the supreme military and economic power in the world even before implementing my proposal about money which can make India’s economy grow 30% per year or more. IndiasLegitimateRulerSatishChandraDOTblogspotDOTcom Satish Chandra