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Why is the left so desperate?

bapiraju3
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Why is the left so desperate?

For as long as I can remember, we have been a family of Hindu Nationalists. Lest that statement is taken in the demonised version that the left liberal media usually paints it as, I would like to clarify that I believe being a Hindu Nationalist means believing in the concept of living in harmony with everything around you. Because that is what my ancestors followed as the true path towards enlightenment. If anyone just gives a cursory glance at the many Hindu rituals without actually having to go into the history of it, one can just realise how much these rituals actually are a part of being in harmony with the nature.

Whether we like it or not, we have as a civilisation gradually been demonised and later parodied with stories of snake charmers and piss drinkers by the elite West. I can understand their desperation to do that. It ensured that they could control the masses. But then we gained independence from them. Shouldn’t we have rushed back to our roots and revived them to protect our culture and identity?

Instead we chose to drive the people who were the biggest exploiters of humanity and then somehow adopted their culture and started believing their version of our history. This I guess is where our founding fathers made the first big mistake. They chose the demonised version of our culture integrating it with their philosophy of secularism, which essentially led to our Ex PM Shri Manmohan Singh saying that Muslim shall have first right of resources.

Lets understand the true meaning of that statement. Even the sterilised version of our history will tell you that India was a land of riches and knowledge. That is one the reasons the vast array of Islamic hordes including the Mughals and British Invaders tried to conquer our country. Even after hundreds and hundreds of years loot and plunder, India still had untapped vast natural resources and the years of misrule and distortion could have erased our memories of a glorious past but they couldn’t completely erase our penchant for being brainy!

So by any logical sense India should have just zoomed towards a growth story unparalled anywhere. But we didn’t and we couldn’t. The reasons for that are manifold but the most important amongst that is, it was the will of our political masters, who controlled the strings and definitely didn’t want the people to go back to their true history. So they distorted our school books and made us all believe in their ideology of Left Liberalism. The culmination of years of that progrom led to the statement issued by our then PM Manmohan Singh.

So what changed now that is making the left so desperate and keeping the liberal media on tenterhooks? Simple, we started to go back to our roots and are now proudly saying I am a Hindu and am proud of my culture. That is what is making them quake in their boots. They have realised that good governance means taking everyone along with you and not empty promises and poll rhetoric. They have come to realise that their politics of fear and intimidation will not work anymore because every Indian has understood their true heritage stems from being able to live in harmony with everyone irrespective of their caste, creed and culture including with nature.
And finally they have come to realise that if people start looking at the past, the many skeletons in their closets will come tumbling out.

That is why the left liberals are so desperate. They tried to scuttle progress once by propagating false claims about a non existent coffin scam and succeeded. This time too they would have succeeded in the propaganda of a non existent Rafael scam, unfortunately the development of information technology scuppered their chances as people became more aware and therefore they are pulling out all stops, crossing all boundaries and showing their true colors to the masses.
In their desperation they are making outlandish claims, peddling unbelievable lies and demeaning everyone in general. That in itself is a victory for all of us. But as they say resting on victories is a sureshot way to stop succeeding. So let them get desperate as each election day passes by but this should not stop us from reclaiming our lost identity.

Even after all this, the one thing I will never be able to fathom is, why does the Left Liberal hate this country so much that they are willing to sacrifice it’s progress for the sake of power?

NYAY recalls our disastrous romance with socialism

chandra298
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NYAY recalls our disastrous romance with socialism

There have been of late many articles by eminent economists, the central theme of which lends credibility to the ‘NYAY “scheme. Even in pure science subjects there are as many opinions as there are experts and therefore it should not be surprising that in subjects like economics, politics or Law the deniability or ambiguity can be conclusively arrived from the same set of inputs as per the exigencies of the need.

In a layman’s understanding the unemployment or underemployment is an outcome of mismatch between number of people seeking employment and number of jobs at hand. This mismatch is because of lack of adequate economic activities in service and manufacturing sectors. This is caused by two main factors. One concerns with inadequate capital deployment for employment generation activities and the second factor is concerned with uncertainty element in govt policy or international environment due to which despite having capital at hand there is reluctance to employ it for economic activity.

If we ignore the second factor under the present context then the lack of employment is directly related to lack of capital deployment in employment generation economic activities. This in turn depends upon the govt’s ability to generate income both for internal financing as well as for servicing external financing. After all no country would like to get in to a debt trap.

The employment generation comes from Manufacturing sector and service sector both in private as well as govt domain. In manufacturing sector increased productivity and efficiency levels, which becomes a paramount criteria to maintain competitive edge, in itself excludes the possibility of proportionate increase in employment generation. Therefore in manufacturing sector to provide increased levels of employment maintaining the same or improved manufacturing efficiency the volumes need to go up substantially. In this age of faster product obsolescence it will be imprudent to invest in increasing capacity without limit.

The astronomical NPA which banks are saddled with are a direct result of thoughtless deployment of capital by the business enterprises. In service sectors too the necessity to adopt cutting edge technology to remain competitively relevant offsets the prospects of commensurate increase in employment level.

This leaves us with govt jobs which is somewhat insulated from the statutes of market competitiveness. However the govt jobs too cannot increase continuously without attending economic value addition.

Under the above scenario, the Pakoda stall concept of mini business model example given by the PM, to seriously boost self employment through promotion of small and mini enterprises becomes very relevant and meaningful. His detractors have chosen to ridicule his proposal, without seeing the inevitability of such alternatives in the future especially under the menace of unchecked population growth.

As of today assuming that employment levels have not gone up in the last 5 years, how is it that the increased levels of unemployment has not led to increased discontent and frustrations culminating in suicides or increased criminal activities. If the employment situation was so grim as is being indicted by Modi detractors then we should have witnessed serious street protests across the country. The answer to this valid questions clearly lies in the un denying possibility that there has been a significant increase in the employment in unorganised sector. Unfortunately the traditional way of survey to compute unemployment levels are ill equipped to capture the employment generation in unorganised sector.

