THE FINANCIAL RESOLUTION AND DEPOSIT INSURANCE BILL, 2016

THE FINANCIAL RESOLUTION AND DEPOSIT INSURANCE BILL, 2016

FRDI has surfaced in the Social media recently, thanks to a petition through change.org.  It is only after seeing the petition that I realized that I have already missed the window for offering comment.  It seems that FRDI did not figure in the news media with the intensity and urgency that it deserved.

I have downloaded the draft and browsed through it.  I also had to go through Banking Regulation Act to see the provisions in this act relating to winding up of banking companies that will be deleted by the proposed FRDI.

It cannot be gainsaid that economy and banking are based mostly on trust which governments and banks are under an absolute obligation to maintain and bolster.  Anything that even scratches this trust can prove disastrous.

The aforesaid is the reason that Capital Adequacy norms under the Basel Agreement are being continually refined and enforced worldwide by banking regulators.  The underlying idea behind Capital Adequacy norms is simple.  Banks have to use statistical tools to gauge the risk of losing money in their loans and investments portfolios and then provide enough capital to cover these risks so that the risk does not extend to the depositors.  This tells depositors that banks and regulators are dead serious about the safety of their money kept in the banks and will not allow it to be risked.

RBI, the regulator for the banking sector, has taken these norms in right earnest and has mechanism for Risk Based Supervision RBS) in place.  RBS ensures that no banks ever reaches the brink where its liquidation has to be contemplated:  And if it does, it loses no more than its share capital. As against this, FRDI proposes to wait till the institution reaches the brink and then pounce upon it and even breach the trust on which the financial sector rests.

FRDI proposes to move this risk assessment function to a Corporation. This hardly makes sense.  This Corporation will have 11 members on its Board.  Of these 4 will be representing the four regulatory authorities (Banking, Insurance, Pension, Financial Markets.) The remaining seven will be bureaucrats and other government appointees.  RBI and its Risk Based Supervision are working fine and cannot be bettered by this Corporation.

This proposed Corporation seriously encroaches upon the turf and erodes the credibility of regulators who are best placed to gauge and manage risk in their specific areas.  Though, their autonomy may not be liked much by the political establishment.

The act is strewn with provisions that make depositors suspicious and uneasy.  Read the subsection 1.15.ii.  It goes like this: Deposit means ………. but does not include “any amount due on account of any deposit with any insured service provider which has been specially exempted in this behalf by the Corporation with the previous approval of the Appropriate Regulator or, by a notification in the Official Gazette.”   Thus the corporation may, in its bureaucratic wisdom, exempt FD or / and RDs through a notification.  By the time this notification comes to our knowledge, the money would be gone.

The dreaded bail-in that forms the subject matter of section 52, is defined as under.

52.3 A bail-in provision means any or a combination of the following: –

(a) a provision cancelling a liability owed by a covered service provider;

(b) a provision modifying, or changing the form of, a liability owed by a covered service provider

(c) a provision that a contract or agreement under which a covered service provider has a liability is to have effect as if a specified right had been exercised under it.

In case of depositors, these means that your account balance could be written-down or written-off straight away, or could be swapped for shares in the worthless bank!  I am not able to make out what the subsubsection c means.  I guess that for FDs it could mean that your right to premature payment could be exercised by the Corporation.

There is a saving grace, though, in the form of section 55.  The relevant portion reads as under:

55.2.b "only those liabilities may be cancelled the instrument creating which contain a provision to the effect that the parties to the contract agree that the liability is eligible to be the subject of a bail-in."

If the proposed Bill goes through, we can be sure that account opening forms of banks will include a fine print saying that this deposit is eligible to be the subject of a bail-in.  While big depositors may be able to negotiate this clause out, the same leeway may not be available to people like us.

If the Bill goes through, even the existing depositors may get a communication congratulating them and announcing that their deposits have been made eligible for a bail-in!

Further, the proposed Bill effectively does away with Deposit Insurance.  As banks pay premium for this insurance, in the unlikely event of a bank reneging on its deposits, the insured amount must be paid by the insurer from its own funds.  The depositors then have to salvage whatever they can of their deposit from the liquidation proceeds.  This bill says that the first thing to be recovered by the Resolution Corporation from liquidation proceeds will be the amount it has paid to the depositors under the insurance scheme!! (Sec 29.4)

Also section 55 (1b and 1c) puts depositors and other creditors on the same footing, whereas the deleted sections of the Banking Regulation Act clearly state that depositors have to have the first preference.

