Can of Worms

A letter from the first Prime Minister of India was making its rounds across all networking sites be it Face Book or Twitter. It was a letter to England complaining about the great man the late Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

The man who dared GIVE ME BLOOD I WILL GIVE YOU FREEDOM. This was the slogan of our great freedom fighter who had a mysterious death. Its been more than a century we Indians have been kept in the dark from the truth behind Netaji's death.
Lots of books have been been written, research papers have been published but everyone of them couldn't give us the truth.

I remember when I was a child, learning about Netaji, I was told he died of a plane crash but that has not been proven because the black box was not found.
I being a Bengali born in kolkata even had a chance of visiting Netaji's house which has been turned into a museum. I saw numerous pictures of the great leader from his childhood till his last day in his house before he fled in disguise as he was imprisoned in his own house.

The question here is why such a hullabaloo about this. Why the previous governments failed to open the truth to us. Why did Nehru hide the truth? Was it because it could have opened a can of worms , it could have made them loose their power in the country as they were aware that Netaji could have spearheaded in Indian Politics keeping them far behind. 

So this reminds us the present scenario of Indian Politics where our ministers fail to come up with any thing solid fearing they loose their vote banks as it is an age old tradition of India then. 

Don't our ministers think that this is a shame on our part , hiding truth of a legend. Kudos to the present leadership who dared. The predecessors were afraid provided the country loose their faith on
them, after they have ruled the country for the maximum tenure. After all their can of worms is out in public now. 

Abhimanu Gaud-another prey of the drunk driving virus.

Abhimanu Gaud- the late corporal who lost his life in Kolkata recently not in a war but because someone was over speeding, broke all barriers in an inebriated state. Footage shows how he went past all barriers where army personnel were practising parade for the Republic Day. The road was cordoned off and inspite of that the guy decided to break it. We have his friend who was also part of his booze party confirming that they asked him not to drive but this guy decided not to. The other friends were asked not to enter the cordoned off area which they complied but this guy didn't. He sped from the area and even got help from the police how and which way to flee. 

Incidentally this guy is the son of a local politician of the ruling party who along with his son went on a run. They were not to be found. Local police failed to nab them immediately and when voices arose; when protests were galore they were found and arrested. 

This is not the first time we hear headlines of hit and run cases of drunk-driving. This has happened numerous times, we have examples of celebrities too. Drunk-driving has proved to be fatal countless times but we don't learn. It was sad of the police to bail this guy out instead of arresting him on the spot. Why the police failed to stop him and helped him flee? Weren't they aware one day or the other he will be caught? Why immediate steps were not taken by the government? Is it because the police were afraid of the political leader whose wrath they may have to face or the government felt that they are going to loose on their vote banks?

Sambia Sohrab: that's the name of the killer. My Facebook was rampant of photos of this guy and the clip of the CCTV footage of his zooming Audi. How come a 28 year old lad drives a vehicle like Audi? Did he earn it or was it gifted by his father. Did his father buy it through honest means or was it the other way round. 

I remember when I went to USA a couple of years back for a training sponsored by the client; we went to one of our client’s house for dinner. We were accompanied by another man from the same team, He was offered drinks, and he refused. My colleague from India who was with me took the offer and I was a teetotaller. Why did this man refuse the drink? He had to drive back home his wife, us and himself. That's the thought, should be embedded in every one’s mind. If I have to drink outside my home I should make sure that I am not driving, I will ask my friends to drop me if they are sober or else take a taxi. 

  

The Corporal who lost his life doesn't drive an Audi, instead he makes sure that the city is safe. I really hope that his perpetrator gets his correct due and no political influence is paid heed to by the judiciary. 

Why can’t the government start implementing some strict rules across the country against drunken driving? 

A report from Times of India: 

 In a bid to check drunkdriving, the road transport ministry is pushing for five-fold increase in finefor first-time offenders while repeat offence will attract stiffer penaltybesides imprisonment ranging from six months to one year and impounding of thevehicle for one year.These will form part of the rules once the proposed Road Transport and SafetyBill become law. The road transport ministry has circulated the latest versionof the proposed bill vetted by the law ministry to all state governments fortheir feedback.At present, the fine is up to Rs 2,000 or jail up to six months for first drunkdriving offence. The new provision proposes Rs 10,000 fine for first timeoffenders.

Rs 2000, that's it and we are still waiting for the amount of Rs 10000 to be accepted by all states!!! Why such a lackadaisical attitude against implementing such rules. Why so much time wasted. So many lives lost. I am sure this is not just one case, there are many. Surprising is hit and run cases have increased but conviction rates have decreased. 

There is a strict law about wearing helmets in Kolkata which I haven't seen much anywhere, which I have appreciated every time when I tell this to my colleagues in my present place of stay. Then why not against over speeding and drunk driving???? When will our governments start taking prompt actions and instead of fearing for their vote banks?

0.5% Cess

It’s been long, close to 400+ days I am back to my blog. My last blog was about the Swacch Bharat campaign by our honourable Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi. Now we have a Swacch Bharat cess of 0.5% levied on many services liable for service tax, effective from November 15, 2015, which means whatever you earn or spend you give a 0.5% to the Swacch Bharat campaign along with other taxes like VAT or IT.

Thanks to telegraphindia.com

“Swachh Bharat Cess is not another tax but a step towards involving each and every citizen in making contribution to Swachh Bharat. The 0.5% levy will translate into a tax of 50 paisa only on every Rs 100 worth of taxable services,” the finance ministry said in a statement. The proceeds from this cess will be exclusively used for Swachh Bharat initiatives of the government, it added.

I really appreciated the campaign but I am a little sceptical about the cess factor. Why?  We have a past history of our governments Pandora’s box opening with scams after a while they are in power or after they lost power. Of course blaming it on the ministry would be wrong, there are tons of government servants who sit hungry for a prey to come and this time it is the 0.5% cess in the name of Swachh Bharat.

When the campaign started, there were a lot of hue and cry but we rarely hear or see any. When it was launched we used to see every day almost many organisations, corporate honchos, sports stars, film stars etc. hitting the streets with a jharu (broom) in hand. Many places seemed clean literally.

The big question here is why can’t we keep it going? We are paying the cess but we don’t know what’s happening to it. The media who were going gaga with headlines of different Swacch Bharat campaigns- where they are now?

When such an initiative is taken someone should make sure that the awareness campaign continues. We might have seen our PM with a broom in hand cleaning roads but how many times we have seen a local MLA or a Corporator doing the same. This needs to be done at the grassroots. Every MLAs and Corporators should start such campaigns on a regular basis in their own wards. That way we will be able to increase more awareness and spread cleanliness. Local clubs and organisations should follow. There are millions of local clubs in the country who can create a niche of their own by starting such campaigns at least every fortnight. We see clubs during festivals only be it Durgapuja or Ganesha or any other deities. Don’t these clubs understand cleanliness is next to godliness?

The government have started a very wonderful campaign. When we go outside the country and appreciate the other countries for their cleanliness we forget it’s the common mass that have done it, who have felt the need for it.