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बंगाल दंगे और लोकतन्त्र की ज़िम्मेदारी

Prashant Shahi
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बंगाल दंगे और लोकतन्त्र की ज़िम्मेदारी

बंगाल में लोकतन्त्र और लोकतान्त्रिक मूल्य

अरस्तू ने लोकतंत्र को शासन का सबसे भ्रष्ट स्वरूप माना है। इसलिए माना है क्योंकि उन्होंने ‘लोकतांत्रिक मूल्य’ जैसी अवधारणा नहीं देखी थी। जबकि अरस्तू के बाद के राजनीति विज्ञानियों ने लोकतंत्र को लोकतांत्रिक मूल्यों के मनकों से सजाकर, इसे इतना माकूल बना दिया कि आज दुनिया का हर देश लोकतांत्रिक ‘दिखना’ चाहता है। चीन जैसा देश भी लोकतांत्रिक होने का दम भरता है। पर ये लोकतांत्रिक मूल्य असल में हैं क्या? राजनीति की किताबों में लोकतंत्र के मायने बताते हुए वामपंथी बुद्धिजीवियों ने मोटे तौर पर यही कहा है, कि जहाँ चुनाव होते हैं, जनता अपने मताधिकार का प्रयोग करती है वहां लोकतंत्र है।

जो नहीं लिखा, वहीं सारा खेल उलझा हुआ है। आज पश्चिम बंगाल में खूनी खेल (खेला) हो रहा है। लोकतंत्र के मानकों पर चुनाव हुए, लोगों ने अपने मताधिकार का प्रयोग किया। कोरोना के बाद भी किया। सब दलों ने रैलियां कीं, कोरोना के बावजूद कीं। एक ओर रैलियों में जनता को मोह लेने वाले वायदे किये जा रहे थे, दूसरी ओर कोरोना लोगों को लीलता जा रहा था। यह सब होता रहा लोकतंत्र को ज़िंदा रखने के लिए!

अब लोकतंत्र जिंदा है, पर बंगाल जल रहा है। कहीं तो लोकतंत्र की स्थापना में कोई मूलभूत सैद्धान्तिक चूक हुई है! स्वामी विवेकानंद ने आजादी के बारे में एक बार कहा था, ‘आजादी मिल जाना एक बात है, आजादी को संभाल पाना दूसरी’। यही बात लोकतंत्र पर भी सटीक बैठती है। लोकतंत्र को संभाल पाना बड़ी बात है। उसके लिए सभ्य समाज चाहिए। लोगों में कम से कम इतना धैर्य होना चाहिए कि वे अपनी हार (बंगाल में तो हार हुई भी नहीं) को स्वीकार सकें। यह बात सिर्फ बंगाल के लिए नहीं है, यही बात उत्तर प्रदेश के पंचायत चुनावों को लेकर भी सही बैठती है। आखिर यहाँ भी तो बवाल हो ही रहे हैं…गोलियां चल ही रही हैं।

बंगाल में दंगे और वामपंथ

हाँ, एक बात और… संभवतः ये पहला ऐसा मामला है जहाँ वामपंथी भी चुनाव पश्चात हिंसा का शिकार हुए हैं। वरना ऐसा देखने- सुनने में आमतौर पर तो नहीं आता। क्योंकि जहां ये मजबूत हैं वहाँ खुद ही हिंसक भूमिका होते हैं (केरल, बंगाल के पुराने दिन, और JNU इसके पुख्ता उदाहरण हैं) और जहाँ कमज़ोर हैं, वहाँ इतने कमज़ोर हैं कि हैं ही नहीं! इस बार बंगाल से इनका सूपड़ा साफ हुआ है। जनता ने इन्हें नकार दिया है। पर इनका वो कैडर तो है ही जो सालों से दमन का दम्भ भरता रहा है। पिछली पीढ़ियों के इनके कारनामे इतने क्रूर हैं कि लोग नफरत करते हैं इनसे। इस बार इनकी खराब हालत की एक बानगी तो यही है कि चुनाव लड़ने के लिए कैंडिडेट तक नहीं मिले इन्हें। JNU से प्रोफेसर और स्टूडेंट्स को उठा उठाकर चुनाव लड़ाया इन्होंने। उसके लिए भी इतनी जद्दोजहद कि पर्चा दाखिल करने की तारीख से दो दिन पहले बुलाकर टिकेट दे दिया। ऐसे में हरना तो था ही! प्रशांत किशोर ने अपने साक्षात्कार में साफ कहा कि उन्हें यकीन था कि बंगाल में मुसलमान एकजुट होकर वोट करेंगे, पर यही बात हिंदुओं के बारे में सच नहीं है। आश्चर्य है कि ऐसी ही बात विनायक दामोदर सावरकर ने दशकों पहले कह दी थी, उन्होंने कहा था कि हिंदुओं को खतरा किसी और धर्म से नहीं बल्कि खुद हिंदुओं से है। बंगाल में वामपंथियों के सौजन्य से यही हुआ है!

बंगाल में दंगों का इतिहास

आज जो बंगाल में हो रहा है वह बंगाल के लिए नया नहीं है। पर बीजेपी के लिए नया है। बंगाल में राजनीतिक हिंसा का पुराना इतिहास रहा है। सरकार चाहे वामपंथियों की रही हो या तृणमूल की सबने हिंसा के रास्ते से अपना वर्चस्व कायम करने की कोशिश की है। 1946 में जिन्ना के द्वारा करवाया गया ‘डाइरैक्ट एक्शन डे’ का नरसंहार बंगाल के लिए दुर्भाग्यशाली जरूर था पर दुर्भाग्य से… आखिरी नहीं था। बंगाल ने नंदिग्राम भी देखा है और मरिचझापी भी। चीन के पुराने नेता रहे माओ की वह बात कि ‘सत्ता का रास्ता बंदूक नाल से होकर गुजरता है’ को यहाँ लोगो ने बहुत गंभीरता से लिया है। और लें भी क्यों न! आखिर ‘माओ’ को भगवान मानने वाले लाल गिरोह का गढ़ रहा है बंगाल। आज जब बंगाल की जनता ने लाल झंडे को नेस्तनाबूद करके जमीन में मिला दिया है तो भी लाल गिरोह ने हिंसा की जो राह पिछले दशकों में बनाई है वो इतनी जल्दी खत्म कैसे हो जाएगी? आज जब वामपंथी दलों के पार्टी कार्यालयों को फूंका गया, जब उनके कार्यकर्ताओं को मारा गया तब उन्हें शायद इस बात का एहसास हुआ होगा कि हिंसा बुरी बात है। इन सब बातों के आलोक में देखें तो हम पाएंगे कि हिंसा यहाँ कोई नई बात नहीं थी। श्री राजू बिस्ता जी याद करते हैं कि जब उन्हें दार्जिलिंग लोक सभा क्षेत्र का प्रत्याशी बीजेपी ने बनाया तो उनके पास बधाई देने के लिए बहुत से फोन आए। लेकिन एक बात जो हर शुभचिंतक फोन पर दुहरा रहा था वो था कि आपको बहुत होशियार रहना है। आपके पास बॉडीगार्ड रहने चाहिए… क्यूंकी ये बंगाल है! यहाँ ‘क्यूंकी ये बंगाल है’ से आगे कुछ कहने की जरूरत नहीं होती है। यह स्वतः स्पष्ट है कि हिंसा यहाँ होनी ही है।

बंगाल में दंगों का पैटर्न

बंगाल में जो हिंसा हुई उसके पैटर्न को भी देखने की जरूरत है। बंगाल में सत्ता परिवर्तन के कुछ ऐतिहासिक मोड़ रहे हैं। स्वतन्त्रता के बाद काँग्रेस तबतक बंगाल बनी रही जबतक नेहरू का प्रभाव रहा। उसके बाद बंगाली भद्रलोक की राजनीति शुरू हुई और वामपंथ का बंगाल की राजनीति पर कब्जा हो गया। वामपंथ का शासन में आने का मतलब था वामपंथी मंसूबों को खुली छूट मिल जाना। बंगाल वामपंथियों के संरक्षण नरसंहार के कई वाकये हुए। बात यहाँ तक पहुंची की एक ओर तो ‘भद्रलोक’ और दूसरी ओर हिंसा इस तरह बंगाल की राजनीति में घर कर गयी कि चुनाव लड़ने वाले प्रत्याशियों को शुभकामना के साथ सावधान रहने का मशविरा देना भी आम हो गया। ममता बनर्जी भी जब राजनीति में मुखर होकर उतरीं तो उन्हें भी वामपंथ कि हिंसा का सामना करना पड़ा। काँग्रेस कि कार्यकर्ता रहीं ममता पर जानलेवा हमले हुए। पर ममता कि किस्मत अच्छी रही और वे राजनीति के शिखर तक पहुँचीं। ममता जब काँग्रेस से अलग होकर तृणमूल काँग्रेस के माध्यम से चुनावों आयीं तो उनके साथ जो लोग जुड़े वे वही लोग थे किसी जमाने में वामपंथी गिरोह का हिस्सा थे। उनलोगों का तृणमूल से जुड़ना ये संदेश था कि बंगाल में सत्ता परिवर्तन होना तय है। यही हुआ भी! ममता तृणमूल के रास्ते से बंगाल की सत्ता में आयीं। पर उनके साथ वामपंथ का डीएनए भी सत्ता में आया। और यही कारण है कि बंगाल में सत्ता परिवर्तन तो हुआ पर बंगाल की राजनीति से हिंसा समाप्त नहीं हुई।

