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Letters to the Editor: April 11, 2019

By
Web Team
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FEATURE LETTER DIARY 679x400 e1553672678487
Letters to the Editor: April 11, 2019 3

Winning ways at Wisden

It was a double delight for India as it swept the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack on Wednesday with Virat Kohli and Smriti Mandhana clinching the ‘Leading Cricketer of Year’ honours, continuing their award-winning spree. Kohli and Mandhana had won big in the last ICC Awards night too. Mandhana was adjudged ‘Women’s Cricketer of the Year’ as well as the ‘Women’s ODI Player of the Year’ by the ICC in December, while the talismanic Kohli won the Cricketer of the Year award besides finishing as the top batsman in Tests. Indian captain Kohli was named the Wisden Leading Cricketer of the year for the third successive time, having amassed 2735 runs across the three formats in 2018. The Indian talisman was picked as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the year, along with England’s Tammy Beaumont, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, and Rory Burns.

Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan was named the Leading T20 Cricketer of the Year for the second year in a row, following his superb performance last year. He took 22 wickets at an average of 8.68 for Afghanistan in T20Is, besides scalping 21 wickets in the Indian Premier League 2018. The Five Cricketers of the Year are chosen by Lawrence Booth, the editor of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, with the 2019 version serving as the 156th edition. Wisden has been listing out Cricketers of the Year since 1889 and it is considered as one of the more prestigious awards in the sport.

C.K. Subramaniam

Think twice before casting vote

If Narendra Modi wins the 2019 elections, he will accumulate more funds from the public and charge more taxes from the people. He will also increase the price of all essential commodities like Liquid Petroleum Gas and another day to day items. So, people must think twice before casting their vote for him.

Jubel D’Cruz

Promote philately for revenue, public-interest

To induce newness in the system and for earning extra revenue through philately, the Department of Posts should traditionally issue an altogether new definitive series of postal-stamps and postal-stationary simultaneously in all denominations every year on the first day of the new financial year which should also be the date of revision of postal-tariffs if any. However, the colour of a particular denomination of a postal-stamp of definitive series should be same but with a change in design on the basis of the theme selected for that year. A representative of the main opposition party should be traditionally included in the advisory-body to decide on the issue of new postal-stamps to avoid any political bias in choosing personalities to be figured on postal-stamps.

To popularise postal-services over private couriers and for enormous extra revenue-earnings, the Postal Department should issue stamps with advertisements of sponsors by charging the cost of advertisement for each printed stamp with pre-condition to purchase some minimum fixed percentage of total print-order. The advertisers will then use their advertised stamps preferring postal-service over private courier-service. It will not be some new policy because the Department of Posts already prints advertisement from private parties on postal-stationery.

Madhu Agrawal

Let devotees manage temples!

The issue of the government’s taking over temples comes up for discussion every now and then. Do the devotees feel what is the connection between temples and government? The Government has no answer to it but the Supreme Court gave an apt reply in this context and has given a hard slap to the governments for holding control over temples. The Supreme Court said during a hearing of Odisha’s famous Jagannath Puri Temple case that management and control of temples should be handed over to the devotees. The Union Government has also expressed its approval over the Supreme Court’s stand. The Supreme Court has said all the points wanted by devotees. It means that the Court also knows what devotees have in mind; but the Government has been purposely ignoring the same. The Government was unable to explain its achievements by taking over management of the temple. Then, why did the Government create so much fuss over this issue? The answer to this question can be obtained through several scams exposed in case of temples taken over by the government. The Government should now study the procedure required to be followed for releasing the temples out of its control so that temples would be immediately handed over to devotees for management and there wouldn’t be a delay due to government’s style of working.

Kishor Auti

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

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Blow for Congress-NCP: Fathers to follow sons’ footsteps?

By
Suraj Chandran
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Patil Joins BJP

With Lok Sabha polls just around the corner, the leaders are shifting their loyalties to join the ruling party. The leader of opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil are likely to join BJP. Both leaders are expected to join BJP during the scheduled rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state in the coming days. According to PTI sources, Vikhe-Patil would join BJP on April 12 in Ahmednagar and Mohite-Patil at Akluj in Solapur district on April 17. Already Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s son Sujay Vikhe-Patil and Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil’s son Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil have joined BJP. Sujay is contesting against Congress-NCP candidate and sitting MLA Sangram Jagtap from Ahmednagar.

