Monday, October 21, 2024
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Modi government has done a lot in last two years, here is a snapshot

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In the hindmost two years the administration has moved from an epoch of policy mobility to an epoch of policy primacy. Indian faction is now admired all around the sphere and now the world is seeing India with immense craving and zest. From expeditious resolution moulding to tactile effort on the deck level, from ameliorated output to India’s stature on the world stage increasing. India is truly undergoing phenomenal transformation for which India chose Narendra Modi.

His ambitious and far-sighted projects such as Jan Dhan, Digital India , Skill India , Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Make In India, Swachh Bharat, Smart Cities, Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Ujala Yojana are a stride towards cognizance of the Modi’s Model of India-the India 1.25 cr reckon upon. We are citizens and we are selfish. Governments yojanas can never achieve its aims and ends until and unless the initiative transforms into people’s movement. The previous government “Won Elections and Lost India”. Slumbering at a pitful 4% growth rate & free falling rupee turning into one of the worst performing currency in the world, India under UPA was not a matter for joy. Dr. Singh led government was undoubtedly the most corrupt and vision-less government in the Indian Political History.

From last decades we hoped that we would rise but unfortunately our leaders lacked that vision and intent and we voted for a change. For the first time cabinet reshuffling was based on performance with mantra of less talk, more work. The induction of MJ Akbar (former journalist as MoS in MEA), PP Chaudhury (SC lawyer as MoS in Law & Justice), Anil Madhav Dave (Environmentalist, now Independent charge MoS of Forest and Climate change, Environment), shows that the government is looking to get the right people for the right job to accelerate the process of governance .On other hand Sanwar Lal Jat, Nihalchand, Ram Shankar Katheria, Mansukh Bhai Vasav and Mohanbhai Kundaria were dropped from the union cabinet. Here Modi again stands firm on his mantra “less talk,more work”. Performers have been rewarded.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a big bet on Foreign Direct Investment(FDI). The reforms decisions which took place made India the most open economy in the world for FDI. Defence, Pharmaceuticals, Air transport, Information and broadcasting, food processing saw approvals for 100 percent FDI. FDI inflows to India touched $55.46 billion in 2015-16 from $36.04 billion in 2013-14. With the raising of FDI cap in defence would ensure India’s access to the latest technologies available. It is to be noted that despite increasing budgetary allocation by the government ,the sector has failed to keep motion with other sectors. It is essential as most defence products involve use of advanced and state of the art technology which India lacks and can get transferred only when a foreign partner has a long stake in the company. The industrialization has indicated that a country cannot sustain its demands and consumption within its territory. It has to depend for materials, technology on other lands too.
defence equipment available today are vintage and needs replacements.

With a globalized setup and increasing competition between countries defence is one such sector which needs maximum attention. With 100 percent FDI in defence it would invite foreign firms into the country eager to make state of art jets, warships, arms and tanks. India’s sectors such as Defence, Pharmaceuticals, Air transport, Information and broadcasting, food processing would benefit India as “this will bring modern technology, improve rural infrastructure, reduce wastage of agricultural produce and provide cost effective-people friendly solutions”, which is nothing but a step towards a bigger and better India.

Having started the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on 2nd October 2014 would have expected a similar response from the Chief Ministers and government of different States. Sadly that was not forthcoming. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should be a combined effort of both the government as well as the people.
Here Attitude change is more important than the movement.

Clean India campaign and Jan Dhan Yojna will have a profound impact on the country. Jan Dhan Yojna is India’s National Mission to ensure access to financial services, namely Banking Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner. Guinness World Records recognises the Achievements made under this scheme, Guinness World Records Certificate says “The most bank accounts opened in 1 week as a part of financial inclusion campaign is 18,096,130 and was achieved by Banks in India from 23 to 29 August 2014”. By 1 June 2016, over 22 crore (220 million) bank accounts were opened and ₹384.11 billion (US$5.7 billion) were deposited under the scheme.

On the Labour Day Prime Minister Modi called himself Shramik No. 1 (Labour No. 1) as he launched his government’s ambitious Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).The scheme aims at bridging gap between the APL and BPL families by providing LPG gas connection free of cost. Similarly other farsighted schemes like Make In India, Krishi Yojna are paving way for a stronger and better India.

In 1841, the British Prime Minister Lord Derby said in the House of Commons “The duty of an opposition is very simple; to oppose everything and propose nothing. This holds true in today’s political situation. The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is a value added tax which is levied on both goods and services, and which will replace all other indirect taxes which are currently in place. GST is anticipated to be a crucial reform in spurring growth in the Indian economy. GST will not only make the tax system simpler, but will also help in boost tax revenues , increased compliance, reduce the tax outflow in the hands of the consumers and make exports competitive. But due to political alignment it has been pending for its enactment. Opposition is more important than the government but at the same time it is the duty of the opposition to not oppose for their own petty personal ambitions and let India realize its true potential.

No suspicion he has push India as the “biggest opportunity” for both business investment and career-building in the current global economy. Nothing has changed except intent and that matters a lot. He is a hope, he is an aspiration, he has committed himself, he has strong convictions, he is resilient, and he has the right intent. Let’s hope for the best.

Failure of Digital India; Another Media Hit Job

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Recently there is a news article going around in social media about the latest Global Information Technology Report 2016 published by World Economic Forum. According to this report, India has slipped two places to 91 among 139 countries in Networked Readiness Index (NRI) compared to the year 2015. For those who are not aware of this term NRI, it indicates a nation’s degree of preparation to participate in and benefit from information and communication technology (ICT) developments. In other words, it gives a comparative idea about a nation’s digital awareness and preparedness, digital infrastructure, skill, usage and affordability of internet, social and economic impact of it etc.

