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Maharashtra power play, DMK has lots to worry

S Ranganathan
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Maharashtra power play, DMK has lots to worry

The pre-poll alliance partner Shiv Sena ditching BJP for power, the new found love and unnatural marriage of Shiv Sena, NCP and INC forming a government in Maharashtra should have rattled the hopes and desire of DMK chief MK Stalin to become Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. In the forthcoming assembly election in Tamil Nadu how DMK is going deal the alliance formula with congress and VCK is quite curious. For VCK and congress also the recent power play has come handy to put DMK in its place and force the DMK to come for coalition government and rotational chief minister-ship in TN between the alliance parties.

To ensure such possibility, all these parties have to demand huge share during election so that none of the alliance parties can form government without the support of each other. DMK should not be allowed to get majority on its own. The best way such possibility can be achieved is by cutting down the number of seats DMK contests and the alliance parties must make sure that even if all the seats DMK wins still DMK must fall short of majority to form government.

DMK is in very precarious and merciful state today because it could not come to power in the last 10 years. If the coming assembly election DMK again loses, that is going to the end of DMK in Tamil Nadu whereas such situation does not exist for AIADMK. Therefore DMK will come for any compromise with VCK, INC and other alliance parties to come to power. Similarly the forthcoming election is ‘do or die’ match for VCK and INC in Tamil Nadu.

If VCK and INC don’t come to power by having adequate representation in power, these parties also may go irrelevant and they may be reduced to the level of ensuring DMK or AIADMK to come to power and nothing beyond that. By being a mere catalyst these parties cannot grow and expand. Therefore all the alliance partners of DMK must wake up fast and must evolve their strategy to ensure their adequate representation in the next government by forcing DMK for a coalition government. A strong DMK and Stalin as an unchallenged chief minister of TN are not good for all these parties.

Today the stature of DMK leadership is weak and evanescent and MK Stalin is seen more are an icon of sycophancy, bundle of lies & negativity, ignorance, stupidity and immaturity. He is so restless to become chief minister of the state and seems to be willing to pay any price like Shiv Sena to achieve the above goal. This is the right time for all alliance parties of DMK to extract the best from DMK and otherwise they would have to remain as fence sitters forever.

DMK also know that without alliance partners, DMK cannot contest next assembly election as they lost last assembly election to Amma for just 1-3% vote difference. The morale of DMK is all time low after the recent humiliating defeat in the recently held two by-poll election where both the constituencies AIADMK has smartly grabbed from DMK.

Maharashtra power play and the likely entry of Super Star and the possibility of him contesting along with Kamal have rattled the DMK because DMK has more at stake in the next assembly election that AIADMK. To stop DMK coming to power, AIADMK should be ready even to support the super star because only through such support AIADMK can save the state from DMK’s dynastic politics.

Another point also we must note carefully. The image of EPS and AIADMK has increased significantly and people have started to speak very positive about AIADMK and the governance of EPS.

From that perspective AIADMK coming back to power again cannot be ruled out. People have started to say DMK rides mostly on lies, negativism, anti-Hindu rhetoric, extravagant minority appeasement and caste politics. The negative politics and lies of DMK has been thoroughly exposed and the only way DMK can save its boat is by projecting VCK chief Tirumavalan as the next chief minister candidate of DMK alliance or must agree publicly on rotational chief minister-ship with the alliance parties.

When Stalin can declare his support so openly and loudly for a Brahmin (as claimed) Raghul Gandhi as the prime minister candidate of his alliance in 2019 election what can stop Stalin to declare his support for VCK chief as future chief minister candidate and showcase his commitment for positive social justice in Tamil Nadu. 

If Stalin openly declares that he is not going to contest the post of chief minister of the state and instead he is going to support only the candidature anyone from SC/ST to establish social justice, certainly he can save his face in the next assembly election.    

Only by defeating DMK, Modij’s honest rule and governance we can establish in TN in future.

New India: A new player in future technology development

Dipankar Pathak
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New India: A new player in future technology development

In this era of continuous technological upheavals, happening literally every single day, we nonprofessionals hardly give any attention to its fundamental scientific background. If we look back at the past 500 years of human achievement, we can observe that most of the scientific accomplishments that occurred in the field of fundamental research later went on to the scale of industrial applications, resulting in the great industrial revolutions. Most innovations of 20th and 21st century in the field of agriculture, health, military industrial complex and later space exploration, lays its framework on fundamental research and development (R&D) in science and technology.

Once, while looking for chemical composition reference data on some rare group of meteorites, as part of my research, I was surprised to find an old paper containing the pertinent data with great precision, published by someone from Lockheed Martin. Why someone from Lockheed Martin would be interested in studying meteorites? Lockheed Martin and their skunk works have been utilizing material research for cutting-edge aviation technology development, and studies on meteorites opens doors of opportunities for space mining industries and other fundamental research, in the future. See, that is vision! The kind of vision where you see gold, even in a black liquid! The dream of double-digit economy that citizens of India are looking forward to in the next decades, India need similar uprising in the areas of fundamental R&D, and thereby comes in this frame the collage of multi-dimensional innovation in the form of collaboration between universities and industries.

Let me cite my personal experience that left me think in this direction. I applied for a PhD in meteorite studies, in an attractive novel project in Switzerland just because of the unavailability of equivalent projects and the adequate lab facilities in Indian institutes. Why was it so? Why despite producing well trained IITians and IIScians, we are not able to sustain them? If you ask the NRIs, they will tell you that they went abroad for further studies or job, just because they could not find one in India, which serves their skills and talent. You cannot expect all, including myself, to be like Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam after all! Why are we not able to develop a simple instrument to say analyse the basic chemical constituents of a material? Something, for which research scholars in India, will be dependent on foreign labs through collaborations, and end up sharing data, unconsciously disregarding its long-term significance.

