Youth and Sedition

The recent incidents in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, where some anti India slogans and for breaking India were raised and some for praising terrorists and similar incidents in Press club of India and in Jadahavpur university, not to mention the protests in Srinagar valley have raised a doubt whether the youth of today does really know or understand the meaning of nationalism and whether they are made aware of these things in their life as a student. We only see and hear talk about Muslim, Jats, Dalits, backward classes and so on and so forth. I also read an article written by a foreigner who was on an extended visit to India to see and understand the places and people. He said that India has a vast culture, rich heritage but during his stay he did not meet any Indian except with the persons from Armed Forces. He further wrote that while traveling he met Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Bihari Tamil, Malayali, etc, or he met Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Muslim, Christians, etc, but not an Indian, except when he met person from armed forces who were the only one to say that they are Indians.

 This whole incident puts us fellow Indians in a weak spot as to whether we identify with region or caste first or with our country first. You meet a British, American, German or even Nepali who is proud first to be identified with their country first and it is only after that subdivision come and that too only on asking. But in India the country comes always the last after religion and caste. I do not know where, when and how we have gone wrong but probably it has to do with the politics and the bending of constitution by the policy makers and implementer in order to serve the narrow political purpose. Reservation, which was meant to have been finished after 10 years, is still there and it is increasing every day. This results in bringing less competent persons into governance and policy making decisions. Since others see it as a easy way out and realize its benefit, hence it starts spreading like cancer in order to reach this present level, where the only option after this would be to either abolish it totally or the nation will die in the swamp of mediocrity and incompetence.

The students and young Indians who raise anti national slogans or give anti national speeches, organize bands and protests, show a lack of faith in the system of which they are part and judiciary or are part of the new rising fashion of demonizing the armed forces, who are the only truly Indian. Show a total lack of awareness as to what it entails to be an Indian nationalist. They display a total misunderstanding of the freedom of speech, nationalism and their sense of duty and responsibility and an absolute lack of discipline and the hardship faced by the armed forces in hostile territory and environment. Putting charges of sedition against them may be justified in a legal sense but it does put a stigma on their future life and employment. It is also sort of demonizes them, when in most of the case it is just a misunderstanding about nationalism, sense of duty properly and putting things in a right perspective. When they are charged  with an offense, the first defense which these as well as our politicians put forward is that they are being targeted because they are Muslim, Dalit, or backward classes, etc, never as an Indian and in the politicians case, it is always a conspiracy by the opposition. Probably by opposition they mean all those people who support them in this illegal act.

Instead of branding these students and misguided youth and putting them jail, a better option would be to hand them over to the Indian Army as a Sepoy for a period ranging from two to four years depending upon the seriousness of the act with a stipulation that after initial training they have to be posted to either in laddakh (Siachin) or on forward areas of Arunachal Pradesh for the minimum engagement period of two to four years. They will be paid the pay of a Sepoy and eat the same food and defend the country against hostile enemy and environment. It is then only they will learn the meaning of discipline, nationalism and will be above caste or religion and will start identifying them as Indian. Of course necessary amendments in legal terminology, act and judiciary will have to be made to allow this to happen.  These are the punishments awarded to the persons who abuse the freedom of speech and raise anti national slogans. A more prudent idea would be as was proposed in the draft of the Constitution of India of a mandatory two years service in the armed forces in order to bring a sense of discipline, sense of duty in the youth. In today’s scenario the service in armed forces can include service in Paramilitary forces also except in police, CISF but only confined to BSF, ITBP, SSB, or CRPF. This will not only bring a sense on nationalism, discipline, team work, fighting against odds in them but they will also learn to respect these forces, who are guarding the nation against external and internal threats at the expense of their personal lives, in today’s misguided youth. After the initial engagement of two years this training is to be repeated every year for a minimum duration of three to four weeks in these armed/paramilitary forces each year till retirement. Necessary leave and provisioning of pay and a guarantee of return to the old job has to guaranteed by the government for all such cases and the leave is to be given to them by every company, , semi government, corporations or even to self employed persons. Meaning there by it will apply to all Indian citizens. Indians working abroad may be allowed to accumulate these services for a maximum of three years and after three years they will have to serve for three months in these organizations. This will also help in building a reservist cadre among the civilian population of trained and qualified personnel, who can be called upon in terms of war or internal disturbance, to serve and augment the armed and paramilitary forces thus increasing their strength.