अब आगे क्या? अब एक बार फिर से सत्ताधारी दल का एक बड़ा खेमा बीजेपी में शामिल हुआ है। बीजेपी इस बार के चुनावों में बहुत तेज़ी से उभरी है। ये संकेत है आने वाले समय में होने वाले सत्ता परिवर्तन का। ये बंगाल में होने वाले सत्ता परिवर्तन का पैटर्न है। बंगाल में चुनाव जीतते ही हिंसा का खूनी खेला जो तृणमूल ने खेला है, उसने बंगाल के लोगो को भी यह एहसास जरूर दिला दिया होगा कि उन्होने तृणमूल को सत्ता देकर उचित निर्णय शायद नहीं लिया।

बंगाल में दंगों का स्वरूप

एक सवाल और है। बंगाल में जो दंगे हुए उनका स्वरूप क्या था? क्या वे केवल राजनीतिक दंगे थे या राजनीति के लबादे में लिपटे हुए ये सांप्रदायिक दंगे थे? जवाब पाने के लिए वापस से इस बार के चुनावों में ममता बनर्जी के रणनीतिकार रहे प्रशांत किशोर के बयान को ध्यान से देखें तो हम पाएंगे कि वे शुरू से ही सांप्रदायिक लामबंदी के बल पर ही इस चुनाव को लड़ रहे थे। उन्होने मुसलमानों की लामबंदी को ही ममता की जीत का मंत्र बताया था। चुनाव के बाद उन्होने खुद यह स्वीकारी भी! मुसलमानों की लामबंदी कैसे की गयी? बीजेपी को हिंदुओं मात्र की पार्टी बताकर! इसका सीधा मतलब यह हुआ कि मुसलमानों की लामबंदी हिंदुओं के खिलाफ की गयी। उनमें हिंदुओं के खिलाफ भावनाएँ, घृणा और गुस्सा भरा गया। अब जब चुनाव पश्चात वही गुस्सा हिंदुओं पर काल बनकर टूटा तो आश्चर्य कैसा? हिन्दू तो हिन्दू है, चाहे वो वामपंथी हो, या बीजेपी का! यहाँ तक कि टीएमसी के खुद के हिन्दू नेताओं ने जब इस हिंसा पर बोलने की हिमाकत की तो उन्हें भी रौंदा गया। इन सब बातों के निहितार्थ क्या हैं? निहितार्थ वही हैं जो सावरकर ने कहा था, ‘हिन्दू कभी एक साथ लामबंद नहीं हो सकते और हिन्दू ही हिन्दू के लिए खतरा है।‘ निहितार्थ वह भी है जो जिन्ना ने डाइरैक्ट एक्शन डे को लेकर साजिश किया था, बंगाल को मुस्लिम बहुल राज्य बनाना। आज बंगाल में बढ़ती हुई बंगलादेशी घुसपैथियों और  रोहिङ्ग्या लोगों की आबादी इस दिशा में बढ़ता प्रमाण हैं।

एक तरफ ये सबकुछ हो रहा है। दूसरी तरफ इस देश के वामपंथी हैं, जिन्हें इस देश की व्यवस्था को कोसने का एक और मौका मिल गया है। आने वाले समय में ये वामपंथी लोकतंत्र को तरह तरह से गरियाएँगे। बिल्कुल वैसे ही जैसे ट्रम्प के समय में अमेरिका में हो रहा था। अब इन्हें लोकतांत्रिक मूल्यों को परिभाषित करने की जरूरत महसूस होगी। इन्हें लगेगा कि लोकतंत्र के शासन में ‘रूल ऑफ लॉ’ गड़बड़ा जाता है। पर ये तो खैर वामपंथी हैं, कहते रहेंगे।

भारत सरकार क्या कर रही है? बंगाल में शासन व्यवस्था क्या अभी फेल नहीं हुई? क्या राष्ट्रपति शासन लगा दिए जाने के लिए किसी मुहूर्त का इंतज़ार किया जा रहा है? और ये ‘धरना- धरना’ खेलने से क्या होगा? ये तो वही बात हो गयी कि सीपीआई अपने कार्यकताओं के लिए ट्वीट कर रही है, और भाजपा अपने कार्यकर्ताओं के लिए धरना दे रही है। सवाल अब भी वही है सरकार क्या कर रही है?

The fallacy of Nehru’s legacy

Vinayak
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The fallacy of Nehru’s legacy

Jawaharlal Nehru may well go down in the history of the country as one of the most able leaders and endearing personalities. From demands of Purna Swaraj to spearheading the Indian leadership pre- and post-Independence, his contributions to the Indian cause are legion. However, the most important times of his stint as the Prime Minister are littered with grave mistakes threatened to moribund the rising Indian state. Even in the Macaulay tinted version of history parroted by the Congress his contributions pale in comparison to Mohandas Gandhi who too benefited from the same.

October of 1947, Pashtun tribesmen invaded Kashmir, thus, began the war for Kashmir. Nehru foolishly hoping for a peaceful resolution against an openly belligerent state, took the matter to the United Nations, clouding the issue, allowing the Pakistan to occupy a third of the strife torn state. Sticking to his guns, trying to save face, rather than accepting a way that worked in favour of one that did not, after the Accession was signed and a cabinet meeting took place, Nehru (as Field Marshall Sam Mankeshaw recalls) Nehru was busy talking about United Nations and various other countries, till Sardar Patel, the then Deputy PM and Home Minister, losing his temper asks “Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir or want to give it away? “Of course, I want Kashmir” came the reply with a lot of emphasis being put in. On being requested to give his orders to the then Director of Military Operation Mankeshaw by Sardar Patel, however before Nehru could reply, Patel sensing hesitation on part of Nehru turns towards Manekshaw tells him that he has his orders and the future Field Marshall walks out and start flying in his troops. As a result, Kashmir became ours minus the modern-day POK.

Another testing time that comes to mind is the Sino-Indian war. Again, under the leadership of Nehru.  However, the actual defeat of The Army took place when Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon under the guise of “good governance”, not really understanding the system of The Army, starting bringing in changes antithetical to the very basis of The Army. Leading to the resignation of the then Army Chief General Thimayya and starting of an enquiry against the then Major General Sam Manekshaw. Essentially robbing the army of effective leadership in the most trying of times.  Nehru had his reasons of the practice of ahimsa, rubbished the idea of military power as far back as 1947 citing the Police were enough to keep peace in the country though he had to eat his own words during the Accession of Kashmir and of the fear of a Military coup borne of the many young post world war 2 nations like Pakistan succumbing to the same.

Nehru proclaimed in the Parliament that the NEFA (North Eastern Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh) was being handed over to the Army, an act that was against the Indian interests,  without the allotment of added resources this was a futile gesture , one that allowed the Chinese to paint the Indians as aggressors. Thimayya wanted Nehru abrogate the mistake, something Nehru knew was political Hara-kiri as he would lose the trust of the Parliament. Fearing the General and his actions, atleast in his mind, Nehru and Menon turned to subterfuge to discredit him. Playing a convoluted game for meeting the ends.

Thimayya Seething at the disrespect of being painted as the one responsible for the Parliament debacle, signed his resignation papers which in turn were rejected by Nehru in a private meeting while subsequently leaking the news, forcing the general to retire with the message perceived by the public of a voluntary retirement and hence, in their minds, Nehru and Menon foiled the danger posed by General Thimayya- one of the most brilliant Generals this side of Sam Manekshaw. Speaking of Manekshaw , he too was disqualified from active leadership by launching a Court of Inquiry against him on the grounds of him being more British than Indian and more loyal to the British Queen than the Indian Prime Minister for he asked Menon not to ask him what he thought of General Thimayya as he was his senior and such actions on part of subordinates towards senior create dissension in the Army.

In their absence, Nehru turned to favourites of his Lt.Gen. Brij Mohan Kaul and P.N. Thapar who were famous, at that time in the Army, for being yes men. Who on being asked if the Army was ready for war, lacking in moral courage, replied in the positive at a time when there was a serious dearth of arms and ammunitions in the forward posts where the battles would take place. The result: by the end of the month long war we had lost the Aksai Chin ( a 37,244 Square Km area of strategic importance), the war and lives of thousands of soldiers not to mention the international humiliation.

Looking back at these two pivotal events in Indian History, Nehru allowed through his superintendence for personal reasons of ego (Kashmir issue) and self-preservation (Pre Sino- Indian war borne of paranoia) to sour and bite the country in the back, the sheer amount of loss of life and the political implications of both continue to tax the Indian State.   

In light of these cataclysmic events and the handling of them by Jawaharlal Nehru, though he has some great contributions to the Indian Cause, he shall be remembered as a far better man and a more able leader than he actually was, based off of the Macaulay inspired revision of history he himself revived after the departure of the British.

Taxes, taxmen and the Taliban

Subhash Jangala
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Taxes, taxmen and the Taliban

On 10th of May 2021, in the neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi in west Kabul, about 85 innocent school children were killed and hundreds others were grievously injured in a bomb planted in an Afghan school. Textbooks, school bags and pencil boxes strewn all around the dusty entrance to the school, the blast hasn’t been owned up by any militant group till the time of writing.

