Is the Mass Exodus a Sign of Systemic Collapse?

Few subjects demand as much continual questioning, appraisal and review as do the policies and performance with regard to manning the armed forces. At a time when sophisticated technologies, forward deployments and rapid responses are indelible facts of national security, military preparedness depends critically on forces-in-being. One can augment those forces rapidly in time of emergency, but a credible defence begins with the ability of a nation to steadily attract and retain the men and women who would assume the initial burden of a fast breaking war. For this the country depends on the size of the youth population and in the sense, on demographics set in motion eighteen to twenty years ago. According to a written reply to Lok Sabha by defence minister A K Antony in Mar 2011, "the extent of shortage of officers is around 12,349 in the Army, 1,818 in the Navy and 837 in the Air Force. The shortage of pilots in the Air Force is about 426." This figure was 11,238, 1,339 and 1,528 respectively in 2007. To make the matter worse the vacancies are all in the Lt Col and equivalent ranks of the three services who actually lead troops into war and counter insurgency operations. It is evident from the above that even with the population of over one billion in the country the armed forces are finding it difficult to recruit the required number of youth as Commissioned Officers. More alarming is also the fact that a large numbers of those who join the armed forces want to leave prematurely and many continue indifferently even though they have no promotional prospects.

The selection system of the armed forces has traditionally been assessing the person-organization fit based on technical skills and personality traits. The process is very elaborate and yet what perplexes is that a person selected after thorough scrutiny and trained extensively looses interest in the job and wishes to leave prematurely. Questions that beg for an answer are (a) what trigger the turnover intention? (b) Is it the personal values that are in conflict with that of the organization? or (c) Is it that the organizational values as perceived at the time of their entry were different than how it is perceived after joining These questions assume greater significance to the armed forces because personnel hiring in most cases is for life and once joined it is not easy to leave. This means a person who joins the armed forces but does not feel motivated will have to maintain organizational membership irrespective of his motivation and thus he is likely to exhibit less commitment. Is it desirable?

Since I was one such officer sitting on the fence for over 10 years decided to undertake an empirical research to unravel the truth. Having served in the selection system, I knew for sure that there is a conflict of values that are espoused and promoted in the armed forces. Hence, I choose to examine this hypothesis scientifically. I asked 220 officers of the Indian Navy of three branches namely Executive, Technical and Administrative and across three service tenures i.e. 1-7, 8-16 and 16+ years to rate a value taxonomy on a seven point scale firstly, as to how important the 24 values in the taxonomy are to them as a guiding principal in their life and secondly, how they perceive these values to be promoted in the organization. The results were indeed revealing. It was seen that across the spectrum, officers attached great importance to just 4 of the 24 values namely Openness, Fairness, Logic and Moral Integrity. This goes to prove that the selection system is by far selecting the right material whose guiding principles in life are fairness, openness, logic and moral integrity. However, their perception of how these values are promoted in the organization said it all. Once again across the board they feel that the organization promotes these values to much lesser extent. What does this imply?

It is a well established fact in psychology that a person placed at odds with his values will not be comfortable and the turnover intention will set in or he may continue to maintain organizational membership for lack of other opportunities or for his investment in the organization which may be important like waiting to earn his pension etc. Does it surprise anyone now as to why so many officers wish to leave the armed forces prematurely and also why so many continue regardless of their progress in the organization. For complete details of the research work you may like to read my book “Values, Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction – An Empirical Evidence” listed on Amazon.com.  

The Beginning of an End

Incidents of corruption, malfeasance, fake encounters, indiscipline, etc from one end of the country to the other and right across the rank structure, suggest that all is not well with our armed forces. Recently a junior commissioned officer was caught on camera accepting wads of currency notes for various class ‘D’ jobs at the National Defence Academy near Pune with a colonel operating in the background. A maj-general was caught red-handed taking money from a contractor in J&K. Earlier we had the case of Sukna land scam where a few Lt-Generals were involved. The DG, Supply Corps, a Lt-General rank officer was court-martialled on charges of corruption. A few very senior officers of the Army and the Navy are involved in the Adarsh housing society scam. Definitely these are not cases of aberration as being suggested by senior brass but a sure case of falling standards. This article examines the issues that are causing such widespread rot within the military echelons.

