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Ayodhya is not just a Place, its more…

shatrunjaya
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Ayodhya is not just a Place, its more…

In the heat of the moment, came to fore my memories of 2010, when I was accused of being communal to suggest that Ayodhya be Coronated with Temple of Ram. Accusations coming from my friends and relatives often made me reconsider my position, trail of thoughts however, leads me only to one and only conclusion, which manifested itself today. Ayodhya, the name again justifies itself.

Of the name “Ayodhya”

Sage Valmiki, names Capital of Kings belonging to Clan of Sun, also called “Suravansh”, as “Ayodhya”, However, Brahmanas, annexed with Vaidik scriptures relate another reason for City’s name. Ikshvaku son of Lord Vaivaswat Manu had a hundred sons, among whom Vikukshi was the eldest. Vikukshi a formidable and was never ever defeated, which earned him the sobriquet “Ayodh” meaning, one who can’t be fought against, and thus he named his Capital “Ayodhya” the City which cannot be won.
City stands at the banks of famous river “Sarayu” and was said to have nine Access points imitating the Human body.

Of the Kings

The Surayavanshis were divided into many warrior subclans, there were Ikshwakus, Narishyantas (Historically “Sakas”), Dharshtakas (Historically “Scythians”), Karushas (Historically a sub clan of “Abhirs”) and Prushadhras.

Sun clan, in general is one of the three most revered warrior clans in India. However, Ikshwaku was the eldest among all his brothers and thus the kingdom of Madhya Desh (“Middle land”) was received by him, His clan was cream of the crop, even among rest of Suryavanshis. Brahmanas and Puranas unanimously praise them for their valor, Piety, renunciation, Charity, veracity and clemency. The glory of Kings of this clan is so much, that to this date it is not called Clan of Ram, but “Raghukul” clan of Raghu, “Ikshwakuvansh” house of Ikshwaku, It is one of the strangest and shocking things in today’s environment, where people kill for identity politics and credit!

Other famous Kings of this clan are, Pruthu (Who believed to be father of Prithavi) and Sudas (who defeated 10 armies at once in Dasa Rajan War). Shravasta, the king who raised the “Sharavasti”, Sagar (the King who believed to have brought river Ganga from heavens), Dileep (King who was ready to sacrifice himself for saving life of a cow), Raghu (the King who caused Gold to rain!), Harishchandra (the king who sold himself, his wife and his child for keeping up with his promises), and Dasharatha (The King who defeated Asuras for 1000 years and Father of lord Rama). The list is not exhaustive, but it will suffice to note that every person belonging to this clan had added to the glory of this family.

Other notable personalities and affiliations

Ayodhya, was not known for its universities or Serene beauty or riches, rather it was a seat of power, and just like any other seats it has given birth to many satellite States. We have noted Shravasti, similarly there is Lav-pur (contemporary “Lahore”), Kush-pur (Contemporary “Kasoor”). The initiator of Buddhism, Lord Buddh and Lord Mahavira both have connections with Ayodhya, As both were born in Sun clan (while Buddha was born in “Shakya” republic, or more accurately Sakas, Ayodhya is considered birthplace of five great Theerthankars viz, Rishabhanatha, Ajitanatha, Abhinandananatha, Sumatinatha and Anantnatha). Guru Nanak Dev too belonged to a branch of Solar clan. In his life time he visited Ayodhya (around 1510 AD) and described the architecture of the city in detail. Interestingly his account has played a key role in suit related to Ayodhya reclamation. 

Myth and Reality

A few years back, History is believed to be a straight line, and every event during its course should neatly have spaced into that line or else latter will be condemned to remain a “Myth”. However, recent Idea of History which coincides with Indian Concept of History as well is that, the events always happen in parallel and yet they have an effect over each other. Civilisations of the past might not be as disconnected as they seem and Ayodhya can be a good case study in this sense. Consider this: King Ikshwaku is also known by the name, “Shashaad”, interestingly Persia has a dynasty whose name closely resembles “Shashaad” (“Sassanids”), Similarly King Pruthu’s name has a similar connotation with an Iranian tribe, “Parthians”. Interestingly, “Ram” Means “the one who brings to light” and again we have a Hawk faced god “Ra” in Egypt!

A few years back Member of Parliament from Congress Sh. Shashi Tharoor had written a piece in India Today, connecting Bhagwan Ram to City of Harappa. It will be interesting to see if in future Historians connect the dots and find out relation of Ayodhya with other Civilisations of the past.

The Successors

After collapse of central and unifying authority of Guptas, Ayodhya faced terrible attacks from invaders like Turks and Afghans, although attacks were frequent on all Hindu centres, but this was thwarted by Kings like Rana Kumbha, Maharaja Suhel Dev etc.

However, Babur’s general Mir Banki captured Ayodhya in 1528 and a resistance began, Rana Sanga, Medini Rai, Rajpoots, Lodhs, Nishads, Sikhs, Jaats, Nihangs, Nirankaris, Nagas and many like them sacrificed themselves to see the temple of beloved Ram at this holy of holies, according to an estimate Hindus have fought 80 battles to reclaim Ayodhya, longest among them was won at Supreme Court of India culminating in the building of Ram Temple.

The future Ayodhya holds for us

Return of Shri Ram at Ayodhya has lead to the rejoice and festivities, however, it is also a time for introspection. It is a time to ask ourselves that how a few hundred brigands have defeated the capital of that king whose name outshines even Lord Ram? How and why we have kept the caste and forgot what we have to contribute to make our membership worthwhile? Why have we stopped exploring our roots? Why have we became morbidly passive towards our traditions and values? Most of all why we have stopped keeping true heroes and placed our trust in false Idols?

Ayodhya is not a mere coincidence, it was effort of at least 15 generations of Indians working in tandem. Ayodhya is living evidence of United India. 