More than 3 Lakh people have been killed in the war zone since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 20011. In addition, in 2009, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported that fully two-thirds of Afghans suffer from mental health problems. The impact of the war include elevated rates of disease due to lack of clean drinking water, malnutrition, and reduced access to health care. Most factors associated with premature death and environmental degradation is exacerbated by the current war2. Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries of the world mainly on account of the Taliban insurgency. War continues till this date between the NATO assisted Afghan security forces and the Taliban.

On one side of the war are the Afghan security forces trained and assisted by international forces comprised of armed personnel from NATO countries. The size, strength and resources at the disposal of this side is staggering. One report suggests, the total cost incurred by the United States during FY 2001 – FY 2020 is USD 980 Billion3. That is close to 70 Lakh Crores. That is about the total direct tax collection of India in the last 8 years. Or compared to problems of the Americans themselves, that would be close to a decade of free healthcare for all uninsured Americans. After a Trillion Dollars and 20 years, the United States or the NATO is nowhere close to victory. The name of the ongoing NATO mission, Operation Resolute Support reveals as much.

The question however, is, who funds the other side of the war? The Afghan government is on the side of the Americans. The Taliban operate from Afghan land. So what is the Taliban’s source of revenue to fund a winning cause against the mightiest force on earth, armed with every possible military toy available to mankind?

The devil is in the detail. Even on this date, there are a significant number of provinces in Afghanistan which are controlled by the Taliban. Any income generating activity that is performed in these provinces or that happens through these provinces is a potential source of revenue for the Taliban. In 2020, a pipeline that was passing though such a province was blasted since the owner failed to pay up his dues4 and now not just the owner, even employees are paying a part of their wages as penalties. The extortion money is not just limited to businesses like mobile phone operators, mining businesses and construction companies. In the provinces that are completely off the Afghan government’s radar, motorists, teachers, farmers and even water suppliers are not spared from the coercion and theft. The rate is usually set at 10% on income and 2.5% on wealth. Most of this form of local income is used by the Taliban for funding local operations.

It is often believed that the major source of revenue for the militants is opium cultivation. Afghanistan produces close to 90% of the world’s opium which is mostly grown in provinces controlled by the Taliban. Money is collected at each stage of production. Cultivation tax wherever opium is grown, laboratory tax wherever opium is converted to heroin and smuggling tax wherever heroin is smuggled out of the country. Some estimates project Taliban’s earning on opium close to half a billion USD every year5. The US identified opium as the main source of revenue for the Taliban’s existence and bombed a significant number of labs. But the revenue doesn’t stop with the labs being cheap to build.

But how does the organisation maintain administrative control over the finances generated across millions of square kilometers under its rule? While the Taliban do not disclose their books of accounts, there should be some method to the madness. At the head of the entire operation sits the all powerful Taliban Finance Commission (TFC). All funds generated through major sources like drug trafficking and extortion money flow right up till the Commission which is headed by senior figures within the Taliban. The TFC has a robust operating structure comprising of senior Talibani members given respectful designations and ranks. The United States has attempted to place sanctions on several of the Commissioners and the Deputy Commissioners in the TFC from time to time. Functions like collection, disbursements, delivery, capital funding, logistics are all delegated region-wise to leaders who serve as nodal points between the top level leadership and the street managers. The United States Department of Treasury palces sanctions on several members of the Taliban Finance Commission preventing almost the entire global financial world from dealing with them6. During investigations, the beneficial owners of bank accounts receiving money for release of European hostages was identified as one of the top leaders of the TFC.

The TFC has patrons outside Afghanistan as well. It has been estimated that foreign funding received by the Taliban from individuals to sovereign governments may touch half a billion USD every year. Pakistan, the Gulf states including the Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, Iran and Russia have been alleged on several occasions for funding the Taliban. The TFC in the recent past has also expanded its mining into copper, gold, zinc and rare earth metals which is an increasingly profitable product which is used in all kinds of electronic components from satellites to mobile phones. Extortion from both small and large mining companies is easy since there is significant demand for Afghan products across the world.

Like a true business organisations, the Taliban have also expanded into international real estate with assets in Pakistan and the gulf states. The Taliban also allegedly own the Pakistani TV Channel SAMAA. These recent additions in the Taliban’s revenue stream are indicators of an expanding role on non-conventional sources of revenue for the Taliban.

The importance of revenue to any organisation is unmissable. In the recent past, the Taliban have grown more financially independent and powerful. A 2020 report projects that the Taliban would soon not depend foreign aid or individual gifts as it has strengthened its financial network to a position of independence and sovereignty7. This is on account of young and ambitious leaders who have substantially bolstered the revenue generating capabilities of the militant organisation. By refining taxation methods and building export markets from coal to precious stones with China and UAE being the biggest Taliban customers8. From great revenue comes great bargaining power. It is now doubtful if the extremist sunni organisation will stand by its key commitments in the US-brokered 2020 peace plan.

An organisation that is at the cusp of financial resurgence is not one which is going to shy away from the limelight. The question of defeating such an organisation in its own turf does not arise as the fiscal arteries get stronger. The last 20 years have proved that the ground level networks of the Taliban are strong and rely on the support of the Afghan masses. Even if the Afghan government can bring about significant comparative advantage to the Afghan people in the regions under its administration, the Taliban are entrenched deep into the Afghan ethos. The solution is more political and less military. The solution also hinges on both sides forgoing significant amounts of control and power held earlier. There are considerable positive take-aways from the fight against ISIS in which the Taliban had played a key role. It is time the Afghan government and the Taliban treat each other as equals and an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned” peace process is initiated at the earliest.

1 Costs of War, Afghan Civilians, Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, Brown University, April 2021, accessed 13th May 2021

2 Ibid

3 Kimberly Amadeo, Afghanistan War: Cost, Timeline, and Economic Impact (thebalance.com), the Balance, 23rd February 2021, accessed 13th May 2021

4 Eltaf Najafizada, Millions in Taliban Taxes Show Who’s in Charge as U.S. Departs – Bloomberg, 26th April 2021, accessed 13th May 2021

5 Dawood Azami, Afghanistan: How does the Taliban make money? – BBC News, 22nd December 2018, accessed 13th May 2021

6 Press Release: Treasury Sanctions Taliban and Haqqani Network Financiers and Facilitators | U.S. Department of the Treasury, 25th January 2018, accessed 13th May 2021

7 Frud Bezhan, Exclusive: Taliban’s Expanding ‘Financial Power’ Could Make It ‘Impervious’ To Pressure, Confidential Report Warns (rferl.org), Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 16th September 2020, accessed 13th May 2021

8 Ibid

How Yogi Adityanath is fighting pandemic and fixing a defunct healthcare system simultaneously

Akhand
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How Yogi Adityanath is fighting pandemic and fixing a defunct healthcare system simultaneously

Ever since the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic has hit India, a sinister disinformation campaign has been launched to spread lies, fake news and propaganda. In case of Uttar Pradesh, usual suspects are out; mocking state government with memes of Ram Mandir, Hindu festivals, Kumbh Mela, etc. insinuating that government is busy building Ram Temple and has done nothing for healthcare. Is it so? Let’s see.

Yogi Adityanath inspecting covid hospital in Noida

Maharashtra has been reporting highest number of fresh Covid-19 cases every day since many months now. However you would not see any article, commentary in media criticizing the Shiv Sena government as to why it is wasting hundreds of crores on building a new hostel for MLAs? Or for that matter; Chhattisgarh government on why they are building a new Vidhan Sabha instead of spending that money on healthcare?

Ever since the second wave of Covid-19 has hit India, and particularly Uttar Pradesh, there has been a flood of articles, commentary, op-ed columns, prime time shows insinuating that UP CM Yogi Adityanath has failed to manage the Covid-19 situation in the state and instead was busy building Ram Mandir, organizing Hindu festivals, giving more importance to saving cows than humans, etc. Are any of these allegations true?

Fact is state government has not spent a single rupee on Ram Temple. It’s being built with the samarpan rashi received from Ram Bhakts all over the world. Details available till now confirm that the Trust has received more than Rs 5000 crores as samarpan rashi.

Yes, the State government started organizing major Hindu festivals like Deepawali and Holi in a grand manner after Yogi Adityanath came to power in 2017. These are once in a year festivals and the money spent on these is not more than couple of crores. In return, these mega festival events help increase tourism activity in the state as well as help small artisans and workers find employment during such festivals.

Third allegation regarding cows being given more importance than humans is as baseless as it can be. Fake news was published by many in media that Yogi Government has ordered thermometer and oxymeter for cows.

Cow protection has been a stated agenda of BJP not just in the Uttar Pradesh but all across the country. They have just implemented the same by banning cow slaughter and building some cow shelters. Budgetary allocations for such shelters are in public domain and can be verified easily. It will be certainly far lesser than the amount spent on building Haj houses and elephant parks.

So why is media after Yogi Adityanath even in these pandemic times? To understand this, we will have to go back to the year when Yogi Adityanath took charge of the state.

