Need to revive economy

You have rightly opined in the September issue of your reputed think tank magazine that the Government needs to take tough action to realise the hopes people of India have from it today. There is a near consensus that our economy is in bad shape. The current state of employment, investment , industry and agriculture in the country is a matter of grave concern.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the leading economists in the world today, has recently lamented our manufacturing sector’s growth is tottering at 0.6%. Domestic demand is depressed. Our GDP growth is at a 15- year low. Tax buoyancy remains elusive. Businessmen , small and big, are being hounded. Investor sentiments are in doldrums. India has not been able to increase its exports to take advantage of opportunities that have arisen in global trade due to geopolitical realignments.
He has complained that the current government’s policies are resulting in massive job-less growth. More than 3.5 lakh jobs have been lost in the automobile sector alone. The former Prime Minister has also complained farmers are not receiving adequate prices. The low inflation rate that the government showcases has come at the cost of our farmers. It has inflicted misery on over 50 per cent of our national population.

The Government would do well to pay due attention to the state of our national economy. In a democracy, national economy has to be run to benefit the masses . The Government must heed the former Prime Minister’s advice to engage with “thinking minds.” It should take care of our financial institutions. They have been under attack with their autonomy being eroded. Nobody seems to know why the RBI had to make its recent record transfer of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to the government.

K P Ramchandran
Channai

Need for vigil

Qamar Javed Bajwa In the wake of the scrapping of J & K’s special status, New Delhi would do well to keep its security forces on high alert . The deep state in Pakistan – the godfather of secessionist forces based in the Valley, seems to be upset that it would not be able to do many things in the Valley any more . Presiding over the Corps Commanders Conference, Pakistan’s allpowerful Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said, "Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations."

Imran Khan The Pakistan Army’s rubberstamp Prime Minister Imran Khan has said : “They (India) have gone against their Constitution, against the verdict of the Indian Supreme Court, against the verdict of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, against 17 UN resolutions, against UN General Assembly resolutions, and against the Simla Agreement.... They want to change the demography of Kashmir by revoking Kashmir’s special status. This is against Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention; this is a war crime. They have violated all international and local laws for their ideology.”
Khan has warned , “The resistance of the Kashmiri people will increase. This will lead to further crackdown in Kashmir. ”

Also, Pakistan seems to be waiting for the ongoing Taliban deal with the U.S on Afghanistan . After that they may do what they could do in the 1980s. Pakistan used some of the resources secured for the Afghan Mujahideen fighters to fuel insurgency in Kashmir.

New Delhi would do well to keep tabs on Beijing too . China and India share a disputed border in the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh. The district of Leh covers the area of Aksai Chin. It is now under effective Indian control. Beijing is unlikely to be pleased with it. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that change of the status of Ladakh is ‘unacceptable’ to China . It has urged India to “avoid taking any move that may further complicate the boundary question.” Beijing describes Ladakh as ‘Chinese territory’ in the western sector of the Sino-India boundary question.

Zhang Jun At the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meet on August 16 to discuss India’s abrogation of Article 370, China’s UN envoy Zhang Jun said that the Kashmir issue was an international and undecided one and must be peacefully resolved in accordance with the UN charter, UNSC resolutions and bilateral agreements.” Beijing perceives India’s action as challenging China’s “sovereign interests. ”

Sharmila Mukherjee
Kolkata

Time to campaign

S. Jaishankar & David Maria Sassoli New Delhi must campaign hard and convince the international community in regard to its need to abrogate the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Some important world leaders do not seem to be appreciative of the circumstances in which India had to resort to this course . In their meetings with our External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on September 1, 2019 in Brussels, ahead of a European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on the situation in Kashmir , European Union leaders, including President of the European Parliament David Sassoli and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini , reportedly raised concerns over human rights restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir and stressed the importance of “steps to restore the rights and freedoms of the population in Kashmir.”

Bernie Sanders American Senator and Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders has reportedly asked his government to “speak out boldly” in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution to resolve the Kashmir . Addressing the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Houston on August 31, Bernie said ,“India’s action is unacceptable;” the U.S. government “must speak out boldly in support of international humanitarian law and in support of a UNbacked peaceful resolution that respects the will of the Kashmiri people.”

Christina James
Mumbai

Atrocities on minorities in China

It is astonishing that most of the human rights groups in India are observing silence on how communist China has been violating the rights of its Muslim population in Xinjiang. According to reports, Beijing has built a vast network of re-education camps and a pervasive system of surveillance to monitor and subdue millions of Uighurs and Kazakhs in the Xinjiang region. Courts in Xinjiang sentenced a total of 230,000 people to prison or other punishments in 2017 and 2018. Arrests are often based on flimsy charges. The rights groups must not be selective.