FRDI also seeks to replace common sense with red tape.  Sec 68.1.3 states that, “A depositor or operational creditor may submit a claim to the liquidator in such form and in such manner and along with such supporting documents required to prove the claim as may be specified by the Board.”  Whereas the Banking Regulation Act clearly stated that depositors need not submit any claim and the balance in the books of the Bank will be automatically taken as the claimed amount.  Well, red tape is the first thing to be brought in by a bureaucrat ruled organization.

To sum up, the following questions on FRDI needs an answer from the government:

•         Basel Accord on Capital Adequacy and the current Risk Based Supervision are meant to ensure that a bank never reaches a stage where depositors’ money is jeopardised.  If, at all, it has to be liquidated it must not lose more than its capital.  In this regime where is the need for FRDI?
•         The Resolution Corporation is a serious encroachment on Regulator’s turf.
•         How is the Resolution Corporation supposed to carry out liquidation or merger of banks any better than the Regulators when bureaucrats and government nominees far exceed the regulators’ representatives on its board?

PostScript: I think I got part of the answer!  The bill says at one place that the bail-in will be used not only to absorb residual losses after entire capital is lost, but also be used to recapitalize it so that it can become viable again.  So, the government wants depositors to contribute their deposit towards share capital!

Fine Fifty Grands!

What is now known as a Dollar Shop, used to exist even in my childhood.  My contemporaries will recall itinerant vendors as also kiosks with a voice or poster tag of something like "Har maal milega 4 aane."  The tag translates to "Any item for 25 paise."

The government seems to have seen taken a fancy to this style of selling.  Only it is not selling anything but imposing fines.  As any government worth its salt has to think big, the uniform fine is not for a piffling dollar or 25 paise but a grand ₹50,000, roughly $800!  Here are some of the fines on the list:

• Rs 50,000 fine for dumping waste within 500 metres of Ganga,
• NGT orders Rs 50,000 fine for dumping waste into Ganga,
• ₹50,000-fine for plastic ban violation,
• Fine flight caterers Rs 50,000 if their vans lack rodent repellents,
• 5 year Jail-time, Rs 50,000 fine for doctors involved in cut practice,
• Up to Rs 50,000 fine for holding old notes,
• Rs. 50,000 fine for airlines if planes empty human waste on air,
• traffic violations: Rs 50,000 fine for Holi drunken brawls,
• Rs 50,000 fine on disposing of construction material on streets

(To know more about any of these fines, just copy the item and paste it into the Google search bar.)

While I am not aware how will the act of an airline in disposing off human waste in the air be detected, I am not much worried about it for the airlines can easily afford to pay the fine.

Many of these fines are applicable to individuals too, and are to be paid on the spot. Most of the violators are not likely to have that much cash in their possession notwitstanding newly issued notes of ₹2K denomination.  Many wouldn't even have that much balance in their bank account or the credit card limit.

This opens up a new business opportunity for the banks.  They could enter into an arrangement with the government on these lines:

• The person fined 50K has to be Aadhaar verified on a terminal carried by the official imposing the fine.
• The fine is to be debited to his bank account linked to Aadhaar.  If the Aadhaar is not linked to an account, the fine is to be doubled and the culprit given a week to get the linking done and present himself before the fining authority.
• Any overdraft in the account or the credit card on account of payment of the fine is to be converted into a loan payable in 50 monthly instalments and to carry interest at a rate to be notified by the government from time to time.
• Any default in payable of an instalment to result in an automatic fine of ₹50K payable to the bank in the manner described above.
• If the total fine payable by a citizen leads to a situation of insolvency all his assets to stand automatically transferred to the bank.

Though this looks like an excellent scheme to me, some banker friends feel that it will not translate into business because of the LDKRD# factor.  In their opinion the LDKRD rate may stabilize somehwere between 10 and 20 percent. What is your opinion?

# Le De Kar Rafa Dafa

DIY - What A Relief!

When I bought my split AC, the salesman took pains to drive the point home that the installation and three services during the first year were free.  Two months later, I called the customer care and could manage to reach a human being after navigating the labyrinthine IVR menu.  He first confirmed all my contact details and then confirmed the model and month of purchase before registering my request for service.

