Parasites of Indian system

The brahmins are already shown as the parasites of Indian social system in many dalit writing. They have infested the Indian social system since ancient time that the country till date is unable to turn around by collecting its internal strength even after so much of effort. The caste system introduced by Hindu and the brahmins is continuously sucking the nation social system by compromising humanity is the proof that brahmins are blood sucker of Indian social system.

But this piece of writing is not about brahmins but more about another caste group in Hindu. The baniya caste group is another parasite in the Indian system. Baniya caste group has always remained hidden under the shadow of brahmins and rajputs since beginning. The rajputs always ruled the people with muscle power and brahmin group ruled by making fool of people with mind power and more importantly power bestowed upon them self from hindu religion. But in this game, baniya group has always remain hidden under the shadow. The emergence of agrarian society led to the emergence of baniyas which consistently sucked poor people's money making them beg even when they were providing grains to everyone by his hard labor in field. In the last century, the Indian cinema has captured this well that how a munsi take advantage of poor people in times of economic stress. The baniya gives credit at humongous rates and then make the whole generation economic slaves for themselves because no sane person can fulfill the greed of baniya. Baniya gets the forged thumb mark on stupid papers to capture the complete farmer's land. This used to be usual story in the 1960-70's movie but the movie making business has moved on and they don't capture these things now still persistent in rural / urban areas across India. People reading this must know that micro finance institution charges anywhere from 20-35% of interest and some time it goes beyond 50%. These lenders are none other than baniyas who are obscenely making money out of stressed farmers without showing any humanity. The rural economy still works with local baniya. If the borrower does not pay back the money, then the next generation becomes slave of the lender to repay at that interest rate to satisfy the baniya's greed.

The above paragraph shows how a rural economy work till this day. Now come to the urban economy, which is major part of modern economic system. The concept of family business is prevalent is India and people will not get surprised to know that most of the businesses are owned by bania community. So, this has serious implication of driving away the meritocratic system in the society. The highly intellectual people get stuck of these business owned  by family and slog for their family adding little value to themselves as they are working for not so intellectual thinking people. People would not be surprised that a less education person owning the business. Nothing wrong in that, but the implications are very serious again. It has created problem of child labour and all the hazardous environmental problem in the modern industry of not complying with any laws and making their own illegal system. The corruption that we talk about daily has huge contribution from the private businesses which are largely family owned. Political corruption is very small portion of the whole corruption and it is largely driven by corporate/business corruption.  Tax theft is another problem by these businesses and business owners which itself is illegal. Also, the moral degradation of the society is also largely given by the business owner which is usually involved in corruption and many time violence for economic reasons. Educated people who work under the family businesses gradually understand that working under legal system and ethical ways will not give any output and hence, they see nothing wrong in doing illegal things. Largely the businesses which are mostly owned by baniya family are responsible for corruption. 

Hence, the baniya community has must be held responsible and called as the parasites of India economic system. 

Indian Railway budget 2012-13 Rail Budget 2012-13

Indian railway budget is still one of the important event in national politics and economy. It is very close to the Indian people heart as it provides the largest transporatation network across India. It is still the largest employer in the world and life line of India. After the resignation of Ms Mamta Bannerjee as railway minister, Mr Dinesh Trivedi took over the ministry. His last year as a minister was uneventful.

The railway budget 2012-13 as usual was also uninteresting, due to its lack of status update of past, any new way to improve the present and completely missing vision of future for Indian railways. I could not stop myself asking what happened to last year targets, while following the live railway budget, The media did put some status update of incomplete project which were huge in number but Trivedi did not care to provide us an update what happened to previous projects and why those are getting delayed.Some news put it as railway project cost shoot up 95% due to delays. That's an appalling number in itself. So what is the plan to improve this was completely missing. He was responsible for almost a year to improve the performance but he did almost nothing. Next thing he said about unmanned track crossing lot of damage of human life, but isn't it true that every railway budget put the same point without achieveing any target year on year.

Introduction of new trains as always was talk of the minister with 75 express and 21 passenger trains and as previously said that he did not care to provide information about how he will complete previously incomplete projects. The fare hike was expected and to his accolate he did it, but the way it was introduced was like giving only a bit and hiding a lot of it. It does not mentions what is the percentage rate hike and I could not find till date the percentage hike. Also how much did it cover the fuel inflation of previous years and the way forward.

There was concession scheme for sportmen and ill people, which is fine with everyone. Rail khel ratna award is a welcome move as most sportman come as govt employee. Freight increase of 20% was already announced a week before the budget, so nothing new was expected there. e-procurement, e-auction of scraps is planned but no target is given, so on the face value it has no value. DRDO developed bio tiolet on test 2500 coaches but no idea when it will be introduced at all levels.

