Living in denial since 2004

To paraphrase Voltaire if  Chutzpah was not loaned from Yiddish, we would have to scour really hard for some word to describe this

"This is in fact an endorsement of BJP's stand that there should be two dominant parties at the national level," he said, adding, "Jan Sangh and BJP's creation was meant to break the dominance of a single dominant party in the polity of the country and the BJP has done this."

"The BJP has ushered in a two-party system in the country, breaking the dominance of the single dominant party polity. I am happy that people have endorsed our view and chosen a bipolar polity."

And there goes any hope of reflection and course correction by BJP leadership. Imagine if this is the extent of  delusion set in mind of Shri Advani, what can one hope from likes of Rajnath Singh. Expecting BJP leadership  to introspect is similar to expecting Congress to investigate Bofors. It is the coterie of sycophants,hanger ons and power peddlers which rules the roost in BJP, which is ultimately responsible for the humiliating defeat. Their only concern is self aggrandizement by continuing to peddle influence and right connections, so consumed are they by the power struggles and palace intrigues that they are simply unable to appreciate the fact that BJP faces existential threat.

They can not change the direction of the ship, at best they can rearrange the chairs at deck while the Titanic moves on collision course with the glacier.

I love you

Hey Bhagwan ! My head, it hurts.

And so I must ask the unfortunate readers to kindly fisk this execrable article kyunki logon ko yadi is ghatana ka pata chala to ve din-dukhiyon par vishvas n karenge* . How bad is it, it is so bad that I suspect it is actually Sagarika Ghose who has written it.

Is Federalism new Secularism ?

Though I don't expect much from Congress even I am surprised by the alacrity that Congress has shown in reverting to its original instinct of being the dominant animal of the pack . Although the snub delivered to Mu.Ka is being hailed by propaganda arm as an indication of intentions of Gandhi family, unencumbered by compulsion of coalition politics, for observing probity in the public offices, it is difficult to take it seriously irrespective of intentions of Rahul Gandhi, not only because of the lack of concern during previous tenure but also because of the fact that Congress governments have never been model of probity, milking lucrative portfolios for "fund contribution" as well as personal welfare. The other point of interest is of course the assumption shared by many among them Rahul Gandhi that the impressive performance of Congress in this election is permanent, now this may or may not be true, however I suspect that working under this assumption Congress will continue to give a short shrift to its allies. This behavior may see a return of anti- Congress sentiment prevalent till last decade, if that happens we can expect to see polarization in the name of federalism, which will be as genuine as polarization in the name of secularism, the only difference being it will be a cover for anti - Congress alliance instead of anti - BJP one.

You know ...

I am really beginning to suspect that Bibek Debroy is not interested in Padam Shris or Padam Bhushans.

He does a nice job of pouring cold water on the heightened if unfounded expectations of various segments both market as well as middle class, about enactment of serious reforms.

To repeat what I have said earlier, the actions of Congress can be best understood and also predicted by motivation of Gandhi dynasty which is perpetuation of its entrenchment, and its understanding that this is best achieved by emulating Indira Gandhi which is by enacting tax and spend schemes which in essence are "robbing Peter to pay Paul" politics. This is the whole extent of the focus on social sector and in absence of any reform or accountability the results are going to be no different from those of previous schemes.

On Taxation

Few questions:

1. Why shouldn't we move from Income tax to some sort of consumption tax ? As the things stand today Income tax bring a minuscule amount of revenue, owing to exemption to majority of population from paying tax, usually due to pressure from interests group. The advantage of consumption tax, in my view, is that it ameliorates, if not outright eliminates, to a great extent the ability of formation of interest group to pressure for exemption, mostly due to the fact that any exemption requires relatively more rigorous explanation.

2. One of the major reasons given by fiscal conservatives in US to oppose tax hikes on corporations is that the corporations can and will simply pass the hikes to the consumers. Now I can't find any fault with the logic, but shouldn't the same logic hold for the hikes in income taxes also ?

Discuss

Contrary to our belief, we niramishvaadis are relatively more immoral or perhaps even more cruel than samishvaadis (This topic inspired by first half of this post by Frogji)