Lets whole-heartedly support the UID project. Agreed, there could be privacy issues; yet, compared to the benefits that it would bring, we should get ready to face those situations- if at all they occur.
UID is going to make it difficult for the corrupt bureaucracy to continue with their corrupt ways and if it is not implemented then the common man will continue to live a faceless and much more ungainly life.
Billions of rupees are spent every year to uplift the common men from their poor state and as per the admission of a former PM and then very recently by his son (Rajiv and Rahul Gandhi) not even 15% of the expenditure reaches them. Now the technology is available by which the entire realm of Babudom could be by-passed and the PM can straightaway make a money transfer, be it an unemployment allowance, old age allowance, widow allowance or the payments for MG- NREGA; to the beneficiary accounts. That cannot be done unless we adopt a system, which will be full proof and would not permit duplication of beneficiary accounts. And for that the Iris and fingerprint- both at the same time- profiling is important.
IMHO, The people who rabidly oppose UID fail to see the bigger picture. The project would cost just around 2 US$ billion Dollar and that is small change compared to the amount that is spent on social welfare projects in India. Just as an example: 4 times that money was spent last year on MG- NREGA, where it is no secret that bulk of the money does not reach the targeted beneficiary.
Privacy and the common man:
Well, that’s a joke! 99 % of the people do not give two hoots to privacy. Well you may brand them as ignorant, beyond that please consider the following:
It’s common knowledge that, the Police pick up the common villagers and no entry is made in the station diary for weeks. For two square meals they go to towns where they cannot open a Bank account or cannot provide any document to prove that they exist. Unless they swell the ranks of some corrupt politician- as supporters or goons- they would not get a ration card or a driving license. When they die by falling from a sub-urban train or on a road accident, so often, they are just a number. Every year, thousands of common people turnout as dead corpses- in all conceivable places- and then police close the files by marking ‘unidentified dead body- murder suspected/ not suspected’. Ditto is the case with poor young women disappearing and then getting exploited for their entire life in brothels. If anything, they-the common men- would love to know that they exist and even if their data is stolen, it can hardly cause them any harm.
Who is so concerned about Privacy?
It’s the rest 1% who milk the system- either as corrupt bureaucrats, businessmen or politicians. Unfortunately the entire lots of indoctrinated communists are also swelling their ranks! Credible identification of common women would make it difficult for pimps and brothels to run their business with impunity. For, then the chances of tracing victims to their families and thereby unearthing the entire trail would become very easy and simple sting operations by citizen journalists would do what the entire police departments are unable to do till date. Fingerprint matching of a missing woman can be done by anybody who is computer savvy and gets an access to the fingerprints of the missing woman. It would be virtually impossible for brothel owners – be it in Kamathipura or Sonagachi- to hide the identity of their new recruits. The same is also true for unearthing the corrupt ways of rich and influential and they have every reason to be wary of that!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Oppose bail for Raja and Kani
Why Thiru Andimuthu Raja and Ms Kanimozhi should not be let loose on bail?
Granting them bail on the basis of delay in sentencing them – though charges have been framed- would amount to gross miscarriage of justice. We have enough evidence to believe that this duo –along with their cohort- is responsible for a massive fraud.
A few facts about the 2G scam, while talking about Thiru Andimuthu Raja and Ms Kanimozhi, to keep things in the right perspective.
1. The 2G scam happened in 2008.
2. It was the AG- auditor General- which is a constitutional authority and who is not known for any political leaning, who quantified the scam and brought into light its enormous proportion.
3. The entire UPA government has been – time and again- trying to shield the culprits.
4. It’s the vigilantism of SC that saw the progress in the case and eventual arrest of the prime accused persons.
5. In case of Raja- It’s for the first time that a ruling union minister has been put into the prison for his misdeeds.
6. Going by the new paper report- the high profile detainees are not harassed inside the prison rather they enjoy VIP status and even their dietary habits are respected by the jail authorities by providing them with Idli and Dosa.
7. Last and the most important factor- these are the law makers- MPs!
Let’s take the case of two bail applications granted on- Friday, 4 November 2011.
1) Ramalinga Raju was jailed in January 2009 after he admitted to inflating the financials of Satyam Computer Services, then India's fourth-largest software services provider. He was granted bail after Two years and nine months. Raju was briefly granted bail last year by the Andhra Pradesh high court, but the Supreme Court cancelled it in October 2010. On Friday, 4 November 2011, the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail saying that no useful purpose will be served by keeping him and others in jail as the prosecution was at the fag end of presenting its evidence. (SOURCE: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/satyams-ramalinga-raju-two-others-get-bail/articleshow/10614555.cms)
2) Patna High Court today - 4 November 2011-granted regular bail to former RJD MP Md Shahabuddin in connection with a murder case in Siwan district in 2004. Shahabuddin facing life imprisonment in another case related to kidnapping-cum-murder of a CPI-ML (L) worker would, however, remain in judicial custody. He is currently lodged in Siwan jail. (source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_former-rjd-mp-md-shahabuddin-gets-bail_1607359)
To understand the injustice done by letting loose Ramalinga Raju we have to compare his case with a comparable case in USA.
Around the same time -December’ 2008- a big ticket corporate fraud by Bernard Madoff was also unearthed in USA. Madoff was chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC from its startup in 1960 until his arrest on December 11, 2008. In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and on June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed. He accepted his fate and since then is serving his time in jail, without any scope of coming out.
And in India now after the passage of such a long time, Ramalinga Raju simply walks out on bail! Why can’t he be sentenced? Especially, when his crime is as clear as day light! What is this farce of letting him go on bail?
