31 December, 2011

‘WHY GODSE MURDERED GANDHI’: AN EYE OPENER!


Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead on January 30, 1948 by Nathuram Godse who did so because he was against his methods. Godse in his final address to the court explained ‘WHY I KILLED GANDHI!’ In my previous post on Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination, I pointed that Mahatma Gandhi and his ideas will remain in the hearts of the Generations to come and surely will! See, we have seen the negative side of Godse’s act, but, was he totally wrong on his part? The answer is ‘No’, he wasn’t! After the murder, Nathuram enjoyed certain popularity among the refugees, particularly the women, who had borne the brunt of the Partition atrocities. But on the whole, the population was angry with him.
Nathuram Godse was a follower of Gandhi in many respects, e.g. he was very active in organizing inter-caste activities involving the Untouchables. But he had come to decide in 1947-48 that the Mahatma had betrayed everything he had stood for. Indeed, Gandhi had declared that Pakistan would only be created "over my dead body", but when the hour came, the champion of fasts unto death did not try this pressure tactic to force Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of the Pakistan movement, to abandon his demand for Partition. Millions of people, mostly Hindus and Sikhs in West Panjab and East Bengal, felt confident that Partition would not take place because the Mahatma gave them that assurance; and they felt betrayed when he threw them to the wolves. Nathuram Godse worked in the relief operations for Hindu-Sikh refugees from Pakistan, many of whom had been raped or had lost relatives and he held Gandhi responsible for their plight on two counts. Firstly, Gandhi could have prevented Partition, or at least staked his life in an attempt to do so; this he failed to do, probably because he knew that Jinnah would not give in. This failure also cast a shadow over the earlier occasions when he had staked his life to pressure people into doing his bidding: it now seemed that he had only used this tactic with people who could be counted upon to give in, so that there had never been any real risk of having to fast unto actual death. 
Secondly, even after conceding Partition, a lot of bloodshed could have been averted by means of an orderly exchange of population, as advocated by the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, free India's first Law Minister: all Muslims to Pakistan, all non-Muslims to India. At the time, neutral British troops were still around to oversee such an orderly migration, and the psychological climate was ready for this lesser-evil solution. Instead, Gandhi and his appointee as Congress leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, refused to countenance this bloodless solution out of attachment to the multiculturalist ideal. The result was that a spontaneous partial exchange of population took place anyway, but under much worse circumstances: nearly a million people were killed.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can only conclude that this second criticism is entirely justified. In India, the Hindu-Muslim riots which were a regular feature of pre-Independence India have resumed. In Pakistan, the situation is much worse: the non-Muslim minorities are being terrorized and squeezed out, and in 1971, the Pakistani army killed perhaps as many as two million Hindus in East Bengal, the biggest genocide after World War 2. In total, more than 3 million people (only counting the mortal victims, not the far more numerous refugees) would have been saved if the Indian leaders in 1947 had had the wisdom to settle for the lesser evil of an exchange of population. By contrast, the first criticism, the one uppermost in Godse's mind, is less justified. It is unfair to blame the Mahatma for the Partition, considering that most other Congress leaders had endorsed the very policies which had led to the Partition, along with the Mahatma or even before his rise. The Mahatma's failure was, in fact, the failure of Hindu society as a whole. But in the charged post-Partition atmosphere, he was made to bear most of the responsibility, and forgotten were the services he had rendered to his people, to the Fickle-minded People!
The final straw after which Godse "could not tolerate this man to live any longer", was Gandhi's "fast unto death" to force the Indian Government to pay 550 million Rupees to Pakistan, and to force the Hindu and Sikh refugees in Delhi to vacate the abandoned mosques and Muslim homes where they had found shelter (this was mid-winter 1947-48, temperature close to freezing). The money was Pakistan's fair share of British India's treasury, but it was nonetheless a strange and unique event to see one country pay such a sum of money to a country which had just invaded it: Pakistani troops were occupying a large part of Kashmir (which had by then legally acceded to India), where they exterminated the entire non-Muslim population. This moral statement, that certain fairness standards are to be maintained even in wartime, was too much for Godse and a few companions. On 30 January 1948, he shot the Mahatma at the beginning of his evening prayer-meeting in Birla House, Delhi. 
The aftereffects of the Mahatma’s killing were even more disheartening, as the man who led a country of millions to independence just got a Memorial in return as Raj Ghat. His ideas were neither followed by the leaders nor by the people who gave him the name BAPU! This way, Gandhi's death brought the death of Gandhism as a political factor in India. It strengthened the position of people who used his name but were objectively the worst enemies of everything he had stood for!

25 December, 2011

WHY A WALMART IS NEEDED?



