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What lessons on democracy, the economy, natural energy, defense, tourism, IT, and education can India and Egypt share?

Dr Prem Lal Joshi
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What lessons on democracy, the economy, natural energy, defense, tourism, IT, and education can India and Egypt share?


Backdrop
India and Egypt are 4931 kilometres apart. Never do the two nations share a border, language, religion, or custom. However, due to their extensive history of communication and collaboration on bilateral, regional, and international problems, India and Egypt have a close political mutual understanding. On August 18, 1947, the establishment of diplomatic ties was jointly announced at the ambassadorial level. Gamal Abdel Nasser, Nehru’s closest buddy, was a good leader who made a mistake once by waging war against Israel. That put an end to his stellar career as a politician.

More concrete evidence of Egyptian-Indian contacts has recently emerged. When they had surplus land, both nations established villages along the banks of the river as they developed along its course. Both India and Egypt had built-in land defences that kept outsiders out. To direct the water where they needed it, both India and Egypt used a particular sort of irrigation.

While India’s economy depends on the agricultural, industrial, banking, and service sectors, Egypt’s economy is mostly dependent on the media, petroleum imports, natural gas, and tourism. Egypt had a GDP per capita of $3,876 in 2021 compared to India’s $7,333 (estimated); both countries are emerging capital markets. Egypt and India are classified as “lower-middle-income” countries by the World Bank because their GDP per capita is lower than the global average.

Even though the Egyptian economy during Mubarak’s rule experienced an economic crisis after experiencing one of the best growth rates in decades in the years prior to the Arab ‘spring revolution’ the recent boom in economic activity has put Egypt on course to see the growth of 5.5% in 2021. The growth rate for India, on the other hand, was 8.9% in 2021. However, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had a negative impact on both nations’ economies.

The World Bank has advised India to concentrate on public sector reform, infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, the abolition of land and labour regulations, financial inclusion, encouraging private investment and exports, education, and public health in order to achieve sustainable economic development. This advice is based on the World Economic Outlook database (October 2022). On the other side, the biggest concerns of Egypt are currently related to environmental issues, including water scarcity, air pollution, damage to historical sites, problems with animal care, flaws in its waste management system, etc.

There may be many common interests between the two nations; where India and Egypt share close political understanding based on a long history of contacts and cooperation in bilateral, regional, and global Democratic Systems.

Family is an important part of Egyptian culture and an important aspect of Egyptian life. Because Egypt is predominantly a collectivist nation, people typically put their family’s or community’s needs before their own. Therefore, Egypt should have a true democracy, or a direct democracy, where the people are in charge directly. Political participation by the general public is essential. Egypt now supports the ideals of a liberal, democratic, and secular government system following the 2011 revolution and the military takeover in July 2013. Egyptians continue to favour democracy as a concept, think democratic values are crucial, and prefer democratic rule.

According to Pew Research Center’s survey from 2014, a slim majority of Egyptians (54%) believed that having a stable government was more important than having a completely democratic one when there was a need to choose between the two. It looks like the current democratic model, however, is a good representation of Egyptian society.

The world’s leaders currently value India’s strategic stance toward the political changes occurring in emerging nations like Egypt because it is the world’s largest democracy and the second most populous country. Both India and Egypt can play a significant role in establishing a new International order.
As co-founders of the Non-Aligned Movement, Egypt and India had a close relationship up to the 1960s under Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Economic relations and other areas of mutual interest between the two countries are gradually developing.

Economic Partnerships

While India is Egypt’s sixth-largest economic partner, Egypt has historically been one of India’s most significant trading partners on the African continent.

Egypt needs India’s assistance to stabilise and rebuild its economy as it goes through one of the most turbulent periods in its history. Through creative buyback and currency swap agreements, as well as ICT uses, this alliance should improve commerce and investment. India can do a lot to help the general public increase its capacity by encouraging social entrepreneurship and corporate responsibility. Egypt’s efforts to recover from its current situation would be greatly aided by India’s participation in job creation opportunities, increasing agricultural output, and energy solutions.

Bilateral commerce between Egypt and India increased from $3.2 billion in 2010 to $5.4 billion in 2012. However, trade increased between the two nations by 75% year over year in FY 2021–2022, totalling $7.26 billion. Among other things, India exports to Egypt mineral fuels, oils, distillation products, oil seeds, oleagic fruits, grains, seeds, fruits, aluminium, meat, automobile components, and engineering items. The main imports from Egypt that India purchases include crude oil, LNG, salt, cotton, inorganic chemicals, oilseeds, etc.

In an effort to expand trade, Egypt has just begun buying wheat from India. Egypt has the advantage that commerce has been fairly balanced on both sides. India became the world’s pharmacy thanks to the excellent examples it set by successfully regulating Corona in its own country and organising record-breaking vacations for two billion people. There is therefore a lot of room for trade between the two nations in the pharmaceutical sector.

According to S. Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, India and Egypt have increased their defence and security cooperation and will look at prospects in the areas of connectivity, trade, and renewable energy. According to the foreign minister of India, who met with the Egyptian minister in New Delhi, Indian companies have spent more than $3 billion in Egypt, till 2021, and more investments totalling about $1 billion are in the works.

Recently, Egypt has been enduring a food crisis and inflation due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Egypt has been importing cereal grains and oilseeds from Eastern Europe for decades. India and Egypt have agreed to collaborate on agricultural research, extension, cooperatives, agricultural finance and credit, fertilizers, modern irrigation systems, and agricultural machinery. According to the article “India and Egypt: Economic Reconstruction and Stability, “India may aid in supporting the development of high-yield crops, among other things.

One of the worst energy crises in recent memory is also affecting Egypt. Industrial production has been severely hampered, particularly in heavy industries like cement and fertilisers that have long operated below capacity.

There is a claim that solar energy can help Egypt resolve its escalating energy crisis. Egypt can benefit greatly from India’s lower-cost solar energy harvesting techniques. Suzlon Energy could be a helpful partner for energy solutions in Egypt. In addition, India and Egypt have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a green hydrogen plant in the Suez Canal Economic Zone with an investment of $8 billion and a capacity of 220,000 metric tonnes per year.

Egyptian Investments from India

Over 450 Indian firms had registered offices in Egypt as of June 2022, of which 50 are working across a range of industries and had a combined investment of more than US $3.15 billion. More than half of them are joint ventures or wholly owned Indian subsidiaries. According to a report on India-Egypt bilateral trade and investment, the main industries drawing investment include apparel, agriculture, chemicals, energy, autos, and retail.

Some of the prominent projects of Indian firms in Egypt include TCI Sanmar ($1.5 billion), Alexandria Carbon Black, Kirloskar, Dabur India, Flex P Films, SCIB Paints, Godrej, Mahindra, and Monginis, among others. In addition, Indian companies Sterling & Wilson and Larsen & Toubro India (L&T India) have completed projects for Egypt in the energy and communications sectors.

Egyptian Investments in India
It is important to note that Egypt has provided India with FDI of US$37 million. The Egyptian El Sewedy group built a plant in Noida (the state of Uttar Pradesh) in 2013. Additionally, KAPCI Coatings made a $15 million investment in its automobile paint manufacturing plant in Bangalore. Gujarat serves as the location of Bitumode’s Modern Waterproofing Group’s production facility, which serves the construction sector. Last but not least, M/s 700 Apps, a Telangana-based IT company based in Egypt, has started doing business there and plans to expand shortly.

Defence Partnerships
This spectrum of partnership could be financially beneficial for India’s defence industries, which are developing and manufacturing a wide range of goods at a rapid rate, such as radars, patrol boats, light combat aircraft (LCAs), light combat helicopters (LCHs), missile systems, electronic warfare systems (EWS), tanks, and military vehicles. Egypt has already expressed a willingness to purchase Indian-developed Akash missile systems as well as BrahMos cruise missiles (jointly developed with Russia).
According to reports, Egypt has expressed interest in buying Tejas, a single-engine LCA made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Long-term exports of these large weapons systems can enhance India’s reputation as an arms supplier and help it generate more revenue from arms exports, which is essential for both its economic development and the funding of defence research and development (R&D) programs. It would be possible for India to deliver some high-calibre missiles to Egypt. Additionally, on September 20, 2022, India and Egypt signed an agreement to advance their defence relations.

Collaboration with Universities and Colleges
There is a lot of room for cooperation between India and Egypt at prestigious higher education institutions like IIT, regional engineering colleges, IIMs, etc. The top universities in India are investigating the possibility of opening campuses abroad. IIT-Delhi’s petition to construct facilities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt was made a few years ago, and as a result, the Union Ministry of Education established a committee.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar asked the visiting Egyptian Foreign Minister to take into account permitting collaborations with esteemed universities like the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) after the government revealed its plans to expand IITs abroad.

ICT Application Sharing
Since 1985, Egypt has made considerable investments in the field of information technology. Due to the development of a robust information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, Egypt has become recognised as a regional and global hub.

The growth of e-governance in Egypt may benefit from Indian lessons learned in digitalization and information technology. As part of the India Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, India has constructed a fibre-optic network to enable satellite communication, telemedicine, and tele-education.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, one of India’s top IT organisations, and the Indian government worked together to establish Al-Azhar University‘s centre of excellence in information technology.

Tourism Collaboration
At a seminar on “Sustainable Tourism: New Avenues for Development” held in 2018, the Indian Embassy’s Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) stated the opinion that Egypt and India both have enormous potential growth in their tourism industries. That seminar’s objectives were to increase tourism between Egypt and other countries and to educate Egyptians about their rich cultural diversity. It should be mentioned that social media is a crucial tool in the modern world for promoting travel to both nations.

