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The Brahminical Anomaly

veenaps
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The Brahminical Anomaly

Karnataka media, these days, is busy reporting an incident where Brahmins ate goat meat while performing somayaga in Matturu (Sanskrit village of India). My friend shared a post in Facebook which read – I am not sure what is the reason behind this outrage. Is it because ‘Brahmins’ ate goat meat while performing Somayaga or Brahmins ‘ate goat meat’ while performing Somayaga or Brahmins ate goat meat while performing ‘Somayaga’. In any case, it isn’t unconstitutional, so why make a fuss. But this news is being discussed ‘religiously’ for days in all channels. If you are wondering why did this receive minimal coverage in national level (while it was apocalypse-level reporting in regional media) we live in a country where Delhi’s odd-even policy gets more media attention than Chennai floods. Though there are documented proofs that do not match with the story played by media, they are not even being reported. Also, who needs facts anyway?

    Coming from the Brahmin family, I have faced several personal attacks over the years. Even as a kid, there would be arguments of caste criterion among ‘big people’ for not selecting me for things as simple as competitions in the school. This continued all through my career at various levels. Recently in twitter, when I was discussing my article with Mr. Vishweshwar Bhat (co-incidentally also a Brahmin) a senior editor of a leading Kannada newspaper, someone just trashed both of us saying that I must be a Brahmin too (a good guess, let me admit) and that I was interacting with him only because we belonged to the same community. That person of-course ignored the fact that each of the articles in my blog has over 1000 hits or that the editor has always encouraged people from various backgrounds or that this person too is free to share his write-ups with him.

   When I was new to twitter, I was quite shocked to see such blatant display of hatred towards the community by the ’eminent journalists’ and ‘liberals’. My experience was very similar to this OpIndia article. But I was still hopeful that the artists, irrespective of their background, would stand up for each other during tough times. That was until what I saw yesterday. When Mr. Vivek Agnihotri tried to screen his movie, Buddha in Traffic Jam  in Jadavpur University, he was attacked, injured and his car vandalized. While he needed all the support, the national award winning artists were justifying the violent act. Some of them even ridiculed him by bringing the ‘Brahmanvaad’ into the equation. In our country, ‘liberals’ (a person who treats everyone as equal beyond social norms) insult the ‘liberty’ of a community/religion while artists (a person who creates art, breaking all barriers of language, nationality) insult fellow artists for belonging to this community. Honestly, their hypocrisy is pukeworthy. Blaming all Brahmins for every nonsense is as ridiculous and illogical as targeting all Muslims for every terror activity.

    The customs of oppression that were practised years before are now greatly reduced and the society as a whole is moving in the positive direction. In-fact the term oppression itself is inapplicable these days, given the situation where many of the positions in the government are now held by the ‘lower caste’ to manage people including the so called ‘upper caste’ ones. Although the country itself is trying to marching ahead by democratically electing a PM of lower caste, the left-leaning and liberal nexus has managed to induce the hatred against the community (extending to religion) among fellow citizens since decades. One of the ‘senior’ journalists has openly told that he is against Brahminism as poison in all forms. There are many such examples of public display of hatred. Anyone at their will can humiliate the community to any extent and get away with it. In many cases, they are rewarded and promoted as social reformers. They have created an eco-system where our thoughts are systematically controlled through media, academics. For everything that is wrong in the society, it is promptly associated with the community. Why take responsibility for anything or work on reforms when there is a scapegoat readily available?

    It isn’t a good feeling when you are targeted often for your background. But I am, nevertheless, fortunate to have a loving family and sensible people (of varied nationalities and community) around me. This helped me for not ending up as a person having hatred against any culture/religion/country. I know there are millions like me in India and all over the world who share the similar feeling. But I guess I do understand their pain. When they have had to atleast once use Brahmninical Microsoft products to write an article ridiculing Brahminical phenomenon or to atleast ‘Google’ to check and ignore the facts. The Brahminical anomaly inevitably embedded in the society.

Not Congress-Mukt Bharat or RSS-Mukt Bharat, but we need a Hinsa-Mukt Rajneeti

Sumit Kumar
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Not Congress-Mukt Bharat or RSS-Mukt Bharat, but we need a Hinsa-Mukt Rajneeti

Politics is an activity meant to serve public by whatever means one can. Politics is not a thing meant to be centred around electoral agenda but it is much wider than that. It’s focal point is envisaged as the “public services” & not the “public vote”. Sadly, Indian politics in the recent past has shifted it’s goal-post from being citizen centric to vote centric & this is causing a variety of problems for the Indian democracy. Hindutva agenda, Muslim Polarization, Caste politics etc. are some of the evidence that prove the political fraternity running towards “vote bank politics”. The irrational attitude towards reservation which has led to violence & loss of public property in the recent time at Haryana,Gujarat & Andhra Pradesh can also be attributed to the “vote bank politics” played by our representatives. The Political leaders should embrace the theories that can form a resurgent, robust, resilient & united India rather than advocating theories that would form a divided India. They should work in consonance with the intellectuals,civil societies & the educated class rather than working with the isolated fringe elements that can give them nothing but votes. I am pointing all these theories as a result of the ongoing political violence evident in Bengal and Kerela especially by TMC and CPM.

CPM which claims to oppose fascism and uphold democracy has looted away all the democratic principles in the two states by resorting to violence. In fact, it has created a “fascist atmosphere” in Kannaur (Kerela) where it does not allow any other political organisation to get active.

Though CPM themselves have been the victims of the political violence at Bengal, yet they are doing the same at Kerela which is completely against the principles of Indian Democracy. They should urge Election Commission to take action against TMC for unleashing political violence at Bengal but should also refrain from violent activities. Any group of political activists killing their political rivals goes against all the fundamental principles of democracy. Surprisingly, neither the media nor the “award waapsi gang” look interested in it.