Few weeks ago, the Government from nowhere took a decision of opening up the retail sector for the Foreign Direct Investment i.e. FDI. The Govt. has got a wide criticism on their surprise decision of inviting Walmart, Tesco and France’s Carrefour to set their malls in the country. This looks odd and is definitely another self-destructing decision by the Government. Even the Opposition is surprised on the decision on FDI and they were not even aware that this is coming. See, the Government do reserves the right to make and implement the decisions, but the decision on FDI will affect the future of our country. The Government has not even consulted the Opposition. This looks really odd and creates some doubt in the mind on the credibility of this UPA Government.
Now the basic and the obvious question arises, ‘Why a Walmart is Needed?’ The Government has a vision that the FDI in Multi Brand Retail Sector will increase the inflow of the Dollar in Indian Economic System. And thus, the huge economic deficit which the Indian Economy in facing will come under control, or rather will decrease. More than 80% of the Crude Oil that we need is imported and is brought in dollars. But in India, the Petroleum Products made from it are sold in Rupees. The value of Rupee has decreased in the last few months. It is more than 53 at present which was well under 50 a year ago. So, the inflow of dollar into the Indian Economy will heal the wounds created by the heavy deficits which the Economy has got in the recent past.
The point here in the opposition of the decision on Walmart is that the countries which have adopted it are not in a very good position either. We are a democratic country and we liberalized our economy to the foreign investment in the year 1991, a very long time after we got the Independence, ‘WHY?’ Because we wanted the domestic retailers to prosper and avoided the risks of freeing the economy to the external(global) forces. Unfortunately, we have not gained anything by delaying the liberalization. There was a time when the BAJAJ Scooters had monopoly in the country and the waiting period for a scooter was 10 YEARS! It seems that the Government is trying to follow the path for development followed by the developed countries like the USA.
If we are trying to follow the path of development followed by the US, then we must keep in mind that the USA is thrice in Geographical Area as compared to us and the population there is one third of ours. So, the density of population there is very low as compared to India. I read an editorial in a newspaper in which the writer mentioned his personal experience on his tour of the US. A resident there told him that to buy even toothpaste; they have to travel 3 kms to the Walmart. The Walmart has destroyed the small retailers there. If this has happened in the US, why can’t it happen in India? It certainly ‘will’! Most of the products in retail Walmart imports from China. Indian markets are, at present, flooded with Chinese products. With the Walmart setting up in the country, this flood will not take long to become a Tsunami.
Indeed, it is not the case that everything will go against us if the decision on the FDI is implemented. It will help us in certain ways to climb up the ladder of development or rather to make a ladder to climb up. As I earlier said, the inflow of the dollars in Indian Economy will boost up the Industrial Production. A large portion of the Agricultural yield gets spoiled because of the lack of the warehouses and the cold storages and to build them we need money. Walmart will build its own warehouses and cold storages, so, in a way, this wastage will not take place and the farmers will be able to sell the entire yield as there will be demand.       
But, the risk we have is too much and to take a chance can well work against us, i.e. can divert us from the path of development. For now, the implementation of the FDI is postponed by the Government because of the wide criticism the Govt. has got from a farmer to a retailer, from the opposition to the Socialist Anna Hazare and the vast following he has. But, make no mistake; the decision on FDI is ‘DELAYED’, not ‘DROPPED’. The Government might have postponed it because they have to deal with the LOKPAL BILL in the current Lok Sabha and they don’t want to fight war on all fronts.
May God give the strength to the UPA’s ‘COALITION’ Government to fight this war. But, in the end, the Country should emerge as the winner.
AMEN!

The inspector in this add is doing the same work, the Walmart is expected to do. The Walmart wants only the best quality of food grains, fruits and vegetables. 

08 December, 2011

CENSORING THE SOCIAL NETWORK: Not Possible Says Facebook!



There is a popular phrase in Hindi which says,”JAB GEEDAD KI MAUT AATI HAI TO WHO SHAHAR KI AUR BHAGTA HAI,” which means that everything starts going wrong for a person when his bad time starts and he starts taking self-destructing decisions. This is what happening with the ‘Manmohan Singh & Co.’ or rather ‘Sonia Gandhi & Sons’ i.e. the Congress Party. First, Anna Hazare’s campaign proved fatal to the reputation of the Government. Second, the price hike. The recent price hike in the petrol price which proved to be heavy on the pocket of the Common Man, but, the Common Man of India has adapted himself to these blows by the Govt; he is a strong fellow, mind you! Third, the act of passing the Cabinet’s recommendation of implementation of the FDI(Foreign Direct Investment), for which the Government got wide criticism and ultimately, changed their decision. Four, the recent strange looking act of the Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, who, from nowhere, notified the Social Networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Google etc. to censor the posts of their users to make sure that there is no antisocial voice there and nothing is posted against the leaders or the religion. The Govt. or rather Mr. Sibal thinks that any antisocial activity on these social networking sites can seed civil unrests and can distract the people and their thinking.
See, on the social networking sites, it is in your hand whom to make a friend, what you want to see and from whom you want to see. If you are not fond of ideas of a person, you can simply hide him. The Freedom of Speech is our right. But, this is a clear case of constraining our right of speech.
I heard an eminent cartoonist on a news channel saying that the social networking sites help the people get relieved of all their frustration on the Government by expressing their views on their network. He also referred a story in which a person employed in a company after his job hours goes to a graveyard and remains there for half an hour and then goes to his house. One day his office mates follow him to see what he does there. What they found was amazing! He has kept a photo of his ‘BOSS’ there and goes there to give the photo a beat. This is what helped him get relieved of his frustration. The stubborn attitudes of the Government on the Lokpal Bill, which was supported by millions of people, the time and again hikes in the petrol prices, are all frustrating the common man. The social networking websites provide a platform for the common man to get relieved from the anguish by making a laugh of it. So, in a way, it helps the Government!
There are various other grounds on which we can compete with China which are very much feasible for us, then why are we trying to follow the unfeasible changes, that is censoring the social networking sites, the FDI (which is going to haunt us in long term). India does not have the capabilities which China has. They banned Google and launched their very own search engine. They have banned many social networking sites and replaced them with their own substitutes for them. In India, the democracy of ours disables the Government even thinking about it. 

