Supreme Court dismisses PIL against pension, benefits to former MPs  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/supreme-court-dismisses-pil-against-pension-benefits-to-former-mps/article23555126.ece/amp/ 

The Centre had on March 7 told the apex court that the entitlement of former Members of Parliament (MPs) to get pension and other benefits was “justified” as their dignity has to be maintained even after they complete their tenure as parliamentarians.The Centre had told the bench about the Finance Bill 2018, which contains provisions regarding salary and pension of MPs and also about revision of their allowances after every five years starting from April 1, 2023, on the basis of cost inflation index. The apex court had in February directed the Centre to clarify its stand on setting up of an independent mechanism for determination of salaries and allowances of MPs after the government had said the issue was “under consideration“.  

'Contrary to Article 14'
An NGO ‘Lok Prahari’ has approached the apex court challenging the Allahabad High Court order dismissing its plea which had claimed that pension and other perks being given to MPs even after demitting office were contrary to Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Constitution.

Petition Filed in Supreme Court Against Pension To Politicians

2018 Improvement Act
MPs should not get pension because politics is not a job or employment, but a free service. - Politics is an election under the Public Representation Act, there is no retirement, but they can be re-elected in the same situation again. (Currently they get pension, after 5 years of service).
One more disorder in this is that if a person has been a councilor first, then becomes a legislator and then becomes an MP, then he gets not one but three pensions.
This is a great betrayal with the citizens of the country who immediately have to ACT to stop this...
With the Central Pay Commission, salary allowance of MPs is being revised ....This should be brought under the income tax....
At present, MPs increase their salaries and allowances arbitrarily by voting for themselves and at that time all the parties are united.
MPs health care system should be discarded.. and health care like public health of India should take care of them like any other citizen.. Presently their treatment often is done abroad.. if they have to get it done abroad, they should get it done at their own expense.
All concessions to them, such as, electricity, water and phone bill should end. (They not only get many such concessions but they also increase them regularly) -
Criminals should be prevented from contesting elections, suspicious persons with punitive records, criminal charges and determination, past or present should be banned from the Parliament..
Financial losses caused by them, due to politicians in the office, should also be recovered from them, their nominees, properties - MPs should also follow the same rules applicable to common citizens.
No deduction on LPG gas subsidy by the citizens... unless the subsidies available to MPs and MLAs, & Other subsidies, including subsidized food in the Parliament canteen, are not withdrawn.
Serving in the Parliament is an honor, not a lucrative career for looting.
Free rail and airplane travel should stop.

Comments on WA: JD:  I feel that politicians should get pension, but only to the extent that their other income does not cover it. Also all perks must be against audited expenses done in public service. The public service expenses should be extended to the runner up in each constituency. However the audit must be strict. Transparent and disclosed. We want to facilitate genuine public service, not 'free' service.

SS "Politicians", per se, don't receive any pension.
Members of (most?) state legislatures and the national parliament so get subject to serving some minimum term.They also get regular salaries (?), allowances and perks.

JD: If the politics is important, then the payment for it should be linked to genuine public activity. All payment and perks including direct payments to the politician and parties should be transparently audited. And a minimum survival and services related.. on similar lines as the mp fund should be provided. I was not saying that this is the rule at present, not do I think it is practical at the moment.. what I was suggesting was a principle, which we need to put out there for discussion... Most honest people will never aspire to be politicians under the current logic that politicians should work free, or take underhand money.

We have to show that politics can also make you an honest buck!!!

Civil society activists urge Election Commission to curb poll malpractice https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/civil-society-activists-urge-election-commission-to-curb-poll-malpractice/amp_articleshow/110041447.cms  Bella Jaisinghani May 11, 2024  Civil society activists in Maharashtra met CEO S Chockalingam, demanding the EC 'Grow A Spine or Resign'. They raised concerns about MCC violations, voter data discrepancies, surrogate ads, campaign violations, and launched a postcard campaign.

This collective of organisations and individuals also undertook a postcard campaign in which hundreds of postcards were sent to ECI, Delhi, from various cities containing the image of a spine -- demanding that the Election Commission 'Grow A Spine or Resign'.