Review of IT Notices

Recently in the newspapers there was a news item that the income tax department is sending about 1.5 lac notices to the individuals who have invested or spent more than a certain sum of money and encourage them to file income tax returns. I do not how any of these will finally result in success as no data is available to the individuals. But a look of these notices sent on the basis of Annual Information Returns (AIR) for a financial year as old as five to six years does bring out some very interesting aspects and leads one to believe as is it really worth spending so much of money when most of information required is available with them only and it is just waste of paper, printing charges, postage and manpower to handle such a volume not to mentions the handling of replies as and when they are received and then to process them in order to find the discrepancies and then finally to prosecute them only to lose the case either in tribunal or courts.

 The first question is about seeking information on PAN number. The notice mentions the PAN number of the individual against his name in the address and then the first questions is about asking for information about PAN number if any to be provided seems ridiculous as it with you only and you have quoted it and on the basis of which this notice has been issued.

The second question seeking the information is about whether one has filed the income tax return for the particular financial year or not. This information is also available in The IT department data base and it only need to be checked otherwise a notice for non filing the return would have been issued earlier to the individual.

The third question is about providing a copy of the acknowledgement or assessment order, if any. Well all this information is again available in the data base of the individual under his PAN number. Asking this from the individual is sheer waste of paper work, time and energy which can be easily avoided with some honest and good homework rather than troubling the individual tax payer.

Now we come to the fourth and last question which is the most important and totally relevant to the notice. It is asking individual to explain the source of above deposit with evidence and how these have been shown in the tax return.  In the form 26 AS under the AIR subheading the details of these transactions are provided based on which the notice is issued. It also mentions whether the transaction is done in cheque, cash or others. I do not know what others include but it does include the switching over of funds from one scheme to another better scheme by the individuals as it is considered to be a fresh investment. If it is only switching and not fresh then why include it in this AIR return as it would have already come and explained in earlier investment and hence it is only a waste of effort and no useful purpose is served except to increase the paperwork and a demand for more manpower. Most of the senior citizens, after retirement keep switching from one scheme to another in order to maximize their gains and there is no fresh money inflow and hence issuing them notice and increasing their worries at this stage is totally unwarranted and unnecessary. It is not the end and they will keep getting their notice year after year just because of this and putting additional burden on them in terms of expenses in hiring a CA and time. It can be easily avoided if switching over from one to another should be taken away from the AIR entries and it should include only fresh investments or instead of others the term switch is mentioned so as to indicate that it is not fresh investment and relate it to the older investment from which switch was done.

Coming to fresh investments, the IT department does not match the sale of assets to the purchase of new one as their data base is probably geared to pick up fresh investments only and not the investments which have been purchased after sale of some of these old investments or they do not record the sale of investments. It is high time they created a modification to their database to record sale of investments also besides fresh ones and also a sub routine to match these both and only if these do not match or fresh investment is more than sale and income as declared in the IT return then a notice to be issued. This is the case with most of the senior citizens as they keep selling their poor performing assets and investing the same money in good performance assets to maximize their returns. I am sure his will reduce the correspondence by approximately more than 60% , thus entailing a big saving in terms of cost, manpower, postage and time besides providing relief to honest taxpaying citizens.  There is also a requirement to issue fresh guideline by the CBDT in respect of the issue of these notices to senior citizens who are dependent on their pension and profits/interests from such investments. There is also a requirement that the investments should be matched with the investments in the IT return and only if the there is a suspicion of hiding income or fraud or mismatch between the two a notice of seeking information to be issued. There is urgent need to broaden the number of persons filing and declaring the incomes. This is more so in case of businesses, traders and shopkeepers, taxi operators, real estate, etc who avoid giving a receipt or if they issue one then there is no further record of it in their turnover. A move to the cashless payment in this sector will help in reducing these tax evasions and there is a need to do away with the transaction tax imposed by shopkeepers or banks on the use of credit or debit card payments and a need to reduce the upfront charges and recharge fee charged on cash cards and e- wallets in order to popularize them. Making them safer by additional safety features and constantly reviewing and updating them will be also very handy in popularizing them.