Participants also recommended that one of the best methods to encourage Indian tourism in Egypt is by screening more Bollywood films. Film festivals themselves may be organised on occasion. It’s also been suggested by several that fantastic wellness and wedding tourism experiences may be marketed between nations. According to experts, there is a significant opportunity for India and Egypt to significantly increase tourism. Travel agencies have a key role to play in this promotion of tourism by creating various discounted travel incentives in both countries.

Two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in the areas of tourism, science, and technology were signed by Egypt and India in 2015. In terms of tourism, hospitality, and human resource development (HRD), both governments aimed to strengthen their countries’ bilateral collaboration. Furthermore, Egypt and India worked together to preserve Egyptian mummies in Indian museums.

Conclusion
Due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the entire world is currently experiencing a turbulent period. Most European and South American nations are already witnessing recessionary trends that are making people’s lives more challenging. It will be advantageous for both Egypt and India in this situation to expand and enhance collaboration and relationships in many areas such as business, defence, tourism, industry, and cutting-edge technology.

The “Made in India” programme and India’s start-up firms are hot topics right now. Egypt might gain a lot from India’s expertise in these areas. High economic and social value can be derived from India’s cooperation with Egypt in the areas of promoting agricultural productivity, solar energy solutions, increasing defence needs, and projects, notably in new technology and business solutions.

Prof. Dr. Prem Lal Joshi (former NRI Professor of Accounting and currently Editor-in-Chief of the IJAAS)
&
Prof. Dr. Tariq H. Ismail, Cairo University, Egypt
(The views expressed in this article are those of the authors).

Two Pappus, one on each side of the border

Dr Jadabeswar Bhattacharjee
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Two Pappus, one on each side of the border

The Bhutto middle name used by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came from the Rajput surname Bhatti. The ancestors of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were Hindu Rajput Bhatti from Rajasthan. During the rule of Aurangzeb (1658 to 1707), forefather of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, one Sehto Bhatti, converted to Islam to avoid the torture of Jizya. In the early eighteenth century, this converted family migrated to the North of Larkana in Sindh. In Sindhi pronunciation, Bhatti became Bhutto.

Bilawal’s maternal grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was mainly responsible for genocide in the-then East Pakistan and pogrom of Bengali in 1971. The historically accepted Butcher of East Pakistan, General Tikka Khan, was the creation of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

When of Bilawal’s father Asif Ali Zardari was the President of Pakistan between 2008 and 2013, genocide in Balochistan with cleansing of Baloch people were ruthlessly perpetrated by the Pakistan Army.

It was also under Bilawal’s father Asif Ali Zardari that a group of ten Pakistani Islamic terrorists came from Karachi in boat and attacked Mumbai on 26 November 2008. The attack lasted for four days. A total of 175 people, including 9 attackers, were killed and more than 300 were injured.

Pakistani power centres, cutting across the political lines, had almost cleansed all the religious minorities from the country. And they called their country New Medina. The cleaning was done through sustained government sponsored persecution of all non-Muslim minorities. Even they did not spare Ahmadiyya Muslims also, many of whose grandfathers were strong exponents of the Pakistan Movement. Whereas in India, Muslim population has increased from 9 percent of total population in 1951 to present about 18 percent.

With such a notorious family and national background, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari showed the height of his Pappu-ness by calling Indian Prime Minister Butcher of Gujarat on 16.12.2022 in UN, New York. He might have learnt these uncouth and illogical words from his Italy born Indian aunty who also called Modi-ji Maut Ka Saudagar in 2007.

Bilawal Bhutto, like his elder Indian brother, suffers from RSS-phobia and delusion about RSS. Till date neither Bilawal, nor Indian Pappu and her mother could establish RSS as a Hindu terrorist organization anywhere in the world. But stupid persons do not care about the facts. They are programmed to peddle lies which suit their propaganda.

Islamic Mumbai train blasts of 2006, Samjhauta Express blast in Haryana and Mecca Masjid blast in Hyderabad of 2007 put the Sonia Gandhi led UPA government on the backfoot. She was determined to save Islamic terrorists. Thus, when in 2008 Malegaon blast happened, Sonia Gandhi’s Congress called that Hindu Terror for the first time.

Even the shameless Congress led UPA government called the world infamous terrorist attack of 26/11 of 2008 in Mumbai as a Hindu RSS terror. On 3 May 2010 Kasab, the lone survivor among the 10 Pakistani Islamic terrorists of 26/11, was found guilty and sentenced to death by Indian court. Despite that, the Indian Islamist journalist Aziz Burney wrote the book titled 26/11: RSS Ki Sazish which was officially launched by the most prominent anti-Hindu Congress leader Digvijay Singh as late as on 6 December 2010. Congress has been shamelessly supporting Islamic terrorism in India all along.

India’s Left-Islamist gang should put their foot in their mouth for being happy in a grossly wrong premise of Bilawal Bhutto’s recent weird address in the UN in New York. However, if the gang still endorses Bilawal’s filthy tongue, we should remind the gang that the originator of the Desert Cult was the Butcher of Humanity. Now we have two Pappus, one on each side of the border.

Hijab reveals how educated women in the USA fan flames of Islamism

Prasad Binoy
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Hijab reveals how educated women in the USA fan flames of Islamism

The controversy related to the hijab (the head covering for practicing Muslim women) has gripped both the Islamic and non-Islamic world. In India, the highest court is yet to adjudicate whether a school can stop Muslim girls from wearing hijab in the classroom where dress code is mandatory. There are strict laws against the hijab in a handful of countries. On the contrary, in many countries of the West, the hijab at the workplace or educational institutions is allowed as an “accommodation” of diversity, tolerance and coexistence. 

Recently, arson and protest swept across Iran since a young Muslim girl, Mahsa Amini, was brutally tortured and killed (16 Sept 2022) by the Islamic ‘morality’ enforcing police. Her crime was not properly wearing the hijab. The young Iranian girls expressed their decades-long anger and defiance by ripping off their head scarves and burning them in street bonfires. In social media reports, women cut off their hair in front of roaring demonstrators and danced bare-headed before the riot police.

Anguished at the weak-kneed stand of the modern secular governments against the hijab, a misogynistic symbol of male dominance over women, I wrote the following comment in the New York Times:

“On the question of hijab (the head scarf), I have been intrigued by the vacillating attitude of most of the govts in the West. It is well known now that the women who wear hijab in public are either influenced by their faith, cultural tradition or they are forced by their conservative patriarchal family members. They have said so in surveys. 

In either case, they need to reform themselves in view of the scientific temper of the modern age or gender equality. 

Many experts, based on studies in schools or at the work places, have pointed out that the hijab symbolically creates a social division among the Muslim women themselves: the one who wears a hijab might consider herself a better Muslim than others! 

The state of Quebec in Canada and France have laws against hijab in public places and the Islamists are working hard in both the countries to have those laws repealed.

The politicians and political parties prefer to be politically correct and by doing so, they pander to the conservatives and handicap the progressives.

We know Kemal Attaturk had banned hijab in Turkey; Reza Pahlavi had outlawed hijab in Iran. In Egypt, Abdel Nasser, refused to impose a hijab on women. On being approached by one of the country’s leading Islamist clergies to do so, Nasser is reported to have chided him: “If you are unable to make one girl – who is your daughter (she was in the College of Medicine) – wear a tarha (Egyptian name for the hijab), you want me to put a tarha on 10 million women?”

The hijab drives a wedge in America

Whereas the progressive forces in the Islamic countries like Iran are agitating for the removal of hijab, Islamist women in Europe and North America are working hard to retain this orthodox discriminatory 7th century symbol. They are quick to provoke any minor event related to the hijab or the Muslims into a faith-related divisive controversy. In India, this is called “communalizing” the issue!

Take an incident in the city of Maplewood, NJ (USA). In October 2021, a seconds-long interaction between Ms Tamar Herman, a White-Jewish Elementary teacher, with 30 years of experience, and her 7-year-old Black-Muslim girl student in a classroom unleashed a national firestorm involving the school district administration, police, judiciary and the Islamists. 

According to Ms Herman, she gently brushed back the front portion of the girl’s hooded sweatshirt because it was covering her eyes. The girl had put on a mask too. Ms Herman had expected that the girl was wearing her usual hijab underneath. But the moment she realized the student didn’t have the hijab, she let her keep the hood on and continued with the class. 

Upon returning home, the girl told her mother that Ms Herman had tried to pull off her hijab in the class. The girl’s hijab-wearing mother, Cassandra Wyatt, instead of talking to the teacher or the school administration, took to the facebook and related the story that was picked up, among others, by Ms Ibtihaj Muhammad who lived in Maplewood too. In 2016, Ibtihaj had earned the reputation of being the first Muslim woman Olympian (a fencer) in hijab. She had represented the United States and earned a bronze medal. 

The day after the school incident, in an Instagram post, Ibtihaj was reported to have written that a teacher had “forcibly removed” a student’s hijab. She added, “Imagine being a child and stripped of your clothing in front of your classmates,” and encouraged people to “denounce discrimination” by calling  or emailing the school district.

Magnifying the incident multi-fold, the New Jersey branch of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) claiming to be America’s “largest Islamic civil liberties and advocacy group” promoting justice and protecting civil liberties jumped on the incident.

