Wednesday Post

Few interesting news items which caught my eye in last few days

1.BJP govt announced on 7^th Jan, regarding 10% quota for poor upper caste citizens of the country. There were wide spread resentments, over the years, from economically weaker people of upper caste as they were at loss because of various quota/reservations for  Scheduled Caste (SC), Schedule Tribes (ST), Backward Class (BC) and Other Backward Class (OBC) and others.  The definition of the weaker section within the ambit of this scheme is, that the person who can  qualify should meet one of the following parameters, One- the person’s family income should be less than Rs 8 lakh per annum, Two- The family agricultural land holding should be less than 5 acres,  Three- The family’s house should be less than 1000 sft, Four- family to have residential plot smaller than 100 Sq yards in any Municipality, Five- A residential plot of less than 200 sq yards in a non notified municipality. What does it imply- it only means that more that 80% of people in general category will be able to fulfil this criteria, and will become eligible under 10% quota. Is this some kind of gimmick or an election propaganda, where the present govt is trying to pacify the people belonging to upper caste. In city like Mumbai or any other Metro Cities a house/flat of 500 sft will be costing any where between Rs 40 to 100 Lakhs. Will you call a family owning this type of house a economical weaker section, and here the criteria is less than 1000 sft.

The problem for the NDA govt’s 10% quota is going to be a legal  one which is twin barriers in the law-no reservations based on a person’s financial status and capping quota at 50%, which has been specified and approved by Supreme Court (SC). The NDA govt is is hoping to overcome both the barriers, First by introducing “ Economic backwardness” as a new criteria in Article 16(4) of the Constitution, which so far had recognised only social & educational backwardness for reservation. And second the SC had itself clarified that 50% cap applied only to quota for such classes and there could be ground for other reservation. The Constitutional Experts are very sceptical whether it will pass judicial test.

The funny part is that this bill was passed by Loksabha yesterday, and today it will be passed by Rajyasabha also. As the general elections are approaching, no political party will like to oppose this bill, as no one wants to antagonise the 50% of country’s population who falls under general category.    So lets us wait and watch whether this will pass the judicial process or not, but NDA govt played their card very well which took the opposition parties by surprise, and no party had the guts to vote against this bill, although outside they may be criticising the bill.

2.Income Tax Dept gives Rs 100 Cr tax notice to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi-as they had escaped incomes- over what was assessed-in year 2011-12 of Rs 155.41 Cr and Rs 155.96 Cr respectively.. These incomes are relating to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL). Both these Congress leaders had applied in SC against Income Tax dept for reopening their tax assessment, which SC had earlier allowed. P Chidambaram (PC) appearing in SC for them, said that the assessing officer without applying his mind came to arbitrary conclusion that Rs 141 Cr of her income relating to AJL escaped, as she did not declare it in filing her return. Rahul is also facing similar liability. Challenging reopening of the tax assessment in SC, PC said IT official decision     defies the common sense as the dept concluded she had escaped income of Rs 141 Cr for getting 1900 shares in Non Prifitable Organisation Young India (YI). PC argued that  his clients are under no legal obligation to disclose the details of acquiring the shares of YI, as it is a non profit organisation.

Friend you will remember that Congress from the party fund invested  few hundred Cr rupees in AJL for its revival, because AJL was the publisher of news paper National Herald which was founded by Congress, which never happened. But after some time YI which is supposed to non profitable organisation  is jointly acquired by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Oscar Fernandeds and YI  then takes over AJL, which is a loss making company. So by investing party fund  in AJL, Sonia , Rahul and Oscar benefitted, as AJL held real estate properties all over India , whose market value is more than Rs 500 Cr. IT dept is talking about this incident.

So by investing public money ( as in party fund  public contributes money),  Sonia, Rahul and Oscar became the owners of Properties worth Rs hundreds of Crores, and on top of it they never declared this while filing income tax returns.

Awaiting your comments/views/feed backs.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

9^th Jan 2019.