I write this as a pained & disturbed Indian citizen who wants to get rid of violence in the land of Gandhi. If the political parties themselves will abet such brutal killings, then who would ensure our safety? Political Parties should stop comparing the magnitude of injuries and deaths caused by different riots & violence and should strictly think about reducing and eliminating violent activities aided by the Political Parties meant to appropriate some votes in favour of them.We don’t need a Congress-Mukt Bharat or RSS-Mukt Bharat but we surely need a Hinsa-Mukt Rajneeti !!

लिबरलों का इन्टॉलरेन्स और अप्रासंगिक डिब्बाबंद प्रोग्रेसिव विचारकों की छटपटाहट

अजीत भारती
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लिबरलों का इन्टॉलरेन्स और अप्रासंगिक डिब्बाबंद प्रोग्रेसिव विचारकों की छटपटाहट

ये जो प्रोग्रेसिव और लिबरल लोग हैं, उनका रिपोर्ट कार्ड बहुत ख़राब आ रहा है आजकल। ये यूनिवर्सिटीज़ में चाहते हैं कि वैचारिक विवधता बनी रहे और हर मत का सम्मान हो चाहे वो मत ‘भारत की बर्बादी’ ही क्यों ना हो। हम इनको ये ग्राऊँड भी देते हैं इनके ही बनाए हुए डिस्सेंट और फ़्रीडम ऑफ़ एक्सप्रेशन के नाम पर।

हम लिबरल नहीं हैं इनकी परिभाषाओं के आधार पर। इन लिबरल लोगों में एक पैटर्न सा दिखने लगा है आजकल। जिस वैचारिक विवधता की ये बात करते हैं, वो तभी तक स्वीकार्य है जब तक वो इनकी विचारों के साथ सहमति रखती हो। यहाँ पर दिक़्क़त आ जाती है। इनके लिए विवधता एक ही तरह की होनी चाहिए, विविधता अगर विविध हुई तो ये तिलमिला उठते हैं।

इनकी बातों में दूसरे तरह के मतों, जो हो सकता हो कन्ज़र्वेटिव हों, रिलिजियस हो या अन्य तरह की विचारधारा का हो, के लिए एक बुनियादी घृणा या इन्हेरेंट कन्टेम्प्ट दिखता है। इनकी बातों में बाक़ी सारी विचारधाराओं को ख़ारिज कर सिर्फ अपनी विचारधारा को सही मानने और मनवाने की ज़िद दिखती है। और जो इनकी विचारधारा से परे हैं, चूँकि इन्होंने अपने पाँव मीडिया, एकडेमिया और इन्टोलीजेन्सिया में गहरे जमाया हुआ है, उनको ये सिरे से नकार देते हैं।

ये वैचारिक पतन तब से शुरू हुआ है जब से इनकी विचारधारा का इस देश और दुनिया दोनो से लोप होता जा रहा है। हलाँकि अकादमिक जगहों पर इनकी पकड़ अभी भी बनी हुई है, क्योंकि वहाँ इनको फ़ंडिंग मिल रही है। वहाँ भी फ़ंडिंग इसीलिए मिल रही है ताकि ये सत्तापक्ष के दुश्मनों पर अपने ‘एकेडेमिक’ और ‘इंटेलेक्चुअल’ ब्राँड के लेख लिखकर लगातार आक्रमण करते रहें।

अकादमिक जगहों के इतर, अब ये अपने प्रोग्रेसिव विचारों से मिलती सत्ता का सुख और एक तरह का राजाश्रय खोने के बाद तिलमिला रहे हैं। यही वजह है कि पिछले कुछ सालों में ‘पावर’ के पास ना होने से इनकी शक्ति इतनी क्षीण होने लगी है कि ये अब वैचारिक लड़ाई से नीचे उतर आए हैं।

अब इनकी लड़ाई वैचारिक नहीं रही। अब लड़ाई राजनैतिक लाभ के लिए है। अब इनकी जंग सत्ता और राजाश्रयी पुलाव खाने के लिए है। और अगर पुलाव ना मिल रही हो तो ये उसकी गंध के लिए भी नंगा होने के लिए तैयार हैं। और यही कारण है कि भारत जैसे देश में तीन महीने के लिए ‘इन्टोलरेन्स’ का मौसम आता है, और फिर अचानक से खत्म हो जाता है।

ये सब अब प्रत्यक्ष होता जा रहा है। वामपंथी विचारकों (जो अपने वामपंथी पार्टी में होने मात्र से ही विचारक हैं, और वामपंथी है तो लिबरल और प्रोग्रेसिव तो अपने आप हो गए) की सत्ता के पास जाने की लोलुपता अपना मकान बड़ा करने के रास्ते से नहीं है। ये सामने वाले का मकान किसी भी तरह से गिराना चाहते हैं। जबकि इनके पास किसी भी प्रकार का हथियार नहीं है इस मकान में को छोटा दिखाने के लिए, तो अब ये नाखूनों और दाँतो से खरोंच रहे हैं।

आपको मेरी बातों में भी एक इन्हेरेंट कन्टेम्प्ट दिख रहा होगा, पर जैसा कि मैंने पहले ही कहा, मैं ना तो वामपंथी हूँ ना ही लिबरल! तो मुझे लिबरल होने का चोगा नहीं पहनना पड़ता।

क्या ये ग़ज़ब बात नहीं है कि पिछली कुछ ग़ैर-वामपंथी सरकारों को ये अपना समर्थन देते रहे हैं सिर्फ ये कहकर कि वो सेकुलर हैं। जबकि ये सेकुलर का तमग़ा कोई आधिकारिक या सिद्ध करने योग्य तमग़ा नहीं है। ये इन्होंने ख़ुद ही बनाया है, चाहे इनके ‘नए साथियों’ ने इस शब्द विशेष का उपयोग सिर्फ और सिर्फ सत्ता पाने के लिए किया है। अगर ऐसा नहीं होता तो देश में ना तो ग़रीबी होती और ना ही मुसलमानों की ये हालत होती कि उन्हें हर जगह झुंडों में रहना पड़ रहा होता और बार बार अपने देशभक्त होने का सबूत देना होता।

