Dear FM, Please remove customs duty on Imported Books

As a compulsive book-buyer and an avid book-collector, I strongly protest the imposition of customs duty on imported books. Earlier, it used to be Nil duty on imported books but now we have to pay five per cent. This is quite absurd and ruinous for those who love books and share knowledge. One of the greatest good that India's first Prime Minister Nehru did for our country (himself being a book-lover) was that he said NO to imposition of even Sales Tax on books. Because he felt knowledge should move seamlessly and cross borders and nobody should think twice about buying books. Books never attracted sales tax or any other indirect tax. If the NDA government thinks that books should also follow the MAKE IN INDIA doctrine, it is making a grave mistake with regard to knowledge acquisition in particular, and book-buying in general. As it is, most books now imprinted by global publishers like Random House, Hatchette and Bloomsbury follow the simple INR pricing model where global titles are assumed at a static foreign exchange conversion rate. This is because these publishers play on large volumes which ensure the absorption of royalty to foreign authors, a higher currency rate etc. Imposing customs duty and getting GST through the backdoor on imported books will eventually hit Indian publishing industry growing at 30 per cent annually and is the second-largest in English-speaking world. Publishers like Pearson, Cambridge, Oxford etc have so many reciprocal arrangements with concessional pricing in South East Asia with India as a major hub - now a lot of that trade will shift out of India. That makes educational books a tad costlier for Indian students as well. Only an uninformed and short-sighted policy maker will take such an extreme step of bringing books under customs duty and nipping a booming book trade in the bud  - at a time when paper costs are high and digital trends are disrupting many publishers out of business. Getting customs duty on books is also a gross violation of a constitutional commitment that Jawahar Lal Nehru made  - never to tax books. You can tax imported items like Gold, liquor, cigars and cigarettes, even petrol and diesel, but please do not tax books and get GST through the backdoor. Start thinking like a knowledge-worker and do what it takes to create a knowledge-economy. Otherwise we will only be reading the glorious books of the past and history books. By the time you read this post, there will be a knowledge-intensive imported book that is waiting to be opened in the container ship in India or so many new imported books just released for purchase on Amazon.

 #CustomsDutyonImportedBooks #ImportDutyOnBooks #GSTonBooks #NehruVsModi #KnowledgeSociety #KnowledgeEconomy #IndianPublishing

"Shahid" (Hindi) Film Review

                            

"Shahid" is a gutsy film made way back in 2012 and showcased at major international festivals in Toronto, etc. like "LunchBox". It's quite surprising that the film found no takers until Anurag Kashyap and Ronnie Screwala (UTV) lent their producer's label. Director Hansal Mehta must be congratulated for making an impactful film on the tragic life and times of Shahid Azmi. 

The story is well-written by Director Hansal Mehta and comprehensively nuanced. Shahid Azmi (played by Raj Kumar of "Kai Po Che" fame) is a tale of a muslim caught in suspicion of terrorist-nexus. He actually joins a camp in Kashmir but runs away from the brutality of the camp. Lands in a prison, meets inspiring leaders from Kashmir of liberal background who wean him away from jihadi influence in the jaiil.Shahid is inspired by Kay Kay Menon, one of the Kashmiri leaders, to study so the years will fly. He gets an informal education in liberal arts in the prison walls. He comes out on bail with help of Kay Kay. He pursues law and becomes a lawyer starting off with low-end law firms bristling with under-paid colleagues and unethical practices - such as backing a wrong horse and without the right cause. Shahid decides to practise on his own, his first case is of a young and beautiful widow played by Prableen Sandhu who is fighting for custody of her property in a dispute of estate created by an intestate will. His next case is a case of a muslim booked under TADA for allowing a friend to use his laptop for terrorist activities.