It was only after the service technician arrived, almost at lunch time, that I could find a link between the prohibitive cost of the AC and prohibition!  The chap informed me that the three free services will consist of two 'dry' and one 'wet' service.  Being curious, I asked him, against his advice, to do the wet service first.

After the fellow had put his bag down and taken a good look at the AC, he asked me for the original invoice.  Having inspected it, he inquired if there was a stepladder in the house, which was duly brought.  He climbed up, took off the front cover of the indoor unit and handed it to me with a request to put it down carefully.  Next in the list of ever unfolding demands, he asked for a bowl of soap water, a toothbrush, two pieces of cleaning cloths.  By the time he finished, the white floor tiles directly below the unit had become quite a mess.

Once he was done with the room unit, he carried the stepladder to the outdoor unit and asked for a water hose and a piece of string to tie to the nearest tap.  Not finding the tap pressure good enough, he asked me if there was a pump and a direct tap.  He was shown the tap, and the motor was switched on.  After he finished, the wall on which the unit was mounted and the floor below it had become pretty dirty.  When pointed out, he did spray some water on the wall to wash it.

It must not be difficult to visualize that instead of watching and enjoying the free service, I was kept on my toes all along.  Finally the fellow got his service report signed and stepped out.  He had barely started his motorcycle when my household help came to me and conveyed her displeasure at having to clean the floor once again.  She also recommended that next time I should call the technician early in the morning before her arrival.  I was pretty exhausted.

It was pretty late by the time I recovered and sat down for my lunch.  The lunch did help to somewhat lift my sagging spirits.

And it was at this point that I resolved to service my AC myself (DIY - Do It Yourself,) free services notwithstanding.  I have been doing a pretty good job of it and I always do it early in the morning to avoid the wrath of my maid and delayed lunch.  It is such a huge relief.

The EVM Rigmarole

The current EVM challege makes a travesty of security testing.  It is surprising that nobody from the IT security arena is speaking up.  If the charges levelled by the opposition are true, one can be sure that a compromised machine will never be brought to the challenge.  If the EVMs were dumb terminals connected to a central server, then testing the server might suffice.  In the current distributed scenario each single machine needs to be tested for integrity.  How will the challenge ensure this?

I do not know whether EVMs were custom made to EC's specifications or just generic machine purchased off the shelf?  In either case, did the EC get the source code and security features examined by any experts?  How would the EC know if the motherboard or the stored program was changed in a set of machines by unscrupulous maintenance people?

In my humble opinion the correct way of ensuring correct functioning of EVMs should be as follows:

1. There should be a single executable running on all EVMs and its source code should be with the EC and also in the public domain.
2. Each political party should be given a copy of the compiled executable code.
3. All EVMs should have an USB port and connecting a pen drive should trigger a program to prompt the user to enter filename for comparison with the stored executable.
4. Each party should give its booth workers an USB with the correct executable and a couple of random files.
5. A willing worker at any booth should get an opportunity to test the machine by inserting the USB and comparing a few random files and the correct file with the resident executable.

This, of course, is only indicative and not exhaustive.

Views of IT experts are invited in the matter.

To Treat Or Not To Treat

I wrote about the sad demise of my cousin in my last post. The trauma faced by his family during the brief period between diagnosis and his death was painful indeed.  The diagnosis was metastasized renal cell carcinoma.

He contracted cancer for the first time five years ago. It was a growth in one of his kidneys. The kidney was removed and all neighboring lymph nodes cleaned by the surgeon. He recovered and started leading a normal life. Periodical followups were satisfactory and went on for three years. He was declared cancer free. Normal life, with his normal ailments of diabetes, hypertension and enlarged prostate, continued for one more year. In the fifth year he developed another problem. He started having bouts of dizziness and losing balance while walking. This was initially thought to be vertigo. He was also diagnosed with CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.)  However the haemo-oncologist reassured us that it had nothing to do with his renal cancer.

Unfortunately, what was thought to be vertigo was later found to be a cancerous growth in the brain. Further investigations showed a growth in one of the lungs too.  Biopsy results showed that it was renal cell carcinoma that had metastasized to other organs.