Participants included People’s Union for Civil Liberties, National Alliance for People's Movements, Bharat Bachao Andolan, All India Lawyers Association for Justice, Shramik Mukti Dal, Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy, Bombay Catholic Sabha and others.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1789285109943730579 
#GrowASpineOrResign a nationwide citizens' campaign across 11 cities on 11 May 2024 demanding @ECISVEEP
for accountability and free & fair elections.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/uddhav-master-of-india-blocs-vote-jihad-bjp/articleshow/110021201.cms City BJP chief Ashish Shelar on Friday said that Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray was “vote jihad’s aaka” (master) and alleged that the INDIA bloc had started a “vote jihad.” BJP minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha said Mahayuti won’t allow Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas to do injustice to sons of the soil and they will not allow South Mumbai to turn into Malvani (in Malad).

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/shah-to-telangana-voters-its-vote-jihad-vs-vote-for-progress/articleshow/109994114.cms 

https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/events:2024_climate_change_fiction_webinars:index

Climate change fiction as a way of coming to terms with the reality of global warming and climate change.. imaginative responses have offered a significant critique of techno-science and the dominant development paradigm and opened out conceptual alternatives and pathways to transformation....

https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/events:2024_climate_change_fiction_webinars:01

Climate Change Fiction: The South Asia Experience
Antecedents to climate change fiction: Utopian and speculative narratives from South Asia
Marine ecosystems and climate fiction from South Asia
Climate Change Fiction: A Conversation with Amitav Ghosh 

The Decline of Foreign Banks in India: A Closer Look  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyN_WbUM-Fw

Moneylife News Bite

Why Foreign Firms Have Bit the Dust in the Financial Sector https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKko5oWZOBY   May 8, 2024
Foreign banks once thrived in India's financial sector, but now they're retreating. Citibank, a retail finance pioneer, recently sold its Indian business to Axis Bank, echoing a broader trend. Standard Chartered and HSBC have minimal presence compared to local giants like HDFC Bank. Similarly, foreign mutual funds struggle, with many, including Morgan Stanley and Fidelity, leaving. This shift marks a departure from optimistic projections of the 1990s. Mismanagement and global crises favoured Indian firms, which capitalised on trends like digital banking. Foreign companies' short-term perspectives led to their exit, while Indian firms thrived. Watch the video as Debashis Basu explains.

https://www.moneylife.in/article/why-foreign-firms-have-bit-the-dust-in-the-financial-sector/74103.html  While Indian entrepreneurs and managers have, indeed, shown tremendous talent and execution skills, the ‘Quit India’ policy for foreign financial companies has not happened by design, but by default. 

Quite frankly, all the assumptions made in the mid-1990s about the Indian middle class have turned out to be wrong. There was no smooth surge in middle-class prosperity for foreign businesses to tap into because the Indian economy continued to be mismanaged. Productivity remained poor, corruption and taxes stayed high, and crony capitalism undermined infrastructure growth in the mid-2000s, resulting in bad loans of Rs20 lakh crore in PSBs.

when disruptive opportunities like the digital on-boarding of customers happened, domestic banks were better placed to scale up. Similarly, when the stock market took off post-Covid-19, domestic mutual funds and broking firms grew rapidly.

While the financial sector threw up clear winners (Indians) and losers (foreigners), note the same has not happened in other sectors. For example, foreign companies in personal products have not quit. Their powerful presence continues. Indian companies have not made much headway in winning market shares from multinational companies like Colgate and Hindustan Lever.

The reason foreigners have lost out in the financial services business is because they have been impatient and had a short-term view—perhaps those traits come from the nature of the financial services business itself.

