@xan:
That's the funny part because majority of the economy is still part of the informal economy. So accounting political parties to the formal economy won't have the desired effects YET when the majority of the country runs on the informal economy where the money further gets pumped.
But it is only when you incentivize the political parties to move to formal economy that this transition will take place right?The black economy is huge but it is not majority of the economy by any means.Even the biggest estimates put it around 20% of the GDP i think.and the important fact is that a majority of black economy is involved in politics more than anything else.So it should be politics that should be tried to be cleansed first,rather than waiting for the rest of the economy to change.Without trying to reform political funding,you cannot in any way claim to fight black money
yeah that argument now removing the limit with not closing the huge outlet of informal economy which thrives on cash, it becomes counterproductive to the whole restriction of cash expenses being unaccounted.
but the outlet of informal economy into political funding IS being stopped by restricting anonymous donations to just 2k from the previous 20k. And i believe other measures to reduce the black economy are also being taken,but that is another story entirely
And if everyone knows that the black economy has contributed ill to the current political scenario how many raw sword edged cases against these parties are being considered now?! Something to ponder over for sure
while that's a legit question,personally i don't think there's any practical possibility to catch all the already corrupt people.But that doesn't mean the matter should be just left idle without trying to change it.The Govt is going after some of the big fishes like lalu,Chidambram etc but of course they are gonna sing the song of "political witch-hunting" when it is brought up,and actual convictions are unlikely.
But overall as i said,if you are worried about anonymity,you are too late.Political funding is overwhelmingly anonymous even before this move.Nothing drastically is being changed in that aspect.
Not exactly. Yes there were flaws in the gst but bjp never wanted to make an attempt to even discuss about it when it came the table.
That's not what i remember.I remember BJP giving very shrill and vocal arguments against it,and their primary grouse around it as it being not federal enough in nature
They boycotted the houses multiple times avoiding productive time to try to modify the bills but instead took it upon themselves to unequivocally boycott it.
I am sorry but wouldn't boycotting the house actually allow the UPA a clean environment to pass the bill?or did you mean stalling the house
You think all states are supporting the current gst now?
well yeah,considering it passed with no dissent in the rajya sabha,and that the GST council has been able to make all decisions unanimously.The bill gives so much power to state govts even after it's passage,with the GST council,that the fact that the entire process has been completed without any vote is itself an achievement i'd say
TN maharashtra and gujarat themselves were completely against the bill with maharashtra and gujarat soon coming into the fold due to the centre influence and positive changes to the bill.
Exactly,BJP was able to persuade third parties like Tamil nadu,Andhra and states like Maharashtra(ruled by them only) etc by negotiating the bill and changing a lot of stuff.In the end Congress was isolated and was forced to accept the bill or else be seen as diversionary after the whole monsoon session fiasco. UPA also had that option of negotiating with parties other than BJP. BJP hardly ruled 5-6 states in 2012,maybe even less around 2008-09.But congress didn't have the political capital r willpower to actually negotiate with anyone
Again, for changes to the bill it requires cooperation which wasn't there the last time around
Yes,and the co-operation has to come from the ruling party,not the opposition.As i said,if UPA had garnered the support of it's allies and other third-parties,then the BJP also would have been cornered.
Frankly,i think it's only because the deal making skills of Jaitley that GST was able to be passed with the support of numerous and distributed parties.Congress only has itself to blame for failing to develop consensus even among it's own Govt's after 10 years,let alone allies and forgetting third-parties altogether
What happenned to the pandits was unfair and it requires justice but that doesn't justify injustice to the other residents.
The ethnic cleansing of Pandits is not just "unfair",in fact it is a stark display of what the movement in Kashmir is actually about:a call for a islamic caliphate.A call for violence on religious grounds.The veneer of "kashmiriyat" and past ills has been broken many times even recently,with people like Zakir Musa openly calling for sharia rule
But yes of course it has gone beyond the diplomatic terms now and it has become an easy trumpet for propaganda for the neighbors. It has become a bit too late for diplomatic handling of the event.
As i have heard from people with familiarity with this,Pakistan since the beginning has been the prime actor in kashmir. It is not really anything recent.
The annoying part for me is the general population fails to understand the exact problem there with the decade of political complication and suggest blatant violent actions. Its easy to suggest violent crackdowna from the comfiness of our seats but it has ridiculous repurcussions as seen from the Kashmir crackdown that occurred decades back for which the effects are still obviously visible now
I agree,most people are ill-informed and have knee jerk reaction about Kashmir.But i think that the situation in kashmir is improving.What's being done now is what's necessary,which though will bring a temporary upheavel,but in the end will being an overall improvement.Anyway,we can only wait and see now
Its easy to simplify an entire tax system based on our understanding but its effects on informal economy have also been explained to us by experts. We aren't experts so I am just parroting the caution that they themselves suggested. Ultimately they did presume that it will assist in the countrys well being on the long term which I do agree with
Many people do caution that it would be disruptive in the short term,but i haven't really seen anyone saying that it would be harmful in the long term.Because the current system is so complex and screwed up,that nothing can be worse than the present.And especially not a Centralised tax system
Yes and there were changes to the country from 2002 to 2012 too. If you just mention that the country was sleeping till 2014 it thoroughly invalidates the hardwork spent on the economy the past ten years. We survived the 2008 crash and it couldnt have been done without a strong govt backing the economy. There were some crucial regulations lifted during the congress first term which helped in bringing in quite a lot of employment to the country. Invalidating all that by saying SCAMS is just as equal to invalidating bjps good stuff by just saying cows! Which is why the formula I mentioned above underlines the irony of both govts.