In case of senior citizens normally we have all the investments in joint name with a nominee so that after demise some hassles’ are avoided. The AIR entries show them in both husband and wife’s form 26 AS under AIR entries. The AIR entries should be reflected only in the first name or who has paid the money for investments and should not go also in the second name as it is only there for convenience after death.

Olympic Task Force

The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi recently announced the setting up of Olympic task forces to review the poor performance of the country in the Rio Olympic with a time horizon of 15 years. It is an excellent move to get the young talent and prepare them for future and also to review the present system and suggest improvements. Sports, has come along a long way and in my time it was taken as a certainty that a good sportsman cannot be a good student and vice versa and the parents discourage their offspring to concentrate in studies rather than in sports. But no longer, now sports is as much a profession as any other field and requires probably more dedication, hard work, more challenges and expenses than studies.

China for 32 years did not take part in Olympics after their poor performance and concentrated in building up infrastructure, facilities and talents to create future Olympians and surprised everybody by their excellent performance after 32 years when they went to the Olympics. Probably something like that is required in India and winning medals in Olympics is to be taken on war footing and finding very young talents, giving them support, build excellent world class facilities for training, nurturing them to build future champions, who will bring glory to India. We can take lessons from Germany before and after unification, USA, China, Jamaica and UK and study their methods and the support system to young budding Olympians and suitably modify them to match our culture and environment. But it will not require a team of politicians and civil servants and old timers to visit these countries to study their methods and give useless suggestions which cannot be implements in India due to various reasons or they use it as a free sightseeing trip and do not bother to submit a report even. Keep these people as far away as possible from anything to do with sports unless they have represented India in Olympics and won medals. I am not talking of Asian games or Commonwealth games but only of Olympics as these hardly have any competition. Take sports as any other profession and create infrastructure and other facilities and for heaven’s sake stop utilizing foreign coaches for training. We have enough of good talents in India itself. To give an example, just look at our medal winners and those who missed narrowly and find that all these have Indian coaches. There are thousands of suggestions to improve sports in India and I can only outline a few of them.

1.  Disband all sports federations and associations and start with BCCI. It is not the job of the politicians, civil servants and Govt to be in sports but it is the job of former sportsmen and their coaches. Government only needs to provide the money for the creation of world class facilities and allow private former sportsmen to run these by scouting talent, provide facilities like hostel, education, food, etc on payment basis or subsidized rates or even free depending upon the financial capability of the individual. Government can lease these facilities to players for say 5 years and subject to review depending upon how many world class sportsman they have produced. The wards will also have to be subjected to a similar review and will be removed in case they do not show improvements or come up to standards. These facilities can be at two or even three levels, district level, state level and national level.  The district level facilities will be managed by player, who in the past has represented state in the national games, the state facilities to be managed by persons who in the past have represented India in Olympics and the national facility to be managed by persons who have won medals in world championships and Olympics. They have to be given powers commensurate with their responsibilities and shielded from unnecessary political or government interference and their progress reviewed by other regulatory body again consisting of former players. It will also require setting up of a regulatory body to regulate, judge and assess the performance of these facilities and the person to run them and this body to have statutory status with direct access to the PMO or a minster of sports who himself has been an Olympian in the past, either from Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha. A person who has not represented the country in any discipline should not be associated or be part of anything to do with the management, advisory, running of facility or in the regulatory body. Please avoid using cricket players in any sports discipline other than cricket. Talent scouts should go to the villages and tribal areas as persons from these areas are more likely to have more determination and an urge to perform than from cities.

