Joshi’s proposal goes beyond what the Saxena committee report — it was appointed by the Rural Development Ministry — recommended. While it said that weightage should be given to certain social groups, including Muslims, it did not favour automatic inclusion.
According to the Saxena report, SCs/STs would get three points and Most Backward Castes (MBC) two points. The Saxena report said that Muslims and OBCs be given one point each.
Automatic inclusion of Muslims in the BPL list could be the first major attempt by the Congress-led UPA government to woo the vote bank that roughly constitutes 18% of the country’s population.
The decision could be significant given that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar go to state polls in 2012 and 2010 respectively, states where the Congress is desperately trying to get a foothold.
Inclusion and exclusion from the BPL list is a big issue in villages, particularly in the Hindi heartland, since benefits of most Central and state-sponsored welfare schemes like Indira Awas Yojna, old age pension are decided on the basis of the list.
Link-
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/include-all-muslims-in-bpl-then-exclude-the-welloff/569084/2
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday told the centre the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee's report recommends schemes for Muslims and leaves out other minority communities.Link
So, even as his detractors slam him for hogging the limelight, Modi's office has collected Rs 23 crore in the past five years just from his public functions. A large chunk of these funds have been diverted to Kanya Kelavani Nidhi, created for educating the girl child in Gujarat. While a major part of the sum comes from donations, considerable amounts are also raised from auctioning gift articles which Modi has received.
A part of the collections also goes to the CM's Relief Fund, which saw inflow to the tune of Rs 104 crore ever since Modi took over the reins.
A Gujarat-based corporate house, which recently invited Modi to inaugurate its facility, donated Rs 11 lakh to CM's fund. The amount depends on the paying capacity of the organizers. Modi inaugurated about 20 such events in January 2010 alone and presided over hundreds of such events in the past five years. "He started the practice in 2006.
The donation is voluntary," said a CM aide. Officials do, however, size up the paying capacity of the organizers and drop hints about what should be the amount of donation. A lot of scholarships to bright girl students and bonds worth Rs 1,000 each to help support the education of lakhs of girls have come out of this fund.
New Delhi,January 24 (Vijay Kumar) - Roots In Kashmir, a frontline global youth initiative of Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday condemned statement of Congress Spokesperson Manish Tiwari stating that Kashmiri Pandits were driven out of the valley in 1990 due to "fear psychosis of Governor Jagmohan". On Saturday , during a news debate (Big Fight on NDTV) on Constitutional reforms when a panelist raised the issue of forced exodus of Pandits due to terrorism and failure of the Indian Constitution to protect them; Manish Tiwari intervened and said ‘we should know the real reason why Pandits left, which was due to fear psychosis of then Governor Jagmohan’.
“To escape persecution, more than 5,00,000 Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their home and hearths back in the valley, of which more than 50,000 refugees are still languishing in uninhabitable refugee camps in Jammu” said RIK Chief Coordinator Sanjay Peshin in a statement.
“Then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah of National Conference (NC), had abandoned his responsibilities and the administration, the state and people lay like cattle on an open road. It was Governor Jagmohan who ensured safety for the minority Pandits who were selectively being targeted by terrorist groups Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and Hizbul Mujahideen” he added.
Three taped slogans which were repeatedly being played the whole night (19th January 1990) from mosques: ‘Kashmir mei agar rehna hai, Allah-o-Akbar kehna hai’ (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-o-Akbar); ‘Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa’ (What do we want here? Rule of Sharia’h); ‘Asi gachchi Pakistan, Batao roas te Batanev san’ (We want Pakistan along with Hindu women but without their men).
The statement of the Congress Spokesperson has hurt the Pandit community which completed two decades in exile on 19th January, 2010. Manish Tiwari certainly needs a crash course in the history of Kashmir. It pains us more to know that the statement comes from a person whose father Prof. V.N. Tiwari was killed in the 1984 riots. Would he have tolerated mockery of his father’s killing?