04 December, 2011

Mahatma Gandhi’s Assassination: The Silence of January 30, 1948!

Mahatma Gandhi, a person that guided the path of freedom to the millions of Indians, a leader that raised his voice against the racism persisted in South Africa, a man who is known as the ‘Father of the Nation,’ was shot dead on January 30, 1948 by Nathuram Godse who did so because he was against his methods. In my last post, I wrote what he said in his last address to the court.
In first instance, one would say, he was an innocent person with all the reasons in the world to shoot Gandhiji. See, we Indians are fickle-minded people. We make a person hero today and make him a villain the next day. We are not bothered about the work he has done as a hero, but notices the work he might not have done. This is what happened recently with Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and a few other people involved in the India Against Corruption Campaign.
Nathuram Godse was born in a hindu family and according to him, had a free thinking unfettered by politics or the religion. He actively worked for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. He joined the RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession. To his final address to the court, one of the judges said that if the decision on his appeal was to be made by the audience present there on that day, they would have passed a ‘not guilty’ verdict with an overwhelming majority. Such was the impact of Godse’s final address.
In his address, Godse said that he killed Gandhi because he was against Gandhi’s blackmailing tactics of fasting unto death. He blamed Gandhi for the partition of India, which led thousands of people dead in the wake of religious unrest. Actually, it was the desires of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah to see themselves as the Prime minister of Hindustan which was not possible until unless the country gets partitioned. And ultimately, the desire of both the leaders fulfilled with the partition of India. Had any one of them dropped his will, the country might not have the bleeding wounds of partition and the communal riots afterwards. Jinnah expressed his desire before the Congress but, Jawaharlal Nehru fueled the already burning issues between the Muslim League and the Congress by saying that he will not accept Jinnah even as a ‘peon under his cabinet minister!’ So, if anyone is responsible for the partition, it should be Nehru not Gandhi. Gandhi was the one, who was against the partition and even had a fast opposing the same, but unfortunately, he didn’t succeed and one-third of Hindustan became foreign to us as Pakistan as stated by Godse in his address.
For a person who boasted of being an admirer of secularism and being against untouchability, killing Gandhi on the basis of his wrong perception of him being a favorer of Muslims, seems contradictory, doesn’t it! But, must say, he had a short political carrier, was a follower of the ideas of some of the legends of the country including Swami Vivekanand, Chanakiya, Dadabhai Naroji and even Mahatma Gandhi. So, the difference in opinion, was the reason for Gandhiji’s killing.
I must say, what he thought, he very clearly explained and those who got fond of his words should bear in mind the work done by the great man Mahatma Gandhi.



‘WHY I KILLED GANDHI!’- Nathuram Godse's Address to the Court.


Nathuram Godse was arrested immediately after he assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, based on a F.I.R. filed by Nandlal Mehta at the Tughlak Road Police Station at Delhi. The trial, which was held in camera, began on May27, 1948 and concluded on February10, 1949. He was sentenced to death.
An appeal to the Punjab High Court, then in session at Simla, did not find favour and the sentence was upheld. The statement that you are about to read is the last made by N. Godse before the Court on the May5, 1949.
Such was the power and eloquence of this statement that one of the judges, G. D. Khosla, later wrote, “I have, however, no doubt that had the audience of that day been constituted into a jury and entrusted with the task of deciding Godse’s appeal, they would have brought a verdict of ‘not Guilty’ by an overwhelming majority!”