Defogging Delhi’s budget claims

Adithya
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Defogging Delhi’s budget claims

This is an article that I wrote in my blog a few days before the February 2020 Delhi elections. In this article, I bust the myth about Delhi’s tax revenue collections made by CM Kejriwal during the election campaign. As this article has tables with numbers in them, it is best read over a PC instead of a mobile phone.

A friend of mine who is a supporter of AAP based on their “work” in Delhi, shared this with me recently – “People of Delhi realised that good people are now in the government and hence they paid more taxes than before. So, Delhi’s tax collection increased from Rs. 30,000 crores in 2014-15 to Rs. 60,000 crores in 2019-20”.

Being a Financial analyst, he made zero efforts to look into the numbers before accepting them. On other matters we may not be qualified to speak about, but examination of financials is our job. That is what he has studied and practised for the last eight years. While the doubling of revenue is a possibility, I really thought he was joking when he said, ‘people paid more tax on their own’. Sadly, he was not, an indictment on his last eight years of education.

I write this article after having gone through several of Delhi’s and other states’ budgets. And before writing about the budgets I would like to add here how easy it is to access Delhi’s budget in comparison with a lot of other states. Maharashtra could not have made it more difficult and I had to solely rely on private organisations to analyse Maharashtra’s budget.

Anyway, I could end this entire article in just two lines ie.:
1. Exponential increase in tax base under GST.
2. Consumption based tax regime and population explosion

But since some may not be familiar with taxation system, let us get into the details:
There are several aspects to the tall claim. Let us examine them:
A. Start at Rs. 30000 crores
B. End at Rs. 60000 crores
C. People paid more tax out of trust

*Links to Delhi’s government website from where the following tables are drawn are provided at the end of this article*

Let us look at A.)
From Table a1 we gather that my friend is talking about the tax collections which stands near their claim of Rs.30000 crores. Let us bear in mind that he is not talking about Total receipts of the Government.

 Total receipts (sum of all)Opening BalanceTaxNon Tax (interest, penalties etc.)Others (recvd. From GOI, etc.)GST Compensation
2014-153710303157111614371 0
Table a1

Now, what are the components of ‘Tax’? Table a2:

 Tax (sum of all)VATExciseOther (Luxry, entertain, betting)Tax on MV, Stamp & Registration
2014-15315712100036005716400
Table a2

You will find that Tax is made up of VAT, Excise Duty, Luxury Tax, Entertainment Tax, Tax on betting, Tax on Motor Vehicles, stamp duty and registrations etc.

Now, let us move on to B.) End at Rs. 60000 crores
From Table b1 it is evident that now he is talking about total receipts and no longer about just Tax.

 Total receiptsOpening BalanceTaxNon Tax (interest, penalties etc.)Others (recvd. From GOI, etc.)GST Compensation
2014-153710303157111614371 
2019-206000044474250080092533000
Table b1

Alright, so before we examine the components of Total receipts, let me for the sake matching, provide you with the components of Tax in 2019-20 in Table b2

  GST   
 TaxVATExciseOther (Luxry, entertain, betting)Tax on MV, Stamp & Registration
2014-15315712100036005716400
2019-204250029000600007500
Table b2

Let us examine the components of Total receipts from Table b1
Opening Balance: Unused receipts from previous years
Tax: Discussed in Table b2
Non-Tax: Includes interest on late filing of tax returns, penalties etc. but since it is only Rs. 800-crores, no point discussing it further
Others: This is a major component with Rs. 9,253 crores and hence requires some explanation-Components include:
1. Small saving loan: 4,786 crores (Website under maintenance)
2. Centrally sponsored scheme: 2,558 crores
3. Capital Receipts: 750 crores 4. Normal central assistance: 472 crores
5. Share in central Taxes: 325 crores
6. Externally Aided Projects: 300 crores

Small savings loan (1), Capital receipts (3) and Externally Aided Projects (6) are all various forms of loans. (1) being the biggest component, I wanted to understand the exact money flow there, however the website of SSL is currently under maintenance and hence could not be accessed.
The other components (2) and (4) are money inflow from central government under various Central government schemes. (5) is Delhi’s share in central taxes: The shareable central taxes include corporation tax, income tax, wealth tax and customs. Since it is only Rs. 325 crores, a deeper look is not necessary.

Anyhow, we can conclude that “others of Rs. 9253 crores” is mainly Central government assistance and loans taken by Delhi Government.

GST compensation: Finally, we come to the last and the most important component of Delhi’s Total revenue and that is GST compensation of Rs. 3,000 crores.
What is GST compensation? Government of India while introducing GST, computed an all India average growth of 14% in tax revenues year on year with base year ending on 31 March 2016. It assured the state governments like Delhi, that their tax revenue will at least increase by 14% and any shortfall will be Bourne by Central government for the next five years starting from Financial year 2017-18 (As GST was introduced in July 2017).
Every state faced some difficulty in the first year of introduction of GST. However, most states picked up well and slowly reduced their compensation. Image j1 is a screenshot of the compensation awarded in 2017-18 compared with 2018-19

Image j1

From all the 31 states under the GST Act, Delhi and Goa are the only two states in 18-19 whose compensation has grown compared to 17-18. Goa a mere 1.4% increase whereas Delhi’s compensation grew by a staggering 512%. Sadly, in 2019-20 this has again grown to Rs. 3,000 crores.

This is an eye-opener about the myth of ‘people paying more tax on their own’.

I had decided that I shall not make this article political and shall keep it about Delhi’s budget only, [Don’t ask me for links of videos to prove what’s in this paragraph, its anyway not the subject of this article, find it yourself] but:
This myth comes from genius mind of Mr. Prashant Kishor. He has made the entire election campaign of AAP as “people of Delhi vs. outsiders”. When you watch the recent interviews of AAP supremo you will find him sharing the insults he received from Congress and BJP with the people of Delhi ie. If BJP/Congress calls AAP a corrupt party, you will find AAP communicating that to Delhi’s people as, “They are calling Delhi’s people corrupt”. And similarly, there’s a feel-good factor about knowing ‘my city people have given more taxes on their own’. Hats off to the strategist.