Intake of Officers

Looking back at the history, potential military officers were traditionally picked up at an early stage of their life when they are still impressionable. Till the 70s, the entry level qualification for the NDA was 11^th and not 12^th. These young boys were then put through rigorous military training for four years before they were made officers. These four years of grueling training instilled in them the way of military life and the spirit of soldiering. Since this happened at a tender age of 16 to 20 the habits learnt then never died or died hard and thus the military officers of the yester years exhibited standard behavior patterns characterized by dignity, decency, discipline, compassion, forthrightness, integrity, honesty etc. Later on, to meet the growing requirement of officers the military decided to take university graduates and cut down their training to just about one year. This shortcut was apparently done as a cost cutting measure. In the early 90s this was further diluted by taking graduates directly from the campus for short service commission and further reducing their training to just about 24 to 28 weeks. Going by the theory of psychology, the personality of a person begins to form early in life and the development continues till about the age of 21 and thereafter it is very difficult to change the basic set of a person. By bringing full grown adults from the civil streets who have imbibed the values of civilian life and putting them through abridged training of just one year or less was the biggest folly of the military system. This is not to suggest that all graduate entry / short service commission officers are bad. It is just that the military way of life requires a certain indoctrination which can essentially be done only at a young age and over long years of training. All those who are getting ready to shoot me down, please hold your horses. I am sure a lot of you must be wishing to suggest that most of the tainted officers are the so called thorough bred which may even be true but there are several other reasons for the same which are discussed subsequently. Some may wonder why the selection system could not weed out bad elements in the first place? This brings me to the next point i.e. the selection process.   

Selection Process

The selection system looks for 15 Officer Like Qualities uniformly in all the candidates irrespective of the entry / service tenure. The selection threshold is the same for both NDA and graduate entry candidates with a very minor consideration for training duration. Hence, in a way we believe that the university graduates are readymade officer material who requires just a military orientation course of about 24 weeks before being made an officer. This is far from true and one can imagine the value system of the present generation coming from the civil streets where corruption is a way of life. All those who still believe that the Armed Forces is attracting bright candidates must know that most engineers who come for SSB have had backlogs and could not manage a campus placement. With talented youth shying away from the forces and the shortage increasing to alarming proportions, the selection system was gradually brought under pressure. The top brass started focusing on the numbers and the dictate is quite clear - ‘milk the bull’.  

Traditionally, of the 15 officer like qualities, 6 qualities were identified as core qualities which are very difficult to train. These qualities are power of expression, social adjustment, cooperation, sense of responsibility, liveliness and courage. Later, power of expression was removed from this list and the other five were taken seriously. At the selection stage while all the other qualities are required at a level of 7 in a scale of 10, these five qualities were required at a level of 6 owing to their importance and more often than not otherwise good candidates were dropped for weaknesses in one of these five qualities. However, under pressure to meet the numbers the Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR) proposed a theory without empirical basis, that all qualities are equally trainable and the organizational top brass started hammering on the selectors to clear candidates who are rated 7 in the core qualities too. Now imagine the conduct of a candidate rated 7 in ‘sense of responsibility’ and put through just one year or even less of training and commissioned as an officer.

Though there are three pronged assessment at the services selection boards comprising of psychologist, interviewing officer and the group testing officer (GTO), the characteristics of each of this community needs a mention. The psychologists are mostly civilian scientists of the DRDO who may lean with the dictates of the DIPR. The interviewing community is the senior lot occupying the positions of Centre Commandant, President or the Dy. President of the selection centre/boards. They are accountable to the headquarters for the numbers and are most gullible. The GTO community comprises of youngsters who defy the baseless dictate of equal trainability of all qualities and when it comes to core qualities they seldom budge and thus have been publically branded as a ‘pack of hounds’ by one of the former centre commandants of major-general rank and I am proud to have been one such hound. It is therefore not surprising that a vast majority of candidates who pass at the SSB are actually cleared by two assessors only and more often than not such candidates are held back by the GTO / Psychologists. In many cases candidates cleared by single assessor also find their way into the Academy because the academies are under subscribed. While I can quote statistics on this, I feel it suffices to make this point.

The Navy found a better way of putting the ‘hounds’ in place. During my tenure at the services selection board, I was once called up by a senior officer heading the manpower planning and recruitment directorate at New Delhi to remind me that I have not cleared a single candidate in five consecutive batches as if it is mandatory to do so irrespective of the quality. The signal was clear that I am being watched and that I must wakeup. I was retiring by then and hence it did not matter to me much. But, I wonder what must be happening to the ones who have to stay in that billet as their children are studying in various classes and need stability. He was also instrumental in getting more assessors trained through coercive means and after I retired, I learnt that all officers who have a low selection rate are being replaced by the pool of new assessors created for the purpose. Now the present state is, all those who liberally clear candidates stay for six to seven years in the selection system and those who do not clear candidates or assessors in the making are replaced. Thus, quality has completely been compromised for by quantity. Hence, what we get to see in the media now is only a precursor of a major collapse of the system in the offing. 