On 8 Oct 2021, the CAIR-NJ launched a tweeter attack and called for “the immediate firing of the Maplewood teacher who pulled off the headscarf of a young Muslim student.” Anything less was an “insult to the students and parents of Maplewood, NJ.”

Before that, without investigating the case, the CAIR had accused that the “forcefully stripping off the religious headscarf of a Muslim girl” was not only “exceptionally disrespectful behavior, but also a humiliating and traumatic experience.”

Perhaps, that wasn’t enough, the Islamic “advocacy” group kept on trying to split the welcoming, and liberal community of New Jersey along the “faith” lines. It said, “Muslim students already deal with bullying from peers, it’s unthinkable that a teacher would add to their distress. Islamophobia in our public schools must be addressed in NJ. Classrooms are a place for students to feel safe and welcome, not fear practicing their faith.”

Ms Herman maintained through her attorney that this controversy was the result of people publicizing “rumors without any knowledge of or regard for the truth”. Ms Herman, having devoted 30 years of her heart and soul “to children of all backgrounds”, had to seek “police protection” due to the threats she received. She was unlikely to be hired by any other school district as she was sent on administrative leave after the incident.

One year later, in 2022, the matter landed in the US judicial courts. The family of the girl sued the school district and the teacher. Ms Herman filed a defamation suit of her own in New Jersey’s Superior Court accusing the Olympian, Ibtijah Muhammad and the director of the CAIR-NJ of causing “irreparable harm.” In her lawsuit, she claimed that Ms. Muhammad, the fencer, and CAIR-NJ were “motivated by a combination of greed and a fierce desire to burnish their brands as fighters against Islamophobia..”

In the meantime, Cassandra Wyatt told a media outlet that her daughter was no longer interested in wearing the Islamic garb and Ibtijah Muhammad took off her Instagram postings. However, the CAIR-NJ asserted that it would “continue to strongly stand by the student who had the clear constitutional right to cover her hair for religious reasons without physical interference or humiliation.” The organization had earlier stated that “racist” teachers like Ms Herman couldn’t be trusted “around our” children and demanded her immediate termination.

What does this story tell us?

It should be apparent to everyone that in the USA, as in other countries, there are educated Muslim women like Cassandra Wyatt or Ibtijah Muhammad who are soaked in Islamism and work hard to propagate the Sharia principles all around the world. They are aided by organizations like CAIR that masquerade as “civil liberties and advocacy group” but promote Islamist agenda. Having lived and operated in America, they have learnt the art of distorting and misrepresenting incidents so that they could extract heavy sums as “settlement” or “compensation” from the system. Many Islamophobia allegations leveled by them have turned out to be hoaxes.

There have been other more sophisticated efforts to legitimize the hijab in the USA. Munira Ahmed, a Muslim girl of Bangladeshi extraction, popularized hijab by wearing it in the colors of the American national flag. She became a poster child of the Islamists and the liberal left. 

Nazma Khan, a Muslim woman of New York, launched the first World Hijab Day on 1 Feb 2013. In the name of fostering “religious tolerance and understanding,” she invited all women to experience the hijab for just one day. One of the objectives of celebrating this day – enthusiastically promoted by the woke Left on university campus – is to safeguard the right of women to wear the hijab. 

Many observers and gender-equality advocates have characterized this as “creeping Sharia.” They ask a fair question: Will those behind World Hijab Day or Islamist activists like Linda Sarsour or a public figure like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar issue unequivocal statements in support of the right NOT to wear the hijab? Will they condemn the Khomeinis in Iran for their oppression of women who simply want to feel the wind of freedom in their hair and equality with men?

Central Bank digital currency सफलता का नया मुकाम भाग- २ 

Nagendra Pratap Singh
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Central Bank digital currency सफलता का नया मुकाम भाग- २ 

मित्रों इसके प्रथम अंक में हमने देखा की भारत सरकार ने लेन देन कि प्रक्रिया के रूप में  एक नए माध्यम को लागू करने का कार्य किया है, जिसने सफलता का नया मुकाम हासिल कर लिया है कर ये माध्यम  CBDC अर्थात Central Bank Digital Currency के नाम से जाना जाने लगा है, जिसे हम सामान्य भाषा में “e-Rupi” भी कह सकते हैं। प्रथम अंक में हमने CBDC से प्राप्त होने वाले कुछ लाभों के बारे में भी जानने का प्रयास किया अत: इस अंक में उस चर्चा और परिचर्चा को आगे बढ़ाते हैं:

-हमारा अपना सीबीडीसी जनता को सुरक्षा के साथ ऐसे उपयोग प्रदान कर सकता है जिसे  कोई भी निजी आभासी मुद्रा असुरक्षा के साथ प्रदान कर सकता है और उस हद तक रुपये के लिए सार्वजनिक वरीयता को बनाए रख सकता है। और इसके माध्यम से यह जनता को अस्थिरता के असामान्य स्तर से भी बचाया  जा सकता है, जैसा की कुछ आभासी मुद्राओ के संदर्भ में अनुभव किया गया है।

-सीबीडीसी न केवल भुगतान प्रणालियों में उनके द्वारा बनाए गए लाभों के लिए वांछनीय हैं, बल्कि अस्थिर निजी आभासी  मुद्राओं के वातावरण में आम जनता की सुरक्षा के लिए भी आवश्यक हो सकते हैं।

-सीबीडीसी, इसके उपयोग की सीमा के आधार पर, बैंक जमाओं (bank deposits) के लिए लेनदेन की मांग में कमी ला सकता है।चूंकि सीबीडीसी में लेन-देन निपटान (Settlement) जोखिम (risk) को भी कम करता है, वे लेनदेन के निपटान के लिए तरलता (liquidity) की जरूरतों को कम करते हैं (जैसे अंतर्दिवसीय तरलता intraday liquidity)। इसके अलावा, बैंक जमाओं (bank deposits)  के लिए वास्तव में जोखिम-मुक्त विकल्प प्रदान करके, वे बैंक जमाओं (bank deposits) से दूर हो सकते हैं जो बदले में सरकारी गारंटी की आवश्यकता को कम कर सकते हैं।

– साथ ही इसने  बैंकों की मध्यस्थहीनता जिसके अपने जोखिम होते हैं कम कर दिया है। यदि बैंक समय के साथ जमा (deposits) खोना शुरू कर देते हैं, तो उनकी साख सृजन (क्रेडिट Creation) की क्षमता बाधित हो जाती है। चूंकि केंद्रीय बैंक निजी क्षेत्र को ऋण प्रदान नहीं कर सकते हैं इसलिए बैंक ऋण की भूमिका पर पड़ने वाले प्रभाव को अच्छी तरह से समझने की आवश्यकता है। इसके अलावा, चूंकि बैंक कम लागत वाले लेन-देन जमा (low transaction deposits) की महत्वपूर्ण मात्रा खो देते हैं, इसलिए उनका ब्याज मार्जिन, क्रेडिट की लागत में वृद्धि के लिए, दबाव में आ सकता है| इस प्रकार, गैर-मध्यस्थता की संभावित लागत का मतलब है कि सीबीडीसी को इस तरह से डिजाइन और कार्यान्वित किया जा रहा  है जो इसकी मांग को पूरा करता है।

– चूंकि सीबीडीसी मुद्रा हैं इसलिए इस पर  ब्याज का भुगतान नहीं करते हैं और इसलिए  बैंक जमा पर उनका प्रभाव वास्तव में सीमित हो सकता है। जिन जमाकर्ताओं को लेन-देन के उद्देश्यों के लिए सीबीडीसी की आवश्यकता होती है, वे दिन के अंत में शेष राशि को ब्याज-अर्जित जमा खातों में जमा कर सकते हैं।

  • – सीबीडीसी होल्डिंग पब्लिक के व्यवहार में बदलाव ला सकते हैं। यदि सीबीडीसी की भारी मांग है, और सीबीडीसी बड़े पैमाने पर बैंकिंग प्रणाली के माध्यम से जारी किए जाते हैं, जैसा कि संभावना है, बैंकिंग प्रणाली से मुद्रा रिसाव को ऑफसेट करने के लिए अधिक तरलता को अन्तःक्षेपण (इंजेक्ट) करने की आवश्यकता हो सकती है।

उपर्युक्त लाभों को दृष्टिगत करते हुए RBI कुछ मूलभूत आवश्यक्ताओ पर कार्य कर रही है। आम तौर पर, अन्य देशों ने थोक और खुदरा दोनों  क्षेत्रों में विशिष्ट उद्देश्य वाले सीबीडीसी करेंसी को लागू किया है। इन मॉडलों के प्रभाव का अध्ययन करने के बाद, सामान्य प्रयोजन के सीबीडीसी की शुरूआत का मूल्यांकन RBI द्वारा किया जाएगा। आरबीआई वर्तमान में एक चरणबद्ध कार्यान्वयन रणनीति की दिशा में काम कर रहा है और उपयोग के मामलों की जांच कर रहा है जिससे CBDC को  कम से कम व्यवधान या बिना किसी व्यवधान के लागू किया जा सके।

RBI द्वारा जांच के तहत कुछ प्रमुख मुद्दे निम्न प्रकार हैं-

(i) सीबीडीसी का दायरा – क्या CBDC का  उपयोग केवल खुदरा (Retail) भुगतान में किया जाये या थोक (Wholesale)  भुगतान में भी किया जाये;

(ii) अंतर्निहित तकनीक – उदाहरण के लिए चाहे वह एक वितरित खाता बही हो या एक केंद्रीकृत खाता बही हो, क्या प्रौद्योगिकी का विकल्प उपयोग के मामलों के अनुसार अलग-अलग होना चाहिए;

