Act of God

Owing to the initial arrangement proposed by the GST council, to compensate the states for GST shortfall at the rate of 14% for 5 years, the centre now owes 3 Lakh Crore to the states. Of this amount, the Centre concurs that 97,000 Crore is of GST shortfall, and that they have no obligation to compensate the remaining amount (2.3 Lakh Crore) to the states, as it has all eroded, due to an act of god.

The jurisdictional squabble and allegations of partiality that gave way to GST has the spirit of co-operative fedaralism. However, on the suggestion that states must borrow the amount themselves for the shortfall, states rightly allege that centre is bypassing the constitutional structure to operate such as suits its need and convenience.

In other news, the economy has also contracted by 23.9% for the 1^st quarter. The gravity of the situation was best described by a govt. official who said “The contraction in the economy has also contracted the capabilities of recovering from the contraction, and this (other) contraction is the major cause of concern, because it could aggravate the contraction.”  

An interesting distinction must be made then in the abovementioned figure as to how much of the contraction is due to act of god, and how much of it is a result of poor policies at the Centre. Even before we focus on the lockdown, which proved to be more fatal to the economy than to the virus, we must understand the policy bias of the government towards the formal sector (and specifically towards those helming it), at the cost of informal one. From demonetization to poorly implemented GST, the disregard for cash run unorganized economy outside the fold of formal sector has contributed to the contraction. Yet the figure of 23.9 % is peddled as an act of god.

Media Trail

While Sushant Singh Rajput case has put to life the discourse around media trial, a different phenomenon is worth noting. The media is known to set up a court in their studios and be the judge, jury and executioner, but the courts too have started mirroring the media in recent times. Prashant Bhushan’s incident brings this bilateral transfer of methodological proficiency to light.

So that if we say broadcast media affects the judgment of court through manipulating public sentiments, the court also affects the media to initiate the course correction of such sentiments.  It is too early to say if judges of the court will start demanding evidences like the Arnab Goswamis of media demand justice, but if sessions of the court were televised and was put to same TRP parameters, the court will follow suit.

Maybe a tad less sensational Judiciary is a good idea, but in the presence of media that is modeled around sensation, such Judiciary will often have the likes of Arnab Goswami doing their work for them. In no time then, the public will be of the view of that Arnab does it better that the courts.  In that situation this new phenomenon will be the only arsenal with the courts, apart from the entire legal mechanism it has to shut the madness on television today. 

Fake News

Living with the belief that a certain tobacco brand (Navy Cut) causes more cancer than the other, and that AIIMS has put a poster at their entrance, warning people that they won’t be treated if they smoked the same, I realized that it is fake news only after I checked every entrance at AIIMS. Back in Patna, I never realized that it might have been a smear campaign by the competitors of the tobacco brand, but I was not alone of this view.

Fake news is not then a social media phenomenon; it is amplified and institutionalized by the medium and works out the same old smear campaigns for people, politicians, companies fighting each other for the market or the formative beliefs and preferences of their consumers, of which heresay are a major part.

Many then, like me will have to check every entrance of some hospital, to get to the truth. Many would learn to know who their leaders should be and that in lack of anyone worthy, they can be the leaders themselves, but to say that need for it all has arisen today is not correct; it is only more so needed today than in days when our leaders were the ones who got us independent, who derived their value from the Swarajya Movement. They hardly fought for our attention, our preferences, they never fought for unbridled power, and they never had to peddle fake news to achieve the same.