Proximity to Civil Society

Traditionally military officers lived within the cantonments which were located far away from the city and their lives were confined to their units/regiments. The media was not as pervasive as it is now. Hence, they could retain their uniqueness as their behaviors were reinforced by similar behaviors of others in the unit/regiment. However, urbanization has brought the city closer to the cantonments and in some cases has even engulfed the entire cantonment thus enhancing the interaction of people from the armed forces with civil society. In the past officers’ mess used to be a happening place but now it wears a deserted look. Young officers prefer to go out, meet their friends from the civil streets, share notes on their pay and perks and starts believing that their friends in the civil streets are far better and thus the disgruntlement starts. Such interactions between the spouses result into ugly comparisons and often the men in uniform get beaten down and the ‘race for more’ begins. The only piece of supremacy that the spouses of officers that too only Army Officers get to flaunt to their civilian counterpart is the ‘sahayaks’ (servants) which too is proposed to be replaced now.

Exposure to Bureaucracy

The exposure to bureaucracy is the most damaging of all. The moment a military officer is posted at Integrated Headquarters or anywhere near a bureaucrat, he loses his self image. I was once offered a below scale accommodation by the Station Commander (Naval Commodore) even when a house of my scale was available in the station because he wanted to offer that house to the Financial Advisor from the IDAS cadre who had not even reported to the station and had just 2 years of service whereas I had 19 years of service. If this is what the uniformed people do to show you down, one can imagine what these bureaucrats must be doing?

Towards the fag end of my career, I happened to visit the house of an IAS officer who was keen in mating our dogs. I was firstly not invited inside the house and was dealt with in the sit out itself. Secondly, there were at least half a dozen official servants in the house and two official cars parked at the garage. He had 6 different dogs and two maids just to look after them. Interestingly, his present wife was formerly married to an army Brigadier whom she dumped to marry this IAS officer the second time over.  

When the uniformed person sees the position being flouted and misused in the name of perks across the entire spectrum of babudom, he wonders why should he be left behind and this gradually leads him to corrupt practices. Over time when the junior officers see their seniors behaving this way and calling it their rank privilege they start emulating the same and thus form rank privileges at every level which then becomes the norm. Thus, the rot flows down from top to the bottom.

When I reported to the Selection Centre Central in 2008, we were given a small shanty (erstwhile horse stables) as temporary accommodation. We lived there for nearly six months with half a dozen buckets positioned strategically inside the house to prevent ingress of rain water. It was indeed subhuman. On the other hand lakhs were spent on decorating and furnishing the Commandant’s official house each year as part of his rank privilege. I once proposed in the general body meeting that these temporary accommodations be done up from the centre resources if not through MES to which the Commandant delivered a good moral lecture on probity.

Growing Tolerance to Corruption and Misconduct

During my service career, I had once officially put up my Commanding Officer for initiating a false citation for an officer to ensure that he is promoted to the next higher rank. Naïve that I was, I expected the system to pin him down and bring him to books. But nothing of that sort happened. I even wrote to the Chief of the Naval Staff then because I thought ‘breach of trust’ was the worst crime that a military leader could ever commit. Though the then Chief made tall claims, nothing happened on ground. Eventually, these officers were promoted and one is a Vice Admiral now and the other a Commodore waiting to be a Rear Admiral and I retired as a Commander. Incidentally, both the then C-in-C of the command and the Chief of the Naval Staff who ignored my complaint are now named in the Adarsh Scam. Also, the wrongly promoted officer was shunted out overnight by at least two C-in-Cs in the past for his extraordinary caliber but none decided to sack him. It is a clear case of lack of will to bring corrupt officials to books and this happens because the senior officers have no moral standing themselves as their own conduct is questionable.

The leniency also has a reflection on the class system within and the culture of coterie that is rampant in the forces. There is a distinct class system within the armed forces and each class strives to protect its own flock. Some of the most well known clans are the alumni of Rashtriya Indian Military College, Sainik School, Military School and the National Defence Academy. The allegiance and loyalty to their clan, forces the seniors to ignore the telltales and even major acts of omissions and commissions which results in the unscrupulous elements grow bolder.

When there is dilution in the conduct of officers, there is no way to keep the men in check. No wonder a unit at Nyoma in Ladakh revolted against officers leading to physical fights between them. While the Army may hush it up and call it an aberration, I have no doubt that such incidents will only become much more frequent and eventually the system will crumble sooner than later. I know many senior officers will brand me as ‘disgruntled’ but that is fine with me.  

May god protect our nation!!!

My Personal Experience with the RTI Act

I decided to quit the Indian Navy for the second time in 2010 and submitted my resignation in May 2010 for release in Mar 2011. As per the so called ‘resettlement scheme’ of the Armed Forces, I had applied in May 2010, for a course at IIM Ahmadabad commencing in Oct 2010. However, the Navy decided not to grace me and kept the decision on my release pending till Feb 2011 causing severe anguish to me and my family. It forces me in Oct 2010, to seek some uncomfortable information through the RTI Act in an attempt to draw their attention towards my pending application. As expected, the RTI made the magical impact and soon enough they took a decision to release me. However, I decided not to give up on my quest to know some of the well forgotten secrets and the urge to expose the buried skeletons grew stronger.  