However, there is also no dearth of such instruments in research institutes across India, but they are restricted to only few elite institutes, and constrained to limited groups. These equipments are all imported from USA, Germany, and Japan, that requires huge expenditure, from procurement to management. Therefore, given the current investments in science, making such expensive tools available to every research institute is just not economically viable. Also, I personally belief such ‘spoon-feeding’ removes the scientific temperament of ‘how things actually works’? Basic technology development and its scientific application is a symbiotic process. So, how this matter of developing basic technology can be addressed? Let us look at the possibilities.

Since the launch of Chandrayaan-II, I have been observing the views of people in India, and around the world. While some expresses happiness on its successful launch, others are expressing their pessimistic opinion on the need for investments in future space exploration, by a developing economy like India. Given my experience in the subject of space and planetary studies, I could analyse this situation. I shall provide a logical, scientific and economic justification to such criticism of ISRO. If you look at the history of ISRO, one shall find that most of its technology, although in small scale, is indigenous. Important point to also note is ISRO did that with minimum material resources, and maximum potential of human resources available. Most of ISRO scientists, including the chairperson have hardly obtained any degree from a foreign institute. These indigenous technologies developed by ISRO have so far been used in purposes of national interests be it weather forecast, agriculture, national security or limited planetary science research, but not directly in large industrial scale applications.

Only recently, the commercial aspect of satellite launching is considered. It is fact that ISRO labs are indigenously capable of designing and developing miniature sensors and instruments on board their spacecrafts for the above-mentioned purposes, which essentially is the same kind of technology required to analyse the chemical composition of a material in a lab on earth. Therefore, the question is can that same technology developed by ISRO and its other wings, be used to build low-cost instruments, which can be distributed to all relevant universities across the country? This would greatly benefit both the quality and quantity of scientific research in India. Further research using those instruments would in turn improvise those same technologies. R&D centers in state and central universities can be established, which can collaborate with experts from ISRO and others, to work on developing those technologies. If we look at it from the commercial point of view, some of the existing indigenous electrical and electronic firms can lend their hand in supplying the basic requirements and even several new start-ups can be encouraged to do the same.

A shirt-manufacturing brand will not produce all A-Z materials necessary to make a shirt. There will be many smaller industries manufacturing threads, buttons or dyes, which are associated with it. The same approach is necessary for basic technology development, technologies that are crucial for indigenous advancement of science and technology itself. This shall reduce the load on buying limited technologies and instead encourage the Government to invest that same capital in supporting platforms to build them. Such industries when reaches a profitable state can later also export such technologies to underdeveloped countries, to help their scientific atmosphere grow. Another sector where R&D in India is lagging behind is that of reverse engineering. Most of the technological development in China, which we see today, is because of investment in reverse engineering they did perhaps decades back. These same proposed centers can also incorporate reverse engineering of already available foreign technologies.

I often wonder if the IIT and IISc graduates who migrates to foreign countries, can contribute toward industrial development there, what prevents them to do so in their own place of birth. Is it the environment, poor infrastructures, available opportunities for their future, or just the mindset? I will not go into the political aspects, but it is a fact that such basic technology development should have been possible decades back. Why no one ever question as to why we could not make rifles, bullets and personal armours, while we were capable of building Aryabhatta? It is not rocket science, you see!

I think the point of time our nation is going through, this is the best possible moment to ask these questions, because the solutions as I explained, are already present, and just that we need to apply them. Just as they say that, the teacher appears only when the student is ready, is this a similar moment for Indians? Given the atmosphere of, never before like opportunities available for entrepreneurship and start-ups in India, I think that this is the perfect time we discuss and work on these ideas.

It is now or never! When question of creating jobs, uplifting people above poverty level, and multi-trillion dollar economy comes, one has to take into account how good and efficient we are, in self-manufacturing the basic technical requirements to meet those goals, because a developed country that aspires to lead the world, can never be still dependent on others for basic technology requirements.

Political Pawar play shreds constitution on Constitution Day

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
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Political Pawar play shreds constitution on Constitution Day

The timing could not have been better. A more appropriate day could not have been chosen by the Supreme Court. On 26th day, 2019, 70th Anniversary of the adoption of Constitution of India, a bench of Justices N.V. Ramana, Ashok Bushan and Sanjeev Khanna, directed conduct of floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly on 27th Nov,2019.The Supreme Court’s intervention has led to resignation of Dy. Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in that order. Paving the way for Udhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena supremo, to become Chief Minister, with possibly Ajit Pawar as his Deputy (don’t rule it out, as rumblings have begun already) in another dispensation. Great.

Fadnavis claims that he expected Ajit Pawar to lead NCP with 54 MLAs to align with BJP to form the Government. And now that Ajit Pawar chose to resign, “It is obvious we do not have the numbers and hence I am resigning”. If BJP sought to align with NCP, Shiv Sena aligning with it is no big deal. Or Congress-NCP with Shiv Sena either. It’s all Pawar Play at work.

Now, the 288 members have taken oath as members of Assembly, “I, A.B., having been nominated as a candidate to fill a seat in the Legislative Assembly, do swear in the name of God that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established and that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India.”

“True Faith and Allegiance to the Constitution of India”? Which Constitution are these ‘characters’ owing true faith and allegiance to? Is it the same Constitution our forefathers made for us, with Babasaheb Ambedkar as Chairman? The shameful shenanigans of all these politicians have made mincemeat of that solemn instrument. Of the three organs of the State viz. Judiciary, Legislature and Executive, it is universally acknowledged that Alexander Hamilton doctrine in his Federalist Paper No.78 of 1780s that Judiciary is the weakest of the three, is true. Hamilton wrote, “Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honours, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.”

Be it the Karnataka imbroglio, which went waking up the Supreme Court at midnight, to reverse the swearing in of B.S. Yeddyurappa, immediately after the 2019 elections, or the recent Maharashtra capers, the top Court had to step in to stop the degenerating political standards from descending further. The weakest link in the three pillars of Democracy, has had to, time and again, rise to the occasion to fill the breach, vacated by the other two for expediency.