My niece is a doctor and member of a WhatsApp group of doctors with varying specializations.  She consulted the oncologists in the group and they were almost unanimous that it will be best to stop looking for a cure and go for palliative care instead.  They estimated the remaining life span at 3 to 6 months. They also described the likely and frightening after effects of radiation and cancer medication. In their opinion the treatment, even if it succeeded in prolonging life, will also aggravate the misery. The alternative of palliative care was likely to ensure a relatively better quality of life for the patient for whatever span was left to him.  Needless to say that this group had no commercial interest in the matter.

My niece also spoke with some of the families that had lost an aged member to cancer.  All of them regretted having gone for the treatment and were of the opinion that the patient would have been better off without it even if it had meant a shorter residual life.  Much later, after we were in the middle of treatment, I learnt of the sad death of a friend; again due to cancer.  His wife sorely regretted having gone for aggressive treatment thereby prolonging and intensifying his misery.  She strongly advised us to ignore oncologists and go for palliative care only.

It was too stark an advice to be fully shared with the patient and those closest to him.  Carefully worded soft disclosures and hints at the alternative course led to a state of indecision.   The local medical oncologist insisted that the patient be put through entire regimen of treatment which could extend his life by an year or more. He ordered umpteen tests too.  Finally he prescribed radiation therapy for the brain.  The radiologist decided in favor of whole brain radiation instead of one focused on the tumor only.  As the family could not decide on the option of palliative care, my cousin, the patient, underwent 10 radiation sessions. He was also put on a heavy dose of steroids for the duration of radiotherapy.

The steroids did wonders to improve the patient's sense of wellbeing and he sailed through radiotherapy without much visible adverse effects.  Though, hair loss did start by the end of the therapy.  We thought that those advising against radiation were a bit of alarmists.  Thereafter steroid was gradually withdrawn leading to progressive worsening of condition.  Next the cancer drug Votrient was started.  Oncologists in my niece's group again advised against it.

The attending oncologist had prescribed the maximum dose of 800 mg.  However in view of the concerns expressed in online consultations, it was decided to reduce the dose to 400 mg.

From here it was downhill all the way.  Many of the after-effects of radiation started showing.  Votrient seemed to do little to slow down the growth of the cancer while it aggravated the downfall.  The patient suffered from hypersomnia (sleeping most of the time,) severe weakness in limbs and loss of control over bladder and bowel movements.  Other complications like urinary tract infection (UTI) and thrombosis developed and required hospitalization for treatment.

No improvement was noticed even after a month of taking Votrient and other treatments for infection and thrombosis.  The doctor finally decided to stop Votrient for a few days and we prevailed upon him for discharging the patient.  We made arrangements at home for administering intravenous drugs, started using adult diapers and finally arranged an oxygen kit too.  In the last two-three days the patient stopped interacting with people altogether, ate very little, was extremely restless and his limbs were trembling all the time.  He died in the wee hours on 18th April, nearly three months after the metastasized cancer was detected for the first time.

All of us are convinced that it would have been far better to go for palliative care.  We were told that such care could be given by a normal MD to relieve symptoms and pain and steriods could be given to impart a sense of wellbeing.  In this scenario there was little sense in considering the long term adverse effects of steroids.

My niece's husband, a doctor himself, summarized the whole thing quite succinctly.  He said that the family could not bring itself to accepting the sane advice of putting the patient on palliative care; and that any other family that was unfortunate enough to consult us in this matter, would surely ignore our own advice based on our harsh experience.  In the choice between quality of life and painful longevity, howsoever little, the latter, unfortunately, always seems to prevail.  And thus the practice of oncology goes on.

I have a feeling that all practicing oncologists treating a patient advanced in age and suffering from metastasis, should be mandated to compulsorily offer the second option of palliative care only.  Few do so currently.

My cousin Late Sri CB Upadhyaya (1947 - 2017)

Since Chandra Bhal bhaiya was the eldest amongst all the brothers / cousins, we used to call him Badke Bhaiya.  I will use the abbreviation BB to refer to him.

BB did his Masters in Maths from Allahabad University and was married off at a rather early age.  He served as a teacher for a short while before joining the Central Bank of India as a clerk.  He rose to the rank of a DGM by the dint of hard work and he richly deserved the position.  Though he worked in operations most of the time, he did two stints in the training division.  In the second of these, he headed the Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala Bankers Training College at Mumbai.  I think that given the opportunity, we Upadhyayas are hardly able to resist the urge to take up our hereditary profession of teaching!  Now that BB is no more, many of his colleagues from the Bank recall how knowledgeable, reliable, upright and incorruptible an officer he had been all along.

