Whispers Forum

Is it the purpose of income tax to perpetuate poverty or earn decent revenue for a democratic welfare state? The IT and other tax laws were promulgated by the British government to fleece the people of India, a colony then, to raise the living standards of the British people leaving barely adequate for the Indians to consume to survive. This mentality of a foreign government (colonial power) was best symbolised by tax on edible salt, which contributed 25% to the British revenues, but which happened to be the substitute for vegetables for the masses here! As the Indian people paid it, the British also fixed quantities for its consumption, which popularized the phrases Namak Halal & Namak Haram. It encouraged the colonial government to impose all kinds of other taxes most unreasonably e.g. customs, excise, sales, estate, wealth etc. This ‘sinful’ practice, most unfortunately, has been continued by the successor governments, who only added to the harshness. The gist of all the tax laws put together is that Indians are not encouraged to consume adequately (liberally/luxuriously is taboo), impacting adversely economic progress of the country as more than 98% lawful income earners are left with zero or little surplus to consume goods/services (industrial particularly). It has other unwelcome ramifications: low entrepreneurship growth, innovation, unethical practice (corruption), poverty. Had the tax laws been rational, we would not have seen the largescale suffering of the artisans in India due to lockdown. If “skilled” workers suffer so badly even after 73 years of independence and more than a100 years since start of industrialisation, there is something seriously bad in the state of India. Indian tax laws need to be rationalised urgently to stimulate consumption and economic growth. Unless people have enough to buy essentials for growth of the individual and society such as a computer, smart phone, refrigerator, two/four-wheeler, a modest flat, ordinary furniture essential for use like study table etc. under the age 30 years, India can never breach the vicious circle of poverty. Peeling of the veneer of the Fabian ideas of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru has been overdue. Let people feel proud to pay tax unlike the current scenario in which the smart fellows dodge tax regime with a smirk leaving the law abiding feel low. Even now, the superrich manage not to pay any tax, the proletarian filling the revenue gap for them.
M L Gupta

As Member Secretary of the Fifth Pay Commission in the State of Tamil Nadu to examine the demand of the State Government employees for pay parity with the Central Government Employees in 1987-88. I had found that in commutation of pension, it would be reasonable to restore the full pension after completion of twelve years after superannuation and the pensioner actually stands to lose for the next three years. for waiting to complete fifteen years after retirement. . In fact this was the demand of central government employees before the Last Pay Commission but the Pay Commission did not make any recommendations in this regard. The Centre could consider restoring full pension after completion of twelve years after commutation as part of the economic stimulus package.
Dr Sitharam Gurumurthi IAS (TN 72)
Former Member State Planning Commission &
Additional Chief Secretary to the State Government of Tamil Nadu (Retired)
HRD ministry should advertise post
HRD ministry should advertise the post in Newspapers etc and invite applications. They should not resort to the practice of constituting a SEARCH COMMITTEE for recommending names.This is an OPAQUE procedure and is highly misused.
S Gopal
Civil servants and populist politics
A former civil servant has been writing numerous pontificating posts in the Forum. His defence of ITOs although well-intentioned is perhaps ill-informed and self-contradictory; so is his belief that ITOs are macroeconomists acting in public interest. It has been rightly pointed out by A K Saxena that the bureaucracy is free to submit suggestions to cadre-controlling authorities for improving governance and service delivery mechanism. In this case the proposal was submitted to the public directly before being submitted to the cadre controlling authority and had nothing to do with service delivery mechanism or reduction in corruption. Saxena has also rightly pointed out that we are slowly, but surely, moving from Socialist to Capitalist economy and that taking policy decision is the sole prerogative of the political executive. The proposal of IRS(IT) Association was a copycat proposal based on a leftist think tank based in London. Understandably, CPM has come out openly in its favour. It is the job of the Associations to protect and promote the interests of its members (for which this Association deserves kudos for getting so many posts upgraded by Late Arun Jaitley) and to improve conduct of its members. The Association has contributed nothing for reducing corrupt behaviour of a minority of its members who spoil the reputation of the whole cadre. What effect a tax (direct or indirect) has on the macroeconomic situation is in the sphere of Indian Economic Service and not of those who collect direct taxes. The proposals are not just naive from economic point of view but seek to increase the powers of ITOs. Apart from motivation and lack of competence, the primary question is: Should the bureaucrats be allowed to air populism? Many countries allow their civil servants to participate in politics, even to contest elections. India chose the British system of anonymity of the civil servant. As of now, it is no one’s case that this system be changed though the conduct rules are rather suffocating in some other respects. Instead of taking any action against 50 young officers unconfirmed in service (who can be discharged from service without a departmental enquiry) the government has rightly started DE against 3 senior officers who misguided these youngsters for a nefarious objective. Most senior government officers who are punished by government hire expensive lawyers and get acquitted by the law courts; but this cannot be an excuse for not taking any action against senior officers who attempt to exploit junior officers. There is a lot of well-intentioned criticism of populist politicians by A K Saxena in his previous posts. How about bureaucrats indulging in populism ?