Supporters of certain political parties are rejoicing by sharing this post which for them is a proof of the failure of one of the pet projects of the govt; ‘Digital India’. Media is also trying to portray this as a failure of Modi govt by showing that how India slipped from 68th place in 2013 to 91st place in 2016. Let’s get into the truth behind all this.

It is no secret that a certain section of media is trying its best to malign the Modi govt by hook or crook. So they started to describe this report as a big failure of the govt by comparing India’s position in 2013 to 2016. It is interesting to see the years chosen by them. Either they are trying to give a sensational figure or trying to hide the failure of the previous govt by not comparing the numbers between the years 2014 and 2016 which would be appropriate as the present govt took over in 2014 May and the report generally comes in June end. Because by doing this they are hiding the fact that according to the report of 2014, India slipped a staggering 15 places from 68th in 2013 to 83rd in 2014!

Now let’s go back a bit and evaluate India’s position in this report in the past 15 years which will give us a statistical idea of India’s performance in the field of ICT. When this NRI ranking was introduced in the year 2001, India was at 54th place among 75 countries. In 2004-05, when the UPA-I govt took over, India was placed at 39th among 104 countries. After UPA-I came to power, India slipped slowly to 54th place in 2008. It is worth mentioning that the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was launched in 2006 by UPA-I and the admirers of the previous govt say that Digital India is nothing but remodeling of this NeGP. Nevertheless India improved its position in the 2009 report to go up to 43rd place among 133 countries. After UPA-II came into power in 2009, the real slip started and India, from 43rd place in 2009, came down to 83rd place in 2014; a staggering slip of 40 places! Where were these champions of IT then and why haven’t they asked any question to that govt is a mystery(Or is it?).

Now let’s come back to the current report of 2016. In the first line of the performance overview itself, the report says that India has improved in the fields of Political & Regulatory Environment and business & innovation environment. The drop is mainly attributed to the rapid rise of other countries though domestic problems like lack of infrastructure and low-level of skill among people are also to be blamed. As the ‘Digital India’ mission started in the year 2015, obviously it will take some time to materialize on field. Developing new infrastructure; both for data transmission and electricity, skill development, increasing awareness can’t be done overnight. So let’s leave haters to do their job and hope India will do much better in the future in its mission to become fully e-literate.

References

1. http://www.financialexpress.com/fe-columnist/digital-india-country-slides-on-network-readiness-index/311229/

2. https://www.weforum.org/reports

3. http://reports.weforum.org

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Networked_Readiness_Index

5. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/11/17/000090341_20051117162002/Rendered/PDF/343090GITR2003.pdf

6. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/itg/libpubs/India.pdf

Deciphering Narendra Modi government’s Pakistan Policy

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In an interview on Aap Ki Adalat in 2009, the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had said “Pakistan ko usi ki bhasha mei jawaab dena chahiye aur yeh ‘love letter’ likhna band karna chahiye” (Pakistan has to be answered in a language it understands. No point writing these ‘love letters’).

5 years after saying this ‘what Indians want to hear line’, he became the Prime Minister. Since then, he has been alleged to have taken a u-turn on what he said in 2009. Has he indeed, or has he not? How easy it is to answer this question? Lets look at few things:

First and foremost , it is ‘comparatively’ easier to judge foreign policy with respect to any country where there is only one central authority in the concerned country – its central government. Because in countries with a single central authority, the talks are only with that authority. While the content of the talks may not be immediately made public, the results [joint statements, treaties and pacts, etc.] are usually there for the public to see.

For instance, the results of talks with countries like Japan or U.S. can be known from the stands they take with respect to India or the deals that they sign with India. Because there, the central governments usually have the authority to take those stands and sign those treaties, with the legislative arms of those governments [Parliaments or similar bodies] ratifying the treaties.

But the same is not the case with Pakistan. Here, the civilian government lacks the authority to take decisions. The real authority lies with the army. Hence if you want to get things done, army is the authority to talk to. Usually these talks, if they happen, will be unofficial and secret in nature, and hence the public will never know about them, unless someone involved with the talks writes a book on them maybe a generation or generations later.

Second, we need to take notice of one unusual phenomenon. That phenomenon is – no ceasefire violation has taken place since November 2, 2015. From that date , till July 7, 2016 [the date of writing this post], it is 8 months and 5 days.

How is this possible, if one sees how bloody the 2013-2015 period was? Is it just a coincidence  or is it an achievement of some secret talks with Pakistan army? It is difficult to find answers to this questions, hence it is equally difficult to judge Pakistan policy of Modi government.

Another question ,though may sound silly to mind is – could Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif be exercising some authority on, or rather some deal with army? Because army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif needs his consent for extension of tenure? If true, then does Nawaz Sharif have some role in the absence of ceasefire violations over the past 8 months?

Once again, these questions will be difficult to answer for now.

Third, there has been a regime change in the civilian government – in 2009, when Modi gave the answer mentioned at the beginning of the blog, Asif Ali Zardari was the Pakistan President and Yousaf Raza Gilani was the Prime Minister. Now these chairs are occupied by Mamnoon Hussain and Nawaz Sharif respectively.

One cannot deny the fact that Nawaz Sharif hates the Pakistan Army. After all, it was Pakistan army led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf who outsted Nawaz Sharif from power in 1999. Thus Nawaz Sharif has his interests in weakening the grip of Pakistan army.

Could this be the reason behind Modi’s outreach and building of personal rapport with Nawaz Sharif ? Could Modi be trying to strengthen Nawaz Sharif by supporting him?

Again difficult answers to find out.

Even though these questions maybe funny, but the ceasefire maintenance for 8 months is impossible to overlook.

Fourth, it is true that stoppage of ceasefire violation doesn’t mean stoppage of cross border terrorism. But earlier , ceasefire was violated to give cover to the infiltrating militants. Now, at least one menace of the two has stopped/has been stopped – at least for now.