It’s not that predecessors of Yogi Adityanath built great hospitals and worked any better to improve the healthcare infrastructure of the state. In fact, Akhilesh Yadav was busy building Haj houses and organizing Bollywood dance nights in Saifaee, his ancestral village. He was following into the footsteps of his predecessor Mayawati, who built huge elephant parks & her own statues in Lucknow and Noida during her tenure.

All in all Yogi Adityanath got a totally defunct, crumbling healthcare system; when he took over from Akhilesh Yadav in 2017.

Barely months after taking over as CM, Yogi Adityanath faced first major media onslaught over deaths of children in his constituency Gorakhpur due to Encephalitis. It was alleged that the deaths happened due to non availability of oxygen. It was not true; however, media suddenly discovered that hundreds of children die every year in Purvanchal because of Japanese Encephalitis.

A brutal disinformation campaign was launched by local as well as international media. Encephalitis deaths were happening since decades, however; media presented as if it has happened for the first time in the state. Questions started as to how a saffron wearing Yogi can manage a state as big as Uttar Pradesh. He should resign immediately and go back to his Matha – shouted media pundits.

Fortunately, Yogi was used to such sinister media campaigns from the days he started his political journey as Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur. He did not waste time on reacting to media propaganda and got down to work.

He had been raising the Encephalitis issue in the Parliament for many years. But now as CM he had got the opportunity to eradicate this abhishapa from Uttar Pradesh.

A sustained sanitization campaign was run in all affected districts. Dedicated vaccination program ‘DASTAK’ was launched for all children below five years of age in the region. The vaccination program is now in its fourth year and administration has been able to vaccinate most of children in the area. Drinking contaminated water was one of the reasons for spread of this disease in the region. Government ensured clean drinking water for families in the affected districts.

These efforts resulted in drastic reduction of deaths due to Encephalitis. From thousands of deaths few years ago, deaths have come down to double digits this year, over 90% reduction – huge achievement for a state facing this curse since decades.

However, same media which gloated over children’s deaths is now completely silent when Yogi Adityanath has almost eradicated this deadly disease from Uttar Pradesh.

But then that is how the usual suspects in the media operate. That is their standard operating procedure – lie big and don’t retract even if caught.

Last year they got another opportunity when the country faced first wave of covid-19 crisis. The pandemic forced lockdown came with a huge migrant crisis for states like Uttar Pradesh. Some states like Delhi, Punjab and Maharashtra completely mismanaged the lockdown situation, resulting in mass exodus of migrant workers from these states. Ruling establishment in Delhi was found to be involved in deliberately creating an atmosphere of fear so that migrant workers leave the city and go back to their hometown.

Media propagandists suddenly got excited and started running the campaign that Uttar Pradesh will not be able to manage the pandemic and migrant crisis.

Fake propaganda about Kerala model, Delhi model of covid-19 management were pushed in order to somehow show that UP government is failing its people and country.

The reality was totally opposite of what was shown on prime time television shows and front page headlines of newspapers. UP was not only able to contain the spread of covid-19 but it also managed the migrant crisis very well despite being the most populous state with a historically sub standard healthcare system.

The UP model of contact tracing, containment zones and enforced covid-19 appropriate behavior resulted in controlling the spread of the virus sooner than most people expected. The state not only contained the virus spread but was also able to provide food, shelter, economic support and employment to most of its population including large number of migrant workers.

But then media being media, they never spoke about this success story. So much so that even after international praise of UP government for covid-19 management, they kept quite as if they were not happy that UP came out victorious from pandemic crisis. Same media which was amplifying smallest of procedural lapse by UP administration, went completely silent after the turn-around of the situation.

But then that is how the usual suspects in the media operate. That is their standard operating procedure – lie big and don’t retract even if caught.

They have now got yet another opportunity in the form of second wave of Covid-19 in the state. Yet again, they have started the same propaganda and disinformation campaign mocking the state government with same old jibes of Ram Temple etc.

One thing we have to give to the left liberal propagandists – they relentlessly pursue their agenda till the time the narrative is established according to their agenda, does not matter how many lies they have to speak for the same.
Suddenly, UP has once again become the focus state of entire shame-stream media. Smallest of issues are being amplified as if finally they have got the opportunity they were waiting for all these months.

Let us see how, Yogi Adityanath is fighting one crisis after other with a defunct healthcare system gifted to him by previous governments; and simultaneously also trying to build the medical infrastructure required for a big state like Uttar Pradesh?

First, let us understand that healthcare infrastructure does not only mean building hospitals with bricks and mortar and buying equipments. The most important element of creating a world class healthcare system is the human resources required to run that system – the doctors, nurses, paramedics, technicians, etc.

State government is working on a very ambitious plan of opening medical college in each of 75 districts of the state. So far, they have been able to establish it in 14 districts – six operational and 8 ready to start by July this year. In 16 other districts, medical colleges are under construction. In total, Yogi Government has been able to establish new medical colleges in 30 districts, whereas before 2017 UP had only 12 medical colleges.

From 12 to 42 in just 4 years – imagine the speed with which administration has worked. The new medical colleges will add almost 4000 MBBS seats every year for medical aspirants thereby not only bridging the gap in demand and supply of medical seats but providing the much needed human capital to the state’s healthcare system in coming years.

Second, these medical colleges are attached to the government hospital of the respective districts. This means the infrastructure of these hospitals are also being upgraded massively. New buildings with enhanced bed capacity, new wards and advanced medical equipments – everything required to upgrade district hospitals is being planned and executed rapidly. In coming years, these hospitals will be able to treat majority of the patients from those districts. This will help the government to reduce the load from overburdened major medical centers like Varanasi, Lucknow etc.

Third, as we know that creating something new from scratch takes time irrespective of how fast you desire to achieve it. So in that situation, you have to leverage the existing system to the fullest till the time you achieve creating the desired infrastructure. Yogi Government is doing exactly the same thing.

Uttar Pradesh has been at the forefront of implementing the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY – Ayushman Bharat) in the state ever since it was launched by Prime Minister Modi in 2018. State has remained best performing among all states in implementation of PMJAY scheme, be it number of golden card issued or number of hospitalization benefit provided to the beneficiaries.

The scheme not only provides medical cover of up-to five lakhs to each beneficiary family, it also allows the beneficiary to avail the best healthcare facility available in the state either in public or private sector. Since public heath care facilities will take some more time for to be completely fixed by the government, it has empaneled many private hospitals under the scheme. This is to leverage the existing facilities available in the private sector till the time government is able to create a better public health care system. This is beneficial to both, state government as well as private hospitals – while government gets to offer better healthcare to its people, private hospitals get an additional source of revenue generation.

Additionally, state has got two AIIMS from central government – one in Raebareli and one in Gorakhpur. AIIMS Raebareli was approved by UPA government in 2009 & established in 2013; however OPD facility could start only in 2018 under Yogi Government. In comparison, Gorakhpur AIIMS, which was approved by NDA government in 2014, started its OPD in 2019 itself. Efforts are on to complete both the institutes as soon as possible. Both the AIIMS are expected to be fully functional this year.

A new medical university has also been established in the state– Atal Behari Vajpayee Medical University (ABVMU). The university was established in the year 2018 and foundation stone was laid by PM Modi in 2019. This will provide affiliation to all public and private medical, nursing and dental colleges in the state. The government aims to make ABVMU as the hub of medical education in the state.

This is not all. Apart from working on the needs of secondary and tertiary health care facilities, state in coordination with central government is working on to upgrade more than 8000 primary health centers into community health and wellness centers. These centers are majorly in rural areas and will cater to primary health care needs of people there. Project is completed in more than 30 districts and in rest of the districts it’s in advanced stage of completion. Once operational, this will not only help to provide medical facility in initial stage of falling sick, but will also help to reduce the secondary and tertiary care interventions.

In the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 also, state has been able to quickly ramp up medical facilities to fight the pandemic. Uttar Pradesh was the first state to use Oxygen Express train service of Indian Railways and got medical liquid oxygen moved from other states to Lucknow quickly. Chief Minister sent state aircraft to Ahmedabad to urgently bring Remdesivir injections. Thousands of oxygen beds, ICU beds and ventilator beds have been added in last 3 weeks. Efforts are on to add more hospital beds equipped with oxygen and ventilators.

State has also moved swiftly to establish oxygen generation plants in all major government hospitals across the state. Some of these are already made functional.

On vaccination front, state was first to announce free vaccination for 18-44 age group under phase-3 of Covid-19 vaccination program. State government quickly placed order for 100 million vaccines with Indian manufacturers. It was among the very few states which began vaccination of 18-44 age group from May 1st. Uttar Pradesh is also the first state to issue global tender for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines. It has issued short term tender for buying 400 million vaccine doses from global manufacturers.

Experts feared that after Panchayat elections, state will see exponential growth in number of fresh infections. To mitigate that risk, state pro-actively initiated screening and testing in all the revenue villages of the state. Administration is distributing free medicines to the affected people in villages; schools have been converted to isolation centers.

These efforts have resulted in reduction of fresh infections and improvement in number of recoveries.

After 30th April, active cases in the state have come down by more than 90000. If this trend continues for couple of more weeks, the second wave of pandemic could be well under control. However, the real change in state’s healthcare infrastructure will be visible in few years from now.