WHY I KILLED GANDHI
"Born in a devotional Brahmin family, I instinctively came to revere Hindu religion, Hindu history and Hindu culture. I had, therefore, been intensely proud of Hinduism as a whole. As I grew up, I developed a tendency to free thinking unfettered by any superstitious allegiance to any isms, political or religious. That is why I worked actively for the eradication of untouchability and the caste system based on birth alone. I openly joined RSS wing of anti-caste movements and maintained that all Hindus were of equal status as to rights, social and religious and should be considered high or low on merit alone and not through the accident of birth in a particular caste or profession.
I used publicly to take part in organized anti-caste dinners in which thousands of Hindus, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Chamars and Bhangis participated. We broke the caste rules and dined in the company of each other. I have read the speeches and writings of Ravana, Chanakiya, Dadabhai Naroji, Vivekanand, Gokhale, Tilak, along with the books of ancient and modern history of India and some prominent countries like England, France , America and Russia . Moreover I studied the tenets of Socialism and Marxism. But above all I studied very closely whatever Veer Savarkar and Gandhiji had written and spoken, as to my mind these two ideologies have contributed more to the moulding of the thought and action of the Indian people during the last thirty years or so, than any other single factor has done.
All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores(300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India, one fifth of human race. This conviction led me naturally to devote myself to the Hindu Sanghtanist ideology and program, which alone, I came to believe, could win and preserve the national independence of Hindustan, my Motherland, and enable her to render true service to humanity as well.
Since the year 1920, that is, after the demise of Lokamanya Tilak, Gandhiji’s influence in the Congress first increased and then became supreme. His activities for public awakening were phenomenal in their intensity and were reinforced by the slogan of truth and non-violence which he paraded ostentatiously before the country. No sensible or enlightened person could object to those slogans. In fact there is nothing new or original in them. They are implicit in every constitutional public movement. But it is nothing but a mere dream if you imagine that the bulk of mankind is, or can ever become, capable of scrupulous adherence to these lofty principles in its normal life from day to day.
In fact, honour, duty and love of one’s own kith and kin and country might often compel us to disregard non-violence and to use force. I could never conceive that an armed resistance to an aggression is unjust. I would consider it a religious and moral duty to resist and, if possible, to overpower such an enemy by use of force. [In the Ramayana] Rama killed Ravana in a tumultuous fight and relieved Sita[In the Mahabharata], Krishna killed Kansa to end his wickedness; and Arjuna had to fight and slay quite a number of his friends and relations including the revered Bhishma because the latter was on the side of the aggressor. It is my firm belief that in dubbing Rama, Krishna and Arjuna as guilty of violence, the Mahatma betrayed a total ignorance of the springs of human action.
In more recent history, it was the heroic fight put up by Chhatrapati Shivaji that first checked and eventually destroyed the Muslim tyranny in India. It was absolutely essentially for Shivaji to overpower and kill an aggressive Afzal Khan, failing which he would have lost his own life. In condemning history’s towering warriors like Shivaji, Rana Pratap and Guru Gobind Singh as misguided patriots, Gandhiji has merely exposed his self-conceit. He was, paradoxical as it may appear a violent pacifist who brought untold calamities on the country in the name of truth and non-violence, while Rana Pratap, Shivaji and the Guru will remain enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen for ever for the freedom they brought to them.
The accumulating provocation of thirty-two years, culminating in his last pro-Muslim fast, at last goaded me to the conclusion that the existence of Gandhi should be brought to an end immediately. Gandhi had done very well in South Africa to uphold the rights and well-being of the Indian community there. But when he finally returned to India he developed a subjective mentality under which he alone was to be the final judge of what was right or wrong. If the country wanted his leadership, it had to accept his infallibility; if it did not, he would stand aloof from the Congress and carry on his own way.
Against such an attitude there can be no halfway house. Either Congress had to surrender its will to his and had to be content with playing second fiddle to all his eccentricity, whimsicality, metaphysics and primitive vision, or it had to carry on without him. He alone was the Judge of everyone and everything; he was the master brain guiding the civil disobedience movement; no other could know the technique of that movement. He alone knew when to begin and when to withdraw it. The movement might succeed or fail, it might bring untold disaster and political reverses but that could make no difference to the Mahatma’s infallibility. ‘A Satyagrahi can never fail’ was his formula for declaring his own infallibility and nobody except himself knew what a Satyagrahi is. Thus, the Mahatma became the judge and jury in his own cause. These childish insanities and obstinacies, coupled with a most severe austerity of life, ceaseless work and lofty character made Gandhi formidable and irresistible.
Many people thought that his politics were irrational but they had either to withdraw from the Congress or place their intelligence at his feet to do with as he liked. In a position of such absolute irresponsibility Gandhi was guilty of blunder after blunder, failure after failure, disaster after disaster. Gandhi’s pro-Muslim policy is blatantly in his perverse attitude on the question of the national language of India. It is quite obvious that Hindi has the most prior claim to be accepted as the premier language. In the beginning of his career in India, Gandhi gave a great impetus to Hindi, but as he found that the Muslims did not like it, he became a champion of what is called Hindustani. Everybody in India knows that there is no language called Hindustani; it has no grammar; it has no vocabulary. It is a mere dialect; it is spoken, but not written. It is a bastard tongue and cross-breed between Hindi and Urdu, and not even the Mahatma’s sophistry could make it popular. But in his desire to please the Muslims he insisted that Hindustani alone should be the national language of India.
His ‘blind followers’, of course, supported him and the so-called hybrid language began to be used. The charm and purity of the Hindi language was to be prostituted to please the Muslims. All his experiments were at the expense of the Hindus.
From August 1946 onwards the private armies of the Muslim League began a massacre of the Hindus. The then Viceroy, Lord Wavell, though distressed at what was happening, would not use his powers under the Government of India Act of 1935 to prevent the rape, murder and arson. The Hindu blood began to flow from Bengal to Karachi with some retaliation by the Hindus. The Interim Government formed in September was sabotaged by its Muslim League member’s right from its inception, but the more they became disloyal and treasonable to the government of which they were a part, the greater was Gandhi’s infatuation for them. Lord Wavell had to resign as he could not bring about a settlement and he was succeeded by Lord Mountbatten. King Log was followed by King Stork. The Congress which had boasted of its nationalism and socialism secretly accepted Pakistan literally at the point of the bayonet and abjectly surrendered to Jinnah. India was vivisected and one-third of the Indian Territory became foreign land to us from August 15, 1947.
Lord Mountbatten came to be described in Congress circles as the greatest Viceroy and Governor-General this country ever had. The official date for handing over power was fixed for June 30, 1948, but Mountbatten with his ruthless surgery gave us a gift of vivisected India ten months in advance. This is what Gandhi had achieved after thirty years of undisputed dictatorship and this is what Congress party calls ‘freedom’ and ‘peaceful transfer of power’. The Hindu-Muslim unity bubble was finally burst and a theocratic state was established with the consent of Nehru and his crowd and they have called ‘freedom won by them with sacrifice’ – whose sacrifice? When top leaders of Congress, with the consent of Gandhi, divided and tore the country – which we consider a deity of worship – my mind was filled with direful anger.
One of the conditions imposed by Gandhi for his breaking of the fast unto death related to the mosques in Delhi occupied by the Hindu refugees. But when Hindus in Pakistan were subjected to violent attacks he did not so much as utter a single word to protest and censure the Pakistan Government or the Muslims concerned. Gandhi was shrewd enough to know that while undertaking a fast unto death, had he imposed for its break some condition on the Muslims in Pakistan, there would have been found hardly any Muslims who could have shown some grief if the fast had ended in his death. It was for this reason that he purposely avoided imposing any condition on the Muslims. He was fully aware of from the experience that Jinnah was not at all perturbed or influenced by his fast and the Muslim League hardly attached any value to the inner voice of Gandhi.
Gandhi is being referred to as the Father of the Nation. But if that is so, he had failed his paternal duty inasmuch as he has acted very treacherously to the nation by his consenting to the partitioning of it. I stoutly maintain that Gandhi has failed in his duty. He has proved to be the ‘Father of Pakistan.’ His inner-voice, his spiritual power and his doctrine of non-violence, of which so much is made of, crumbled before Jinnah’s iron will and proved to be powerless. Briefly speaking, I thought to myself and foresaw I shall be totally ruined, and the only thing I could expect from the people would be nothing but hatred and that I shall have lost all my honour, even more valuable than my life, if I were to kill Gandhiji. But at the same time I felt that the Indian politics in the absence of Gandhiji would surely be proved practical, able to retaliate, and would be powerful with armed forces. No doubt, my own future would be totally ruined, but the nation would be saved from the inroads of Pakistan. People may even call me and dub me as devoid of any sense or foolish, but the nation would be free to follow the course founded on the reason which I consider to be necessary for sound nation-building.
After having fully considered the question, I took the final decision in the matter, but I did not speak about it to anyone whatsoever. I took courage in both my hands and I did fire the shots at Gandhiji on 30th January 1948, on the prayer-grounds of Birla House. I do say that my shots were fired at the person whose policy and action had brought rack and ruin and destruction to millions of Hindus. There was no legal machinery by which such an offender could be brought to book and for this reason I fired those fatal shots. I bear no ill will towards anyone individually but I do say that I had no respect for the present government owing to their policy which was unfairly favorable towards the Muslims. But at the same time I could clearly see that the policy was entirely due to the presence of Gandhi.
I have to say with great regret that Prime Minister Nehru quite forgets that his preaching and deeds are at times at variances with each other when he talks about India as a secular state in season and out of season, because it is significant to note that Nehru has played a leading role in the establishment of the theocratic state of Pakistan, and his job was made easier by Gandhi’s persistent policy of appeasement towards the Muslims. I now stand before the court to accept the full share of my responsibility for what I have done and the judge would, of course, pass against me such orders of sentence as may be considered proper. But, I would like to add that I do not desire any mercy to be shown to me, nor do I wish that anyone else should beg for mercy on my behalf. My confidence about the moral side of my action has not been shaken even by the criticism leveled against it on all sides. I have no doubt that honest writers of history will weigh my act and find the true value thereof some day in future.”

