Unfair Mr Nandy

By Vijay Kumar

Tragedies produce the most unpredictable reactions. While Mumbai is slowly and bravely returning to normalcy, everyone has an opinion on what went wrong, what should have been done and what should be done. The most bizarre of these opinions unfortunately comes from a senior journalist Pritish Nandy. In an article in the Times Of India, Mr. Nandy wants Mumbaikars to stop paying taxes and to add insult to injury he invokes the name of the Mahatma. He says that Gandhiji would have personally led a movement to persuade people not to pay tax to a callous, indifferent government. Do we pay taxes after judging the Government’s performance? And if there is such a choice, will anyone pay taxes? Is anyone happy with the performance of the Government, anywhere? Forget India, will the citizens of the great countries which our Indian great intellectuals look up to, pay taxes if they have a choice of doing so after judging the government’s performance?

Mr. Nandy’s logic for the tax boycott is that Mumbai pays most of the taxes. According to him,

Mumbaikars are India’s biggest, most honest tax-paying community. Every year, they cough up Rs 58,000 crore as income tax.

We have no idea who gave that figure to Nandy but as per the Government records, the total Income Tax collection last year was Rs 48312 Crores. His other objection is that the money that goes from Mumbai vanishes into the dark holes of UP and Bihar, where vote banks need to be pampered.

Even in the hey days of ‘Mumbai for Mumbaikars’ there was no demand of Mumbai’s money only in Mumbai. If Nandy’s logic is accepted, no money should be spent in Kashmir from which we get hardly any revenue. And Mumbai does not exist in isolation. Strangely Nandy blames the builders of Mumbai for the recent calamity and his solution is non payment of taxes.

Mr. Nandy, as you party in Mumbai, there is a soldier guarding our borders in areas where a blade of grass will not grow and from where you don’t get a paisa of tax. You are able to have a nice time in Mumbai and pay all the huge taxes, because of that insignificant soldier and millions of other unknown Indians, who make your life possible. It is really unfortunate that a senior journalist has called for non-payment of taxes. In any case if anybody follows the advice of Mr. Nandy he is bound to get into trouble and at that time may be Mr. Nandy will write another strong piece.

JAB DESH ME THI DIWALI
WO KHEL RAHE THE HOLI
JAB HUM BAITHE THE GHARO ME
WO JHEL RAHE THE GOLI