With new medical colleges, government hospitals, wellness centers, AIIMS, medical university- all becoming functional in coming years – the second term of Yogi Adityanath, which he will get in all probability, will witness the real change brought in by his government in its current term.

Data rubbishes false narrative about the role of Kumbh Mela and Bengal election rallies in COVID spike

drsingh
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Data rubbishes false narrative about the role of Kumbh Mela and Bengal election rallies in COVID spike

The maximum number of COVID cases reported per day are expected to reach at about the peak now anytime soon between first and second week of May, followed by a peak of total active cases in about two weeks later. All those who think that Kumbh in Uttarakhand and  Election Rallies in West Bengal had anything to do with spread of the second wave of COVID, should pay attention to the data and facts.

One can see the plots of predicted and real-time data at twitter page of Professor Manindra Agrawal from IIT Kanpur (https://twitter.com/agrawalmanindra), which were originally generated by him using mathematical modeling. These predictions do not have Kumbh Mela or Election Rallies as variables in the mathematical model, yet the real-time data is following perfectly or very closely the predictions. The distribution of cases (i.e., the shape of bell curve) for West Bengal, where election rallies held, and Uttarakhand, where Kumbh held, is not different than the distribution of any other state like Maharashtra, Gujrat, or MP. Most obviously, this similarity in the COVID cases between all states and Uttarakhand or West Bengal could be due to one common reason – the noncompliance of COVID protocols in general in every state, city, town, village, and household. The markets and other public places in every city of the country had large Kumbh-like gathering every day until April. Therefore, Kumbh or West Bengal rallies did not seem to make much difference in the overall distributions of state-wise cases. 

The most important question is then what exactly happened, where we went wrong. Well, my opinion is that the nation fell victim of the false and irresponsible narratives that were made after the first wave. These false narratives were: “COVID does not affect much Indian population”,  “our vaccines are not good or safe”,   “ our vaccines make people sick,”  etc. There were certain segments of our own society that made these narratives for their own political reasons,  but such narratives confused the nation badly, leading it to not follow the COVID protocol. As a result, when the second wave hit, the innocent people fell victim of these narratives as we did not have time to change these narratives and mend our social behavior.

For those who argue why government did not create enough infrastructure to deal with the problem of this magnitude, the matter of fact is that whatever health infrastructure that we see today while dealing with second wave – medical equipment, test kits, PPE kits, medicines, and vaccines — were created in past one year, thanks to the massive efforts of startups, private and public sectors, and the leadership of one man – PM Narendra Modi. This health infrastructure didn’t exist earlier. If we did not have what we have today, the situation would have been worst. Just think about it!

If someone would like to read and understand the complex mathematics behind the modelling and prediction referred in this report,  please feel free to read a research paper by Professor Manindra Agrawal at the link https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.09158 from a pre-print Journal of Cornell University.

~Dr. Singh

Will Prime Minister Modi and his Party overcome the westerly winds?

Kiran
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Will Prime Minister Modi and his Party overcome the westerly winds?

In recent weeks, no other person on the planet has taken a blame than India’s Prime Minister Modi on handling of COVID second wave that devastated millions of lives and thousands dying every day. The COVID Second wave is a double mutant variant that is considered more dangerous than the variant found in UK and South Africa. Prime Minister Modi was blamed for allowing religious gatherings and election rallies in poll bound states that went into polling in April 2021. The astronomical increase in the COVID cases and with dilapidated health infrastructure that was inherited from past 70 years unable to cope up with the inflow has resulted in thousands of deaths. As the cases hit exponentially across the country the shortages of Oxygen, shortages of beds and ICU care created chaos and panic among people. India took the worst disaster in the modern history.  

The Western media highlighted the devastation on the front page blaming squarely on Prime Minister Modi and created a hysterical narrative that echoes the nature of the media house. The narrative is similar to the one that was used to dethrone President Trump during his election in 2020 and portrayed him as a racist and not less than a dictator and equated him to Nazi. As we see, these media houses played a significant role to dethrone Trump and yes, the same narrative is being spun on Prime Minister Modi however, Modi has 3 more years to run for another reelection and yes, there is a lot of course correction that Prime Minister Modi can make to win People’s hearts. As, we look at the anatomy of India’s handling of COVID, there are some interesting aspects which neither Indian media nor western media wants to show that to public.

Most of Indians do not have the details which Indian Government warned the state Governments about possible Second wave months ahead and asked to take strict measures. Prime Minister Modi have held six meetings with Chief Ministers of various States from September 2020 till April 2021 and discussed the health ministry bulletins to take strict actions as needed apart from funding 162 Oxygen plants across India but several State Governments including Delhi neglected the call. Unfortunately, the COVID second wave is so brutal that people were in panic, despair and gloom all over India. This raises an interesting point, does any country on this planet can sustain with this astronomical surge of cases and can any public health infrastructure hold the enormous number of infections?

Although, India have inoculated 180 million people second to US by May 10th since January 2021 and its inoculation is the fastest so far despite a severe crunch in raw material supply from United States. As most of the western media never highlighted the fact that, soon after President Biden took over, he invoked a defense act and banned the raw material exports to India. India’s vaccine policy is based on the phases that United States adopted however vaccine crunch is real but India is overcoming by importing Sputnik V vaccine from Russia and is manufacturing it in India in next couple of months. It is important to vaccinate maximum number in next couple of months before a third wave hits India.  

Western media on every platform have highlighted Prime Minister Modi as a fascist and created an impression to the western world that he is a face of President Trump. The narrative was spun in such a way that, his party BJP winning two out of five states in recent polls and becoming a dominant player in Bengal is considered as a threat to democracy. The fact that this western media liberal journalists selectively ignored that, Indian people have voted Modi’s Party BJP for change. Out of 72 years of India’s independence, Modi’s party was in Power for just 12 years. Prime Minister Modi and his party BJP must work hard to change the narrative that western media have projected. In fact, Modi’s image have hit rock bottom in international fraternity.  

Although Prime Minister Modi may not contest next general elections in 2024 considering his age as he will be 74 by then however, his party will have to take extreme uphill task to convince the voters. His Party must work and produce a new electioneering campaign that was adopted by US Democrats in 2020 elections. Prime Minister Modi in next 3 years must come up with a drastically new innovative ways to ramp up the Health Infrastructure, a new health policy and a new way of checks and balances for Central schemes adopted in States. For every funding made towards the schemes, it must be highlighted to show the importance to the beneficiary.

On the other hand, Government of India must hire a lobby firms across the globe to publicize the revolutionary steps taken aftermath of COVID and should work on counter narrative on international platforms. On the other hand, his party must find innovative methods to reach out to public and in every possible social engineering to address the concerns, highlight the development made and how COVID is not a government’s failure but a disaster that India had to face like any other country. The task of handling media and media houses must be investigated at every level and must adopt how liberal parties like Congress party work in conjunction with Indian media houses. It is imperative for BJP to re look and change course when westerly winds are against them. 

बंगाल चुनाव: 213:77 के अनुपात का अर्थ क्या? भा.ज.पा के लिए आशा की किरण या निराशा की वजह

Pranjal Chaturvedi
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पश्चिम बंगाल मूलतः शीघ्र राजनैतिक परिवर्तन करने वाला राज्य नहीं रहा है, सदैव से स्थिर व स्थायी सरकार रही, फिर चाहे वो आजादी के बाद, 1952 में पश्चिम बंगाल के आम चुनवों से 1977 तक भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस का शासन रहा हो, या 1977 से 2011 तक, भारतीय कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी (मार्क्सवादी) या 2011 से 2021 तक, दो पंचवर्षीय बहुमत के साथ पूर्ण कर चुकी व तीसरी पंचवर्षीय शासन के लिए, वर्त्तमान सत्तासीन सर्वभारतीय तृणमूल कांग्रेस का शासन हो, पर इस सबसे भी विशेष व महवपूर्ण जो बात है, वो यह है कि बंगाल में, ऐसा कोई प्रतिद्वंद्वी विपक्षी दल नहीं रहा, जो सत्तारूढ़ न हुआ हो, आज भारतीय जनता पार्टी, 77 सीटों के साथ, एक मात्र मजबूत विपक्षी दल के रूप में व तृणमूल कांग्रेस के विकल्प के रूप में, व भविष्य के एक प्रबल दावेदार के रूप में उभर चुकी है।

सर्वभारतीय तृणमूल कांग्रेस का गठन 1 जनवरी 1998 को हुआ, ममता बनर्जी बंगाल के लिए एक सशक्त चहरा थीं, पार्टी के गठन के बाद, बंगाल के पहले आम चुनावों में, तृणमूल कांग्रेस को 60 सीटों पर विजय प्राप्त हुई थी, लेकिन पांच वर्ष बाद 2006 के बंगाल आम चुनावों में, तृणमूल को मात्र 30 सीटों पे समझौता करना व सिकुड़ना पड़ा, और फिर 2011 में, तृणमूल कांग्रेस ने पूर्ण बहुमत, 184 सीटों के साथ मजबूत सरकार का गठन किया, ऐसा ही कुछ भारतीय राष्ट्रीय कांग्रेस से, सत्ता भारतीय कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी (मार्क्सवादी) के पास जाने के समय देखने को मिलता है, 1972 के बंगाल आम चुनावों में, 14 सीटों पर विजय प्राप्त करने वाली पार्टी 1977 में, सीधे 178 सीटें जीत कर सरकार बना लेती है।