BJP and Shiv Sena contested the 2019 elections together. They came back with a majority, as a combine, though with a dented return. The two were ‘natural allies in the Hindutva colours’ as a twitter feed put it. Yet, SS stood its ground to assert that it wanted a 50% share in the Ministry formation and in the Chief Ministership position on a 30 months’ rotational basis. BJP with a 50% excess number was in no mood to yield or relent an inch. They wanted the earlier 2014-2019 arrangement to be repeated with possibly a higher accommodation for SS in the central ministry.

SS was convinced that BJP was playing Big Brother and repeated yielding, may eat into their very existence. They were willing to play footsie with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and through them reach out to Indian National Congress. Modi baiters loved this proposition. Keeping BJP out at all costs, it could not become the oft quoted ‘Secular Alliance’ as SS had paraded always in BJP’s saffron a.k.a. communal clothing. But, your enemy’s enemy is my friend, they said, and willing to compromise on all ‘principles and ideologies for the sake of public interest to honour the voter’s need for a government’. In an interview, in 2012, to party mouthpiece Saamna, Balasaheb Thackeray said Sonia was a foreigner. “What love will she have for this country and what is her contribution here,” he asked. “You see what is going on in the country. There is controversy over the Army chief’s age and the matter is in court. Whose reputation is in jeopardy? There is no question of Sonia’s reputation as she is a foreigner,” he said. On Rahul Gandhi, he said, “He was born yesterday and wants to be prime minister today. Is the PM’s post up for auction?” The atmosphere in the country was polluted by Congress, he said. Thackeray, who celebrated his 86th birthday on January 23, when asked the “secret” of his good health, said, “If I reveal my secret, all these Congressmen will emulate it.” No wonder Sonia and Rahul chose to keep off the swearing ceremony. Touche!

BJP was not taking things lying down. They went behind the scenes and played their conspiratorial cards to a nicety and lured Ajit Pawar (whom they had branded as the most corrupt politician in the whole nation) into governance, tapping into his personal scores to settle with the Pawar family, as Sharad Pawar was angling to promote his daughter Supriya Sule. It was all power, pelf, property, in politics to the fore. No scruples, values, morals, holding any of the parties or candidates back, in their efforts to hobnob with each other, not even sure, who was in bed with who, and which principle/ideology they were forsaking for now, in ‘public interest’. Shameful disdain for democracy, from each of our representatives. In every other party.

Let us be clear and honest to ourselves. Politics of today knows no morals or values. They are all in it for power. Power subsumes and sublimates every other tenet in politics. To grab power, anything goes. It would be utter naïveté on our part to expect these politicians to behave or practice morality as our representatives. The day and moment our vote is cast, our influence and sway over them ceased. We become bystanders. If we are not to be backstabbed and feel deprived, we ought to be aware of the practical reality that we voted in our representative so that they may make hay as they chose to. Surely, it would be too much to expect them to honour the mandate, as We The People, returned in the hustings. Why should they care? Playing politics is the only credo and ultimate value.

While embracing pragmatic realism, we can console ourselves with this prescient, last and parting speech to the Constituent Assembly, in which Babasaheb Ambedkar poured out his heart “…however good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it happen to be a good lot….The Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depends are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics.”

Nanabhoy Ardeshir Palkhivala worried 30 years ago, “The quality of our public life has reached its nadir. Politics has become tattered and tainted with crime. India today is a living example of the fact that cynicism corrupts and absolute cynicism corrupts absolutely. The greatest shortage in India today is of that rare commodity-character. What distresses me the most in India is the total absence of character. What disturbs me is not the corruption, the misconduct, the degradation; what distresses me is the public apathy and acceptance of them as facts of life.” Who then is to blame for the lack of character in these ‘characters’ in the despicable dance of democracy? We get the politicians we deserve.

(Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan- Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)

Mumbai fiasco

OliveGreens09
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Mumbai fiasco

So near yet so far is the apt analogy for the recent shenanigans of BJP in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Notwithstanding the election results, not even the backstabbing by Shiv Sena or even its forming a government with NCP and Congress, the move by BJP to align with the Face of Corruption in the last Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, was a disaster in all respects. After Shiv Sena played truant, angling for the CM’s post for itself, the BJP, hamstrung by lack of numbers and its inherent untouchable status amongst the so called Secular parties in the political spectrum, should have refrained from the misadventure. The long drawn negotiations between the three players in Maharashtra were getting on the nerves of both the electorate and the parties.

Congress is a divided house, with the younger generation led by Rahul and MPs from Kerala against any truck with the unabashedly hardcore Hindutva line taken by the Shiv Sena in all its years of existence. NCP is under tremendous pressure after Ajit staged that early morning drama, he has since then retreated but now claims his pound of flesh as the bargaining goes unabated. The inner tussle between Ajit and Supriya Sule is all too evident in the formation of the new government. Ajit, as long as one remembers has been the Official Number Two in NCP, heir to Sharad Pawar till Sharad chose Supriya to be a member of parliament. The entire drama of supporting BJP seemed at putting Sharad at unease, most MLAs stayed with Pawar senior but it has in no way diminished the clout Ajit enjoys in the party. The swearing in saw a sulking Ajit not taking oath as minister, he has put forth his demand for a rotational CM of two and half years each for Shiv Sena and NCP. Congress wanted two deputies CMs, one from NCP and one from the Congress.