A question which the reader may ask is, would I have raised the same questions if it was Manmohan Singh instead of Narendra Modi?

Well, since most of terrorism in India has its source in Pakistan, Indian govt’s policies on Pakistan and terrorism can seldom be separated. The Narendra Modi government has been giving free hand to our various security agencies to destroy the networks of terrorist groups in India. Also it has not done anything that would harm the cause of security agencies of India. The opposite seems to be true in case of Manmohan Singh government.

This I am saying over years of reading on how and why terrorist attacks succeed in India. I have read a very nicely written book on the 26/11 terrorist strikes. With my readings , I can conclude that Manmohan Singh did not do everything it required to deal with terrorism.

Consider this : 1 of the first things which Manmohan government did in 2004 was to remove the Prevention Of Terrorism Act [POTA], under the pretext of it being “anti-minority”, which it was not. Also, in 2010, Manmohan government released 25 Pakistani terrorists for FREE as a goodwill gesture. These terrorists included the mastermind of the recent Pathankot attack. The Ishrat Jahan affidavit fiasco is also well known now.

Also, it is a fact that the Indian army and BSF had orders of ‘restricted’ retaliation in case of ceasefire violations by Pakistan under Manmohan government, which have now been changed to ‘massive’ retaliation under Modi government. The jawans are now free to retaliate as and when they consider necessary.

Thus, when Manmohan government was deliberately taking all the wrong domestic steps to deal with terrorism, it is unlikely that it will try to do something  in Pakistan which is beneficial to us. Hence, the questions I asked above do not even arise in case of Manmohan Singh government talking to Pakistan.

Now coming back to the topic, like I said earlier, a lot of questions remain unanswered, and will remain unanswered over a long period of time. What will be the result of all this activity, one does not know. But the ceasefire along the border and LOC points out that there is much more going on than what appears to the naked eye.

This only means that PM Narendra Modi’s Pakistan Policy is difficult to judge as lots of things are unclear. It will take time for things to get clear, providing us the opportunity to judge the policy.

Modi Sarkaar makes a big bet on FDI, but will it work?

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For the first time Narsimha Rao government under the leadership of then finance minister Dr.Manmohan Singh open the doors to the world what came to be known as the great economic liberalization of 1991, which was more of a compulsion. Indian economy was in a muddle with a $70 billion loan and an ascending trade deficit.

The economic reforms initiated opened door for foreign investments, deregulated markets and reduced taxes. It was in 1991 when the Indian economy for the first time linked itself with the global market setup which led to Indian economy escalate into as much as 9 percent.

Now the new government under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a big bet on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The reforms decisions which took place made India the most open economy in the world for FDI. Defence, Pharmaceuticals, Air transport, Information and Broadcasting, food processing saw approvals for 100 percent FDI. The reason for governments FDI commitments are again more by compulsion.

As pointed out by the World Bank in India Development Update Indian economy faces serious challenges. “The challenge for the Indian economy is to activate the stalled engines – agricultural growth and rural demand, trade, and private investment, while ensuring that demand from urban households and public investments – the working engines of the economy, do not run out of fuel,” the report said. The India Development Update expects India’s economic growth to be at 7.5% in 2015-16, followed by a further acceleration to 7.8% in 2016-17 and 7.9% in 2017-18.

FDI inflows to India touched $55.46 billion in 2015-16 from $36.04 billion in 2013-14 which the centre attributes to policy reforms it has undertaken in last two years. The debate is on over the decision on raising the FDI limit in defence production to 100 percent. With the raising of FDI cap in defence would ensure India’s access to the latest technologies available.

It is to be noted that despite increasing budgetary allocation by the government, the sector has failed to keep motion with other sectors. It is essential as most defence products involve use of advanced and state of the art technology which India lacks and can get transferred only when a foreign partner has a long stake in the company. The industrialization has indicated that a country cannot sustain its demands and consumption within its territory. It has to depend for materials, technology on other lands too.

Defence equipment available today are vintage and needs replacements. Moreover, there are many developed countries who have permitted 100 percent FDI in defence. With a globalized setup and increasing competition between countries defence is one such sector which needs maximum attention. With 100 percent FDI in defence it would invite foreign firms into the country eager to make state of art jets, warships, arms and tanks.

The centre believes that FDI in India’s sectors such as Defence, Pharmaceuticals, Air transport, Information and broadcasting, food processing would benefit all as “this will bring modern technology, improve rural infrastructure, reduce wastage of agricultural produce and provide cost effective-people friendly solutions. But we have to analyze the possible impact of the decision on Indian economy.

In the ultimate analysis, the government must go ahead with this decision because opening of country under the new economic order is a must to cope with new requirement of global order. The process of liberalization which started in 1991 cannot be reversed now as the nation has to go outrightly to make its presence in the world market. What is needed is to find out those aspects which may be adverse to the interest of nation and its people.

When a country opens its borders to free movement of technology, goods, services and market the market provides incentives to move the country resources into their highest value uses, thereby facilitating economic growth. It has opened up broader communication lines and brought more firms as well as different world organizations into India. This provides opportunities for not only workingmen but also women, who are becoming a larger part of the workforce.

The main hurdle for the government is its ideological parent – RSS. The RSS affiliated body Swadeshi Jagran Manch has called the government decision to 100 percent FDI especially in food processing as a betrayal of farmers of the country. No political party can afford to command the interests of almost five crore people and hope to survive. There have already been cries of market dictatorship and loss of democracy from sections of political leadership.

The opening up of the sectors is not an automatic guarantee of increased economic growth and exports. If Chinese exports have grown since it allowed FDI in the retail sector, then it is because of Chinese strengths in terms of manufacturing, infrastructure and labour laws. Neither of these are favorable in India. Though, Modi’s governance process seems to be running in momentum. In the hindmost two years the administration has certainly moved from an epoch of policy mobility to an epoch of policy primacy. Let’s Hope for the Best!