वर्तमान व अपेक्षाकृत परिणाम का मूल कारण रहा, भारतीय जनता पार्टी की चुनावी रणनीति का सीधा लाभ तृणमूल कांग्रेस को प्राप्त होना, जहां बहुमत का ध्रुवीकरण कर पाने में, भाजपा को अपेक्षित सफलता नहीं, मिली वहीं 27% की आबादी, अल्पमत का ध्रुवीकरण तृणमूल के पक्ष में, सफलता से हो गया, परिणाम स्वरूप 88 मुस्लिम प्रभावित सीटों में से 77 सीटें तृणमूल कांग्रेस जितने में, सफल रही व मुर्शिदाबाद व मालदा के क्षेत्र में, तृणमूल को 80% सीटों पर जीत हासिल हुई।

जहां अन्य सभी राज्यों में, भाजपा को नगरों व महानगरों में, मजबूत पकड़ वाली पार्टी के रूप में देखा जाता है, वहीं बंगाल में इसका, विपरीत देखने को मिला, बंगाल चुनाव में भाजपा के लिए ग्रामीण क्षेत्र सहायक व प्रमुख रूप से अनुसूचित जाति व जन-जाति सिद्ध हुए, 294 में से 84 आरक्षित सीटों में, अनुसूचित जाति के लिए 68 व अनुसूचित जनजाति के लिए 16 सीटों में से, भाजपा को लगभग 46.42% फीसद, अर्थात 39 सीटों पर विजय प्राप्त हुई व तृणमूल को 45 सीटें प्राप्त हुई, जो भाजपा के औसत प्रदर्शन से काफी बेहतर रहा।

चुनाव परिणाम घोषित होने के पश्चात सर्वाधिक चर्चा में, नंदीग्राम से शिवेंदु अधिकारी का ममता बनर्जी को 1956 वोटों से हरा कर विजयी होने रहा, ममता बनर्जी को नंदीग्राम में, 47.64% वोट मिले वहीं शिवेंदु अधिकारी को 48.49%, ये 0.85% का अंतर और अधिकारी की जीत, भाजपा को बंगाल में एक बेहतर बंगाली भाषी क्षेत्रीय नेतृत्वकरता व अगले बंगाल आम चुनावों में बेहतर करने का विश्वास दे गया।

समय की आवश्यकता है संयुक्त परिवार

gdbinani
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समय की आवश्यकता है संयुक्त परिवार

हमारे कृषि प्रधान देश में संयुक्त परिवार रामायण व महाभारत काल से चली आ रही प्राचीन परम्पराओं व स्थापित आदर्शों के हिसाब से चल रहे हैं। लेकिन पिछले कुछ सालों में संयुक्त परिवार से निकल लोग एकल परिवार की तरफ आकृष्ट हो रहे हैं।

आज कोरोना के इस संक्रमण काल में यह सभी को समझ में आ गया है कि घर सबसे ज्यादा सुरक्षित स्थान है हालाँकि हमारे पूर्वज तो हमेशा से ही न केवल इसे यानि घर  बल्कि संयुक्त परिवार के बारे में समझाते रहे हैं।लेकिन इन बीते चालीस वर्षों में यह देखने में आ रहा है कि कई लोग अपने स्वार्थ और धनलोलुपता की वजह से कहिये या पश्चिमी सभ्यता से प्रभावित हो अपना संयुक्त परिवार छोड़ एकल परिवार वाला सिद्धांत को अपना लेते हैं। वे यह कदम बिना दूर की सोचे उठा तो लेते हैं लेकिन अब जब इस संक्रमण काल में एकल परिवार का एक भी सदस्य रोग ग्रसित होता है तब उन्हें पुनः अपने दादा, दादी, नाना, नानी वगैरह द्वारा समझाई गयी बात को याद कर सोचते हैं कि उन लोगों ने हमेंं ठीक ही संयुक्त परिवार के बारे में समझाया था कि मिल जुलकर रहेंगे तो न केवल हर दुःख हो या ख़ुशी मिल बाँटगे यानि आवश्याकता पड़ने पर हमें किसी भी प्रकार के बाहरी मदद पर निर्भर रहना नहीं पड़ेगा।

अब मैं इस कॉलम के प्रबुद्ध पाठकों को अपनी  उम्र के इस पड़ाव पर एकल परिवार व संयुक्त परिवार से सम्बन्धित जो अनुभव मेेेरे ध्यान मेेंं हैंं वह सांझा करना चाहूँगा ताकि वे समय रहते स्वयं सही निर्णय ले सकें।

सबसे पहले अपने परिवार का ही उदाहरण देकर मैं यह बताना चाहता हूँ कि हम सभी भाई संयुक्त होते हुए भी अलग अलग शहरों में रहते हैं जिसका एक मात्र कारण व्यवसाय है। जबकि किसी भी तरह की नयी जगह में प्रवेश का मामला हो या किसी भी सदस्य की मृत्यु या फिर शादी विवाह हो या मायरा, जिसे भात भरना भी कहते हैं, के अलावा भी हर तरह का बड़ा सामूहिक पारिवारिक आयोजन, पर हम सभी भी सपत्निक  इकठ्ठे ही नहीं होते हैं बल्कि निर्णय भी सर्वसम्मति से ले, क्रियान्वयन कर अपनी सहभागिता निभाते हैं यानि सुख और दु:ख के समय आराम से सारे काम आसानी से निपट जाते हैं जिससे किसी को कोई भी काम भारी नहीं लगता।

अब एक दूसरा उदाहरण जो इस बार संक्रमण काल में आप सभी ने भी अनुभव किया होगा कि सब जगहों से श्रमिक बिना समय गवायें, कार्यस्थल छोड़, आनन फानन में अपने अपने गावों की तरफ सारी तकलीफें झेलते हुए भी पहूचें और उनके संयुक्त परिवार के सदस्यों ने न केवल राहत की साँस ली बल्कि उनका तहेदिल से स्वागत ही नहीं किया बल्कि जब तक वे घर में रहे उनसभी की पूरी पूरी देखभाल भी की। और ये लोग  भी गांव पहूँच परिवार के काम में बिना समय गँवाये अपना हाथ बंटाना शुरू कर दिया। इसी तरह श्रमिकों के अलावा कुछ ऐसे भी थे जो संयुक्त परिवार से कट कर रह रहे थे जिसके चलते मजबूरन उन्हें वहीं कार्यस्थल वाली जगह पर ही रुकना पड़ा और इसी बीच यदि कोई एक सदस्य भी संक्रमित या बीमार हुआ तो उस पर तो दु:खों का पहाड़ ही टूट पड़ा क्योंकि सब कुछ यानि दवा हो या भोजन सब व्यवस्था एक पर ही आ पड़ती है ।ऐसे लोगों को इसके अलावा भी अनेकों तरह की  अन्य तकलिफों से भी रूबरू होना पड़ा है। अब एक खास तथ्य यह है कि इस बार, विशेषकर कोरोना पीड़ितों वाले एकल परिवारों को तो यह भी आभास हो गया कि पैसा के आगे संयुक्त परिवार बहुत  मायने रखता है। 

इस तरह  लिखने को तो बहुत कुछ लिखा जा सकता है और  आपको इस विषय पर पढ़ने को भी बहुत कुछ मिल ही जायेगा लेकिन मैंने उपरोक्त वर्णित सशक्त उदाहरणों से आप सभी के सामने एकल परिवार व संयुक्त परिवार की एक ऐसी तश्वीर पेश करने की पूरी पूरी चेष्टा की है जिससे वर्णित लाभ-नुकसान वाले तथ्य भी अपने आप ही आपके दिमाग में आने लगेंगे। फिर भी आज के समय यानि आर्थिक युग को ध्यान में रख, पाठकों की सुविधा के लिये कुछ ब्यापक मुख्य बिन्दु जैसे  अनुभव, आत्मनिर्भरता, मदद, एकता, साँझा, सामाजिक सुरक्षा, मनोवाज्ञानिक मजबूती, काम प्रतिबंध, जल्द निर्णय, कम खर्च, अधिक गोपनीयता, संचय, विनिवेश, त्यौहार वगैरह पर लाभ – नुकसान अवश्य सोच लें तो निर्णय लेने में सुविधा होगी।

अन्त में मेरा निष्कर्ष तो यही है कि संयुक्त परिवार की नींव में सहिष्णुता और निस्वार्थ भाव से आपसी सहयोग मुख्य बिन्दु हैं जिसका तात्पर्य यही है कि अगर मिलजुल कर रहेंगे तो आसानी से हर एक समस्या पर आपसी रजामंदी से समय रहते ही  निजात पा सकते हैं। उपरोक्त वर्णित सारे तथ्यों को कवि लक्ष्मण धामी ‘मुसाफिर’ ने अपनी इन दो पंक्तियों “एकाकी जीवन सदा, बैठा दुख की छाँव। पड़ जाते परिवार में, बरबस सुख के पाँव।।” के माध्यम से हम सभी को स्पष्ट सन्देश दे सचेत किया है। इसके अलावा मेरे अनुभव अनुसार संयुक्त परिवार में समय समय पर अनेक स्थापित मापदंडों में भी रजामंदी से सर्वमान्य बदलाव अपनाये गए हैं। इस तथ्य को आप सभी के ध्यान में लाने यानि बतलाने का एकमात्र तात्पर्य यही है कि अभी भी, आज के परिवेश को ध्यान में रख रजामंदी से सर्वमान्य बदलाव की पूरी पूरी गुंजाईश है। अत: हमें हमेशा ही परिवार में मिलजुल कर रहने की कोशिश करना चाहिए ताकि हम आपस में खुशी-खुशी जीवन जी सकें। इसलिये संयुक्त परिवार का हिस्सा बनें क्योंकि जब परिवार में एकजुटता रहेगी तभी एक मजबूत समाज निर्माण हो पायेगा जो आज के समय की आवश्यकता है।

Should Crypto be legalized in India

anoopgopalsingh
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Should Crypto be legalized in India

A panel led by finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg drafted a bill titled, “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019.” While the Reserve Bank of India has distanced itself from this draft bill, people on both sides of the economic aisle ask for this Bill to be scrapped. Cryptocurrency is not supposed to be banned without discussing its values and downfalls. Banning will also mean that the money we invested is at stake, India’s national security and monetary policy are at stake, and most notably, India’s participation in the future of technology is at stake.