M.P. Bauer

DEBATE (1)
Still Trump remains number one.
A B Pandey
DoT itself resisted implementation of e-Office !
Many of the government officials in the current pandemic want to work from home. Among them, many are from the DoT. While in service we were trying to implement e-Office in DoT with a lot of pressure. But I am afraid to say that the biggest resistance was from the DoT.
Anurag Srivastava
“Jettison Egotism”
India is a federal polity. The Union of India and the States are expected to work in harmony. The Centre under the Disaster Management Act constituted teams to tour the affected areas and report omissions and commissions by the state governments in management of Covid-19 pandemic.
Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee has questioned the ‘basis’ of teams and has refused to entertain them. She is urged to keep her ego under check, subservient to national interest. This is not the time for earning political brownie points. Maintaining communal harmony is the need of the hour. We want to see both the Centre and States on same page. Confrontation should be replaced by spirit of Co-operative federalism.
It is noteworthy that PM Modi has been awarded top ranking by some non-descript rating agency of the US for combating CoronaVirus pandemic. Let us not be ecstatic about a mere interim assessment. Let us await the final outcome, still, a long way off. The country will surely celebrate if the country decides to award ‘Bharat Ratna’ to PM Modi for providing excellent leadership through the ongoing crisis. No one can question his sense of nationalism and commitment
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
Things are not good in MoSPI
Things are not going good in MoSPI. Recently, one SAG level ISS Officer has been transferred from MoSPI but still yet to be relived. Now he is doing lots of conspiracy to remain himself in MoSPI. It may be noted that since last 20 years, he is posted in same division and looking same work . Even Secretary wants to change the system but he is not getting proper cooperation from his officers
TRM
M B Rajesh Gowda MD, BESCOM in Karnataka
Sir, I request your good office to do something that the customers are overcharged as the meter reading for the electricity consumed in any house was taken for two months put together instead of dividing the total unit by two and then making calculations slabwise. Hence during the corona lockdown the meter reading and billing were done for the entire two months duration leading to the higher slab for most of the customer as the total unit consumed is goes to the highest slab of Rs6.25 instead of 3.25 and 5.5. This results in inflatted electricity bill leading the hardship of the general public.Hope you can take up the matter with concerned Minister and other policy makers to give relief to the esteemed genuine customers of BESCOM.Thank You.
Dr. P Saravanan

DEBATE (1)
All the four leaders are trying for supremacy.
N G Ranga
Hardly any work in most Missions abroad
Regarding the news that currently 850 IFS officers are posted in Missions abroad. This is not the correct figure while evaluating. One should also include IFS B officers, whole brigade of PA & PS. In Missions abroad if there's one IFS A officer, then to assist him you have 3 more IFS B officers. In most of the Missions there is hardly any work. Only 20% of the staff has actual work, rest all are watching movies during office time or sitting, chatting, relaxing at home. A Babu whose salary is around 50,000-60,000 rupees in India, but when he is posted abroad...Govt spends 4-5 lakh rupees as his rental accomodation..this figure is per month. He gets almost 3 lakh rupees per month. At some Missions school fees for kids is almost 20 lakh rupees in a year, completely paid by Govt. On an average medical cost for one Babu a year fully paid by Govt is 30-40 lakh rupees. People in India don't know what perks IFS people posted abroad get. There is no checking on how they are spending tax payers money. Most of the Missions are overstaffed.