Source:

01 December, 2011

'Corruption in India'... or 'India in Corruption'!



Corruption, in the last few years one has heard this name so many times that even a child can explain it with examples(... :)..), what it is! This is unfortunate that after more than 60 years of independence, we find ourselves nowhere. On the other hand, our neighbor China is developing with a high rate. Indeed, comparing our development with the communist country is not fare as our concept of democracy has haunted us when it comes to development. But, you might have heard the story of the Rabbit and the Tortoise in which the Tortoise in-spite of being slow wins the race. But, mind you, this is not going to happen in our case.
'Our failure have come less from ideology and more from poor management'. India is always considered to be a country of nice and sweet people who will offer their other cheek if you slap one. This is our ideology, the thoughts we have got from our ancestors. The corruption in the country has witnessed a heavy toll in the past two-three years, thanks to the scams coming under the heading one after the other. The scales of these scams were even bigger. The CWG scam, the Adarsh Housing scam, the IPL auction scrutiny, all have helped in the country's creep in position in the World's Most Corrupt nations. I mentioned the name of one of our neighboring countries, China. There are allegations that the corruption there is even higher than ours, but the communist party there has the power to demolish the voices against them. The Anna Hazare's reform indulged the youth of the country via social networking sites. The editorials in the newspapers, the blogs on the internet, the coverage on the television, all helped the reform to reach to the hearts of the common man and the huge support the reform got made the Govt. realize the power of the common man, the AAM AADMI!
In China, people do not reserve the right to raise their voice against the Govt. They have banned many social networking websites just to make sure that such a reform(Anna Hazare's Reform) do not happen in their country. This is not good, is it?
The Jan Lokpal Bill, or simply the Lokpal Bill can well be a start to our fight against corruption. But, the politicians reserve the right to implement the law. Many of them are found guilty of having some undisclosed properties and even having money deposits in their accounts in the tax havens. Will they ('they' here stands for those guilty leaders, not all), pass the bill and this way hit the axe on their own foot.