How unjust it is to grant a rapist or a murderer bail need very little explanation. It would suffice if we simply state the statistics. Its common knowledge that even half of the perpetrated rape cases are not reported for asserted reasons and out of the reported ones 85% of rape case do not result in conviction. Why? When the accused persons are not sentenced within a reasonable time, as per prevailing practice they become eligible for a bail; say after 6 months or so. When they come out on bails they gat a license to work out a compromise!
Is it possible to punish the high profile culprits in India?
Yes.
Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death stir from August 16, 2011 ended with a happy note on 28 august- Sunday-when the entire parliament resolved to find a break through and created precedents on the run up. However let’s remember that till date the government has not conceded any thing concrete, yet now this movement has shown that if we pursue with zeal then the government / Supreme Court would see the merit and would relent to create precedents.
So it’s difficult yet possible to ensure that these high profile accused persons do not go scot free and rather brought to justice for their misdeeds. To protect their personal rights we can facilitate setting up of a special court for having daily hearings to deliver justice within a reasonable time (say 180 days). In fact if we remember the anguish outbursts of the honorable SC judges, who are monitoring this case, they have already indicated similar measures from their side, in the past, while censuring CBI and the government agencies for undue delays in this sensitive case.
15 May 2012
A Raja is let loose on Bail!
What a farce! Thousands of crores of Rupees was lost and there is tell-tale sign of his involvement and defrauding the exchequer. Still he could not be sentenced in almost 2 years! Why? As concerned electorates we must make our representatives answer this. If they do not answer then we should get them changed. Do we have it in us?
Granting them bail on the basis of delay in sentencing them – though charges have been framed- would amount to gross miscarriage of justice. We have enough evidence to believe that this duo –along with their cohort- is responsible for a massive fraud.
A few facts about the 2G scam, while talking about Thiru Andimuthu Raja and Ms Kanimozhi, to keep things in the right perspective.
1. The 2G scam happened in 2008.
2. It was the AG- auditor General- which is a constitutional authority and who is not known for any political leaning, who quantified the scam and brought into light its enormous proportion.
3. The entire UPA government has been – time and again- trying to shield the culprits.
4. It’s the vigilantism of SC that saw the progress in the case and eventual arrest of the prime accused persons.
5. In case of Raja- It’s for the first time that a ruling union minister has been put into the prison for his misdeeds.
6. Going by the new paper report- the high profile detainees are not harassed inside the prison rather they enjoy VIP status and even their dietary habits are respected by the jail authorities by providing them with Idli and Dosa.
7. Last and the most important factor- these are the law makers- MPs!
Let’s take the case of two bail applications granted on- Friday, 4 November 2011.
1) Ramalinga Raju was jailed in January 2009 after he admitted to inflating the financials of Satyam Computer Services, then India's fourth-largest software services provider. He was granted bail after Two years and nine months. Raju was briefly granted bail last year by the Andhra Pradesh high court, but the Supreme Court cancelled it in October 2010. On Friday, 4 November 2011, the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail saying that no useful purpose will be served by keeping him and others in jail as the prosecution was at the fag end of presenting its evidence. (SOURCE: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/satyams-ramalinga-raju-two-others-get-bail/articleshow/10614555.cms)
2) Patna High Court today - 4 November 2011-granted regular bail to former RJD MP Md Shahabuddin in connection with a murder case in Siwan district in 2004. Shahabuddin facing life imprisonment in another case related to kidnapping-cum-murder of a CPI-ML (L) worker would, however, remain in judicial custody. He is currently lodged in Siwan jail. (source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_former-rjd-mp-md-shahabuddin-gets-bail_1607359)
To understand the injustice done by letting loose Ramalinga Raju we have to compare his case with a comparable case in USA.
Around the same time -December’ 2008- a big ticket corporate fraud by Bernard Madoff was also unearthed in USA. Madoff was chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC from its startup in 1960 until his arrest on December 11, 2008. In March 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and on June 29, 2009, he was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed. He accepted his fate and since then is serving his time in jail, without any scope of coming out.
And in India now after the passage of such a long time, Ramalinga Raju simply walks out on bail! Why can’t he be sentenced? Especially, when his crime is as clear as day light! What is this farce of letting him go on bail?
How unjust it is to grant a rapist or a murderer bail need very little explanation. It would suffice if we simply state the statistics. Its common knowledge that even half of the perpetrated rape cases are not reported for asserted reasons and out of the reported ones 85% of rape case do not result in conviction. Why? When the accused persons are not sentenced within a reasonable time, as per prevailing practice they become eligible for a bail; say after 6 months or so. When they come out on bails they gat a license to work out a compromise!
Is it possible to punish the high profile culprits in India?
Yes.
Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death stir from August 16, 2011 ended with a happy note on 28 august- Sunday-when the entire parliament resolved to find a break through and created precedents on the run up. However let’s remember that till date the government has not conceded any thing concrete, yet now this movement has shown that if we pursue with zeal then the government / Supreme Court would see the merit and would relent to create precedents.
So it’s difficult yet possible to ensure that these high profile accused persons do not go scot free and rather brought to justice for their misdeeds. To protect their personal rights we can facilitate setting up of a special court for having daily hearings to deliver justice within a reasonable time (say 180 days). In fact if we remember the anguish outbursts of the honorable SC judges, who are monitoring this case, they have already indicated similar measures from their side, in the past, while censuring CBI and the government agencies for undue delays in this sensitive case.
15 May 2012
A Raja is let loose on Bail!
What a farce! Thousands of crores of Rupees was lost and there is tell-tale sign of his involvement and defrauding the exchequer. Still he could not be sentenced in almost 2 years! Why? As concerned electorates we must make our representatives answer this. If they do not answer then we should get them changed. Do we have it in us?
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