Anonymous
Aisi Ho Hera Feeri
It is a happy news that state governments are planning home delivery of liquor. In the Hindi film Hera Pheri, Babu Rao Ganapat Rao Apte suggests to the vendor to arrange for piped supply to him so that he could fill his bottle as and when he chose to do so. Can we make a law to supply piped liquor, like piped cooking gas? I don’t know the taste but enjoy immensely others enjoying drinking to their heart’s full. It is equally intoxicating. Indeed, many Indians drink no water but Coca Cola and beer only. Think of them popular governments !
M L Gupta
Is SSC justified today ?
The circumstances and the urgency of SSC has long expired and no more relevant, why should any citizen be misguided for such a short tenure and left high and dry in a age when the world has moved far beyond. what would be the employment opportunities in the peer group out side. The govt and especially the Bureaucracy has no Road Map other than convoluted circulars and heart and mind less execution. Its a SHAM. TOP SSC altogether or make is compulsory for the Entire ARMY entry. No other organisation in our country or the world spend money to train and discard people. Despite SSC the shortage of officers has increased due to such uncertainties, besides career hazards and discrimination.
Rajendra Singh Rawat

DEBATE (1)
United States of America (USA) will always be super power country in the world as far as amassing arms and ammunition and army are concerned. Besides, it has strong support of NATO.
Sachin Shrivastava
RTI Act is not a total casualty COVID-19
It is good to see that the RTI Act is not a total casualty of the CoronoVirus infection and the Central Information Commission is atleast giving a semblance of working. The direction for the disclosure of the normalisation process is not legally tenable when the Courts have already said in the case of UPSC that the normalisation process is not to be disclosed. Some of the decisions of the Information Commission are difficult to understand as they seem to be contradictory or appear to be against the judicial verdicts on similar issues. May be, the lockdown would give them time to think about such issues.
Shailendra Sinha
"Out-of-box suggestions by ITOs are not a Misconduct"
Apropos of the post “What to do with ITOs”, published in WIC dt May 11? The author seems biased and intent motivated.
The bureaucracy is free to submit suggestions to cadre-controlling authorities for improving governance and services delivery mechanism. For promoting out-of-box thinking ,bureaucrats based on hands-on experience, are encouraged to make suggestions for consideration of the authorities concerned.
In the context of extant circulars , a body of 50 IRS officers devoid of malicious intent, took pride in making some suggestions for reviving the Indian economy by levying 40% tax on super-rich companies and surcharge on MNCs. Sending a joint memorandum to CBDT chief for raising revenue to fight Covid-19 infection, was not a crime. Needless to mention that government decision had political overtones ( Read as pressures of top business honchos under garb of Covid -19 crisis) for making out-of-box suggestions in public interest. We are slowly but surely ,moving away from Socialist to Capitalist economy.
Tax officers’ suggestions, though politically incorrect, were worth consideration by the authorities concerned. The decision makers possibly felt piqued and slighted. Taking policy decisions, is the sole prerogative of the political Executive, who possibly felt piqued and slighted. Bureaucrats are considered “excellent subordinates but “ bad advisors.”
Initiating disciplinary proceedings against 50 IT officers for " violating the Conduct Rules", would tantamount to travesty of justice. This cannot stand the scrutiny in the court of law. Besides being demoralizing to officers, this will create an unsavoury controversy for the Govt of India.
PM should intervene.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

DEBATE (1)
It is easier said than done for Indian companies to quit China immediately and move their manufacturing bases in India. It would take them atleast two years to wind up in China and another two years to create a base in India.
