Friday, October 25, 2024
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Women’s day is not just about offering gifts to the woman in your life

Nitten Gokhaley
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Women’s day is not just about offering gifts to the woman in your life

Do people really understand the importance of a woman’s role in the society? A five-year-old can give a much more realistic and innocent answer than adults.

Bond between a mother and her son

Back in 2013, I was taking serious efforts to lose my weight (still trying to). While exercising at Bhusari Colony Pune’s BS Joshi jogging park, a kid attracted my attention. He was running around. Little fellow suddenly fell down and started crying. His mom came running towards him. She quickly hugged him, lifted him, patted him on his back and assured him that nothing had happened.

This kid stopped crying within the next few seconds. Then again she asked him to continue running and said that she would sit for some time and would keep an eye on him. This incident once again forced me to think about the bond between a mother and her child.

For any child, his mother is just like God. She has a solution to every problem. She takes an unbearable pain and gives birth to this child. She cares for her kid; she does everything possible to make him a good human being. She does all this while giving equal importance to her husband, as well as professional responsibilities.

From managing household chores to working as a TV channel’s chief operating officer, they can manage almost everything, including fulfilling family responsibilities. In exchange, all that they expect is a little attention, affection, compliments, adoration, and encouragement from others.

Life starts from a woman’s womb and there is no alternative to it. Thus, not just on women’s day, but it’s everyone’s responsibility to show extreme respect towards women on all days.

Don’t be a mute spectator if you see a woman in trouble

Women often become easy targets for criminals. Unfortunately, India’s political leadership, as well as the judiciary, does not seem to be serious in dealing with increasing crime against women. The SC seems to be more bothered about the behaviour of culprits in jail. Nirbhaya’s soul is still waiting for justice somewhere in one of Delhi’s lanes. Unfortunately, people cannot break into Tihar Jail and kill the four culprits-Akshay, Pawan, Vinay, and Mukesh as well as Mohammad Afroz (who is probably enjoying his new life with the help of MHA).

What the best everyone can do is play our part as a good citizen by not being a mute spectator to any crime against women. Do not hesitate to help those who have faced sexual harassment. Ask your city’s MP, MLAs, and corporators to increase funding for shelter homes for orphan girls. Urge them to suspend police officers who refuse to file cases related to crime against women.

“I am proud to say that I gifted a laptop and internet dongle to my girlfriend who was needing the same,” said my friend who loves buying gifts for his girlfriend(s).

Simply offering gifts to your girlfriend does not mean you are helping women. If you really wish to make some difference, donate your time as well as a small part of your salary towards organizations that help women in distress. Especially to those who are involved in rescuing girls from human trafficking and prostitution.

Do this, your mother, sister, and wife would really appreciate your efforts. So will the society. 

Michelle Obama to replace Shilpa Shetty for Exo dish washing bar ad

mayuragrao
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Michelle Obama to replace Shilpa Shetty for Exo dish washing bar ad

After Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Made in Jaunpur’ remark, Exo dish wash bar has decided to cast Michelle Obama as their brand ambassador to flaunt those new shiny steel vessels. On hearing this Michelle has expressed that she is super excited to know about the decision and cannot thank Raga enough for the genius that he is for coming out with such mind blowing women empowering concepts. She is also considering recommending his name to be included in one of their top think tanks. IIM has also declared that they would soon be doing a case study on Raga, to understand the growing success of BJP.

Thanking RaGa immensely the former FLOTUS in a Jason Wu gown has taken to twitter sharing how unnerving it was when she saw the greasy stains of Butter chicken and Mutter Paneer on her crockery and how she had spent long sleepless hours in her private lagoon pondering on how to keep her utensils shining and family healthy. She goes on to reveal that that’s precisely when she came up with the #letsMove #EatHealthy campaign to totally get rid of oily cooking in the White House.

Fox news has reported that it is because of those adamant grease accumulated over 8 years that Melania Trump refused to stay in the White House as the kitchen smelt of Shahi Kebabs. It is expected that CNN would hit back in full swing and there could be a widespread outrage on media houses about how Melania has made a xenophobic comment about kebabs and colored people and that is what has led to many hate crimes in the US recently!

After all this outrage in geo-international politics, the office of Raga has clarified that the classical Jaunpuri raga sung on a late morning by their young leader was actually more about exporting Mutter Paneer and not Patila, and that the whole matter was being taken out of context and blown out of Jupiter by Sanghis when in reality the impact of the speech had yielded the former first lady a dignified job!

Pope sentences child molesters to a “lifetime of prayer”

Abhishek Banerjee
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Pope sentences child molesters to a “lifetime of prayer”

I am scared. Because, in India, talking about such things is fraught with danger. So, if you are a professional victim who thinks that the sanctity of your superstition supersedes the rights of child abuse victims, kindly ignore this article.

In an absolutely shocking move, Pope Francis has decided to grant “mercy” to certified child molesters. You would think that a story like this would take our breath away and lead to a collective gasp of condemnation

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We are talking about pedophiles here, people! And here is the head of the world’s largest religion making an open gesture of “mercy” to child molesters. How horrible is this?

Can you imagine the message sent out by something like this? If more people were to know about this, can you imagine how unsafe the millions of Catholics in India would feel? If more people were to know about this, can you imagine the effect on the minds of millions of Indian parents who send their kids to Catholic institutions of learning?

You would think this story would get some traction in the Indian media. But I am willing to wager that you haven’t even heard about this story.

The reasons are not hard to imagine. Because this is about a so called “minority religion”. In India, the system of public morality enforced by liberals is not blind to who you are: it checks the caste, religion and gender of each person before judging him/her. And if injustices to victims of child abuse have to be swept under the carpet to defer to so called minority sentiments, so be it.

I’m going to be even more of a heretic in the rest of this article, this time challenging the beliefs of the Hindu right.

