Blackmoney: Govt. listened to us on Tipoff email id

On 15th November in our article titled "Blackmoney: Politics & Way Forward" we had suggested that "The Government can setup toll free numbers, email ids and fax numbers dedicated to unearthing black money where any person can send a mesage about instances of blackmoney generation".
http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.in/2016/11/blackmoney-politics-way-forward.html

The Government has in fact listened and created an email id blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in where people can send email to tip off the authorities about blackmoney.

It is a good way for the tax authorities to get information on blackmoney. However, given the paucity of staff, whether they can really act on it or not is another question. The Government may try to find out the names from these tip offs and match with their database to see if they need to take action on these guys. If there is concrete information provided in the tip off email, then I think it would be easier for the Government to take action. Generally the informant is paid 20% of the amount recovered. However, whether Government will do so based on the tip off email is not known.

Technically, any undeclared wealth is blackmoney. So whether income tax authorities will be interested in the small blackmoney offenders or not is not known. For example, recently there was a petition by people saying that the landlords should be caught as they insist on house rent payments in cash. In many cities the house rent is completely in cash. In cities like Delhi, the house rent is divided into two parts and two cheques are taken often in the name of landlord and his wife. One is shown as rent and the other as rental for lighting and other fixtures. And a third part is taken in cash in lieu of water bills. Though Delhi Government charges a pittance for water, often the landlord has to run his motor pump to pump water from the municipal pipeline and fill his overhead tank. These charges are often 60,000 and above per year per flat. Will the IT department prosecute a landlord for couple of lakhs of undeclared income per year?

Remember that there are millions of such landlords throughout India. Brining them under the tax net will result in more income tax for the Government and that can help lower the tax net.

However, there is also a negative side to the story. These information on the hands of unscrupulous Income Tax officials will only result in extortion for personal benefits and can create an era of uncertainty due to raids. People can also send false information in the tipoff email to implicate someone. So the Income Tax authorities need to do a thorough job.

The main question before us is the blackmoney generation by various businesses which are outside the tax net. A tea stall owner in bangalore sells tea at 15 rupees per glass and sells about 500 glasses of tea in the evening. There are also other snacks. So this small tea seller earns minimum 20 lakhs per year just from tea. Add the income from snacks like biscuits, samosas etc. These are all sold in cash. Ofcourse they are starting with PayTM as well. A plainclothes taxman standing infront of the stall in an afternoon can give very accurate results for their assessments. Sending information about such businessess should be encouraged in the tip off email id blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in . Unfortunately, people feel that these are small shops and they won't report against them. If such businesses can also be brought under the tax net then it would be good for the economy. So guys and gals keep on sending emails to the Government about blackmoney.

UP Elections: Rahul's Kisan Yatra Resonates

UP Elections & Rahul's Yatra

Election for UP legislative assembly is sometime in early 2017. However, the first move has been made by the Congress.

Rahul Gandhi, the VP of Congress Party took out a high profile 26 day long rally across 146 constituencies of UP. The Congress party which had a dismal run in the 2014 Parliamentary elections, and which has been reduced to only 28 MLAs in UP assembly is betting big on UP elections to turnaround its fortunes.

It has hired Prasanth Kishore, who was the brain behind the Chai pe Charcha and other campaigns for Modi's 2014 victory as well as Bihar Election victory for the Nitish Kumar led JD(U)-RJD-Congress. Congress apart from the win in Bihar as a part of the Nitish Kumar led alliance doesn't have much to show. It has also lost the Assam elections. The thinking is that if Congress continues to do bad in UP, then any revival of Congress won't be possible.

Congress has signed the agreement with Prasanth Kishore's organisation for both Punjab and UP elections. Whereas, Congress is in a strong position in Punjab, UP is where the problem lies.

Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are the only two MPs of Congress from UP. There are no Congress leaders with mass base in UP. In this backdrop, the 26 day long Rahul's UP roadshow is somewhat unthinkable. And more importantly, doing such a long duration roadshow with more than six months before the elections can easily be forgotten. So what is the plan of Congress?

Prasanth Kishore seems to have correctly identified the problem. Congress has been out of power in UP for the last 27 years. SP, BSP and BJP have had power in UP, either alone or in various combinations. Congress has been an also ran party in UP, which is India's biggest state.

It takes time to convince people. So Prasanth Kishore first did a big rally of Rahul Gandhi in Lucknow. He forced local Congress leaders to book the biggest ground and tasked each one of them to mobilse supporters and fill it. That success led to people believing that they can do it. Then he held a roadshow with Sonia Gandhi in Varanashi. Psychologically Varanashi being the constituency of Narendra Modi, a lot of Congress leaders were not comfortable. Nevertheless, that became a success and led to people believing that there is support for Congress.

