We always believe in the concept of ‘customer is king’; this also implies that subject to conditions of state security, the Government should not take any measures that compromises on the choices available to consumers. Now, what does one make of Government attempts to protect the Indian Postal Department from the courier companies through imposing severe conditions on the courier companies. People make a decision to select courier companies vs. post offices depending on the convenience and cost. One major factor could be the willingness of courier companies to be much more flexible, including regular pickups of the required articles from the premises of the person wanting to send the letter or material. On the other hand, the Postal Department is more useful for its wide coverage, but not necessarily for its flexibility and convenience to customers (as many people could testify). Inspite of all these factors, the Government is trying to put in a bill that would limit the courier companies:
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By now, there are numerous cases where banks have indulged in force when trying to recover loans. In many cases, these measures have resulted in humiliation, injuries, hospitalization and sometimes even death of the person being hounded; banks typically claim that they are not responsible for the actions of these recovery agents. The RBI has been mostly quiet when all this has been going on; one would have expected the IBA (Indian Banking Association) to be quiet, but the RBI is the authority that has controlling authorities over all the banks in India, and one would have expected them to intervene. It is courts that have been taking the lead in acting against these recovery agents.
Now finally the RBI seems to have woken up. It says that it will issue a circular on November 15, that will impose a directive to banks to make sure that their recovery agents do not indulge in these kind of activities:
MUMBAI: Concerned over growing litigations against banks and high-handedness of recovery agents, Reserve Bank on Tuesday issued strong warning to banks to check such practices or be barred from engaging such services.
The Governor of Karnataka, Rameshwar Thakur, must be a most worried man. In this time and age, it is clearly understood that the Governor is the man of the Central Government, and hence in this case, the Governor would be seen to be acting in the best interest of the Congress. However, past judgments by the Supreme Court have severely bound the hands and feet of the Governor in terms of biased or arbitrary action. In fact, Karnataka is the home of the SC’s Bommai Judgment where the Supreme Court started setting ground rules for what the Governor can do and cannot do in cases of political uncertainity. This was then followed by the judgment in the Bihar case that singed the Congress Government, cost them a pliant Governor and also earned them black marks from the President who was for the first time castigated by the Supreme Court for non-application of mind.
Till a couple of days back, the Congress seemed to be in a superior position, with Deve Gowda refusing to support the BJP. The Congress could then work on willing JD(S) members, and eventually get enough numbers to escape the anti-defection act. The wily farmer saw this coming, realized that he was standing on the edge of political insignificance, and quickly swallowed his pride and went back to the BJP. And now that the MLA’s supporting the Congress’s white hope have fled in the pursuit of power in the hands of the BJP, the Congress is left with little options.