Congress MLA Bhausaheb Kamble said, “Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s exit will make some difference to Congress but it won’t make any difference to the Ahmednagar voters. Ahmednagar is considered as the bastion of Congress and voters are supporting the party.”

Thus, the reported exit of Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil is seen as a major setback for Congress and NCP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Vikhe-Patil is also likely to take his supporter MLAs with him. The exit of two young politicians from formidable Maratha political dynasties has caused a big shift towards the BJP in the power dynamics in Ahmednagar and Solapur districts.

Water Conservation Minister Ram Shinde stated, “BJP will become stronger with Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s induction into the party. Congress and NCP have failed to stop the defection of Vikhe-Patil. Already people are aware of the work done by BJP in the last five years. The leader of the opposition has failed to become an effective opposition leader.”

Speculations of Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil joining BJP was rife in political circles ever since his son Sujay joined BJP. There were also reports of Vikhe-Patil submitting resignation to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on ‘moral grounds’ but he denied it. Already NCP has alleged that Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has participated in BJP’s campaign in Ahmednagar. The NCP leaders from western Maharashtra have already forwarded a letter to Congress asking to take strict action against Vikhe-Patil. NCP’s Ahmednagar coordinator Ankush Kakde has written to State Congress president Ashok Chavan for taking action against Vikhe-Patil.

NCP MLA Rahul Jagtap said, “The exit of Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil won’t make any difference to NCP. We will continue to support NCP and its leader Sharad Pawar. We will abide by whatever decision he will take.”

Sujay Vikhe-Patil was keen to contest from Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency and demanded a seat belonging to NCP quota. However, NCP was reluctant to part with the seat. Hence, Sujay quit Congress to join BJP. He is contesting Lok Sabha polls from Ahmednagar on BJP ticket. According to sources, supporters of Vikhe-Patil want him to join BJP before May 23 as there is a possibility that Congress might axe him once elections are over. Considering this, he is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party soon. Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, who is the sitting MP of NCP from Madha constituency in Sholapur, was reportedly unhappy over being sidelined by NCP. He was earlier denied a ticket from Madha as Pawar himself had announced to contest from the constituency. However, Pawar later announced that he was not interested in contesting the election.

Sena MLA Tukaram Kate Shiv said, “Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil and Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil are big leaders of Maharashtra. Vikhe-Patil has a strong hold over Ahmednagar constituency and people support him. Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil has a strong hold over Sholapur. If both the leaders are joining BJP, then Sena leaders contesting election will be benefited as Sena has a pre-poll alliance with BJP.”

Vikhe-Patil had earlier stated that he would not campaign for Congress-NCP nominees in Lok Sabha polls. Being an opposition leader, Vikhe-Patil is one of the top leaders of Congress and his exit will prove to be a severe blow for Congress. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had joined Shiv Sena when the Sena-BJP was in power in 1995, but he later resigned and re-joined the Congress. Elections to all the 48 seats in Maharashtra will be held in four phases beginning on April 11.

Take over rich temples and use the fund for nation building

By
Vaidehi Taman
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In India, there are thousands of religious places and some of them are the richest by all means. There was always an approach that rich temples of India should be taken over by the state governments and the accumulated fund must be utilised for the nation building. Well, the religious institutions are not only restricted to temples, but there are also many mosques and churches in India that are hugely funded by different countries for the betterment of their own communities. If all these religious places come together and think of helping the state governments, the nation would not be needing loans from the World Bank. However, unfortunately, all these religious institutions are funding towards politics and riots more promptly than rendering help in development. Not all are same, there are many temples and trusts which are working towards the betterment of mankind, but against the riches they earned, the charity they do is very lopsided.

