5. Manmohan Singh- Sonia Gandhi -Selfish Interest

5.

SELFISH INTEREST

Economic issues

The Utter Pradesh state wanted a special package of over Re.17,000 crore. Maharastra state demanded a similar amount. Bihar wanted Re. 150,000 crore as a compensation for the loss of mineral rich Jharhand.

With regard to the Budget, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, former Prime Minister of India, wrote a centre page article in “The Hindu” on 14 July 2004.

He said that interest payment was tad over 27.1 per cent, pension and travel expenses 11 percent, subsidies 9.1 percent, defense 16.1 percent and plan allocation 34.26 percent. He added that the budget called for political and intellectual resources that eluded the collective leadership and a political will and vision that is rare. He described Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, and Mr. P. Chithambaram, Finance Minister, as creatures of habit and prisoners of their numbers. Finally, he said that the reforms in their mind were very different from what India needed.

Thus he predicted a gloomy future for the nation to create necessary ground for selling more Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).

On the same day, the BJP said that it would oppose the increase in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limits in insurance, civil aviation and telecom sectors. The BJP leaders said it as if they had not taken a similar decision while they were in office.

          The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) came out with a public issue in the last week of July 2004.

          Now there were reports that Dr. Manmohan Singh allowed the LIC and the nationalized banks to  release a huge amount to the public to buy the shares of the TCS at an inflated price of over Re.800/-. Thus the Prime Minister showed his intention to perpetrate an unjust society.

        It appeared that Mr. Tata had approached the Prime Minister long before the election. He was simply performing his contractual obligation.  

       The money would have been released even if the NDA had won the election.

        It showed that the industrialists had infiltrated their men in the Congress party also.

          Mrs. Sonia Gandhi remained as a silent spectator.

        Thus the Government would give money to the industrialists for buying shares of their companies besides extending loan to them.

          The ratio would be like this. The LIC would pay Re.1000 crore for shares worth Re. 100 crore. In the opposite direction, the Government would sell public assets worth Re.100,000 crore for Re.1000 crore!

          If there were not sufficient money in the banks, LIC and the UTI, the Government would give money to them. The NDA Government had given more than Re.30,000 crore to the UTI alone.

          Again, the industrialists would demand the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and the other natural assets against the same money. This is a crime against humanity.

A writer of “The New Indian Express” Mr. Bharat Jhunjhunwala on 22 July 2004 criticized the allocation of Re. 14000 crore for developing the PSUs. He wanted the Government to privatize the old PSUs as the role of the Government in those sectors had been completed. This indicated that the banks and the LIC had sufficient funds. Alternatively, the industrialists had sufficient surplus money from the natural resources and others.

As expected, the Union Government gave a loan of Re. 362 at 6.1% interest to the UTI on 23 July 2004 for meeting the shortfall in its assured return schemes.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 23 July 2004 imposed a moratorium on Global Trust Bank (GTB), which had deposits of over Re. 6000 crore with about a million account holders.

Within a few days, the GTB was merged with the Public Sector Oriental Bank. The premonition of the “media syndicate” that the nationalized banks would perish due to the competition from the private banks proved wrong.

In the meantime, Mr. P.Chithambaram requested the officials to report to him if anyone approached them for any favours in his name. The news media published it. The letter did not get any other response from anyone. The silence, apparently, showed that there was not much opposition for these letters from the Union Ministers

Supreme Court

The President of India paid a visit to the Supreme Court in the last week of July 2004. The newspaper -The Hindu- reported it in a corner. The paper described the visit as the third one. The print media had not reported the previous two visits.

It must be noted that no President had visited the Supreme Court before June 2001. Evidently, these letters prompted the President to go to the Supreme Court again and again. The unacceptable, dreadful and terrible condition of the Supreme Court could be gauged.

 As this writer felt that he would get the Nobel Prize for Peace and even for Economics, one more letter was sent to his Excellency the President of India on 28 July 2004. This was the Letter No. 5 to the present Government. Overall, this was letter No.36. The letter follows.