 Shahid wins both cases, succeeds in wooing the beautiful widow and marrying her. Shahid's career zooms and is seen as a flag-bearer for the causes of exonerating innocent muslims from victimhood by the nexus of State-Police-Judiciary whenever a terrorist attack happens. From the Ghatkopar blasts of 1993 till the Taj Hotel attacks of 2008, Shahid Azmi succeeded in 17 acquittals by taking up cudgels for those who are wronged and not the wrong-doers. In the end, media attention, intolerance by adversaries at the growing stature and elements of society who sense a conspiracy and a criminal pattern in his battles abridge him forever. Three men call him to discuss a case at unearthly hours and shoot him to death. 

That's a long story in a blazing canvass of visuals limited to business-like expediency of court-matters which leave little to imagination. In 129  minutes, director Hansal Mehta shows us a credible real-life character played with alacrity and poise by Raj Kumar as Shahid. Raj Kumar plays the role perfect giving us a feel of an ordinary lad who grows in stature, outgrowing the frustrations of being discriminated against as a minority, navigating the labrynths of law to keep the right people out of clutches. Raj Kumar shows all the shades  - composure, mental agility, frustration, impulsiveness and opportunism. His poker face can hide a billion thoughts crossing his mind but the emotions can only come out as per the director's cut and the camera's angles. All other characters play their part well especially Kay Kay Menon and Prableen Sandhu. One wonders why we don't see Kay Kay often in films - as a consumer of cinema, we have a right to know why a versatile actor like Kay Kay gets the miss.

The film is taut and runs on a razor's edge at times raising meaningful debate about the rights of minorities caught up in the web of law where the needle of suspicion constantly points to them. The film shows the Indian judiciary in rare, authentic light as being reasonable, fair and diligent in its ruminations. The scenes of cross-examination are brilliant and the arguments by Shahid before the denouement is given by the judge are epiphanous. The only flaw in the film is the slow intro and the choice of cases - the angst of the police and of competent adversaries to Shahid was not skilfully handled. Could there have been a Type-I error (in Statistics, an acquittal that was "costly")? What was the impact of TADA on genuine cases? Who could have killed Shahid Azmi and what were the motives? Some questions linger on, even after the viewing. Nehru's ideals for minority protection have become an axiom for many politicians. His ideals were founded on a golden principle of assertiveness- that in any country where the majority is another religion, that need not assert itself but the minorities need a voice because they may feel apprehensive of fighting for their rights. This has greater relevance in matters of court - because the assertiveness of a majority can suffocate a minority struggling to find a voice, let alone raise it. To that end, "Shahild" is a bold experiment which needs to be widely watched. Even if it provokes your sensibilities to the rights provided by law, it is worth a view. My rating 4.25/5.

A lesser known fact about Lal Bahadur Shastri

Lal Bahadur Shastri also shares his birthday with Mahatma Gandhi, on October 2,as we all know. Even though he ruled for just over two years, it was one of the most eventful tenures for an Indian Prime Minister - the time when Pakistan fought a fierce war with us. 

A lesser known-fact was revealed by my father today at a dinner conversation as he was reminiscing those tough days of war-years circa 1965-66 (and I was not even born yet). He said India was short on food grains and was importing them from outside. USA had a notorious scheme called PL-480 which restricted the import of food grains by India especially because Pakistan was in a bloody war with India and the US tried its best to upstage us - thinking we could be bull-dozed as it was a new man after Nehru. But Shastri was short in stature, not short in size of thinking or easy to be bullied. He lashed out against US for exploiting the situation. He also realised that the food grains were not enough to feed India's millions; there is a food crisis at hand if all Indians were to consume three meals a day. He went on air to exhort all Indians to show their patriotism for the country in a much more dramatic manner than what today's Raghuram Rajan or Chidambaram would ever make to save dollars and import bills. He asked all Indians to make a supreme sacrifice: Miss A Meal once in a week. The savings combined with this single act of a meal saved will save India millions of import bill of food grains and also a national embarrassment. It worked, it seems. Except infants and aged, most people volunteered to miss a meal, even some restaurants closed down for one session a week, and it became a national cause that everyone loved to stand for in one of India's greatest food crisis. Today, we are reasonably self-sufficient in atleast 20 out of 24 varieties of food grains but those days, a measure like this which was more a request from a Prime Minister carried far greater response; it resonated because politicians like Shastri came up from humble origins and lived like farmers, simple, honest and out to make a difference to the country without amassing fortunes in benaami accounts. Shastri was a true leader who commanded a rare respect that only diminished with time in sync with the shrinking moral compass of today's politician leaders.