Let us now conclude with C.) People paid more tax out of trust
Before I move further let us discuss some important aspects of GST:
1. Increase of tax base in GST in comparison with past tax systems – Under GST Act even those transactions which were not under the purview of previous taxes, have now been added and thus more people are to pay GST. More than Five Lakh new registrations happened in a single year in Maharashtra because of change in tax systems.
2. GST is a consumption/Destination based tax system – Any item that is produced in Karnataka but if consumed in Delhi, the tax on that item majorly belongs to Delhi and a small share to Karnataka. Hence, ideally with a growing population the tax collection should increase. But a capable government ensures higher collections than just what is proportional to the population growth.

Thus, from image j1 and a brief understanding of GST, it is clear that the myth of people paying more tax on their own is nothing more than a lie. Sadly, Delhi is not even growing at 14% average year on year and that is why Central government is paying a compensation to Delhi.

Kejriwal is not an illiterate politician. Rather he is a former IRS officer and yet he made that statement. Which proves yet again that the so called “Satya Harishchandra” of Indian politics that his followers make him to be, he simple isn’t.

So, is Delhi’s economy in a bad shape?
This article is not about evaluating Delhi’s performance. This is merely a check about the tax collection claim.
Now, from table b1 we understand that the actual comparable figures are Rs. 31,571 crores in 2014-15 and Rs. 42,500 crores in 2019-20. Which is a growth of 34% in 5 years or an average growth of 6.8% per annum. These are the comparable Tax figures.
Comparisons of total receipts is not correct as it also includes loans.

As Delhi has a unique geo-political situation, comparing tax collection growth rates with other states and showing Delhi down or showing Delhi in a positive light, both would be wrong. Hence, I shall leave it at this.

Must Read: My letter to the Government of India

If you are from Delhi and if you are reading this article (unlikely, as I have no friends from Delhi) I hope you shed the garb of ‘I vote on development not on ideology’, and vote on truth.

I don’t know what the truth is, because I have not researched on all subjects, and neither do I intend on doing so. But in this age of social media influencers it is easy to cover the truth and call that as distinctive from ideology. Sadly, the moment you cover the truth – that too is an ‘ideology’.

References: (Click on the link)
1. Budget of 2014-15

2. Budget of 2019-20

3. GST compensation image: https://pqars.nic.in/qhindi/247/Au38.pdf

Some FAQs:
What if your friend is wrong? AAP never claimed that.
Ans.: Start from 6:09 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw-FoLDyO7U
A point to note here is that Kejriwal is a former IRS officer – that means he understands all the aspects of finances ie. revenue and tax, yet he made that statement – which goes on to prove that the so called “Satya Harishchandra” of Indian politics that his followers make him to be, he simple isn’t.

Pavlov’s Puppies

lordrevan33
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Pavlov’s Puppies

Ivan Pavlov was a famous Russian Physiologist (as famous as a physiologist can be) who is primarily known for his work in Classical conditioning in general and Pavlovian conditioning in particular. Pavlovian conditioning had three major takeaways that have wide applications in consumer behavior.

He experimented with dogs where first he gave them food as an unconditioned stimulus (US) that resulted in the dog salivating which was an unconditioned response (UR).

Next, he used the sound of a Metronome as a neutral stimulus (NS) which in itself created no conditioned response in the dog.

Lastly, he used the sound of a Metronome and placed food in front of the dog, shortly after the metronome made the ‘clicking’ sound. After a few days of this repeated exercise, at the sound of the metronome clicking, the dog started to salivate, well before the food was actually presented. Here, the Metronome was the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the dog salivating was a conditioned response (CR).

The dog was conditioned to react in a certain way to a stimulus that does not warrant such a reaction. Marketing gurus and Ad-men have used this conditioned stimulus on their target market customers to generate a conditioned response from them that they don’t even know exists within them. Every marketing miracle of the 20th and 21st century has its foundation in the conditioning of young minds.

The greatest marketing miracle though has been that of the People’s Republic of China.

To understand this phenomenon properly, lets go back in time.

China and India’s relationship has been pretty stale considering the fact that their joint history of millennia has resulted in only one major war (1962). That was about to change when Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister arrived in China in 1954. Their talks resulted to be counter-productive for India with Mao Zedong (then Chinese premiere) being left terribly underwhelmed by Nehru’s meek and spineless persona.

John Garver, one of the foremost analysts of contemporary India-China relations, studied the meeting of the two influential men thoroughly across the 1950’s. Mao, according to Garver, was highly unimpressed by Nehru’s liberal, altruistic worldview and was convinced ‘Power flowed from the barrel of a gun.’ Both of these men were the focal point of their respective country’s collective conscience. This laid the foundation for the public perception in each country for the other.

Mao became a symbol of what all Chinese are like for a generation of Indians and Nehru became the symbol of what all Indian’s are like for a generation of Chinese. Thus, laying the groundwork for the greatest magic trick a country could pull on another.

In the aftermath of the 1962 war, whenever the Chinese have violated the LAC, the communist left leaning Indian media, has managed to convince India that China is too strong an enemy to face in case of an armed conflict. The only way to solve a border dispute with China is to stand down and have talks. Conflict with Pakistan was never viewed in the same prism (Maybe if the 1948 war had gone a different way, we might have been singing a different tune today; but that’s a debate for another day).

China though, we were always taught to fear. We became one of the puppies Ivan Pavlov performed his experiments on. This experiment however has been going on for almost 60 years.

The Indian media, which otherwise loves to keep harping on the sovereignty of nations and the sanctity of their borders, habitually chose to keep mum the multiple Chinese misadventures across the Indian eastern front from Aksai Chin to Arunachal Pradesh. The fact that historically, we have had spineless governments at the Centre never helped matters. V.K Krishna Menon shut down General K.S. Thimayya when the latter classified china to be a more dangerous neighbor than the troublesome Pakistan.

After the recent Chinese incursions in Galwan, our leftist media outlets were at it again, questioning the government, demoralizing the army and watering the deep-rooted seeds of fear that were planted in our minds, all those years ago.