In a globalised economy continuous reckless growth in manufacturing and service sector will not be sustainable at the expense of losing economic competitiveness. The regular employment growth will taper off at some stage or the other. To add to our woes even where there is employment opportunity the availability of employable number of graduates is grossly inadequate due to the unregulated mushrooming of private educational institutions by unscrupulous mafia elements turning education into a profiteering business. Facilitating growth of self employment in unorganised sector is the key to address the spiralling problem of unemployment as well as under employment.

Under the circumstances the announcement of “NYAY “appears to be an ill thought out scheme, which seeks to tackle poverty through legislation. Poverty cannot be eliminated by legislating against the rich. Why are we trying to re invent the wheel, the misplaced faith in socialism had brought us to the stage of mortgaging our gold to enable payment of imports and we luckily recovered from the brink of economic disaster. It is akin to treating the symptoms of a disease without attending to the root cause of the disease. To generate 3.6 lakh crores of funds annually for the NYAY scheme the budgetary govt revenue has to increase by 16%. Many writers choose to express this additional financial burden in percentage of GDP which is really a mischievous ploy because the GDP is not the income of the govt it is just a value of economic activity that transpired in the reference period.

There is no other way this additional income can accrue every year without increasing the taxes. Thus all the efforts in the previous decades to reduce the taxes under tax reform policies to incentivise economic growth go for a toss with one sweeping decision. Even in the welfare states of European countries the social benefits are sustained by high tax regime. It is the same set of economists who were fighting tooth and nail to make govt agree to reduction in direct and indirect taxes in order to give a boost to the economy by way of tax reforms. It would be really a retrograded policy approach to get back to high tax regime leading to lower growth of economy resulting in to all those very problems which took us many decades to surmount.

The most pertinent point that needs deliberation apart from the economic feasibility of this NYAY scheme is the political will and administrative structure needed given the shady track record of the regime which is promising this SOP. The administrative feasibility is more complicated than the economic feasibility of this con scheme. People have witnessed how Congress party has ensured growth of the Pariwar above everything. The politicians under congress rule and congress led UPA rule managed to corner a slice in every welfare scheme and govt projects one can think off. Now added to this is the greed of the coalition partners who are bound to demand their pound of flesh. There will never be NYAY to the NYAY scheme.

The entire scheme is a devious ploy by congress to facilitate its emergence as a leading party in the coalition especially since coalition has not really taken off. In the event of coalition managing to muster the required numbers congress can later on cite the disagreement within the coalition as a reason for not implementing the promise.

When the selfish royals throw their people to the wolves

vigoe
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When the selfish royals throw their people to the wolves

The Indira Gandhi reborn, lady who drips charm, can win people’s hearts in a moment, have an aura about her, I can go on and on here but you get the point, the ‘Great’ Priyanka Gandhi said today while talking to ‘pliable’ journalists that Congress has fielded weak candidates in many seats in UP to cut into BJP votes and they are not cutting votes of Mahagathbandhan anywhere.

Many saw it as a “Rahul Gandhi/Vinci” style goof-up that he is famous for. After all how could a General Secretary of the party in Eastern UP admit that they have fielded weak candidates to cut into BJP vote share, that too when the three phases of polling are remaining where on most of the seats, there is direct fight between BJP and Congress. Many considered it as an admission of defeat in the middle of the battle. And few “Pidis” hailed her for her honesty and directness.

So which one is it? How should one look at this statement of hers? Is she really as immature as Rahul Gandhi (the nightmares Lutyens’ journalists and royal courtiers must be getting thinking about this)?

Well, good news for the ‘Darbaris’, this statement is not a goof-up and is as intentional as it gets. Bad news is, this statement shows that the royals don’t care about anyone else other than themselves, no matter how loyal you have been especially in these last 7-8 years which have been the worst for Congress in its long history. A sincere applause (this is more respect than your Kings and Queens will ever give you) to all those spokespersons and workers who have defended Congress and the Gandhis in their worst of times.

Let me elaborate upon my argument.

Let’s look at the developments that have happened in last few days which led up to this “honest admission”. Smriti Irani, in 2014, gave a tough fight to Rahul Gandhi and reduced his winning margin by over 2.5 lakh votes, which was commendable considering that she was an outsider and was given only 20 days for campaigning. (This should have been enough for any serious politician to seriously work in his constituency to recover the lost ground but we are talking about an entitled lazy prince here). Since then, Smriti Irani, buoyed by the result, has made it her mission to win Amethi in 2019. She has done considerable work in the constituency despite losing. The result was seen in 2017 when Congress lost all the five assembly seats under the Loksabha Constituency.

The pressure created by Smriti Irani was enough to send Rahul Gandhi to the ‘Safe seat’ of Wayanad. Priyanka Gandhi, whose role kept on changing since her induction where she initially was supposed to focus on Eastern UP only to then campaigning all over India to then being touted as opposition candidate in Varanasi to then being made to confined to Amethi and Rae Bareli again, because the worst fears of the Congress and the dynasty are coming alive.

When the Mahagathbandhan was announced by Bua-Babua, Buaji had said categorically that they have left 2 seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli for Congress which means if they accept they can be part of the alliance, otherwise they don’t care. When Mayawati made this offer, most of the Congress friendly media said she was being unfair to the oldest political party of India. But here we are after 4 phases of elections and we are seeing the writing on the wall which many refused to see at that time. It is becoming extremely difficult for Congress to retain Amethi and they are facing stiff competition in Rae Bareli, forget about their chances of winning any other seat in UP.