If you remember, Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government borrowed Rs 500 crore from Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST) to complete Nilwande irrigation project. The interest-free loan has been secured to complete the pending work in the irrigation project, which will provide drinking water for Ahmednagar district. The move was extraordinary, as no state corporation has been granted an interest-free loan before. The trust was supposed to release Rs 500 crore for the irrigation project worth Rs 1,200 crore. The work has been long pending on the project. As per reports, more than 70,000 devotees visit the Shirdi temple every day and the number balloons to 3.5 lakh during festival season. Some regions in the Ahmednagar district face acute shortage of water and the project will benefit all tehsils in the district. Akole, Sangamner, Rahuri, Kopargaon, Shirdi, and other villages will be benefitted once the project is completed. However, there is no official follow up or reports regarding the same. The work is executed or not, how much fund is received by the state government, and where it is spent, no one has any record. Still, as a devotee and as a citizen, I personally felt good about the entire episode. This is what is expected from the other temples, too.

In India, there are two main types of temples. Small and Medium Temples are maintained by the people of the village or by private management trust. Large Temples are maintained by HR and CE department. The money that you put in “Hundi” goes for God’s purpose. The trust maintains the whole temple with this “Hundi” (treasure) money. Maintaining a temple is not an easy task. Everyday flowers, prasadam, ritual items, clothes for god have to be purchased. Every fortnight, at least one or two festivals come and they have to distribute the money for it. Many offer huge donations and gold that is surplus amount and that amount piles up and becomes permeate asset value of the Temple trust.

For famous temples Like Tirupati, normally money, gold, and maintenance are not at all a problem. Our ancient Kings and Jamindars have granted lands for maintenance. So, money also comes from these sources. Temple inscriptions have this evidence. Most of the large temples are maintained by big trusts and HR department. However, they don’t carry out all the rituals and only important ones are carried out. Again, they can distribute the money easily as they are maintaining many temples and they can direct the money from one famous temple to a simpler one. What happens to the huge donations received by any NGO from charitable and gullible foreigners, same fate can be attributed to all temples that get non-taxable and uncountable money in terms of cash and kind like gold, diamond, and other ornaments, which the devotees pour on their God as reciprocity and reverence! If you take some of the richest temples, their annual income might be a staggering amount that could be understood only in terms of billions of dollars or pounds. The Anantha Padmanabha Swamy temple is probably the richest in the whole world, which takes the credit of having crossed assets worth nearly Rs 20 billion found in one out of four treasures, followed by Tirupati Venkatachalapathi earning Rs 2 crore per day and the annual income crossing around Rs 700 crores. The income of Vaishnava Devi also crosses around Rs 600 crores, whereas the much talked Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak Temple trailing behind to Rs 60-70 crores per year. Shirdi Baba, who was not given proper clothes, roti, and buttermilk while alive, is getting around Rs 400 crore per year, revealing the bitter truth how a phantom of a man is more powerful than the actual man in blood and flesh.

Though each temple has its own auditing system, there is no accountability for them either to an external agency or government. Probably, God thinks the money that is being swindled in His name is nothing compared to the money that is laundered and maneuvered by selfish and dishonest politicians in exploiting the BPL Indians. The beauty is to be registered into your brain here is that the devotee who donates to his beloved God does not care about the fate of his money that he put in “Hundi”.

In fact, it is interesting to hear from some great brains of India if such huge dead wealth is deposited in RBI, the Indian Rs 1 would demand $100, just reversing the current trend. Since they are good and genuine people, they want to utilise holy money but not to unearth black money hidden with bad people.

The recent move of depositing the excess gold/cash with RBI for which interest can be gained and gold can also be taken back after some lock-in time is to be utilised by the concerned temples, especially those which do not know what to do with such huge quantum of Gold. In such a situation, the temples can loan that amount to respective governments and help towards same human kinds who are the donors and devotees of the temple.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

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Letters to the Editor: April 10, 2019

By
Web Team
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FEATURE LETTER DIARY 679x400 e1553672678487

Salary-allowances, holidays, and work

Ten days holiday with full pay has been declared in Japan from April 27 to May 6 as coronation ceremony of the prince is going to be held. 45 per cent of citizens have expressed displeasure over the same. Public holidays are more in India compared to the other countries. With a population of more than 135 crores, people living in this country belong to different sections. Every section follows different festivals. Even then, nobody dares to raise the issue of reducing a number of holidays. In fact, in government and semi-government offices, one hears discussions on holidays more than on work. Considering salaries as per Pay Commission and public holidays, besides leave taken by employees, side of holidays seems to be more tilted on the scale of holidays. Why are government sectors not privatised? Investment on government employees and work done by them has no comparison. Whatever progress achieved by India so far is mainly due to the private sector. The government sector, however, doesn’t think that ‘We should also make such solid contribution through our work’. It is, therefore, preferred to keep mum on how much we are taking from the country in the form of salaries-allowances and holidays and how much do we return to the country in the form of service.