The illogical and mindless statement comes under the shadow of ‘Quiet Diplomacy’. We Kashmiri Pandits wonder if Manish Tiwari has changed colours and is a ‘separatist spokesperson’! An entire community uprooted from the land of their ancestors is today struggling for its identity. The weak-kneed Indian state shamelessly panders to Islamic terrorists and separatists who claim they are the final arbiters of Jammu and Kashmir’s destiny.
Panun Kashmir, the frontline Pandit organisation demanding separate homeland; also came heavily on the statement of Congress Spokesperson calling it a ‘shame’ and ‘mockery of democracy’.
Dr. Agnishekhar, Convenor, Panun Kashmir, said Pandits will protest this statement in public and demand an apology from the Congress leader.
Link-
http://www.groundreport.com/World/Kashmiri-Pandits-lambast-Congress-Spokesperson-s-s_3/2916612
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On the contrary the govt gives PENSION to families of terrorists-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK6xwFRQ7BQ
About this talk-Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so doing discovered a lesson of wider significance: make the practitioners part of the solution.
About Kartick Satyanarayan-
Kartick Satyanran works tirelessly to save India’s wild animals from illegal captivity and poaching -- most notably rescuing hundreds of “dancing” bears.
About this talk-Kiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.
About Kiran Sethi-
The founder of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, Kiran Sethi has launched an initiative to make our cities more child-friendly.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala police has constituted a special team to probe charges that jihadis are running an organized racket in the state's colleges to lure gullible girls in the name of love and then convert them for subsequent use in anti-national activities. "We are investigating if there is any such design,'' DGP Jacob Punnoose told TOI. What jolted the sleuths into action was a habeus corpus petition in the Kerala high court from the parents of two MBA students.
The students were staying in the same hostel at St John's College in Pathanamthitta district when they met a senior and grew fond of him. But the boy proved to be a nuisance to the authorities and was expelled from the college some years ago.
"He still managed to retain contact with four junior students, including the two MBA students and feigned love for them. The boy wanted them to get converted to Islam. But one of them suspected his intentions and withdrew while another developed psychiatric problems.
The other two fell for him and eloped,'' college principal Sreekumaran Nair said. When there was no news of their wards, the parents approached the high court with habeus corpus petitions. The girls were subsequently produced in court which allowed the parents the custody of their children for a week.
When they appeared in court next, the girls stated they had been trapped and did not want to go back with the boy. In the period they were with him, one of them had already married the boy and the other was "forced to marry'' his friend, a bus conductor.
In their statements given to police, the students claimed that they were shown jihadi videos and literature by the boy. Expressing concern over the development, the high court asked the police to probe deeper.
"When we searched the hostel, we found provocative literature given by the boy from the rooms of the two girls,'' the principal said.
This was seized by the police who have now extended the probe to other campuses as well they feel this was not an isolated incident. Similar reports have been emerging for quite some time now but were mostly ignored for political reasons, police sources added.
Link-
•The world's biggest power is the youth and beauty of a woman.
•There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.
•Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends.
•A man is great by deeds, not by birth.
•A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.
•As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.
•As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.
•Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
•Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
•Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.
•Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.
•One whose knowledge is confined to books and whose wealth is in the possession of others, can use neither his knowledge nor wealth when the need for them arises.
Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.
The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.
The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.
The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.
There seems to be a disparity in expenditure on advertisements for remembering national icons, with the government spending nearly triple the amount for "glorifying" Rajiv Gandhi in two months than what it did for Lal Bahadur Shastri in 10 years.
The Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity(DAVP) has spent nearly Rs 3 crore over a period of two months on advertisements to glorify late prime minister as against only Rs 87 lakh over a period of 10 years for Shastri, also a former premier.
This was revealed in an RTI reply by the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), DAVP, Mattu J P Singh who refrained from disclosing expenditure incurred on the advertisement on other ex-prime ministers.
Ajay Marathe, a resident of Mumbai, had filed an RTI application with the ministry, seeking information pertaining to advertisements issued by the DAVP with photographs of Rajiv Gandhi and other former prime ministers.
"Between July to August 2009, the DAVP had issued eight advertisements worth Rs 2,97,70,498 glorifying Rajiv Gandhi. These advertisements also had pictures of the former prime minister," Marathe said.