This story about the Vatican getting merciful towards child molesters and the lack of outrage surrounding it also undercuts the belief of the Hindu right that Muslims are always treated with kid gloves by mainstream discourse. Sometimes, Muslims do get the short end of the stick and this story is a great example of how. If this had been some kind of Muslim Mufti or Maulvi instead of the Pope, it seems to me that the reaction from the media would have been much sharper. The stereotype of the bearded Mullah out to destroy civilization would have played in the minds of the people. Anti-Islamic politicians everywhere from India to Europe to the United States would have harped on the theory of a “war of civilizations”. But this is genteel Pope Francis and the Catholic Church and so we are simply not going to see that kind of rhetoric.

In India, if you go by the numbers, it is actually the  Commies rather than the radical Jihadis who are the greatest internal security threat of all. Communist armies have occupied large portions of several Indian states : Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh being the prime victims, but also parts of Bihar and even Maharashtra. In Kerala, the Communist party hunts down its opponents at will. In Bengal, the Communist party rounded up its opponents on an island and massacred them all (read here the story of the Marichjhapi massacre). Add to that the Communist stranglehold on several elite colleges, art and film institutes and large sections of media. The radical Islamist in India simply doesn’t have that kind of bandwidth and is more of a little brother who needs hand-holding from Communists to get into campuses and on TV. Communists openly operate two national parties, while ISIS clones are still in their infancy, tactically disavowed even by their sympathizers for the sake of keeping up appearances. The Communist in India needs no such disguises or pretenses. He operates openly under his original banner with the dreaded hammer and sickle.

So, there’s my heresy.

Leftists devious art of stereotying and stigmatization

satya
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Leftists devious art of stereotying and stigmatization

I am an “illiterate intolerant communal-fascist, a fanatic and an ultra nationalist” and I still want to say something.

The leftists are at it again. They want us to debate and prove whether Bharat Tere Tukde Honge Insha.. is sedition or freedom of speech, whether Bandook ke dam par Azadi is whether violent or a peaceful protest.

They don’t agree when we say, “but isn’t it so obvious?” For us, that it is sedition, is as clear as daylight. But they would rather debate endlessly. They love debates. But they would never debate whether Azadi Ka Matlab Kya or Pakistan Se Rishta Kya La Ilaha Illalla is communal or not. So let me rephrase, they love ‘certain’ debates.

And I think that we have now  figured out, why. And my observation is as follows.

The wily leftists  have deconstructed the constitution backwards, like a corrupt and a shrewd lawyer, and they are milching as a matter of constitutional right, every loophole that exists in the constitution, sedition law in particular. They know they can get away with sedition राष्ट्रद्रोह, constitutionally, for they are aware of every loophole that exists, and that is what is giving them the audacity, to be so provocative and so much in your face. That’s why, like an astute lawyer, the love for ‘certain’ debates.

They are misusing the loopholes that exist in the Indian constitution, and want to create new loopholes, case in point being removal of POTA and the campaign to remove Afspa, whilst at the same time and in the same breath their fervent moral appeals for being inclusive and accommodative to the Hurriyat. They also demand to totally do away with the “draconian” and “archaic” concept of sedition law, per se. Their devious plan is to use the very Indian constitution both as a weapon and a shield to sabotage भारत and भारतीयता, and constitutionally legitimize their secessionist ideology.

That’s why their emphasis on being just “constitutional patriots” rather than nationalists, because they are wily enough to know that how they can accommodate anti-nationalism and blatant secessionism constitutionally, via a perfect act of internal sabotage. It’s their motive, which is ulterior, and intent which is malafide and dangerous.

They are emboldened by the loopholes and lack of clarity in the sedition law, that is where they get their strength from, to cock a snook at us. We can never get them to transform their minds or change their motive and intent which is anti-national but we can surely amputate their arms constitutionally by plugging the loopholes as well as removing the confusion which is their lifeline.

And now perhaps is the time, to strike at the roots of secessionist ideologies. But first we have to win the battle of narratives. And that has been the leftist stronghold.

The devious trick by these wily leftists, the cabal and their stealth media warriors, whatever is left of them is that of Stereotyping and Stigmatization.

They have assigned a few roles, drawn a few stereotypes, weaved certain narrative to Stigmatize the nationalists; and justify shield and surreptitiously accommodate and include anti-nationalism and downright secessionism in the national psyche behind the facade and the sham of “liberalism”.

Calling all the nationalist Indians who oppose these blatantly seditious slogans as being Sanghis, ABVP or Hindutva, is an old and familiar, yet malicious stereotyping, to defame, vilify and stigmatize all of them as intolerant, communals or fascists, shut their mouth, put them in perpetual state of deep defense, dismiss them under the stereotype of “ultra nationalists”, thus neutralize all resistance, so as to leave an unchallenged field for leftists anti-nationalism and secessionist ideology, and provide it moral, social and constitutional legitimacy and acceptance. An issue which is purely nationalist, is thus deliberately showcased as being political, so as to divide the society and the nation on political lines, where there should be no division.

The wily leftist cabal seeks to surreptitiously substitute the truth of sedition and spin it into the loaded political narrative of “Secular liberal Vs Communal intolerant” debate. As I said they love certain debates.

It is loaded debate as since the leftist Nehruvian era, courtesy successful leftist stereotyping, there is no room for ambiguity, none whatsoever, as to who the communal or intolerant is, and who the secular and liberals are.

And that goes back to history syllabus books too, which Nehru ensured that the leftist Historians wrote for us, but let’s not digress. We are all “educated” enough to know as to who the fanatic, the plunderers and rapine were and who was a “typical renaissance prince” as also a certain “living saint”, and a certain “Great” empire.

Anyway the ground rule is that along with the leftists, the “minority” i.e., Muslims of all hues are all secular and liberal, whereas those among majority who take unapologetic pride in their native culture, i.e those who are not leftists, are communal and illiberal. It’s somewhat of a totalitarian definition, but that is how the leftists have defined it practically, and it’s a settled issue for far too long now. It’s a typical case of successful  leftist stereotyping. Nobody but “illiterates” can dare make autonomous fresh choices. And I too am an “illiterate”.

