Chief Ministers of BUSUB can act good for peace and co-operation with Nepal - An Open Letter

To,
Ms. Mamta Banerjee,
The Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal,

Madam,

Your newfangled visit in Bhutan brings overwhelming response on both sides of Indo-Bhutan border and in the meantime, I take an opportunity to praise you as one of the most active Chief Ministers amongst Indian States. You are concerned with both; the state of West Bengal as well as you have same feeling of national interest. A lady of balanced oration is your identity. I first came West Bengal when CPM was in power and now you are leading this ancient and joyful state with the support of the majority: some of whom are loyal to you and some are liking you for your dedication and work towards the state. 

You are aware that in recent days our neighboring nation, Nepal, is upset with India for various reasons including but not limited to the over critical nature of politicians in rein. The over possessive patriotic nature of Madheshis who want my way or high way is the bitter spices of the upset within the Nepalese authorities. We must not forget that democracy in Nepal is the birth child of insurgency. Insurgency of last respected people, insurgency of those who were deprived of modern world and insurgency of those who basically had not even an iota of any idea. 

The world is decked out with a concept of anti-religious sentiments. Religious tolerance is now becoming an obsolete word and anyone advocating for the same are least tolerated. I would like to seek permission from the so called great leaders of the world that Dear Mr. Leaders, you have miserably failed before the CHEAP POLITICS of religion. You get a sample and apply it to population which is wrong. What are you going to gain? Can you, Mr. World Leaders, name me any politician who in modern days earned more name and fame than Lincoln. You cannot. You know why? Because my dear leaders, there must be a noble cause in your social life.

Madam, what I am going to discuss with you and want to tell the Hon'ble Chief Ministers of Bihar, Uttar Paradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand is the same. You are pro-active in International relations and hence I am directly addressing it to you. I have the same respect and honour for them as you have, But you are my Didi. I am confident that they will treat this letter as if this is addressed to them. Now coming to the point directly.

The constitution of India vide Article 51 empowers you, the Indian states through directive principle of the states to accord with an International Treaty with the neighboring country to (a) promote international peace and security, (b) have friendly relations with other nations, (c) foster respect for international law and treaty obligations and (d) encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration. Now for the sake of clarity, I would like to submit before you that I have my eye open and I know Article 253 of our constitution makes our country some kind dualist in nature and according to this and quoting the words of Constitutional Expert, P.M. Bakashi, "International treaties do not automatically become part of national law. They have to be incorporated into the legal system by appropriate domestic law. Power to implement treaties belongs exclusively to the Union". And the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India many times have ruled that directive principles can override in case of interest of people at large is involved and also it can be put before you that the national legislature got power to pass any law contrary to the international law and that must be respected.   

When you work for the Madheshis and suggest a midway to end the clash, I do not think that the Union shall have guts to block the treaties you signed. You please take your own decision without any influence from the center as they have miserably failed on this issue and disputed the facts in such a way that none other than only Madheshis are looser. And yet, I have to say you, if so the center rejects your treaties, "normativist power ultimately remains with the people and therefore any functionary of a central power has to be an outcome of social contract." Social contract as your treaties shall be helpful for the Madheshis and will restore as well as uphold the long lasting relationship with the Neighboring Country, Nepal with whom our cultural ethos matches. 

Jay Hind! Jay Bengal! Jay Bihar! Jay Sikkim! Jay Uttar Pradesh! Jay Uttarakahnd!

Thanking You,

Sincerely Yours

Himanshu S Jha 

Bihar Election: Only voters will loose...

Election is near in Bihar. Election commission has already announced the date of election which will start on 12^th of October and ends on 5^th of November 2015. The political parties are making all the possible promises of development which could be included in election manifesto but have we considered anytime why is Bihar lagging behind in Industrial development viz-a-viz national growth? No political party has ever tried to address this very question rather all are blaming one another for the same which is not true. The state’s industrial demography has been made from the 90s in such a way that the obstacle for establishing industrial set up is gigantic there. First of all, I could discuss about the policy paralysis of the government. I can enumerate like there is no (i) single window redressing system, (ii) Land Bank so that industry can get Land immediately without any public outrage, (iii) marketing potential of the bye/end product, (iv) mechanism for identifying industrial sickness, (v) transparency, (vi) stringent but easy RTI law, (vii) adequate basic infrastructure like transport, water and un-interrupted electricity supply and last but not least there is a few effective established industrial park. These are common deficiencies in policy of the government rather much of them are that the government has identified only nine sectors for its key thrust areas which are Food Processing, Agriculture based Industries, Tourism related Industries, Super Specialty Hospital, Higher/Technical Educational Institutions, Information Technology based Industries, Electronic Hardware Industry, Textile Industry and Energy/Non-Conventional Energy. These obviously not included heavy industry, automobiles and export intensive industry like gems & jewellery, petroleum, medicament, ship’s boats, textile yarn and organic chemicals etc.

The government has much focussed on the traditional sector which can be good and can certainly lead to much development without any bigger effort, but how? There is no clear policy which is implemented on ground level to boost agriculture as during Lalu’s rein agriculture was much sought after and it grew on an average 10% growth while industry was witnessing meager 3.5% growth. During BJP-JD(U) coalition government industry grew with an average 10% while agriculture with 3.5% which is nothing but structural change and it means NDA government has done nothing but structural change which cannot be said to be healthy steps to revive the economy rather it was an act of pouring milk from one container to another. It would have been better to keep the pace of agricultural growth on top gear; the industrial growth could be accelerated with extra effort. Now let us forget the past and coming back to policy.

Incentives on land, capital, plant and machinery, quality certification and reimbursement of VAT etc. are meager and could not attract much attention for large/mega project e.g. plant and machinery subsidy is only 20% subject to maximum of Rs. 5.00 cr. for large industrial unit and Rs. 0.75 cr. for MSME. There is no special incentive on income tax, service tax etc. which the state could have given from the devolution of the central Government receipt. Are these the only cause of slow growth? Answer is no. let us examine further.    

Law and order in Bihar has become a thing of media blind fold. Comparison from 2001 to 2011 is not so impressive. According to the Bihar Police Website, total crime reported in 2001 which includes Cognizable, Murder, Dacoity, Robbery, Burgling, Theft, Riots, Kid, K.R., Rape, R.D., RR, BD are BR are 128,487  while in 2011 it was  188,917 an increase in 47% over the year 2001. Media was much blind over the issue reason best known to them but surely NDA regime was not a golden period of Bihar rather it could be said a blot on the Bihar. General people were satisfied with glory and false report rather victims failed to get proper attention. Public can be fooled but not the think tank of large corporate. Their risk tolerance in terms of law and order is very low. In spite of these which are heart touching, the government also failed to do good deeds with the established industry. State government made little effort to expand petroleum refinery industry and revive sugar industry with a growth in technology and Sugarcane productivity.

It is matter of fact that the few sugar mills in Bihar have old technology and substitute for the same could be the same as that of establishment of new mills and hence government has no scheme for the same also. Either government can develop the project or transfer the same to strategic investors after negotiations. I in totality can say that in last 10 years, the government has not taken any step which could boost the industrial growth.