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Both the Congress & BJP need to Learn Lessons in Government Failure
- Published on 01 June 2014
Image courtesy: www.free-power-point-templates.com
It is time for introspection for almost every entity against the backdrop of the unbelievable verdict of the Indian electorate. Introspection can help the vanquished party embrace failure as the stepping stone for its resurrection. The same failure can also serve as a warning signal for victor who often loses vision due to heady success. After all, wisdom is the art of learning from the mistakes of others and avoiding a repeat of one’s own follies.
The new ruling party BJP wants to first learn about the pitfalls of bad governance from UPA’s trusted civil servants. The Cabinet Secretary has reportedly asked secretaries of all ministries to specify what went wrong with the UPA regime and what they would have done if they had the full freedom to perform.
It is good for BJP to get an insight into self-created hurdles that led to the UPA’s ignoble exit. It is equally or perhaps more important for the BJP to draw lessons from its past failures committed during the previous NDA regimes. We will discuss the list of don’ts for NDA later in his column.
Regulators, auditors, investors & media all responsible for NSEL-MCX-FTIL scam
- Published on 18 May 2014
Jignesh Shah Image Courtesy: FTIL
The ‘selectively censored’ summary of the report of special audit of MCX has created ripples in the media. Several dailies have splashed stories about the questionable related party transactions between MCX and its parent company Financial Technologies (India) Limited (FTIL) disclosed in the Summary.
FTIL group founder Jignesh Shah, contested the findings of special audit conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in interview with a pink daily published a few days before his arrest by the Mumbai police for his alleged involvement in the frauds relating FTIL subsidiary, National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL).
FTIL has also issued a detailed rebuttal to the findings of summary of special audit. FTIL’s rebuttal has to be taken with a pinch of salt as the full report of special audit has not been put in public domain. The Forward Markets Commission (FMC), which commissioned the study, must put the full report in public domain to enlighten all stakeholders of the financial markets.
FTIL’s contention is that technology-centric transactions between FTIL and MCX were in the public domain. It says these were disclosed in the red herring prospectus of MCX in February 2012. What FTIL has not disclosed is that vital agreements were signed when MCX was 100% owned by FTIL. And these agreements and the consequent transactions were thus initially not in the public domain.
Nevertheless, the NSEL scam and related controversies about FTIL group could have been prevented had all the stakeholders cared to read the aborted draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) that MCX filed in February 2008. DRHP and the annual reports of FTIL and MCX gave a fairly good indication of the Mr. Shah’s dubious revenue model of creating a durable umbilical cord between FTIL and the exchanges-owning subsidiaries/associate companies.
These documents also gave inkling about the corporate strategy of FTIL group. The strategy included clever affiliation with the financial legends and the reining big names of the finance world. The documents also gave an idea of the trouble that was brewing for FTIL group.
Hardly any stakeholder including the media at that time cared to aggregate critical information about FTIL group available in the public domain and raise relevant issues. This columnist had, however, raised some of the issues that figure in PwC report in an unpublished article written in October 2010 for a magazine. The magazine that commissioned the write-up, never published it.
When would Dr. Manmohan Singh shed his Modi phobia?
- Published on 18 May 2014
Image courtesy: PIB
The outgoing Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been found wanting on many occasions. And he was found wanting too in his last address to the Nation that he delivered on 17th May 2014 before submitting his resignation to the President.
He today avoided mentioning Mr. Narendra Modi, who as Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian polity. He lacked the courage to either acknowledge Mr. Modi’s achievement as a global marvel or to reiterate his outrageous perception about Mr. Modi as prospective Prime Minister.
On 3rd January 2014 at the televised national press conference, Dr. Singh had stated: “I have full confidence that the next Prime Minister will be from the UPA coalition, and that without discussing the merits of Mr. Narendra Modi, it will be disastrous for the country to have Shri Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.”
Answering a question on BJP’s allegation that he was the weakest PM, Dr. Singh had stated: “I do not believe that I have been a weak Prime Minister. That is for historians to judge. The BJP and its associates may say whatever they like. But if by “strong Prime Minister”, you mean that you preside over a mass massacre of innocent citizens on the streets of Ahmedabad, that is the measure of strength, I do not believe that sort of strength this country needs, least of all, in its Prime Minister.” (http://nareshminocha.com/index.php/polity/1613-pm-should-cast-off-modi-phobia-answer-his-failure-on-federalism)
GDP rankings are a game of estimates: India is simultaneously the world’s 3rd & 8th largest economy
- Published on 17 May 2014
Image Courtesy: Congress
“India now world’s 3rd largest economy. Does Shri Modi want to say anything?” The Congress Party ran a release/article under this headline on its website on 30th April, a day after the World Bank (WB) released the summary of the findings of 2011 round of International Comparison Programme (ICP) survey.
The release quoted Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed as saying “Now it has been officially declared that we have displaced Japan to occupy the third position. Mr Modi and his team have been doing a lot of false propaganda against UPA’s achievements. They should now give a statement on this also.”
The release is based on shallow news reports. It has certainly not been prepared after reading the ICP report summary captioned ‘Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures of World Economies’. This reminds one of a quote from Thomas B. Macaulay, a British historian & administrator who laid the foundation for modern education system in India.
Macaulay once stated: “Half knowledge is worse than ignorance.”