ANNA HAZARE's LOKPAL vs GOVERNMENTs' JOKPAL!


Anna Hazare, a retired soldier and a social reformer now, is the name that took almost every Indian to come out of their houses and do the dew for the country. This 74 year old led the fight or rather a Gandhian Fight to make the Govt. take steps against the Corruption going on in the country.
Today, if we look at our own lives, the corruption is a part and parcel of it. To get a job, to get a way by loading the Traffic Officer, even to buy a LPG cylinder we give the Bribe. Indeed, LOKPAL BILL is not going to heal every injury to our system, but it is a step forward none the less.
On 5 April, 2011, Anna started or rather took a step on a national level and did the fast asking the Govt. to pass the bill. His Civil Society made a draft for the bill as well, and must say, if the Govt. takes then initiative of passing the same Jan Lokpal Bill( making some changes if needed be) then it will be a great step forward. The first time, the Kapil Sibal and Co. entangled the Civil Society in the Standing Committees and all. But, Anna had the determination to take the Govt. one on one.
On 16 August, 2011 the Govt. again came under the hammer when Anna started the fast on a higher level than the previous one. See, the followers he have, may not be aware of what they are fighting for, but they know one thing that the Lokpal Bill is good for the system and for them. The scams which came under the heading last year have made the common man frustrated as the money looted belongs to the exchequer.
Now, the debate going on is JAN LOKPAL BILL vs GOVT. LOKPAL BILL. If I speak in an unbiased manner then the Anna's Bill is somewhere down the line impractical whereas the Govts' bill is seen as a assistance to Corruption. The main points of dispute were, rather are:
1. Keeping the PM out of the Lokpal. This is the hottest topic of the debate. Keeping the PM out of the bill will be a relief to the PM Office, as some key decisions for the future of the country are made there. If the PM is included in the Lokpal, then every decision of his and his office could come under the hammer, as there will always be a few who will disagree the decisions of his. And in case of the key decisions such as war and emergencies, the panic will only get a hype if some one raises his/her voice against the decision. I accept, PM has himself agreed to get himself in the Jurisdiction of the bill, but, I think, If I were the PM I would have done the same.
2. In the Govt.s' Bill, there is a provision of punishment for the person who falsely admits a complaint. A two to five is imprisonment is provisioned. But in Jan Lokpal Bill, there is a fine provisioned and a warning only. So, a blend is also needed in this regard, as anyone who raises a false complaint can not be just let off.
3. On the issue of judiciary being kept out of the Lokpal, the Govt. has an opinion of keeping it out of the purview of the Bill. They have a point of keeping it in Judicial Accountability Bill (JAB), and if a complaint is registered against a Judge then a three member committee (two judges from the same court and a retired Chief Justice of the same court). Don't know what the Govt. thought before making such a peculiar point that the inquiry will be done by the judge's staff members.
4. The point which I think the common man will welcome the most is the 'Citizen Charter'. Under this, if there an officer doesn't do citizen's work in a prescribed time, then he/she should be penalized. The Govt. thinks different on this point and have a thought of no penalization. An interesting thing on this point is that the Govt. first agreed to this demand of the Civil Society on 23 May, 2011 and then they refused to accept it afterwards.
5. According to the Govt. the CBI should remain in its hold and the Civil Society want its Anti-corruption unit to be under Lokpal. The CBI being under the Govt. questions the unbiased nature of the same.
Recently, the Govt. accepted the demand to pass the bill in the Parliament and the three points on which the consensus was not happening. And, on 27 August, 2011 the three points raised by the Civil Society were accepted by the Govt. and the opposition by Voice Voting. This is seen as a success for Anna & Co. But, the language of the issued notice of the Govt, to the Standing Committee is an issue to be seen. The Govt. used the wording that they will recommend the Standing Committee to 'SERIOUSLY CONSIDER' the three points. What this mean?




Well, must say, this is a historic event that defined the meaning of Democracy appropriately. Democracy doesn't mean electing a leader and then the leader doesn't look after his people for the next five year. A Leader is a representative of his people who have elected him. And if his electors want something to happen, this is his duty to consider their demands. Anna has given the Common Man of this country a believe that they have elected the leaders and they have the power to oppose their doings and make them hear their demands.
The people who supported Anna Hazare wore an old fashioned cap and there was a line written on those caps, 'I AM ANNA'! This means a lot. It assures the 74 year old reformer that he is not alone fighting for the sake of 'their' country, but they all support him.
I say with pride, I SUPPORT ANNA HAZARE!

24 April, 2011

The IPL Show Must Go On!