The sedition debate and The Truth vs The Narrattive:

Recent debate started in JNU last year, when their seditious misadventure was called out for the very first time. Their hidden face became public. They were made to feel the heat. But wily as they are, that time they tried to drown that out under the din of that Patiala court advocate, hothead Chauhan; and linked him with the govt. Chauhan came as a God sent opportunity. The discourse was again sought to be changed from truth of blatantly seditious slogans to the narrative of liberal Vs. intolerant goons. Remember the long march and the rhetorical outrage. Chauhan was made the poster boy of the nationalists. Yes the leftist cabal are professional and astute spin doctors.

Now they are clutching on to the unfortunate rape threats on the social media, and seeking to make it the face of the event. Everything has again boiled down to freedom of expression. While Sehwag is being rebuked and morally ashamed, for speaking out of turn, and not being on a mute mode while letting the leftists do all the expression. Truth is that it’s neither political nor between ABVP and AISA, as the leftist “intellectuals” would have us believe, but between those who are with seditious slogans and those putting up resistance against it. But the leftist would like to substitute Truth with a leftist narrative.

They love narratives, for narratives can be falsified, and they know how to manufacture dominate and control it.These very capable and creative people BTW, can even pull a rabbit out of the hat. Remember the swift and beautifully synchronized award waapsi moral attack, manufactured out of thinnest of air. Take a bow.

Through a skewed narrative, they  want to have a field day and discredit and remove any resistance to their nefarious, anti-national and secessionist ideology and slogans, which BTW they glorify as free speech, and disguise as liberal.

The truth is that It’s all about ideologies and no one knows it better than the leftist cabal. But their creative spin doctors and narrative writers have a perfect sense as to who to link and  assosciate  with whom. As for example ABVP with the goons and Aisa with Shaheed, martyr of Indian army. They are highly artistically endowed and intellectual people. They are the cabal’s pride, as much as they are our envy and the mascot suits them perfectly and metaphorically. Give them their due. Now give a bow.

Interestingly, yet expectedly these very leftists and their media partners and the whole cabal are maintaining their characteristic deafening and stonewalling silence on the repeated death threats against the likes of Tarek Fatah or Taslima; announced not only on the social media, but repeatedly via  fatwas by maulvis. The bastion of liberalism and secularism, we were told, had suddenly become out of bounds for Taslima. But that’s an old and a forgotten story. The latest bounty on Tarek’s head is said to be 10 lakh. Supposedly neither Tarek, nor Taslima are secular or liberal, and the lesser said about their freedom of expression, or the right to life for that matter, the better.

No campaigns, no alarm bells, no demand for Fir, no media highlight, no concern for tolerance, no rhetorical moral outrage, no championing of alternate view, no fear mongering, no panic attacks…. And the familiar sham and shameless hypocrisy goes on unabated, as oxymoronically as ever.

Whosoever calls the Indian leftists as liberals is either under a deep spell of delusion or, forgive me for saying so, a liar and a downright hypocrite. And let’s NOT debate that.

No tears for this Malala from India, because our intellectuals ‘love’ her killers

Raman Malik
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No tears for this Malala from India, because our intellectuals ‘love’ her killers

It is a very strange time and society we live in where we have plenty of people who find it fashionable to talk about flattering issues like women rights (feminism) and human rights. But what do they do? They are never serious. Today I am writing this because, I feel about the issue that shook my soul and may touch yours, too.

This incident happened in 2015, but I am sure you have not read or heard about it much from the Lutyens media or the activists. I fail to realize that, every people in media, who have always spoken about women rights, human rights, dignity, freedom of expression, where were they? For whom slogans like “Bharat tere tukde hoonge” “jang rahegi zari Kashmir ki azadi tak”, is something FOE, won’t they speak about someone’s Freedom of Living a Life? A big contingent from the same fraternity, who find talking and writing about Malala Yousafzai was something noble, empowering and in vogue, where were they? Today when I write this I hope some of these people get up from their slumber.

Today I want to talk about a girl who belonged to a backyard state of India. A girl from very poor background. She is “Sanjeeta Kumari” aka “Guddi”. Sanjeeta Kumari or Guddi was a young girl of around 11 years when she was picked up and made to get into a “dark red world of Naxalism”. She came from Gumla district of Jharkhand.

Being from an immensely poor family, Guddi was lured into the “Red dark zone” by her neighbor, Savita Didi. At 11, she was brought to cook food for the comrades, who were hardcore Naxalites.

These people are generally supported by a fraternity called liberal progressive society, generally they presume themselves to be the most intellectual and enlightened carrying a leftist mindset. The ideological supporters have made its base in universities like JNU, HCU and other such universities. They love being students till late forties (when ordinary people start planning retirement). And then they become lecturers and professors in these universities so that they can create a new carder.

This pseudo intellectual creed, to a large extent, forget about these small little girls, whom these Naxalites have taken into their carder. But the fact remains that these small girls are forced to live life like a slave, they are used, abused and misused. They are forced to indulge into cooking, cleaning and dirty jobs. If that is not enough, these girls are also forced to have sex with the men around, though it is termed as consensual sex with men double their age working as Commandos for the RED REVOLUTION.

When I first read about this, I felt like yelling out loud, where are the Human Rights? Where are children’s right?

I Feel like asking all those people who sit down in classy surroundings, showing concern in dramatic setup of JNU, do they actually care about the these girls, these children who are taken over by these groups! They go through living under barbaric conditions. But then all of this happens under the barb of “Lal Salam” hence they will not speak against it, but where is the right of the child?

For the first time when I read about her and I started finding more things. I find it to be very painful as a child was turned into a sharp shooter. She was very good with the Insas rifle and carbines. I somehow wonder was she good at studies, was she good in some sports, with dolls, with kitchen sets? Never know!