संदेशखाली पीड़िताओं ने कहा भाजपा ने ज़िंदगी नर्क बना दी  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMFjDfP1if0  । Navin Kumar  May 10, 2024 
क्या प्रधानमंत्री, रक्षा मंत्री और गृह मंत्री ने देश से झूठ बोला? पीड़िता बताकर उम्मीदवार बनाया अब जवाब देते नहीं बन रहा। बंगाल की राजनीति में मोदी की मिट्टी पलीद।

In practice, democracy as a principle seldom overpowers the notion of democracy as an administrative practice. It is no different in India. Questions about the state of democracy come up only around crises of procedures like those related to elections or institutions like Parliament. Few seriously examine what values should mark democracy in a country like India where pluralism, diversity and tolerance are necessary for society to survive.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/india-democracy-election-9316842/ 

Due to the structural inequalities of Indian society, B R Ambedkar considered democracy a value that the Constitution must protect and guarantee. Gandhi did not favour the constitutionalisation of democracy which, according to him, has to be preserved in society as an essential value. He did not want to privilege and legalise democracy as a part of constitutional morality over a traditional, social morality. In his view, it was not a part of our natural sentiment. Rather, it was artificially cultivated or externally imposed — which is in contrast to the “real” democratic tradition in India that flourished through religious co-existence.

The state’s position as “guardian of democracy” resulted in many unpleasant episodes, including the proclamation of Emergency by Indira Gandhi in 1975. What makes the present situation different from previous experiences is that the clout of certain kinds of organisations is no longer seen as abnormal. This happened during the Emergency as well – Sanjay Gandhi’s hold on the government is well-known. But the current regime has legitimised the sway of organisations like the RSS through popular means. The conditions of a working democracy may be the same for seven decades, but the principles and values have the potential to be altered.

by M H Ilia

09/05/2024

Adani-Ambani पर खुल्ला झूठ बोले, Modi अपने ही जाल में फंस गए? 2024 Election News, 3 Phase Election https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAHOzSuATFM Kumkum Binwal  May 8, 2024 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday asked why Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has stopped talking of Ambani and Adani in this election all of sudden, suggesting that a secret deal may have been struck. Kumkum Binwal analysis.

राहुल के खौफ में मोदी ? PM Modi on Adani-Ambani- Rahul Gandhi Deal, 2024 Election Modi vs INDIA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wir8zKWWa78 DESH NEETI

Seven of the 10 listed Adani group companies have received showcause notices from SEBI  4 May 2024   http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/109826083.cms

Third Phase Ke Baad Adani-Ambani Se Break Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dfdggEzjFU Paurush Sharma

Modi ने Ambani-Adani पर हमला किया तो Prakash Raj, Priyanka Chaturvedi फुल मजे ले गए!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7UWq-tPkdk 

Ashok Wankhede: Modi Accuses Ambani-Adani to Give Black Money to Congress to Shut Rahul Gandhi  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM7SBm4SFQA The Public India

अंबानी-अदाणी पर क्या कह गए मोदी | Modi on Adani-Ambani https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UQBfmP10eM  May 8, 2024
प्रधानमंत्री अभी तक झूठ बोल रहे थे, नफ़रती भाषण दे रहे थे, मगर अब उल्टा-पुल्टा भी बोलने लग गए हैं। तेलंगाना की एक रैली में तो उन्होंने अदाणी और अंबानी पर आरोप लगा दिया है कि इन लोगों ने टेम्पो में काला धन लाद कर कांग्रेस को पहुंचाया है। राहुल गांधी को चुनौती दी है कि वे बताएं कि इनसे कितना माल उठाया है। राहुल गांधी की इससे बड़ी राजनैतिक जीत क्या हो सकती है कि अंबानी और अदाणी को लेकर लगातार अभियान से नरेंद्र मोदी को मजबूर कर दिया कि उनकी ज़ुबान पर अंबानी और अदाणी का नाम आ गया।

Data collected by the government of former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan showed that about 45% of Madhya Pradesh’s martyred soldiers were from the Bhind and Morena districts. If the neighbouring Gwalior district is included, the figure is even higher. https://thewire.in/society/chambal-agniveers-blacksmiths-carpenters-shopkeepers 

But ever since the Agnipath scheme was launched, the situation has changed.

Chambal’s youth are becoming disillusioned with the army. According to Manu Sikarwar, a resident of Kailaras tehsil of Morena district, “it is a matter of pride to be martyred for the country, but if we are martyred, our family will neither get pension benefits nor other benefits that a regular army soldier gets.

by Deepak Goswami

08/05/2024