As expected, the Indian Navy initially did not provide any meaningful information and blocked/scuttled it through their malicious ways. It soon became a tussle of sorts and I started sending appeals to the Chief Information Commission. One such RTI application initiated in Oct 2008 was to get information on the Redressal of Grievance submitted by me to my superiors in 2002. There was a sudden lull as the Navy chose not to respond. After a month, I appealed to the appellate authority and again there was complete silence. After allowing for reasonable time to respond, in Mar 2011, I sent the second appeal to the Chief Information Commission which was finally heard on 06 Jul 2012 along with all my other cases, after I wrote a letter to the Chief Information Commissioner threatening to go public.

Digression from the issue, I would like to point out that the appeal at the CIC took 16 months to be heard. This is an apt example of how the bureaucracy establishes unaccountability for itself. Without doubt the RTI Act must have been drafted / vetted by some bureaucrat before it was enacted. While the Act stipulates a stringent 1 month period for the Public Information Officer and the Appellate Authority, the act does not stipulate any time frame for hearing the appeals at the CIC. I am sure the job of PIO is far more difficult and time consuming as he has to coordinate with various departments to provide information whereas the Information Commissioner heard five of my cases in just about 45 minutes and yet it took him 16 months to do that with no one questioning this delay. Further, the notice of hearing dated 16 Jun 2012 was received by me on 04 Jul 2012 through speed post, when the hearing was slotted for 06 Jul 2012. When the appellant has provided his email address in the application, I wonder why the notice of hearing could not have been sent through e-mail. I could have at least saved Rs 13,000/- spent on flight tickets.  

Coming back to the RTI application, after about 22 months of my seeking the information the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the Indian Navy claimed to have forwarded the application to the Public Information Officer at Southern Naval Command whose is responsible to reply in this case. Interestingly, there is no record of any such communication with me or the CIC. The CIC did initiate a letter to the CPIO in May 2012 (after 14 months of my second appeal) asking as to why the Indian Navy is not responding and to this there has been no reply and the CPIO claimed to have not received this letter even though it was sent by speed post. It was a clear case of malaise and yet the CIC did not impose any penalty. The act has a penal clause wherein if the PIO does not provide information within one month he/she can be asked to pay a penalty proportionate to the delay, which will be recovered from his/her personal salary. In my case while both the CPIO and the Appellate Authority did not provide any information for so long, it did not attract any penalty. This is another example of callousness with which the bureaucrats function. No wonder the law and order in our country is so poor. Taking a casual stance, the Information Commissioner ordered the Indian Navy to provide relevant information within 4 weeks and disposed off the case. To my utter surprise, I was later told, off the record, that my application was stalled by the person who was occupying a senior position at the Southern Naval Command then, against whom the original Redressal of Grievance was initiated.

While, I am determined to dig the truth out even if it means flying to Delhi a hundred times, I wonder what is the use of such Act for a common man? This is a classic example of how the bureaucracy fails every policy in this country and then they boast of their brilliance. Unless the intent is one of public good their brilliance can only prove to be a curse to our society. 

The Plight of Teachers in India

I have been reading the views of Shri Darda, Education Minister in the Government of Maharashtra in the local news papers, who is concern about teachers taking private tutions which according to him is immoral and he promises to chase this practice out. While it is very moralistic of the minister to take such a stand, I urge him to take note of this article and at least realign his views on the subject, if not initiate action against the real culprits.

Firstly, let us consider school education. I have a school in my neighborhood which is well known in the entire country for the notoriety of its students. They have a pre-primary section with a fee structure of Rs 2500/- PM and each class has a strength of about 35 students. They hire two teachers per class and a maid to assist the teachers. As against a monthly revenue of Rs. 87,500/- from this class, they pay a meager sum of Rs 9000/- per teacher and Rs. 3000/- to the maid, a total of Rs 21,000/- per month.  According to the CBSE scales, they are suppose to get at least Rs. 16,000/-+perks. In order to maintain the standard of the school, they hire qualified and experienced teachers with a promise that they will review their salary after one year of probation but the probation never ends. There are teachers in this school working for the last four years and are still on probation. The teachers on probation are not issued any appointment letters and this school hires at least a dozen teachers each year for the pre-primary section alone because the old teachers after waiting for their rightful dues, leave the organization in disgust and this is not a stray incident but a norm in the school education sector, barring a very few. I wonder how one can expect honest work from teachers?             