A cryptocurrency is an alternative form of payment to cash, credit cards, and checks. The technology behind it allows you to send it directly to others without going through a 3rd party like a bank In other words, cryptocurrencies are like virtual accounting systems. They keep a record of all transactions. The transactions are bundled into blocks, which are cryptographically signed (hence “crypto” currency)

Problem? Crypto exchanges got a second wind after the supreme court on March 4th struck down the virtual ban on trading announced by India’s reserve bank in April 2018. The RBI had prohibited banks and financial institutions from providing services supporting digital currencies like bitcoin after a string of frauds were unearthed post-2016 demonetization. Large banks have not supported crypto trading entirely.

However, in a blow to estimated 1.7 million Indian digital traders, the government is planning to bring in a law to ban trading in cryptocurrencies. The Indian traders were already hurting due to the lack of regulations in the sector as they waited for clarity from the government and the  RBI. However, for a change, the industry was flourishing during the lockdown. India is on the verge of banning a trillion-dollar industry instead of using it to strengthen our finances

The point is that this Cryptocurrency is legit, and it is enormous and is nothing compared to the future that awaits us if we embrace it but needs to be regulated to avoid mishaps.

In  February 2018, late Arun Jaitley and the then finance minister of India said that the government might take measures to eliminate the use of cryptocurrency. Again in April 2018, RBI also banned banks and other associated financial entities from encouraging the use of cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange. Later, in March 2020 the ban was lifted by the Supreme Court as it was deemed unconstitutional. Now in 2021, the government is planning to introduce the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill which will set the tone for India’s own digital currency. Now the issue is that such varied statements are sending mixed signals to Indian citizens. This might lead to some resistance and mixed feelings towards cryptocurrency when legalized.

Fig 1: Value of Bitcoin (in $)

Fig 2: Value of SENSEX (in points)

As evident from the graphs, the returns on cryptocurrency, in general, have been much more than BSE or NSE stocks.

The cryptocurrency was initially deemed as a bubble that will burst, but recent years have taught us that it is in fact an asset that is here to stay. Different forms of cryptocurrencies are expected to stabilize at some fair value in the future depending on multiple macroeconomics factors

What/Who gives cryptocurrency its’ value and what all parties are involved who will play a key role in deciding in which way will the camel sit.

So first, talking about its value, any cryptocurrency, gets its value from three aspects, which are, rules, history, and value(monetary). Rules refer to the rules that concern the structure and the code written by the people who developed it, and these are the rules that would be looked upon in case there is a fork between two parties regarding authenticity. History refers to the transactions, which help keep track of the currency and effectively let us know who possesses how many bitcoins. And value, as we know cryptocurrency requires large-scale computations to be mined, and thus therefore the whole process is very capital intensive and demands large investments.

First party involved are the developers of various cryptocurrencies, the ones who write the rules of a given currency. The next party and a very important one consists of miners, these are the various developers and coders who spend their time and intelligence in understanding the blockchain technology. Another important stakeholders is the investor, who funds the process of mining which by the way is a very capital intensive one, some theories suggest that the capital required behind building a bitcoin may soon be equivalent to printing currency worth the same value. Another big and probably the most important segment of stakeholders is the merchants and the customers, they are the ones who generate the primary demand for any cryptocurrency and hence drive the long term price, in fact, all the real power that the investors hold derives from customers and merchants only, and investors are simply placing a bet on which currency will they move to in the long run. Payment services also come in and will play a decisive role in the legalization of cryptocurrency as once the currency and the users are there, there needs to be a platform that allows for transactions to occur.

Legalizing cryptocurrency is a big task and its advantages and disadvantages must be kept in mind while doing so.

Advantages:

Legalizing cryptocurrency in India will open new business avenues for crypto miners and traders. When they have backing from the judiciary of the country, they won’t have to fear anything and they could grow startups and create jobs for thousands of people in India. It would also help in growing the GDP of the country by a significant margin.

Crypto would  curtail the transaction fees. When an individual sends money through a credit card, the bank takes its fees from the user for its services. But when the same amount of money is sent through cryptocurrency, the transaction fees are very less. It is because the crypto transaction fees are based on the amount of data sent and that is very less. According to Investopedia, the crypto transaction fees are ~25% lesser compared to normal credit card/banking fees.Using cryptocurrency also gives more power to people concerning their hard-earned money. It is because crypto is not owned by any organization and hence there would be a lack of interference from the banking industry regarding crypto transactions. Legalizing cryptocurrency will help in escalating international businesses. It is because it has universal recognition and it is legal in many developed countries. There would be no need to convert one currency to another as it is universally accepted and recognized.

On 5th April 2021, the market capitalization of the global crypto market crossed the $2 trillion mark. The two largest cryptocurrencies by value are Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin holds more than $1 trillion and Ethereum holds about $245 billion in market capitalization. To put the number in perspective, the market cap of gold as an asset is around $11 trillion. This shows the market capitalization of cryptocurrency is high enough to gain our attention and it can no longer be ignored. USD is a very important foreign currency, not only for Indian but for the world. Countries have tried to reduce their dependence on USD and cryptocurrency has the ability to allow them to do so. In this way, it can surely influence the world economy and India might be left out if they don’t board the early train by legalizing the cryptocurrency.

So one can easily say that legalizing cryptocurrency will help India in enhancing its global outreach and it would be beneficial for its citizens as well.

Disadvantages:

As cryptocurrency is online and encrypted, hence it is highly vulnerable and sensitive to be used in illegal activities. Such activities may include crypto funding and transactions for smuggling, drug trafficking, terrorism, kidnapping, dark web activities, and so on. This fact is backed by a Forbes article dated January 2021, and the crypto fundings account for 5% of such activities, and they are growing. Another aspect that one must take note of is hacking and malware activities. Cryptocurrency is 100% online and hence there is always a possibility for hacking because it is entirely operated in the digital domain. In 2019 alone, 313000 cases of cybersecurity were reported in India by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT). So there is always a digital hacking risk.

Fig 3: World map showing the advancement of CBDC in different countries

To cope up with these disadvantages, some countries are looking at Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). CBDC is a form of digital currency issued by the central bank or the regulatory monetary body of the country

Therefore it is high time we legalize crypto in India. But before that there are certain things to be thought extensively.

Due to the illegal status of the crypto various potential tax revenues, FDI inflow, and Talent which went unnoticed need to be recovered. The banning caused reduced global investment in more than 350 startup generations’ revenue worth 70000 million USD daily. With the increased malware attacks there is the need to invest in startups and public agencies, like Kaspersky to prevent crypto trojans from attacking the digital system of transactions. Even if crypto is legalized in India there is a need to set up password authentication & recovery agencies to make crypto secure & refundable. There is a need to implement laws and regulations not nationally but internationally as well to identify problems and take capacity-building measures instead of fearing the uncertainty. CRODC 2021 may be a game-changer but better regulation will be required for the issues that will arise with increased usage of the crypto in large amounts

If India sets up its own crypto regulated by the government, and there exists a possibility of things going south, then it is the responsibility of the regulatory authority (tentatively RBI) to maintain decorum. The crypto, as well as fiat money, are quite similar in this sense since none of them is backed by anything. So the things would go in a similar fashion for both except the fact that crashing crypto is not as easy as fiat money laundering.

