A Great Salute to the Guardians

When most of us are sleeping in the comforts of our home or sitting in the comforts of our office, thousands of people are working in the border areas, exposing themselves to the highest perils and uncertainties of life and vagaries of nature. They are silently toiling for their mother land, in blood freezing chill unmindful of their struggles so that others can sleep in peace with all comforts.

Life in the armed forces is not like any other. When you are protecting your country's borders 16,000 feet above sea level at a temperature of -50 degrees at the Siachen Glacier, it can't be just another job. Neither is battling an average temperature of 50 degrees in the blistering heat of Rajasthan.

Unfortunately, these sections of people are mostly immersed in oblivion and their life comes to the limelight only when some tragic happenings befall upon them or when a military tension breaks out in the border.  The most unfortunate part of the whole thing is some of the false perceptions about military life among the general public.

We have been seeing many soldiers in the prime of their life becoming poor victims of the hurricane of animosity emanating from the country’s enemies. We have seen our enemies’ bullets hitting our dear soldiers shattering the life of lots of hapless families with small children. One might argue that the nation takes proper care of the families of those slain soldiers. But can that be any match to the tragedy which happened to those soldiers and the untold miseries undergone by them?

Can there be a more noble, dignified and righteous death than the death which embraced our dear soldiers while safeguarding the nation, least mindful of their pains and sufferings?   A Great Salute to you all!

This post is humbly dedicated to all the soldiers of the Indian army, about whom the entire 136 crores strong populace of the country should be proud of.

Restraint With Limits

The history of modern (independent) India shows that India would not do anything to initiate an external aggression, though India would retaliate if provoked beyond an extent. In all situations of tension with neighbouring countries, India’s first preference has always been to resort to diplomatic solution, keeping military intervention as the last choice. This is what India is trying to do at this juncture when Islamabad sponsored violence has erupted in Kashmir.

Indian Constitution empowers the President to declare a National emergency on the basis of external aggression or armed rebellion in the whole of India or a part of India. Such an emergency was declared in India in 1962 during Chinese aggression, in 1971 during Pakistan war, and in 1975 declared by Indira Gandhi. The President can declare such an emergency on the basis of a written request by the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister, subject to a few other legislative compliances.

During an emergency, the term of the Lok Sabha can be successively extended by intervals of up to one year, but not beyond six months after the state of emergency has been revoked.

A national emergency modifies the federal system of government to a unitary one by granting Parliament the power to make laws on the subjects of the State List.Also, all state money bills are referred to the Parliament for its approval.

Here, the point is that with all the powers granted by the Constitution and though India is a major military power in the world, India is not very keen to demonstrate it to the world through launching an aggression against a neighbouring country. But such a restraint which is compelled by preference of peace to war is not without limits, as we have seen earlier. This is what the whole world now looks forward to. India also weighs the fact that military tension in Asia would have a direct impact on the whole of the world and wants to obviate it to the best possible extent.

The Fear of Retaliation

Independent India has seen a few of its governments at the centre making an attempt to deal with the inter-related issues of corruption, black money, concealment of income, tax evasion etc. The sincerity and earnestness of such attempts have of course been of varying degrees. However, we have seen on each occasion that such attempts alienate a major section of the electorate from the government.

During the last few years, the corrupt, the black money holding, the income concealing and the tax evading segments of our society, which include those in politics as well as those from other walks of life, have been seeing an uneasy calm prevailing and have been in a very disturbed state thanks to a few increased efforts initiated to curb the above mentioned evils. A new breed of high power individuals also joined this section in recent times, i.e. some business magnates who swindled away colossal amounts of money from India’s banking system and took to fleeing the country.

The displeasure of these ‘powerful’ segments of the society is a decisive factor in India’s political and social arena. These segments have the power to decide as to who would rule the country and who should shape their destiny when a change of government is due.This explains the reason why the present and a few of the previous governments diluted their anti black money efforts mid way, making it difficult for the country to see any worthwhile results from the tardily implemented measures.

India’s social, political and economical upbringing since independence has been least conducive for adoption of any harsh measures to tackle the above evils as the evil makers are colossally powerful and the retaliation of any such measures would be far reaching for the implementing government.

The Moral and More

It is a hard core fact that almost all the political parties in India have originated from dissent or conflict with some other parties either as a new formation or as a splinter faction. And mostly, the vested interests of a handful of persons would have triggered their genesis.

In India’s parliamentary democracy, we have witnessed a few instances earlier, where a host of such parties joined together and formed an ‘alliance of convenience’ or an arrangement of 'understanding’ on the eve of an election with the sole objective of defeating another alliance / party / leader. We also saw that whenever such a ‘conglomeration of disparate elements’ won the elections, after forming a government, growth took a reverse turn, nation’s interests and development took a back seat and the temporarily forgotten earlier dissents and conflicts and vested interests again rose to the fore and became more prominent and uncontrollable, eventually leading to the premature death of the government and an early, unwarranted and avoidable election at the cost of the voters’ hard earned money. In short, an unstable and short lived government, reversal of growth and an early election are the only final take-aways of a wrong choice made by the voters at the time of casting their vote.

The moral of the earlier failed experiments is very clear. That is, politics should not be the consideration while casting the vote and instead, getting a stable government having the minimum chances of developing internal conflicts and maximum chances of running its full term and no chance of reversal of growth should be the aim of the voter and casting of the vote has to be done accordingly. This is the paramount responsibility of a voter.

It will be in the interests of the nation if the moral of the earlier failed experiments is always borne in mind by every voter.

Enforcement of Financial Legislations

We have an array of legislations aimed at regulating / facilitating / ensuring prompt payment of income tax and various other taxes, prevention of concealment of income or wealth, enforcement of financial discipline by individuals and institutions, avoidance of denial of social and financial justice to any section of the society etc. The Income Tax Act, The Wealth Tax Act, The Foreign Exchange Management Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act etc. are just a few among them. These Acts have also been undergoing periodic amendments aimed at making them more effective. The intentions behind all such Acts are noble. However, unfortunately, certain sections of the society have a feeling that they are above the purview of all these laws and they are adept in blatantly flouting them resorting to several ruthless methods. They include corporates, industrialists, film stars, politically powerful individuals, some bureaucrats, some professionals and even some segments of the so called ‘common man’.

This obnoxious infringement of financial laws by some sections is one of the major reasons behind the economic imbalances in our society and the ever growing gulf between the rich and the poor, in spite of the several well meaning initiatives the post liberalisation India has seen. These sections with the help of professionals and connivance of the law makers as well as the law enforcing agencies have created a strong impression that the laws are meant not for them and defeat the noble intentions behind the financial legislations.

Very frequently we see the issue of notices to film celebrities, corporate houses, corrupt bureaucrats etc. for various offences like concealment of income, tax evasion, keeping unaccounted money, money laundering etc. by agencies like the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate etc. on obtention of incriminating evidences against them. A lot of noise is generated in the media in every such instance. (Some are happening without any ‘publicity’ also.) However, after that precious little is heard about how such cases are dealt with and decided. This is because the cases are somehow hushed up through the ugly influence of political power or money power. This is a sordid state of affairs. No earnest attempts seem to have been taken by any of the Governments so far to address the above serious issue.

The law enforcing agencies will earn credibility only when they start dealing with all financial offenders on an equal footing without any fear or favour or obligation, notwithstanding their political lineage or clout or financial power or celebrity status. To say the least, their approach and actions should never become a disincentive to the honest sections of the society, who do not enjoy any special protection under our laws.