From

V.SABARIMUTHU

Thattankonam

Vellicode

Mulagumoodu P.O. 629167

To

Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

His Excellency the President of India

Presidential Palace,

New Delhi

Your Excellency

Kindly consider the consequences of letter Nos. 1 and 4 dated 1-6-2001 and 21-12- 2001 respectively and the other letters sent to His Excellency the President of India.

           1.        Now the President of India and the Prime Minister must have obtained from the Ministry of Finance the probable amount that would accrue to the Nation through the transaction tax. The Government must get not less than Re.1000 crore every day from this alone.

             It must be noted that when a person makes a deposit of Re. 10,0000/- directly in a Post Office today, an agent gets Rs.2000/- as commission. Why should the Government hesitate to collect 0.1% transaction tax for all transactions in all financial institutions inclusive of the post offices?

2.Another suggestion of far reaching consequences was the collection of one percent interest on all deposits and credits. At present income tax is imposed for interest above Re.5000. This gives pain to honest taxpayers as the small amount earned as interest goes as income tax. If the banks were asked to pay1% interest on all deposits to the exchequer, the depositors would not know it or bother about it. Savings also would swell. This could be extended to all credits also. Implementation of this suggestion would eliminate one half of the court cases. This would avert several suicides involving cheque, principal amount and interest.

                 The above suggestion was given to all Chief Ministers in February 1996 through Registered Post. The Chief Ministers of Kerala and Orissa acknowledged the letter. This writer tried to call on the Chief Minister of Kerala in vain and left the matter there.

           3.   Another suggestion was the realization of 10% of all service charges.  The NDA Government accepted this suggestion as soon as receiving the first letter dated 1-6-2001. Thus the notification came in July 2001.The Government could garner about Re. 10,000 crore during 2001-2002 alone.

               In the present budget the “Divine Spirit or Reason” has prompted the Government to extend the service charges to banks silently.  This could be extended to courier charges and postal charges. In view of the high diesel prices, lorry owners could be exempted, if necessary. The financial institutions must prosper with the help of service charges rather than with interest differential.

           4.      Still another suggestion was the collection of at least 30% of the premium from private insurance agencies. At a time when this was an anathema, implementation of this suggestion to private insurance companies itself was unimaginable. However, the logical extension of this idea is the premium of the LIC. It is heartening to note that the “ Divine Spirit or Reason” has now prompted the new Government to impose 10.2 % service tax on all premiums. However, the private insurance companies must pay more because they pay less to policyholders.

          5.              In the budget for 2004-2005, the Government gets about Re 50.000 crore due to the suggestions of this writer alone.

             If the transaction tax were implemented now, the budget for 2004- 2005 would go up by not less than Re. 1,50,000 crore.

            The money could be utilized to give old age/destitute pension as suggested by this writer.

            One-way roads could be converted into two-way roads to save precious lives.  

          The railway lines could be doubled vigorously.

           A part could be used for the conversion of all schools into English Medium Schools with all facilities to fulfill the demands of parents.

              Further, income tax exemption limit could be raised and rate slashed.

          Import duty on diesel could be eliminated.

            Many unnecessary taxes could be discarded.

           One would say that it would affect liquidity of the cash and other financial transactions. However, greater employment generation and consequent increase in economic activity would far out weigh all negative factors.

               The corporate houses will double their income not by expropriation but by industry, as the purchasing power of the people will increase tremendously.

           6.  More than seventy five percent of the problems in India could be ascribed to lack of ideas. It is said that one sure symptom of an ill conducted state is the propensity of people to resort to theories. However, it is also said that real ideas occur in the mind of the people officering the rabble.

             Naturally, these ideas occurred in the mind of this writer because this writer is a common man living with the rabble.

           Further, in order to establish that the privatization is in private interest, one must give alternate methods for garnering income.

           The ideas may be elementary economics. If hydrogen and oxygen were kept in a bottle for hundred years, no reaction would occur. However, if a piece of platinum black is added, they will react explosively. The ideas of this writer have similar catalytic effect on the system.