Shakuntala Baddi

 

Money making – Main aim of Swimming pool management

Swimming pool tragedies are happening because of negligence and it is time to take drastic steps to avoid such mishaps in the future. Kalyan building drowning case is one more striking example for negligence on the part of the lifeguard. Unless there are lifeguards with proper training and experience, the life of wards going for such training is at high risk. Vasai civic pool drowning is another case negligence. Miserable drowning deaths send the wrong signal among the parents sending their wards for training in pools in the city. Many deaths have occurred inside water and this is a cause for worry. During the summer season, a lot of Coaching Camps are taking place in the city and trainees go inside water without much exposure in swimming.

Gundumani K. Subramani

 

BJP & Congress manifestos: 2 sides of same coin

The BJP manifesto released a couple of days before the first phase of the elections is nothing but old wine in a new bottle. Pleasing the farmers, abolition of Section 370, the promise of building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, etc. are the promises from the ruling Party which has been in public domain for long though which were not fulfilled under their tenure in power. They have now been sweetened further as it is election time and most of the parties lure citizens for votes with promises that never get fulfilled. BJP, as well as the Congress manifesto, actually are two sides of the same coin. Politicians remember the farmers and poor on eve of elections but nobody was really bothered when they were dying in poverty and committing suicides.

Politicians make tall promises which are too good to be true. Everybody offers freebies but none give the roadmap from where the funds would be generated. The rich in our country gets richer each year while the poor have nothing to lose as they have already lost all and it is the middlemen who have to shoulder the pain of tax burdens and live a life of apathy. Poll promises and manifestos are a mere piece of paper which we have to overlook in favour of actual work done by politicians. The voters should make their vote count by electing deserving and hardworking honest politicians to the Parliament.

S.N.Kabra

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
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World Cup to our doorsteps — What is wrong with Indian Cricket?

By
C K Subramaniam
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world cu pWe are all immersed in the world of IPL at a time the cricketing world is preparing for the World Cup. The stakes are high in IPL and players prefer IPL rather than playing an International event. With the result, the standard of the game going down considerably and confidence is shattered in repeated failures. The major players including captain Virat Kohli are facing a ticklish situation. His team Bangalore Royal Challengers lost all the 6 games on the trot and struggle for survival. Openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are repeated failures with the bat. Thus, the captain’s confidence is going down and the openers are not just a lamb to the slaughter facing the white ball.

IPL is a shame game of betting and why our players exert their energy there and fail miserably. Every VIP being talked about in real life is given a representative player, without his free-willed option to permit the same, to represent him in the game of cricket. When the VIP does something viral, the player hits a six, or performs well, due to the betting that goes on behind the scenes to boost the popularity of this VIP. But what happens, as a result, is another parallel betting goes on, by the opposite team betters, to devour or tarnish the lives of his loved ones or close friends. The culprit here in effect becomes the cricket match, which becomes the medium for both boosting the popularity as well as hurting. Thus the game suffers and the youngsters are misguided.

Both CSK and are RR were banned for two full seasons on the charges of match-fixing but still, the game takes the back seat. We blame the Indian team if the team loses and praise them too much when the team achieves some homemade wins. The wickets in India are meant for spinners and when we tour places like England our track record is very poor. We could not win a test series in England since 2007 and some of the defeats just like the one in Lord’s was disastrous. However, for Ashwin remaining top scorer in both the innings, we could not do much in the last tour.  After winning the second test, we lost the next two and the series by 1-3 to England. The lateral swing trouble the openers and the steep bounce saw the middle order cave in. Then we expect the tail to wag and save us from certain defeat.