Shamim Hussain
Delhi



		EDITOR'S MAIL EDITOR'S COMMENT HOUSTON’S MEGA SHOW TACKLING SAGGING ECONOMY FEARS OF RECESSION SAGA OF CHANDRAYAAN-2 REALPOLITIK FRANKLY SPEAKING GUBERNATORIAL CHALLENGE LEFT IN KERALA KARNATAKA EDUCATION WINDOW ON PUNJAB CHANDIGARH DIARY PUJA BOAT TRAGEDY REMEMBERING RAM JETHMALANI HITS & MISSES INDIA-CHINA SUMMIT AFGHAN WAR THEATRE HONG KONG & CHINA BOOK BAZAAR BOOK BAZAAR SIGNS OF THE TIMES DISCOVERY IN DERMATOLOGY NATIONAL AWARDS ART OF LIVING Issue:June' 2019 Subscribe Now	EDITOR’S MAIL Need to revive economy You have rightly opined in the September issue of your reputed think tank magazine that the Government needs to take tough action to realise the hopes people of India have from it today. There is a near consensus that our economy is in bad shape. The current state of employment, investment , industry and agriculture in the country is a matter of grave concern. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the leading economists in the world today, has recently lamented our manufacturing sector’s growth is tottering at 0.6%. Domestic demand is depressed. Our GDP growth is at a 15- year low. Tax buoyancy remains elusive. Businessmen , small and big, are being hounded. Investor sentiments are in doldrums. India has not been able to increase its exports to take advantage of opportunities that have arisen in global trade due to geopolitical realignments. He has complained that the current government’s policies are resulting in massive job-less growth. More than 3.5 lakh jobs have been lost in the automobile sector alone. The former Prime Minister has also complained farmers are not receiving adequate prices. The low inflation rate that the government showcases has come at the cost of our farmers. It has inflicted misery on over 50 per cent of our national population. The Government would do well to pay due attention to the state of our national economy. In a democracy, national economy has to be run to benefit the masses . The Government must heed the former Prime Minister’s advice to engage with “thinking minds.” It should take care of our financial institutions. They have been under attack with their autonomy being eroded. Nobody seems to know why the RBI had to make its recent record transfer of Rs. 1.76 lakh crore to the government. K P Ramchandran Channai Need for vigil Qamar Javed Bajwa In the wake of the scrapping of J & K’s special status, New Delhi would do well to keep its security forces on high alert . The deep state in Pakistan – the godfather of secessionist forces based in the Valley, seems to be upset that it would not be able to do many things in the Valley any more . Presiding over the Corps Commanders Conference, Pakistan’s allpowerful Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said, "Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations." Imran Khan The Pakistan Army’s rubberstamp Prime Minister Imran Khan has said : “They (India) have gone against their Constitution, against the verdict of the Indian Supreme Court, against the verdict of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, against 17 UN resolutions, against UN General Assembly resolutions, and against the Simla Agreement.... They want to change the demography of Kashmir by revoking Kashmir’s special status. This is against Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention; this is a war crime. They have violated all international and local laws for their ideology.” Khan has warned , “The resistance of the Kashmiri people will increase. This will lead to further crackdown in Kashmir. ” Also, Pakistan seems to be waiting for the ongoing Taliban deal with the U.S on Afghanistan . After that they may do what they could do in the 1980s. Pakistan used some of the resources secured for the Afghan Mujahideen fighters to fuel insurgency in Kashmir. New Delhi would do well to keep tabs on Beijing too . China and India share a disputed border in the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh. The district of Leh covers the area of Aksai Chin. It is now under effective Indian control. Beijing is unlikely to be pleased with it. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that change of the status of Ladakh is ‘unacceptable’ to China . It has urged India to “avoid taking any move that may further complicate the boundary question.” Beijing describes Ladakh as ‘Chinese territory’ in the western sector of the Sino-India boundary question. Zhang Jun At the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meet on August 16 to discuss India’s abrogation of Article 370, China’s UN envoy Zhang Jun said that the Kashmir issue was an international and undecided one and must be peacefully resolved in accordance with the UN charter, UNSC resolutions and bilateral agreements.” Beijing perceives India’s action as challenging China’s “sovereign interests. ” Sharmila Mukherjee Kolkata Time to campaign S. Jaishankar & David Maria Sassoli New Delhi must campaign hard and convince the international community in regard to its need to abrogate the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Some important world leaders do not seem to be appreciative of the circumstances in which India had to resort to this course . In their meetings with our External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on September 1, 2019 in Brussels, ahead of a European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee meeting on the situation in Kashmir , European Union leaders, including President of the European Parliament David Sassoli and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini , reportedly raised concerns over human rights restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir and stressed the importance of “steps to restore the rights and freedoms of the population in Kashmir.” Bernie Sanders American Senator and Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders has reportedly asked his government to “speak out boldly” in support of a UN-backed peaceful resolution to resolve the Kashmir . Addressing the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Houston on August 31, Bernie said ,“India’s action is unacceptable;” the U.S. government “must speak out boldly in support of international humanitarian law and in support of a UNbacked peaceful resolution that respects the will of the Kashmiri people.” Christina James Mumbai Atrocities on minorities in China It is astonishing that most of the human rights groups in India are observing silence on how communist China has been violating the rights of its Muslim population in Xinjiang. According to reports, Beijing has built a vast network of re-education camps and a pervasive system of surveillance to monitor and subdue millions of Uighurs and Kazakhs in the Xinjiang region. Courts in Xinjiang sentenced a total of 230,000 people to prison or other punishments in 2017 and 2018. Arrests are often based on flimsy charges. The rights groups must not be selective. Shamim Hussain Delhi