It was an open secret that in 2014, SP and Mulayam Yadav helped Rahul Gandhi retain Amethi by asking their voters to go out and vote for him en masse when it started looking that he might lose. The situation is no different this time, in fact it is much worse because this time even the SP vote share might not be enough for him to cross the line. Just a few days back, Mayawati had openly threatened Congress of withdrawing her support from the Govt. in MP after BSP candidate from Guna switched over to Congress under mysterious circumstances. This warning was enough for the royal family to cower before the Mahagathbandhan publicly, leaving their own candidates to fend for themselves and even damaging their chances of putting up a fight. If this is not betrayal than I don’t know what is!

In the first four phases of the elections, most of the fight was between NDA and regional or UPA candidates. But in the next three phases, on most of the seats, there is a direct fight between BJP and Congress. It seems that they have been so spooked by PM Modi’s roadshow in Varanasi that they have left the battlefield abandoning their troops . Is this how you treat your party workers especially at a time when the chips are down? Is this the kind of leadership we want to see India lead?

Priyanka Gandhi since cowering out of the electoral battle in Varanasi, is seen spending a lot of her time in Amethi. No matter how brave a face she puts up, she knows the reality on the ground. And that is why she publicly uttered those words to pacify Mayawati and Akhilesh, hoping to get their support for her brother (and may be later for her in case Rahul Gandhi wins both the seats and has to vacate Amethi).

But this comes at a big cost. The Congress candidates have not only be left alone but have been humiliated by this admission of hers and the trolling in the rural areas can be very brutal. My heart goes out to them but alas, they chose to accept Gandhis as their leaders. They should have known that family’s interests always come first in Congress. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed.

And why is it so surprising when this election has become about saving dynasties for all the dynasties out there. Whether it is Ashok Gehlot who has left all the party candidates in a lurch to campaign for his son in Jodhpur, or Kamal Nath who is trying hard to make his son win in Chindwara, or Sharad Pawar trying hard to retain his family stronghold in Maharashtra, or the Yadavs in Bihar and UP conceding space to old rivals to remain relevant, all the dynasts have been pushed to the edge of oblivion by the charisma and hard work of one man – Narendra Modi.

The result of the elections will be declared on 23rd May but the story which is emerging is that the good-for-nothing royals have abandoned their troops in the middle of the battlefield to save themselves.

I just hope the public, this time, give them a befitting reply which matches the level of their leadership.

How news portals outperform newspapers

pranabbhandari
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How news portals outperform newspapers

Summary:

News portals have invaded the news space to the point that print is now threatened. How news portals have outdone the conventional information source is subject to investigation.

For long, newspapers have been the primary source for information across regions, countries, age groups and occupations. We rely on print media to stay current on events happening at the local, national and global scale. Equally important is the way print media helps shape public perception of key issues and creates a mindset that brings change. However, newspapers are losing their ground steadily due to the penetration of technology into all spheres of our existence. We no longer wait for the newspaper to arrive to get our daily dose of information, as ETV latest news is readily available on our Smartphones, tabs, and PC through its news portal.

Let’s consider some stats, courtesy MSNBC, to put everything in perspective.

● Adult workers spend more time on news portals vis-à-vis the conventional sources like print and television for accessing news.

● 35% of respondents preferred news web portals while 37% relied on the internet for news.

With the emergence of established news portals, print media is having a hard time to sustain its readership. Let’s examine why:

(Food for the thought, every major newspaper has or plans to have a web news portal.)

News re-imagined:

News portals are redefining news delivery through all-inclusive content. While the scope of newspapers is limited to text-based content only, the web portals are free to incorporate text, videos, and slideshows as well to create an impact. Remember, human beings are visually oriented, and we will respond better to ETV News Live better rather than reading it.

News on the go:

Our tight schedules don’t permit us to search for news on the internet or going through newspaper pages. News portals come to our rescue, providing us with a time-efficient and easy way to stay current on events that matter. Just click on the news portal app and help yourself to ETV Breaking News from the place and time of your choosing, even when on the go.

Updated news:

There is a sense of immediacy when it comes to accessing the latest ETV News Karnataka. Newspapers usually feature news when it has been covered extensively by the electronic media. On the other end of the spectrum, news portals stream updated information on events as they happen. For instance, you wouldn’t wait for the next edition of the newspaper to know the outcome of an India-Pakistan World Cup match when it’s accessible on news portals.

Credible news:

Web portals typically gather the latest news from various trustworthy resources and cross checks it for authenticity before publishing. Plus, the majority of news portals are operated by large media houses whose reliability is at stake. So, if you think that print is more credible than news web portals for accessing the ETV News Tamil, it’s time to broaden your horizons.

Variety:

While newspapers cater to a limited number of genres, online portals can spoil you for choices. From politics, economics, business, fashion, automobiles, design, IT, sports and entertainment to any other imaginable genre, the news portals keep you covered. Even regional events are covered extensively in the regional language on ETV News Kannada.

Cost-effective:

With newspapers, you pay to buy information but news web portals offer information without charging you a penny. Paying for ETV Marathi News does not make sense when you can access it at zero cost. All you need is a gadget and a steady internet connection.

Firepower of India under Modi Government

Udit Tripathi
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Firepower of India under Modi Government

Indian army, despite being surrounded by hostile neighbors, was deprived of major 155 mm artillery for nearly 3 decades mainly due to the infamous Bofors scandal and policy paralysis by the UPA later. Modi government in 2014, present with indigenous solution of Dhanush and ATAGS guns at nascent stages, successfully tackled the uphill task of improving army’s firepower. Here is how it was done these 5 years:

  1. Dhanush Howitzer (155mm 45 calibre): The Desi and improved version of Bofors howitzer by Ordnance Factory Board has a range of 38km. The programme started in 2010, but its trials successfully were conducted in 2016 and first batch of six howitzers were handed over to Army this April.
  2. DRDO Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (155mm, 52 calibre): ATAGS first grabbed the spotlight when it broke the world record by firing a distance of 47.2 km. The guns successfully completed its trials in 2016-17 and first lot of 40 guns is to start soon.
  3. M777-A2 howitzer (155mm 39 calibre): 145 units of war proven ultra-light howitzers from US were inked via G2G purchase by then RM Manohar Parrikar at $700mn. 10 units have been delivered as of now. These can even be airlifted at the heights of Siachen.
  4. K9 Vajra T (155mm 52 calibre): K9 Vajra T, the improved version of combat proven self-propelled K9 Thunder of Samsung Techwin of S.Korea deal was inked on Sept’15 by then RM Manohar Parrikar. 100 howitzers have been ordered.
  5. M46 upgrade (155mm 45 calibre): The OFB Nalanda has successfully upgraded the Soviet-era howitzers to 155mm at a price of 1cr/unit and improved the range from 27 to 36 km. The Army has ordered to upgrade 300 such guns.
  6. Athos 2052 (155mm 52 calibre): These Elbit guns from Israel recently emerged as a winner over French Trajan gun of Nexter in the Indian Army’s 155mm, 52 calibre artillery competition. It will complement ATAGS in the 52 calibre category.

West Bengal: Way forward for Election Commission

kautilyabhaskar
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West Bengal: Way forward for Election Commission

By end of the fourth phase of LS Poll 2019, West Bengal has emerged as the only ‘deeply troubled’ state in the whole country. Violence and rigging manifested in multiple forms and prevented sizeable section of voters from asserting their electoral choices freely. It is a matter of profound of shame for both the state and the country. India today is not of 1960s or 1970s. She is on the threshold of becoming a world power, having already become the fifth largest country in terms of economy and military power. It is intriguing that  in such a promising country ‘democracy’ is being throttled in one ‘state’ only, while people in other states have been exercising their choice freely and without fear. Questions are bound to arise and in fact arising as to role of the Election Commission.

As time passes, it does appear that the EC has not been able to assess the kind of challenges it has been put to in this highly populous eastern state ridden with complex demographic problems and violent political legacy. It has to blame itself for right from the ‘start’ there were numerous indications which it chose to ignore. For example, at an early stage it could not identify and handle an ominous threat that was hidden in a clever mix of the roles of ruling ‘party’ and the ‘state government’. In response to EC’s transferring two commissioners of police and two superintendents of police on April 5, the head of the state government had famously said : ‘You did it illegally. But whoever you change are all our people’. By taking no ‘suo moto’ action on such a ‘loaded’ statement, the EC, by implication lent a tacit and moral endorsement of that position, which is now manifesting in many vicious forms.

It is plain and simple that the EC is essentially dependent on bureaucracy of the state government to conduct the poll. Conducting free and fair poll is impossible if the latter becomes partial to the ruling party, for whatever reason, fear or favour or any other. There are ‘n’ number of ways such partiality can manifest to the advantage of the ruling party. For example, it is the state bureaucracy donning the role of EC official decide deployment of central forces. They can decisively influence the effectiveness of these forces, however large. Another example is the manner in which things happen inside the ‘polling booth’, where the central forces are not allowed access. That is the ultimate point, where democracy can be marred or mauled in ‘n’ number of ways clandestinely if the presiding officer is compromised- whether due to loyalty to ruling party, anticipation of reward or simply fear.

Four phases of polls in West Bengal have indicated various kinds of electoral malpractices. There have been allegations of proxy votes, selectively obstructing voters from reaching polling booths, hurling of bombs at booths, clashes of political workers with security forces, assaulting media persons, threatening polling agents of opposition parties from coming to polling booths and throwing them out if they turned up and more . There has also been post-poll violence in some places, all of which have been building up fear psychosis in general voters.

Most worrisome fact about Bengal is that incidents of violence have not abated effectively despite central forces. Asansol in the fourth phase is a burning testimony to it. Despite providing central forces to 100% booths, this constituency allegedly witnessed proxy votes, removal of polling agents of rival parties, inter party clashes, lathi charge, attacking media personnel and more. This clearly reinforces the assumption that the root of the evil lies much deeper. Such extensive irregularities could not take place, despite 100% central forces, unless the state bureaucracy in charge of conducting elections had failed, for whatever reason.

Clearly the EC is, seemingly, treating the case of West Bengal in a routine manner such as raising the level of security at booth, activating Quick Response Team, and finally ordering re-poll in few booths. These are grossly inadequate. Any discerning observer of Bengal knows that the state is marked by a political culture of extreme intolerance against opposition political parties and a generally poor law and order situation. Frequent media reports of discovery of bombs, explosives and illegal fire arms in its various parts suggests a pervasive ambience of fear and also explain the rampant use of fire weapons to scare voters in places on polling days and wreak vengeance on supporters of rival parties after polling is over.

EC’s actions to complaints have been ‘case-specific’ like sending forces to venue of violence or ordering re-poll in extreme cases, as said earlier. The problem with such an approach is that though the miscreants may disappear at the sight of the ‘force’, each such case of violence would have  led to multiplier effect already that cannot be reversed. Thus, It would have panicked people in hundreds and thousands and dissuaded them from turning up towards the booths. Worse still is goons casting their votes under indulgence of booth officials.

A general clime of lawlessness, violence, scatter of fire arms, and fear coupled with a bureaucracy pliant to the ruling political party constitutes a deadly cocktail which is throttling democracy in the State. With its traditional approach the EC seems to be clueless. To make matter worse, the ruling party is also resorting to pressure tactics by challenging its impartiality and demanding removal of the special observers. It was able to get the posting of KK Sharma, the special police observer, cancelled on March 28. In his place the EC appointed Vivek Dubey. Later, on April 20 it demanded removal of special observer Ajay V Nayak for comparing Bengal’s situation with Bihar of 10 to 15 years ago. Next day the TMC supremo in an election rally attacked BJP for trying to run parallel government with two retired officers i.e., the special police observer and the special observer and added that Bengal will not tolerate any kind of abuse.