Satelite based real time information will be given in 18 months, as a techy i know test run is complete and good to see a mention in budget with a target. Also, nice to see rail connectivity to Nepal and Bangladesh planned.

The railways budget 2012

The railway budget 2012 by Dinesh Trivedi on Mar 14. I was watching the news update on my computer in office. There have been a lot of criticism of railways during the last decade for its services. Mr. Laloo Yadav is perhaps the most able minister to handle the matter with new thoughts in the recent time. Although the services has improved in the last few years but it has not fulfilled the aspirations of mega Indian economy. 

The criticism includes defecating across the country, unhygienic toilet condition on trains and station, unmanned crossing, long waiting list, accidents, upgradation of signaling system, speed of train services, online system problem, low maintenance of tracks, no automatic escalators at stations, unhygienic shops at stations, bad financial health of the largest employer, privatization/no privatization, no innovating thinking etc.

Mr Trivedi was sworn in as Railway minister in the early part of 2011 after budget by Ms Mamta Banerjee. So Mr Trivedi has already worked for almost 1 year and there has been no good news on new thought process of making the existing system better after he became minister. He has only done cosmetic changes in the railways like changing tatkal schemes, using different IDs, increasing early booking period and some freight changes. He has been made hero in 2 days of budget, of course we can discusses budget and its implications but what is Mr Trivedi's achievement all this time. Isn't he responsible for ruing the railways. Isn't he responsible for large project delays and isn't he responsible for all unfulfilled promises done last year and all kinds of problem in railways. It is a little early to blame Trivedi for all the problems but he is still responsible for taking no steps to improve any conditions all this he was taking care of the ministry.  The financial health of the railways has gone from bad to worse. 

The railways budget can be discussed in another wrting but what-so-ever happens to Mr Trivedi's career as railway minister, his work as a minister till date is unsatisfactory. 

FDI in retail

Allowing 51% FDI in retail in India was taken place just before the winter session of parliament by the cabinet. The government came to act after a long time, since long time UPA govt is unable to provide any new policy initiative. NREGS and RTI was the last policy decision with some significant impact. RTE was a great initiative without any thrust to implement the same. The whole country is bustling with  inflation figures and corruption headlines. To break the long silence govt decided to make 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and 100% in single brand retail. I must say this was great news not just for the sceptic market but also many global corporates to get a slice of Indian economic growth. FDI is retail is long overdue since the economic liberalization. It promises to adds great strength to economy. The major concern of food supply chain, real-estate commercialization, employment generation and tax collection. It will provide the much more organized labor system which is completely unorganized without any labor law in retail market. Presently only 6% of Indian retail industry is organized and rest is unorganized as compared to more than 25% retail industry organized in Brazil and China, and more than 75% organized retail in USA. Indian industry must follow the path of organized economy to make it competitive and regularized. Present retail industry has almost no regulation and with no specialized skills. This kind of system leads to family based business which is not good for society. It is ironical that the BJP party which proposed to pass raise FDI cap in 2002 now are against that. Another ironical part is the local businessman and other section of society like Anna and his supporters, who want to eliminate corruption, does not want any regularization of retail industry. It is very obvious that unorganized sector leads to more corruption as there are no standard practices and nothing is on paper. It is either height of hypocrisy or height of foolishness. I do feel the international best practice should be implemented and skilled labor should reap the benefit of this huge industry.

Are women themselves responsible?

I have heard females complaining about various aspects of the society. I totally agree with them that males have manipulated the law of society for own gain. Also, large part of the problem can be attributed to the historical reasons and evolution of society where power played an important role than any human endeavor. Although, I totally understand their concerns and fully empathize with them but I think the responsibility of the current situation lies with females also. The concerns raised by them are complex and interlinked, so every issue can not be isolated from other.

Dowry system in India – This is major issue that our government is struggling to eradicate for a long time since 1950 and even before that social activists were opposed to this. Despite of that even today females are married with dowry, and its not the case just for the uneducated mass without any empowerment. Majority of educated females still go through rigorous process of scrutiny before the marriage by her in-laws and then marries as per family wishes by paying dowry along with humiliation to her family members during every stage of marriage process. There are many reasons for that. 