Let us now look at higher education like the Engineering and MBA. The situation here is even more pathetic. There is a norm laid down by the AICTE with regard to salaries, appointment etc and each institution is required to maintain a certain student-teacher ratio and there are also norms for the ratio of junior vs. senior professors. However, most institutions do not fulfill this norm. They resort to hiring fresh pass outs who are available at throw away prices. Some institutions even hire their own students who could not get a campus placement. Engineering and MBA teachers are paid as little as Rs 10,000/- PM as against Rs 35000/- (Approx) as per 6^th pay commission. Most institutions do not even have a Director/Principal because the Honorable High Court ruled in a case, that in view of the acute shortage of senior faculties in the country, it is possible that some institutes do not get Professors and Principals but such institutions may still have students and thus in the interest of these students the institutions cannot be penalized for not meeting the faculty norms. Exploiting this ruling the institutions now advertise every six months but do not appoint any Professors / Principals and their usual plea is that they are still in the lookout for a suitable senior faculty. In many cases the institutions are also resorting to appointing faculties on paper. To curb this practice AICTE introduced recording the thumb impressions of the appointed candidates. But the institution owners are so ingenious that they have a counter measure for every such measure. All such ‘on paper’ faculties are paid a monthly honorarium for their services off the record and a hefty salary on record which is taken back each month through post dated cheques. Under such circumstances, I wonder how we can ensure integrity of this supposedly ‘beacon of light’ of the society i.e. the teaching community.

The actual situation on ground today is that while freshers are getting teaching jobs easily, there are no takers for the seniors and experienced ones because the institutions do not wish to pay and the regulators do not wish to question. I wonder under the given circumstances how education in this country will ever improve and how teachers can be expected to behave morally. No wonder the present generation of students don’t respect the teaching community.

One of my professional friends who is a Director in a leading management institution owned by a politician, recently shared his intent of quitting the job because he has been issued a show cause notice for not implementing 6^th pay commission norms in his institution when they have sufficient admissions and are charging exorbitant fees from the students. When he went to face the AICTE with the logic given by his management, he was asked by the AICTE to give an undertaking in a stamp paper to the effect that they will implement 6^th pay commission norms with the next academic session. However, the management agreed to introduce the new scales only on paper. Fearing that this may lead him into trouble later, he decided to quit. I wonder at the rationale of the AICTE of taking an undertaking from an employee of the organization instead of the employer. Obviously, the employers are mostly politicians, sitting MLAs/MPs and even Ministers.

The exploitation does not end here. Given the cutthroat competition in the educational industry, young teachers are necessarily hired for their ability to get new admissions more than their ability to teach. Shri. Darda must know that tuition teachers command higher salary as faculty because they are likely to get new admissions for the institution. Many institutions even have an incentive scheme for teachers who get admissions and this can be as high as Rs 15,000/- per candidate depending on the fee structure of the institution. I wonder if it is right to blame the teaching community, most of who have been converted into touts by the system.

I am sure we all know where the fault lies and if anything needs to be done it is at the institution level instead of conditioning the weak, which has been an age old tradition of this country.    

How Bleak is the Situation of Black Money in India?

HOW BLEAK IS THE SITUATION OF BLACK MONEY IN INDIA?

The issue of black money has been making the rounds for several years now and it appears to have become more of a political issue than an economic one. I have been a student of Economics for over 2 decades and I wonder what this issue all about is? What is being said is that this money stashed in Swiss bank is ill gotten by the depositors and is to the tune of 1,456 Lac Crores. One of Anna Hazare’s sites says the following:

Do you know what will happen if 1,456 Lac Crores comes back?

1. India will be Financially No.1

2. Each district will get 60000 Crores & each village will get 100 Crores
3. No need to pay taxes for next 20 yrs.
4. Petrol 25 Rs, Diesel 15 Rs, Milk 8 Rs.
5. No need to pay electricity bill.
6. Indian borders will become stronger than the China Wall.
7. 1500 Oxford like Universities can be opened.
8. 28,000 kms Rubber road (like in Paris) can be made.
9. 2,000 hospitals (with all facilities) all medicine Free.
10. 95 crore people will have their own house.