Sunil Sharan from Times of India says, “Where is the need for India to keep poking China? India has just been elected to be a non-perma member of the UN Security Council. China didn’t object. Instead it said that it welcomed all new members. Indian media went ballistic in saying that China did not specifically mention India’s name. Really? You are in a war-like situation with China, and you expect them to welcome you with open arms.”

India poking China. The narrative is set, to back off from China or face grave consequences. If I changed the name from Sunil Sharan to Chung Li, the article would be more believable. But this is our reality, where an India ‘journalist’ on Chinese payroll can spew venom against his own country on Indian newspapers.

Inderjeet Parmar and Atul Bharadwaj from TheWire try to make a case for the USA to be a bigger threat in Asian waters than China violating Indian sovereignty is. They write, “Galwan Valley – the flashpoint of the recent clashes between the Indian army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China is close to Aksai Chin – is the same area that became a bone of contention between the two Asian nations during the 1962 war. The Modi government brought the area back into the discourse, making it contentious once again. With the Indian establishment’s renewed resolve to reclaim regions in China and Pakistan, security in the area became tense and has finally resulted in the brutal killings of soldiers.”

Reclaim regions in China and Pakistan? Gilgit Baltistan, POK, Aksai Chin are considered Indian territory. Reclamation of Aksai Chin and its securitization by way of the Daulat Baig Oldie air base is considered a problem for these fake narrative spinning masqueraders.

Indian propaganda outlets like the Wire, the Print, etcetera ran from pillar to post trying to discredit the number of Chinese casualties but reported exaggeratedly on the Indian casualties without official confirmation, as fact. As the first salvo in their psychological war on India, these Chinese funded news outlets were desperate to present a grave picture for the Indian side so as to justify their paychecks from China.

But something was different this time. At the center, we have a government that did not shy away from the possibility of a full-scale armed conflict with China. PM Modi mobilized the armed forces internally while bringing in his massive international diplomatic clout to the fore. He activated the ‘String of Pearls’ a series of naval bases acquired by India in the Indian Ocean to counter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea while not flinching domestically and mobilizing the Daulat Baig Oldie air base thus neutralizing the Chinese in Galwan.

While all this happened, the Border Road Organisation (BRO) was commissioned to complete the Kalapani-Lepulekh road, which gives India direct access into China. For the first time the Chinese were scared.

India’s tough stand across the LAC, naval mobilization in the Indian Ocean and the economic sanctions on Chinese interests within India resulted in a sharp u-turn on China’s part.

For the first time in 60 years, Pavlov’s puppies did not salivate at the sound of the metronome. We are slowly but steadily conditioning ourselves out of responding to conditioned stimuli. The magician’s mask had been stripped away so the world could see him for the snake oil salesman he is.

–Thanks AM for reminding me of Pavlov

Ram Mandir, Bhoomi Poojan, secularism and the darkest day; all explained here

Anant Chetan
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Ram Mandir, Bhoomi Poojan, secularism and the darkest day; all explained here

Reading intellectual articles on internet last few days have been a great fun.

“In the light of Prime Minister laying the foundation of Ram Mandir and playing his part as Yajman for the Bhoomi Poojan, Secularism dies-“

-Dies once again like it did in 1992 when the Mosque was demolished, or in 1996 when BJP formed its first ever government, of course, every one saw the dead secularism’s reincarnation in less than two weeks when the elected government collapsed by virtue of horse trading, of course horse trading was within the constitutional bounds then. Secularism remained in the state of “Bardo“, an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state between death and rebirth during Atal Ji’s coalition government that lived in the trauma of 1996’s 13 days government episode. And of course Secularism flourished once again as soon as Congress snatched the power from BJP in 2004. But ever since BJP came back to power in 2014, with a full majority, Secularism had to die for good. Although, it kept taking re-birth for short durations every time BJP lost a by-election, but largely it died.

Even more interesting to read is the way Intellectuals use superlatives. Even though, I am not a pro at English-Usage like the intellectuals, but I did learn the language in school and even performed quite well in IELTS (International English Language Testing System) scoring an overall 8. Superlatives, for instance the Darkest, should not be used for every other day; Dark, Darker and the Darkest, as simple as that! There has literally been a bevy of days that fall in the category of “the darkest day”. Of course, specific time frames could be assigned to signify the darkest day for that particular time frame. For instance, November the eighth was the darkest day of 2016 as the PM announced demonetization at 8:00 PM that day; or July the first was the darkest day of 2017 when GST was announced (the Gabbar Singh Tax).

May be, shrinking the window to a quarter or a month would be more appropriate now; as 2019 onward there isn’t just one such day in the entire year but one such day every other month; TripleTalaq-370-CAA etc. For example, August the fifth, is the darkest day of the third quarter of 2020 as the PM participated in the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Poojan and played Yajman.

But Intellectuals being intellectuals, are too clever to fall in this English-Usage trap. They have a peculiar way of calling a day as the darkest day. Darkest according to them is temporal. It has little to do with darkness of any particular event but more to do with the time, as to when it happens.

Anything that BJP does today is the darkest!

It does not matter what the event is, if it affects anybody at all, it remains the darkest till the next event occurs.

It has always been like this, when Demonitization happened it was the darkest, however, a year later the very same intellectuals said “We never said that Demo was a bad idea, we only said that it was not implemented properly, there could have been a better execution; our statements should be seen as a healthy-constructive criticism.” The exact same thing with GST. As a matter of fact with GST, Congress even claimed that it was their own idea, but BJP implemented it very badly, it could have been implemented with more prudence. The thing is the degree of darkness of the very same event changes once it looses the ability to stir strong emotions, agitations or chaos.

Now the exact same thing with Ram Mandir: “we were never against Ram or his Mandir we consider it the darkest day only because the Prime Minister participated in the bhoomi poojan“. I am quite certain that August 5 will remain the darkest day for a few months until the government does something new say announce NRC or something related to Uniform Civil Code or anything other from its manifesto for that matter.