Meanwhile, last minute negotiations have cleared some air with NCP having a deputy CM while Congress shall have the Speaker of the Assembly. This formula leaves powerful groups within both NCP and Congress unhappy. Ajit wants rotational Chief Ministership while Congress wants a deputy CM. It was always difficult to work out any solution which could satisfy all alliance partners of the Maha Aghadi. The BJP which earlier had thrown in the towel after its pre poll partner Shiv Sena parted ways, got interested even as the Maha Aghadi was on the verge of forming a government in Maharashtra. It had opened some backdoor channels with Ajit Pawar offering him the Deputy Chief Ministership, Ajit armed with his official status as the Leader of NCP legislature party gave his support to Devendra Fadnavis paving way for a last minute Raj Bhavan Coup scripted by some C grade Bollywood movie director.

It is implausible that BJP did not bother to check if Ajit had the support of his MLAs or his uncle, the NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, without whose support it was impossible to form any government which had NCP in it. The Raj Bhavan Coup was up for judicial scrutiny was an assumed fact and it was also a known fact that BJP could not have the numbers unless the Pawar Senior was on-board. Sharad Pawar had cleared the air when he declared that Ajit acted on his own and NCP has no truck with BJP in the government formation. Supreme Court as predicted called for for a vote with open ballot and live feed, it was curtains for the Two Day Misadventure by Devendra Fadnavis and the ever ambitious Ajit Pawar. With the Maha Aghadi showing off its strength in the hotel oath taking drama counting 162 heads it was all over. BJP hung on for another 24 hours till Ajit pleading personal reasons parted ways with BJP. The humiliation was complete.

It is understandable that BJP was the largest party which should have formed a government with Shiv Sena but once the relationship was beyond repair and no chance of any rapprochement or climb down by the Shiv Sena, it was always difficult for BJP but the manner of its approach to form a government was against all principles of democracy. BJP has prided itself as a party with a difference but its machinations over the last 6 years has been anything but principled. The Court has now indicted BJP almost half a dozen times over the 6 years for its extra constitutional outreach. Uttarakhand, Arunachal, Goa, Manipur later Karnataka and now Maharashtra have all been the Black Demos of Constitutional norms.

Heavens would not have fallen if BJP had not tried forming a government after having exhausted all options earlier, it fell for the Power Trap. The lure of power for the financial capital of the country was too much for the sane heads sitting in Delhi. It is again impossible that the top hierarchy of the BJP was not involved, an operation of this magnitude would definitely have a go-ahead by either Amit Shah or Narendra Modi. One can absolve Narendra Modi but the entire operation had Shah’s Stamp.

BJP should have allowed the Maha Aghadi to tie itself in knots, its inherent contradictions would have surely made this alliance untenable in any distant terms. It has done few things in Maharashtra, BJP now enjoys the pole position both as a political party and the opposition, Shiv Sena evolves finally into a Secular party, Congress and NCP now are tagged along with the Hardcore Hindutva outfit Shiv Sena which professes to abide by Secularism.

One can ask Uddhav, has he changed his stand on Ram Mandir, Veer Savarkar and Godse or whether Sonia’s Congress has pardoned Thackerays for being Savarkarites and Godse worshippers…

Will the Maha Aghadi Government last long?

G Indira
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Will the Maha Aghadi Government last long?

Maharashtra (state) by implication of its nomenclature (Maha means big/great, rastra meant state) is India’s biggest and richest state. The BJP has given away such state to Shiva Sena, NCP and the Congress trio also known MAHA AGHADI. It’s unfortunate that both Shiv Sena and the BJP couldn’t budge an inch from their stance to have an amicable solution. Both are ideological allies. Both fought electoral battle together. Both won the state together. Both tried to woo the NCP to form the government rather preferring their own ideological partner. Now, Uddhav Thackeray being sworn-in chief minister, the Sena got what the BJP denied to them. This is what happens when power over ideology prevails.

The biggest beneficiary in this power struggle is the Congress party. The party which is nowhere in the political landscape till yesterday and is in a waning stage, got a new lease of life. As a matter of fact, Sonia Gandhi gained ground. This is one, flip side of the story.

On the other flop-side is, by aligning with Shiv Sena for sharing power, the Congress lost its so-called secular image among its minority voters. The predatory Assaduddin Owaisi of AIMIM, makes no bones, now, in branding the Congress (which is in cohorts with the Shiv Sena in grabbing power in the biggest state) for compromising on its secularism. The Wayanad wallahs of Rahul Gandhi’s constituency get baffled. The Communist parties of Kerala, gleefully look at these developments. The Left in Kerala, is the big beneficiary of the Congress move. As Shah Bano case is for Hindus, aligning with Shiv Sena is for Muslims.

Poor Shiv Sena, it has to make a U-turn on all issues it has stated so long! Be it on Ayodhya Ram Temple building, be it on awarding Savarkar Bharat Ratna (even if the BJP awards eventually, Sena has to shut its mouth for the sake of its secular Congress ally). Shiva Sena has to be cautious from here onwards in commenting on Sonia Gandhi. It cannot loud mouth its opinions as it did earlier freely on her. It had also tried to put the BJP in a corner, on all ideological issues by writing in its (Sena’s) mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ with a no- holds-barred attitude, although the BJP was its ally. Would the Sena do such a venture with its new found allies, if the Sena perceives something wrong in them? Now, since it has no ideology left and has to toe the Congress-NCP ideology, the BJP is free to talk on all Hindu aspirations. The Sena has to wear pseudo-secular mask to cover its skin all the while!

In any way, the party, Shiv Sena, is not viewed on what it says today. It’s judged on what it said yesterday, that is, based on its history. Maybe the party initially stood for Maratha pride but it coupled its Hindu pride with it during the Ayodhya movement and other times. Ram temple at Ayodhya is anathema to the Congress’s secular values. So, where does the party, Shiv Sena, stand? If Sena dilutes its ideology for the Congress’s sake, the BJP will overtake it in the state. All this much ado by Shiv Sena is, to get the Chief Ministers’ post? Very soon they will realize that power is transient and ideology is permanent.