(iii) सत्यापन तंत्र – क्या सत्यापन तंत्र ” टोकन” आधारित हो या “खाता” आधारित हो तथा

(iv) वितरण संरचना – क्या इसे  आरबीआई द्वारा सीधे जारी किया जाये  या अन्य बैंकों के माध्यम से;

जैसा की हम सभी यह जानते हैं कि भारतीय रिज़र्व बैंक अधिनियम, १९३४ के तहत, बैंक को “… बैंक नोटों के मुद्दे को विनियमित करने और भारत में ।द्रिक स्थिरता हासिल करने की दृष्टि से भंडार रखने और आम तौर पर देश के लाभ के लिए मुद्रा और ऋण प्रणाली को संचालित करने के लिए” शक्ति प्रदान की गयी है। रिज़र्व बैंक आवश्यक वैधानिक शक्तियाँ भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक अधिनियम की विभिन्न धाराओं से प्राप्त करता है- धारा २४ के अंतर्गत मूल्यवर्ग (denomination) के संबंध में, धारा २५ के अंतर्गत  बैंक नोटों के रूप के संदर्भ में तथा धारा २६ (१) के अंतर्गत कानूनी निविदा (Legal Tender) स्थिति (Staus) आदि।

रिजर्व बैंक को CBDC के संदर्भ में सिक्का निर्माण अधिनियम, २०११, फेमा अधिनियम, १९९९, सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी अधिनियम, २००० आदि जैसे अन्य अधिनियमों में परिणामी संशोधनों की जांच करने की आवश्यकता पड़ेगी। भले ही सीबीडीसी मुख्य रूप से प्रौद्योगिकी संचालित उत्पाद होंगे लेकिन  विभिन्न प्रकार के प्रौद्योगिकी विकल्पों के कवरेज को सक्षम करने के लिए कानूनी तकनीक को तटस्थ रखना वांछनीय होगा।

सीबीडीसी की शुरूआत में महत्वपूर्ण लाभ प्रदान करने की क्षमता है, जैसे कि नकदी पर कम निर्भरता, लेनदेन की कम लागत के कारण उच्च अधिकार, कम निपटान जोखिम (low सेटलमेंट Risk)। CBDC की शुरूआत संभवतः अधिक मजबूत, कुशल, विश्वसनीय, विनियमित और कानूनी निविदा-आधारित भुगतान विकल्प की ओर ले जाएगी। इसमें कोई संदेह नहीं है, इससे जुड़े जोखिम हैं, लेकिन संभावित लाभों के प्रति उनका सावधानीपूर्वक मूल्यांकन करने की आवश्यकता है। यह RBI का प्रयास होगा, जैसा कि हम भारत के CBDC की दिशा में आगे बढ़ते हैं, आवश्यक कदम उठाने के लिए जो भुगतान प्रणालियों में भारत के नेतृत्व की स्थिति को दोहराएगा।

सीबीडीसी आगे बढ़ने वाले प्रत्येक केंद्रीय बैंक के शस्त्रागार में होने की संभावना है। इसे स्थापित करने के लिए सावधानीपूर्वक अंशांकन और कार्यान्वयन में सूक्ष्म दृष्टिकोण की आवश्यकता होगी। चुनौतियों का भी अपना महत्व है। जैसा कि कहा गया है, प्रत्येक विचार को अपने समय की प्रतीक्षा करनी होगी। शायद सीबीडीसी को पूर्णरूपेण कार्यान्वित करने का समय निकट है। भारतीय इतिहास में ये एक और विश्वस्तरीय और विश्व को अचम्भित कर देने वाला प्रयोग होगा जो निसंदेह सफल होगा और भारत के प्रद्यौगिक शक्ति का एहसास सम्पूर्ण विश्व को कराएगा।

Indian political parties established before 1947

Dr Jadabeswar Bhattacharjee
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Indian political parties established before 1947

There were five political parties which came into being in India before 1947. ‘Indian National Congress’ was the oldest party established in 1885, followed by ‘All India Muslim League’ (established in 1906), ‘Hindu Mahasabha’ (established in 1915), ‘Justice Party’ (established in 1917) and ‘Communist Party of India’ (established in 1925). These parties evolved over the next years and decades and served the interest groups associated with the Parties. In this article, a brief look at the origin and evolution of these five Parties is given.

Indian National Congress (1885):

The failed Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 was the last effort by the elite Muslims of India to regain political power from British East India Company. Though in minority, the Muslims ruled a major part of India for about 650 years before 1857. After the mutiny of 1857, the total control of India was transferred from the East India Company to the British Empire.

To smash any further problem from Indian Muslims, the British government launched an unwritten pro-Hindu, anti-Muslim policy after the mutiny. Hindus, who constituted the majority population of India, started coming to the forefront of Indian society with direct help from the British government. Indian elite Muslims, on the other hand, went in the background to lick their wounded pride. However, the picture got reversed with the turn of the twentieth century.

Within 25 years of mutiny, a big group of educated Hindus grew-up in India who became conversant with the then socio-political dynamics and histories of the West. Meanwhile, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan also initiated Aligarh Movement in 1875 to encourage elite Muslims, not the Pasmanda Muslims, to come out of the shell and gather Western education for the progress of the Muslim community in India. Sir Syed’s unconditional allegiance to the British government was not astonishing.

The continued uneasiness of the British government about the mutiny of 1857 led them to look for a safety valve for educated Indians in respect of socio-political issues in India. A retired British ICS officer, A O Hume, was allowed by the British government to establish the Indian National Congress (henceforth will be called Congress) in 1885 as a platform for civil and political dialogue among educated Indians. Fundamentally, Congress was a British creation to serve the British interest.

That British move paid dividends for them in later periods. The early twentieth century saw a rise of armed resistance and fighting against the British in different parts of India, particularly in Bengal. The British government in 1915 planted M K Gandhi in the Congress with his deceptive and anti-Hindu ideology of non-violence to blunt the armed struggle of Indian freedom fighters.

Gandhi, the worshiper of non-violence, however, supported and helped the British in the most violent WW-I and II, accepted Dominion Status, disowned thousands of Indians who gave their lives for India’s freedom and allowed division of the country in 1947 to serve British interests.

Congress basically did not change from Hume to Gandhi to Nehru and even decades after Nehru till today. In independent India, Congress nakedly became and continued to remain a pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu party. Dozens of examples can be given on that count. With so much of love and concern for Muslims, Congress could have handed over the political power of un-divided India to Muslim League and saved itself from so much of worry about Muslims. There was no need to divide India even in 1947.

All India Muslim League (1906):

On 16 October 1905, British Bengal was partitioned by the then Viceroy Lord Curzon into Muslim majority Eastern part and Hindu majority Western part. The English-educated middle class Hindu Bengali saw this as a vivisection of their motherland, as well as a tactic to diminish their authority. A massive mass movement across Bengal against the partition was started. Nationalists all over India supported the Bengali cause. And after six years, the partition of Bengal was withdrawn in 1911. But damage was already done.

On 30 December 1906, All India Muslim League (henceforth will be called Muslim League) was established in Decca (Bangladesh) at the behest of its Nawab to safeguard the political rights of the Indian Muslims. That rise of Muslim politics in India was also supported by the British government. And separate electorate was introduced in Indian Councils Act 1909 for Muslims in India. With a separate electorate for Muslims, distinctive Islamic political identity developed in India, as well as Bengal. Muslims started dominating the Legislature of Bengal, due to their overall numerical strength in the province.

With the passage of time Muslim League crystalized the idea of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims from the body of British India. Jinnah, an initial sceptic of ‘Muslim homeland’, became the undisputed leader of Muslim League by early 1930s even in absentia. In 1930 session of Muslim League in Allahabad, Allama Iqbal demanded a state for Muslims of British India. In 1933 Choudhary Rahmat Ali published a pamphlet advocating a Muslim state, first-time calling it Pakistan. In the Lahore Resolution of 1940, Muslim League demanded the creation of an independent Muslim state.

After creation of Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947, Muslim League lost its relevance in independent India. However, the first meeting of its Indian segment was held in Madras city in March 1948. On its basis Indian Union Muslim League came into being in September 1951 in Madras city. Currently it is a state level party in Kerala only. Different small versions of Muslim League are also still present in Pakistan. Fortunately for Indian Muslims, Congress has been playing the Muslim appeasing role of Muslim League even after seven decades of independence.

Hindu Mahasabha (1915):

Hindu Mahasabha was established in 1915, though a formal move to establish an All-India Hindu Sabha was made at the Allahabad session of Congress in 1910. Initially Hindu Mahasabha was a pressure group within Indian National Congress, advocating the interests of orthodox Hindus before the British government. Hindu Mahasabha was founded by the two veteran Congress leaders: Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and Lala Lajpat Rai. Ideologically, Hindu Mahasabha was a response to All India Muslim League and it had also influenced the formation of RSS in 1925.

In the late 1930s, Hindu Mahasabha emerged as a distinct political party under the leadership of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who developed the far-right ideology of Hindutva (Hindu-ness) and became a fierce opponent of the secular nationalism espoused by the Congress. Hindu Mahasabha opposed the Gandhian non-violent civil disobedience and Quit India Movement. The party opposed the 1947 partition of India and sought the establishment of a secular and united state named Hindusthan with equal rights for citizens without regards to religion. After the assassination of Gandhi in 1948, Hindu Mahasabha’s fortunes diminished in Indian politics, and it was soon eclipsed politically by the establishment of Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.