It amazes me how effortlessly Digvijay Singh who left no opportunity to spew venom against Hinduism as a religion or its tenets, is now telling us the importance of an auspicious day based on astrology and how August 5, was not a good day for Bhoomi Poojan. Or the exact same people including the Gandhi siblings, who found Raja Ram as nothing but a work of imagination, are citing the significance of Lord Ram in our lives. If I remember correctly, the UPA regime wanted to get rid of the Ram-Sethu and give way for a shipping canal project.

The UPA government had in 2007 filed an affidavit in the apex court saying that Ram was a mythical character and that the Ramayana had no historical basis.

I quoted only one instance, the one that they can’t say was a personal opinion or a slip of tongue or is taken out of context, but you could literally find zillion instances like this on internet. Some times I wonder if the intellectuals think that they are the only literates in India and rest of us can’t read and comprehend, or perhaps they think that we suffer from the Ghajini effect and forget everything in fifteen minutes.

How does Bhoomi Poojan and PM participating as a Yajman change anything in India at all? The blueprint to the Mandir was already decided on November 9, 2019 by the supreme court of India. Was any law violated because of the Poojan? No! If any was, the opposition parties should take legal actions. Shouldn’t they? Did any new law or bill come into existence because of the Bhoomi Poojan? No! Did any government policy change because of the Poojan? No! It is not like nobody knew before the Poojan that the PM is a Hindu and believes in Lord Ram. Is this the case? No! Everybody knows it. Did Modi or BJP ask the tv channels to show each and every second of the Poojan? No! TV Channels did so for their own benefits; the high TRPs.

So, why is it the darkest day? Why the cry?

I have absolutely no issues with anybody believing or not believing in Ram or any other God for that matter. But I have serious issues with people especially the opposition parties and people who influence the masses, crying wolf at each and everything that the government does. God forbid, if there comes an actual wolf i.e. the government does make a mistake, no body will know if these intellectuals and opposition parties are crying wolf for the sake of opposition, trying to create chaos and destabilize the government or if it is a genuine and a legitimate cry. No body will trust them.

By calling every other day the darkest day, they are devaluing the significance of darkness as well as their own word. And this why, this kind of opposition has to stop.

Thank you for reading! If you liked the article, please do share it. You sharing the article is the only way it reaches more people.

Also read:

When you lose your bread earners

rupamray
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When you lose your bread earners

If a family loses its bread earners, then doom falls upon them until the task is taken up by someone else which is a long transition period and sometimes irrecoverable. Therefore, the most effective lethal way to go after your enemy is to go for its bread earners. Today’s war isn’t going to be conventional and that’s everyone’s common knowledge these days. There are many ways which are in development to be used for undermining and crippling your enemy or simply just your competitor. Against the nation state, the most potent one is the capture and manipulation of the current narrative on very sensitive issues which can have ripple effects over many domains in a impact-full manner. These incidents, mostly the likes of rapes and lynching, over a period of time are emphasized and made to keep on the general public’s attention (Please do watch the movie Nightcrawler for better visualization of this). The repeated focus and emphasize of similar events over a period of small time frame can have deep ideological impact permanently on general unsuspecting public.

The public doesn’t have the bandwidth or the time to go through the nuances and find out what actually is going on. It’s not in any way viable for any person who is in most probabilistic way busy going about his daily business or after his aspirations. He is also kept busy by the constant fight to manage time between either his personal or his livelihood duties so to chase an issue or its similarities and their timelines to connect the dots, if there are any lines connecting them, is almost impossible and that’s fine.

Unfortunately, it’s the job of the media to keep the people Informed and to steer the discussions and its nuances towards the real issues concerning their interests and the interests of their nation or society but it’s hardly the way it should be. I always tell my friends that there is always a huge gap between what should happen and what really happens and to understand that, is kind of maturity these days. In the case of media, we have come to such a point that it’s hard to distinguish the PR Ad or the fake news from the news. I intentionally did not use the term real news, as news is by definition is news and nothing more or less. The social media does help sometimes but it has its own issues and limitations. The narrative setting and keeping it alive in people’s mind for a sustained period, is a tremendous task but if you have like minded people and the cash to support it, then it’s just a piece of cake.

Among all the dynamic things happening in and around us, we tend to forget the core things that fundamentally runs the nations and sustains them. You might have heard about the two greatest Generals of Russia(USSR) in the context of 2nd world war but it is oftentimes said that the four great generals of USA are General Atomics, General Dynamics, General Motors and General Electric and they helped USA rise to the stature of what it is today or may be yesterday. Now, in a war if you have defeated the Generals or their morale then you have already won the war and it’s just a matter of time before the whole nation buckles, by the way we are not talking about invasions here of yesteryear’s. The Generals are the prime assets of your enemy and that’s why they are your prime targets. In any direct conflict, if any nation feels that the General or prime assets are vulnerable to attack, the nation will go any length to protect them.

But what happens when the nation’s own people thinks that the Generals are their greatest enemy. Now this is the sweetest situation for you. This is what you want, so that the nations morale to protect their Generals weakens. Slowly you realize that you don’t even need to attack, and your job will be done perhaps with more brutality by their own people. There is a huge catch here and that is, how would you convince a nations simple and innocent public to become the blood thirsty for their own generals. That’s your prime objective.

If you have any confusion and have reservations that this seems theoretical then go through the recent history and see the rise and fall of the organizations and their impacts on the nations. We recently closed down TATA Nano Plant (Although it was shifted later but It delayed it to failure), Tuticorin Plant (India in importing copper for the first time in 20* years), Kingfisher Airlines, Modi Diamond brand, and many such examples are staring at our face but we tend to be skeptical about the possibilities of a trend here.