Shiv Sena often stated that it felt suffocated/stifled in the company of its big brother, the BJP. It often happens, beneath a big tree, small trees cannot grow. Because they cannot get enough sunlight, air and water for nourishment. Now, is it ( the Sena) free under the Congress? If Sena felt free with no stifling now, soon it will realize what the Congress is. If the Congress was so full of freedom and ventilation of thought, why would the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Trinmool Congress Party (TMC), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP of Andhra) and earlier Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) have come out from it? The Congress always sees to its interest. It swallowed Prajarajyam Party of actor Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh (United) and also tried to gobble up Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) of K. Chandrasekhar Rao. But, somehow, TRS escaped and is ruling Telangana as of now. The history of the Congress is as such. In their company Shiv Sena is basking for glory! It’s an illusion. The Congress tactfully excused itself from the swearing-in ceremony of Uddhav Thackeray however much they were pleaded to attend.

The NCP patriarch, Sharad Pawar, is no doubt a Maratha-strong man but not an energetic pan-India leader like Modi. There is a breed of anti-BJP journalists in Indian media. They are seeing ,this move of Maha Aghadi formation, as a ray of hope/ light at the end of the tunnel for them. They are missing a larger point. To run a country you need an efficient leader, not a conglomeration of local satraps.

It’s pertinent here, for one to ponder over, as to why Ajit Pawar had gone to the BJP and why he came back to the fold of NCP in short time and what transpired in between Devendra Fadnavis government and him. Everything seems to be a mystery. Only time can tell what happens next. In any case, it’s better for the Sena to come back to their ideological nest after enjoying their much-desired chief ministership for some time, rather than compromising on all fronts in their ideology. Now the jubilant – anti-BJP- media journalists, should also think who is the leader in the Maha Aghadi or elsewhere in the country, who could match, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in this country. So, it’s all the way for the BJP sooner or later.

Why anti-India forces like proselytism faces a big fiasco

divyarazdan
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Why anti-India forces like proselytism faces a big fiasco

In the nationalist regime of PM Modi government, the anti-India forces are finding difficult to breathe in silos and shadows anymore. Right from the Modi’s victory in 2014, forces like pinko socialists (A derogatory term used to indicate a person who is sympathetic to Communism) and proselytizers are facing their end time. Modi government after the successful abrogation of article 370 and 35 A in Jammu and Kashmir has paved the way for secularism and inclusion for all kinds of people leading to downsizing the dominance of Islam religion in the valley. This historic leap will create an environment for all other religious people to propagate, promote and practice their religion without any fear of terror. However, this abrogation is just a change on legal papers and to some extent psychologically but a lot is needed to be done practically on the ground to forth come to the vision and mission behind the removal of article 370.

On similar lines, is another important decision awaiting that is all India anti-conversion law. The role of religion in India cannot be ignored. It plays the most significant part in the Indian society and hence, needs to be looked upon by both government and security agencies. It is not a new phenomenon but an old one, where India witnesses various forced religious conversions since colonial rule. These conversions are against the constitution of India and the fundamental rights of the people. According to the Indian constitution, freedom of religion in India is a fundamental right guaranteed by article 25 – 28 of the constitution and there is no place for disruption of social harmony, fraud, money attraction, coercion in the name of a particular religion.

Though the debate over conversion hasn’t started recently but since independence. It is assumed that if India brings in all India anti-conversion law it would be paradoxical to the secular fabric of the country. However, this is very insensitive and illogical to say that anti-conversion law is hampering the secularism in India because anti-India forces like proselytizers have an agenda behind all this. These foreign forces are at war with India to disintegrate and degrade the progress of the nation by changing the demography in the country and making Indian people slaves of Vatican or Mecca-Medina. This slavery leads to infusion of the foreign ideas, cultures, and most importantly, murdering of the national interest by its own people. This is a grave situation as it is mostly and deliberately concentrated on Hindus in the country. While Hindus mostly are at slumber, they need to realize the importance of there Sanatan Dharma which not only preaches tolerance but justice through an undeniable fight. Unfortunately, the so-called Hindus who don’t know their dharma, they very easily become catechumen for evangelists and soul vultures in the name of religion.

Since at the union front, the anti-conversion bill could not get support but at some state-level it did. Out of 28 states in India, 6 states have enacted legislation to check illegal-forceful religious conversions and also regulate the conversions. These states are Arunachala Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

In the Supreme Court judgment in Rev Stainislaus v. State of Madhya Pradesh, the judges were faced with the question of whether the right to convert is a right included within the right to practice and propagate one’s religion. The court clarified that right to propagate only implies persuasion or exposition to one’s religious tenets and not forcibly causing another to convert his religion.

The court also delved into the “freedom of conscience” guaranteed by Article 25 under which conversion of another’s religious faith would be objectionable.

However, the court also clarified the competency of state governments with regard to anti-conversion laws. The court stated that states have complete jurisdiction regarding the matter as Entry 1 of List 2 of the Seventh Schedule deals with “public order” which is essentially linked to the conversion of religious faith and hence, conversion remains a state matter and must not be confused with “religion” which is a central matter.

Here, PM Modi led BJP government is soon going to present a draft on All India Anti- Conversion Bill which will bring conversion a matter of concern under central authority because it is directly connected to religion which is not a state subject but a central matter. It is been observed that conversion forces are speedily gearing up with many tactics to lure people, especially poor Hindus to convert with attractive money sum, jobs, reservations, free education and false divine hopes. Even the biggest part of their confirmed conspiracy against Hindus is to defame the Hindu religious saints into bad picture, popularly called as ‘baba phenomena’ where anti-Hindu media constantly shows how Hindu religious leaders are fraudulent and under the grab of religious practices they are vicious criminals in the society and that they are the real demons of the faith.

By All India Anti-conversion law, the sugar coating of the Christian missionaries and love jihad by Mullahs on poor and misguided Hindus won’t be possible and this will help maintain original demography and will diminish the religious- disharmony in the country. For this to happen effectively in the country a rigorous punishment apparatus must be drafted so that legislation, judiciary and executive work with coordination and delivers the real purpose behind the purposed law.