First even people involved in love relationship want to get married under traditional system with the wished of family members. So, they must make their parents to agree with the relationship. That is why even the adult and most educated people get into this traditional trap. Even if the country’s constitution treats every person after adulthood as fully responsible for his/her life's decision, it is not so in reality because of people own willingness to surrender their power of wisdom for making family member agree to their decision, and to make a love relationship converted to arranged marriage. The biggest problem of converting love relationship to marriage is caste system. Even after knowing the rigorous and violent system throughout the country, people persist to expect family support for love relationship to be converted to arranged marriages. It is highly improbable that anyone happily agrees to intercaste marriage, even in the upper most caste and upper most class family in all the region of the country. So, it is pure foolishness to expect or demand family agreement to the decision made my young female. The maximum extent that family goes to support the love-cum-marriage relationship under different caste, if not a violent reaction, is the indifference attitude, without any support along with continuous warning what could go wrong in the relationship in future. So, even at the age of 25-30 female demand family support for their relationship and surrender their independence. 

Another interlinked problem in the current approach taken by females is the demand of family support in the future after love or love-cum-arranged marriage. Females are traditionally forced to do many things against their will by her in-law family, so she wants family support in case of any trouble. This is completely insane if she had to follow her own decision then why she should look for any family support to sort out the marital issues. Only conclusion that can be drawn from this observation is females themselves are not confident of their decision and don’t want to take ownership of their decision with full responsibility.

If we look further into this issue, female demands that the male partner, under the love relationship should be carrying out all the task of making both family agree with the decision. This is again a traditional view, but the marriage relationship is a shared responsibility, then why should only one member take the full responsibility when both members are looking for their independence in their decision making, especially when they are behaving independently in professional domain. Why female still want to rely on the male member for their life? In a shared relationship both person are responsible for the success or failure of the relationship.

Now comes the property right. Ask any female to which house they belong after marriage, they still perceive as belonging to in-law family after marriage even if they get settled as nuclear family in a distant city. This is totally ridiculous because after marriage they have separate family identity. Even earning female members claims that her family is in-laws home although almost every female wants to help their parental home financially. Females never talk of taking any money or financial help from the parental home even though they have equal property rights as their brothers but they are willing to claim the property right in the in-law's property, may be through her husband. So, when it comes to dowry they claims that it is asked by pressure but when they are requested to claim their inherited property they totally reject the request. So, why should any parents give any claim to her daughter-in-law when their son is getting nothing as son-in-law, if he don’t take dowry. This is largely because of the traditional belief that daughter-in-law belongs to the husband’s family and son-in-law has no rights on the wife’s parental property. The easiest solution to the whole mess could be to get the property rights for husband and wife from their respective families. Like every family there is cost of living, so it does not make sense that male’s family take all the burden of female’s living without asking anything. It could be their generosity if they don’t ask anything. So, here again females are making mistake of claiming all the rights from the in-laws family and not claiming her birth right from her parental family .The important question here could be that females get their share during the growth process and work in the married family. The answer to this question is, they don't get equal share in the growth process as they are discriminated as female child. Also, after marriage both partner works, inside or outside home, and similarly both partner should get similar property right from their parents and share similar burden of old parents.

Ideally in an evolved society, any adult should not demand anything from the parents as their parent have already invested everything for the growth of their children till adulthood. But when private property right is given and inherited by next generation, it has to be equally distributed among males and females.

So, it can be concluded that females are also responsible, not completely though,  for their current situation by acting irrationally, They demand family support even after adulthood for marriage, puts males to take leadership of family and making the whole arrangement, ask family support to resolve family issue after marriage, claiming belongingness to their in-laws, demanding financial support from husband’s family and at the same time not taking legal property right from parents. The whole issue is mixed up by double standard followed by the females. I understand that the society is still evolving but when the most educated and empowered class behaves hypocritically, it becomes very difficult to sort out the problem and backward people to catch up with the evolution.  I am in not supporting the heavy handed attitude by the society on females and I am totally against taking any violent action against females under any situation, with the belief that an adult person should be able to live in the society without any support what so ever, and only rely on government and their own capability.

New Zamindari System

The traditional system of Zamindari has been working for centuries in India. It has origins of powerful people represented by kings and caste groups owning large segments of lands and collecting favors from the people living on that. The symbolic system was abolished in India after the independence in 1947. The land was taken away from the zamindars and used for public purpose for the development of nation. The idea behind the zamindari system was that once the land was captured either by power or by other means it becomes hereditary and the next generation kept enjoying the benefits. It was represented by specific higher caste group and the people living or farming on that land had no right on the land, they had to pay part of their earning the owner of the land.

Although the zamindari system is legally banned, it is still persistent in the rural area in different part of the India. The dominant caste still own huge portion of land and it is given to the laborers who don't have any rights but are required to pay specific portion of the farm output. Like many laws in India abolition of zamindari system is not implemented properly. Land reform is only limited to few states and forward caste still works like zamindars in their villages. 