इन लिबरल लोगों के दोहरे मानदंड तब और प्रत्यक्ष हो जाते हैं जब ये उस झुंड से मिल आते हैं जहाँ कोई विचार इनसे दूर दूर तक नहीं मेल खाते। इनका भविष्य उस व्यक्ति के पाँव छू आता है जिसने उन्हीं की पार्टी के बेहतरीन छात्र नेता चंद्रशेखर को सरे-चौराहे गोलियों से छलनी करवाया था।

ये इनका डेस्पेरेशन दिखाता है। ये वो समय है जब ये छटपटा रहे हैं एक्सेप्टेन्स के लिए। यही कारण है कि तब का लिबरल आज सबसे ज़्यादा इन्टोलरेंट हो गया है। तब का लिबरल जो अपने को प्रोग्रेसिव कहता था और एक स्तर का वाद-विवाद करता था, वो अब यूनिवर्सिटी में ‘मुज़फ़्फ़रनगर बाक़ी है’ की स्क्रीनिंग की माँग डिफ़्रेन्स ऑफ़ ऑपिनियन के नाम पर करता है, पर बुद्धा इन अ ट्रैफ़िक जैम के स्क्रीनिंग से इतना डर जाता है कि विरोधियों पर मोलेस्टेशन का चार्ज लगा देता है।

अब इस पर मंथन की भी गुँजाइश, या यूँ कहिए ज़रूरत, ही नहीं है। अब इनके पत्ते खुल गए हैं। अब इनके फंडामेंटल्स में दूसरी विचारधारा को लेकर इन्टोलरेन्स है। और ये बार बार दिखता है कि इनके लिबरल होने का वैचारिक लचीलापन उतना ही है जितना काँच को मोड़ने की कोशिश में होता है। वो टूट कर बिखर जाता है।

तात्पर्य यह है कि भारत या विश्व का लिबरल, अब लिबरल नहीं रहा। अब वो अल्ट्रा-कन्ज़र्वेटिव हो चुका है। इनकी प्रोग्रेसिव विचारधारा का बहाव हर पावर सेंटर से निकाल फेंके जाने के बाद रूक गया है। अब इनमें वैसे बैक्टीरिया आ गए हैं जो लगातार इनको गंदा करते जा रहे हैं। एक समय पर ग़रीबों के हक़ की बात करने वाले उन्हीं के पैसों को लूटने वाले घोटालेबाज़ों के साथ धुनी रमाते नज़र आते हैं।

Will lotus bloom in Kerala? – part 2 of analysis of BJP’s chances in polls

adarsh
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Will lotus bloom in Kerala? – part 2 of analysis of BJP’s chances in polls

In my previous post, I had written about the seats where BJP has a greater chance of winning. In those seats, BJP needs to follow a strategy to make sure that the victory is definite. BJP’s strategy should be two-pronged, Hindutva & Development.

Hindutva or the Hindu card:

The 2 seats in the Kasargod district (Manjeshwar & Kasargod) can be won only by this strategy. Again, the Hindutva strategy should be a two-pronged one: Soft Hindutva and Hard Hindutva:

Soft Hindutva: This is the type, which the NDA should follow to unite the Hindu votes. I say NDA instead of BJP because BJP cannot talk Hindutva in one district and talk only development in the other. The Hndutva card should be openly used by the BDJS (ally of BJP). Vellapally Natesan, the BDJS leader had created a storm when he said “So, if you die, you should die as a Muslim (to get compensation)“. He said this at his Samatwa Munnetta Yatra in December before launching his party, the BDJS. He had said this, after the Kerala government had given compensation to the family of Noushad who died while attempting to rescue two migrant labourers who were trapped in a manhole in Kozhikode. He had also used this because he felt Hindus were ignored by both the fronts (LDF & UDF). The LDF & UDF took it upon themselves to make it as a hate speech. However most hindus understood the context of his statement, they started thinking and hence the issue died down.

Natesan should keep doing this in his election rallies. He should make sure that he talks about how both the fronts have played minority appeasement politics completely ignoring the Hindus. He should talk about this more at rallies in Kasargod district. He should appeal to hindus to unite in order to get their dues. The opposition parties will create issues stating Natesan is doing communal politics, however that will again make Hindus think.

Hard Hindutva: This should be followed by both the BJP & BDJS through word of mouth & social media. The core concept should be how Muslims vote only for Muslim candidates and hence they are well taken care off. They should rake up issues which will clearly show the minority appeasement politics of both the fronts. The issues that they should mainly talk about is, how both fronts call BJP/RSS as communal or terror organisation. People should be made aware of how the two fronts support a terrorist like Abdul Nasser Madani.

Development Card: There are certain areas under this that the BJP should focus more upon. The focus district should be Thiruvananthapuram where the BJP has chance of winning 4 seats (Nemom, Vattiyoorkavu, Thiruvananthapuram, Kazhakoottam). This election, in all the rallies that Narendra Modi speaks, he should speak as the Ex-CM of Gujarat and not as the PM. The main focus of BJP under development should be the following areas Electricity, Water Management, City Development, and Job creation:

Electricity: Narendra Modi should tell the people of Kerala how he provided uninterrupted electricity to farmers in order to develop agriculture in the state. He needs to talk how Gujarat became a power surplus state in 2012, when in 2001 its power sector was in shambles. He should talk about how he used Solar for Power and not for Scams. He should talk how every village in Gujarat was electrified under the BJP rule.