No Freedom of speech on Leftist portal TheWire.in

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Recently “The Wire” (Editor: Siddharth Varadarajan) published an article by one Ashik Kumar, “T.M. Krishna and the Quest for a Truly Contemporary Art Music”. As a music lover, my views are very much different from what was written. The title itself sounded very arrogant as if there is no “truly” contemporary music and TMK is going to find one. The article puts down the entire Carnatic music fraternity by implying it is “unfairly braminised” and traced the problem back to Saint Thyagaraja. I tried to post a comment with a country view. The Editors of “The Wire” promptly removed it. To give them benefit of doubt, I tried couple of times and the result was the same. I have taken screen shots of my post, one awaiting Editorial approval (@12:15:35 pm) and another after its removal (@12:23:30 pm) which are shown below:

Screen Shot 2016-07-09 at 12.15.35 PMScreen Shot 2016-07-09 at 12.23.30 PM

But I am not surprised as “The Wire” is a leftist online portal and I am commenting on the article written probably by a leftist about the another “leftist” TMK. These are the people who claim to stand up for “freedom of expression”, “accommodate contrary views”, etc. But they just cannot stand if their view is criticized.

Following (most of it) was my comment which “The Wire” could not tolerate (so much for their “Intolerance drama”):

“This article is firstly free of substance; there is no story it tells other than allowing T.M.Krishna’s continued rant against Carnatic music, brahmins (and hence BJP), Carnatic musicians (this time extended to Saint Thyagaraja himself). His challenging of Carnatic orthodoxy, claims of its social exclusivity, its politics are his opinions and it is okay to have such opinions. His choice of songs and the order in which he sings, choosing to stop without completing, are all his choices and it is okay too. I don’t need to go into the merits of it. But the writer claims the established aesthetic is politically motivated. One can imagine political motivation for anything and everything under the sun and this is a kind of Schizophrenia. Evolution of any art form is influenced by the practitioners, the social norms of their times, spatial and temporal contexts, etc., and these are not planned sequence of events. It is organic. If TMK wants to innovate, he can very well do so. Let him compose “a truly contemporary art music” as the writer boasts. No point in just announcing. I challenge TMK to come up with one composition and put it to the test of time. The point is that it has to come naturally and not because of grudge. Saint Thyagaraja did not compose because he found fault with composers before him. Music and devotion were just the way he breathed. Great composers did not announce their actions. They just went about doing what they knew the best. Any new creation seeks to add, grow, expand and it need not have the purpose of denigrating the evolution of music thus far. Don’t invent a problem where there is none just for your attention-seeking purpose. Let there be a limit to stupidity.

The writer seem to argue on behalf of TMK that giving importance to “Bhava” is denying the natural abstractness of music. I don’t see how. They can perfectly co-exist and strengthen each other. To me and to many music lovers, music is not just sound but the words too, the poetic beauty behind. The writer also exposes his half baked music knowledge by using the syllables “Ta Da Ri Na” which is normally used during “Alaps” to say that lyrics are not important and only sound. Perhaps, this was how TMK taught the writer. There are many compositions where specific notes are chosen to bring out the Bhava corresponding to the lyrics and not just a melodic sound. Great composers and practitioners can beautifully mix both Bhava and melody. If there is a tradition to preserve the emotion of the Composer, what is wrong? Sometimes the Bhava itself brings the meaning and the context even without knowing the language (depends on how it is sung and listened). There are many rasikas who seek to understand the meanings of the song to elevate their sensibilities. It is arrogant on the part of TMK to ridicule his audience that they don’t understand. Who is he to judge? There is a limit to insult the intelligence of others. People are attracted to music for various reasons; sound, lyrics, tunes, gait, context, improvisation, singer’s talent, and the entire dynamics of it. For some, it is religious experience and for some just music. This diversity is to be cherished, celebrated and not ridiculed. Coming to “Bhava”; Music is defined as “the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion”. Purandaradasa says, “prEmavillada gAna kELanO hari tALano” (Hari will not listen or tolerate music without emotion and devotion). TMK will see this as a plot by Purandaradasa to bring in God and thus religion into music. I don’t understand what is his problem with that. Here is what Blues legend BBKing has to say: “…. for me, one good note put where it should be put, will say what it will take some people many notes to say“. He implies the notes are placed not for just sound, but to convey emotions, bhava.

Knowledge is about accumulation of diverse experience over time. It is not about one winning over the other.

Why This Kolaveri Di ? Please watch this video too. Video Review

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I came across Mr.Swaminathan Gurumurthy‘ s TedexTalk Video watched so far 40,000 times at YouTube. Once, I was done watching this 17 minutes extraordinary video, I knew I need to review the video to ensure, many other Indians likes me watch it, such an excellent video from my all-time favorite Mr.Swaminathan Gurumurthy.

I truly wonder, why such an excellent video with must know information has been watched by only 40k viewers , while, Kolaveri D at stupid song video has been watched by whopping 18 Millions people so far?. Hence, I wanted to review the video to ensure, many watches this video and educates and enlightens them. As I am sure, not all the Indians are with the Kolaveri, only to watch Kolaveri D and miss intellectuals’ messages such as this one.