2. Stop offering Government and PSU jobs to these national player in their prime but encourage them to take up coaching or opening sports academy or take these facilities made by Government on lease to train and share their experiences with other budding stars in the age group 0f 8 to 14 years. Govt and PSU jobs can be offered after they are past their prime.

3. Concentrate on very young and train them by offering incentives to them and their families with free education, training, food and sports gear in the age group of 8 to 14 years. After 28 years of age, the athlete if he/she has not achieved anything then the chances are almost nil for them to show improvement. At best they can only maintain what they have achieved so far. Avoid sending them to world championships and Olympics unless they show improvement from their past performance significantly.

4. Scout talent in schools and pick up individuals who show talent and inclination.

5.  Encourage sports competition at school level and it is here you can pick up individuals with talents not necessarily top performers. Let these talent hunters go to village schools and tribal areas to scout budding talent youngsters and not confine oneself to the cities.

6. Provide the best equipment to these youngsters and train with the best Indian coaches.

7. Encourage coaches by making it an honorable profession and well paid also. If required give them cash awards also besides awards so that their family conditions improve and they can devote more time and effort to coaching rather than running around to earn a decent livelihood for their families.

8. Mere qualifying in Olympics should not be the criteria to go and represent the nation in Olympic but they should have come close of up to the bronze medal standard in the last Olympic to represent the country in Olympics. This should be the lowest mark for a candidate and he should be encouraged, coached provided for until he meets these standards.

9. Stop sending sportsman to all the XYZ tournaments abroad on public money unless they meet the above mentioned standard. Provide competition in India till he reaches that level. The money to be spent on these foreign trips can be utilized to provide better facilities, diet and equipment and better coaches till they reach that standard. This will force he athletes to strive harder and harder to prove themselves. If they do not meet the standards by 20 or 21 years of age then discard hem and go to new talents.

10. Provide more quality competitions at school, district and state levels to help the athletes in developing  a competitive spirit.

11. Money from Cash rich sports in India like cricket can be diverted to improve the standard of other games rather than being spent on their own players. Incentives for players should be the same irrespective of which game they play rather than making some sports more lucrative than others.

12. The task force and the committee should consist of eminent young players from each discipline rather than using old timers. Set a long time horizon 0f 16 to 20 years by which we should have produced world class athletes rather than focusing on next Olympics. If you have not achieved much in Rio then the chances are very likely that the next will be the same or with little variation. Set long term goals with young talents rather than short term goals with players in their prime or past their prime.

14. Remove the Government control of the sports and the sports bodies and stop politicians, civil servants or other non sports persons from controlling or managing the sports bodies. Allow players, individuals and coaches to take control of these and manage them. Government should be a facilitator to provide the infrastructure, incentives, grants or subsidies and to overall supervise the performance of these facilities, coaches and individuals. Allow corporate to build and manage these facilities, if they wish to but maintain a regulatory presence. These bodies should not be a profit making bodies but a sportsman building bodies.

15. Create school of sports at each locality in the city and also in each village or at a collection of villages rather than concentrating only at state or national level. It is not important as to where the person has come from but what he does with these facilities to achieve his and national dream. It is more important to focus on rural and tribal areas as persons coming from some of these tribes and villages have a natural talent more suited to a particular sport. Majority of our sports persons who have achieved some distinction in sports in national or international level are from these areas and also from poor to very poor families. Give them incentive and also to their families.