If the EC continues in the same way during the remaining three phases, things are likely to be worse. It will end up being indicted at the bar of history for two prime reasons. First, despite having the full recourse to the might of a strong powerful nation of India’s stature, it would have failed to stand up to the challenge of one political party in conducting a free and fair poll in one single ‘state’. Second, it would have set up an unhealthy precedent and this ‘West Bengal Model’ may be lapped up by ruling parties in other states. This means denigrating federal structure, undermining the central government, and disallowing people to exercise voting rights freely. In other words,  once a party comes to power in a state it would be encouraged to use every means available including patently undemocratic ones to cling to power.

If the EC top officials do not want to be remembered for causing a permanent harm to the democratic political culture of India, it will have to think out of box and act promptly, firmly with courage. It is a constitutional body vested with responsibility to preserve the democratic polity of India. But we have seen already it is being admonished by the apex court for failing to act firm. It does not have the luxury of time. The fifth phase in knocking at the door. Fortunately, it is facing grave challenge from one State only and it must fetch a proper and fitting response.

Capacity to use ‘power’ is a different trait than merely to ‘have’ it. TN Seshan, former CEC had demonstrated the use of power in optimum and purposeful manner thereby uplifting the respect for the EC as an institution in public esteem and restoring democracy in several trouble-torn states in challenging times (1990-96). The present EC must go through the Constitution, Representation of Peoples Act and every other relevant pieces of legislation to find out every possible means available in its hands to deal with the special situation of West Bengal.

If there is really no recourse and there exists no other way to ascertain free will of people except under complete care of the armed forces or auspices of the Governor’s role, the EC  must say so without hesitation. Instead if it continues with the remaining three phases in a mechanistic way, that would only legitimise a rigged election and impair the future policies of the Central Government. West Bengal is posing a grim challenge to the Election Commission and the Commission has to rise to its full potential to meet it! Entire country has its gaze fixed on the Commission.

The impact of distortion of history

bapiraju3
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The impact of distortion of history

The other day, when my close relatives came home to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of maternal uncle and aunt, we started playing cards, which of course is our family game. As we were playing cards the conversation inevitably led to politics and all of us know, when it’s politics, things get heated.

So I am guessing one of my aunts is a staunch Nehruvian follower and she was offended about the politicisation of religion and went on to say that humanity is better served if all of us were thinking of humanity instead of caste, religion and gender.

I tried to explain to her that what we dream of is a dream and not reality and the ground realities call for a different approach rather than burying our head in sand and expecting humanity to correct itself. I tried to explain to her the history of our country is so distorted and sterilised that it’s time for the youth of our country to learn the real history.

Her answer to this not only baffled me but also made me understand the true impact of the gradual demonization and subsequent irrelevance of the Hindu religion that was carried out by our erstwhile leaders. Her answer was pretty simple, history doesn’t matter. If you dig up history you will only find the atrocities committed by other religious heads on Hindus and their religion. Therefore she said let the past be. Her justification is Hindus can be easily instigated against other religions to unleash violence if the truth of our history comes out and therefore demonised version of Hinduism helps in subjugation of the followers of that religion.

Now what baffled me here is that she was a well educated woman coming from an orthodox Brahmin family and here she was ready to take the side of those who have tried hard to demonise words like Hindus, Hindutva and Bhakt. I didn’t want to fight and spoil our relation and kept mum after that. But the significant impact her statement had on me was different altogether.

I realised that after years of sterilisation of our history we as a Hindu community are ok with demonization of our religion, our culture and even our very own identity. We have been so taught in our schools the ills of Sati or the evils of caste system while the Mughal emperor’s were glorified in all their splendour and magnificence by cleverly brushing aside their atrocities committed against men and women of faith or their virtual reign of loot, rape and plunder, under the carpet.
This got me thinking will I be angry at my Muslim brothers or will I start seeing the devil in all my Christian friends just because some Mughal emperor or a British lout took it out on my forefathers?

The logic of it was absurd. I came to know about our true history through reading and researching and it did not make me angry or violent towards the members of the other communities. All it did was fill me with pride that my ancestors sacrificed so much to protect our identity. So the concept of retribution for the atrocities of another was just a narrative spread to end that identity.

Therefore I believe that more than ever it is now very important that we start asking questions about our history. The questions that have been kept hidden about our glorious past and its many trials and tribulations. I am not saying that everyone who follows Hinduism is the epitome of honesty as we had to end the practices of Sati, Kanyasulkam and other social evils propagated in the name of religion. But even that didn’t happen overnight. It happened by informed debate and understanding. But does the mainstream media or the politicians even make an attempt to talk about a social evil like Triple Talaq, which is the most inhumane law in Islam? As such it’s even more important to learn about our true history and our culture and not some sterilised version of history. It is important to understand cos only when we are well informed can we take a conscientious decision with regards to it and learn from it.

So I would like to say history does matter. because if Germany had just said we want to forget about the history of Hitler’s Nazi Germany they would not have progressed so far in such a short time even after two World Wars which not only crippled their economy but also split the country into two. There is a lesson that we must all learn. Our history is replete with mistakes and sacrifices made by great men and what better way to plan for a glorious future than to accept our past and learn from it.

I am sincerely hoping that my aunt doesn’t see this post and even if she does I am sincerely hoping she doesn’t take it the wrong way. But I stick by all the statements aforementioned as I believe the only way we can end these divide lines amongst our social fabric is by addressing the issue head on and learning our true history. It gives perspective to all stakeholders and may be it can help in building a new India without any cultural fault lines as we are ready to accept who we are and proceed United to our common goal of building an India free of poverty, hunger and take our rightful place in the world order as the world leader.

Cheers! Jai Bharat!