This year, the World Cup is taking place in England and the lackadaisical approach of the team is highly deplorable. We start to save the game and our long tail start rather early from Number 7. We need to rejuvenate the side with a balanced team and our home record is not going to help in any case, except that we can hold number one spot without a series in England for the last 12 years and not winning a test series in South Africa since 1991. It is time to resurrect the side and IPL defeats the purpose of our progress in International cricket. What is wrong with Indian Cricket? We bank on IPL show for World cup selection.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

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Forgets Undone Promises: PM Modi bets on “first-time voters”

By
Rajesh Choudhary
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Modi To YouthPlaying the nationalism card once again, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress party of the partition of India. Addressing a rally on the last day of poll campaigning in Latur, PM Modi appealed directly to the “first-time voters” to dedicate their first vote to those who carried out an air strike in Balakot. He said, “You are 18-year old now and you must give your vote for the country, for a strong government, to make the country stronger.” There are 1.5 crore first-time voters in the country this time, which is considered as a decisive role in winning any election. While the Prime Minister of India tries to woo the “first-time voters”, at the same time, he attempted to convince those who voted him to the power in 2014, to trust him. On many occasions, he appeared to beg for more time to fulfill expectations of the common man. A seasoned politician Narendra Modi never entrapped in disputes over unfulfilled promises. Instead of this, he opened new fronts and made new promises.

The Prime Minister and his party failed to fulfill the promises which were made during general elections in 2014. This list is long and jobs, rising prices, issue of bringing black money back to India, 33 per cent reservation to women in the Parliament and State assemblies, ensuring minimum 50 per cent profits over the cost of production for the farmers, implementation of Uniform Civil Code, facilitating the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, ensuring return of Kashmiri Pandits to Jammu-Kashmir and abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution are prominent among them.

Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) leader Dasharath Bhande told Afternoon Voice, “I don’t think that the first-time voters will vote for PM Modi as his government has failed to deliver the promises made by it. Unemployment has increased during the Modi government’s reign due to demonetisation.”

PM Modi on Tuesday said that Congress is responsible for the creation of Pakistan. He said that had Congress leaders acted wisely during the pre-independence era, Pakistan would not have born. He accused the Congress and NCP of standing with those who want a separate Prime Minister for Jammu and Kashmir. The Prime Minister reiterated his allegation that the opposition parties were questioning the valour of the security forces post Pulwama terror attack. Modi also appreciated the manifesto of the BJP and said that the party is committed to national security and farmers’ welfare among others. He said to the people present in the rally that their trust is his biggest accomplishment in the last five years.

BJP MLA Sujit Singh Thakur said, “Youths of our country have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will support him. The PM has undertaken developmental work and worked for the welfare of the common man. The government had taken significant steps to generate employment.”

On the other hand, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in an exclusive interview with ANI said, “We never said Rs 15 lakh will come to the bank accounts of people. We had said that we will take action against black money. The action is being taken against black money. It was our government which made SIT on the black money.” His statement is evidently a U-turn from the promises of BJP made in 2014.

Shiv Sena MLA Tanaji Sawant stated, “It is not possible for any government to deliver all the promises made by it to people within five years. The results of the work done by them will take one to two years. The government had constructed 1,000 kilometre expressway and many contractors and unemployed youth got employment. This year 95 per cent placement activities have taken place. New voters will vote for PM Modi. Modi government has successfully carried out Surgical Strike against Pakistan. What work has happened under the Congress government’s reign?”

However, Congress MLA Amrishbhai Rasiklal Patel asserted, “I don’t think that youth of this country will vote for Modi. You can only get elected once by making false promises but can’t make the same promises for the second time. The new generation wants employment. The government has failed to generate employment; hence, there is no question of voting for Modi.”

The country will witness the first phase of polling on April 11 for a total of 90 Lok Sabha seats including seven Lok Sabha seats of Maharashtra. These comprise Wardha, Nagpur, Ramtek, Bhandara-Gondia, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Chandrapur and Yavatmal-Washim seats. The Election Commission of India and the administration have made tight security to ensure free and fair elections.

