India Inc praised Rajiv Bajaj in private for speaking up, but chose to incur losses for three full months than criticise the Modi government for its lockdown.
Canada faces serious foreign interference issues, but these challenges must not be weaponized to unfairly target friendly and important allies like India.
In Episode 1544 of CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta looks at some top economists pointing to the pitfalls of ‘currency nationalism’ with data from 1991 to 2004.
The decorated Naga officer from Manipur also served as envoy to Myanmar & Nagaland chief secy. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a museum dedicated to the Tawang hero Thursday.
While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.
In a democracy , people should exercise their rights of expression freely. However, those who have to run the show, have to take responsibility for the choices of their action.
An industrialist , with his or his major stakeholders interests in mind & his organisations capacity to function normally under CoVid-19 pandemic will very well oppose lockdown decision.
An elected democratic govt is responsible towards 135 crore citizens. The govt has to work with all the constraints of medical infrastructure, work ethos , public awareness &indiscipline in tackling a pandemic with limited knowlege. In an environment of fuzziness , over caution is called for.For CoVID-19, till date there is no treatment. For an air borne communicable infection ,distancing and precautions are the only viable control measures.
It may not delight fellow citizens that despite all kinds of awareness campaigns of last 3 months, many people still refrain from following public / personal safety Covid-19 protocols. For such gentry , forced lockdown is perhaps the only viable means to control the pandemic spread.
Praveen Chakravarty is correct. The lockdown sure did flatten a curve – but the wrong curve. Rajiv Bajaj needs to be admired for his candor. That is now. The economy started its long dive down two years ago. The new BS norms for the auto sector started it, the new draconian MV act, GST with its back breaking rates, tax terrorism, govt’s. greed for funds followed in quick succession. All this led to the dive. And why.? Because Modi selected the wrong ministers, We need professionals who have an understanding of the subjects and not loyalists or favourites or who were Mohan Bhagwat’s choice. They criticised retrospective taxation but after coming to power did they address the issue. No. To criticise something when out of power but do the same thing when you come to power sends just the wrong message. It is that you cannot keep your word.
Probably only Amit Shah is a correct choice. All the others are misfits. Govt. spending on grandiose and superfluous projects needs to stop. Municipal administrations are major causes for fund squandering. Making, breaking and remaking is the norm. The result is crores down the drain and the irony is that there is’nt even a sewage treatment plant to recycle the waste. It goes straight into the sea! Raising funds is only half the story. Spending it judiciously is the other more important half. BJP has screwed up there. I live in Mangaluru. A couple of months ago MUDA revised its processing fees upwards – went up TEN TIMES. Can you beat that. And ‘file charges’ as they call it remains. If this is not corruption, what is?
Sometimes it becomes necessary to listen to the guys who criticise, not always. It would be good to use ones discretion and heed the important ones.
When the same companies were milking money from last 6 years then they were happy, but since they know that they can live inside their houses without any chance of infection, they want India Inc to work so that all labours get infected and die and then they will again blame govt whether any. If they feel so bad, they should have paid their labours the salary so that nobody would have left for home and business would have started soon lockdown rules became normal, but oh ho that cannot happen, they will just earn but not pay.
Mr Bajaj now you have only to wait for raids on your Indl& financial establishmant by Thug chokidar chor Pradhan sevak & thug chokidar mahachor Tadipar HM’s pet dogs CBI,ED,ANTI CORR,FERA,FEMA name which ever preventive agencies of India for speaking truth.
I am yet to hear an industrialist, media person, businessman who says “India is my country. As a citizen, I have a responsibility to my best under the give circumstances. Here is my plan…..” etc. etc.
The whole Nation (.except some self help groups, philanthropists, Gurudwaras,,..etc. etc..) including a large section of the media, is only cribbing.
I wonder how many realise that along with freedom and democracy there is also an element of responsibility to be exercised by every citizen – from the worker to the Chairman….
Why don’t we discuss what can be done instead of what can’t be done?
these people don’t have any solutions, they have only complaints and complaints
There is a story.
A tea seller in India will have the “knowledge” and audacity to tell Sachin Tendulkar, how to handle Brett Lee on a bouncy Perth Pitch But alas! He will never endeavor to make good tea.
A humble thought.
Economists can be endured…But political economists are a danger to the Nation and the Society.
An efficient professional should be one who can express views on socio-economic matters without the politics. Believe me, it can be done. For this one has to have two qualities 1. Understand the economy well. 2. Any language in which views are expressed. With just preconceived ideas on politics, honest and truthful views on matters can never be expressed.
Tail piece: Also, truth will be in direct proportion on the intentions. You can’t talk the truth on economics if your intention is politics!!!
What else can you expect from member of Congress party. He wants to please his masters and get noticed.