BB played the role of an elder to all of us with great love and affection.  Whenever the family had to congregate, be it a joyous occasion or otherwise, BB would invariably show up with his family in tow, and take charge as an elder.  Often he had to travel long distances to do so.  And he did that despite his younger daughter being a spastic child.  His presence was always so reassuring! He never demanded any special arrangements for himself and was ever so composed, calm and serene.  None of us have ever heard him raise his voice and his office colleagues too agree on this.  He was the binding force that kept the extended family together.  The mantle has now fallen on the next sibling whom we affectionately call Majhle Bhaiya.

He was an ardent devotee of Hanumanji, our family deity.  With advancing age some of us started going easy on traditions and religious matters.  But BB stuck to the faith and traditions and kept the family from drifting too far away from these anchors.

BB was fond of reading fiction and a great connoisseur of music and had a huge collection of albums.  He especially loved ghazals and bhajans and enjoyed listening to radio broadcasts too.  His elder daughter works with Aakaashvaani and often brought him rare gems from their archives, much to his delight.

He was very attached to his younger daughter and because of her disability he himself had developed a sedentary lifestyle.  He had had Diabetes and high BP for a long time. Despite these he lead a healthy life till and a few years past his retirement.  He was 65 when he was diagnosed with renal cancer.  The tumor was removed and subsequent periodical checks showed him to be free from cancer.  It was five years later that the dreaded disease made a reappearance.

It all started with a problem that was first diagnosed as vertigo but later discovered to be a tumor in the brain.  Investigations showed that the renal cancer had metastasized to brain and lung.  Radiations and medicines didn't help and he lasted less than 3 months after the diagnosis.

The whole family sorely misses and fondly remembers him.  May his soul find salvation that he richly deserves.

An Obituary

This is an obituary for my brother-in-law (bahnoi) Sri Prem Narain Pandey who passed away on Sunday, the 2nd April, 2017.  He was on his regular morning walk when he was hit by a speeding Activa.  We later learnt that the driver was an youngster.  He was, perhaps, trying to overtake a heavy vehicle from its left and revved up and hit Mr Pandey with massive force.  The force broke both of his legs, one of his arms was slashed through by the iron fencing runnind alongside the shoulder of the road and the back of his skull was broken.  He died on the spot.  A most unfortunate death for a person so full of zeal, in very good health and enjoying his retired life to the fullest.

All of us are unique in one way or the other, but Pandeyji was known for certain qualities that are rather rare amongst us Indians.  He was an Electrical Engineer and got employed in the far away state of Mizoram and spent his entire working life there.  He worked with the Electricity board, a department of the state government.  Electricity Boards all over India don't rank very low when it comes to corruption.  Pandeyji was truly like a lotus in the muddy waters of the Board.  He was honest to a fault.  Not only he did not accept any bribes, he never allowed personal use of his official vehicle even by his wife - my sister.  Sons of soil in Mizoram are exempt from Income Tax.  At the time Pandeyji joined the board there were very few outsiders working there who were liable to pay tax.  There was no TDS and many outsiders took undue advantage of a weak Income Tax presence in the state, but not Pandeyji, never!  Mizoram is a rather small state and though some thought that he was an eccentric, his honesty and professionalism became legend and were known not only to the power ministers but even to the chief ministers of the state.  And it was respected by them too.

Pandeyji once  confided to me that as he progressed in his career he became a little disillusioned.  He would find that despite his personal squeaky cleanliness, the subordinates continued in their ways.  At times he was very sad when he had to acquiesce to decisions that he didn't think were in the best interests of the department or the state.  He had to do so under tremendous pressure from the very top.  He told me that once some new contractor, who perhaps didn't adequately know his background tried to bribe him.  He said to the contractor, "You see, it is not that I can't do with some more money.  Nor is my personal honesty making much difference.  But I have built up a tremendous reputation for myself and have an overly sensitive conscience and there is no way I can even think of hurting them."

He was very reclusive and an introvert.  He enjoyed and relished solitude.  He used to say that I was one of the very few persons whose company he enjoyed and I feel honored in that.  His demise is a personal loss to me in more than one way.