Govt must understand the importance of public security

By
Vaidehi Taman
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After too much of debate and data compromise, the government is now to amend the Act, following the Supreme Court order upholding it but with conditions. The Union government is in the last stages of finalising a proposal to amend the Aadhaar Act to give all citizens an option to withdraw their Aadhaar number, including biometrics and data. This follows the Supreme Court judgment in September last year that upheld the validity of Aadhaar, however, with certain riders. A Constitution Bench had struck down Section 57 of the Act that allows private entities to use the unique number for verification. The Bench also declared that seeking to link it with bank accounts and SIM cards was unconstitutional. The way the Modi government has tried to push the use of the Aadhaar number or UID into all facets of life, shows harassment that is discomforting. Aadhaar was giving more trouble than expected.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has now taken a decision on the validity of Aadhaar and whether the State can compulsorily link Aadhaar to various programs and all financial transactions. Aadhaar project has created a vulnerability to identity fraud, even identity theft. Easy harvesting of biometrics traits and publicly available Aadhaar numbers increased the risk of impersonation, especially online and banking fraud. A centralised database was compromised. The progressed countries have already denied such cards.  US Social Security Number (SSN) card has NO BIOMETRIC DETAILS, no photograph, no physical description, and no birth date. All it does is confirming that a particular number has been issued to a particular name. Instead of it, a driving license or state ID card is used as identification for adults. The US government does not collect the biometric details of its own citizens for the purpose of issuing a Social Security Number. The US collects the fingerprints of only those citizens who are involved in any criminal activity (it has nothing to do with SSN), and the citizens of other countries who come to the US. The Indian government needs to understand the importance of public security.

In the recent past, the Maharashtra government’s attempt of online registration for loan waiver implementation has sent the authorities into a tizzy as names over 100 farmers have been found linked to a single Aadhaar number. The state government had earlier stressed on online registration by farmers with their Aadhaar, which is a unique identification. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had to call an urgent meeting with the bankers to address issues like this that crop up in the way of speedy implementation of the scheme. Officials of some banks also admitted that the data they received from the online registration portal, Aaple Sarkar, varies with the data in their records. The names of some farmers are missing and some do not match with the land size or type of loan. In many cases, the principal amount and interest are not matching. It leads to suspicion.

Actually, Aadhaar is a good concept but UIDAI should visualise/anticipate the dangers from hackers by seeking the opinion of experts and to make the system foolproof so as to avoid data theft. At the same time, with regard to the right to privacy, the Supreme Court should come up with some checks and balances to address concerns of people that if their Aadhaar is de-activated, their identity will be lost. For this, before doing this, the SC should instruct the government/UIDAI to issue show cause before de-activating Aadhaar and further government should give assurance to the SC that Right to Privacy and identity theft will be protected at all costs of law-abiding citizens; save people indulging in tax evasion, money laundering, holding Benami property, indulging in anti-national activities etc. the government can create a separate agency comprising IT experts and anti-hackers in consultation with UIDAI to deal with the various challenges being faced especially creating firewalls to minimise the possibility of hacking of data and making Aadhaar linked accounts more secure. These are needed so that the cammers are not able to dupe people. In India, Aadhaar is still evolving and UIDAI will come up with more ideas to make the system more secure. There are good and bad sides of having an Aadhaar card; we thought that corruption would be eradicated, there would be a check on black money, people can be kept in surveillance, but no such thing happened. Corruption has doubled, black money has multiplied, and the rich are becoming richer and the poor are still the sufferers. What I mean to say here is that Aadhaar Card has not created any remarkable change but it was one good initiative taken by Congress and implemented by BJP.

If you look at the global powerful countries, the UK scrapped it seven years ago. Australia could never implement the “Australia card”. USA is yet to implement the Real ID Act of 2005; this after 12 years. We are borrowing their technology. Only Pakistan and India were implementing it until recently. Bangladesh and Nepal may join too. There are many more serious reasons to scrap this unwise project. It is good that the courts stepped in and finally we can withdraw our details from Aadhaar. The reason given by the government on why it is necessary to insist on the Aadhaar number in addition to the PAN card was the alleged vast duplication of PAN cards which made it easy for people to avoid paying tax. However, going by the government’s own figures, the number of fake cards is just 0.4 per cent of the total number. While this may not be insubstantial, given that a few crore PAN cards have been issued, it does compare to the discrepancies within UID itself.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

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“Dear PM, Scared of debating me on corruption?”