Water Management: Narendra Modi needs to talk about his famous Water Management measures in Gujarat. He should tell people how he made sure that water was supplied to every corner of the state. Now since Kerala is suffering from Water Shortage, this is the best time to impress people. Talk to them as of how water was taken to even Kutch region through pipelines.

City Development: Modi’s needs to compare Thiruvananthapuram with Ahmedabad. He needs to talk how he developed the city and the regions adjoining it. He needs to make people aware how Thiruvananthapuram could have been developed as a world class city if both the fronts (LDF & UDF) wanted to. He needs to talk about the traffic congestion, Sewage treatment, the condition of roads, rain water drainage and waste management. He needs to give examples of how he developed the top cities in Gujarat.

Job Creation: This is one area which Modi can use to target both the fronts equally. He can blame Congress & CPM for doing nothing for the people of Kerala in terms of Job Creation, which has led them to leave Kerala and look for job opportunities in other states and countries. He can blame CPM which failed in Job creation in both Bengal & Kerala and because of which Bengalis toil hard in Kerala to earn their living. He needs to give examples how big companies were set up in Gujarat under him to provide job opportunities. He needs to talk about how he helped Small & Micro Scale Industries.

Finally BJP as a whole and Modi in particular needs to talk about the CPM-Congress alliance in West Bengal. As per the recent Asianet-Cfore survey VS Achuthanandan is the preferred CM candidate from the LDF. BJP & Modi should make sure to ask people if they think that Pinarayi faction will let VS win. They should remind people of what happened in 1996, where VS, who was seen as the next CM from LDF was defeated by the CPM itself to stop him from becoming the CM.

BJP can easily win six seats in the state, but they will have to plan & work accordingly.

Guha, the RSS and Ambedkar

shridevsharma
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Guha, the RSS and Ambedkar

Ramchandra Guha has reminded the Sangh of past writings of Guruji Golvalkar. Guruji wrote that ‘Maharshi’ Nehru and ‘Rishi’ Ambedkar had dispensed with Sanatan Dharm while framing the Constitution. Therefore it is reflective of an inner conflict within the RSS.

The aforesaid comments by Guruji were made when the provisions of divorce were introduced. Sanatan Dharma believes in the unification of body and mind of a husband and wife. By the chanting of sacred vedas in the presence of the God of fire, and by appropriate rituals called cathurthi karm, the two are united such as never to separate. That was the fundamental  accomplishment of marriage according to Hindu faithfuls. Therefore they were opposed to the idea of divorce. Guruji was head of each family of swayamsevakas, a unifier, serving the cause of Hindu unity. He responded appropriately.

The Indian Express | April 21, 2016 8:11 am | by Ramachandra Guha http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/br-ambedkar-2762688/
Guruji called Nehru “Maharshi” and referred to Dr. Ambedkar as “Rishi”, reminding people about the Nehruvian determination to frame the 1935 Government of India Act as the Constitution of India. Nehru was a wholehearted supporter of the Raj style of governance of India. It may be recalled that it was Nehru who prevailed upon the Constituent Assembly to preserve most of the provisions of the said Act.
It was only Dr. Ambedkar who could prevail upon Nehru and could make some of revolutionary changes in the British framework of Government of India Act.  Therefore calling Nehru “Maharshi” is an apt expression for a person who appropriately created the Indian model of  Westminster-style democratic institutions.
Nehru could effectively hamper the Ambedakarite vision of introducing  ‘Dharma’ in the Constitution due to the clout he had from occupying  the Prime Minister’s office,  and could prevent Dr. Ambedkar from making a more liberal and  ‘Dharma’-centric  constitution. Therefore, Guruji, while reducing Ambedakar to a ‘Rishi’, a lessor sage, was making an apt observation on the reality of the prevailing situation.
In the current scenario, intellectuals are behaving suspiciously. They want to ignite caste wars in the entire nation. They want to carve out India further into smaller nations. They are creating an intellectual environment to intensify debates on this secessionist agenda. They want to hurt the Indian economy and destroy the traditional business model of India. Indian business has helped nationalism and Dharma in every century. The so-called ‘progressive’ media enjoys throwing muck at the business class. They want to uproot  this class by igniting cast wars. Their agenda is to shake the tree till it gets uprooted.

The Indian Express | December 10, 2015 3:30pm | by Ramachandra Guha 

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/bhagwats-ambedkar/

The borders of our nation are well protected by valorous and glorious soldiers. Business activity spread across every nook and corner helps the economy accelerate. The businessman contributes by paying taxes and he helps maintain the socio-religious stability of our country. Caste war can hurt him and wipe him out. We can already see the consequences of Gujarat and Haryana cast struggles.
Mr. Guha would know for sure that Guruji would have supported the present stand of the RSS. He would have circumambulate the country one more time to spread the message of nationalism and to make every household aware of this evil design. I think the Sangh is bound to do the same. It would tell each household of the looming danger,  and the need to stand up for the nation.
Many leftist in India trust in God, many are still influenced by thoughts of Sanatan Dharma. They know  that every Indian shares the swayamsevaks’ aspirations and notions of their divine Motherland. This is a great emotional issue. People who are adamant on hurting such emotions can hardly be wise. Do they want Hindus to meet the fate of the Syrians, and Iraqi Yazidis? They want Hindus to loose their nation, their Dharma, culture, dignity and means?
Against this backdrop one can really understand why Mr. Guha is so critical of the RSS and its unification efforts.