Jai Bheem Jai Meem political alliance will always be a non starter

Jai prakash Ojha
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Jai Bheem Jai Meem political alliance will always be a non starter

Mayawati and Prakash Ambedkar have gone out of way to seek Muslim votes. Just recently while speaking at an election rally in western UP, Mayawati had openly asked the Muslim electorate not to waste their votes on the Congress and vote for the BSP-SP-RLD combine instead to prevent BJP from coming to power. Prakash Ambedkar’s party has allied with Owaisi’s AIMIM to contest the parliamentary elections in Maharashtra with an eye on the Dalit-Muslim axis.

No doubt, Dalits and Muslims when taken together, form a formidable electoral group as they comprise around 36-38 percent of the total population of the country. In the heydays of Congress domination, both the communities voted together in favour of the Congress candidates but of late, these groups have drifted away from the Congress towards the regional cum social justice parties like SP, BSP, JDU and RJD. After the capture of power by the BJP in 2014, all hell broke loose as the ruling party was accused of attempting to impose the Hindutva agenda in the country by the left liberal secular forces. It was alleged that the Dalits & the minorities were not safe under the BJP rule which wants to impose cultural Brahminical hegemony in the country.

Rohith Vemula suicide case, the lynching of Akhlaq, war cry over love jihad & conversions, issue of beef & cows, Una incident, the violence at Saharanpur, Bhima-Koregaon incident and the protests at JNU and Jadavpur University gave credence to the opposition propaganda that BJP was trying to marginalise the Dalits & the Muslims. The nation became a theatre of intense ideological contestations. To say that the nation is in the throes of war of ideas is a bit preposterous but it can certainly be said with conviction that today, after the demolition of the Nehruvian consensus, the nation is living in the market of ideas.

The game plan of Mayawati and Prakash Ambedkar seems to be to exploit these sentiments among the Dalits & the Muslims and make them stand against the BJP. It’s not that BJP has not done anything for the Dalits or the backward classes in the last 5 years. Nullifying the dilution caused by the Supreme court verdict in SC/ST Act by bringing an ordinance to the sheer dismay of its core upper caste constituency, the restoration of 13 point roster in Delhi University recruitments after an adverse judicial pronouncement, going all out to bring reservation in promotions for Dalits, setting up of National Commission for OBCs and giving it a constitutional status and making the party apparatus more inclusive in social composition are some of the path breaking steps that the party has taken to do away with its image of being an upper caste party.

BJP knows that to achieve its dream of the political unification of all the Hindus, it is essential to bring all the upper castes, intermediate castes, OBCs and Dalits under one umbrella. A good percentage of the Dalits understand what BJP has done for them and what their fellow caste leaders did for them in the past. To counter the divisive Samajik Nyaya, the BJP has come up with its own Samajik Samrashta. RSS has been doing constructive works in the areas dominated by the lower castes to bring them into their fold for a very long time; this is now bearing fruit.

Ambedkar’s views about Hindu religion are often highlighted by the left-liberal-secular spectrum but when it comes to articulation of his views about Muslim polity/religion, there is a studied silence. Yes, Ambedkar worked closely with Jinnah and the imperial powers to discredit Congress and participated in the infamous Day of Deliverance that was celebrated by Muslim League all across the country in the aftermath of the resignation of several Congress ministries in 1940. He wanted to follow the Muslim League template on separate electorates and argued for separate electorate to be given to the depressed classes but that could not materialise due to the fast undertaken by Gandhi. Had Ambedkar succeeded in his design, a possible balkanisation of the country would have certainly happened on the pattern of Pakistan. For Ambedkar, the basis of partition should have been social discrimination and not religion though he supported the demand for Pakistan. But then, he was never an apologist and spoke his mind out. Despite in agreement with Jinnah’s politics, he did not mince words while speaking disapprovingly about Indian Muslims.

Of late, Dalit activism has radicalised and has become impregnated with Naxalism-Maoism and Islamists. In its vituperative hatred towards Manuwad…. Dalit activism is not averse to enlist the support of Islamists. No wonder, Jai Bheem Jai Meem keeps reverberating on social media. The dalit activists need to learn what Ambedkar said about Muslims & Islam. They need to understand why Ambedkar did not ask dalits to convert to Islam or Christianity. Ambedkar did not want dalits to be de-nationalised after conversion to the Abhramic faiths.

Here, then, is Ambedkar on Islam: (Pakistan or Partition of India)
“Hinduism is said to divide people and in contrast Islam is said to bind people together. This is only a half-truth. For Islam divides as inexorably as it binds. Islam is a close corporation and the distinction that it makes between Muslims and non-Muslims is a very real, very positive and very alienating distinction. The brotherhood of Islam is not the universal brotherhood of man. It is brotherhood of Muslims for Muslims only. There is a fraternity, but its benefit is confined to those within that corporation. For those who are outside the corporation, there is nothing but contempt and enmity. The second defect of Islam is that it is a system of social self-government and is incompatible with local self-government, because the allegiance of a Muslim does not rest on his domicile in the country which is his but on the faith to which he belongs. To the Muslim ibi bene ibi patria [Where it is well with me, there is my country] is unthinkable. Wherever there is the rule of Islam, there is his own country. In other words, Islam can never allow a true Muslim to adopt India as his motherland and regard a Hindu as his kith and kin.”

Before giving thumbs up to Jai Bheem Jai Meem, it is important to glance through the pages of pre partition Indian history. Like Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Jogindra Nath Mandal, an important Dalit leader of erstwhile undivided Bengal, believed that Hindu India would never give a fair deal to the Dalits. He placed his faith not on Mahatma Gandhi’s India but on Jinnah’s Pakistan as he felt that Dalits would be safer in Islamic Pakistan. He was instrumental in the migration of lakhs of Scheduled castes to Pakistan and had the distinction of becoming the Law Minister of Pakistan. Despite occupying such a high constitutional post, he could not do anything significant for the Dalits most of who were deprived of even basic human rights and were derided for being Hindus.

