It is 48 full years since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, passed away on 27th May 1964. One of the top leaders of the Independence movement and the first Prime Minister, it was a usual debate in the early part of the 1960s, ” After Nehru, who?”. In fact, there was no clear answer from anybody. But it was the simple profiled Lal Bahadur Shastri who succeeded. Of course he did not reach back from his USSR tour and Indira Gandhi succeeded.

Jawaharlal Nehru was a socialist, but his ideas could not flourish as he surrendered his many ideas and thinking to the ‘Father of the Nation’, Mahatma Gandhi. But as Prime Minister, he realised the need of the country and started the Public Sector Enterprises for fast growth of the country. Insurance was nationalised. Large dams ( although at present it is termed as harmful to ecology)were constructed for irrigation, power projects etc. He was the joint architect of the Panchsheel. Of course, we had the hard experience of the suppression of the 1960 indefinite strike by his government, which he described as ‘Civil Rebellion’.

Now after almost 5 decades, whether the government headed by the same Congress Party don’t want to remember his memory with high level propaganda? Only a comparison with the high publicity given to former Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and that the low-level publicity given to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is  to be noted.

Is the UPA government trying to erase the memory of the period when the slogan was the ‘Socialist Pattern of Society’ so that the people will not compare the anti-people  ‘neo-liberal policy’ with the earlier line.

Many people do not know that many private banks are insisting for a minimum balance in the SB Accounts failing which the account holders will be penalised. In fact I was not aware till recently about this undesirable and anti-people condition. The issue has come up again in news.

There is, of course a condition that a minimum balance should be in the SB accounts of the Banks, but that is a small amount. In the Post Office SB Accounts it is minimal. In the State Bank of India and the Public Sector Banks it is also around Rs 250 or so. . However, there is no penalty or fine if the minimum balance is not there. Probably interest may not be calculated, but if the amount is very less, where is the question of interest.

But what is the stance of the private banks in this matter. Take the three major private banks, ICICI, HDFC and Axix Banks for example. Their condition is that a minimum of Rs. 10,000 should be in the SB Accounts in 5,000 in rural areas.(For Axis Bank it is Rs. 2500 in rural area). Penalty for non-maintenance of minimum amount varies from Rs. 350 to Rs. 750.

Is it that these private banks want only the rich to start accounts in their banks? Is it that they are disdainful of the ordinary people of this country who cannot keep a minimum of Rs. 1,0000 or 5000. And they will impose penalty also? So a person in whose account the amount goes down from Rs. 10,000 or 5000, there will be no money left after a few years in the account, leave alone the interest for the balance.

The Finance Ministry should intervene and put an end to this injustice.

The Committee  appointed to discuss and take decision on the allocation of the naural resources of the country, headed by former Competition Commission Chairman Ashok Chawla  has submitted its report to the government some time earlier. The committee has been appointed in view of the serious allegations and corruption that have taken place during the last few years in allocation of spectrum, land, mines, water etc.

The Prime Minister met with his important Cabinet colleagues on 25th May and has directed the ministries to implement some of the recommendations. The Left parties have been continuously demanding that the natural rsources are being gifted to the corporates and big business for nominal payment and that this loot of the nations asset should be stopped. There has been no favourable response from the Government.

In the meanwhile the Anna Hazare Team has given a chargesheet to the government accusing 15 Ministers including the Prime Minister of being involved in corruption charges and demanding investigation.