Will lotus bloom in Kerala? – an analysis of BJP’s chances in assembly polls

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Will lotus bloom in Kerala? – an analysis of BJP’s chances in assembly polls

2016 Assembly elections: People see this as the election where BJP could win a seat or two in Kerala. Do you remember when was the last time the BJP came close to winning a seat in the Kerala Legislative assembly? No it’s not the 2011 elections where the party came second in 3 seats Manjeshwar, Kasargod, and Nemom. It was the 1991 assembly elections. The seat was Manjeshwar, the candidate who lost was Kuruvannil Govindan Marar or KG Marar. Marar lost the election by a 1000 odd votes. His loss was due to vote consolidation, something similar to what happened in Varanasi in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

From 1991 to 2014, baring 2004, Varanasi has been sending a BJP MP to the parliament. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the PM candidate of NDA, Narendra Modi won the seat by a margin of 3.7 lakhs. However, in 2009 the margin was wafer-thin, Murali Manohar Joshi of BJP won the seat by a margin of 17K votes. He was trailing the BSP candidate till the last couple of hours of polling. Sensing that a Muslim MP will be elected from the historic Hindu city, the RSS & other Hindu groups went the extra mile to bring in Hindu voters to polling booths, thus ensuring the victory of MM Joshi.

The same thing happened in Manjeshwar way back in 1991, sensing that a Hindu MLA, that too from the BJP will be elected, the Muslim voters of Manjeshwar irrespective of their party affiliations voted en bloc for a IUML candidate – Cherkalam Abdulla. Cherkalam Abdulla won by 1072 votes, thus shattering the hopes of lakhs of BJP sympathizers of the nation. A dream of opening the account in the assembly elections still remains a dream. To date KG Marar is considered the tallest leader the BJP ever had in the state.

Today 25 years later, BJP seems to be in a position to open its account. It has so many things going in its favor. An RSS man at the helm of  state party affairs which has put an end to the infighting. A PM who has been liked by Malayalees who do not have any political affiliation. People yearning for a change from the regular UDF-LDF regime. The total lack of development in the state. Considering the performance of the party in the 2011 Assembly election, 2014 LS elections and the local body elections, I have listed out the 6 constituencies where the party stands a chance of winning.

The BJP’s vote share have been growing in the following 6  seats and the party has a good chance of winning a minimum of 3 seats out of this 6. The seats are:

Nemom:

The party veteran and never ageing O. Rajagopal is yet again the BJP candidate in this constituency. The same Rajettan(as he is fondly called) who has increased BJP’s vote-share in all the seats that he has contested from 2011.  A sample of what his candidacy does to BJP vote share is given below.

Constituency/Year O Rajagopal Previous Election Votes Year of Previous Election
Nemom (2011) 43661 6705 2006
Neyyattinkara By-Election 2012 30507 6730 2011
2014 LS Trivandrum 282336 84094 2009
Aruvikkara by-election 2015 34145 7694 2011

If you can see, in assembly seats wherever Rajettan has contested, the BJP vote share has increased by 5 folds. In Nemom BJP now has a a vote-bank, it has its own core supporters, this is the seat that BJP will win with Rajettan as its candidate.

Look at the votes BJP got in the elections between 2011-2015.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
135-Nemom 30125 50685 43661 50076

In 2015 Local Body elections BJP’s votes reduced. However, this could be attributed to the fact that people elect local candidates in these polls. The real comparison should be done against the 2014 LS elections. Where BJP had a lead of 600 odd votes. With Rajettan as the candidate, this seat is for BJP to lose.

Manjeshwar:

This is the seat that Mararji lost by a margin of 1000 votes. BJP has given this seat to its firebrand youth leader K Surendran. Surendran was the 2014 BJP candidate for the Kasargod LS constituency. He came second in this LA constituency with an vote share of 34.5%, T Siddique of INC was leading the constituency with 38% vote share. The muslim votes went en block to the INC candidate and hence he led by a margin of 5K votes. With a certain campaign strategy, BJP can win this seat (campaign strategy to be discussed in the next article)

Look at the votes BJP got in the elections between 2011-2015.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
1-Manjeshwar 46559 46631 43989 49817

Thiruvananthapuram: 

This is again a seat that BJP or to be specific Rajettan led in 2014 LS elections. Look at the votes BJP got in the elections between 2011-2015.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
134-Thiruvananthapuram 36400 40835 11519 49122

Rajettan led the seat by a margin of 1000+ votes. Shashi Tharoor came second. In the 2015 corporation elections BJP got 36400 votes while LDF got 47362 votes, voters preferred local faces in those elections. The only way BJP could win this seat in 2016 is by having a Star candidate who could gather votes from voters of all religions and castes. BJP tried to get Suresh Gopi (now RS MP), however he was not willing to contest. The next option that BJP had was Sreesanth. And the reports that I am getting from the ground is that, he is attracting voters across party lines. Many on twitter said that Sreesanth was a wrong choice, but they might be proved wrong on 19th May.

Kasargod:

This is another seat that K Surendran came second during the 2014 LS elections. The vote lead for Siddique was around 10K, that again was due to the Muslim vote consolidation. Look at the votes BJP got in the elections between 2011-2015.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
2-Kasaragod 42837 41236 43330 53068

This is another seat where BJP needs to have a particular strategy to win it.

Kazhakoottam:

Here, Rajettan’s lead over Shashi Tharoor was 7K in 2014 LS election. That is the reason why BJP has fielded V. Muraleedharan, the former state president. The BJP lost few votes in 2015, however that can be attributed to the local faces.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
132-Kazhakoottam 35600 41829 7508 50787

Muraleedharan had started the campaign even before the official announcement from the party and hence has an added advantage. This seat is BJP’s to lose.