A significant percentage of the Dalits had to embrace Islam to save their lives. JN Mandal was crestfallen and returned to India unsung and unheard thereafter. At the time of its formation, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan had 20 percent Hindu population, a substantial chunk of which comprised of the lower castes but just look at the situation today; the population of Hindus has gone down to 2 percent approximately. A few days back, there was uproar worldwide over an incident in Sindh province of Pakistan in which 2 young teenage girls well below 18 years of age were forcefully abducted, converted and then, married off to much older Muslim men. This is not an isolated incident for Pakistan but is a normal.

The drastic dip in Hindu numbers can be attributed to forced conversions of Hindus and forced marriages of Hindu girls in Muslim families. The situation in Bangladesh is no different as Hindus have been compelled to leave their homes and properties behind and flee to India. The Hindu population has gone down substantially from 27-28 percent in 1971 to below 10 percent now. Most of the Hindus who have borne the brunt of Islamic attacks are from the scheduled caste and other lower caste communities.

When you analyse the victims of communal riots in India, you will find that most of the affected persons are from the lower income groups, from the slums and from the marginalised communities; this applies to both the communities. While the seculars rush to Muslim neighbourhoods to wipe their tears, no one bothers to visit the homes of affected Hindu families for fear of being labelled as communal. It is the BJP and other Hindu Right organisations that stand by them in this hour of grief. Naturally, the Hindu marginalized groups see RSS & BJP as their saviours. Reservation is a holy cow for the Dalits but just take a look at the minority educational institutions like AMU in the country. AMU does not give reservation to Dalits and OBCs. There is hardly a Madarsa in India that celebrates Ambedkar Jayanti. Dalits have an emotional attachment with the Constitution but for the Muslims, religious symbols matter more than national symbols or the Constitution.

The Muslim-Dalit political alliance will always be a non starter. And moreover, what about the religious Right turned Dalits? Will they put their stakes on Muslim-Dalit unity? The rise of Modi has shattered the left leaning narrative of the Dalits. It would not be correct to think that such political alliance of Muslims and Dalits would achieve political visibility. Dalits never constituted a homogeneous identity. Leaders like Mayawati and Prakash Ambedkar just represent the Jatav and the Mahar segments of the Dalit community. All Dalits are not Ambedkarites or left leaning which are making most of the noises against Hindu Right.

Had all the Dalits in India being genuinely inspired by Ambedkar, by now, a sizable proportion of the Scheduled castes would have been Buddhists. Only the constitutional Ambedkar succeeded in India, not the socio-cultural Ambedkar and this offers hope for the Hindu Right. Before talking about Dalit-Muslim political alliance, ground level realities need to be taken into account. If the left leaning Ambedkarite Dalits are not comfortable with an inclusive Hindutva project that makes space for subalterns, how will they work with the monochromatic one god-one scripture-one path Islam without any fear of losing their fiercely guarded identity & autonomy?

Modi caged Masood Azhar, soon the corrupt dynasts and Naamdars would secure prison

S Ranganathan
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Modi caged Masood Azhar, soon the corrupt dynasts and Naamdars would secure prison

Much before the flower blossom, the garden would be filled with their fragrance, before spring arrives, the garden would be ready to blossom its beauty and ecstasy, an emergence new life energy and diversity we can find prior to the start monsoon season. All these are known to us and being expressed by several poets in several of their work.

The UN declaration of Massod Azhar as an international terrorist is a great victory not only for India but also for Narendra Modi.

Today we are so proud to call the above as victory of India but must recognize that Modi was the person who made such victory possible to India. The determination, the will and the direction shown by Modi alone has made every country to support the cause of India. Although China was initially not supportive to the demand but later found sufficient merit in the demand raised by Modi and India.

PM Modi has shown the way and determination to protect the right and dignity of India, put Islamist terrorism in its place, gathered international support to fight terrorism, gave complete support and weaponry to our defence forces to destroy the terrorist camp in Pakistan, brought back the wing commander Abinandhan Vardaman just in 3 days from Pakistan army camp, raised the might and dignity of India at global level……. Indians must support Modi to make India a great land to live happily, safely and proudly. 

Look at the politics of the dynast and other opposition parties.  They don’t even show minimum heart to feel happy for India that Masood Azhar has been declared as an International terrorist by UN and USA has championed for the cause of India. Modi has achieved the biggest diplomatic victory for India and instead they are ridiculing and mocking the mission of Modi. The best way to deal the dynast and other opposition parties is that eliminate them from the political space of India, defeat them in such way that they should run away from politics to some remote places in Himalayas to do penance in rest of their life for all the sins that have done to India.

Modi has achieved the above diplomatic victory not for himself but for India, therefore every Indian must feel thrilled, excited and overjoyed with Modi. It is also the duty of every Indian to support Modi and re-elect Modi led government at centre to make India safe and secured.

The agenda of Modi is development, sab ka vikas and national security. A weak nation cannot achieve development, a weak nation cannot achieve sab ka vikas, a weak nation cannot achieve economic stability, a weak nations cannot have strong identity and nationality, a weak nation cannot become leader country to the globe, a weak nation cannot fight terrorism and poverty in equal measure, a weak nation cannot become aspirational are the political philosophies of Modi, therefore Modi worked overtime to make India strong, secured and every citizen equally contribute and benefit from the country. 

The political party of the dynast on the other hand is greedy to grab power to amass wealth, loot the nation and is likely to interfere in all institutions to destroy all evidences against several corruption cases in which the dynast is entangled in. So that the power can be used to free him off from several of the charges. What about India, development, national security, sab ka vikas if such naamdar, dynast forces are given power to rule India?

THE VOTE OF EVERY INDIAN MUST ADVERTENTLY, CONSCIOUSLY, INTENTIONALLY AND WILFULLY GO TO LOTUS SYMBOL AND ONLY THEN INDIA CAN BE SAVED. 