But what happened with her once, when she was fighting for the “red forces” in the Latehar jungles, she got shot, a bullet pierced through her foot. With that hurt foot, she ran and walked for 8 days and nights, till she reached a safe place with these people of the “red army”. This incident is probably 6-7 year old. At that time she would have been not more than 16 to 17 years old.

Where are those liberals who today talk about freedom of expression human right and on other such subjects, vanish in thin air when issues like this come into light? Do those, who support “Bharat Tere Tukde Honge” “Jung Rahegi Jung Rahegi Azadi tak” slogans, have any consideration for such children? A child may have some dreams, some aspirations, some desires to be somebody.

What I’ve read about her and her parents is disturbing. Sanjeeta Kumara in one of her talks to a news reporter had said, “In the usual practice a basic commanders of these Naxal groups, generally take in young girls and make them subject through all cruelties and child labor. It is a fact that not just that they expect these girls to do housekeeping and cooking but they also force these minor girls to serve the commanders and Naxal fighters to with physical sexual services to the members of Red Army”.

When her parents had spoken to undercover press reporters, the facts that surfaced compelled me write this piece. Her parents said, “My daughter wanted to study! Learn job oriented skills to be independent, live life with dignity. We work hard as labourers and sent money to her occasionally. The Maoist leader always pressurized her to return to their fold”.

In 2013, Guddi or Sanjeeta Kumari was fed up of this red Army system, wanted to lead a normal girl’s life. Mr Tiwari a social worker gave her shelter and helped her getting an admission to a plus-two School. Sanjeeta Kumari started going to school. This is what is an elementary catalyst for bringing down the “Red Army”.

Sanjeetha Kumari’s parents and siblings were always threatened that their daughter would be killed. Not just because she was going to school but she was giving hopes to numerous other girls, who are in the trap of this red Army. It is shocking to read what Guddi had told, when she escaped the camp in April 2013. There were 23 minor girl in the zonal commander’s (Nakulji) camp, where some of them were as young as just 10 years old.

Another thing that Guddi said and which again was very painful and touching was about the conduction and plight of women in these camps. She said, “Maoist commanders regularly exploit women sexually but it is often projected as consensual sex. Abortions are fairly common as female commanders cannot become mothers”.

So now what is Sangeeta Kumari doing? To start with, she is NOW DEAD.

Now coming back to Guddi, she started studying and she was told that she should not visit her parents and siblings. But she made a fatal error of visiting her parents. She was picked and taken to a hill near her village, where, possibly she was raped and then slaughter to death. Her body was found in blood. She was termed by Maoist as a traitor, a police informer. But the fact of the matter remains unchanged. As per superintendent of police Gumla, “She was not a spy and we do not know of any Maoist related cases against her name so far”.

So what was this? This all is what I can easily say, “Forgotten Malala from my backyard”.

I find so many people who think it fashionable to write about Malala Yousafzai because she was presented by the West! It was in vogue to talk about her. It was always and it would always be a fashion statement to speak on such issues. If one leave this pseudo feminist, pseudo intellect crusaders, there are people who run a Cabal that operates a sustained effort to demean the part of society that stands for cultural nationalism and patriotism. Abusing a religion in particular of its belief and history, saying it’s a religion that divides society. Still I would ask them what have you done till date about this “Forgotten Malala from my backyard”.

Decolonizing our schooling

prashantb1984
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Decolonizing our schooling

Often, schools use the excuse of their affiliation to a particular exam board, as a reason for carbon copying the same mediocre text books and syllabus as everyone else. Our education system was first tuned to generate instruments to run the British regime in India and now it generates robots to mindlessly serve the current masters. Macaulay’s education model is a reality even today.

The conveyor belt creating a supply of colonized minds with little originality kicks into action right from Class 1. This flies in the face of the fact that in CBSE and ICSE the last two letters stand for “Secondary Education” and schools are free to experiment with their own independent pedagogy till Class 8. One does not have to spend all 12 years of school preparing for the Grade 12 examination.

What happens in our classrooms is often being dictated by publishers printing glossy books with more pages and content than required, only to make a quick buck. Now we have Computer books for toddlers in Class 1, 2 and 3 – which faithfully convert each set of UI/UX commands in standard Windows software, into a chapter full of bullet points. The computer, which makes rote learning quite unnecessary, is now a topic of rote itself.

Highlighting the cases of schools breaking free from the trend
There is the Isha foundation school, setup by Sadhguru, which doesn’t follow the regular school structure from class 1 to 7. They group kids: one group has kids of age 6-10. They are taught in a Montessori method and are taught English, Sanskrit, Basic Science, Environmental Science, Mathematics. The next group is age 10-13. They move to a more structured syllabus. There is a lot of focus on independent learning. The classrooms aren’t really classrooms- they resemble rooms in a home and have plenty of books and learning aids and kits. They have regular assessments and evaluations but no typical exams.

Then there is Rishi Valley school which encourages a lot of meditation, a lifestyle of austerity- and doesn’t allow electronic gadgets on campus. They teach according to their own pedagogy- except for the board classes. They are taught to observe the world versus other boarding schools which are obsessed by creating leaders who dictate to others. There there is Heritage School in Gurgaon which follows its own liberal curriculum, encouraging students to explore India independently rather than through the lens of text books. All of these are top performing schools.

These are models to be explored to set up new narratives to counter the excessively Delhi-dominated discourse which currently ails the country.

Our next generation should help do an academic dissection of our past
A major problem with the “Right discourse” in India is that much of it is quite obviously silly: discussing planes and flying chariots and nuclear bombs from ancient times without a shred of evidence.

