Campaign for a Management Approach to SWM

 

Budget 2015 - 16

Budget season is still far away for most people and even for politicians; not so for babudom and lobbyists.

Come budget day, we have many experts,more business persons and of course politicians of all hues airing their opinions, with media persons with sycophantic deference thrusting a mike at them hoping to get a couple of sound and video bites.

You would hear the same opinions repeated ad nauseam – “Pedestrian budget”, “Nothing in it for common man or industry or agriculture (depending on one’s ideological leanings)”, “FM could have pushed for more reforms” etc. etc.

Its time “We the people” whose money and how it’s proposed to be spent or squandered by the powers that be, took a more active interest in the machinations that go on in the making of the budget.

So, The Fifth Estate proposes to call for suggestions and plans to point to certain goals that we may ask the budget makers to have in focus.

Let’s start with two focus points.

One is “Inequality” and allied to it is the second point, “HDI”.

To remind us what inequality means, here is a picture that might be useful.

Here is a link to a news report in ‘The Hindu’ of 08 December 2014 on “Inequality”.

(http://www.thehindu.com/data/indias-staggering-wealth-gap-in-five-charts/article6672115.ece)


 

Corporate Funding of Elections

(The bane of all democracies)

Come elections, one finds thousands of Crores of Rupees are seized from cars, trucks and several other places and situations.

Nothing is ever heard of what happened to all these seizures. Why does not the CEC, and Government and NGOs, like ADR follow up on these and ensure that the crimes are taken to their logical conclusion? 

All political parties cry hoarse about bringing back black money from abroad. What about the black money circulating within the country? 

How much of this is corporate black money funding political party black money?

Let people say whether corporate funding of elections should be banned altogether, limited or freely allowed. 

A TV debate had the former CEC seeking a ban on grounds that it make for unfair elections since, some parties, which do not follow the crony capitalist ideology stand to be placed at a disadvantage.

A Poll on this website to the right of the screen request your views.

An article in 'Tehelka' magazine titled, "The Dirty Underbelly of Election 2014" is revealing. The link to the article is here.

Refer Link

http://www.tehelka.com/the-dirty-underbelly-of-election-2014/

The Dirty Underbelly of Election 2014 | Tehelka.com Money talks and crime pays, and the ongoing election is no different