            Now, why should the Government working in good faith procrastinate to collect Re. 1000 crore daily? Everyone in India needs money and wants money. What will the Government do without money? Had the  hints given by this writer been accepted in 1996, the budget for 2004-2005 would have been Re. Fifteen lakh crore! If it had been accepted in 2001, the budget for 2004-2005 would have been Rs.Nine lakh crore! Now it is just Re.4 lakh crore! Apparently, the Prime Minister “is not willing to set his hands to anything that is quick action”. Perhaps the will of the Prime Minister is limited by the will of the industrialists - Mr. Kuldip Nayar included.

             Why should India suffer like this ?

            7.       The Minister for Finance would be an impediment for the timely implementation of the ideas. The four questions in the letter No.32 dated 31 May 2004 were not at all related to the recent mandate. There is a seed of doubt because the present Minister for Finance had given an advice through a half page article in “The New Indian Express”, to the NDA Government demanding privatization of all the vital PSUs within a span of one year.

             It is said that people, as a rule, are seekers after unknown truth. The Prime Minister cannot be truthful to 1000 million people and the Minister for Finance at the same time so long as the four questions remain unanswered.

           Naturally, the Prime Minister could give answers to the four questions and other unanswered questions if he were prepared to act as per the demands of his better self.

            Alternatively, the Prime Minister could spend his precious time covering up Himalayan Manipulations and erasing their evidences.

              This is perhaps the reason why the Prime Minister is not leading the events or showing the way.

            8.            The Government is free to buy anything. Responding to the letters of this writer, the Union Cabinet on 2 April 2004 decided to bar the PSUs from importing anything exceeding Re. 5 crore. Then, how could the BSNL make an attempt to import cell phones worth Re.5000 crore through the aid of the High Court, Delhi? Is it not for huge commission? Did the BSNL actually buy the cell phones worth Re. 5000 crore? None knows anything because the media, inclusive of the DD, continue to remain as the evil force in India. 

            9.         The Government is free to sell anything. Ruia Cotex, which bought the Public Sector Jessop Industries, was a defaulter in the ICICI bank. Mr. Shashi Ruia,  Chief of Essar Group, who wanted to buy the SCI,  had owed Re. 7138 crore to the nationalized banks! If these banks become bankrupt like the UTI and Global Trust bank, who will give the money to the depositors?

             A girl at Trivandrum committed suicide on 22 July 2004 because the nationalized banks refused to lend money for her education is another matter.

            The President of India must have asked the Government to give the reason why the shares of the airports and the NTPC should not be reserved for the people of various states in an equitable way to protect the Constitution. Weakening the Constitution is nothing but weakening the Nation and therefore 1000 million people.

10.                                                                                                                                                       10. This is letter No.36. Plato insisted that it is the state that makes the man. According to him, every type of Constitution produces its own type of man. In fact, the Constitution of India, two successive Presidents, many leaders, three or four learned judges of the Supreme Court, Trade Unions and the people at large knowingly or unknowingly complemented the efforts of this writer in one way or other. Some IAS officers and one or two officers of the CBI also might have contributed their share. 

                       However, in early 2001, the Indian democracy minus the President of India had already been passed in the hands of the stakes – unethical industrialists. The “stakecocracy” was beginning to pass into the hands of expropriators. The letters of this writer averted this calamity. Therefore, this writer might get a Nobel Prize for Peace.

        This writer had to give several practical and tangible alternate suggestions to manage fiscal deficit and to prevent expropriation of 1000 million people through privatization.

      These suggestions were neither for socialism nor for capitalism but for the progress and development of 1000 million people through painless collection of money and equitable distribution of “seats and assets”. For this, this writer might get the Nobel Prize for Economics also. The nominators for these prizes are “Members of national assemblies and governments of states”.

       Vellicode                                                                                Yours faithfully,                                                                                                                      

          28- 7-2004

                                                                                                                                                   V.SABARIMUTHU

There was nothing but silence for some time to the above letter.