The radical AI

Sudeep Satheesan
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The radical AI

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is a common buzzword in tech industry as well as general public. What is AI? It is the intelligence of machines that is envisioned to ably substitute human or ‘real’ intellect in future. That is, machines or bots will think for themselves without human intervention, at least most of the time.

Is it good? Apart from social threats such as taking away employment of people, there are issues that AI has introduced into the society.

One significant player is the ‘Radical AI’ – Recommendation engine. This is the one that displays suggestions when we shop on Amazon or other online stores. It recommends options based on our shopping behavior. While this is innocuous, there are recommender systems that drive us into a dark alley without us realizing. When you search for a particular news on google, do you see similar news recommended for you? To take an example, a person might be simply reading an article from an atheist on religion. But soon there will be more opinions and news items of similar vein next to the excerpt. If the person is agnostic, he may read few of those out of curiosity. And gradually more and more articles from around the world will pop up where atheists, scientists, industrialists will be trashing religion and spirituality. On the other hand, if the agnostic person is reading a spiritual piece, he will soon be directed to many excerpts from believers, scientists, industrialists, from across the world, who would be propounding religion. And then when a discussion ensues with a colleague or a friend, that person will have abundance of information about one end of the spectrum. Without realizing he would have acquired a fervent view for or against religion!

This happens with every topic in the world, be it politics, economics, history, it doesn’t matter. If you are sitting on the fence, or slightly leaning towards the right or left, once you peruse an article you will slowly be guided through a tunnel that carries just one side of the story. This is because recommender systems try to statistically correlate the articles that you read with other articles on the internet. As you read more of them, your action is correlated with similar behavior of others on the web. Gradually, your interests would be deemed closer to a radical person than a neutral by the AI, thus leading to strongly opinionated articles rendered on your browser or app. Very soon you will be overwhelmed with information about one side of the matter and none from the other side. This is when opinions become extreme or radical. The same is true for videos on YouTube as well as other news and media sites. If one casually watches a hate speech video, more such videos will be suggested, and by the end of it all, one may subconsciously begin to empathize with few aspects of it.

This is perhaps why people nowadays are more stubbornly opinionated and have a plethora of information to validate their stand, as compared to a person, say, ten years ago. This system is probably also responsible for implanting partisan viewpoints on any topic that a person has encountered. Hence, it is up to us to be conscious and self-aware about such pitfalls and always read both sides of the subject before arriving at a conclusion.

While more information is good, it has to be balanced. It would be useful if recommender systems also display a ‘radicalization score’ against every article or video so that people can pick and choose which articles or news to read. With the advancement in Natural Language Processing (NLP), it is not a big deal for AI engineers to derive this score from every article and display it alongside.

One other question that merits thought is whether a system run by AI is ethical or not. Machine Learning models are trained on historical data. It mines the information and identifies patterns using statistics. The resultant AI module thinks and analyses based on this data, which is a collection of behaviors of several hundreds or thousands of people. For example, if an AI engine has to play the role of judiciary using historical data of several judges, then it’s decision making will take into account the patterns that exist in earlier judgments. So, if there has been a general bias against certain classes or sections of people in past judgments, then that would reflect in the AI engine too. This is where AI has to be trained to be ethical and not just mimic the human foibles.

Similarly, an AI can turn out to be greedy or inane if it has been fed data of people who have generally acted greedily and foolishly, especially from the government sectors of developing countries. This places a great significance on the quality of corpus on which the AI has been trained.

The ‘ethical’ and the ‘smart’ AI has a dependency on obtaining unbiased and prudent historical actions/data, which sometimes is very difficult to sift through to extract clean information from it. There is also considerable complexity in overcoming such anomalies and building a sturdy engine.

However, the recommendation engine can be designed with a more robust logic, something that the organizations have total control of. The onus is on individuals to be sagacious about the content they read, but it is also the responsibility of recommender systems to help them in that decision making.

While the recommendation engine continue to evolve in that direction, it is up to us to peruse articles from both ends of the spectrum in order to make a balanced judgement and avoid getting our ‘Real Intelligence’ inadvertently radicalized by ‘Artificial Intelligence’.

Betrayal of Shiv Sena and its similarity with the actions of Duryodhana in Mahabharat

S Ranganathan
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Betrayal of Shiv Sena and its similarity with the actions of Duryodhana in Mahabharat

We must associate the greed and lust for power of Shiv Sena chief with the lust and greed of Duryodhana in Mahabharat. Duryodhana was the son Dhritarastra who was none other than the brother of Pandu, the father of Pandavas. Both Pandavas and Kauravas were born in the Hastinapur palace, lived together under the same parenthood, played together, had their education under the same gurukul but later broke away due to the greed of Duryodhana for power.

Instead of Dhritarastra acting as king of Hastinapur and break the greed of his son Duryodhana, he sided with him because of the bad influence of Shakuni. The greed and blind ambition of the blind Dhritarastra over his son Duryodhana to see him as king of Hastinapur, allowed the family to split and injustice to happen to Pandavas. Both Duryodhana and Dhritarastra weren’t bothered about the welfare of Hastinapur but want war and destruction because, for Dhritarastra, his son Duryodhana should be made the king and not Yudhistra.

If we unfold the events in Maharashtra and look at the way Shiv Sena chief has betrayed the mandate of people of Maharashtra, we can find several similarities with certain characters in Mahabharat. Certainly Uddhav Thackeray resembles the character of blind Dhritarastra. Adhitya Thackeray although not vociferously but still resembles the character of Duryodhana and certainly Sanjay Raut fulfils the space and role of Shakuni.

Many tukde tukde gangs are asking why BJP could not stop Shiv Sena break the alliance of 35 years old and does that not reflect the bad politics of BJP. All those tukde tukde gangs must realize that it was the greed and lust for power of Shiv Sena, that had broken the alliance and not because of bad politics of BJP. BJP and Devendra Fadnavis played the role of Pandavas by upholding truth, justice and dharma.