We have the capacity of creating huge brands which are capable of giving competition to the international ones in their own turfs. It doesn’t bother the global giants when you are big in your own country and not hampering their dominance worldwide but when you do, it’s game on and in full swing even before you know it, and it’s logical too. They will do anything in their capacity and sometimes beyond, by virtue of getting help from state actors to fulfill their mission. It’s where we lack tremendously. The state has powers and capacities which any firm with huge loads of money sometimes may not be able to gather, specially in the time of their needs and time is one of the most crucial factors in this game and Tata Nano is one of the best example in this regard.

It’s a constant fight and no matter which government is in power; the country’s power projection in the world sphere is to be a continuation of policy frameworks which should be sacrosanct. In short, National interest should always get precedence over anything which isn’t paramount to the existence of the idea of nation state itself. It’s not new to us.

As a nation, as our historical traditions show, we have had always varying levels of loyalties towards different parts, sections and organizations in our society, which had hierarchical systems and also our loyalties had importance and precedents as per the individuals, how we chose and decided which one to give precedence to, has created our social traditions, which evolved with time but it always had and will have the same underlying principles bounding them from time immemorial and they clearly show that the nation always was above all and its best described from The famous line “Janani Janmabhumichya swargyadwapi gariashi” in Ramayana uttered by Ram when Lanka, the land of gold, was offered to be ruled by him, after he conquered it.

New Education Policy- Modi has done the right thing to lead India to organic success

S Ranganathan
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New Education Policy- Modi has done the right thing to lead India to organic success

The new education policy shaped by the present Modi government has done the right thing to lead India to an organic growth in future. Our education must move away from mark centric and selecting the courses that would get attractive jobs and better salary to conceptual and value based learning with the integration of the existing requirements; better carrier prospects and quality of life. 

Taller the tree when grows, greater shall be its roots cover beneath the soil. Only when the root cover is great and deep, that can support the tall tree and supply all its water and other nutrient requirements.  So shall be our education. For that to happen, conceptual and value based education is necessary.

The spiritual history of India, its cultural heritage, tradition, philosophical essence, the treasure of the great Sanskrit language, divine worship, theoretical imagination of science by our great philosophers, all of them were neglected in our curriculum since independence. When the young minds are allowed learn all the above ingredients of value based education in respective regional languages, certainly we can achieve transformation from the grass root level through the new education policy. 

The research inquisitiveness of children who are studying the undergraduate education is any day greater than those studying post graduate course. Therefore creating an ambiance and facilitation for the graduate students to directly pursue research without going through post graduate education is necessary and the new education policy has brought such reformist, transformative step.

The three language system is extremely essential for India and the students of our future generation should not be limited with the respective local language and English. English being not our native language, in many villages the thrust for English learning is quite low. With limited knowledge in English, just by knowing the local language alone, the people from different states when migrate to the neighbouring states for employment, always suffer great hardship in communication. Therefore the language that is predominantly used and spoken by vast majority of people and regions in India alone can help people to connect with rest of India. Therefore in addition to learning English, ideally learning Hindi than any other regional language will be more meaningful and useful.  However the new educational policy allows the children to choose any other language other than Hindi for fulfilling the third language requirement. 

Teaching the basic essence of Sanskrit, YOGA and other ancient scriptures of India Government must include in the curriculum as part of moral or casual passive learning to make the students ‘complete Indian’. All such learning need not be included in the examination theme however such teachings are necessary for shaping the young minds of future India.

Considering the importance of how the value degradation in our education has happened in the recent past and how India can be guided towards an organic growth, everyone must welcome the new education policy of three language system, conceptual and value based learning and facilitation of those young minds who wants to do research need not undergo post graduate education. 

Hereafter India can be transformed only though value and conceptual education and not by commercialization of our education. 

The Drawidian party in Tamil Nadu has reduced the minimum mark required for joining Engineering course in Tamil Nadu as 35% which resulted in several politicians setting up engineering colleges and subsequent mass infestation of engineering graduates causing degradation in quality and unemployment crisis among engineering graduates. But unfortunately most parents of young children in the state are yet to realize the political treachery of those political parties aiming to capture power in the state by opposing three language system and importance of learning Hindi.  

Like how English is window to the world, Hindi is door to India and the education can only be the ticket.  Therefore people must see the new education policy apolitically and must support especially the three language system. Hindi must be the language people must welcome to learn along with English. 

Learning a language to keep the language alive versus learning a language to communicate to the world to share our thoughts and ideas and find success, people must chose the language that help people to achieve the later.  From that perspective English and Hindi are extremely important. 

Success with high values is the fundamental focus of the new education policy.  Being an Indian without Indian-ness; without the elementary knowledge of our ancient scriptures, Vedas and Upanishad, sacred language called Sanskrit is also one of the causes for our downfall. Therefore passive casual learning programme about all our sacredness must be included in the curriculum up to 8th class. 

The new educational policy is well debated, discussed, thought out, consulted and studied policy by experts. The policy not only has implementation steps and programmes alone but also has set a clear goal; transform India through education.   

India has lots to rejoice over the new education policy than complain. People must choose the future of India and must support the three language system. Hindi is the umbilical cord of India and therefore we must feel proud to learn Hindi because by learning Hindi, we can easily open the door of India than remain as paid or unpaid slaves or servants of some regional politics or their ideology.        

Blaming Bihari culture, abusing feminism to shield celebrity accused – The Print’s toxic post on Sushant Singh Rajput

Sonal Shukla
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Blaming Bihari culture, abusing feminism to shield celebrity accused – The Print’s toxic post on Sushant Singh Rajput

On the August 08, 2020, ThePrint published an article titled as “Sushant Singh Rajput and the burden of being a ‘Shravan Kumar’ in toxic Bihari families” in which Sushant’s family – especially his seventy years plus ailing father whose only dying desire is to seek justice for his young son’s suspicious death – was bashed for filing an FIR against Rhea Chaturvedi. Not just the action of the family to seek a legal recourse for finding the truth about their son’s death was said to be anti-feminist but also “the toxic family structure of cow-belt India, especially Bihar” were equally so.