After that Rahul Gandhi's roadshow termed as "Kisan Yatra" covering 48 districts, 146 constituencies, 3438 kms starting from Deoria to Delhi was started. It was completed in Delhi yesterday ie on 6th October.

Even before Prasanth Kishore tying up with Congress, Rahul Gandhi had succeeded in pushing the Modi Government with his successive and well timed jibes of "Suit-boot ki sarkar" and terming the Govt. as anti-farmer. This had led to the Government dropping the Ordinance on land acquisition. Prasanth Kishore has successfully taken that theme and branded this roadshow as Kisan Yatra. This is to appeal to all the farming community.

This is a good move because, at the moment the allegiance of the UP electorate is fragmented along caste and religious lines. Whereas, the Samajwadi Party (SP) attracts the Muslims and the Yadavs, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) attracts the backward classes. The forward classes as well as other had voted en-masse for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections due to the unprecedented hype created by Modi to bring development.

Stressing that the development plank of the BJP is only for a few industrialists and the farmers are increasingly marginalised and committing suicide, the Congress wants to cut across various casts and bring the farming community to Congress.

Also, Congress has been attacked as only pandering to the interests of minorities. So the suggestion by Prasanth Kishore to have a brahmin face as the Chief Ministerial candidate of UP was a master stroke. So now Sheila Dixit, three time Chief-Minister of Delhi, is the Chief Ministerial candidate of Congress. And informally it has been told to everybody that out of the 400+ seats of UP, close to 25% ie. 100 seats will be given to Brahmins.

The Brahmins with about 9% population can cause a major swing towards Congress. Muslims are known to vote strategically in many places. Once they know that Brahmin vote is for Congress, then they too will vote for Congress. This will ensure a winning combination. Ofcourse, we know that not everybody will vote en-masse. Nevertheless, it is a good theory and is plausible.

Even before the announcement of Sheila Dixit as the Chief Ministerial candidate, the names of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were floated. It was well known that Rahul Gandhi being in the centre will not be the Chief Minister and also Priyanka Gandhi will not jump in officially. So it was basically to create lot of hype and discussion. At a time when Congress was not in news, this led to several days of discussions in various channels and important column space in newspapers. Clearly this shows that Prasanth Kishore is a guy who thinks strategically and knows how to create events out of thin air to get people excited.

The success of Rahul Gandhi's Kisan Yatra can be gauged from the fact that the ruling Samajwadi Party created some roadblocks by not allowing roadshows in certain places. Clearly, the other parties despite continuing to trash Rahul Gandhi, have taken notice.

It is said that Prasanth Kishore's team on behalf of Congress has collected Kisan Mang Patra's which contain details of agricultural loans of farmers from UP. This would come in handy not only as a political tool to press for their case, but also help in data analytics and in targeting future messages to these people.

It would be interesting to see the next moves of Congress and Prasanth Kishore to understand how they want to take the UP visit forward. Clearly, we see an approach which is often used in USA politics and had not been used before in India. There will be several efforts from other parties to change the narrative by staging events, else Rahul Gandhi's congress will run away with the credits. So interesting times indeed for people who are interested in politics and to see how one can position and reposition a brand. Watch this space. There is more to come....

Surgical Srikes: Another take

With the DGMO press conference announcing Indian soldiers to have crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and inflicted large casualties on militants preparing for infiltrating to India, all hell have broken loose.

It has been proclaimed as the ruling party's answer to Pakistan and even the Modi Government's 56 inch chest bravado. In many circles it has been said that for the this has happened for the first.

Unfortunately, the situation is such that everybody in India has to agree and praise the Government of its "guts" and "attacking" Pakistan. Else, one will be immediately branded as anti-national.

It has been said that Indian soldiers have crossed the LoC and moved upto 500meters and in some cases upto 2 kilometers and attacked the terrorists and successfully come back.

After the initial brouhaha about these "surgical strikes", voices have been raised about the authenticity or the extent of these operations and have asked for the video proofs, which the army is supposed to have documented during the surgical strikes. No one would have demanded for publishing the videos, if it would not have been announced that there are video recordings of the operation. By the way, no name has been given to this operation. All operations ie significant actions have a code name.

Military observers will vouch that these kinds of actions have happened in the past. Earlier it used to be frequent. However, after the setting up of barbed wire fences and more patrolling, these situations have reduced. In one earlier instance, Pakistan troops had entered India and cut off the head of one soldier. So our troops are boiling and are capable of cross-border incursion and striking down targets if and when they are given orders.