Bahul to Rahul wish had happened earlier at lockdown 1.0
Why Bajaj did not speak up with courage earlier, is he not having anyone to support him. How ironic that all sane voices have died and Rahul Bajaj is the most intelligent.
I wish Print raises above these peddlers of non sense and come out with concrete solutions for future from people who matter
The article does not provide any alternative way of handling the crisis. When you are not the decision maker, you can always question the decision taken by others. This behaviour is ingrained in us.
What were the alternatives other than lock down which would have limited the loss of lives, loss of livelihood and spread of the disease?
If Mr.Modi was not in power, if Congress or any other party was running the government, what else could they have done differently ?
Recently the epidemiologist of Sweden regretted the decision of not going for lock down. When almost every other country in the world followed lock down, why not us?
Admire Rajiv Bajaj for speaking frankly. Everything need be seen as pro or anti Government. Even in a family we have to speak frankly. Moreover, he has used very acceptable language which most people do not sue when criticizing something.
I have been advocating an all party “National Govt” ever since the lock down began. If Modi cannot work with other parties, the RSS must replace him with someone like Gadkari. The Congress and other parties have more experienced hands at managing the economy. We have seen so far that Madam Nirmala does not seem capable of delivering the goods. People’s confidence in Modi sarkar’s ability to pilot the economy in these troubled waters has been severely shaken. The health ministry has also performed below par because of excessive centralisation of power in the PMO. The nation and its economy must be saved and if the RSS is truly a patriotic organisation, it must be ready to sacrifice for the nation’s cause.
I don’t disagree with the premise that the current lockdown was not the right way to go about but blaming the government for taking such a drastic step of locking down the country is also not right. This situation was an unprecedented one, were no one knew what you were getting into. Lockdown was a logical step in order to avoid the spread of virus, although now that we look back we can say that this was not the right way to go about it. You can’t blame the goverment for taking such drastic steps in order to avoid excessive spread of this virus, again i will repeat to AVOID. This was a risk but a necessary one. What we should look forward now, is to see if the government has learned anything from this mistake and what are they going to do to rectify it. There is no denying that there is an atmosphere of fear among corporates. We need more and more corporates coming forward and stating their views. The government should be working for the people not the other way round.
Would you care to elaborate then what must have been done rather than what happened? Because from the perspective of a keen observer, stringent lockdown measures were extremely important because it reduced the infections rate from what could have been 10 folds right now. What else could have been done instead of what the government did to contain the measures. For a change keep the interests of common man as well instead of elitists in your op ed next time.
wait for some more time Ballot boxes will speak…
In a democracy , people should exercise their rights of expression freely. However, those who have to run the show, have to take responsibility for the choices of their action.
An industrialist , with his or his major stakeholders interests in mind & his organisations capacity to function normally under CoVid-19 pandemic will very well oppose lockdown decision.
An elected democratic govt is responsible towards 135 crore citizens. The govt has to work with all the constraints of medical infrastructure, work ethos , public awareness &indiscipline in tackling a pandemic with limited knowlege. In an environment of fuzziness , over caution is called for.For CoVID-19, till date there is no treatment. For an air borne communicable infection ,distancing and precautions are the only viable control measures.
It may not delight fellow citizens that despite all kinds of awareness campaigns of last 3 months, many people still refrain from following public / personal safety Covid-19 protocols. For such gentry , forced lockdown is perhaps the only viable means to control the pandemic spread.
Praveen Chakravarty is correct. The lockdown sure did flatten a curve – but the wrong curve. Rajiv Bajaj needs to be admired for his candor. That is now. The economy started its long dive down two years ago. The new BS norms for the auto sector started it, the new draconian MV act, GST with its back breaking rates, tax terrorism, govt’s. greed for funds followed in quick succession. All this led to the dive. And why.? Because Modi selected the wrong ministers, We need professionals who have an understanding of the subjects and not loyalists or favourites or who were Mohan Bhagwat’s choice. They criticised retrospective taxation but after coming to power did they address the issue. No. To criticise something when out of power but do the same thing when you come to power sends just the wrong message. It is that you cannot keep your word.
Probably only Amit Shah is a correct choice. All the others are misfits. Govt. spending on grandiose and superfluous projects needs to stop. Municipal administrations are major causes for fund squandering. Making, breaking and remaking is the norm. The result is crores down the drain and the irony is that there is’nt even a sewage treatment plant to recycle the waste. It goes straight into the sea! Raising funds is only half the story. Spending it judiciously is the other more important half. BJP has screwed up there. I live in Mangaluru. A couple of months ago MUDA revised its processing fees upwards – went up TEN TIMES. Can you beat that. And ‘file charges’ as they call it remains. If this is not corruption, what is?
Sometimes it becomes necessary to listen to the guys who criticise, not always. It would be good to use ones discretion and heed the important ones.