The article is toxic at so many levels. The article uses feminism as a shield to insult Bihari culture and society. These people shout ‘black lives matter’ but have a racist attitude towards Biharis, or maybe special dislike towards the entire cow-belt India’s culture (this, by the way, is the very area of the Ganga -Jamuni tehjeeb which they hold as their political and social ideal). Because of such people feminism is misused and gaining a bad name, which is so frustrating. The said article uses feminism as a shield to cover up for the accused of cheating, abetment of suicide, expropriation of funds etc – which are serious crimes because of which the Enforcement Directorate is investigating the case, not allegation without evidence. 

Is this world not a patriarchal place? Much more so is India. But, does this particular case has got anything to do with patriarchy or anti- feminism? Why unlike any other crime whether in India or the rest of the world, this case doesn’t merit being looked at with gender-neutrality?

If the victim in the same set of circumstances, were a woman. The whole outlook would have been very different. The case would be looked at as a forcible transfer of funds, keeping hostage, abetment of suicide etc, and nobody would mind it.

There’s nothing to show a guy can’t go through the same situation. Especially when he’s made to cut off from whole society, not just his family, and kept solely surrounded by a family, about which there’s evidence that it was pressuring him, controlling him. His own complaints to his family are there to that account. His staff and friends have been witness to it and have given statements to that regard. Is this what feminism is about? A rightful control over an adult man, to not allow him, to meet or speak to his family or friends? Especially, in a situation where he is said to be undergoing depression? How is his “big city’s girlfriend” legally or socially even entitled to have a complete custody of him in such a situation and not his very own family which can only be his legal guardians; indeed the article finds this ‘interference’ in his ‘autonomy’?

There are allegations of him being administered psychotropic drugs, even overdose of them by the accused, that also forcibly – so much for the autonomy that the said article mentions! The staff of Sushant has made statement stating the same. These are serious things. Is this what feminism is about to administer overdose of such drugs forcibly – that’s illegal, that’s not feminism!

There are allegations of transfer of big sums of money to the accused and her family – any such transfer under duress, misrepresentations, blackmail or under the effect of psychotropic drugs or in an abnormal mental state are illegal and such acts crimes. However, none of this is problematic because the article says that a family can’t be interfering, this is their son’s ‘autonomy’ and behaviour anti-feminist.

The article claims that, what the Bihari culture and Sushant’s family seek is a ‘Shravan Kumar’. Has the family blamed Sushant’s ever for not looking after them or sought money from him before or after his death? Now, when their thirty four year old son – who wasn’t allowed to even stay in touch with them is dead, their allegations of isolating him are for his own welfare or their own? What a mockery the article has made of the love and grief of a family that has lost its young son for apparently no good reason – all in the name of defending feminism!

Our country faces serious feminist issues: from dowry deaths, gang rape, child rape, bride burning, domestic violence, sexual harassment at workplace and public places, mental and emotional harassment at offices and at matrimonial homes, lack of opportunity for education and at workplaces, unequal pay, child marriage – but feminism must be used to save a crime accused for she’s a celebrity. Alas, these grave problems are not glamorous to dig into.

The curious case of Shah Faesal

Dharti Manush
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The curious case of Shah Faesal

Shah Faesal, is a UPSC civil services topper and a staunch campaigner of Pakistan sponsored “Kashmiriyat” and vocal anti-Indian. Although every year someone tops the prestigious Civil services examination, but media gives special attention to “kashmiri’ and “reserved girl” candidates, so Shah Faisal was no exception. If someone is an active news follower, he/she might remember the time when terrorist Burhan Wani was killed by brave Indian soldiers, there were often comparisons between Burhan Wani- a terrorist, and Shah Faisal- a UPSC topper. Any nationalist Indian would’ve liked it, but Shah Faisal was “hurt” by these comparisons! He famously said, “A Kashmiri brother must not be pitched against a Kashmiri brother, its a conspiracy to break Kashmir”.

Kashmir or Kashmiriyat is often misunderstood by millennials who are absorbed in Instagram or any other social media posts of the likes of RVCJ or AIB! They don’t know systemically original Kashmiris and Kashmiriyat was wiped out from pre-colonial period, this gained momentum after the partition of India when Pakistan sponsored terrorists took an ethnic cleansing operation in 1947-48, and completed it by 1990s by the complete ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits.

Shah Faisal resigned from civil services to “fight for Kashmiri people” at the time of the political crisis of Mufti-led PDP government. His daily remarks while as active civil servant were no less than ISI sponsored separatists so giving up a central job to creating a new separatist political party was predictable. He was joined by the likes of JNU tukde-tukde gang members. A civil servant donning pathani suit and a vocal JNU progressive girl covering head with dupatta while party announcement was the perfect recipe for new leaders of “separate Kashmir”. Only all hopes were shattered by abrogation of article 370.

What comes surprisingly, the resignation of Shah Faisal was not accepted. Doesn’t an active civil servant on an anti-India rant forming a political party qualify for disciplinary action? If he is really accepted back in civil services as speculated, will this not give a green signal to anti-Indian forces in bureaucracy? Keeping in mind, every year lots of muslim organisations funded aspirant crack civil services with a target to break India from inside? Also there are various instances when active civil servants were reprimanded for just participating in a non-political public event of RSS or even sometimes just on suspicion of having contacts with RSS!

Is this a new height of secularism?

Covid opens up urban development challenge, how we respond to it, is up to us

Guest Author
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Covid opens up urban development challenge, how we respond to it, is up to us

The Chinese Corona Virus has created havoc across the world, and there is hardly any country in the world which has remained unaffected by this crisis. India is no exception. With our population second only to China, we have now moved in the top four countries by the number of cases.

In India, most cases have been reported from Maharashtra and the financial capital of the country, Mumbai. Other cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Pune and Kolkata have also reported substantial numbers of cases. These cities are the center of economic activities in the country and have substantial share in the national GDP. Mumbai alone has a share of over 30% in national income tax (personal and corporate) collection. Even Dharavi, which is Asia’s biggest slum, and hotspot in Mumbai with most cases, exports many items. Economic activities have come to the standstill due to the national lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.