Justice Party (1917):

In 1917, the Justice Party was established in the then Madras by T M Nair, C N Mudaliar and P T Chetty. It was a political party and also known as South Indian Liberal Federation. It was a Caste-based party of non-Brahmins. It was angry at the higher education level among Brahmins of Madras Presidency that culminated into disproportionately higher and better socio-economic opportunities for the Brahmins under British rule.

During its initial period, the Justice party tried to convince the British government and public to support communal representation for non-Brahmins in the presidency. Annie Besant’s Home Rule League based in Madras was dominated by Brahmins and Justice Party took a stand against Annie Besant too. Gradually the rift between Brahmin and non-Brahmin in Madras Presidency widened under a demand from Justice Party for proportionate caste-based representation in jobs and legislature, which the party ultimately extracted from the British government.

The Government of India Act 1919 implemented the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, instituting a Diarchy in the Madras Presidency. The Justice Party opposed the non-cooperation movement of Gandhi of 1919. The Diarchy period extended from 1920 to 1937, encompassing five elections. Justice Party was in power for 13 of 17 years, save for an interlude during 1926 to 1930.

However, increasing nationalist feelings and factional infighting caused the Justice Party to shrink steadily from the early 1930s. After it lost to the Congress in the 1937 election, it never recovered. The Party came under the leadership of E. V. Ramaswamy Periyar. In 1944, Periyar transformed the Justice Party into a social organisation called Dravidar Kazhagam and withdrew it from electoral politics. The party was dissolved in 1944. Majority group joined Dravidar Kazhagam and a minority group gradually joined with Congress.

In 1949 Dravidar Kazhagam became a new political party under C N Annadurai. Its name was changed to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Then in 1972, Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) split from DMK under the leadership of M. G. Ramachandran. ADMK later became AIADMK. The Christian Missionary from London, Robert Caldwell, was instrumental in igniting the fire of Dravidianism in Madras during the early twentieth century. His writings and evangelism influenced the political journey of Tamilians from Justice Party to AIADMK.

The journey of the Dravidian ideology is a journey of progressive descent and comprehensive destruction of almost all facets of the original Tamil culture and heritage. Kiss of Christ has been fatal for the entire Dravidian Civilization because it disarmed Tamil people with the façade of love and compassion. An identity-centric and separatist ideology could capture political dynamics in Tamil Nadu with direct involvement of Christian Missionaries. The quest for an illusory “pure” Dravidian or Tamil identity was like peeling layer after layer of an onion and at the end, one was left with nothing but tears. The Cult of Dravidianism is dead in Tamil Nadu and a Christian preface awaits an epitaph.

Communist Party of India (1925):

Following the success of Bolshevik Revolution in Russia during 1917-1923, a new dawn arrived in the political horizon of modern human society. The world saw with astonishment, a bloody revolution and civil war in Russia that physically overthrew the Russian monarch and established the government of Proletariat. With the establishment of Communist regime in Russia, the Marxist theory entered in to its practical application phase.

A section of educated Indians got sucked into the new ideology which promised to end all socio-economic disparity between haves and have nots. The Communist Party of India (henceforth will be called CPI) was established in 1925 in Kanpur. Many founding members of CPI wanted to maintain a close relationship with Congress. Interestingly, that Congress-loving slant of Communists withstood almost a century, till the present day.

In its early years, CPI was harshly suppressed through legal prohibitions and criminal prosecutions by the British government of India. Participation of CPI in the freedom movement was motivated by the Marxist ideology of violent revolution. CPI was legalized in British India during 1942, after the USSR allied with Britain in WW-II. CPI members opposed Quit India Movement and even spied upon Congress leaders. CPI also supported the Pakistan cause of Muslim League.

After independence, CPI became the largest opposition party in the Indian Parliament with 16 MPs in the first general election of 1952. In 1964, CPI (Marxist) split from the parent CPI. Ironically, Communism could attract only the people of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura, where the party ruled for a long period.

Lately, Communists are in an existential crisis in West Bengal and Tripura. But Kerala is still under Communist rule. The bottom line is, Indians, in general, were never impressed by the ideology of Communism, which failed to give a single example of good governance, freedom and prosperity in any country of the world. 

Central Bank digital currency @E-rupya सफलता का नया मुकाम भाग-१

Nagendra Pratap Singh
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Central Bank digital currency @E-rupya सफलता का नया मुकाम भाग-१

मित्रों UPI अर्थात Unified Payment Interface (जिसके माध्यम से मोबाइल प्लेटफ़ॉर्म का उपयोग करके अपने बैंक अकाउंट से किसी दूसरे के बैंक अकाउंट में पैसे ट्रांसफर किया जाता है) कि अभूतपूर्व सफलता के पश्चात, भारत सरकार ने लेन देन कि प्रक्रिया के रूप में एक नए माध्यम को लागू करने का कार्य किया है, जिसने सफलता का नया मुकाम हासिल कर लिया है कर ये माध्यम CBDC अर्थात Central Bank Digital Currency के नाम से जाना जाने लगा है, जिसे हम सामान्य भाषा में “e-Rupi” भी कह सकते हैं।

आइये देखते हैं लेन देन की यह नई प्रक्रिया आखिर है क्या? सर्वप्रथम हमें ये समझना होगा कि करंसी (Currency) किसे कहते हैं:- आधुनिक अर्थशास्त्र के अनुसार “मुद्रा धन का एक रूप है जो विशेष रूप से संप्रभु (या उसके प्रतिनिधि के रूप में एक केंद्रीय बैंक) द्वारा जारी किया जाता है।” इसे दूसरे शब्दों में यदि कहें तो “मुद्रा (currency, करन्सी) पैसे या धन के उस रूप को कहते हैं जिस से दैनिक जीवन में क्रय और विक्रय होती है। इसमें सिक्के और काग़ज़ के नोट दोनों आते हैं।

आमतौर से किसी देश में प्रयोग की जाने वाली मुद्रा उस देश की सरकारी व्यवस्था द्वारा बनाई जाती है। मसलन भारत में रुपया व पैसा मुद्रा है।” यह जारी करने वाले केंद्रीय बैंक (और संप्रभु) की देनदारी होती है और जिस नागरिक के पास होती है, उसकी संपत्ति मानी जाती है।

करेंसी एक “व्यवस्थापत्र” (FIAT) है, यह लीगल टेंडर है। मुद्रा आमतौर पर कागज (या बहुलक) के रूप में जारी की जाती है, लेकिन मुद्रा का रूप इसकी परिभाषित विशेषता नहीं है। दुनिया भर के केंद्रीय बैंक सीबीडीसी की खोज में लगे हुए हैं और कुछ देशों ने सीबीडीसी पर अवधारणा/प्रायोगिक प्रमाण भी पेश किए हैं।

आभासी/क्रिप्टो मुद्राओं के नियमन के लिए नीति और कानूनी ढांचे की जांच करने के लिए वित्त मंत्रालय, भारत सरकार (जीओआई) द्वारा गठित उच्च स्तरय अंतर-मंत्रालयी समिति ने नवंबर २०१७ में भारत में फिएट मनी को डिजिटल मुद्रा के रूप में सीबीडीसी के शुरुआत की सिफारिश की थी। अन्य केंद्रीय बैंकों की तरह, आरबीआई भी काफी समय से सीबीडीसी की शुरुआत के पक्ष और विपक्ष अर्थात लाभ और हानी के तथ्यों की खोज कर रहा था और एक पायलट प्रोजेक्ट के रूप में CBDC को चार प्रमुख शहरों (मुंबई, दिल्ली,बैंगलोर और भुवनेश्वर) के चार प्रमुख बैंको SBI, ICICI, IDFC इत्यादि के साथ शुरुआत की और इसमें अभूतपूर्व सफलता प्राप्त की।

CBDC:- सीबीडीसी एक केंद्रीय बैंक द्वारा डिजिटल रूप में जारी की गई कानूनी निविदा है। यह Fiat (व्यवस्थापत्र) मुद्रा के समान ही है और फिएट मुद्रा के साथ एक-से-एक विनिमेय है। केवल उसका रूप भिन्न है। CBDC एक डिजिटल या आभासी मुद्रा है, लेकिन यह निजी आभासी मुद्राओं से तुलना योग्य  नहीं है जो पिछले एक दशक में तेजी से बढ़ी हैं।

तर्क की एक पंक्ति जिसने निजी आभासी मुद्राओं (जैसे BITCOIN) को कुछ हद तक वैधता हासिल करने में मदद की है, वह यह है कि आधुनिक समाजों में अधिकांश पैसा वास्तव में पहले से ही निजी है क्योंकि वे निजी बैंकों के जमा देनदारियों का प्रतिनिधित्व करते हैं। बैंक जमा (बैंक Deposit) निश्चित रूप से,पैसा है लेकिन “धन” के रूप में उनका कोई स्वतंत्र अस्तित्व नहीं है, किसी भी मामले में बैंक जमा, निजी मुद्राओं से बहुत अलग हैं, जिनमें (ए) कोई जारीकर्ता नहीं होता है और (बी) संप्रभु मुद्रा में एक-से-एक परिवर्तनीय नहीं हैं।

CBDC केंद्रीय बैंक द्वारा जारी की गई मुद्रा के समान है लेकिन कागज से अलग रूप में होता है।यह एक इलेक्ट्रॉनिक रूप में संप्रभु मुद्रा है और यह केंद्रीय बैंक की बैलेंस शीट पर देयता (परीसंचलित मुद्रा) के रूप में दिखाई देती है। CBDC की अंतर्निहित तकनीक, रूप और उपयोग को विशिष्ट आवश्यकताओं के अनुसार ढाला जा सकता है।