Swaminathan Gurumurthy,
Swaminathan Gurumurthy,

“India’s rich culture, civilization is denied by the modern generation of India” Says Mr.Swaminathan Gurumurthy at a lecture in SRM University. In this video Mr. Gurumurthy talks about the Traditional values of India as mentioned by the previous speaker, Mr. Rahul. He talks about the notion, ideas, civilization, culture, religion and unity of India. Modern Indians are all oblivious about what India is, India was or what India is going to be and about the lost civilization values of India. It was an idea that was forgotten by the world though it was the only civilization that comprehended the world and laid down the agenda as to how the diversity of the world can co-exist and still can find unity at various levels whether at religious level, philosophical level, economic level and India had been a path finder to the world. When Angus Madison who wrote the economic history of the world in the year 2001 said for 1500 years from first century AD to the 15th century India was the leading economic power house of the world with its GDP grossing 33 to 35% throughout the world and in the 16th century India lost out to china and again regained it in the 17th century, that means for 1700 years India was No. 1 nation in the world virtually except for 1 century and It shook the world.

India never dominated the world

Mr.Gurumurthy continues about the fact that many people did not believe Angus Madison, that our country could lead so consistently and so powerfully and yet not Dominate the world. This is one civilization which never sent out a soldier to conquer anybody and rule. This was not said by “Swami Vivekananda” but by none other than the Chinese ambassador of America in the year 1400. Our nation ruled china mentally, religiously, psychologically for 2000 years, so the capacity of India to influence the world without force, without the use of power, whether it is politics, economics or culture has been the demonstrate power for example when Buddhism went to china it is not that some evangelist went from here and turn china into a Buddhist country, china sent its people, its scholars Juan Zhang. They came to India to learn about Buddhism and they took Buddhism to china. India never sent any evangelist to spread religion to any country. That is the beauty of India. We understand that there is something fundamentally different from other countries because as lord Krishna says you don’t go and preach religion if somebody is interested in a religion he should come and learn. So you only create interest in people for knowledge and the kind of knowledge they need, they will come and seek.

The seeker of knowledge, who is entitled to gain knowledge and you don’t impose knowledge on them. If anything that has got enormous distress in the world it is the concept that my god is superior to your god. This was said by none other than John pier layman who is an IMD Professor; He was the advisor to WTO. He said that the biggest distress that has taken over the world which is more today than ever was the monotheistic religions which believed that their God is superior to all other gods and that has become the cause of all clash between the religions in the past and civilizations today and it is only a religion that develops the capacity of the people to worship many gods. If you see anybody in India, they go to different religious places, like Hindus they go to dargah and velankani it makes no difference to them because this is a culture which has real respect for all gods, but religions with single god stating that their god is superior and other gods are inferior, our holy book is great and yours isn’t , That ego clash has exterminated all the civilizations apart.

What can we learn from Religion? 

Pier layman says, in this era of globalization global trade, global economy, global interactions have to survive if they have to make an impact on this world for the overall development of the world. You need a social fabric, you need religious ideas and you need a plutonic platform. On which you can make people work together, think to digest difference, the capacity to overcome the effect of differences, The capacity to make people feel that there is a higher unity that is operating beyond all that one seas and feels that is the way that our philosophers our great saints and rushis have shown. You know one Christian scholar came to the “shrungeri shankaracharya Chandrasekhar indra bharathi”. This conversation took place 60 years ago. He wanted to become a Hindu and you can see that there is a book printed of the dialogues between them. That man wanted to become a Hindu but he say’s don’t become a Hindu you be a good Christian, your religion has enormous amount of capacity to lift you to the level of attaining god seeing god, feeling god, why should you become a Hindu? .This is the approach of this nation: you be truthful to your religion, you read your book very well, you understand your people well. It is not that my book is superior unless you read my book you become a Christian or a Muslim. This is what that has destroyed the world.

If today there is a talk about civilization clashes, if there is a talk about the world getting into more and more terror, it is because of two reasons : People feeling-

  1. My religion is superior.
  2. My god is superior.

And you have to accept it. If you don’t accept it then we have a battle.

“Swami Vivekananda” said in those days instead of fighting whether your god is superior or my god is superior, let us have a boxing match to decide who is superior, that has become an issue of war and an issue of terror and there is another god called modernity. The modernity says Ia m right, everybody else is wrong, you must dress like me, you must think like me, you must read like me and you must speak English like me and if you don’t do that you are inferior we have that way demonstrated that there are two classes of people, the people who understand modernity and are coat and suit people and others who are not modern are anti modern and who are out of tune with time and they have to be exterminated, you know the number of native Americans who got exterminated by divorce means was estimated at one point as 140 million and that has now virtually crossed 200 million. People when exterminated only on the basis that you are not fit to leave in this modern world. Hence the Modern world and monotheism share the same characters and that is why it is a cause of the problem.

Conclusion

Now talking about education systems we forgot all the ages of education of Vedas and we have brought in a system which says that you have to become anti Indian and then only you can handle the world and we began distancing our self from our own culture, our own traditions and we have been discarding it is irrelevant and which will not aid our own development these are the reasons why we are alienated from our own soul, our own fore fathers.

Hence we have to go back to our own selves knowing the riches and greatness of India and we have to be proud of our own heritages which were exploited by other barbaric countries that invaded us and changed us from who we where. It is everybody’s responsibility to teach how great our culture used to be.

Dear readers, please leave Kolaveri-D and watch this video now…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Ke4ToJrKA?rel=0&w=853&h=480]

A strong CM candidate would boltser BJP’s chances in UP’s next elections

The most complex political geography in India, Uttar Pradesh goes to polls next year, BJP which has been out for power in this state for quite sometime may be having its best winning chance this time and how a strong CM candidate would bolster its chances.

People of Uttar Pradesh go through a strange phenomenon every year during the extended summer season. With the onset of summers in the April as the hot wave called loo start hitting the region and the mercury rises to as high as late 40s people start craving for rains, which would lower down the temperature and assuage the heat. But as the rain hits, the freedom from heat is temporary and the humid weather combined with still high temperature hits causing intense discomforting weather. This makes people say that the former dry heat was good , at least it did not have the killer humidity and would dry up the sweat. Reason, there is no third option.