According to the ‘Global Sport Salaries Report’ released by the ‘Sporting Intelligence’, today, IPL is the 2nd biggest League in the World as far as the money paid to the players per week in a season is concerned. The English Premier League, the Bundesliga, the La Liga, Serie A are all behind the Indian League. The American National Basketball Association (NBA) is on top of the list, bot mind you, is just. This shows the impact and the reputation the Indian Premier League has today in the World Sporting fraternity.
The former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi was one of the main men behind the astonishing amounts the league produced and is producing. He came up with the innovative ideas: the players’ auction, the batting and the bowling timeouts, taking the IPL-2 to South Africa, the online streaming on YouTube, the public broadcasting (in cinema halls), the IPL Nights after parties, the addition of the cheer leading to the Gentleman's Game. These innovative ideas, no doubt, helped the League to reach the level where it is today.
But, after all this, the one thing which matters the most is the ‘Cricket’! The suspension of the former Commissioner, I think, has not affected the popularity of the league. The viewers want their stars to perform, they want them to hit the bowlers out of the park (the batsman), they want them to knock down the stumps (the bowlers) and they want them to take blinders (catches) on the field (the fielders). After all the glamour, the spice, it is the game of cricket that matters the most. As I said, the former commissioner played a crucial role in the conceptualization of the league. No doubt about that. But, the blending together of the different cultures, the stars from the different regions of the world, is the ultimate objective of the league.
In this year’s IPL, we have seen many nail biting matches, the unknown Indian commodities performing, and this is what being a cricket lover you want to see. The glamour, I must say, is a ‘Secondary Item’.
And, this is what the former commissioner of the IPL had to say in his tweet, “The Show must go on. IPL is a world class tournament. It’s for the fans globally. Each game will be riveting.”
Today is Sachin Tendulkar’s Birthday. May the ‘God of the Game’ continues to make every Indian proud of his ‘asset’ i.e. ‘The Sachin Tendulkar’.

17 April, 2011

INDIAN CRICKET: From 1983 ‘UNDERDOG’ to 2011 ‘FAVOURITES’!

The World Cup 2011 was considered as one of the open World Cups, where, every team had the capability and resources to become the World Champion. The strongest contenders for the cup were: the Aussies, the Lankans, the Pakistanis and last, the Indian Team which got the crown ultimately. India, a country of 1.21 billion people, is the Global Hub for cricket and many believe that their excellence in the sport can well become a ladder for them to climb the Development Everest.
The Indian Team had performed consistently well in the last two and their chances of winning the championship were bright too. But, it is not just the Cricket that matters. The load of expectations of the 1.21 billion is on your shoulders (being a player), if you are a representative of their cricket, that is a member of the Indian Cricket Team. This is what the real test is and the team which handles it well has a better chance. I remember a veteran of the game saying on a News Channel that the viewers or rather the Indian viewers have a passion attached to their game. If ‘their’ player makes a hundred, ‘they’ feel they have scored it. But, if he fails then he will be criticized seriously by ‘them’. Coming from behind and making a mark is one thing and making a mark when you are expected to make it, is a different thing. This is what the major difference between the 1983 and the 2011 World Cup win is. I am not saying that the 1983 Team hadn’t had the quality, they had, but they were not under pressure to perform and played just the cricket not the nerves. The 1983 team had a bunch of Medium Pace swing bowlers and the England conditions assisted them. They could well have been all over the places if they had played on Indian Pitches which are flat.
The 2011 World Cup side is a champion side. The decisive blend of youth and experience both in the bowling and the batting department is fantastic. The Sachin- Sehwag opening duo is undisputedly the best in the world. The CAPTAIN COOL, as he popularly known as, is himself a dangerous hitter currently #7 in the ICC ODI Batsmen Rating. Even the great Tendulkar has admitted after the World Cup win that Dhoni is the best captain he has played under.
All in all, there is no comparison between the legends of the two different eras. If 1983 was the start of the ‘Golden Age’ of Indian Cricket, then 2011 is an impetus to that Golden Run.
Congratulations Indian Cricket Team for winning the cup and the hearts of 1.21 billion Indians plus the Cricket Lovers, all over the world!

11 April, 2011

IPL= Cricket + Politics ± Bollywood!


The Cricket, the Politics and the Bollywood are completely different subjects and do not have any relation, or rather, did not had any relation before the year 2008, when the Inaugural season of the mega sporting vaganza ‘INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE’ ( Abbreviated as IPL) held. In the last three seasons what else we have not seen which ideally should not be a part of the ‘Gentlemen’s Game: CRICKET’. We have seen: Harbhajan Singh slapping S. Sreesanth, Lalit Modi’s banishment from the league, Politician Shashi Tharoor falling into controversies for having the financial relations with the  Kochi Team and, the latest, the two franchises the KINGS XI PUNJAB and the RAJASTHAN ROYALS terminated for the violation of the Ownership Rules by the BCCI and the Kochi team also getting the 10 Days to resolve their ownership disputes.
  The Teams like the Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings are characterised by their owners, the big bodies- Mukesh Ambani (Owner of Reliance Industries), Vijay Mallya (UB Group) and India Cements (N.Srinivasan) respectively, but the teams like the Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI and the Kochi are owned partly by different groups which brought the teams in collaboration. But the specific part of the team which the individual group owns is not specified. The two teams the RR and the KXIP had played the last three seasons of the league, but unfortunately, at that time all these issues were neglected, probably because of the Corruption or in fear of a controversy.
  The controversies involving Shashi Tharoor, Lalit Modi, under separate titles, big names as far as the Indian Politics is concerned, one famous in the world of Twitter and other for his boldness. Last three seasons of the league have been a great success as far as the 'Cricket' is concerned, and this is the ultimate goal of the concept called 'the IPL.' The gelling together of the International names and the Indian domestic cricketers has helped the former to gain some, or rather huge amount of experience. Must say, the IPL has helped the Cricket in many ways, apart from helping the media to mint the stories from the controversies involving the league!  