A better approach will be to discuss real and documented accomplishments which abound in fields like calculus where pioneering work was done in Kerala. Madhava of Sangamagrama made pioneering contributions to the study of calculus, trigonometry, geometry, and algebra, infinite series. There are also some reports that the Pythagorean Theorem has a rather unique and interesting proof in Vedic mathematics. There is well documented progress made in surgery and metallurgy by our ancestors. This is the kind of content which needs to be taught and introduced. We need to use alternate models to educate kids in English, well versed with modern science and social science, to study ancient Indian languages and text to uncover more of what our ancestors actually did and to highlight genuine accomplishments where the veracity is confirmed.

CBSE: The tool for propagating Delhi dominated discourse

prashantb1984
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CBSE: The tool for propagating Delhi dominated discourse

Few realize this, but the CBSE board is a major factor in homogenising our national discourse and giving it an excessively Delhi dominated slant which is starting to rattle a lot of citizens.

For a nation with 1.3 billion citizens, it is unfortunate that CBSE is practically, the only national board. There is CISCE as well, but it has barely 2300 schools compared to almost 20,000 affiliated to CBSE. Also, a lot of boards try to align their content with the CBSE syllabus, amplifying the CBSE content country wide. This board is becoming a tool which promotes the kind of shrill, high-strung reporting which is becoming the hallmark of Indian journalism which is straying deep into the territory of activism.

Over a million students wrote the CBSE Class 12 exam in 2016. That is the magnitude of audience it has.

1. The membership of the CBSE
Out of 35 members in the governing body, 26 are based in Delhi. Even among the remaining 9, most are in cities close to Delhi or North India.

Many are connected to other centralized academic bodies, based in Delhi itself. Given the presence of CBSE schools all across the country, such a governing body is unlikely to factor in state to state variations in curriculum, which are required for a diverse country like India. Only Delhi University academics are present in the list – no other major central or state university is represented.

2. Subject to whimsical instincts of ministers and babudom.
There is simmering resentment against the license-raj behavior of the CBSE which is now trying to almost nationalize the schools by having a say even in principal appointments.

Even the academic systems of the board are often based on the ill-conceived ideas of ministers and bureaucrats. Kapil Sibal experimented with untested ideas by replacing the board exam with the CCE. This has resulted in a spiral of grade inflation and deterioration of standards at the Grade 10 level. The board exam definitely needed reform but CCE was definitely not the answer. As things stand, most board exams are heavy on rote and memorization, but the problems themselves are trivial, formulaic and often verbatim from text books. There is also negligible focus on practical work or project work – those components are used as grade inflation tools. But the CCE addressed none of these issues and created a diluted system with extreme grade inflation. Over 11% of the students scored a full 10/10 GPA in their grade X examination in 2016.

Them comes the centralization of “value-education”. Basic morals, ethics, values, discipline, manners: These are extremely important but they should be left to the schools and the parents. There should not be any centralization in this space otherwise it will immediately create a channel for indoctrination or social engineering and will make textbooks out of government propaganda. Compulsory inclusion of value-ed questions in Economics, Physics, Mathematics etc. is unwarranted. For now, let’s create a better society by focusing on academic excellence to improve our economic conditions to pull hundreds of millions of folk out of poverty. Higher order objectives or fads can be adopted once we evolve further. The frequent ruckus in the academic corridors of colleges in Delhi and Kolkata should be a stark reminder of the dangers of going overboard with contestable topics in value education, which will invariably see politicisation and indoctrination.

3. Pushing a single syllabus top-down onto the entire country. Using Social Studies for Social Engineering.
Ramchandra Guha has a chapter on the History of Cricket in the Class 9 NCERT Text book while the Class 9 and 10 History books have very sparse coverage of Southern India. The economics section of the social science syllabus is more a listing of specific government schemes to combat poverty and hunger with very little reference to the general principles and works of great economists. There is too much content about specific cases of forest societies, agricultural societies, environmentalism and farmers.

The history is dominated by an excessive focus on political science. There is an overdose of discussion around swadeshi and handicraft, khadi, diversity, environmental destruction. All this is achieved at the cost of introducing impressionable minds to a least common denominator covering objectively verifiable topics in History, Geography and Economics. There is a large amount of content about consumer rights, consumer exploitation. The History section in particular is almost entirely political science. The CBSE and NCERT Social Science syllabus should is becoming a social engineering tool.

Similarly, in languages, there is a rather limited selection of books and there isn’t much choice.

The CISCE model is a better route, at least for languages. They prescribe a list of 4-5 text books from which schools and teachers can select any two or three. Question papers are designed such that students who studied entirely different books can attempt the questions based on what they studied. Similarly, in History, there are multiple reading selections from which students and schools may make a pick of their choice.  This kind of a model is necessary for a national board to follow, so that it does not force a single narrative onto the entire country. Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Nehru, Dadabai Naoroji: many different personalities are present in this list of suggested assignments at the Class 10 level.

 

 

CISCE’s open model also does have serious issues. For a long time they did not have any kind of prescribed syllabus till class 8. The absence of standardised syllabus and texts led to a situation where education was being run by publishers trying to market fancy books with glossy paper and often inaccurate or biased content. This however, is perhaps preferable to CBSE’s push down of an excessively uniform curriculum. Some CBSE schools like the well known Heritage School in Gurgaon do make an effort to bypass this, by prescribing their own books and projects.

Recently, the ICSE has come up with recommended guidelines for the course structure till Class 8. One hopes to see better books.

4. Why does CBSE have one exam system for Delhi and another for “non-Delhi” when the syllabus and system is the same?
In recent years they have also been caught awarding Delhi students scores more liberally than others. This was perhaps done to give Delhi students a leg up in getting them into Delhi University. CBSE inflates scores for the entire country, but recently it was caught inflating Delhi scores far more than the rest of the country. Similarly, the first phase of the JEE Main (Screening) goes well past a least common denominator in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics. It is based on CBSE/NCERT syllabus. The IIT JEE (Advanced) on the other hand, does not include several of those topics, despite the exam itself being far more rigorous.