Something similar has been happening in the political arena for past some elections as government after government people vote for SP or BSP thinking that other was better as people do not have a third option to vote for, with both the national parties unable to present a credible CM face. While Congress has never been an option since ages , BJP has not been able to put a strong leader after Rajnath Singh served as the last BJP CM.

Hence , a credible leadership face by BJP which could challenge the two strong CM candidates Mayawati and the current CM Akhilesh Yadav would bolster its chances as the party is riding high on the popularity of PM Modi and the development work undertaken by some of its ministers. Also, going by the vote percentages BJP got 42.30% votes in the 2014 general elections which was way more than what SP secured in 2012 legislative elections in order to secure 224 seats it bagged.

Thus, even though extrapolating the vote percentages of general elections to legislative one would not be a correct assessment, in a multi pronged elections and many political alliances would form and break before the polls, a strong CM candidate who can take on the other two strong leaders can make this election a cake walk for BJP.

Also, some of the last election results have demonstrated that people have started giving decisive mandate to strong leaders and the party/coalition which has been able to project itself as winner has walked away with the win with high margin. Nitish Kumar in Bihar and Sonowal in Assam are the prime examples.

One of the reasons for BJP to project the CM candidate is that in the current set of local leaders in UP there are no obvious choices (like Gadkari and Fadnavis in Maharashtra) as Kalyan Singh has retired and Rajnath Singh is in centre , thus it becomes imperative for the party to project a face in the coming elections.

So all in all this looks to be the best chance for BJP in past some time and people of Uttar Pradesh may get to have a third weather option next year. Will that be winters, spring ot tropical summer will be judged sometime after if the party wins.

 

Yasharth Rastogi

 

RTI raises questions against AWBI

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Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), an autonomous advisory body under Government of India, has submitted an inspection report regarding Thrissur Pooram 2016. However, the report was first published on the website of PETA, an American organisation that works with animal rights NGOs that have been pursuing a smear campaigning against the people of Kerala. Some of these activists malign elephant lovers in Kerala as ‘Animal torturers’ and detest the ancient culture of Elephant rearing and temple festivals.

It is entirely reasonable to doubt the intentions of AWBI and PETA after reading the report because most of the ‘evidence’ for ‘torture’ cited in the report are exaggerated and false as well. Anyone who has a strong understanding of the centuries-old elephant rearing practices of Kerala can confirm the same.

The dubious and objectionable reports compiled by AWBI are cited as proof by the dollar collecting NGOs to paint Kerala as the land of bigoted animal torturers.

RTI

Recently a Good Samaritan filed an RTI application regarding the report presented by AWBI after Thrissur Pooram 2016. The reply he got had some interesting information. It said the AWBI inspectors had drawn up two reports about Thrissur Pooram 2016. But as far as we know, only one report was published. This raises the question about what happened to the second report.

What was the necessity to make two separate reports with two different teams for the same event?

Above all, the Board seems completely clueless about the qualifications of the people they sent to examine and advise on the management of elephants.
The board that appointed Honourary Animal Welfare Officers have no idea about their skills to do the job.

 

That brings us to some pertinent questions which AWBI must answer.

1. What is the status of the report submitted by AWBI? How did a US NGO like PETA have access to it?

2. Where is the second report drawn up by the inspectors?

3. How truthful would be a report prepared by a biased set of inspectors?

4. How accurate would be a report prepared by a set of people with no precise qualifications and no empathy towards the people and the centuries old practices of the land?

What it means to be a Feminist in India

Those who know me, know about my happy childhood and pampered upbringing. My parents made sure that I had everything I wanted. I grew up with a sister and thus there were three women in the house and one man. My Dad often gets asked “accha aapke bete nahi hai?” (Oh you don’t have sons?) I am not even sure why people ask this or what it means or what they are trying to imply. Anyway, my Dad proudly replies “nahi toh isme kya hai” (No, what’s the big deal)

I have grown up watching my parents divide the household chores and responsibilities equally between them. My Dad would cook an entire meal if my Mom was away or unwell. There was never the ‘you can’t do this because you are a girl’ discussion in my house. My first encounter with sexism was when I was 13 or 14. My male cousin was at our place and so was our grandma. My sister, cousin and I were folding the clothes which we had put out to dry. We were talking and gossiping while doing the chore. When my grandma came to the room she asked my cousin to stop doing it and come sit with her. At first I thought maybe she just wants to spend some time with him but then I heard her saying “why are you doing work, those two are girls, they will get it done” I remember getting really angry but I didn’t say anything. You can tell how much it affected me if I remember the incident even after 12 years.

Over the years, I have heard, seen, observed many more incidents of sexism. But let’s fast forward to 2016 and what it means to be a feminist, which I proudly am in India.

As a 25 year old, urban born and educated Indian, I voice my opinions fiercely and confidently but the number of times I have been mocked at for talking about feminism by my peers is appalling. And what scares me most is some girls’ attitude towards the issue and their comments like “yaar if you start talking about this topic, you go on and on” That’s because we are being discriminated against!

I’m gonna put down some of the things I’ve been told while discussing feminism and some things which I’ve overheard

“Dude I’m all for girls getting equal opportunities but I’m not a feminist” – What does that even mean? Get your definition right! The issue is that some men think feminists are feminazis. That we want more than equal opportunities.

“If it’s about equality, why is it called Feminism and not Equalism” – This is exactly what Tanmay Bhat spoke about in his Snapchat stories (yes, he talks about serious issues too, save the judgement) We need to uplift the oppressed. The US had a movement called Black Lives Matter because the African Americans were oppressed for years. Women have been oppressed in India for 5000 years and now we want to rise above it. We don’t want to bring men down, no sir, we want equality. Since we are the oppressed here, it is being called Feminism.

