Suggestions given to Finance Minister for 2020-21 Budget

I gave the following suggestions to the Finance Minister for the Budget 2020-21. You can also give suggestions from https://www.mygov.in/group-issue/inviting-ideas-and-suggestions-union-budget-2020-2021/

I suggest to link income tax slabs and exemptions with inflation.

The income tax slabs have not been increased in proportion to the inflation for a long time. Please link with inflation, so that it would be fair to the people.

Section 80C also has not been increased for a long time. Please link that also to the inflation.

The limit of the food allowance that a company can provide to its employees is set to Rs.50. That was decided more than a decade back and it was not revised till now. You might be knowing that with Rs.50, you cannot get a meal in any decent hotel. Please revise that and link that also with inflation.

Few suggestions on the Indian railways.

Open premium tatkal an hour before the tatkal and make them available at the highest price. The tickets that are not sold can be made available as usual after the tatkal opening. You can include normal tatkal tickets also in the premium tatkal when it is opened an hour before.

Provide waiting list for the premium tatkal at the highest price. If there is any cancellation, first clear the premium tatkal.

By this, during peak time, Indian railways can get Maximum revenue and also those who can afford can travel. As of now, it is becoming pure luck for everyone who is trying for tatkal.

Provide some refund to the cancellation of the confirmed tatkal tickets. Now, there is no refund for the cancellation of the confirmed tatkal tickets, and there is no incentive for the people to cancel them, when they are not going to travel. If we provide small incentive to cancel the ticket, then we can confirm another ticket and railways would get money for that. If you return only 20-30% of the ticket price for confirmed tatkal, it would generate lot of money.

Since, IRCTC is no longer completely owned by Indian Railways/Government any more, it is better to give licensing to multiple private players for booking tickets online with some license fees. With that, Government can get significant money, and also, it is fair from the government's perspective to treat all non-government organizations equally. Now, it is unfairly giving full license to one non-government organization (IRCTC).

Act vs Implementation

Whenever some major incident happens, Government introduces another act and everyone hails the government for that. Life goes on as usual (without much change).

For the recent problems that media is highlighting (Rape and Murder), we don't need another act. We already have too many stringent laws/acts. What we need is efficient implementation.

Before one criticizes police for not acting immediately, we have to see whether police have enough time to deal with all the cases. Most of the time, they are severely under staffed and had to work overtime. Government should increase the no.of police significantly.

The no.of cases is too huge in any court. Government should increase the no.of courts/judges so that, the cases can be closed sooner.

In the recent Disa act introduced by AP Government, if the government tries to solve the case in 30 days, then most of the time, there won't be any punishment, since, to prove someone beyond reasonable doubt requires significant evidence collection and that would take quite some time. When police is under-staffed, they cannot get complete evidence in such less time. When police take more time, it becomes like how it is now (no change).

Without increasing the police/courts/judges and other infrastructure related issues, if the government tries to solve the problems with yet another act, it won't be possible. If they try to solve without increasing the infrastructure, it would cause increase in other types of crimes.

Many times, the real solution is always dull and not exciting.

KCR - Giving Importance to People over Government Organizations

Irrespective of how much I dislike KCR personally, I would like to appreciate him for giving importance to People over Government Organizations.

Many Government Organizations behave as if, people are there to serve them. Whenever they threaten for something for their self-motive, the leaders used to bow to those government organizations/unions and do whatever they say irrespective of how much loss it is to the state. They give reasoning that, if they do strike, it is going to hurt people.

But, KCR is not doing like what other leaders did. He is allowing privatization, in case Government organization does not serve people. Other leaders should follow him in keeping people's interests above the government organizations' interest.

IRCTC IPO is Worse than 2G and Coal Scams

For 2G, there was no monopoly. There were many existing players. Government had given few new licenses to private players by using some loopholes, so that, the people in power get some money. That was treated like the biggest scam of this century.

Government gave part of the spectrum to their favorite organizations, and it was considered as the scam of the century. If it gives full spectrum to one favorite organization, how big that scam would be?

The same thing is happening to IRCTC. Online ticket booking is given to just one non-government organization, IRCTC. This is the biggest stupid thing done by Modi after Demonitization.

Already, IRCTC is behaving like a dicator, and treats its consumers as its servants. When government loses control, I don't know how worse it can become.

The fair thing that government should do is, it should allow any organization to sell tickets online. For any reason, if it wants to give it to a single organization, then it should select an organization by fair and open process, and select suitable organization every year.

When the government makes the process fair, all those who are buying shares in IRCTC, would lose miserably.

Vote for Candidate or Vote for Party?

In Parliament and Assembly elections, one must vote for the Party and never for the candidate. To be more precise, one must vote based on the PM/CM candidate (or Super PM/CM, if exists).

MLAs and MPs do not have any executive powers. Whatever they could do is limited. How much good or bad they can do depends on whether their party is in power or not.

On the other hand the PM/CM can change the entire direction of the country/state. A PM can either take country from stable state to bankruptcy or bankruptcy to stable state. A CM can make a state, the best state or the worst state. When the PM/CM is making the drastic changes, the influence of the MPs/MLAs would be minimal.

If your favorite PM/CM is a very good person, then vote for that party's candidate, even if that candidate is corrupted and has significant no.of criminal cases. If the PM/CM candidate is a very bad person, then don't vote for that party's candidate, even if the candidate is an ideal human being of very high integrity.