We need a serious rethink of our current board regime. We need multiple boards to experiment with different ideas, systems and narratives. As things stand, the excessive dominance of the CBSE in the Indian education space, is almost completely uncontested. Young minds should not be shaped by an organization trying to mould them in a specific way.

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants

satyen
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Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants

As an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Louis Dembitz Brandeis made his famous statement, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants” in a 1913 Harper’s Weekly article, entitled “What Publicity Can Do.” He then proposed a remedy:

If the broad light of day could be let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.

Its widely believed and passed upon by generations of Vedic scholars that sunlight is the best disinfectant to kill diseases, germs, bacteria microorganisms, bugs, virus and toxic ideas and ideology.  

The exposure, advertising, promotion, media hype and publicity of certain individuals and their opinions, beliefs, propaganda and judgments  in the English speaking press by making their views and their information widely available to the public is the best thing to happen to Vedantist society and a blessing in disguise for a country of citizens in a heavy slumber.

In the years prior to easy availability and access to social media the narrative was controlled certain individuals who interests weren’t inclined to the storyline of a Nationalist Vedantist Indian society.

Now as the likes of Arvind Kejriwal, Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar, Gurumehar Kaur, Mamta Banerjee, the members of the cause of Rohith Vemula, the left leaders in Kerala and journalists like Shekhar Gupta and others have been bestowed sufficient limelight and granted increasingly more adulation by those who oppose or wish upon the downfall of India and more importantly the demise of Vedantist society who to them are common enemy.

If not for the fake adulation of sunlight on Arvind Kejriwal, he might have reached the highest office of India but for his quest for instant fame and rapid prominence and his sponsors impatience to make adored and a darling of the masses and more importantly to stop their nemesis Narendra Modi from taking office.  The further Arvind Kejriwal basked in the sunlight of speaking his malicious mind, the more people swayed away and against him.

Every instance “the enemy of the people” (read the English press) has taken to causes such as Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar, Gurumehar Kaur and Rohith Vemula by conferring upon them adulation by sunlight. That very sunlight has awoken many who were having a siesta.

These awoken individuals who now will slowly but surely rise to become a part of the Nationalist Vedantist Indian society are combating and rebelling against the narrative of the fake news contingent.

These new members of the Nationalist Vedantist Indian society with their protests and dissents are disinfecting these germicides. Till now these parasites like Sitaram Yechury and Javed Akhtar were kept well in the dark by leftist microbes, these individuals like Kanhaiya Kumar and others had it easy to spread their hatred for the citizens of the Sindhu valley civilization for decades now.

Today the message is being spread to the youth not just by protests, blogs, articles and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook but to the old folks via Whatsapp where these folks have access and reside and has become the most powerful of mediums of awareness and here the sunlight is shining brightly on likes of Amartya Sen and Arundhati Roy.

Hence the message is clear, we the Vedantists must be joyful and grateful that light is scorching and blistering on these germs. Instead of shutting them up we should hope that some in the press ask them many more questions and ask them to express their vision and outlook on various themes which would be extremely of importance and magnitude to the nation.

To expose their views in the sunlight (which even keeps venomous snakes away) will only help in awakening our asleep citizens and begin the process of disinfection.

If not for the sun shining brightly upon Rahul Gandhi, it wouldn’t be abundantly clear and apparent that he is a Joke!

Veer Savarkar: The revolutionary misunderstood

shimadrish
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Veer Savarkar: The revolutionary misunderstood

History often becomes confined in the hands of ideological fanatics. The ideological torch bearers distort history as much as per their own pensive and slant. In the past years, Indian history has been dominated by the British and then by Marxists. History has been seen from the perspective of the west. Marxism is not Indian and therefore can there be any Indian perspective to the study of history? Marxist school of thought enjoyed a huge charm in the post-colonial era but now the environment and social dynamism has completely changed and the need of the hour is to study our history through Indian perspective. Time has changed, there is a global right wave and it is the time to revisit our distorted ancient literature.

A paradigmatic case in modern times is that of the great Indian revolutionary Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The history has been unjust to him. Savarkar, who spent more than twenty seven years in prison for his dauntless revolutionary activities against the British. While in prison in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he coined the term “Hindutva” and this term has been misinterpreted in the most contorted and willful way by the left. The Gandhian contemplation of nationalism focused on territorial nationalism and on the other hand nationalism according to Savarkar emphasised on identity, Cultural Nationalism. He stood for a social unity of all Hindu communities, he described Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism as one and the same. He believed that starting from the Sindhu river till Sindhu sea each and every people living here is Hindu and Hindutva is not confined to a religion but people living in this territory. He emphasized for a social integration and united cultural national identity.

Savarkar defined Hindus as people who consider the territory both as father-land and holy-land. His idea of loyalty to the fatherland are seen as a silent criticism of who regard Mecca and Jerusalem, etc. as their holiest places. Savarkar’s upright grievances against a section have been sought to be twisted to depict him as an insensitive, merciless anti-Muslim extremist. Unfortunately Savarkar is often quoted and compared to leaders like Nazi by historians. Nazis regarded Germans as master race on other hand Savarkar stood for equality for all, appeasement of none. Savarkar was an atheist and a staunch rationalist who disapproved of all sought of orthodox Hindu belief, disregard cow worship as mere superstitious.

There isn’t a greater example of buckle of history by left-wing fanatics than in the case of this famous revolutionary. Savarkar favoured one man one vote, be the man Hindu or Muslim. He strongly opposed for special electorate for the Muslims and any such exclusive treatment. In his scheme a Muslim is to have no advantage which a Hindu does not have. Minority is to be no justification for privilege and majority is to be no ground for penalty. The State will guarantee the Muslims any defined measure of political power in the form of Muslim religion and Muslim culture. But the State will not guarantee secured seats in the Legislature or in the Administration. Savarkar was ethical in his philosophy of equality for all. World history is evident that whenever the minorities are extended with special preferential privileges they have used it for political gains (i.e Muslim League) and here majority is to be no ground for penalty. He stood for equal treatment in the state as the minorities can be part of the Indian state but not Indian nation.