सीबीडीसी को नकदी के बराबर विनिमय योग्य होना चाहिए। CBDCs में रुचि अब लगभग सार्वभौमिक है, बहुत कम देश अपने CBDCs को लॉन्च करने के पायलट चरण तक पहुँचे हैं। केंद्रीय बैंको के २०११ में BIS सर्वेक्षण में पाया गया कि लगभग ८६% देश अपने यंहा CBDC की संभावना हेतु शोध कर रहे हैं तथा उन ८६% में से ६०% प्रौद्योगिकी के साथ प्रयोग कर रहे थे बाकी बचे १४% पायलट प्रोजेक्ट लगा रहे थे।तो इस प्रकार हम देखते हैं कि CBDC एक मुद्रा है, जो electronic form में जारी किया गया है और ये कागजी मुद्रा से exchange (विनिमय) किये जाने योग्य होता है।

अब प्रश्न ये है कि, इसकी अवश्यक्ता क्यों पड़ी, इसका औचित्य क्या है? इसके जारी किये जाने के औचित्य को निम्न बिन्दुओ से समझा जा सकता है।

(i)केंद्रीय बैंक, कागजी मुद्रा के घटते उपयोग का सामना कर रहे हैं, अत: मुद्रा के एक अधिक स्वीकार्य इलेक्ट्रॉनिक रूप को लोकप्रिय बनाना चाहते हैं जैसे स्वीडन में किया गया है।

(ii)महत्वपूर्ण भौतिक नकदी जारी करने वाले क्षेत्राधिकार के प्रयोग को और अधिक कुशल बनाने के लिए CBDC  को उपयोग में लाना चाहते हैं (जैसे डेनमार्क, जर्मनी, या जापान यहां तक कि अमेरिका में भी किया जा चूका है।);

(iii)केंद्रीय बैंक डिजिटल मुद्राओं के लिए जनता की आवश्यकता को पूरा करना चाहते हैं, जो निजी आभासी मुद्राओं के बढ़ते उपयोग में प्रकट होता है,और इस प्रकार ऐसी निजी आभासी मुद्राओं (Virtual Money) के अधिक हानिकारक परिणामों से बचा जा सकता है।

जैसा की हम सभी यह जानते हैं कि डिजिटल भुगतान नवाचारों (Innovations) के मामले में भारत दुनिया में अग्रणी है। इसकी भुगतान प्रणाली २४x७ खुदरा और थोक ग्राहकों दोनों के लिए उपलब्ध है, वे काफी हद तक रीयल-टाइम हैं, भारत में लेनदेन की लागत शायद दुनिया में सबसे कम है, भारत में उपयोगकर्ताओं के पास लेनदेन करने के लिए विकल्पों का एक प्रभावशाली मेनू है और डिजिटल भुगतान ५५% (पिछले पांच वर्षों में) के प्रभावशाली सीएजीआर (CAGR) से बढ़ा है। विश्व के लिए UPI जैसी दूसरी भुगतान प्रणाली खोजना मुश्किल होगा जो एक रुपये के लेनदेन की अनुमति देती है। डिजिटलीकरण की इतनी प्रभावशाली प्रगति के साथ, CBDC नए आयाम स्थापित करती हुई सुनहरे भविष्य का निर्माण करेगी ,यह आसानी से समझा जा सकता है।

आइये देखते हैं CDBC से होने वाले लाभ:-

१: सीबीडीसी का उपयोग कर किया जाने वाला भुगतान अंतिम (Final) होता हैं अत: वित्तीय प्रणाली में निपटान जोखिम (Settlement risk) को यह कम करता हैं।

२: हमारे देश में खुदरा लेन देन के लिए नकदी पर अधिक भरोसा किया जाता है  और RBI द्वारा दिसंबर २०१८ से जनवरी २०१९ के मध्य ६ शहरो में कराये गए  एक सर्वे के अनुसार रुपये ५०० तक के भुगतान के लिए लोग अक्सर नकदी भुगतान प्रणाली का उपयोग प्राथमिकता के साथ करते हैं अर्थात नकद भुगतान करना ये लोगो की प्राथमिकता आज भी बना हुआ है। ये CDBC इस नकदी भुगतान प्रणाली का स्थान नहीं ले सकता परन्तु बड़े नकदी लेन देन का स्थान ये अवश्य ले सकता है।

जैसा की हम सभी जानते हैं की एक १०० रुपये का नोट छापने के लिए कम से कम १५ से १७ रुपये का खर्चा आता है, अत: देश में करोड़ो की संख्या में नोटों का चलन होता है, इस हिसाब से देखे तो नोटों की संख्या के हिसाब से लागत भी आती है जिसमे परिवहन और भंडारण भी शामिल होता है। डिजिटल करेंसी के माध्यम से कागजी मुद्रा की छपाई, परिवहन, भंडारण और वितरण की लागत को कम किया जा सकता है।

३: मित्रो आपने BITCOIN नामक virtual currencies (VCs) के बारे में तो अवश्य सुना होगा। ये एक निजी क्षेत्र द्वारा संचालित आभासी मुद्रा (virtual currencies) है। इस  BITCOIN की जो वैल्यू अर्थात मूल्य है वो एक समान नहीं होता है  ये भिन्न भिन्न परिस्थितियों में भिन्न भिन्न होता  है। इससे किये जाने वाला लेन देन असुरक्षित होता है, क्योंकि पैसा कहा से आया और कहा गया इसे ट्रैक करना संभव नहीं होता। सही अर्थो में यदि कहे तो निजी आभासी मुद्राओ जैसे BITCOIN का कोई माँ बाप नहीं होता। इसका वितरण विकेन्द्रित (Decentralised) होता है।

अत: ऐसी निजी आभासी मुद्राओ के प्रचलन को रोकने और इनके विकल्प के रूप में CBDC अर्थात  डिजिटल रुपये को जारी किया जा रहा है। ये एक केंद्रित (Centerlised) व्यवस्था के अंतर्गत जारी किया जा रहा है। इसका प्रमुख स्त्रोत RBI है। इसका उपयोग करने हेतु बैंक आपको एक डिजिटल वॉलेट का आवंटन करेंगे, जिसमे आप अपने डिजिटल करेंसी को उसी प्रकार रख सकेंगे जैसे अपने वॉलेट में नकदी रखते हैं। इस डिजिटल करेंसी को आप नकदी में बदल भी सकते हैं।

डिजिटल करेंसी के भुगतान के लिए भी हमें UPI का ही उपयोग करना पड़ेगा। यंहा पर आपको QR Code भी बैंक के द्वारा प्रदान किया जायेगा। याद रखिये यदि इन निजी आभासी मुद्राओं (Private Virtual Currency जैसे BITCOIN) को मान्यता मिल जाती है, तो सीमित परिवर्तनीयता वाली राष्ट्रीय मुद्राओं के खतरे में आने की संभावना है बढ़ जाती है।

४: मित्रो UPI का उपयोग करते हुए जब हम GPay, फोनपे या PayTM से पैसे का भुगतान कर किसी वस्तु का क्रय करते हैं तो भुगतान किया हुआ पैसा हमारे बैंक एकाउंट से डेबिट होकर दुकानदार के बैंक एकाउंट में क्रेडिट होता है, परन्तु इस प्रक्रिया को पूरा होने के लिए २४ घंटे का समय लगता है क्योंकि इसमें हमारे और दुकानदार के जो बैंक है वो बिचौलिए का कार्य करते हैं, और इसके लिए वो कुछ मेहनताना भी वसूल करते हैं। परन्तु डिजिटल करेंसी द्वारा भुगतान करने में हमारे वॉलेट से पैसा सीधे दुकानदार के वॉलेट में चला जायेगा और किसी को कुछ देने की आवश्यकता भी नहीं पड़ेगा।

CBDC से जुड़े लेख के इस अंक में बस इतना ही दूसरे भाग में हम अन्य लाभों के बारे में चर्चा करेंगे।

China Taiwan conflict: More important than being thought of

uday choudhary
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China Taiwan conflict: More important than being thought of

Taiwan, officially known as republic of China, is an island separated from its neighbour China by the Taiwan strait. Though Taiwan has been governed independently of China since 1949, Beijing still views the island as a part of its territory and has also stated that it will not make any compromises in unifying Taiwan within its territory. It has also been  stated that it may use physical means as well if necessary. These statements and actions question the sovereignty of Taiwan.

In the past two years, ruefully many have lost their beloved ones, many have lost their jobs, and there have been cuts in people’s incomes, which along with the cost of living has seen an increase mostly everywhere. Furthermore The COVID 19 pandemic has made everyone’s lives gruelling. Since the devastating pandemic when the world’s  major economies were shrinking and endangered, Taiwan’s economy has been  expanding incessantly and is at its heights.

In reference to semiconductors, since the beginning of the pandemic there has been a shortage of chips. The drawback of the chip shortage is that it’s the mind behind the everyday devices we use, and if its production is halted it could become a serious setback for various companies, as devices , cars etc. are incomplete without semiconductors installed in them.

The worldwide chip scarcity which can last for years rather than months, has also come as a a shock as many were left astonished to see how a company came into spotlight and now plays a crucial role in the world economy which not many had heard about. As other countries were not able to conjure the volume of semiconductors that were required, Taiwan’s TSMC’s role escalated.