While, I am supporter of Anna Hazare against Corruption in India, my understanding of Economics says that this is not possible. According to me if this money is brought into circulation, the Indian economy will collapse and we will have to carry sack full of currency notes to get home hand full of goods and this phenomenon in economics is called ‘hyper inflation’. I quite agree with the PM on this that “this is a serious issue” but I do not agree with him that “there is no simple solution”. The macro economic theory suggests that if the government expenditure is more than its revenue, it is good for the economy. This fiscal deficit is funded through deficit financing (printing of currency notes without a basis) and if this excess money is spent wisely on developmental projects, it will generate employment which in turn will generate consumption which in the long run, will boost production leading to further employment and further consumption and thus this spiraling goes on gradually year after year to increase our GDP in a controlled way, keeping inflation under check. The word of caution is that such deficit financing must be kept under control as they tend to cause inflation in the short run. As against this backdrop, the Indian Government has been steadily infusing excess currency into the system under all kind of schemes intended to reach the poor and build national infrastructure. But sadly, the money instead of developing the much needed infrastructure and generating employment and income for the poor is being siphoned off and stashed into Swiss bank by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and contractors. Some amounts remain within India stashed in bank lockers, and some get converted into ‘benami’ property both in India and Abroad and a small amount gets spent. Therefore, steadily the deficit financing as a percentage of GDP (BE) has been growing each year and it stands at a staggering figure of Rs 1,41,587 Crore in the first two months of 2012-13 itself, constituting 27.6 per cent of the budget estimates (BE) for the entire financial year. The government is targeting at 5.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for this year which going by this trend is utopian. On the other hand the revenue deficit, too, is fast approaching the BE, at 33.8 per cent in the first two months itself.

What does this mean to a lay man? The real income of the poor did not increase and hence the consumption of basic goods did not increase and thus the production did not increase resulting in lower employment, lesser incomes, and lesser consumptions and so on…. Thus clearly the economy has been negatively spiraling over the years. No wonder the share of agriculture in the GDP has been steadily reducing and farmers are committing suicide because the per capita consumption of basic goods like agricultural products have reduced in real terms and is not fetching better returns to the farmers. Lower production is leading to food inflation which in turn is reducing the per capita consumption even further. On the other hand the demand of high end goods and services which caters to the needs of the rich has been increasing steadily and no wonder the contribution of service sector to the GDP is increasing.

Internationally this mindless infusion of money in to the system is debasing our currency and this is one primary reason for depreciation in the value of Rupee against US $, because a huge amount of the rupee has no basis to exist. This is resulting in increase in the current account deficit (payment deficit caused due to import-exports). The imports are becoming expensive and thus we owe more to the foreign countries from where we import. This will eventually lead to a repeat of 1992 when we had to sell gold and devalue our currency.

Where does all this take us to? It is simple. The divide between the rich and the poor will grow and if this is unchecked the country will soon witness a bloody civil war. The farmers are gradually selling away their lands for survival and while it may see through one generation, what happens to the next generation is the major question? The rise in crime rate in the society is a clear warning of an impending civil war. Thus, I firmly believe the government must wake up from its deep slumber and announce a date by which all are to justify their deposits abroad and thereafter confiscate the unaccounted money.

The question is what could be done with that money? Of course the answer is not what team Anna is trying to suggest. If that huge sum of 1,456 Lac Crores is distributed to villages as being professed, the poor will die of hunger due to inflation. At best this brought in black money can be defaced and our cumulative fiscal deficit be reduced by that extent. This will strengthen the value of the currency and our current account deficit will reduce. We will be able to import oil, which constitutes a major portion of our total imports, at a cheaper rate and thus the price of fuel can be brought down. This will have a great impact to start with. There will be more money available for consumption in the hands of the middle class which will spur up demand and eventually the supply. Once the oil prices come down, the general price level of almost all products will come down. The poor will start feeling comfortable and can get absorbed by the growing industry / farm sectors and this process alone can bring positive buoyancy in economic activity.

This is not enough. As a parallel action, the government must declare a date to deposit Rs 1000 and Rs 500 currency notes and justify the source of income and take a new currency note instead. After that, the old currency notes must be debarred. This way the entire currency stashed up in lockers will fall out and find its way into temple donation boxes. This way the cumulative fiscal deficit can be further reduced. While this process may not be all that easy, where there is will there is always a way. Having done this, the government must ensure that the various schemes are implemented properly for which a strong ‘lokpal’ is a must. Unless there is deterrence in our society, the history will repeat. While the whole world criticizes the Arab nations, the singular reason for low crime rate in these countries is deterrence in the form of capital punishments. Let us realize that if capital punishment is bad the other extreme of no punishment is worse.

Why Mr. PM and the government is not keen in sorting out this issue is quite clear from the expose made by Julian Assange. Assange has done this much, let us do the remaining and crack the whip.

To know more on the expose made by Assange follow the link http://incredibleorissa.com/en/black-money-in-swiss-bank-mainly-from-india/.