When the same companies were milking money from last 6 years then they were happy, but since they know that they can live inside their houses without any chance of infection, they want India Inc to work so that all labours get infected and die and then they will again blame govt whether any. If they feel so bad, they should have paid their labours the salary so that nobody would have left for home and business would have started soon lockdown rules became normal, but oh ho that cannot happen, they will just earn but not pay.
bloody true. face it.
Why does not the writer publish these articles in Congress mouthpieces ?
Mr Bajaj now you have only to wait for raids on your Indl& financial establishmant by Thug chokidar chor Pradhan sevak & thug chokidar mahachor Tadipar HM’s pet dogs CBI,ED,ANTI CORR,FERA,FEMA name which ever preventive agencies of India for speaking truth.
Print is fake.
‘Draconian lockdown’ says a Con-gress bhakt.
I am yet to hear an industrialist, media person, businessman who says “India is my country. As a citizen, I have a responsibility to my best under the give circumstances. Here is my plan…..” etc. etc.
The whole Nation (.except some self help groups, philanthropists, Gurudwaras,,..etc. etc..) including a large section of the media, is only cribbing.
I wonder how many realise that along with freedom and democracy there is also an element of responsibility to be exercised by every citizen – from the worker to the Chairman….
Why don’t we discuss what can be done instead of what can’t be done?
these people don’t have any solutions, they have only complaints and complaints
There is a story.
A tea seller in India will have the “knowledge” and audacity to tell Sachin Tendulkar, how to handle Brett Lee on a bouncy Perth Pitch But alas! He will never endeavor to make good tea.
A humble thought.
Economists can be endured…But political economists are a danger to the Nation and the Society.
An efficient professional should be one who can express views on socio-economic matters without the politics. Believe me, it can be done. For this one has to have two qualities 1. Understand the economy well. 2. Any language in which views are expressed. With just preconceived ideas on politics, honest and truthful views on matters can never be expressed.
Tail piece: Also, truth will be in direct proportion on the intentions. You can’t talk the truth on economics if your intention is politics!!!
What else can you expect from member of Congress party. He wants to please his masters and get noticed.
Bahul to Rahul wish had happened earlier at lockdown 1.0
Why Bajaj did not speak up with courage earlier, is he not having anyone to support him. How ironic that all sane voices have died and Rahul Bajaj is the most intelligent.
I wish Print raises above these peddlers of non sense and come out with concrete solutions for future from people who matter
Hi,
The article does not provide any alternative way of handling the crisis. When you are not the decision maker, you can always question the decision taken by others. This behaviour is ingrained in us.
What were the alternatives other than lock down which would have limited the loss of lives, loss of livelihood and spread of the disease?
If Mr.Modi was not in power, if Congress or any other party was running the government, what else could they have done differently ?
Recently the epidemiologist of Sweden regretted the decision of not going for lock down. When almost every other country in the world followed lock down, why not us?
Regards
Sharath K
Admire Rajiv Bajaj for speaking frankly. Everything need be seen as pro or anti Government. Even in a family we have to speak frankly. Moreover, he has used very acceptable language which most people do not sue when criticizing something.
Would you have preferred to continue life as normal and taken a huge risk of dying and exposing millions others to that risk?
Really?
You and your ilk who are now criticizing the lockdown, would have been the first ones to blame the Govt if there was no lockdown.
I have been advocating an all party “National Govt” ever since the lock down began. If Modi cannot work with other parties, the RSS must replace him with someone like Gadkari. The Congress and other parties have more experienced hands at managing the economy. We have seen so far that Madam Nirmala does not seem capable of delivering the goods. People’s confidence in Modi sarkar’s ability to pilot the economy in these troubled waters has been severely shaken. The health ministry has also performed below par because of excessive centralisation of power in the PMO. The nation and its economy must be saved and if the RSS is truly a patriotic organisation, it must be ready to sacrifice for the nation’s cause.
I don’t disagree with the premise that the current lockdown was not the right way to go about but blaming the government for taking such a drastic step of locking down the country is also not right. This situation was an unprecedented one, were no one knew what you were getting into. Lockdown was a logical step in order to avoid the spread of virus, although now that we look back we can say that this was not the right way to go about it. You can’t blame the goverment for taking such drastic steps in order to avoid excessive spread of this virus, again i will repeat to AVOID. This was a risk but a necessary one. What we should look forward now, is to see if the government has learned anything from this mistake and what are they going to do to rectify it. There is no denying that there is an atmosphere of fear among corporates. We need more and more corporates coming forward and stating their views. The government should be working for the people not the other way round.
Would you care to elaborate then what must have been done rather than what happened? Because from the perspective of a keen observer, stringent lockdown measures were extremely important because it reduced the infections rate from what could have been 10 folds right now. What else could have been done instead of what the government did to contain the measures. For a change keep the interests of common man as well instead of elitists in your op ed next time.