Raj Singh
RBI's decision to redraw its fiscal year
At the Board meeting held on Saturday, May 9, RBI has decided to redraw its fiscal year w.e.f. April 1 2021. The fiscal year 2020 will start on July 1, 2020 and end on March 31, 2021. RBI's decision to adopt the fiscal year from April 1 to March 31 is a welcome move. But it is not known why it took 70 years to introduce this change.
It should be mentioned that the foundations of revenue administration in India were laid by Sher Shah the Persian Emperor who introduced the ryot wari system of land administration. Sher Shah fixed the fiscal year from July 1 to June 30 which was called Fasli, a Persian word. In fact Fasli, Firka and Tehsil are Persian words. Raja Thodarmal during Akbar's rule brought some refinements based on the foundations laid by Sher Shah. Even today the Fasli is from July 1 to June 30 to coincide with the agricultural operations.
Dr Sitharam Gurumurthi IAS (TN 72) Retired
Former Member State Planning Commission &
Additional Chief Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu (Retired)
What to do with ITOs?
The Association of IRS (Income Tax) officers has become a laughing stock. Even their own members are unhappy with the absurd proposals made by their colleagues to restart the economy. The association is not a think tank; few, if any, of its members are economists. The proposals are a simple ruse to increase the powers of ITOs. There is not a single proposal to check misuse of these powers. Such misuse has become more lucrative with a growing economy.
Since 1948, the first choice of entrants to the civil services has been IFS or IAS, the other of the two ‘Category 1’ services being the second. Third choice was IAAS, Railways, IPS, Customs, Income Tax etc. Last year 3 of the selected candidates gave first choice as Income tax. Why? The common perception that young people join the civil services to make money is wrong; 3 is a small number. There is a need to keep a watch on such officers. If CBDT is unable or unwilling to do it, the IRS (Income Tax) Association could do it and redeem its reputation.
M.P.Bauer
Ahmedabad Police Commissioner
Need help for reaching out to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation / Commissioner for getting CORONA breeder spots blooming at Bimanagar, Ahmedabad. All my emails to commissioner and his team since April 10, 2020 have gone ashtray. CORONA keeps spreading allaround. The subject is serious and crucial.
H S Parekh (hsparekh@gmail.com)
Relief and Rehabilitation Secretary, Maharashtra
Sir I am Feroz khan from Colaba Sunder Nagri. This is a humble request to provide us our basic requirements of medical, food and emergency situation exit in this total lockdown in our area
Feroz khan (dearferoz2002@yahoo.co.in)
Additional Chief Secretary in Karnataka
Sir, Please mujhe Ghar bhej dijiye main bahut Pareshan hun. Mere pass paise Nahin Hai. Mera room malik Paisa mang raha hai. Please Sar my help RD807S200116416 Mera registration code I hai.
Mithilesh (mithileshyadav273212@gmail)
M B Rajesh Gowda appointed as MD, BESCOM in Karnataka
Inflated bills for April in Bangalore. Hope you are aware. My account number is 2295308
Ravinder Sagar (rvndrsgr@gmail.com)

DEBATE (1)
In this present power game no one is number one.
R K Jain
“Treat all Organized Services at par for generalist posts”
Suggestion of S Gopal (WIC, dated May 6,2020 ) for appointing a non-IAS officers as EO , though well-intentioned, will never meet the ends of justice, till officers of all organized services are given representation in promotions and postings. No level playing field. Presently, it is a battleground for the IAS v/s the rest.
There is no pay parity compounded by the delay in empanelment of cadres other than the IAS. All come through the common selection process through the UPSC. All central services officers feel hugely discriminated against the 'elite' Indian Administrative Service, the poor and distant cousin of the erstwhile India Civil Services .
Ironically, the competitiveness for superiority among IAS officers of even same batch, is not unusual. On the contrary, “under-cutting” among inter-Services officers ,is also noticed . Rivalry among officers of different civil services, prevails across the board- both at the Centre and States. Trust deficit hampers Good governance. The artificial distinction between IAS officers and the less fortunately circumstanced central services officers becomes evident even before proceeding for LBSNAA . Seeds of “superiority complex ”are sown early in career.