Vattiyoorkavu:

This is the last among the 4 seats that Rajettan led in 2014. The lead over Shashi Tharoor was almost 3K, and thats the reason why BJP has fielded its current state president Kummanam Rajasekharan. Kummanam is considered by many as the Narendra Modi of Kerala. A person with humble background, a swayamsevak who spent his trying to help the common man. Kummanam, as his fondly called was the runner up in Thiruvananthapuram East during the 1987 Assembly election. He fought as the Hindu Aikya Vedi candidate and lost to Sankaranarayanan Pillai of the Indian Congress (Socialist) – Sarat Chandra Sinha. Look at the votes BJP got in the elections between 2011-2015.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
133-Vattiyoorkavu 42568 43589 13494 56531

Few other seats that NDA could give a tough fight if not win are given. Please consider the voteshares of BJP in the different elections.

Constituency 2015 2014 2011 2011 Winner
138-Kattakkada 37538 18811 22550 52368
56-Palakkad 38225 25892 22317 47641
113-Aranmula 33762 23771 10227 64845
139-Kovalam 30345 36169 9127 59510

In my next article I will talk about the strategies that NDA has to put in to win maximum number of seats.

(I am travelling to Kuthuparamba this weekend with a hope of meeting Kuthuparamba BJP candidate C Sadanandan Master and finding out if he can upset the CPM calculations in the constituency)

Why those mocking Sanskrit as a language are fools themselves

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Why those mocking Sanskrit as a language are fools themselves

One is not sure whether one is to cry or laugh at the statements made by Indian politicians, when it comes to the language issue. If it were one idiot saying the Language debate was futile because Computer’s spoke “0’s and 1’s” [1], now it’s another [2] alluding that C++/Javascript are “English”.

This is not surprising, given that many of these idiots haven’t the slightest grounding in the theory of languages – all they care for is to establish the pre-eminence of their Anglical tongues. Such दिघ्भ्रम is not just the domain of our Anglical – ‘Socialist/Liberal/Progressive/…’ – masters, but also of our nouveau-riche Engineers, many of whom have had the privilege of a CS education. This is tragic: not only do we have insipid politicians, our Universities are stamping out idiots at a rapid rate too!

Most computer languages use English-derived terms like “if – then – else”, “while”… in their syntax to make the semantics accessible to a wide audience. These ‘terms’ – which our anglical masters are so proud of – are called alphabets in the Formal language theory. Why you ask ? Well, if you replace these terms with Tamil words which mean something similar, you don’t change the language.

Indeed, this change is so simple that doing this wouldn’t take a half-literate programmer more than a day. In a globalized world, however, such projects are unlikely to gain much traction for production use, and quite pointless anyway (as the USSR found out) [3] [4].

On a theoretical level, a language is essentially a set of strings on an alphabet. Formal languages based on strict constructs like Context Free Grammar (CFG) are concrete examples, which are used for parsing & compiling programming languages. Changing the alphabet does not change the language, much as the script one uses to write संस्कृतं in, be it Harvard-Kyoto, Nagari, or Siddham (日本ご人ですか ?) , or Malayalam …, means nothing as far as संस्कृतं the language is concerned. You could encode them with knots like the Incas and they’ll remain the same!

Had these windbags seen the vast amount of local documentation for C++/Javascript/SQL, they’d have thought twice before making these statements. Indeed that the alphabet set means nothing is vindicated by the numerous brilliant Tech-companies started by the Israelis, Germans, Russians, French, Japanese & Chinese, none of whom are cursed to suffer the trauma of having their tongues cut out to satisfy the ruling colonial hegemon.

Computer languages in any case are extremely inflexible and barely expressive compared to our messy world of Natural languages – had it been otherwise, most of us would’ve had no jobs. संस्कृतं stands out alone in this world as being an wonderfully structured language.

पाणिनी’s अष्टाद्यायि lists out rules that rigidly fixes संस्कृतं, and this is the reason why a student of Sanskrit can live simultaneously in the vast period of time from 2nd century B.C to current day literature, without feeling the slightest bit of linguistic dissonance. देववाणि सनातनवाणि च।

Sanskrit is indeed so structured, that a NASA scientist wrote in AI Magazine that the language is well-suited for Knowledge-Representation [5]. That’s not saying much, but it is interesting considering that, much of modern day Linguistics has its genesis around Max Muller and many of his acquaintances.

The influence of पाणिनी, on phonetics to linguistics, it is apparent, had been brushed aside to suit European appropriation of Indic knowledge systems. So deep had the stream of Orientalism run, that P. Joshi, a retired Sanskrit scholar, had this to say during the 3rd Sanskrit Computational Linguistics conference [6],

Reading statements about information coding in which Pān.ini is hailed as an early language code information scientist, I am reminded of the situation in the early sixties, after Chomsky had published his book on Syntactic Structures in 1957. Here Chomsky introduced a type of grammar called transformational generative grammar. It earned him a great of applause, globally, I may say. Then it dawned on linguists that Pān.ini had also composed a generative grammar. So Pān.ini was hailed as the fore-runner of generative grammar. That earned him a lot of interest among linguists. Many linguists, foreign as well as Indian, joined the bandwagon, and posed as experts in Pān.inian grammar on Chomskyan terms. Somewhat later, after Chomsky had drastically revised his ideas, and after the enthusiasm for Chomsky had subsided, it became clear that the idea of transformation is alien to Pān.ini, and that the As.t.ādhyāyı̄ is not a generative grammar in the Chomskyan sense. Now a new type of linguistics has come up, called Sanskrit Computational Linguistics with three capital letters. Although Chomsky is out, Pān.ini is still there, ready to be acclaimed as the fore-runner of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics. I am, of course, grateful for the interest shown in Pān.ini.

Computer science in many ways owes its existence to Sanskrit. This is a matter of deep irony that escapes the many wind bags this country likes to cultivate. Had these anglical eminences not spent as much time mugging up the English dictionary (probably for TOEFL or some such thing), they’d not end up in as brain dead a state to make such statements, despite having lived – and ruled – in India.