(By: Yash Kabra, Anoop Gopal Singh, Amartya Bhargava, Abhay Kulshrestha, Raghav Goel)

CM Mamta Banejee meets her match; Suvendu Adhikari becomes the Leader Of Opposition in West-Bengal Vidhan Sabha

R. Madhav Bera
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CM Mamta Banejee meets her match; Suvendu Adhikari becomes the Leader Of Opposition in West-Bengal Vidhan Sabha

After the swearing in ceremony of Mamta Banerjee as Chief Minister Of West Bengal, as many as 43 MLAs have taken oath as Ministers in CM Mamta Banerjee’s cabinet on 10th May 2021. Subsequently, in the afternoon, BJP Party has appointed Mr. Suvendu Adhikari as “Leader of Opposition” in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.[i]  It is pertinent to note that with 77 seats, BJP emerges as a second largest party in the West Bengal & would play a role of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.[ii] That role of opposition is very crucial in State Legislative Assemblies as well as in Parliament as it is responsible for keeping checks & balances in the decision making of the ruling government. Further, it is the duty & responsibility of the opposition to fix the mistakes of the ruling government. Moreover, role of the opposition is very crucial for upholding the interests of the general public.[iii]

Since, past few days there have been strong speculations in the media houses regarding the selection of “Leader of Opposition” in the State Legislative Assembly. Some of the media report suggested that that National Vice-President Mr. Mukul Roy, Nandigram Winner Mr. Suvendu Adhikari & two times MLA Mr. Manoj Tigga might become Leader of Opposition” in the Legislative Assembly.[iv]  That on 8th May, BJP Party’s parliamentary board had nominated Union Minister Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad & National General Secretary Mr. Bhupendra Yadav as “Central Observer” for the election of the Leader of MLAs in the West Bengal’s Vidhan Sabha & finally Mr. Suvendu Adhikari who defeated CM Mamta Banerjee in Nandigram, is appointed as a “Leader Of Opposition” in the assembly. Interestingly, National Vice-President Mr. Mukul Roy who was also believed to be in the league to become the Opposition Leader, has himself voted in favour of Mr. Adhikari for the said post.

 Leader Of Opposition; Crucial Aspects For BJP Party

Surely, the assembly results give a nod to the top party cadre of BJP to check their political analysis & review political strategies more particularly in the state like West Bengal. That it had been seen that from Prime Minister Narender Modi to Amit Shah all top national leaders had worked tirelessly to achieve the milestone in West Bengal. That winning 18 seats in Lok Sabha Election 2019 might be one of the reasons which may build up such expectations or anticipations that party would come to power in Bengal. But, the assembly results surely once again reiterated old political customary theory that parameters of “Vidhan Sabha elections are quite different from Lok Sabha Elections”.

It cannot be denied that the popularity of Prime Minister Modi is immense throughout India as well as in West Bengal State, but, this election might give a lesson to the top party strategists that only with the Prime Minister’s face or popularity, the party may not win a state like West Bengal. There is an anticipation that after the loss, BJP will try to strengthen the political base in Bengal. There might be shuffling in the existing party structure in the state & state leaders may be urged to expand their influences & presences at every level or corners in order to gain faith & support of the masses. As such,  it was believed that the Party would likely choose a candidate as “Opposition Leader” who has experience in Bengal Politics as well as having strong hold in the local & state  level politics & also popular among the masses.

Previous Opposition Leaders In The West Bengal Legislative Assembly (2011-2021)

 That in the year 2011 when the first time TMC came to the year in West Bengal, CPI(M) leader Sh. Surya Kanta Mishra was appointed as a “Leader Of Opposition” in the State Legislative Assembly.[v]The tenure of Mr. Mishra as an “Opposition leader” did not prove to be a significant one for the Left Front & hardly there was any remarkable achievement which deserved to be praised upon. Further, in the Panchayat Elections 2013, the Left Party performed very poorly & even the party failed to field their candidates in almost 14 % constituencies. Later, in the 2016 Assembly Election, the position of the Left Front allies further deteriorated in the state. Mr. Mishra himself fought the election from Narayangarh Vidhan Sabha Seat & lost the election in 2016. Although, it would not be rightful to shift all the buckets on his shoulder for such deterioration of the Left Front party as responsibilities were equally upon the senior leaders.

In the year 2016, Congress Leader Mr. Abdul Mannan was appointed as a “Leader Of Opposition” in the State Legislative Assembly.[vi] That Mr. Mannan’s tenure as Opposition leader was also not very commendable. Mr. Mannan has lost the current state legislative election & his party also failed to win a seat in the election.

Why Suvendu Adhikari’s Appointment As Opposition’s Leader Is/Was Important For BJP?

As per the media sources,  after defeating CM Mamta Banerjee, Mr. Adhikari was one of the front liners in the race for becoming the “Leader Of Opposition”. A heavy weight leader who is active in politics over more than the past 2 decades. The influence of Mr. Adhikari in West Bengal’s Politics more particularly over Purba & Paschim Midnapore region is nothing new to be talked about. It is pertinent to mention the day when Mr. Adhikari resigned from the TMC Party, many crucial local workers & leaders of TMC also left the Party. The influence & popularity of Mr. Adhikari can be measured from the fact that many local leaders used to introduce themselves as “Amra Dadar Anugami” means we are the follower of Dada (Suvendu Adhikari) in the party’s posters & hoarding, when he was in TMC party.[vii]  

Being a grass root leader, he has all the requisites skills of a leader which makes him most desirable candidate for the position. In pre-election campaigns, he was a “Star Campaigner” for the BJP & with his great oratory skills he marked a special significance in the eyes of top ranked leaders. Further, Panchayat & civic body elections will be held in the state & these elections play a significant role to expand the party to the base level or can say booth level. That leaders or workers who are working at the panchayat level are more close to the masses & have direct contacts with the people which helps a party to cater to the needs of the public. Mr. Suvendu Adhikari being a grass-roots leader also has a great organizational which can be beneficial for the party to strengthen the base in the state of West Bengal.

It is very crucial to mention that the clout of Mr. Suvendhu Adhikari & his family will surely be effected as he left the ruling party. His political rivals may also try to take advantage of this situation & may try to take revenge. Further, he was the one who directly faced-off TMC Supremo Mamta Banerjee & his nephew Sh. Abhishek Banerjee (MP) during pre-elections campaigns & also defeated her in the election which is creating restlessness among the TMC party workers & leaders. That after winning the election his car was attacked by the TMC workers in Nandigram & he had to rushed from the counting center without taking wining certificate.[viii] The aforesaid facts suggests that he likely to be faced much more heats from the TMC leaders & workers in future. Furthermore, as per the news reports, after his resignation from TMC, his father Mr. Shisir Adhikari (MP) was removed from the chairmanship of Digha Shankarapur Development Authority[ix] & also from the post of District President, East Midnapore[x].

Further, his brother Mr. Soumendu Adhikari was removed from the post of Contai Municipality[xi] & his another brother Mr. Dibyendu Adhikari (MP) had resigned from the all administrative posts held by him in TMC Govt.[xii] As such, the Leader of Opposition status will surely encourage him to achieve more counts for the party in West Bengal & it would also be a reward for his bravery which he has shown by fighting & winning election against CM Mamta Banerjee from Nandigram. A BJP Leader once said to media that “Leader of Opposition enjoys a ministerial post & special LOP status might protect Suvendu from “unnecessary harassments”.[xiii]  

No doubt, playing a role of Opposition’s Leader is not going to be easy for anyone in the party as lots of ice-bergs or fire balls will come into the way. But, it will not be a new thing for Mr. Adhikari because the heavyweight leader has already faced such types of heats or pressures during the Left Front’s reign in West Bengal. It is pertinent to note that in the 2006 election Suvendu Adhkari was one of the few candidates who managed to win an assembly seat. In 2006, the TMC Party only managed to win 30 seats in the assembly election. Further, he is the one who had defeated CPI (M) strongman Mr. Lakshman Seth in the Lok Sabha Election, 2019.  Furthermore, he hasn’t lost a single election since 2006. Therefore, Winner’s title in the “Battle Of Nandigram” is not an only achievement which certifies his political leadership credibility.  

Mr. Suvendu Adhikari is definitely a wise choice for BJP or we may say it is the best choice, if one sums up all the crucial factors. Further, his selection would definitely boost the confidence of the workers & leaders who feuded with TMC Party & later joined BJP. It would also give a message to these workers that the party is not adopting any discriminatory policy between old party workers or leaders & newly introduced members.

Certainly, after the appointment of Mr. Adhikari, much face-offs can be expected with CM Mamta Banejee in the assembly. It will be interesting to see how they confront or compliment each other in the assembly.

[i] https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/mamata-keeps-home-and-health-portfolios-suvendu-adhikari-elected-leader-of-opposition/article34525617.ece

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_West_Bengal_Legislative_Assembly_election#Alliance_Wise_Results

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Opposition_(India)#Role

[iv] https://www.deccanherald.com/national/east-and-northeast/bengal-bjp-adopts-wait-and-watch-approach-over-selecting-leader-of-opposition-982249.html

[v] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surjya_Kanta_Mishra

[vi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Mannan_(West_Bengal_politician)

[vii] https://bengali.abplive.com/news/bengal/posters-of-amra-dadar-anugami-by-followres-of-suvendu-adhikarai-appears-in-chandrakona-765092

[viii] https://www.aninews.in/news/national/politics/suvendus-car-attacked-media-persons-thrashed-in-wbs-haldia20210502230551/

[ix] https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-tmcs-sisir-adhikari-removed-as-development-agency-chairman/370269

[x] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/sisir-removed-from-tmc-district-presidents-post/articleshow/80259716.cms

[xi] https://www.oneindia.com/india/suvendu-adhikari-s-brother-hints-he-is-joining-bjp-3196531.html

[xii] https://newsable.asianetnews.com/gallery/india/bengal-election-tmc-mp-dibyendu-adhikari-resigns-from-administrative-posts-dbr-qny0dn

[xiii] Ibid, 5.

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