 

A Vacation Turned into Nightmare

I was a defence officer serving in the Indian Navy with whatever little pride that was left in me. I was to retire on 30 Apr 2011 and hence decided to go on my last vacation sponsored by the Government of India in the form of Leave Travel Concession. We were three families, in all 12 members who made elaborate arrangements and headed towards Kashmir. The children deserved a break after the grueling examinations and were excited about the ensuing flight, the white snow of the valley etc. Finally the day came when we all dressed smartly and arrived at the airport. The first setback was the announcement about our flight being delayed by 1 hour. We had already checked in by then and asked our baggage to be routed to Srinagar directly. Since we had to take a connecting flight from Delhi to Srinagar we went to the manager of Air India (AI) and expressed our apprehension about missing the flight at Delhi. The AI manager- a very cool and confident gentlemen, suggested not to worry and confidently claimed that the same aircraft which is flying from Bhopal to Delhi will be going to Srinagar. He further assured that he will send a message to Delhi airport about our delayed departure. Assured, we took the flight to Delhi and on our way we realized that this flight is not going to Srinagar. On arrival at Delhi we rushed to the AI counter and informed them that we have arrived late due to delay in the departure at Bhopal. We were asked to rush to the gate and check if we can board the flight. As we dragged our hand baggage and the smaller children through the number of check points, we met one very diligent CISF Jawan who decided to frisk all of us before allowing in. When showed the armed forces identity card and requested to allow us in as we were about to miss the flight, he retorted, “yeh fauji icard nahi chalega idhar”. (This Defence I Card will not do here). Frustrated by the insult, we were going through his sadistic ritual and halfway, a well known Member of Parliament from Bihar happened to pass through the same check point with his entourage of at least 6. The same diligent CISF Jawan made way for the MP and his men, greeted them all with a smart salute followed by a bodily bow in respect and allowed the entire entourage without any checks. I realized the value of my ‘commission’ that late in my career when I was about to retire. Finally, we made our way to the gate to realize that the flight had already left Delhi and we were told that our baggage had been held back. We were asked to go to AI office and claim a hotel room for the night.

Disappointed, we reached the AI office to be told that we were not eligible for a hotel room because the PNR numbers of Bhopal-Delhi and Delhi-Srinagar tickets were different – something we were blissfully unaware. However, after talking up the hierarchy we were finally given hotel accommodation at Centaur, Delhi. The next challenge was to get to Srinagar. AI initially declared that it is next to impossible as the flights are going chocker block. To our surprise and dismay, while we were still lingering around to see what could be done, the AI staff suddenly declared that 12 seats are available for the next morning flight as there was a bulk cancellation just then. Though it sounded unbelievable, we passed our tickets and got the same endorsed for the next flight hoping like hell we reach Srinagar. Jubilant that we got the tickets and also the hotel stay, we were extremely thankful to the AI staff and went on to collect our baggage and that meant another elaborate checking by the diligent CISF jawans. At the baggage area no one had a clue about our baggage and after 45 minutes of discussion the AI staff finally declared that our baggage has been taken to Srinagar as we had done a through baggage check-in. Fuming and fretting, we landed at the hotel with instructions that our baggage be delivered to the hotel room by evening. On arriving at the hotel, we were surprised to see a mob of around 2000 boys and not so pretty girls that had gathered right in the reception area. There were loud announcements being made on mike with no respect to the guest who may be staying in that hotel. On enquiry we were told that our mighty AI is conducting a recruitment drive for cabin crew. Somehow, we managed to pass through the commotion and reached our rooms to be greeted by domestic friends like cockroaches. Soon we also realized that most rooms in the hotel are unoccupied and we were the most esteemed guests of the entire hotel. By dusk we were enlightened by the fact that this hotel is a government property and the only people who stay in this are unfortunate passengers of AI, the cabin and flying crew of AI and is used for all and sundry purposes of AI including recruitments. The stewards and other staff are on the government payroll and are in the average age group of 45 to 50. In all it is a property which is sustaining on the inefficiencies of the AI – one leaning on the other. The total bill to the AI for our overnight stay amounted to roughly Rs 48,000/-. I am not sure if both AI and Centaur are ‘Navratna’ companies of the Government of India.

Finally, our baggage arrived late in the evening and we managed to sleep after a decent change of clothes and next morning moved to the airport skeptically. But AI took us to Srinagar without anymore surprises. The next few days were fantastic-thanks to the hospitality of the Indian Army and the local populace of Kashmir. It was the day before our departure from Srinagar that we got another surprise – the pilots of AI decided to rub more salt on our wounds by going on a flash strike. We were frantically looking for other options but no one at the AI office was willing to confirm the cancellation of flights. The next morning we decided to cancel the ticket and go by road up to Jammu and catch Jhellam Express to reach Bhopal on 30 Apr, the last day of my service with the Indian Navy. It was courtesy Indian Army once again that there were few seats reserved for us under the military quota. We reached the AI office and declared our intention but were promptly told to rush to the airport and that the airport staff would put us in some flight or the other up to Delhi. We took an about turn and rushed with family and baggage to the airport. It was some congregation of humanity, some amused and most disgusted. The AI staff asked us to stand in the queue of King Fisher airlines. After 30 minutes King Fisher refused any seats. Then we followed the queue of Jet Airways, then Indigo and finally after constant pestering and explaining the gravity of the situation about my retirement on 30 Apr and the regulation that stipulates mandatory presence on duty on the last day of service, the AI manager was kind enough to put me on SpiceJet craft up to Delhi. Friends and families stayed back at Srinagar, cancelled the AI tickets, purchased new tickets in indigo Air and reached Bhopal on 01 May 2011 while I hopped into a train at Delhi and travelled without reservation to reach Bhopal in the morning of 30 Apr.