Pandeyji retired a few years earlier than my sister who was a professor of maths in Aizawl.  He moved to Lucknow a little more than an year before my sister retired.  He carried a recipe book with him that he had himself penned down after learning the recipes from my sister.  He could cook excellent meals though he had never done cooking earlier in his life.  And though he missed the company of my sister, he thoroughly enjoyed the solitude and had his new home organized in an excellent way by the time my sister retired and joined him.

He was finicky about punctuality.  He had a strict schedule that he followed all his life and wanted people to be just as punctual.  At times he refused to entertain people who took punctuality very casually.

He had an excellent self-control.  He used to smoke occasionally, chew paan, and even enjoy a rare drink. But he wasn't addicted to any of these and could and did give up any or all of these for extended periods.  He was a light eater and maintained a very healthy weight till the end of his life.  Though a man of very limited needs, he was a real connoisseur and appreciated quality in whatever he used or consumed.  Whenever he gave me a gift it was invariably of the highest quality available.

He never developed a taste for modern IT gadgets and stuck to the print versions of books, magazines and newspapers.  He was an avid reader, used to gift me books and give me cuttings from newspapers and magazines.  His choice of the material that he regularly gave and our subsequent discussions clearly showed how deeply he studied all that he did.

All of his acquaintances, friends and family agree that none of us have ever met a person who was so well organized and methodical in his personal and professional life.  Just to illustrate the degree to which he organized his belongings and everything around him, I will narrate a recent incident.

Way back in 1990 my wife had suffered a severe bout of sciatica and finally got some relief from an Unani medicine prescription that was obtained by Pandeyji from his uncle who claimed to have been cured by it.  Recently, 27 years later, a family member enquired about a home remedy for her sciatica pain.  I could vaguely recall the names of the medicines.  My wife suggested that I check with Pandeyji.  I was skeptical despite being aware of his superhuman capabilities for storing and retrieving things and information.  I called him, he said he will call back.  And I couldn't believe it when he called 10 minutes later and said that he has been able to retrieve the prescription!!  Even in his office, if some information could not be retrieved from the huge office records, he could be relied upon to get details from the records he maintained personally in his office.

He used to miss Mizoram where he had spent 4 decades.  He was full of praise for their social customs, the way church influenced all spheres of life in a very positive manner, and, of course, the excellent climate.  Though spiritually oriented he abhorred all rituals and orthodoxy.  This made him give a miss to many events in the family and some found his ways strange too.

He was an evolved man and if there are other universes where the consciousness migrates based on one's merits and degree of evolution, he must be in the highest one.  All of us down here will always miss him. Adieus, dear brother-in-law.

What winnable: Not even knowable!

I am writing this post on 13-Feb-2017 and will be casting my vote for Assembly elections on 19th in the Lucknow - East constituency.  Today morning I was chatting with my elder cousin and he wondered who are the candidates from the main parties in our constituency.  The only one both of us could immediately recall was the BJP candidate.  Well, unlike others, the BJP candidate and his organization have made some minimal efforts to reach out to the voters.  After scratching our heads for some time we could recall another name, that of the BSP candidate.  The name, Saroj Shukla, led to speculation about the candidate's gender.  As regards the SP candidate, no amount of scalp scratching helped.

So finally we decided to Google out the information using the free data on our Jio enabled phones.  BSP candidate's full name, Saroj Kumar Shukla, resolved the confusion that we earlier had about him.  And it was a surprise to find that SP had not fielded any candidate from our constituency.  It seems that this one has gone to their ally, Congress.  We found a few independent candidates and also discovered the existence of a few parties that we had never heard of.

Yes, there is a total lack of communication from our candidates.  They aren't using even the low cost channels like SMS and other sundry messengers.  But then it could be my DND subscription that is to blame.

What is clear is that there is no canvassing whatsoever from individual candidates: Well, at least, not in the urban areas.  All our inputs are either from televised rallies or the debates on TV channels.  If the rallies, which are a big public nuisance, could be eliminated the present scenario will represent a very low cost electioneering with costs far below the prescribed limits. Another desirable change in such a case would be to give some airtime to independents and nearly unknown parties too to level the playground.

As all canvassing is being done by party chiefs only, one fails to understand why the parties are fielding tainted candidates in the name of winnability.  People are focussing merely on the parties and not even looking at the candidates, (nor are the candidates looking to the public for winning.)

I think the time is ripe for implementing the suggestion that I had mooted earlier in THIS POST.

My cousin did point out that the scenario could be very different in the rural areas where perhaps bulk of the election expenses were being incurred.