An artificial dichotomy. Top twenty officers of the merit list are privileged to call on President and Prime minister. One more IAS officers are attached to different central ministries for 3 months. The practice was established by PM Modi. Officers of other services are not considered fit enough even though they participate in central staffing scheme. Empanelment has always been dependent on the discretionary power of the Prime minister.
Officers of IPS, IRS and other services want an end to “ IAS Raj “ to secretary’s appointments . They seek pay hikes. The IAS officers, according to them, corner all specialized posts. Out of some 30 posts of financial advisors (JS and AS levels )in the government, 17 or so are manned by IAS with no specialization whatsoever. The empanelment process is discretionary, arbitrary.
Who benefits by creating artificial discriminations among Services officers ?They all come from same stock. Perhaps, the beneficiaries are the political class in cahoots with the pliant IAS officers, who get easily rewarded for their loyalty.
To sum up , appointments to generalist posts of Secretary and Secretary equivalent , must be thrown open to all organized services including the post of Cabinet Secretary ,Secretary ( DOP&T), Secretary (Revenue) , C&AG, CVC, Secretary to President , Establishment Officer (EO) and scores of others.
The Prime minister is urged to introspect over the matter in consultation with the union Home minister but without the aid of the coterie of elite IAS officers who have deeply rooted vested interests.PM is expected to be neutral in appointments matter. Performance Assessment based on integrity, honesty, commitment, hard-working nature, political neutrality and IB verifications from two independent sources,are necessary criteria
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

DEBATE(1)
Some Indian companies operating in China may decide to relocate to home country but by and large most of the US and American companies would prefer to move to their home country or Vietnam or Indonesia but not India.
S K Malviya
Provide more space for useful views
Fully agree with Arun kumar. Your"s is an important site for people with varied views on issues of National importance. I request you to provide more space for such views.
S Gopal
Make in India options post COVID-19
To achieve the MII goals post COVID-19, we need to re-orient our industrial policy on these parameters: 1. Opt for high technology, or 2. Opt for appropriate technology or 3. Opt for outdated technology, machines, inputs and sales, or 4. Carry on as it is, or 5. Celebrate “informal sector” or move to formal sector, or 6. Promote trade mark, brand, innovation, invention, or 7. Maintain low cost low quality low return low wage production, and 8. Remain a developing country or become superpower, or 9. Celebrate poverty or aim for prosperity of people, or 10. Keep importing common use products like smart phones, laptops or produce locally, and 11. Allow relocation of industries to India blindly (affected by Corona from countries like China) to India or exercise informed choice to select state of the art producers, and finally, only 12. Reform, renew, modify or go for total change? After six years of the present government in office and every sincere effort made to promote Make In India as well as Skill Development, we are no different from where we were 20 years ago on the above parameters, if an honest evaluation is made. It is because producers don’t fear rejection of their products by the consumers as everything sells in India. The market is flooded with fake medicines, fake automobile parts, fake sports goods etc. We need to reverse this approach to Only the Best Sells in India. Nothing more needs to symbolise this predicament than the ICMR supplied/approved faulty Corona test kits during the disaster moment when the Prime Minister himself is supervising management.
M L Gupta
View point for governance
Some viewpoints for governance. 1. The fear psychosis in promotional advertisement appearing in medIas. like TV needs to be immediately stopped in this challenging covid crisis scenario. Typical examples are policy bazaar adv.. 2. India needs a separate policy for urban habitats without houses living in rented premises, which adds to unproductice house holders, scarity of affordable land adding to ineffeciencits in created infrastructure created & making times more difficult for such households LIC housing policies needs to include financing of land for such people in areas of their social activites living for dedes without shelter of their own. High high priced land, reluctancetc to move to high rise buildings in appartments and rpvaluation of land by state governments make the land & houses of theiirs more difficult.. 3. Small business operators with marginal incomes relying on day to day income but with accumulated and recurring family and workforce liabilities needs revisit to existing policy for real situational needs. 4. Elderly persons seems to have been excluded from development efforts based on simple theory of morbidity probability. Insurene coverage either are not avaiable or at unaffordable prices; could have been easily provided by scaled up coverage for all and managing risks using reisurrence instruments helping them to contribute their rich experience of competencies in this difficult time . Best wishes & regards .