We all thought that the saga is over but it was not to be. We had to claim the refund of the tickets we cancelled. The AI office refused to process the refund claim at Srinagar saying that the refund can be processed only from the station where the tickets were bought. I left Bhopal to take up my new job at early hours of 02 May 11. I could return to Bhopal for processing the claim only in June. In the AI Office I met the manager- the same very cool and confident gentlemen who started our nightmare. I thanked him for all the help and asked for my claim. He promptly played the ball back into Srinagar office and said, “It is possible to process the claim from anywhere in India”. Had somebody told me this, I could have processed it from my new location and did not have to travel back to Bhopal and waste two months. Finally, he was very helpful in asking one of his staff to process the claim. I gave a sigh of relief and assumed it to be over but the staff came back to tell me that the system is not accepting the PNR numbers as AI has switched over to a new system recently. The entire AI staff understood all that I wanted to tell them even without my uttering a single word. If I had the luxury of indecency, I would have given them choicest of abuses, that too in Hindi. Finally the manager asked me to come after three days. I went back and sat through for three hours before getting my claim processed. At the end of the process, the staff very courteously said the money will come back to my card within the next two to three months.

I wish someone had taken my photograph then. It would have said it all!!!

Can Business and Ethics Go Together in India?

Recently, I chose to have an additional net connection at home and was mighty impressed with the frequent ads of a company in the electronic media and decided to go for it. Also, the outlet was closer home and lethargy of travelling all the way to an alternative brand’s outlet made me settle for this company. The store was all decked up with smart girls wearing their company t-shirts and the ambiance was quite trendy. I was presented with all possible permutations and combinations and I chose an unlimited plan in which I had to pay Rs 2100/- upfront to get free modem forever and free unlimited internet downloads for three months. I did check about connectivity in my location to which the smart girl answered in the affirmative. Satisfied with the bargain, I came back home and hooked on but the connection was not working. In the next 10 days, I made several calls to all the possible people but nothing happened. Fed up with the ordeal, I went back to the store and demanded my money back.

Seeing my temper flow freely, the store manager sent a technician to my place. He tried everything possible before admitting that there is a connectivity issue and registered a complaint with the network team of that company. He told me that they will resolve the issue and that I will get a confirmation call from Mumbai. As predicted, I received a call from Mumbai to inform that my area does not have high speed network connectivity. What then? I went back to the store and demanded termination of connection and refund of my money. After a couple of days and with much reluctance, I was repaid Rs 1100/- after deducting Rs 1000/- being cost of the modem. I wished to return the modem as it was of no use to me anymore, but the same was not taken back as per their company policy. There are two issues in this. Firstly, the modem was free with upfront payment of Rs 2100/- and secondly, I never went there to purchase a modem. Modem was only incidental to my getting internet services. In the mean time, within 14 days of my purchasing the connection, I received my first bill for Rs 21/- being service tax. On enquiry, it was revealed that the bill is generated as per billing cycle and hence in effect, I will get free internet only for 2 ½ months. The store team washed their hands off and asked me to lodge a complaint with the customer care of the company.

I registered a complaint on the website of the company and promptly received an acknowledgement. However, after a couple of days, I was informed that the modem can’t be taken back. Their reply was non committal with regard to the billing cycle and the service tax for receiving no services. I challenged them to go to the consumer court but it did not matter to them much. Since then, I get a call every second day from the company reminding me about my outstanding bill and asking me to pay up. Gradually, the bill amount went up to Rs 121 including late payment fees of Rs 100/- and now in three months or so it stands at Rs. 1221/- and each time I get a call, I relentlessly narrate this story to them and ask for a refund of Rs 1000/- and each time they promise to resolve the issue but a new person gives me a call the next time over. I have now kept this Modem in my drawing room showcase as it is a very proud possession. I wondered how this company has grown to such magnitude in our country till one of my friends recently shared the best lines by Dhirubhai Ambani, “You will never reach your destination, if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. Better keep biscuits and move on”. Doesn’t this explain it all!!!!!!!