Savarkar’s stance on the Muslim issue can be seen while addressing a group of Indian students on Dusshehra day in London in 1909, Savarkar had said, “Hindus were the heart of Hindustan but just as the beauty of the rainbow is not impaired but enhanced by its varied hues, Hindus will look more beautiful across the sky by assimilating all the best from the Muslims, Jews and Parsi and other civilisations”, Gandhi agreed with his views, says Pramod Kapoor, author of Gandhi-An Illustrated Biography.

Savarkar was candid in his speech often inviting criticism from both Jana-sangh as well as the Congress. In 1964, Savarkar felt his goal of an Independent India is achieved .So he declared his wish to attain Samadhi and started hunger-strike on February 1, 1966 and passed away on February 26, 1966. His life was full of ups and downs and even after more than fifty years of his death, his teachings and literature are not explored fully. All we know is that he was an independence activist who fought against British Government. Alas, history has distorted Savarkar’s ideology and India owes a debt to Savarkar.

How Kejriwal Government helped Kanhaiya Kumar, former JNUSU President in obtaining the bail

RAJEEV GUPTA
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How Kejriwal Government helped Kanhaiya Kumar, former JNUSU President in obtaining the bail

Former President of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University Students Union, Kanhaiya Kumar, who was facing the sedition charges, was granted bail by the Delhi High Court vide its Order Dated 2/3/2016. Many of the readers here may raise a question as to why I am coming up with this issue now, when almost a year has already passed when this order was passed and Kanhaiya Kumar was released on bail.

I will answer this question in this article itself before concluding the same. I remember when this Order was pronounced by the High Court, the so called mainstream media was very critical of the findings and observations recorded in the order, despite the fact that order was pronounced in favour of Kanhaiya Kumar. The manner, in which, our mainstream media criticized the order, it was clear that the so called senior journalists of the mainstream media, have not only read the entire order, they also understood the contents of the order.

Before we proceed further, let us see some of the stinging comments and observations made by the High Court in its lengthy order consisting of 23 pages and 57 paragraphs:

• “To examine the instant case for the limited purpose of consideration of bail, here I would like to refer to some of the slogans and refer some of the photographs:
Slogans:
1. AFZAL GURU MAQBOOL BHATT JINDABAD.
2. BHARAT KI BARBADI TAK JUNG RAHEGI JUNG RAHEGI
3. GO INDIA GO BACK
4. INDIAN ARMY MURDABAD
5.BHARAT TERE TUKKDE HONGE–INSHAALLAHA INSHAALLAHA
6. AFZAL KI HATYA NAHI SAHENGE NAHI SAHENGE
7. BANDOOK KI DUM PE LENGE AAZADI.”
[Para 30 of the Order]

• “Today I find myself standing on a crossroad. The FIR in question has been registered only on 11th February, 2016. Investigation is at the initial stage. The petitioner is the President of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union. His presence at the spot on 9th February, 2016 has been claimed on the basis of raw video footing of that day i.e. 9th February, 2016. The petitioner at present is in judicial custody. The question is, in view of the nature of serious allegations against him, the anti-national attitude which can be gathered from the material relied upon by the State should be a ground to keep him in Jail.”(Para 38 of the Order)

• “As President of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union, the petitioner was expected to be responsible and accountable for any anti-national event organised in the campus. Freedom of speech guaranteed to the citizens of this country under the Constitution of India has enough room for every citizen to follow his own ideology or political affiliation within the framework of our Constitution. While dealing with the bail application of the petitioner, it has to be kept in mind by all concerned that they are enjoying this freedom only because our borders are guarded by our armed and paramilitary forces. Our forces are protecting our frontiers in the most difficult terrain in the world i.e. Siachen Glacier or Rann of Kutch.” (Para 39 of the Order)

• “Suffice it to note that such persons enjoy the freedom to raise such slogans in the comfort of University Campus but without realising that they are in this safe environment because our forces are there at the battle field situated at the highest altitude of the world where even the oxygen is so scarce that those who are shouting anti-national slogans holding posters of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt close to their chest honoring their martyrdom, may not be even able to withstand those conditions for an hour even.” (Para 41 of the Order)

• “The kind of slogans raised may have demoralizing effect on the family of those martyrs who returned home in coffin draped in tricolor.” (Para 42 of the Order)

• “The petitioner claims his right regarding freedom of speech and expression guaranteed in Part-III under Article 19(1)(a) of Constitution of India. He has also to be reminded that under Part-IV under Article 51A of Constitution of India fundamental duties of every citizen have been specified alongwith the fact that rights and duties are two sides of the same coin.” (Para 43 of the Order)

• “The petitioner belongs to an intellectual class pursuing Ph.d. from International School of Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, which is considered as hub of intellectuals. He may have any political affiliation or ideology. He has every right to pursue that but it can be only within the framework of our Constitution. India is a living example of unity in diversity. Freedom of expression enjoyed by every citizen can be subjected to reasonable restrictions under Article 19(2) of our Constitution. The feelings or the protest reflected in the slogans needs introspection by the student community whose photographs are available on record holding posters carrying photographs of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhatt.” (Para 44 of the Order)

• “The faculty of JNU also has to play its role in guiding them to the right path so that they can contribute to the growth of the nation and to achieve the object and vision for which Jawaharlal Nehru University was established.” (Para 45 of the Order)

• “The reason behind anti-national views in the mind of students who raised slogans on the death anniversary of Afzal Guru, who was convicted for attack on our Parliament, which led to this situation have not only to be found by them but remedial steps are also required to be taken in this regard by those managing the affairs of the JNU so that there is no recurrence of such incident.” (Para 46 of the Order)