Kailash Prasad Bhawsinka

DEBATE (1)
Now that the corona is almost over, relative normality has returned to the China. It will restore to its economic glamour with emerging as super power country in trading sector in the world.
Nitin Saxena
How can international travel begin?
While there are many experts , here is my humble suggestion - Make it mandatory to conduct RT PCR test for everyone taking a flight ( bring them to the airport a couple of hours earlier and get this test done ). Likewise , do it for all arriving passengers. The cost of test must be in built in the airline ticket cost , and airlines should pay the same to AAI or do the test themselves - in case RT PCR test is negative, the person is not transmitting ( even if he or she is in early stages of COVID infection...PL CONFIRM THIS WITH ICMR ).., so risk is rather minimal the next 24 hours - Usual social distancing norms, gloves, mask , packaged food ( no service )and self dispensing soaps and sanitisers at airports and in the planes - Repeat RT PCR test on arrival airport. If someone earlier negative now becomes + ve, quarantine the person and all those sitting within 2 metre of that person ..for 14 days - If tests are negative on arrival, send them into mandatory home quarantine ( with GPS enabled tracker ) ,, addl cost of this will be 200 USD ( not counting addl cost of empty middle seat) but this can surely kick start the sector ..
Mohan
Plight of CSS officers
Is there any one to listen to the plight of officers of CSS. Officers are retiring without promotions inspite of there being vacancies..
Regular visitor
CSS & CSSS officers not getting promotions
As rightly pointed out, CSS & CSSS officers are not getting promotions. Government should be forthcoming in solving the problem. As I have written earlier, motivation factor will be missing totally if it continues to be like the present situation. Please give us atleast adhoc promotion. Court cases will be lingering on for years
Seth

Curb government expenditure on tours and travel
In addition to the aforesaid suggestions for expenditure control, I have also got one suggestion that steps should also be taken to put a curb on government expenditure on tours and travel. Majority of the Conferences/Meetings should be done through Video Conference. Use of vehicles at the exchequers cost for personal purposes by the Ministers/Bureaucrats should be stopped once for all. One of the Minister of the current Cabinet, belonging to Uttar Pradesh, had taken reimbursement of money spent on Hajmola and Hawai Chappal at the cost of office expenditure. The air travel bills of the wife and daughter of Minister is also being paid by the office, with concurrence of Finance Division. Shame on the feudalistic lords in the Government, who are at the helm of affairs of the Government, and indulging in such unethical practices. If we take strict measures to plug such unnecessary expenditure of Government, we will be saving a lot and bringing back the economy on the track.
BBS
Another airport size RT-PCR sanitised room required
The normal time taken for processing in RT-PCR (a nuclear-derived method for detecting the presence of specific genetic material from any pathogen, including a virus) is six hours job including the preparation time added to it. Normally the RT-PCR processes the batch of maximum 70 to 100 tests and seeing the number of passengers travelling we need to have another airport size RT-PCR sanitised room with approximately thousand machines lined up with equally trained manpower.
Rajendra
Appoint non IAS officer as EO
Some Non IAS officer should be appointed as EO
S Gopal

Systematically destroying IRS
It is no surprise that Government ( virtually IAS lobby) issued charge sheets to IRS Association office bearers for giving a report on reviving economy in good faith though the recommendations are of poor intellect. Contrast this with clean chit given to an IPS officer who favoured financial criminals in Maharashtra. IRS Association needs to realize that it is an interest group to protect the interests of IRS officers and not a think tank. It does everything except to protect interests of IRS officers. It is open secret that CBDT bosses have surrendered to Modi government and converted IT Department as an arm of BJP to hound its political adversaries. In return, Modi government is only rewarding its henchmen in the department and systemically destroying the service with innovations such as no promotion in the guise of deferment, arbitrary use of 56J, transfers to remote locations. However, corrupt henchmen of Modi in the income tax are getting all rewards. Will IRS association stand up to protect collective interests of the IRS?