“I will marry a girl who is also an MBA, works at a top company like me, is my intellectual equal but yaar she has to cook for me everyday like my mom did for my dad.” – Good luck finding her bro! Wonder Woman mile toh bata dena!

“I will help by cutting the vegetables” – Wow. Matlab wow.

A man to his five year old son – “Why are you crying? Are you a girl?” – yes, by all means tell the next generation that girls are weak and whiny; that boys are super strong and it’s a shame if they express themselves by crying.

Even if some boys my age and with the same educational background as me understand the importance of girls feeling self confident and being independent, their parents or grandparents (just like my grandma) will practice sexism and the boys will have nothing or little to defend their wives/ sisters/ friends. Girls asking for independence are termed as rebellious.

Being a feminist in India is a constant battle between being the perfect daughter/ daughter-in-law/ wife/ mother in the eyes of others and a self sufficient, independent, confident woman for herself. A struggle men will never understand. The least they can do is not mock the movement.

Stringent Anti Conversion law in India only after we Hindus become minority?

India Needs Anti-Conversion Law and needs it now!

A religion conversion debate has roared across the news channels, political speeches and in local communities since past few months. Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), the major leading Hindu nationalist party claims to implement an Anti-Conversion Law in India in order to prevent the mass conversion of lower Hindu communities. The point to consider here is whether the implementation of such a law in the fifth secular state would protect the religious rights of Hindu majority or not. But to our dismay the party in power has done little or nothing to implement any such a law that would forcefully, or deceivingly luring the uneducated poor Hindus to other religion for mass conversion of entire village or city seems to be taking as into a very dangerous path.

Freedom of Religion in the Secular State

over one million converted in a single even Guntur-Christian-Conversion-Camp-Crowd
Big Harvest! over one million converted in a single event Guntur-Christian-Conversion-Camp-Crowd

Hindustan, a jewel of East Asia emerged as a Hindu state but there also exist a vast majority of followers of Muslims, Christians, Jains and Sikhs. Surprisingly, other prominently followed religions of the world emerged from India including Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. As part of human rights every individual is free to profess any religion of his choice without discrimination. The secular state in its preamble of the state’s constitutions declares that the state will not refrain a person from profession of a religion. This strengthens the religious rights by making them their fundamental rights. Article 25 of state’s constitution supports the concept of religious freedom that, “all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right to freely profess, practice, and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health.” Article 26 allows one to deal with the affairs of his life by the referring his religion. The idea of religious freedom previously raised debates, conflicts and riots among various groups.

However, other Indian political parties raised their views on the equality of religious freedom among majority and minority groups, claiming that the amount of rights possessed by the majority religious groups should be equal to the minority religious groups. They are satisfied with the Article 29 or 30 which says that, “any right given to any minority group shall equally be accorded to those that are classified as a majority, such as the freedom to run educational institutions without interference.”

Forceful Implication of Religion

conversion1It was observed that majority Christians and Muslims residing in Indian are converting the minorities of Hindus by intimidating, threatening, deceivingly luring them and by other acts including Love Jihad, miracle healing and more. Religion is a matter of faith in god. One cannot forcibly impose faith in religion. K. M. Munshi in terms of religious freedom offered in the constitution said, “The Indian Christian community laid the greatest emphasis, not because they wanted to convert people aggressively, but because the word “propagate” was a fundamental part of their tenet…I am sure, under the freedom of speech which the Constitution guarantees it will be open to any religious community to persuade other people to join their faith. So long as religion is religion, conversion by free exercise of conscience has to be recognized.”

There were so many incidents in India where mass conversion was on peak and was done by bribing and forcing Hindu minorities. YS Rajashekhar Reddy, once chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh, during his tenure, joining forces with his son in-law Pastor Anil Kumar, started mass conversions of Dalit Hindus in the rural areas of the then Andhra Pradesh. The rise of the evangelical activities was very alarming. He sanctioned money to repair damaged churches and even build so many new churches. Mr.Reddy, even dared to extend his mass conversion activities to Hindu holy places such as srisailam, ahobilam, badrachalam,kalahasthi and worse of all in Tirumala and Tirupathi, The biggest Hindu holy shrine in the whole world. While he was spending all the money on the churches, with the money that was earned from the Hindu temples, the temples were only getting 15% from their income as maintenance.

The mass conversions of rural Hindus were on rise in Kerala and Tamilnadu for the past five years, although Kerala was a victim of the conversions for over a century. The Christian missionaries operate very smoothly targeting rural paper with tricks such as fraudulent healing, marketing campaigns and mass prayers. The facts of these operations are available in social media, mainly YouTube and Facebook. These groups are funded by the west and were given a road map to follow. As per a government record from2011, Hindus in India are 79% down from 86% (most importantly 79% including million converted Christians continue to record them as Hindus to get reservation in Jobs by Government and other benefits) That’s no surprise given the higher mass conversions. At this rate, if no action is taken, Hindus will become minority in India which was once a complete Hindu country.

In Agra, a Muslim boy befriended a Hindu girl posing as Hindu for five years. One day, he revealed his real identity and forced the girl to convert to Islam to get married. The girl was shocked and denied the conversion. When the girl negated for conversion Muslim boy threatened her to expose their relationship and even threatened of physical assault. There was one similar incident in West Bengal as well. Incidents like these are on the rise while government of India has no laws controlling them.

There has always been a war in Europe between Catholics and Romans since the 16th century. Due to which Christianity remains as the most prominent religion of the continent. But unfortunately people have become deprived from it and it seems that Europeans are trying to impose their religion in India through their minority groups. The Christian groups residing in India are forcefully imposing religion on the Hindu groups. Hinduism has prevailed in the entire country for decades and such minority groups even through threats cannot decrease the importance of Hinduism. The Hindus have also rejected the funds of Europeans saying that they do not need aid from Christians, claiming that they can feed the poor and needy themselves. But continuously dwindling Hindus number could make Hindus in their own country as minority sooner or later if something is not done now.