My father adds that the simple "Miss A Meal" became a rage at one time. He remembers a famous cartoon too which shows women at Beauty pageants parading with their respective country banners: Miss America, Miss Soviet Union, Miss England, Miss France and so on. When India's turn came, it was a woman with a banner which read "MISS A MEAL". Good night, friends and remember this soul whenever you remember Gandhi too. I hope we don't reach a situation when someone remembers Ravi Shastri more than Lal Bahadur Shastri. That will be tragic.

Lessons of 1962 Sino-Indian War: Have we learnt?

My dad has read every book there is to read on Indo-China War of 1962 (for that matter on every war!) which completes the 50th Anniversary today. According to his perceptible reading, India has never learnt any lessons for 50 years because despite the public outcry against Nehru after the humiliating defeat by China, it has yet to de-classify the Brookes Report (commissioned to study the wages of war). But primarily, much like the ill-famed Panchasheel policy of Nehru, there are five reasons why we lost the war to China:


1. A weak-willed Nehru's blind-bets on China's "peace initiatives".

2. Keeping Nehru's weak (first cousin) BrijmohanKoll as In-charge for war. He was so inept, my dad tells, he applied for "sick leave" when a full-scale war was on in Northeast. Which General-in-war want to be on "leave"?

3. A communist-at-heart Krishna Menon was our honorable Defence Minister during war - and he continued to blunder and get blindsided by China - until impeachment came his way.

4. Lack of preparedness in both skill, scale of weaponry and strategy - blundering after blunder, believing "headfakes" and "false alarms".

5. Wishful thinking, Utopian drams and Living on Mythical assumptions - that China can never attack India, that China is at the foot of Himalayas whereas India is on top of the mountain ranges, that we don't need to modernise or coordinate artillery and airforce, that we should retreat when outnumbered by the enemy (except the legendary Capt.Shaitan Singh).



According to my father, the real unexpected help to India came from two forces - one, the brave Nagas and other tribes in Northeast who never supported India at other times rallied behind the Indian Army in their weak battles with Chinese and two, United States of America - John F Kennedy - who "big-brothered" Pakistan not to take undue advantage of the Sino-Indian War by simultaneously attacking from East and West Pakistan. (Pakistan obliged until 1965 and then 1971). So, the lessons are many but after 50 years, the country is owed a full de-classification on how we lost - honor and lakhs of hectares of sovereign territory - to a fellow BRIC nation. As my dad says, "It is clear the Indian psyche is so scarred that we know why we will never admit this defeat - and Nehru also cringed, collapsed and cut short his life by atleast 8 years."



Even JP Datta or Manoj Kumar never made films on this war because as Indians, we would rather flex our muscles against weaker military nations and show off our bravado. But if we are determined, focused and realistic in self-introspection, then we should re-assess our strengths and weaknesses in the military battlefield, equip better, pulverise our disempowering myths - and avenge our defeat in economical battlefields. Thats what progressive nations humiliated in war have done - examples, South Korea (crushed by Japan), Japan (by US), China (by Japan), and Germany (by Allies). All of them regained national pride. What about India? Remember this always, on Oct.20th.

Can today's Politicians beat Nehru's Prison Term of 1637 days?

Did you know that Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, who passed away today served a total prison term of 1637 days during the Freedom Struggle? Gandhiji would have broken more records in going to jail too as did many other stalwarts. And today, a prominent politician Jagan Mohan Reddy's arrest by CBI is being headlined in all TV Channels as earth-shattering news. Is going to jail so much fun? And for What? Can any Indian Politician in India ever be put behind in bars for so many days as Nehru or Gandhi did? I shudder to think whats happening to India Today.