Prasad
IRS force
Suggestions for revenue mobilisation by income tax officers has, instead of starting any serious discussion, started a jokestream on Twitter. Why?
First, the qualifications. Income tax officers are not economists. They do not (nor are they expected to have) any idea of what a particular tax (say, inheritance tax or wealth tax) does to the economy. Their expertise is limited to collecting direct taxes, nothing more.
Second, the populism. ‘Soak the rich’ is a popular refrain across the world. Are the income tax officers (not very popular among the honest people in the society) trying to become popular?
Third the intention. If the suggestions were to be accepted it will increase the power of income tax officers tremendously. It is doubtful that it will be exercised with restraint and without corruption.
Finally, the missing link. The popular perception of most income tax officers being corrupt is misplaced. The officers (at least the idealistic ones) could have proved it by suggesting how to reduce arbitrariness and corruption in the organisation’s various activities. For example, international businesses have to negotiate a bribe for not deducting advance tax. This is a cost to exports. When dealing with assessees, the officers advise them to get a chartered accountant. If the officers had suggested measures for elimination of middlepersons and bring about honesty in their department, they would have been taken seriously. If their association is worth its salt it could advise young direct recruits to expose their corrupt bosses.
In the meantime the government should award them for bringing hilarity in these dark times.
If you see an income tax officer and a chartered accountant drowning and you can save only one of them what would you do? Go home or go for a walk?
Prof. N.C. Saxena

DEBATE (1)
In the present context, COVID-19 has emerged as super-power making super power countries: USA, Russia, China and India powerless.
Manoj Kumar
“Please do not stifle Freedom of Speech”
As an avid fan of Whispersinthecorridors.com since its inception, I venture to share my views with you on certain aspects. The topics selected for ‘ Debates’ have, of late, been serving certain vested interests, bereft of universal relevance. I have noticed a drift in the editorial policy of WIC from original mandate. Some posts do not find space in your FORUM without specifying the reasons. I don’t know, why? But, let us not forget that rapid expansion of new portals implies that one media platform’s censored or dropped column, becomes a prize catch for another.
It is, no doubt, your absolute discretion to accept or dismiss columns without assigning reasons. Your editorial –cum-proprietorial- cum-commercial compulsions, cannot be disputed. You have to run the publication by getting ads from government and corporate sectors. Quite justified.
There are certain points, I would like to share with you in the interest of our Constitutional right relating to Freedom of Speech and Expressions.
First, by not posting the views in WIC FORUM, you are stifling the freedom of speech and expression of genuine contributors. The contributors are not supposed to be supportive of the Governments of the day. If they do, they become paid journalists. More important point is about maintaining the credibility and independence of Journalism. Pressures during the UPA era headed by the then de facto PM Mohtarma Sonia ji, was blatantly explicit , vindictive.
Not under the present NDA era headed by PM Modi. I admire him for his honesty, commitment, nationalistic outlook and exceptional leadership during Corona crisis. I also criticize him freely on other issues.
I have grown with WIC for two decades and started contributing posts after retirement in 2007. I have noticed some change in editorial policy, of late . You would agree that it would be neither ethical nor advisable for contributors to support the policies of the governments of the day on various issues. This explains why you invariably insert a ‘Disclaimer’.
We do not expect the editor-in-chief of WIC to act as the Spokesperson of ruling dispensations at the Centre and States. If that were to be so,then what is the difference between the Whispersinthecorridors.com ( WIC )and the pompous Opinion makers of several mainstream newspapers. You ought to be different.WIC is accessed globally by one and all especially the bureaucracy.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)
Grievance of CSS officers
People in CSS are waiting for promotions in May 2019....No body to listen on this grievance of CSS officers.
GB