By
Web Team
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rahul modi challenge

Congress President Rahul Gandhi who has been repeatedly daring Prime Minister Modi to debate with him on issues of national security, the Rafale fighter jets deal, on Tuesday asked the PM if he is “scared” of debating with him on corruption and suggested that they could go “open book” for it. He had also challenged the same earlier this week after releasing the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi’s tweet with #Scared2Debate read, “Dear PM, Scared of debating me on corruption? I can make it easier for you. Let’s go open book, so you can prepare: 1. RAFALE+Anil Ambani, 2. Nirav Modi, 3. Amit Shah+Demonetisation.”

 


However, while there has been no political response from the other side, BJP has laughed at the idea and tweet by Rahul Gandhi and described the Congress chief as an ignorant politician.

The first phase of the Lok Sabha election is two days away to start. The Congress has time and again accused PM Modi of helping industrialist Anil Ambani make a profit of Rs 30,000 crore by favouring him as the offset partner in the Rafale deal. However, the government has denied any wrongdoing in the fighter jets deal. The allegations were also rejected by Anil Ambani.

The decline and fall of Congress

By
Vinod Dixit
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congress declines and fallsYour Cover Story “Congress suffers leadership crisis” and Editorial “Congress can’t form Govt solely on its own” (March 27)” clearly shows that the Congress is surely losing its power base across the country and for good reason. The results in different states are a lesson for the Congress Party; it is on a steady decline in the country’s political arena. The decline and fall of the Congress is an arresting story written time and again; but this time the party is at the nadir of its influence in national politics. Congress’s failure to project a suitable chief ministerial candidate in most of the elections must have harmed its prospects. The Congress’ revival pivots on its ability to address its crisis of credibility, encouraging State leaders, and functioning as a vigorous Opposition in Parliament. Rahul Gandhi, the scion of Congress, is an empty vessel as he has shown no understanding of any issues and depends on his coattail hangers to provide sound bites to media. The discarded and shamed politicians are being re-inducted into the party and given important positions of authority.

60 years of the Nehru Gandhi dynasty has been a curse for Mother India, they have spread, nepotism, apathy, and corruption across India. In the last 70 years, those who have misused the laws and Constitution have mired the country in corruption. Modi has rightly said that the Congress always tried to promote the contribution of one family — a reference to the Gandhis — and neglected contributions of Veer Savarkar, even Bhagat Singh. It is not so as there are a lot of people who gave their lives during the independence struggle. On ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat’, BJP is making a deeper dent. India is completely changed in the last 15 years and the new generation wants development and an aggressive bold-minded leader like Modi. It is clear that Rahul Gandhi’s hurdles in Congress are his inexperience and his inaccessibility. His image is also an aloof one. He doesn’t feel that he has to have his own mouthpiece website and mobile application to make himself more accessible to people. Rahul Gandhi has different plans in mind but it does not work. Why? He may seem extremely well-intentioned but does that translate to an effectual administrator and visionary leader? History and statistics show that a ‘dying party’ can resurrect itself. The Congress party has been suffering from a leadership crisis, with Rahul Gandhi widely seen as a failure, indifferent, and incompetent. Launching Priyanka is the party’s last and desperate gamble. Priyanka is the most meritorious in her generation of Gandhis. Priyanka’s arrival will no doubt bound to eclipse Rahul Gandhi, and possibly give the Congress party an image makeover. Priyanka Gandhi could then take the mantle of the party and lead the battle from the front in a long-drawn political fight. Widely seen as the Congress party’s trump card, Priyanka Gandhi is the only option for Congress to make her party’s face in the Uttar Pradesh elections. In politics, ultimately public perception matters. Don’t we think that Sonia and Rahul should focus only on the welfare of People in the Congress Controlled States and stop focusing on Modi?

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

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