References:

[1] Manish Tewari, “The Language Debate – Hindi Hain Hum?”, NDTV, July 20 2014.
[2] Manish Sisodia, Twitter:
“One should understand Sanskrit is the only language which can compete with C++, Java, SOL, Python, Javascript…1/2”
“All computers in India using languages like C+, Java, SOL, Python..should b declared antinational once IITians learn working in sanskrit.2/2”.
[3] They are however useful for pedagogical purposes and are used in schools.
[4] APL eschews even eschews words in favour of mathematical symbology.
[5] Rick Briggs, Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence, AI Magazine, Vol 6. Number 1, 1985
[6] S D Joshi, Background of the अष्टाध्यायि, Proc. of the 3rd International Symposium on Sanskrit Computational Linguistics, Springer

Why The New York Times article on Donald Trump is all smoke and no substance

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Why The New York Times article on Donald Trump is all smoke and no substance

Being a student from a economics background when one comes across and article co-authored by  two Nobel laureates you get the urge to read it, especially when you find that it has been trending on twitter you feel there must be something spectacular about it something path breaking which most of us while watching the US presidential race might have missed, but the tweets say something else so you get down to reading it as you first thing in the morning after the compulsive social media surfing.

The article I am referring to is an opinion piece in New York Times published on 28th April on “How Majority Rule Might Have Stopped Donald Trump” by Eric Maskin and Amartya Sen and mark my word it’s anything but disappointing and instead of taking up facts all it does is speculative on what if with a major chunk of biased opinions without substance.

There is sure so much noise about Donald Trump and his rise and the intellectuals might not be happy to see him where he is now. It’s surprising, shocking or as some may say it was always coming, whatever you may call it but you cannot deny it. And instead of finding plausible reasons as to why he rose and what he had what others didn’t they have made the debate on how the system is at fault for such a rise and not the people or the country. The Article talks about how plurality is the reason that Trump is winning and had it been a majority he would have lost and to this they establish a link to 2014 Indian elections that the same had taken place and the BJP along with its allies managed only 39% of the vote share.

The problem with the argument is that they are basing their assumption on things that never happened. And how can they be so sure that had it been a ranking mechanism Donald Trump would have lost. How do you know voters preference. Predicting voters behavior is far the most difficult task and opinion polls have normally failed in most cases. What if the votes division they talks about would have gone to Trump would they still have then had this argument over plurality. They do realize that the voting systems are at fault yet they still write about it seems that there is a bias in their argument or they are trying too hard to justify Trump’s rise as a systematic fault and nothing to do with the state that America is becoming. In a way they are taking a jibe at the people an overwhelming number who support Trump.

Also they being at a high level of intellect forget what it is to be a normal voter or how voting take place for that matter in India a country with 800 million voters. How is the voter supposed to tackle such a complex voting process of ranking and the amount of money and time it will take in compiling result? In India where illiteracy is still high and party symbols more than candidates are the determining factor how feasible it is to have a ranking system. It’s so unexpected of Amartya Sen if not Eric Maskin who knows about the ground reality of politics and society in India yet he draws comparisons of the India elections with the US election system is uncalled for from a man of his caliber and intellect.

Yet the article doesn’t fail to take pot shots at the present government without talking about the historical mandate that it provides and had it been a two man race like the US than there was and still there isn’t a leader who could challenge Mr. Modi in his candidature. And had they tried to come up with a hypothetical voting scheme as they had in case of Trump for India, I am sure it would have been Mr. Modi all the way again and thus they tried not to apply that. For if anything one things that can be said that at the moment there is no leader who is even close to the charisma of Mr. Modi and had it been a two way fight or a ranking system in case of multiple individuals (both of which are not possible in India) he would have triumphed by even more overwhelming margins.

The article instead of being an additional to the knowledge pool reeks of bias and speculations, yet Dr. Sen and Dr. Maskin are Nobel men can we have a voting on that too.

The King Is Naked – King Raheel Sharif

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The King Is Naked – King Raheel Sharif

Once upon a time, in a distant land, lived a King who was so exceedingly fond of himself, that he would spend all the state’s money on new clothes. He wouldn’t care about his people, except when he had to show off his clothes. And then came along two weavers who promised the King a new suit, such glamorous was the suit, that it would be invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent or unfit for the position. And, when the King parades before his faithful subjects in his new clothes, no one dared to say that they don’t see any clothes…

Take two, the great King Raheel Sharif, past week, announced dismissal of six to twelve army officers – the count of course varies depending upon the journalist’s inclination towards fauj – on charges of corruption. And thus, sending his subjects on roll, who see him now as a King, rather than a kingmaker alias umpire.

The King?
The King?

Gen Raheel Sharif, wishes to be seen not merely as a “powerful” Pakistan army chief within a fractured and under-developed polity, which is quite normal, but instead be seen as the Great King – who selflessly kept his nation’s interest paramount and successfully defeated both external and internal enemies of the state. So if, earlier, it was torpedoing a very nascent peace process with India or attempting to arm twist President Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan; now it is, nudging and pressuring Nawaz Sharif – a competitive power pole – into resigning over charges of alleged taxation abuse, by pro-actively initiating action against corrupt individuals within army.

To his faithful subjects, the King has already set the benchmark against corruption so high that it would be impossible for any mortal, leave alone democratically elected yet lowly Prime Minister having any choice but to handover the mantle back to the King willingly, because resting it by force is unworthy of a Great King.

But has he set any benchmark? Lets analyze it closer. The King has dismissed individual army officer’s nay officers of Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force and not army officers, without barring of facts on the nature of corruption and crime. Ostensibly, the crime must have been ridiculously naïve, that the otherwise, out spoken and credit garnering ISPR General, preferred silence, even refusing to acknowledge or confirm, identity and count of officers dismissed.