Many migrants have left for their native places from these big cities due to the fear of catching the infection, and therefore/restarting economic activities has become even more difficult. Shutting down major economic centers is going to have a devastating effect on India’s economy at least in the short term. If these centers were more spread out across the country, probably, economic consequences of this lockdown would have been much under control.

This has brought a unique challenge before us. Most of our developmental activities, and employment opportunities are concentrated in big cities, and the urban agglomerations around these cities. While our farming sector still employs excess people more than it can sustain, all the other jobs are concentrated in big cities. Take the example of the software industry. Most of the software jobs in the country are in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Gurgaon. Similarly, most manufacturing jobs are scattered across the country but only near big cities which are few and far between. Why can’t cities like Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Lucknow have software parks? Now in the changed situations, many sectors can adapt with work from home, as the lockdown period has shown us. 

Why can’t an engineering graduate, say from a city like Rourkela, Patna, or Tirunelveli work from the comfort of his home for a software company? All you need is a laptop, and an internet connection. This will save him moving to another city, renting a house, purchase of a vehicle to commute, save his time and money and also contribute in decongestion of cities. It will also increase quality of life in these cities. Many people from the previous generation remember Bangalore and Pune as quiet towns in the 80s and early 90s. Software revolution of the late 90s started the growth of these cities, which was mostly unplanned and today they are bustling metros with traffic jams, polluted water bodies and air pollution.

Most Indian cities have grown beyond what we can effectively manage. Bigger the city, bigger the challenges of managing traffic, slums, ensuring sufficient water supply, and other public utilities like hospitals, schools and parks. Currently cities like Delhi and Mumbai are awfully short of hospital beds. While Mumbai has constructed at least five temporary hospitals, Delhi is yet to move in this direction.  Delhi has assimilated Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad in itself while Mumbai has assimilated Thane, Navi Mumbai, Vasai, Kalyan etc. They are run by different civic bodies, further making coordination and planning among the authorities difficult.  

This is the time when we should start focusing on creating employment opportunities in tier 3 and tier 4 cities and even in rural areas, so people can find the employment near their homes and don’t need to migrate to metros in search of employment. This will bring much needed peace and tranquility in the people’s life increasing quality of life, also giving a chance of growth to tier 3 and tier 4 cities. Even union minister Nitin Gadkari, who perhaps urban development challenges much better than anyone else, due to his track record, has said in his recent interviews, it is time to decongest metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. It’s time to develop new cities and urban centres. 

Just to give you an example, many employees from our software companies go to offsite locations in different European countries or even in the USA. While many among them have their work locations in the cities, a good number of them actually work in European and American villages, with a population of not more than 5,000 – 10,000. Of course, unlike Indian villages,  these villages have all the facilities for a comfortable lifestyle, and people don’t miss cities, however with the benefit of non-polluted air, walking down to office, or at the most on cycles. We can’t imagine walking to our workplaces in India. However, if suitable policy interventions are done now making use of Covid crisis, our next generations can enjoy this lifestyle in India.

(About the author: This article is written by Keshav, a media graduate, who left journalism for an alternative career. Traveler, Aviation Enthusiast. Indian, Marwari, Marathi in that order)

Job data; faster PM Narendra Modi acts on it, the better: It should also capture migrants’ data

Guest Author
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Job data; faster PM Narendra Modi acts on it, the better: It should also capture migrants’ data

Chinese Wuhan Corona Virus had literally brought India to the halt. Now slowly India is opening up after nearly three months of lockdown. We had to open up, even though India daily cases in the country are scaling new highs because as a middle income, and developing country we can’t afford an extended lockdown, which would lead to permanent job losses and deaths, by poverty and hunger.

Even the current lockdown brought difficult days for many people from both formal and informal sectors, with many losing jobs, many others taking salary cuts. However slowly things are coming back to the normal.  According to some reports, the rate of unemployment is back to what it was pre lockdown.

During this crisis, poor migrants suffered a lot. Even home minister Amit Shah admitted to it. Why did it happen? It was because of lack of data. No government in India, be it central or state or local body, has any kind of data with regards to employment and migrants. NSSO surveys are backed by solid on ground research but yet it is a sample survey. A sample survey with a few thousand or even a few lakhs respondents can’t give an exact picture of a diverse and large country like India. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his interview to Swarajya before 2019 general elections had said, “more than a lack of jobs, the issue is a lack of data on jobs”.

In another TV interview of his before elections, pardon me, I don’t remember which channel it was, PM Narendra Modi on the question of repeated allegations by opposition on employment issue, had given a hint about bringing more transparent, and real-time data on employment in the country. Without elaborating, he had said, it is a work in progress, and this should be up and running, in a year after elections. A year has already passed after the elections, however given the circumstances of the last few months, it is understandable that the system is not yet functional.

However, PM Modi now should instruct concerned ministry, and officials to fast track this work, and get this system started in next few months, because going forward, attacks on this government by opposition on the employment front are only going to increase.  Corona Virus has created large scale unemployment and even though things start showing turn around, our opposition leaders would definitely not be willing to listen to the government. Only way to shut them up would be transparent, and real time data which PM Narendra Modi had promised before elections. Even then, there are high chances that the opposition will call it a manipulated and fake data, however the general public which is most important in democracy, and which makes, and breaks government will believe it. Transparency and availability of data was a big hallmark of Narendra Modi 1.0 government, with various information available on dashboard and a click of a button, similarly this would be a game changing achievement for Narendra Modi 2.0.

I am sure that officials working on it are much experienced and know many things better, but I would still like to give them unsolicited advice. Integrate data of migrants in this system, learning from the experience of lockdown and migrants issues faced during these testing times of Corona Virus. It would help the government plan and act much faster and better in future, whenever the country sees such difficult times again. 

(About the author: This article is written by Keshav, a media graduate, who left journalism for an alternative career. Traveler, Aviation Enthusiast. Indian, Marwari, Marathi in that order)

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