In contrast, only Rs 87,23,901 was spent on five advertisements between 2000-01 to 2009-2010 with photographs of late Lal Bahdur Shastri, he said.
"Both Rajiv Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri were former prime ministers of India. Both have contributed towards the welfare of the nation and Lal Bahadur Shastri played a leading role in India's freedom struggle movement. Then why this disparity when remembering them," he asked.
The CPIO, DAVP, also said that no advertisements were issued by the DAVP with photographs of ex-prime ministers other than that of Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Link
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Read the below article to know about some more bitter truth and the conspiracy to downlplay every Indian who does not belong to the particular family-
http://vu-point.blogspot.com/2009/10/part-1-why-has-history-forgotten-this.html
1 Line Review-The story and pace of narration kills the movie. Avoid this flick.
Detailed Review-
Though the trailers looked impressive I didnt have plans to watch Ishqiya before as I suspected the story wont be too good. But then I was intrigued by statements from the director, cast etc that Vidya Balan's character is "Raw". She portrays the completely different side of Indian women!
So I decided to give it a chance. The movie surely belongs to a different genre and is an offbeat movie with crude dialogues and powerful performances from the cast. But even that doesnt help as the story is slowly paced and never amuses or intrigues you.
Set in Western Uttar Pradesh, the movie is a tale of romance between individuals caught in a web of crime, suspense, passion and deceit. Two thieves, Khalujan (Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban (Arshad Warsi), are on the run from their boss, Mushtaq (Salman Shahid).They seek refuge with an old friend but instead meet his widow, Krishna (Vidya Balan). As they plan their escape, their time spent together draws the duo to her, Khalujan with his vision of old-fashioned love and Babban with his lascivious heart.
The movie never really picks up pace. The story is narrated more like an essay and even the twists are told in such a plain manner that they doesnt surprise you or build your interest in the movie. The story could have been very good had it been executed properly. If you think about the story and the twists later you would feel that they could have been very interesting but are integrated so ordinarily in the movie that it fails to interest you.
The dialogues, scenes from interior parts of India and offbeat nature of the movie would attract many and infact may hide the principal flaws! I feel that a very poorly executed story is presented wrapped in good dialogues, music and raw characters with power packed performances.
Rating-
5/10
I recieved an Email yesterday from Indiblogger and to cut the long story short-One of India’s most trusted and credible NGOs, GiveIndia is taking part in a competition on Facebook to win a US$1 million grant. The winner will be the NGO that gets the highest number of votes from Facebook users. The prize of $1 million will help put or keep 40,000 children across India in school for one year!
Imagine Indians coming together to spread the word and help the underprivileged children of India. The impact would be tremendous and GiveIndia would be able to gather the votes we need to win.
Voting in the competition is for one week only, from Friday, January 15 – Friday, January 22, 2010. Can we make a difference in the next 5 days? We sure hope so!
The link for voting, where you can also see more details of the competition is
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/338730
In case you have more questions about this, please write to giveindiachase@gmail.com and a GiveIndia team member would be happy to reply.
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Do it and spread the word!! We have just 4 days left. Lets show the power of INDIA!
Congress' leaked 'caste list' - which lists almost 600 party workers, including Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, by their caste - is becoming a bigger political embarrassment by the day.With Assembly elections slated later this year, the Opposition is already training its guns against Rahul Gandhi's claims that the Congress does not believe in caste. "This just goes to show Congress' mentality. They want to take Bihar back to the caste-ridden days.
This is how they have always been," says Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.On Thursday, a social worker filed an FIR against Congress' Bihar incharge Jagdish Tytler and Bihar Congress president Anil Sharma. "I have filed the FIR against them for listing the castes and sub-castes of party workers," explained Dalit activist Bidhan Chandra Rana.
What makes this serious is that the FIR has been filed under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act's Section 31 - a non bailable offence.
An embarrassed Congress has, however, accused the media of stealing a confidential document. "This is an internal Congress document, and should not have been highlighted by the media," Tytler said, adding that the document does not reflect the official policy of the party.