• “The investigation in this case is at nascent stage. The thoughts reflected in the slogans raised by some of the students of JNU who organized and participated in that programme cannot be claimed to be protected as fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. I consider this as a kind of infection from which such students are suffering which needs to be controlled/cured before it becomes an epidemic.” (Para 47 of the Order)

• “Whenever some infection is spread in a limb, effort is made to cure the same by giving antibiotics orally and if that does not work, by following second line of treatment. Sometimes it may require surgical intervention also. However, if the infection results in infecting the limb to the extent that it becomes gangrene, amputation is the only treatment.” (Para 48 of the Order)

• “During the period spent by the petitioner in judicial custody, he might have introspected about the events that had taken place. To enable him to remain in the main stream, at present I am inclined to provide conservative method of treatment.” (Para 49 of the Order)

• “Once the decision of releasing the petitioner on interim bail is taken, now the question comes as to what should be the amount for monetary security. In his speech dated 11th February, 2016 the petitioner has claimed that his mother works as Anganbadi worker and earns ₹3000/- per month on which the entire family survives. If this aspect is considered then the amount to be required to be filled in the personal bond and surety bond cannot be so high as to put him in a position that he cannot avail the interim bail.”(Para 51 of the Order)

• “The time is ripe that while giving some concession to the petitioner on monetary aspect for purpose of furnishing the bond, he can be required to furnish an undertaking to the effect that he will not participate actively or passively in any activity which may be termed as anti-national. Apart from that, as President of JNU Students Union, he will make all efforts within his power to control anti-national activities in the campus. His surety should also be either a member of the Faculty or a person related to the petitioner in a manner that he can exercise control on the petitioner not only with respect to appearance before the Court but also to ensure that his thoughts and energy are channelized in a constructive manner.”(Para 52 of the Order)

Para-4 of the High Court has summarized the matter as under : “On 9th February, 2016 a programme was proposed to be organised under the title ‘Poetry Reading- The Country Without A Post Office’ at Sabarmati Dhaba, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Since the title of the programme did not suggest anything objectionable, permission was granted. When the posters of the said programme revealed the topic of the programme to be organized that evening, the authorities at JNU acted swiftly by cancelling the permission and communicating the same to the organizers as well the security staff. What followed thereafter has been recorded in FIR No.110/2016 under Section 124-A/34 IPC at PS Vasant Kunj North. The status report shows that now the case is under investigation for the offence punishable under Sections 124-A/120-B/34/147/149 IPC”

It is also pertinent to note that:

1. Kanhaiya Kumar has applied for the Bail and he was represented by Mr.Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate, Ms.Rebecca M.John, Senior Advocate with Mr.Sushil Bajaj, Mr.Bankim Kulshreshtha, Ms.Vrinda Grover, Mr.Vishal Gosain, Mr.Victor Dhissa, Mr.Bajinder, Ms.Tarannum Cheema and Mr.Harsh Bora, Advocates.

In Para 51 of the Order, the Court has observed:
“In his speech dated 11th February, 2016 the petitioner has claimed that his mother works as Anganbadi worker and earns ₹3000/- per month on which the entire family survives. If this aspect is considered then the amount to be required to be filled in the personal bond and surety bond cannot be so high as to put him in a position that he cannot avail the interim bail”.

• In Para 8 of the Order, petitioner Kanhaiya Kumar has pleaded –“He is no more required for investigation of this case.”

• In Para 17 of the Order, Mr, Kapil Sibal said-“He is no more required for investigation. In the circumstances, he may be ordered to be released on Bail.”

• In Para 24 of the Order, While opposing the Bail to Kanhaiya Kumar, State Counsel ASG Tushar Mehta said-“Prayer for Bail has been strongly opposed.”

• Utter shock and surprise comes in Para 25 of the Order, when Standing Counsel of the Delhi Government Mr.Rahul Mehra says, “That in the facts and circumstances of the case, the petitioner may be released on Bail.”

Any person with little common sense would agree that when the Standing Counsel of the Delhi Government, who should have strongly opposed the Bail application of Kanhaiya Kumar, had himself agreed very liberally that Kanhaiya Kumar may be released on Bail, then the High Court had no other option but to release him on the bail.

It is a mystery whether Standing Counsel Mr. Rahul Mehra was representing the Delhi Government or he was representing Kanhaiya Kumar?

I was expecting that the Order would be scrutinized by our Main Stream Media and some self-styled “Senior Journalist” would write an article or some “Editor” will write an “Editorial”, pointing out these shocking facts. Articles and Editorials were written in Main Stream Media, but they all were pointing fingers on the stinging remarks and observations made in the Order.

I kept waiting the whole year to see that some one will also write as to why Delhi Government Standing Counsel Mr. Rahul Mehra, who was supposed to “strongly oppose” the Bail to Kanhaiya Kumar, was virtually requested to release him on the Bail.

As no one in the Main Stream Media written any Article or Editorial on the same, I am left with no other option to bring it to the notice of the people of the Country that how a Government elected by the people of Delhi, at the cost of the public funds, pleading in the Delhi High Court -“That in the facts and circumstances of the case, the petitioner may be released on Bail.”

There are certain questions, which needs to be answered not only by the so called Main Stream Media and its “Senior Journalists”, but also by the Government of Delhi and at the Government at the Centre:

1. The Family Income of Kanhaiya Kumar was Rs.3000 per month. How he was able to hire 10 leading advocates of the country, including Kapil Sibal and was traveling by Air and using I-phone with this meager family income?

2. Whether Delhi Government was representing Kanhaiya Kumar and fighting his case in the High Court at the cost of the public funds?

3. When State Counsel, ASG Tushar Mehta was “strongly opposing” the Bail petition of Kanhaiya Kumar, why Delhi Government Counsel was taking the opposing the view of the State Counsel and praying for the Grant of Bail, as if he is Counsel of Kanhaiya Kumar, not of the Delhi Government?

4. Why Central Government has become a mute spectator in this “Gross impropriety” of the Delhi Government?

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