Taiwan is now the world’s largest producer of semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is the world’s largest semiconductor foundry and boasts 92% of production when it comes to advanced chips used in iPhones , super computers, automotive AI, etc. It has various clients, ranging from Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and many more. 

Companies in Taiwan were also responsible for more than 60% of the revenue generated by the world’s semiconductor chip manufacturers in the year 2020. 

This is the global hegemony that Beijing envies. China is also Taiwan’s largest trading partner, and in recent unfortunate times, Chinese importers have bought the highest volume of exports coming from Taiwan. Today, all large economies can see clearly how they depend on Taiwan, which has made its way from undergrowth and now plays a crucial role in their survival. Many countries now support Taiwan, have encouraged them to stand their ground, and  support their independence. Developed economies like New Zealand and Singapore have also signed free trade agreements with Taiwan even after China objected and proclaimed them not to do so.

Because of the chip shortage, US cars were 10% more expensive in April 2021, and the price was up by 21% in secondhand cars. These types of numbers have been repeated in the United Kingdom and also in Australia, where car prices have risen as well. A large number of cars are also left unfinished, waiting for semiconductors to be added, as the chip scarcity causes heavy losses.Outside the Volkswagen Navarra factory in Pamplona as well, around 5,000 cars stood unfinished because of the lack of chips in May 2021.

In recent years, both China and the US have desperately tried to catch up with Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, which is developing day by day. Though neither of them has gotten near Taiwan’s dominant TSMC. Even the US and China’s continued attempts to become more self-reliant have failed as the dependency on Taiwan is not decreasing but increasing. Also, the fact that bothers Beijing is that, in the semiconductor industry, China is further behind the US and Europe. A simple answer to this is that it is not investing in semiconductor technology as much as the US and Europe are.

In 2018, the US invested 18 times more than China in absolute dollar terms. After Washington pushed TSMC to stop selling to Chinese companies, including Huawei, the progress made by China so far has been disturbed. The solution to all the semiconductor progress issues in China will be automatically resolved if Beijing accomplishes its “One China policy”. But the problem is that no one can predict how China will make a move towards accomplishing its One China policy over Taiwan. Will it be a diplomatic move, or will it be a military conflict, or will there be any movement at all? No one has the absolute answer to this question.

As the whole world is dependent on Taiwan for semiconductors and as the chip crunch continues, any conflict does not only affect Taiwan’s sovereignty but poses a threat to the global economy. China’s latest military activities have also hinted at a possible military conflict in the near future, which threatens Taiwan’s chip production. So any possible danger to Taiwan’s chip production will have a worldwide effect and may increase the chip scarcity and make it even worse.

Today, the automobile industry and the telecommunications sector are suffering huge losses. It is clear that the cross-strait tensions could hurt Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. If China gains control of TSMC, it may use it as leverage over the countries with which it will trade and, in effect, control some parts of their economies. If a military conflict takes place and the semiconductor industry in Taiwan is disrupted, then it could put the global economy at risk. 

Since the pandemic, Taiwan has been lobbied by many governments for chips, like the US, Japan, etc. Experts argue that the reason the USA supports Taiwan is just that they are dependent on Taiwan for semiconductors. But if this statement is correct? That time will tell. 

As the dispute could affect the entire world, policies to resolve the matter should be made with urgency and such that both nations can agree on them. A scenario where China takes control over Taiwan by any method should be prevented as it could harm the financial state of the world and also world peace and prosperity.

The propagated propaganda or the rise of an era?

swarajyanirmata
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The propagated propaganda or the rise of an era?

I am confident my Hindutva face will be an asset when dealing with foreign affairs with other nations.

Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi

From the first organization in the 1951 to the current face of BJP, the party has changed a lot and this transition is not exactly the ‘School Political Science’.

From 1951 when Syama Prasad Mookherjee had just formed the Bhartiya Jana Sangh in collaboration with the Hindu Nationalist Group RSS (RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEWAK SANGH) to December, 2022 when BJP won a historic win in Gujarat, this party has endured a lot of difficulties to reach the pinnacle of power where it is sitting at the moment. The current face of the ‘world’s largest party’ is not what from where it started.

The party started a while back in 1951 when Syama Prasad Mookherjee, the first Minister of Industry and Supply, resigned from the first Nehru Cabinet on 6th April, 1950 and after consultations from Shri Gowalkar Guruji founded THE BHARTIYA JANA SANGH on the 21st October, 1951 to protect what he called ‘India’s Hindu Identity’ and to counter the ‘Muslim appeasement’ by INC and specifically then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru .

The RSS gave The Jana Sangh ‘pracharaks’ to get the things going. The party stood in the general elections of the 1952 and won 3 seats, one of them being Shri Mookherjee’s itself. He was a staunch believer in the Integration Of the Jammu And Kashmir in India. He termed Article 370 as the ‘BALKANISATION’ of India, and therefore along with The Hindu Mahasabha and The Ram Rajya Parishad launched a satyagraha on the Removal of the same. He visited Kashmir in the 1953, got arrested on the 11th of May, 1953 and died on the 23rd of June, 1953 while in detention.

It was during his period the slogan, “NAHI CHALENGEY EK DESH MEIN DO VIDHAN, DO PRADHAN AUR DO NISSAN.” was ‘coined’ and was used extensively. The Bhartiya Jana Sangh was the party in which then young names, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K Advani started taking leadership positions. Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the role of the Party President in the 1968 and made more central agendas for the party such as, legislating of the Uniform Civil Code, Banning the Cow Slaughter and abolishing the Article 370.

After the assembly elections of 1967, the party came into a coalition with many parties like The Swatantra Party and formed Government in the Hindi Belt, holding the Political office for the first time.

Then came the Emergency of 1975 in which, the Jana Sangh participated widely in the protest due to which many of their party members were imprisoner. The State of Emergency went on for 2 years after which at last the Emergency was revoked and the country finally went for the General Election, during which the Jana Sangh merged with various parties like Congress (O), Socialist Party and more with the sole motive of removing then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from power.

As a result The newly formed party namely Janata Party, won a majority in the election and formed the Government with Morarji Desai as their Prime Minister and Atal Bihari Vajpayee as their Minister of External Affairs. This newly formed party had a Very Rocky Life as under the parties rule the Hindu-Muslim riots were at peak and as its said the cherry on top was that the members of the Janata Party were the once who were implicated in the riots.

Eventually this caused displeasure to a lot of members and they demanded the Jana Sangh to cut all its ties from the RSS which the party denied to do and therefore a section broke from the party and formed a new party called the Janata Party (Secular). This led to a minority of Morarji Desai led Government and forced him to resign. In the elections conducted in the 1980, the Janata Party performed poorly with just 31 seats. Shortly after the elections The National Executive Council Of Janata Party banned its members to affiliate itself with The RSS and as a response the members of The Jana Sangh left the party to form a new party called THE BHARTIYA JANATA PARTY (BJP).

The glorified SAFFRON (Bhagwa) with the pious AUM sign on it

As the Historian Ramachandra Guha writes 1980s were marked by Hindu-Muslim riots, this new party under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the same Ideologies like the Jana Sangh but it did moderated the Hindu Nationalist to gain a wider appeal but after the bad performance of the party in 1984, the party turned to a new leader, Shri LK Advani and he was appointed the National President in 1984. Under his leadership the party went back to its Hardline Hindu Nationalism Ideology and became the political voice of the Ram Janambhoomi Movement.

As the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) started the movement to get back the disputed site of the Ram Janambhoomi the party extended its support to the movement. This showed its colours in the 1989 Lok Sabha Elections when the party won 89 seats and played crucial role in the support of The National Front Government of VP Singh. In the September of 1990, LK Advani began a rath Yatra to Ayodhya in support of the Ram Janambhoomi Movement and as described by the historian Ramchandra Guha, the Yatra was “religious, allusive, militant, masculine and Anti-Muslims”.

As the karsevaks died in a firing by the Paramilitary, the VHP urged for’ revenge’ and this resulted in a lot of Hindu-Muslim riot and the BJP withdrew its support from the Government which resulted in a fresh election in which the party’s tally increased to 120 seats. after this increase in the party’s seat the tension Increased drastically in the country and finally on the 6 December, 1992 group of workers of VHP and BJP under unknown circumstances demolished the structure and this spread a widespread riot across the country and several of the leader of the party were arrested including Vajpayee, Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, but just 4 years later in the election of 1996, the party used this as a plus point and emerged victorious with 161 seats, though the Government only lasted 13 days, as it was unable to retain the majority.

The party again came into power 1998 with the coalition led by BJP called The National Democratic Alliance(NDA) but the happiness was short lived as in the May of 1999, the coalition ruptured again after Jayalalitha of AIADMK withdrew her support. This called for a new election in which again, The NDA without the AIADMK, formed the government with 303 seats and the party getting 183 seats, its highest ever. During this tenure of 1999-2004, the party maintained a strong and aggressive stance on terror and defense as well as neo-liberal economic policies.

Vajpayee called for early elections in 2004 and based the campaign on the slogan “INDIA SHINING”, but contrary to the slogan, the party didn’t shine and faced defeat in the election as Manmohan Singh succeeded Vajpayee as the Prime Minister Of India. However, In 2014 the Party won the election yet again with 282 seat of its own and 336 seats the alliance (NDA). This outright majority was not exactly the ‘LEFT-LIBERAL’ stance but still again in the elections of 2019 BJP yet again crossed the mark alone with 303 seats and NDA as a whole getting 353 seats.