Firstly,i never said that everyone was sleeping of the last 10 years.But i would still say that we survived in the past 10 years in spite of the congress,not because of it.The corruption and ineffeciency of bureacracy is the primary reason.the lethargy in some sectors was specially shocking,like Defense acquisitions.The botched up foreign policy and geopolitics is another.And the sky-rocketing inflation another.Anyway i would say that the negatives far outweigh the positives according to me,no matter how i look at it.Not only were populist schemes were used instead of investing in infrastructure,but these very schemes were sources of humongous corruption,which itself would then go to sustain the already corrupt Govt and party.
and secondly,while "SCAMS" is a major and serious concern and problem with the congress govt,"COW" is just a media bubble made to show the BJP as backward and stupid like all other supposedly crazy RW's. One sticks very much,while the other just washes away.The only "scheme" for cow preservation that i see the centre as making is cattle ID tags,which co-incidentally is a practice followed in many countries already
I don't entirely deny that central govt has a say on infrastructure and roadways but majority of the work is done by local municipal departments.
but you did deny it
I dont understand why this is confusing. If central govt tries to work on the roadways of each and every state it isn't a feasible workload to handle. Every state that ive been in differs in maintaining their roadways for which the states road maintaining departments are all different.
of course,majority of the roadways are maintained by the states.But again,the Centre's role is still a lot because of our centralised system
I believe you are talking about highways. Again, do some background work apart from the articles which might be diplomatically misleading.
See, you now casually dismiss anything i say and act all patronising with me while accusing me of calling you "liberal nuthead" and being blinded by my political leanings.
Yes, i am talking about highways,but if you actually bother to look up the ministry of road and transport,it is responsible for much more than highways.There are Road projects apart from Highways that central Govt is involved in,aside from bridges,canals,and many other projects.and of course the aforementioned Inland waterways that is being planned properly for the first time
Let me be clear and point down the real advantages of this government and which would have a significant effect on the country before you again for some reason drop me into a ideology category and rant about my statements lol
Where exactly did i drop you in any ideological category?
If you really want to take a balanced decision, it's better to compare both sides rather than terming the people who present the opposing viewpoints as someone who are voluntarily going against the country (for some awkward reason?!)
ok,that's bullshit.where did i imply that you are going against the country?and you accuse me of being partisan?
anyway,let me explain why i called your arguments as canards.You not only were unaware about the facts of cases like the supposed "beef ban" ,but you were also giving the same ineffecient and tired arguments that BJP "blocked" the GST, and how the pol funding was somehow made opaque,and you even insinuated that i was ignorant about everything since i thought that central Govt actually builds roads(which they do),and that i and others were just blinded by the PR craze of this Govt without actually using our brains to analyse the situation.But now you act like i am the only one who is prone to lazy arguments.
anyways,i'll just end by saying that the stuff that you point out is indeed great,but i myself don't think it's the big-ticket difference that makes me think that BJP is doing so much better.For me it's basically a completely different list:
1)Infrastructure:mainly Railways,Transport and Power.The top performance in this has to be Piyush Goyal's. Looking at his achievements feels like going thorough a propaganda list,because the difference as astounding.He was able to reduce a 5% energy deficiency to less than a percent in 3 years,Overturn the fiscal health of State electricity boards with the scheme of UDAY,and massively improve the solar-energy capacity of the country.In this case i believe numbers do matter a lot.
2)the Effeciency of the Subsidies:this one is so simple and yet so effective.The centre managed to save tons on subsidies by directly transferring the subsidies instead of the old corrupt method filled with leakages.Schemes like MNEREGA,instead of being examples of wasteful socialism,became result -oriented and focused on a useful deliverables for employment,mostly irrigation projects.New socialist schemes,like ujjawala yojana,providing free cylinders to poor was so successful in just 1 year that it had a huge impact electorally,and resulted in BJP's voteshare among women to be significantly more than men
Basically ,starting socialism 2.0:new and improved version.
3)Foreign relations and geopolitics:this one is something that could take a lot of time to elucidate ,so i'll just say that we are finally viewing geopolitics and foreign relations beyond just the lens of pakistan or america,and are actually engaging in areas where we have long been negligent,often criminally so.an important example being out neighbourhood,which we recently dedicated a satellite to
4)Corruption and black money:I am maybe one of the few persons who is actually optimistic that the gains of Demo far outweigh the losses,and other steps the the Govt has taken in this direction,like a new benami transactions law(which lay dormant all this while),black money law,Signing many bilateral and multilateral treaties regarding double taxation and black money,making Govt tendering processes more transparent,opening a centralised website for all Central Govt purchase(it's still a work in progress iirc but still a great initaive) etc
If you still think I parrot against the ruling party with no basis around my arguments then well.. can't help ya. Bitching about a policy doesn't mean I invalidate the entire governance. I see this pattern in the country where you either support the party completely or your labelled a liberal nuthead blah blah which is amusing and just a lazy man's way to validate their own opinions
actually,i don't think so.i do think that your fears of constitution getting changed and emergency like situation returning are just baseless,and that some of your criticism's are arguments to support that fear just don't stand up,like political funding,kashmir or even GST. But that's that though.I don't actually think you are blindly against the Govt,frankly i was just talking about other supposed liberals that i have debated with who just don't care no matter what the facts are.I should have worded my reply more properly