29 March, 2011

IS INDIA POOR? WHO SAYS? ASK SWISS BANKS!

With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country? With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been looted from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them. And, mind you, these stats are 3 years old!
Once this huge amount of black money comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.
Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of which 25,000 travel very frequently. “Obviously, these people won’t be tourists. They must be traveling there for some other reason,” believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he is not referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who’ve been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!
Black money in Swiss banks — Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:
Top five
India—- $1,456 billion
Russia —$ 470 billion
UK ——-$390 billion
Ukraine - $100 billion
China —–$ 96 billion
This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks? Now, do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947:
Can we bring back our money?
It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind — the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.
What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth.
Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ‘Swiss bank accounts,’ the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and, of course, pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.
In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.
In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe.
The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens. Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker — in his widely celebrated book titled ‘Capitalism’ s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System’ — estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970.
It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world’s population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody’s guess. What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means.
Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term ‘tax havens’ suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts?
GOD, IS THERE ANY ONE WHO WOULD SAVE INDIA ?
I am afraid, even he can't.

23 March, 2011

GANDHI: FATHER OF THE NATION!

 

For more than 200 Years, the Britishers ruled India. The Country finally got the independence on the August 15, 1947. It was the yield of the efforts put in by the freedom fighters that the Independence came.      
In the early 20th Century, the British exploitation was at its peak. Whether it is the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (1919) or the Partition of Bengal (1905), the Country needed a leader that can lead the Country, of billions, from the front. And the leader was just about to get in action.      
A man with astonishing capabilities, having an incredible weapon of Non-Violence that led a Country of more than 4 Billion from the front, a man that gave the idea of ‘Offering the other cheek if one slaps on the one’, none other than he is the BAPU GANDHI, to whom history says ‘Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’. Born on the October 2, 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat, after his primary education he went to England for Higher Education (Law). He married to Kasturbai at the age of thirteen. He returned back to India in 1891 and started practicing (as a lawyer). He got the offer to work in South Africa for a year and he left for the same in 1893.  And it was South Africa itself where he led the first blood by raising voice against the racist culture there. The ill-treatments with Indians there, especially the one in which he was thrown out of the First Class Coach just because he was an Indian despite of having the ticket for the same, led him to raise voice against it there. This led to a large scale protest there and resulted in the relief for the people there. He returned to India in 1915 considering the fact that he went there for just a year.     
He never favoured the violence and believed in peace. His simplicity, his Khadi clothes, his gentleness were as divine as they can be. As a leader he led the country to the right way: away from the violence and destruction. Gandhi dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi). He and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun on a charkha, and encouraged others to do so.  
Indeed, Bapu was not the first to discover non-violence strategy, but he was  the first to implement it. The early effects of the strategy were before all in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha. It was during this agitation, that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu and Mahatma (Great Soul). As a result, Gandhi's fame spread all over the nation and because of this, he is now called "Father of the nation" in Indian. He became known to the common man after that. From then onwards came a series of movements namely Non-cooperation (1921), Salt Satyagraha (Salt March) (1930) Civil Disobedience (1930–31), Quit India (1942), which threatened the British Rule. And India got its Independence in 1947.        
The Independence struggle was the 200 Year long Event. Thousands of Freedom Fighters lost their lives in the struggle. The Golden Sparrow which the Country called earlier, after 1947, was just a graveyard of the Hindu-Muslim relationships, of the union of the Hindustan (that included India and Pakistan). The riots and the widespread violence that happened at the time of partition hurted Gandhi badly. He had been an advocate for a united India where Hindus and Muslims lived together in peace. On January 13, 1948, at the age of 78, he began a fast with the purpose of stopping the bloodshed. After 5 days, the opposing leaders pledged to stop the fighting and Gandhi broke his fast. Twelve days later, he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who opposed his program of tolerance for all creeds and religion. The last words on the lips of Gandhiji were ‘HEY RAM!’       
Gandhi’s thoughts are the historical achievements that the world has gained. That is why; it is rightly said as a quote in Hindi: 
GANDHI, GANDHITVAA, GANDHIYAAN! 
VISHVA KI SAMASYAONN KA EKMATRR SAMADHAAN!!      
This means the Gandhi’s non-violence strategy and his thoughts are the only  way in which the Global Problems can be solved, whether it is the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan or the North Korea’s Nuclear Program, which is a threat to the world.      
Among the tributes to Gandhi upon his death were these words by the great physicist, Albert Einstein: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.”     
There are a few who criticise his thoughts on the ground that the Non-Violence attitude drew India’s Independence a bit far off to 1947, but there are the Movies like ‘LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI’ and the fact that October 2 being celebrated as the ‘INTERNATIONAL NON-VIOLENCE DAY’, supporting him on this ground.     
Really, Mahatma Gandhi will be known as the Great Leader among the races to come. 

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