Caretaker Government

When a person takes oath as a Prime Minister or Chief Minister without having full majority, then the President/Governor asks him/her to prove the majority in a stipulated time. Till then, the Prime Minister/Chief Minister would be a caretaker PM/CM.

Similarly, after the dissolution of the house or after the resignation of the PM/CM, till the next PM/CM takes oath, the incumbent PM/CM would be a caretaker PM/CM.

A caretaker PM/CM has most of the powers of PM/CM except that, the caretaker PM/CM cannot introduce any bills, ordinances, new schemes or make major changes. For day to day operations, there is no difference between caretaker PM/CM and normal PM/CM.

In 1999, Vajpayee has faced one full fledged war, when he was a caretaker PM and his ministry was a caretaker Ministry. Without having full executive power, PM cannot face a full fledged war.

The present election commission is behaving like a dictator by denying the normal rights a CM has. The CM has all the executive powers till the next CM takes oath. [It is not just enough that, counting is finished or the new CM has been elected. The new CM has to take oath.]

If the election commission thinks that, a CM cannot even have meetings with the officials, then they should change the constitution that, as soon as the election notification issued, all the CMs and the PM would lose their post, and the State Election Commission Officers would become CMs and the Chief Election Commission Officer would become PM. Till then, the existing caretaker PM/CM will have all the executive rights.

I don't know whether I should blame the current Election Commission Officer or the potential second dictator of Independent India. 

Going to Vote for TDP - Because of First Past the Post System

I am planning to vote for Galla Jayadev (TDP) in Parliament Elections.

Eventhough, I don't like few things done by Modi (like Demonetization or forcing Hindi on South Indian states etc.,), I cannot see any reasonable alternative at the center. I definitely do not want Rahul Gandhi, Mamatha Benerjee, Mayawathi, Akhilesh Yadav or Family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav etc.

I want Modi to be the next PM, but, I am not going to vote for BJP.

The reason is First Past the Post System. If two parties of almost same ideology contests separately, then the third party which is not of this ideology would win. Because, both parties split the votes between themselves, which causes third party to win.

If I vote for BJP, then most probably, YSRCP would win. I don't want YSRCP to win. The only way to stop YSRCP is, to vote for TDP.

For the same reason, why people did not vote for Lok Satta Party in the previous years, I am not going to vote for BJP for the exact same reason.

The correct fix for this problem is, the Government should introduce Proportionate System or Alternative Voting with Single Transferable vote. Unless that is brought, it would be difficult to bring radical changes.

The Government may say that, for hundred crore people, it would be difficult to educate everyone about single transferable vote. That should be given as an option to the people. Those whoever understand that, would utilize it. Others would go with the traditional voting.

In Alternative voting with single transferable vote, I would choose multiple candidates with order of precedence. If my first preference candidate gets lowest no.of votes, then he/she would be removed, and my vote would be transferred to my second preference candidate. If the second candidate also gets the lowest no.of votes, then my vote would be transferred to my third preference and so on.

To give a simple example, TDP, BJP and YSRCP are contesting. TDP got 10,000 first preference votes, YSRCP got 10,500 votes and BJP got 1000 votes. Out of these three, the party that got least votes is BJP. Then BJP is removed from the list, and for those whoever voted for BJP, their second preference vote is taken into consideration. Let's say, out of the 1000 votes that BJP got, if there are 800 second preference votes to TDP and 200 second preference votes to YSRCP, then the count after removing BJP would be, TDP 10,800 and YSRCP 10,700. Since, there is no other party, TDP would be declared winner. In the First past the post system, YSRCP would be declared winner.

Courage & Commitment: An Autobiography by Margaret Alva

Courage & Commitment: An Autobiography is a book written by Margaret Alva.

She mentioned that, in 1971, after the win in Bangladesh war, her victory was easy. But, Bangladesh war happened after she won in the election.

She says, AP government was dismissed in 1978. In fact, the tenure of AP government was extended by an year due to internal emergency. After 1972 elections, the next elections for AP state assembly were in 1978.

She says Congress denied ticket to P. V. Narasimha rao in 1996. But, it was not correct. He was denied in 1998. It was not a typo. She wrote more than a paragraph on that.

She said she fought with BJP government during the thirteen days rule on minority rights, communal tensions, foreign policy reversals and centre-state relations. All this in 13 days???

In 2000 March, she became the chair person of Parliamentary Committee on the empowerment of women. She mentioned the problems during that time, where Najma heptulla wanted to become the Chair person. While mentioning the problems at that time, she said the chairman of the rajya sabha Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. But, he was not the chairman at that time. Krishan Kanth was the Chairman then.

She said, she was the Chair person for 5 years, and submitted the report in 2005 to Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Sonia Gandhi. She also said, "got the idea included in the Congress' manifesto". It is seriously wrong. As a member of Lok Sabha, how could she continue as Chairperson even after the elections? Also, she lost Lok Sabha election in 2004, and she did not even get nominated to Rajya Sabha. If the report is released in 2005, how could she introduce that in the 2004 elections' manifesto? Is it allowed to disclose the report before officially presenting it to the government? If the report is released before 2004 elections, how could she submit it to Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Sonia Gandhi? It should be submitted to Vajpayee and his cabinet.

After 2004 elections, she said, she made Susheel Kumar Shinde to lead marathwada region. Susheel kumar shinde became governor of AP after the elections. How could he lead the party?

In the photos, she says, "With first lady of India Janaki Venkataraman, 1986". Janaki Venkataraman was not the first Lady in 1986. She became first lady in 1987.