Like Yudhishthira (symbol of truth), Devandra Fadnavis alone has the right to claim the post of Chief Minister of Maharashtra because the alliance fought under his leadership and BJP is the single largest party in Maharashtra assembly. Although many leaders in Shiv sena remains as helpless as Bhisma, Kripacharya, Drona and are still persuading the blind Dridarastra but the intoxication of power injected by Shakuni upon the chief of Shiv Sena is far too high and hence the chief of Shiv Sena is not going to free from such intoxication in near future. The greed of Duryodhana has caused Mahabharat war and destruction of Hastinapur and so shall the greed of Shiv Sena going to destroy the party.

During war, Duryodhana joined hands with several bad forces to fight Pandavas but at the end it was not only Duryodhana but also all those bad kings too got eliminated.

Ajit Pawar today represents the character of Vidura. Vidura could not stand with injustice and treachery and hence moved away from Kaurava group and stood neutral. Only difference with Ajit Pawar is that he has joined the side of dharma, truth and justice. The floor test will be the real Kurushetra war where many legislatures from Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress would support justice and honesty than will remain with injustice and adharma and perish at the end. Let us hope BJP wins the trust vote and truth and justice prevail.

Certainly the writing on the wall is clear for Shiv Sena. Maharashtra is not going to forget and forgive Shiv Sena for the betrayal.  After winning the election, the greed and lust for power had pushed Shiv Sena to cause great instability to the state of Maharashtra. Like how entire Kaurava got destroyed, Shiv Sena too will be eliminated from the political map of India…. all in the hands of just time.

People of India must move away from supporting the dynastic forces and family owned political forces like DMK, congress, Shiv Sena, JDS, SP etc., because only power and money matters for all these dynastic forces and not governance and sab ka vikas agenda of Modi.

If people support such tukede tukede gangs, instability, corruption, nepotism and open brokerage and deal making for power alone shall be the by-product of such support. Let us save India by defeating all those dynastic forces and let us support stability, assertiveness and corruption free governance. Only hope for New India is Modi and Amit Shah therefore let us supports BJP unconditionally and save India.

A giant leap towards “Congress Mukt Bharat”

Anant Chetan
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A giant leap towards “Congress Mukt Bharat”

After witnessing what is happening in Maharashtra and what happened in Karnataka an old story struck me.

There is a very old story about a hunter and his clever tactics, you must have read it as kids story or seen it in the movies or cartoons. The story goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom with several villages. Over the period of time there came a family of  man-eater beasts and started haunting the villagers. The  villagers with their limited capabilities and not so good weapons couldn’t do much. After some time, they hired a really clever hunter to get rid of the beasts. The hunter studied the beasts, created a plan and assured the villagers that it will be they who’ll kill the beast and not him. He would just show them the way. The scared villagers agreed.

The next day, the hunter took a lamb and tied it out in the open and asked all the villagers to just focus on the lamb from a distance and not visible to the beast or the lamb, wait and do nothing. The villagers did as asked. The beast smelled the lamb and came running towards it, didn’t stop to think, didn’t see left or right, straight to the lamb, pounded over it, ate it. And then realized what had happened. The villagers too many in numbers were able to kill the beast with their not so good weapons.

The hunter moved to a different village. A similar situation occurred. When one of the remaining beasts from the family saw a lamb roaming out in the open, he instantly remembered as to what had happened the last time with one of his family members. This time he was aware of the hunter’s trick. He did not make a move. But then something unusual was happening this time. The lamb was not tied, it started moving towards the beast as if it was thinking that the beast is scared of the lamb. The beast got confused but still did not make a move. He waited and waited and waited; the lamb kept on inching towards the beast in his full swag, as if he was immortal. At some point in time the beast gave in to his temptations. He simply couldn’t resist the smell of the flesh, he thought the lamb is not tied, last time it was tied, maybe this time he is actually lucky. He pounded on the lamb, ate him and then the villagers attacked and killed the beast. The hunter had tweaked his strategy this time, let the lamb walk towards the beast and confused both the lamb and the beast.

Can you make a guess as to who is playing (or played) the role of the hunter, the beast and the lamb?

If we talk about this year’s general elections that were held in May, 2019, there was something clear even a year before the election process began: “BJP would come out to be the largest party, but might miss the majority mark on its own.” The question of paramount importance was- “Will BJP be able to manage 272 on its own?” Regional coalitions, the mahagathbandhan was the biggest challenge for BJP. Different parties forgot their sole reasons of being in politics and just started working towards defeating BJP. How did BJP overcome this challenge?

Mr. Kumaraswamy (JDS) – the lamb number 1

JDS had contested elections against INC. But still INC went running to JDS and cobbled up an alliance, without thinking of the consequences. Instances like the crying Chief Minister, Mr. Kumaraswami, him claiming that he was there because of madam g and not because of the people or later complaining that the government was not able to function because Congress is not letting them work were the living reminders to the entire nation that a post poll, opportunistic, alliance is not in the best interest of the country. BJP had successfully exposed the dirty coalition politics like never before. The voters did not want another corrupt coalition like UPA, they were not choosing one party over another  but they were choosing a stable government over a shitty corrupt coaltiong (gath-jodh) government.  You could search for other zillion examples that made a lot of people cringe. I do not intend to lengthen the already long article by quoting all the instances.

We don’t live in 50’s or 60’s any more. The number of political parties, contestants and spending capabilities have exponentially increased over the decades. Which is why, 303 seats by a single party in today’s India is a commendable feat by any standards. In this age of fast internet and availability of quick facts (law/constitution) and figures, the other abstract aspects like emotions, human psychology, perception, image, etc are increasingly getting ignored during our political discussions and analysis. The so called number game had over simplified the politics in India in the last few decades. And now, if some one can’t prove his/her analysis or strategy using an understandable mathematical model, either his/her understanding of politics is not as it should be or his/her strategy is destined to be doomed.