16. Stop expecting too much from our athletes and create media hype about them as it puts a lot of pressure on the athletes and they tend to perform below par due to expectations. In Rio Olympics most of the athletes could not even manage to reach the mark which they had achieved in their last performance and the timings and performance was below par. Train them to handle pressure at international level. Performance in Olympics is very different from taking part in international tournaments. Here the eye of whole nation is on you and the pressure to maintain even the past performance can be tremendous and can even break a person. The competition is more severe and demanding as each individual is representing a nation besides glory for himself and the next chance will come only after four years. There is no second chance and a small mistake or below par performance will eliminate you. Besides athletics training the athletes are to be trained in handling pressure and performing in adverse conditions. Maybe training in Yoga will help them to overcome this pressure and remain calm and composed in adverse conditions.

17.  Reaching your peak or peaking as it is called, at the right time and place is like tuning your TV channel or radio station and one has to learn as to when to peak at the right time and place. Peaking early or late will only result in bitter disappointment for self as well as for the nation. This peaking is important as it cannot be sustained for long and hence timing it for the right time is essential. This requires training and skill which should be part of your training and the coaches and psychologists associated with the athlete can play a very big role due to their experiences and hence their choice during the competition is very important.  Older athletes with their share of experiences, success and failure along with the reasons can be of great help.

Two Judgements -Two Oopinions

After going through two recent judgements, one given by the Delhi High Court and the other by the Supreme Court, I am at a loss to understand as to which is the greater offense and deserves stricter punishment, slapping a senior or the case of theft, fraud and lack of moral courage. Of course I am referring to the two judgements given a couple of weeks back by two different courts, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court, and both concerning the Armed Forces.

The first one was concerning a fight cadet in the Air Force Academy who was convicted by the inquiry as to have stolen an ATM card belonging to another cadet and then withdrawing Rs.5000/= from his account and when given a chance to own it up in the assembly in order to finish the case, did not do so until he was caught, thus displaying not only criminal tendencies but also lack of moral courage, a quality which is a must in all officers of Armed Forces. The cadet was dismissed from the academy rightly so but he could have still made a career in outside world. The only mistake which the authorities made was not to hand over the case to the civil police after registering an FIR and let the police and judiciary take its own course. Probably they did not want to spoil his career in the outside world and thus only removed him from the training. A fight cadet is not subject to the Air Force Act and hence he filed a petition in the Delhi High Court and surprisingly the Delhi High Court not only downplayed his offense but also ordered his reinstatement in the training, a bigger mistake. The Air force will appeal in Supreme Court and rightly should do it.

The other case consists of an airman and his superior junior commissioned officer. It was established in the enquiry that an argument took place as to which channel to watch during IPL season and during the argument the airman slapped the superior. The court of inquiry and further disciplinary proceedings recommended his removal from service and after due process he was rightly removed. The airman went to AFT, as he was subject to Air Force Act, and lost his case for reinstatement in the services, as this was taken as a serious offense and his removal was upheld. His appeal to the Supreme Court after failing in AFT was also rejected and Air Force decision to terminate his service was upheld. The Supreme Court held that slapping a superior officer was a serious offense meriting removal from the Air Force.

Looking at these two judgements I am at a loss to understand as to which in Court’s opinion is a more serious offense. To a normal person it would appear that theft, fraud is a bigger offense and merits more serious punishment, maybe a jail term even, than the slapping, but it appears that the judges think differently. In the context of requirements of Armed Forces the case of theft, fraud, lack of moral courage is a very serious offense than the slapping and both rightly deserve to be removed and in addition the case of theft deserves a jail term even. But in the opinion of judges the slapping is a bigger offense than the case of theft and fraud. Of course there is a difference as one is subject to Air Force Act while the other is not but would have been  in charge of leading his men and even entrusted with the aircraft costing anywhere close to Rs. 130 Cr just after a few months after finishing his training and on his commissioning. The question is will his superiors and subordinates trust him with such costly equipment and with their lives? Well I certainly will not.