India has field guns, like the Bofors, which can fire and strike some 28kms into the enemy territory with precision. These field guns were not used. Our soldiers have shoulder fired missile launchers which can strike down enemy posts across the border. Snipers can even take down militants some 7kms away. These snipers check the wind velocity, terrain and fire accurately from a distance of 7kms and instantly neutralise the target.

Recently, the former home mininster Mr. Chidambaram said that in January 2013, Indian soldiers had crossed the LoC and carried out operations. This was done without fanfare as the army chooses not to publicise such events. The then ruling party, the congress led UPA Government didn't choose to announce it. Now the BJP-led NDA has made it a policy and is reaping the political benefits.

The Indian army is normally not partisan and doesn't favour any political party. However, if the Government of the day orders to disclose any information, then it has to.

It appears that some activity has taken place. Pakistan has announced that 2 of their soldiers have died in some local firing. We are not sure of the exact nature of the action unless the Government chooses to disclose. If the hype is more and substance is less, then we will obviously not see the videos.

In the absence of any photo or videos released by the Government, there are lot of fake photos circulated by interested parties. One of the photos shows some militants lying near a broken building. However, this photo was lifted from internet. Interestingly that photo was of militants killed by Pakistan army in 2012 after they massacred school children.

In this intensive propaganda war, truth becomes diffused and difficult to detect. So people either keep quiet or believe whatever they want to believe. This is not the last of such incidents. Many more of such incidents are likely to happen.

It is said that with the BJP on the back foot in the UP elections, they are going to create more such situations in early 2017 to influence the UP electorate.

Formula 1 Politics - Money Talks Louder

Driver selection for Formula 1 teams is not just based on talent, but on many other considerations. A case in the point is the Renault team.


Robert Kubica suffered a terrible accident at the beginning of the year and Renault had to find a suitable replacement. In came Nick Heidfield and he set a very fast timing during practice and was selected as a replacement. However, things started turning sour. Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov (who has backing of sponsors from his native Russia) were nearly matched in terms of points which Heidfeld ahead. It is of course a different matter that Heidfeld was unlucky of being involved in a couple of crashes. Eric Boullier of Renualt started making some negative comments about Heidfeld and then after about two races, Renault suddenly removed Heidfeld and Bruno Senna was given the drive. Nick Heidfeld hadn't brought any sponsorship with him. Bruno Senna is the nephew of the legendary Ayrton Senna and the Senna name evokes lot of interest among public and hence sponsors. Renault team which has financial worries wanted sponsorships and instead of coming clean on its intention, started a campaign to malign Heidfeld saying that he lacks leadership qualities so that the replacement by Bruno Senna won't look an act of desperation driven by financial worries.


Of late, Eric Boullier has started making noises about the need to freeze on their driver lineup by October and has kind of given a deadline to Kubica. Robert Kubica's doctor and manager had said that he can come back to some form of racing by November. However, Eric Boullier has given a deadline of October end. Clearly, they don't want Robert Kubica to come back with them as Robert is not likely to bring any sponsorship with him. That would free up one seat for a sponsored driver like Bruno Senna. Ultimately, Money talks louder.


Pastor Maldonado brought lot of sponsorships to the Williams team. So Williams team replaced Nico Hulkenberg. Nico Hulkenberg had in turn brought sponsorships to the Williams team and had even bagged a pole position in 2010. However, Maldonado's sponsors ensured that Hulkenberg was dumped. Williams had felt that they needed an experienced driver like Rubens Barrichello to help in development of their car. Unfortunately, despite Rubens being a jovial guy with lot of experience in F1, he couldn't help in making the Williams car faster. It looks like time is running up for Rubens and there has been news of Kimi Raikkonen expressing interest for a drive with Williams team. Kimi's "private" visit to the Williams factory made Rubens jittery and Rubens even said that he is willing to spend some money from his own pocket to remain in F1. Clearly, Rubens is trying his best to stay in F1 at any cost.


Coming back to Kimi Raikonnen who became F1 champion after moving over to Ferrari, it came as a shock to people that Ferrari chose to drop him one year before his contract and get Alonso for Renault. When the Spanish bank Santander - who has traditionally sponsored the team where Alonso is a driver - moved in as sponsors of Ferrari. Clearly one could see the connection. Even a company with huge history in Formula 1 fell for the lure of the Lucre and dropped a Formula 1 Champion like Kimi. Again Money Talks Louder.


And  if teams like Ferrari, Willams, Renault etc select drivers based on sponsors, can HRT be blamed for replacing Narain Karthikeyan with Daniel Ricciardo due to sponsorships from Redbull?