| Vol. VI, No. 14 Kartik 27, 2009, November 17th, 1952 Four Annas. Air-/4/6 |
The Parliament has moved to tax the property of the dead, before the same is inherited by the living. Since the incidence of the tax would fall on those who have not earned it, it would impose a minimum of suffering on the taxed and would, in the respect, be ideal. We welcome the principle of the new tax proposals.
The modern state is essentially a multi-functional institution. The very nature of modern life compels even free enterprise states to a sume more and more functions to keep even free enterprise going. Functions need finances for their performance. This country can be no exception to this general but inexhorable law.
An even bigger consideration is the socio-political necessity of reduced inequalities. In a society where customary obligations of wealth stand abrogated, the case for large accumulation has no moral or social sanctions. The social foundations of property are badly eroded. The state has to adjust class and social relations to correspond to the ideas of equity held by the generality of the people. Today, the only permissible limit to taxation is the higher necessity of keeping production undamaged by it.
The finance Minister has given the assurance that the measure shall not be allowed to act as a detonator of the institution of joint family. His references to the joint family institution as the savior of the country during the bottomless depression of the thirties were a worth tribute to a worthy institution. We welcome this his assurance and hope that the Dayabhaga families would be considered on par with the Mitakshara ones in this respect. Refugees, as a class, deserve special solitude. On no account must their decimated properties in Pakistan be subjected to this rich man’s tax.
| Somnath Scandal Swindle & Sacrilege (From Our Correspondent) A Regime specializing in scandal has succeeded in making a scandal of even the holiest of our holies-Sacred Somnath. All construction work at Somnath has come to a stop there is no money! Rs 8 Lacs lost Sardar Patel collected a sum of Rs 28 lacs for the propose. RS 12 lacs were held in reserve for the Sanskrit Pathshala etc. Rs. 16 lacs were available for the temple building. Today Rs 8 Lacs alone are left. The remaining Rs 8 lacs have been spent. And what have they constructed to spend it? One solitary room with the commonest Saurashtra stone! The deity is held within a miserable wooden railing and the sacred bull of Shiva is lying in the open! Will the semi-official board of trustees explain to the outraged public what the hell happened to the money. With in a stone’s throne of this caricature of a Somnath is going up another temple—a private Jain one. Twenty times bigger, and built in marble, reminding of the glory that is Dilwara, it is being completed at a cost of Rs 7 lacs only. And here Rs 8 lacs for a single, simple, wretched room! I refuse to believe it could cost even RS 50,000. Whip’em in public More heinous than this swindle is another crime to the authorities. Believe it or not but the ancient monument, desecrated and reconstructed Seventeen times, has at last been razed to the gound by the authorities! How and why it was necessary to touch the old, historic and hallowed monument passes comprehension. A unique national treasure was to us lost to posterity. When local people protested against the proposed demolition, the authorities rushed with the act to Forestall any organised opposition.” Who authorised the Archaeological Department to permit this diabolical destruction? They who perpetrated this vandalism deserve to the publicly whipped. |
More than imposing fresh taxes today it is the duty of the Government to first restore its various agencies to health and honesty. If these obtain, all would be well. Without them the best intention would easily deteriorate into worst iniquities. Here more is involved than mere taxes. It is a test of the quality of the government.
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