There are many other methods through which the authority can maintain discipline and reduce forceful conversion of Hindus. The state conversion2carries acts which declare punishments for the attempts of conversion. A convict found guilty would serve imprisonment from 1 to 3 years with the fine of 5000 to 25000 Indian rupees. The state authority has introduced National Human Right Commission (NHRC) to deal with the affairs of religious groups and to analyze the religious discrimination among them. Himachal Pradesh through The Freedom of Religious Act passed in 2006 supported the issue of forceful conversion. The law was accepted in 2007 and it states that, “No person shall convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religion to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any other fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion.”

Decades of Practice of Anti-Conversion Law

To simply define the Anti-Conversion Law, it is the practice in which one can convert his religion from one to another on his own will. One cannot impose a religion by false means such as by threat or by building fear of punishment in afterlife.

Before the independence of India, various Princely ruled states had followed the anti-conversion acts which were not followed during British rule in India. The Raigarh State Conversion Act 1936 and the Sarguja State Apostasy Act 1945 are some of the early examples. Similarly, other raja ruled states as Bikaner Jodhpur, Kalhandi and Kota followed the concept of anti-conversion. The idea was to prevent anti-Hindu conversion taking place in the states. After the independence the need to establish laws to protect the allured conversion of religion excessively rose. A large number of Hindus were reported in forceful conversion either into Christian or Muslims. Even in 1960s, it was reported that in Madhya Pradesh a large population of a tribe known as Adivasis were forcefully converted into Christianity without their will. It placed a high pressure on government to action against such unlawful acts. Upon this the government concerned a commission led by Dr Bhavani Shankar Niyogi, a retired Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court along with other members of the commission. Through their investigations the report was confirmed that Christian since a very long time had been involved into religion conversion. The government of India protected the right of possession of religion in its constitution. Such anti-Hindu conversions disturb the faith of Hindus and violate the harmony of peaceful practice of Hinduism. It creates chaos in the country disturbing the law and order situation. Such barriers in following the true religion, Hinduism, are successfully put off by Narendra Modi.

Efforts of Peaceful Conversion in Modi’s Government

The practice of Anti-Conversion Law in 21st century is being followed in few parts of India as Chhattisgarh Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh. In Gujrat it is the part of the rule that one must request permission from district magistrate 30 days before the day of his conversion. Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have been following the Anti-Conversion Law since 1960s. They do not require the converter to request any kind of permission from the magistrate while Madhya Pradesh restricts the converter to inform the magistrate soon after the conversion. Arunachal Pradesh has this law in their state but it has not been implement yet. The idea of informing the magistrate is to control the forceful conversion. In this manner the local authority is able to know the reason of conversion as well.

“Caste matters little for us when the person is back in Hindu dharma. But if he or she wants a particular caste, it is made accessible to them” –Vyankatesh Abdeo.

Vyankatesh Abdeo, a national secretary of a Hindu organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad, has successfully helped anti-Hindus as Christians and Muslims to convert into their true religion. He has converted 700,000 Indian Christians and Muslims to Hinduism. In his opinion people living in India were originally Hindus and not Christians and Muslims. At earlier times they were forced to convert on the force of weapons but instead their mission is to reconvert them to Hinduism by preaching their true religious values. They want to revive their faith in Hinduism and to guide them to the correct path. The program was called “ghar wapsi”, which means Home Coming.

Conclusion  

Central Government in India is making its efforts to protect the ancient religion residing in the hearts of Hindu nation. They have introduced the Anti-Conversion Law to protect the forceful conversion of religion in the country. Although the issue had existed in the society since a very long time but after many incidents of mass conversion of Hindus into Christianity along with other harsh treatment of Hindu community, a political debate has risen. Citizens of India according to the constitution own this right to profess religious freedom. Narendra Modi claims to govern a secular state and he has proved to protect the rights of Hindus. Although many states have laws against anti-conversions they are not being strictly implemented as they lack support from Central government.

Although Modi is doing something it is not enough to stop conversion. For Anti-conversion, Central government has to pass a bill and get it strictly implemented. The bill should have strict ban on foreign funds to Christian missionaries and churches in India. Some even operate under the hide of a NGO. The bill should also include terms to restrict foreign NGOs from entering India during national calamities. Ideally these NGOs they come to help initially and will start their act of converting people. People are vulnerable when they are poor and when they need help. The bill should have strict laws against providing benefits, subsidies and reservations to those who are converted. India is a Hindu nation, If we fight for own rights we would remain Hindus. If we don’t act against conversion we will live in our own country as minorities. Bharat Mata ki Jai.

Please view this presentation and to discuss more please visit author blog here .

References

  1. Vishal Arora. September 11, 2015. Sixth Indian state seeks to adopt ‘anti-conversion law’. Retrieved from https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2015/09/4008146/
  2. Freedom of religion in India. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_India
  3. Shashank Bengali and Parth M.N. December 25, 2014. Hindu activists organize mass ‘reconversion camps’ in India. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-india-conversions-20141225-story.html
  4. Tehmina Arora. 27 June, 2016. The Spread of Anti-conversion Laws from India. Retrieved from http://evangelicalfocus.com/blogs/1734/The_Spread_of_Anticonversion_Laws_from_India#_edn5
  5. Dr. Dominic Emmanuel SVD. March 2, 2016.Freedom of Conscience in the context of Anti-conversion Laws: A Perspective from South Asia. Retrieved from http://theunn.com/2016/04/freedom-of-conscience-in-the-context-of-anti-conversion-laws-a-perspective-from-south-asia/