Rays of Hope

In a democracy like India, the citizens pin much hopes on the country’s legal system, because when power corrupts the leaders, it is only the legal system and the judiciary which can assume the saviour’s role. For the legal system and judiciary to command respect, it should be able to send strong signals that it is capable of safeguarding the interests of the people, when democratic system is abused by leaders. The efficiency of the legal system and judiciary is judged more on this capability than on any other factor. It is widely accepted that delivery of justice along with a strong message that justice has actually been delivered is one of the core elements of jurisprudence.

The maxims enshrined in the Constitution of India that all are equal before law and that no one should be discriminated against on any grounds are undoubtedly among the most important doctrines and perhaps the basic spirit of the nation’s paramount statute book. The series of verdicts of the Special CBI Court, Ranchi in connection with the fodder scam cases are to be seen from this perspective. The verdicts serve to reinforce the faith and trust of the people of India in the country’s legal system and judiciary.

Financial Discipline

The banks in India, particularly many of the nationalized banks are hit by a multitude of ailments like ever mounting bad debts (known as NPAs), bottlenecks in fresh capital infusion, tardy credit growth, fast declining profitability bordering on or already wriggling in losses. The main causative factor for the mess is nothing but bad debts. It is common knowledge that the lion’s share of bad debts is the contribution of big corporate houses, resultant of willful defaults, and frauds committed by the borrowers with the connivance of some intermediate beneficiaries.

The large scale default of big loans by business houses and so called high profile persons and ‘tycoons’ (an aberration which can be called ‘tycoonism’) and the limitations or the inability of the legal system in recovering the amount from the defaulters have sent a wave of delinquency across the banking and financial sector prompting even earlier regularly repaying borrowers to default on their repayments, thereby aggravating the situation on the bad debts front. This tendency has to be arrested at all cost for the survival of banks. For this, the Government should act in such a manner as to send strong messages that loan defaulters will not be left scot free and that no borrower would get a preferential treatment on account of any consideration, whatsoever.

The basic element of financial discipline is repayment disciple. This applies equally to individuals and firms. Once repayment discipline of a community / nation is lost, the resultant perils would be disastrous. Let this does not happen in India. Let us hope the State would take pro-active steps.

Electoral Prudence

We have been hearing a few stock rhetorics from our political parties every time when a general election to the parliament is round the corner. With 2019 general elections not far from us, we have started to hear the same thing again now. The magniloquence which has started catching up includes the usual stock words or phrases like ‘Grand Alliance’, ‘Third Front’ (no pun intended), ‘common minimum programme’, ‘like-minded parties’, ‘reinstatement of democracy’, and so on and so forth. A hotchpotch of about two dozen political outfits with conflicting and mutually antagonistic interests (not ideologies) is now thinking of coming together and fighting the elections.

We have a few previous instances where we have already seen that after somehow managing to manoeuvre a majority through an alliance of convenience, such groups of political outfits including some misfits are not able to run a government even for a little more than half of its full term. No naive person would ever believe that such a group will be able to provide a stable government with a concrete plan and consensus policies. Every right thinking citizen in the country would earnestly believe and hope that only a party or alliance which can provide a stable government lasting its full term would be suitable for India. By handing over power to a hotchpotch alliance, the electorate is only knowingly becoming party to the premature death of a government and inviting an uncalled for mid-term election which is a highly expensive proposition. This is a matter which the electorate should seriously ponder.

As responsible voters we should not miss out on the larger picture - the politics of nation building. Coming together is good; but ideas and ideologies have to converge to a common ground, i.e. building a great nation, a super power that is India. Nation building should be kept above everything else. The electorate has a great responsibility in building up the nation. They are not gaining anything out of petty politics. They should learn from their past mistakes.

The electorate should definitely ponder over this ignoring all political considerations. There begins the building up of a nation which brings pride for all Indians irrespective of politics.

Before Long

Banks are the place where the country’s scarce economic resources which include the hard earned, honestly earned money of common man are parked on the strength of the perceived safety and security of the banking edifice. What has been happening in the country for the last two decades is that a small group of individuals, who are dignified looters, robbers and thieves in the guise of business tycoons are eating away the scarce economic resources parked in banks by availing colossal amounts of loans, taking to a flamboyant life, building up an empire, willfully defaulting the loan repayment and then playing the disappearing game. About 80% of the bad loans of Indian banks are the contribution of this small minority who are only a few thousands in number. And this is all being done with the connivance of certain other greedy, ruthless sections of the society, who, again, are only a minority. About the looting of national wealth by the political community, the less said, the better.

Thus what we have been witnessing for a quite long period is nothing but a massive exploitation of the country’s wealth by a minority through the above modus operandi. This is the basic reason for the social and economic imbalances witnessed.  And, the hazards faced by the economy by the cold-blooded acts of the above minority are made good by the State by passing on the burden to the common man through higher taxation and consistently pushing up the cost of living, without any worthwhile increase in income.

This gross distortion in the economy is one of the most important things to be set right for setting up an egalitarian and truly democratic society. This has to happen before long. It is bound to happen before long.

The Fugitive Businessmen

The Rs.12600 crore PNB scam allegedly committed by the fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav and his associates with the alleged connivance of bank officials, auditors etc. is being subjected to a multi agency investigation with SFIO, ED and CBI engrossed in the investigation. In the case of the elusive business ‘tycoon’ Vijay Mallya, the British courts, ED and CBI are occupied with his financial crimes. In all probability, bringing the real culprits to justice would take a very long time, going by the complexity of the financial frauds and the ‘profile’ and connections of the accused.

In this context, one is reminded of the case of Harshad Mehta and his associates who siphoned off whopping funds from inter-bank transactions and bought shares heavily at a premium across many segments, triggering an astronomical rise in the BSE Sensex in 1992. When the scheme was exposed, banks started demanding their money back, causing the collapse. He was later charged with 72 criminal offences, and more than 600 civil action suits were filed against him. Unlike Vijay Mallya and Nirav,  Harshad Mehta did not take to fleeing the country. Still the litigation took about one decade before the Supreme Court confirmed Bombay High Court’s judgement convicting Mehta and sentencing him to five years rigorous imprisonment. However, by that time Mehta had attained ‘salvation’ in 2001, though his death happened while in criminal custody.