This outright majority of BJP was fully because of the popularity of a new leader that emerged as if to make a dynasty of his own: NARENDRA DAMODARDAS MODI.

Murder of Bangladeshi Hindus

Chirag Dhankhar
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Murder of Bangladeshi Hindus

Bangladesh a country which lies to the east of India and also shares the longest land border with India. Bangladesh became an independent nation in 1971 that’s what we know but what we don’t know is the persecution of Bangladeshi Hindus which is continuously going on from 15th Century. We found the description of Kalapahad an Iconoclast Muslim general of Mughal governor Sultan Sulaiman Karrani of Bengal who was instrumental in conquering parts of Odisha and sacking major towns and religious places and mass murdering Hindus living around that area for religious zeal.

Conditions for Hindus remained same. Partition of Bengal was again traumatising for Hindus living in Bengal as they were forced to leave their ancestral homes and were forced to mover to new areas allotted by the British Government. In 1971 when Bangladesh became an independent country with the help of Indian Armed forces. During that time Thousands of Hindus were killed by activists of Jamaat e-Islam in the name of Religious Zeal and its Student wing Islami Shibir and as usual of their tradition more than 50 temples were razed down.

By the end of the first month in March 1971, 1.5 million Bengalis were displaced. By November 1971, 10 million Bengalis, the majority of whom were Hindu, had fled to India. Although precise figures are difficult to obtain, approximately 3 million people were killed and at least 200,000 women were raped.

Bangladeshi journalist and policy analyst Anushay Hossain asserts, “many experts put that number closer to 400,000 women and girls who were raped, mass-raped, [and] imprisoned for months in notorious rape camps.”. Bangladesh after independence had declared itself as Islamic state where political parties openly call for establishment of Shariat Law. Hindus constituted nearly 31 per cent of the population of the province of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1941 but if you see today’s scenario, you’ll find one Hindu in 10 Bangladeshi and the percent of Hindus have come down to around 6% in Bangladesh this show’s the incompetency of Bangladeshi government in protecting the minorities.

Hindus were targeted in the 2014 post-election violence that year, said the ASK report. As many as 761 houses belonging to Hindus, 193 Hindu-owned business establishments and 247 mandirs were attacked in 2014. Even amidst the pandemic last year, 67 mandirs were attacked and desecrated.

Seven Hindus were killed in attacks by Islamists in 2016. On Friday (March 18) 2021 a strong Islamist mob of 150 people, led by Mohammed Israf Sufi (31), and Haji Shafiullah (62), lay siege on the Sri Radhakanta Jiu Mandir in Wari in Dhaka the mob stole ₹5 lacs worth of valuable items from the temple.

Not only Hindus, Ahmadiyya’s, Buddhists and Christians were also attacked and persecuted over the last nine years. Reports have shown that if current trend of killing of Hindus keep going there will be no Hindus in Bangladesh in next 30 years. This line makes me remember a proverb “Those who don’t remember the past are supposed to repeat it” and Hindus are facing the consequences of this in Bangladesh. International organisation Amnesty International, UNHRC, UN who boast themselves as saviour of Minorities have been silent on the genocide of Hindus living in Bangladesh.

The double standard of these organisation is that whenever there is any attack on any Muslim, Christian these organisations will come and make hue and cry in name of minority rights oppression and whenever same thing happens to any Hindu all around the world, they will bury their head in the sand like an ostrich.

VPA or Vested Property Act that allows the government to confiscate property from individuals it deems as an enemy of the state and if you see the data mostly the land/property confiscated is of Hindus. Whenever there is advent of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami combine to power have always triggered a wave of large-scale attacks on Hindus. Demolition of the Babri masjid at Ayodhya in 1992 triggered a round of Hindu genocide in Bangladesh.

This time, hundreds of mandirs were desecrated, looted and destroyed. The physical attacks, killings and rapes were, of course, part of this pogrom as well. Same has was done against Hindus when they were asked to leave Kashmir by Islamist Radicals. Even after repeated number of remainders the Bangladesh government has failed to protect the minorities living in Bangladesh and whenever there is any voice raised against the Bangladesh government it supresses it by throwing the Human Right Activist’s in solitary confinement.

At last, I can say that the only element that is killing Hindu life in Indian subcontinent is lack of strong leadership that could motivate almost one billion Hindus on the subcontinent to prevent the destruction of their culture and civilization under the hand of Abrahamic Religions

Brahmin bashing: A bloodthirsty cover for Hindu-bashing

Chirag Dhankhar
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Brahmin bashing: A bloodthirsty cover for Hindu-bashing

On 30th November slogans like “Brahmano – Baniyas We are coming for you!! We will avenge you”, “Brahmins leave the campus”, “There will be blood”. These slogans made me remind of the slogans that were written for Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley “Raliv Galiv Chaliv” i.e. Run Convert to Islam or Die. This was a call for ethnic genocide of Hindus living in the valley this was not the first time things like this have come in public domain.

If we see the history in our country Brahmins have suffered the most during medieval and modern time’s in Indian History. Whether it was the killing of Brahmins during the Islamic Rule from 12th to 17th Century when they were barbarically put to sword in the worst possible manner when their “shikhas” were chopped off religious and educational institution were razed to soil or the destruction of the “Pathshalas” by the British in the name of modern education. Brahmins who were the torch bearers of Sanatanic Civilization in modern times were merely considered foot dust.

In Post independent India atrocities didn’t lessened whether killing of “Chitpavin Brahmins” in Bombay Presidency or if we talk in details about the genocide of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu on the call of E.V. RAMASAMY NAICKER (EVR), unfathomably known as “Periyar” who is worshiped by the left as their father just because of his Hatred Against Brahmins “he holds the credit for initiating, instigating and executing perhaps the first known act of political thuggery in pre-independence India”. 

EVR also has another first to his credit: of using street-level hooliganism as a means to acquire state power, which would then be used for propagating a specific political ideology. It was the first of its kind in the 7000-year-long history of India. The Communists followed closely but theirs was an imported ideology whereas EVR’s brand was wholly home-grown, a product of his visceral malice against Brahmins

The Collected Works of Periyar E.V.R., compiled by the ferocious Dravidian ideologue, K. Veeramani is a primary source of EVR’s Brahmin-hatred. Putting it mildly, the work, in EVR’s own words, is a chilling treatise of xenophobia. There’s nothing that EVR does not hate about Brahmins.

He hates the Manusmriti. He hates the Ramayana. He hates the Mahabharata. He hates the Puranas. He hates the Tamil Periyapuranam. He hates both the Shaivaite and Vaishnavaite sacred literature. He hates the Alwars and the Nayanmars. He hates the Swaraj movement. He hates Gandhi. He hates Rajagopalachari. He hates the Indian National Congress. He hates the Communists. He hates Hindi. In his eyes, all these are components deliberately assembled by Brahmins into a gigantic oppression-machine.

His solution: burn all the books that Hindus regard as sacred. Destroy every symbol and belief and practice and tradition and structure that Hindus have worshipped since time immemorial. And EVR did not disappoint. He garlanded a picture of Sri Rama with footwear and took it out in a public procession. He later burned his pictures. In 1952, he launched a statewide campaign in which Murtis of Ganesha were publicly broken across Tamil Nadu. The less said about his other derogatory actions against Hindu deities, the better.

BUT TO STATE THE BLUNT TRUTH bluntly, Brahmins have remained the real minorities throughout Indian history. Till date. I use the word “minorities” in the same perverted sense that it has been used by the Nehruvian vote-bank apparatus. In its most profound and highly original conception and practice, the Brahmin is actually a twofold ideal, broadly speaking: (1) that the brightest class of people (not necessarily Brahmins by birth) should voluntarily embrace a life of frugality if not poverty and engage themselves in a lifelong vow of penance, pursuit of spiritual knowledge and teaching (2) that they should undergo the severest punishment for the most minor transgression from these lofty ideals.

The social and cultural history of India has thousands of examples to testify for this lived reality. Even the most fanatical enemies of Hindus, historically, have been unanimous on this point. To cite a comparably recent evidence, all pre and post-colonial European accounts mention the reverence and respect that the Hindu society innately showed towards Brahmins precisely because they lived such lives.

Brahmins were the first to be butchered mercilessly during the tidal waves of Islamic invasions. Muslim invaders took pride and delight in measuring the sacred threads of the slaughtered Brahmins by weight— specifically, in maunds (1 maund = about 15 Kg in the medieval era). Brahmins also continue to remain the prized target of missionary attacks — since the days of Robert De Nobili in the 16th century. Every missionary who followed him in India have come to the unanimous conclusion: that unless the backbone of the Brahmins was broken, unless the rest of the Hindu society shunned the Brahmin, converting the rest of the idol-worshipping, heathen Hindus would be impossible.

And Tamil Nadu was one of the first states where this vile project succeeded first on the intellectual and later, the societal plane. And EVR was the greatest catch of this missionary enterprise. In his own mind, in his formulations, in his activism and its execution, EVR was fighting against Brahmins. To the missionary machinery, he was just another heathen fighting against fellow heathens. And they were only happy to help. The long-term consequence: since the last three and half decades, the DMK has been severely beholden to its Christian vote bank.

Christians, who were formerly Hindus. The sad reality of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu is that there is nothing really left for the DMK or anyone else to persecute them. They neither have political power in the state nor do they count for much in public life. To conclude it I would say that political groups, parties everyone speaks up for the rights of minority does anyone have courage to speak up for the rights of majority too?

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