Further, the extent of corruption within Pakistan army is humongous, if not less in comparison to political class considering the army over years of its rule has institutionalized multiple layers of economic skullduggery, beginning from direct control and involvement of army in economic exploitation of state resources, using its front organizations such as Frontier Works Organization – Pakistan’s largest contractor for constructing roads and highways, competing with private players in an unfair game. National Logistics Cell – Pakistan’s largest goods transportation company and highest revenue earner if only motorway tolls were a measure of profitability. Not stopping at construction of roads or collecting tolls, these front organization’s economic reach ranges to owning bakeries, cinemas, gas stations, commercial plazas to selling sands and allotting contracts for fishing in coastal areas – everything that army’s faithful subjects should otherwise be owning.

And then ofcourse, there are subsidiary organizations of Pakistan army, extracting undue economic advantage at the cost of state, such as Fauji Foundation, Army Welfare Trust, Sheheen Foundation and Bahira Foundation – enabling themselves to make windfall profits by coercing, often partnering with private players and politicians in subsidized land grab, seeking unfair tax breaks for its projects. If that wasn’t enough, there are individual army officers or people of army fraternity that have special focus on real estate acquired at subsidized rates for developing and reselling land in urban and rural areas. It only takes common sense, which is obviously uncommon among the faithful subjects, to witness how the infamous ISI chief Gen retired Hameed Gul’s daughter managed to bag profitable bus routes between Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

Equally important to call out is, how spineless politicians over the years had chosen to cohabit with army in the exploitation of state resources – So aptly documented by Shaid-Ur-Rehman’s book – Who Owns Pakistan?

The real problem, however, is in Pakistan army’s invisible and systemic exploitation. While politicians are thrown to slaughterhouses for corruption, and rightfully so, but Pakistan army’s economic exploitation of subjects remains a taboo and off-limits for the faithful mortals. Dare we forget, researcher and author Ayesha Siddiqa being refused space by Hotels for her book Military Inc. – Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy, launch?

Back to our story: alas, among the faithful subjects, was a little kid screaming – The King is naked!!

Is India headed to ‘one house per family policy’ eventually!

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Is India headed to ‘one house per family policy’ eventually!

It is breather to all the home dreamers, after India finally passed the bill ‘The real estate (regulations and development) bill 2013’ by the Parliament, this 2016 budget session.
Some states such as Maharashtra and West Bengal had their own Real Estate laws as Land is a State subject. In case of discrepancies, the central bill will overrule the state laws. The highlights and key issues of the bill are addressed in the link: The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2013

This bill will help in:

  • reducing the black money involved during payments
  • double registrations & illegal registrations (online registrations to reduce hassles and completion within 15 days)
  • maintaining single pricing and costing
  • proper accountability and transparency (written agreement, if > 10 % of the project cost is accepted as advance)
  • pressure on developers to hand over housing units of the promised specifications and within the stipulated time frame or pay penalties
  • addressing the delay in approvals by sanctioning authorities (delay ranges between 2 to 3 years)
  • selling houses based on carpet area and not the super built area
  • control on pricing of flats/ land (70% of the amount collected from buyers for a project must be maintained in a separate bank account and must only be used for construction of that project.)
  • penalty for non compliance (upto 5 % of estimated project cost)
  • legal State level appellate tribunal

It is always a good sign to assign a regulatory body for any sector until it avoids red tapism. They provide policies, guidelines and an appellate to adhere by, setting a path forward to good governance. Real Estate is one of the top sectors where black money prevails evidently, especially for a country like India wherein corruption is ranked high.

With the passing of this bill, is India headed towards ‘One House per Family’ eventually?  Few years back government had amended the LPG Control Order under which only one LPG connection is permitted per household. This was introduced, as holding multiple connections was depriving the other needy families. Same is the case for housing, multiple property investments are holding others from housing needs (Social Issue). Also, high prices have made it difficult for most people to buy a house. To tackle this, the government announced a “housing for all by 2022” plan in the 2014 Budget, by allocating Rs 4,000 crore to the National Housing Bank for increasing the flow of credit for affordable housing (Economical Issue). Last year, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) had proposed a ‘one house per family’ policy in order to prevent “unnecessary concretization” and water crisis in this country, following a study that revealed the groundwater table has been fast depleting in Noida and Greater Noida (Environmental Issue).

The residential sector contributes about 80% of the real estate and out of which, nearly 85 % of residential housing is for affordable housing i.e. economically weaker section or lower income group (EWS/ LIG) households. India would require about 15 to 18 billion square feet of development in affordable housing segment alone as per KPMG report.

Considering the above social, economical and environmental issues, that are raising the prices due to demand supply gap and the environmental issues creeping in due to large constructions, there might be a possibility of stringent regulations from the government in introducing ‘One House per Family’ policy. Till date, Beijing is the only city in the world which has a ‘one apartment per family’ rule. The city’s government had in 2010 issued rules limiting families to one new flat purchase to rein in rampant property speculation and soaring prices.

One house per family policy, if implemented in India, could have repercussions such as 2 children per couple…

  • Nuclear families would emerge more, and then the number of houses bought will be higher
  • Families would chose to buy house in an urban areas rather in a small city. Urban areas would be in high demand and hence higher prices.
  • They would move farther from their native places. Urban areas would get more skewed and dense.

After the regulatory body for real estate in place, ‘One house per family’, is not required if proper policies and guidelines are in place. Regulatory bodies have often kept corruption check on the sector and healthy competition is encouraged. This will lead to fair pricing, letting EWS/ LIG categories to afford households and subsequently meet 2022 targets. Else, strict regulation is the only way out.

Education, Health and Real Estate are some sectors where a regulation is a requirement in India, especially after their rampant commercialisation, quality degradation and money sucking capacity. After regulations in real estate, are watchdogs in line for education and healthcare, as these sectors are also prone to high corruption and manipulations. These are few neglected sectors that are easy targets to mint money from public.

This article was first published on Ramya Emandi’s personal blog

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