Some random thoughts

You know elections are round the corner when:
daily you see large full page advertisements being put out by the Government showcasing its “achievements” that too using tax payers hard earned money.

the Finance Minister announces certain indirect tax concessions just a week after announcing the interim budget – at that point pretending to be a saint and saying tax concessions are inappropriate with elections round the corner....hmmmmmm.

the Oscars for Slumdog, suddenly are an achievement of the Congress Party (TOI headlines February 24, 2009) …… more on that in a separate post.

the Government announces free houses for two of the six children only – is it because they are from the minority community…..smacks of partisan electioneering. If at all it was necessary, free education should have been given to all the kids…. What guarantee houses won’t be sold by the parents??

The government starts pushing proposals through cabinet to utilize unspent budgets….70 plans get the nod. For the last five years most of the plan expenditure remained unutilized, so now is the time to do a rush job and see that money is spent…..but is it well spent is a moot question!



It is really fascinating to know that after 26/11 the police force have been given Ak-47’s in lieu of the World War II vintage .303 rifles! But the best part is there is no ammo for either practice or defense …… apparently there is a shortage of ammunition. Guess the guns will be used for threatening protagonists only, and if the other guys have even pistols to shoot with… the AK-47’s can still be used as hammers or can be thrown as missiles! Apparently the Home Ministry has been sent a requisition to acquire the ammo….with elections round the corner won’t be surprised if this too does not happen…..the Indian dance of democracy is far more important.

Adnan Sami’s marital dispute is so news worthy that all the gory details have to be reported daily – even in a respectable newspaper like the TOI!

Pakistan continues with its flip flops on terror investigation….Antulay blooper being cited……Pakistani investigators want to question witnesses to Karkare shooting……looks like it is another red herring time. The US probably realizes this as familiar territory having willingly swallowed the red herrings thrown by the Pakistanis for the last decade or so!

Maharashtra has turned into a power deficit state from a power surplus state. In 15 years not a single mega watt of power has been added… the Enron project apart from being expensive is almost a non starter. We now have a peak hour shortage of almost 4000 megawatts. Summer is round the corner, if not here in Mumbai already…we can definitely expect hot and sultry powerless days! The state governments have been fiddling while Maharashtra was being ‘underpowered’!!

A final thought (for today, I plan to live some more) – do all these budget cuts really benefit the common man. A larger fiscal deficit means more money has to be raised to close the fiscal gap – where does it come from? From you and me of course!