Not so surprisingly, the zamindari system works in urban areas also. I  would like to say it is sophisticated system of zamindari, as it keeps the spirit intact of the traditional zamindari system. The urban areas are dominated by forward caste people as they were progressive with education and business due to better economic and social background. The government sector despite the law of reservation in government jobs is unable to fill up the vacancies and private sector never bother about upliftment of the backward SC/ST population. Forward caste migrated to urban centers and captures most of the real estate properties. Now who so ever comes for employment in especially in private sector, with whatever right educational background, has to pay the huge rent for staying in the city and do some economic activity. The rent authorized by government or paid by the company is never close to the actual market rate. A bright candidate would spend more than 20 years to pay the EMI, if he chooses to buy a decent flat near the place of working. 

I understand that many people will raise eyebrows on the above claims made by me and question, how is this zamindari system? They would give example that irrespective of caste people pay similar rents. Also, who so ever own the property must have purchased it earlier with their hard work and not by power. And most important of all, everyone is free to own his private property legally. I would agree will all these statements but does these statements removes the actual essence of zamindari system. First of all this is a hereditary system which was earlier practiced in traditional system. Second, it is still dominated by forward caste. Even though I don't have  quantifiable figures to support it, I have sufficient reasons behind it. Forward caste people owned good property in the urban areas before independence. Also, mostly forward caste people came for the formal sector of employment and business with their better education and social background. Now that mostly the first generation after independence have settled, they own the property. Till date most of the businesses are owned by the forward caste people and hence they own the private business world related assets. Third, to classify the present system the user has to pay the rent (his economic output), which is mostly being done in all places. Forth, the property are not captured by power argument has some strength but in the present system of India, it is still not properly implemented. The law and order is still for the rich and forward caste people. Many people would not deny that even a simple FIR is not registered in many cases. Real estate is still owned by people related to powerful politician. Government is acting like goons in the hands of powerful politician to capture the lands from villagers and distributing them to people related to politicians. 

The modern economy, which does not necessarily means capitalist system, is meant for the right allocation of asset for the maximum output. The government plays the role to regulate this system to maximize the welfare of society. In the present system both the modern economic system and government is failing to complete their jobs properly. First, the modern economic system is still incapable of allocating resources to gain maximum output. It gives the asset to people related with politician and not to entrepreneurs or the working employed people. The money is still transferred to the hereditary of the older generation occupying the prime spots in property market.The government is not regulating the real estate market to maximize the welfare. First the most real estate property still belongs to the forward caste people which is not good for a healthy society relationship between different communities. Second, government is capturing land from the weak farmers and giving it to corporate. 

How to improve the present system? First of all, the employment of a person and his stay near the working place has to made mandatory. That will also save the environmental and fuel cost of the country.Although government jobs have these things but the private sectors should not be left in the current chaotic form. The payment for housing in private sector should be linked to the market rates. Most importantly the role of black money in the real estate property market has to be removed. People would not be surprised to know that 70% of the real estate price is paid in black money in India. So, the argument that all the people are free to earn and own private property becomes senseless. The government rates for registration and rent should be market rate, and it must be implemented strictly. Also, all the transaction of rent and buy/sell should be with paid service and income tax.This would provide free regulated market for the new generation and a welfare society.

Comparison of Caste and Gender Discrimination in Indian Society before Independence

Caste and Gender discrimination has happened for centuries in India and it is legitimated under the Hindu religious rules. They are often compared to show that caste and gender discrimination are equivalent. 

Backward / lower caste groups has been eliminated from the main stream society and their involvement was only limited to very less respectable jobs. They were highly discriminated and never allowed to mingle with high caste people. Lower caste people were usually treated with violent means. The caste boundaries were very rigid. The rules were legitimized with the religious laws which prohibited any mixing between different caste people. Lower caste group was considered untouchables and they were not allowed to enter temples and learn religious books.

The gender discrimination of woman has also been practiced since long time in India. It has biological origin where male member were involved in outside jobs and women were involved in household jobs due to physical strength and child bearing capability. Even in the kingdom era, women were not involved in wars. In Indian society, Hindu religion prescribed the role of women as the dependent member of the family where she had no decision making role. Women had no property right and considered burden on the parents till marriage. After marriage,  husband ruled them and after death of husband they were supposed to live a lonely life or die as Sati. 

In both the system, there was commonality of religious rule and exploitation of people without any fault of their own. But there was a shuttle difference female child can become a part of powerful group if both of her parents were higher caste members but a child has to remain in lower caste if any parent belonged to lower caste. Many times women were given rights of decision making in-case of death of male member. Women were never treated as untouchables. The biggest difference was that women could be a member of family but a lower caste person can not be a member of higher caste family. 

So, women and caste discrimination was never same in Indian society.