The exact same story is repeating now in Maharashtra, of course with a slight improvisation.

Uddhav Thackrey (Shiv Sena) – the lamb number 2

Congress was quiet after the election results in Maharashtra, there were no movements from their end. They knew this very situation from the past and I am sure their political analysts would have known it too. But this time Shiva Sena walked towards them from the front door. After a certain time they gave in to their hunger of power. And they will see the exact same fate. How?

Let me ask you one simple question “If BJP had the will to form the government by hook or by crook, why didn’t the party stake claim a month ago when the governor had invited the party to stake claim?” Whatever they are doing now, they could have very well done it a month ago. What was the party waiting for? To be able to answer the this question you need to know the answer of my next question “What would have not happened, if BJP would have formed the government right then with the exact same MLAs that it plans to form the government now?” What changed in last one month?

Congress would have never supported Shiv Sena. Not only support, they are now shouting at the top of their voice “we support Shiv Sena”. They are filing court petitions as co-petitioners with SS in the Supreme Court. They are fighting for it. By the time floor test happens, they would have vowed their allegiance with Shiv Sena at least a million times, “we support shiv sena”, “Shiv Sena and Indian National Congress are one and the same“.

I am pretty sure BJP is going to fail the floor test again as in Karnataka. An SS-NCP-INC coalition government in Maharashatra would be a constant reminder to millions that Congress is all in for power. Secularism, Intellectualism, Liberalism etc. etc are just some means to achieve power; use the most suitable quality to remain in power.

Its not about ideology as a lot of people are saying these days, look at seven state elections due in less than 16 months, and the potential issues that would be making headlines every single day; thanks to the media.

Shiv Sena has been demanding Uniform Civil Code for years now. What happens when BJP starts pushing this in the parliament and in public? Same goes with NRC. Just a week ago, Mr. Amit Shah announced the government’s plan to extend NRC to all the states in India. Where will Congress stand? Where will Shiv Sena stand? Shiv Sena has a PhD in NRC, forget the non-citizens they don’t even tolerate people from other states. How will they stay quiet on this? Either of the two parties will have to let go of their stands or at the bare minimum stay quiet when these issues come up. And I don’t think Shiv Sena is the quiet types. In less than 16 months, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala go for elections. Who are the Muslims going to vote? Will they vote a party who is in coalition with the party who lead from the front to demolish Babri Masjid?

Whatever would happen in any part of India, INC-SS-NCP would be counting their MLAs on a weekly basis, stuffing them in the buses and holding them hostages in some four walls without any communication, exactly like they did for MLAs in Karnataka. Don’t you think rest of the states would notice this and despise it?

Bihar goes for election in 2020. Nitish Kumar, after looking at what happened with SS, a three decade old ally of BJP, would not even think of arm-twisting in the name of a coalition government. SS asking for 50% ministry and a rotation CM was a clear arm-twisting in the name of coalition. I am sure, JDU would be reasonable with their demands now. Moreover, if I remember correctly, beef was a big issue in last assembly elections in Bihar. I don’t think Beef and Cows would even be an issue this time, let alone a trending issue. And if they do become an issue, floor test would happen in Maharashtra; a revenue generating state.

Shiv Sena is the father of far right politics, the party invented many of the tactics. If you compare BJP and Shiv Sena on a left-right scale, BJP would look left and I don’t know what the professional leftists would have to do to fight that. Interesting!

In the other three states going for elections Delhi, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, BJP has nothing to lose, it can only gain in these states. And as soon as these elections are done, BJP would show SS-INC-NCP in Maharashtra the places they deserve as it did to INC-JDS in Karnataka. The first thing BJP did after 2019 LS election was form its own government in Karnataka.

This political stunt pulled off by BJP will force Congress to cut of their last leg (their vote bank). Ever since India’s independence, Congress had been winning the elections in the name of freedom struggle,  the name Gandhi and its Muslim/Dalit vote bank. Freedom struggle is too old for today’s youth to relate to, and moreover, people know see that Congress was not the only party involved in the freedom struggle, there were others too. The name Gandhi has already lost its sheen by now; Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are shinning examples of that. Congress had worked really hard to keep its vote banks intact. And now, that’s at stake. We are inching towards a Congress Mukt Bharat faster than ever.

Thanks for Reading!!!

Also read:

Note from the author: This article was written before Devendra Fadnavis resigned.

fadnavis

Modi’s party loses control of key Indian state

vishalnirwan19
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Modi’s party loses control of key Indian state

New Delhi- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party suffered a setback in western Maharashtra state on Monday when its longtime ally broke away and announced it wants to join two other parties in forming a new state government.

The Shiv Sena split with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and decided to try to form a coalition government with the BJP’s key opponents, the Congress party and Nationalist Congress Party.

While an agreement on forming a government has not been finalized, the split between the former allies is seen as a setback for Modi’s party after it retained national power in a May general election.

Aaditya Thackeray of the Shiv Sena told reporters his party is ready to form the government in Maharashtra and is waiting to receive letters of support from the two other parties.

The Congress party said it will hold further discussions with ally Nationalist Congress Party on the state’s political situation.

The Shiv Sena, the second-largest party in the state’s 288-member House with 56 lawmakers, needs the support of other parties to take power.

Modi’s party won the most seats in Maharashtra state elections last month and was expected to retain power in the state, home to India’s financial capital, Mumbai. But after hectic political talks between the two allies failed, the Shiv Sena decided to part ways.

Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant, the federal minister of heavy industries and public enterprises, also quit the Modi government.

The state could be put under the direct rule of the federal government until new elections are called if no single party or alliance is able to form a government

vishalpolitics.com

https://vishalpolitics.com/

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