From The President

One of the seven social sins as enunciated by Mahatma Gandhi was “Politics without Principles”. In good old days, our political leaders led a principle centered or value based life. There was a time when Union Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri resigned from the cabinet owning moral responsibility after a railway accident. Jai Prakash Narayan, co-founder of Praja Socialist Party, quit the party in 1957 when he found that tickets were distributed on the caste basis and forging ahead to pursue Sarvodaya (good of all) and Lokniti (Polity of the people) as opposed to Rajniti (Polity of the State).

Today, food inflation is skyrocketing and our Agriculture Minister remains unperturbed. Farmers are committing suicide and Ministers are busy in Rajniti. The head of the Vigilance Commission (CVC) is under a cloud. Government is unable to declare names of the holders of secret bank accounts overseas. Accountability is nowhere to be seen. Punishment to culprits is illusory. Judiciary is our only ray of hope and the Supreme Court’s pointed questions over 2G scam, secret bank accounts overseas, CVC etc. have put the Government on the defensive. Despite the spate of scams and corruption charges hurled about, none of the Ministers resigned voluntarily.

The law and order situation has gone haywire. There is no safety for whistle blowers. RTI activists are being killed without compunction. On 25th January 2011, Yashwant Sonawane, Additional Collector Manmad region (Maharashtra) was burnt alive by the oil mafia. If this be the fate of a Collector, what about the amm aadmi and what can he expect at all?

An open letter written by 14 eminent citizens of India on 17th January 2011 aptly describes the present day scenario. They have amongst other things, expressed grave concern over the widespread “governance deficit” in every sphere of national activity, namely, government, business and other institutions. They have alleged that misuse of discretionary (decision making) power is widespread under extraneous influences. They have demanded urgent steps to arrest the “malaise of corruption, which is corroding the moral fabric of the nation”.

In Sanskrit there is a saying that “Yatha Raja, Tatha Praja” (meaning as is the Ruler so is the Ruled). Therefore, it is imperative that good governance should start from the top. People in democratic set up today think it is the opposite – as are the people so are its representatives e.g. the president/prime minister etc. forgetting that the primary quality of a leader is his being a role model. The entire Ramayana is written on this theme, and Rama consistently guarded his character lest it be anything less than perfection (Maryada Purushottam) – a role model. The Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitishkumar has set an illustration by first declaring his assets and then demanding others, his ministers and bureaucrats to follow suit.

We have a unique example of Mr. Narayanamurthy, a great visionary, who created an empire which has not touched him as the lotus remaining untouched by mud. His simplicity and governance are worth emulating. On 7th and 8th January 2011, members of BCAS and Karnataka State Chartered Accountants’ Association (KSCAA) visited the Campuses of Wipro, Bangalore and Infosys, Bangalore and Mysore as part of a study tour. The vastness of Mysore campus of Infosys and the world class training and other facilities provided therein widened the horizons of participants. It was amazing to see how one visionary with his enabling team could achieve in a single lifetime and that, too, without any strings attached. No wonder, companies like Infosys and Wipro have brought laurels to home. The participants of the study tour also visited the manufacturing facilities of Toyota at Bangalore. Thanks to CA. Padamchand Khincha who arranged these memorable events.

The results of CA Final are out and as usual, there is more remorse than elation notwithstanding the fact that the result percentage is now better than last time. The lack of formal coaching may well be the reason for the poor performance. The ICAI’s initiative to commence Live Virtual Classes at 25 centres in 22 cities across our country is indeed laudable.

I think we need to reexamine our present evaluation system which is more of a memory test. It does not matter how much a student works hard for the entire year; what really matters is that which he is able to reproduce at the examination hall. May be, the examinations prepare us to keep our cool/equilibrium during the critical moments of our life. What worries one is that a student scores 50 marks in a particular subject in one attempt but gets five marks in the same subject in the subsequent attempt –one is up against such an inexplicable result, naturally. Maybe, we need live with the present system until we find a more balanced and rational way of evaluation wherein performance of a student is reckoned over a period of time and not just in three hours. This is true not only of CA examinations but also of other examinations. As far as the CA curriculum is concerned, we all need to conjoin our minds and help ICAI in evolving a better system of evaluation. The problem has been identified and its solution cannot be late in arriving. I appeal to readers to send their suggestions in this regard to president@bcasonline.org.

The much awaited Residential Refresher Course (RRC) organised by BCAS was completed successfully at Matheran. More than 200 members participated. The concept of two parallel sessions, one on Service tax and the other on International tax elicited good participatory response. RRC Nostalgia – an audio, visual and live programme, on one of the evenings, kindled memories of the past RRCs. BCAS TV has been launched whereby members from far off places would be able to benefit from recorded videos, for a nominal subscription.

A number of activities have been planned in the next two months. BCAS has designated February 2011 as an “Internal Audit Month” wherein many programmes in the field of Internal Audit are scheduled. The idea is to equip our members in this important and emerging area of practice.

February is the month for presentation of the Union Budget in Parliament. The winter session was a wash out, with opposition demanding Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the 2G spectrum scam. Let us hope that Parliament would function meaningfully during the Budget session and transact various important businesses listed on its agenda, God willing.

Every year the fifth day (Panchami) of the Indian month Magh (this year it is on 8th February), being the first day of spring is celebrated as Saraswati Pooja day. Hindus on this occasion worship Saraswati – the goddess of knowledge, music and art. I pray that Maa Saraswati gives wisdom to all of us to work for the progress and betterment of our nation and humanity at large.