Narendra Modi has achieved tremendous development and reforms for India, empowered people, made them aspirational, brought down corruption significantly at top level, brought poor people into the mainstream, eliminated middlemen looting from various government schemes for poor people, linked PAN and Aadhar to minimise corruption and scam…….. etc.

Today the willful defaulter and bank fraud Vijay Mallya is pleading with Banks that he is willing to settle the loan. Nirav Modi is behind the bar thanks to the efforts of Modi government. Today Massod Azhar has been put behind bars and got him declared as an international terrorist.

Like hove the 5 Pandava brothers with the help of Lord Krishna destroyed all 100 evil Kaurava brothers, Modi too has achieved all the above fetes just in 5 years with the support of people of India. 

A stable India, a rich India, a India full of development and sab ka vikas, a well secured India, the India that is going to lead the world need Modi. Modi alone can make such India possible. People should elect Modi with massive margin and must eliminate all dynastic corrupt, naamdar politics from India.

Chowkidar Ranganathan

The alibis of the Congress party

G Indira
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The alibis of the Congress party

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra gave an inane excuse for not contesting from Varanasi by saying, her party and cadre asked her to campaign in more than forty constituencies where the Congress has fielded its candidates. She also said, if she were to contest from Varanasi, she would have to confine only to her constituency. This pat reply of hers was lapped by the pro Congress media as if she was telling them some new revelation. Of course, almost all columnists bashed her for not contesting against the Congress’s arch-rival PM Narendra Modi. Going by the applause, the prime minister got for his road show, the Congress might have back tracked.

Priyanka’s logic of not contesting in Varanasi is a non sequitur. For, one could ask: how come Shri Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate in 2014, could manage to win his seat of Varanasi with a thumping majority and also could campaign extensively throughout India, energetically, to make his party the BJP to win resoundingly. It’s that kind of zeal and hunger that is necessary, not lame excuses and belated entries after enjoying foreign jaunts. Since PM Modi’s victory in Varanasi being a foregone conclusion, the lady from the first family wouldn’t like to get defeated in her maiden attempt. That defeat would haunt her entire life though she may get a decent minority- Congress vote.

The Congress president Rahul Gandhi to an extent might have convinced the Hindi heartland Hindu voters by indicating them with his temple visits that he is one among them. No doubt, he tried hard. There’s no such effort by Priyanka, for, she believes India of grandmother’s age is still existent with pristine so-called secular values of the Congress. By following the mainstream media narrative, she wanted to touch the real life/bread and butter issues. She naively asks her audiences in her election rallies whether they got jobs as promised by the PM in 2014, as if in the earlier Congress regimes all youths were bubbling and bulging with jobs and salaries.

Next, she questions on the 15 lakh bank-deposits. It’s everybody’s knowledge that all elections promises may not be actualized. Shri Modi made a point in the last elections, hypothetically, that the amount of rich people’s money that’s hoarded in Swiss Banks is brought back, then each poor person, when distributed would get that much of amount. The rich of the country are not so easily caught. If they were to be nabbed so easily, they wouldn’t be rich! The hoarders are often vile and deceitful. On their list (of many),her husband’s name tops, unfortunately.

Often Priyanka mentioned about farmers distress. The BJP should have addressed it effectively as a long term policy in its initial stages of government. Of course, it did, of late, by direct benefit monetary transfer in to their (farmers) account. Earlier, the ruling BJP helped farmers in many ways by subsidising urea and other manures and by introducing new farming techniques. This farmers problem is a long-standing one that has been coming across the parties and governments from across the board. Priyanka says that she would not make false promises. Her ‘I do what I promise’ kind of an attitude is not time-tested. But it seems to be a bit of an arrogance on her part that seem to suggest that she is righteous and others are not.

The Congress party submitted a lot of complaints to the Election Commissioner on violation of model code of conduct by the BJP president and prime minister. However, the EC gave a clean chit to PM’s speech on Rahul Gandhi opting for Wayanad. The prime minister said that the Congress president opted to stand from a second constituency Wayanad for being likely to face the wrath of the people in Amethi for the label: ‘Hindu terror’ the Congress stuck to the peace-loving Hindus. He also said, in Wayanad of Kerala, the majorities are in a minority and the minorities in a majority. In India, unfortunately, the majority meant Hindus and the minority meant Muslims and Christians. These religious denominations are not found elsewhere in the world. For them, minorities meant immigrants on the basis of ethnicity. Technically, what the prime minister said is correct. He didn’t verbalize the terms: Hindus, Muslims and Christians. He just said the words: majorities and minorities that are enshrined in the Constitution. If they implicitly mean religions, so be it. After all that’s the legacy of the Congress.

Since, the Hindus do not have one prophet, one book and one language, the so-called secular forces in the country are pulling them apart. The PM might have wanted to send a clear signal to show the designs of those forces. The Prime Minister put all his stakes in Varanasi, a gutsy decision by him. Why couldn’t the same be exhibited by Rahul Gandhi? ‘The cadres are requesting to stand from Wayanad’- is an absurd argument. If the Congress cadres asked him to stand from Hyderabad (to fight against Assaduddin Owaisi ), would he agree? No. In reality, win ability is a factor in Wayanad for Rahul Gandhi.

As far as representing South India, the South is not crying hoarse for Rahul Gandhi. If he desired so strongly to represent the South, why did he not stand from the region in 2014? In 2014, the Congress led – UPA was in power at the Centre, so all was well. Now, he himself is skeptical of his win from Amethi as it’s being nurtured by the Centre and his rival there is none other than the articulate Smrithi Irani.

All the explanations of Priyanka, Rahul and the Congress spokespersons are all alibis. Yet, they claim they’re straight forward and truthful. So, the people in those constituencies have to be all the more cautious in voting.

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