The Congress brass too is trying to downplay the incident, calling it a mistake.
Sun, Jan 17 02:21 PM Chandigarh, Jan 17 (IANS)
Hundreds of people from various communities Sunday gathered at the Catholic church here in Sector 19 to take part in a prayer meeting organised to express solidarity with S. Sebestina, principal of Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School.
Sebestina was held guilty, in a magisterial probe, of being unfair in expelling teenaged molestation victim Ruchika Girhotra for fee default in September 1990, one month after she was molested by former Haryana director general of police S.P.S. Rathore.
'We do not want to criticise anybody as we have gathered here to pray for those people who are continuously doing wrong things. We did not invite anybody but still huge number of people from various religions has gathered here to show their support for sister Sebestina,' father Thomas Anchanickal, vicar-general of Chandigarh-Shimla diocese and spokesperson of the school, told IANS.
'We have full support of Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) and we do not require proving our innocence before anyone. Right now I do not want to comment anything on this case.'
Sebestina had also returned the state award that was given to her in 2005 for her meritorious contribution to city education, after she was held guilty. She was the principal of the school in 1990 also.
Chandigarh Catholic Association (CCA) has also started a signature campaign Sunday to garner support for Sebestina and this leading all girls school of Chandigarh.
'The response is overwhelming, today (Sunday) only we have received over 2,500 signatures during the prayer meeting. We will run this campaign for another one week. We will stand beside the school and its principal all through our life,' Anchanickal, coordinator of CCA, told IANS.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Chandigarh had Dec 21 held Rathore guilty of molesting 14-year-old Ruchika in Panchkula town Aug 12, 1990 and sentenced him to a six-month prison term. Rathore was immediately granted bail.
The budding tennis player had committed suicide in 1993.
Link
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Also read-
Sacred heart thinking of playing the "Minority card"
New Delhi: In March 2006, CNN-IBN had shown documents proving that former Congress MP from Tezpur, Assam, Moni Kumar Subba had lied about his age, his nationality and brought to light the fact that he is wanted in a murder case in Nepal. However, not only has no action been taken, but Subba is one of the longest running MPs in the country - winning from the Tezpur Lok Sabha seat three times. He is a lottery baron turned politician and was one of the richest candidates in the fray last time.
Now, the Supreme Court has taken note of the oversight and has asked the CBI to take action against the Congress MP. The court ordered this while disposing off a petition against him.
CNN-IBN INVESTIGATION
Subba has for 16 years lied that he is an Indian. The truth is he is a Nepalese, and he is a criminal. A report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says Subba is a Nepali national originally named Moni Raj Limbo, who escaped from the Illam prison in Nepal while serving sentence for murder.
In an affidavit filed before the Tezpur magistrate's court on October 3, 1985, the politician admitted that Moni Raj Limbo and Moni Kumar Subba are the same person.
A CNN-IBN investigation in March 2006 exposed Subba for lying about his place of birth and hiding his Nepalese identity. The birth certificate is the only document Subba has to prove his Indian citizenship, but the CNN-IBN investigation established that the certificate was a fake and that he is a foreign national.
The certificate says Subba was born on March 16, 1958 in Dabgram, West Bengal, which is bizarre, as the document was issued 40 years later on October 28, 1998. Salil Sarkar, the Registrar of Births and Deaths in Dabgram, confirmed this to CNN-IBN.
Link
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Now this brings us to the question "What is the criteria by congress to select candidates?"
Money power of candidate which would have been used for campaigning looks to be the cause here. But some other criteria's by them for selecting candidates can be viewed in the following post-
http://vu-point.blogspot.com/2009/05/criteria-for-choosing-candidates-by.html
Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India’s political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for.
But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.
The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure.
Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.
And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea.
And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points.
For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat.
But it was industry that was equally close to
his heart.
It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame.
And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.
He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was:
the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.
Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine.
He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened!
It was this resolve of Modi’s that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.
I left Modi’s house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what’s more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state.
Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what’s more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.
After I finished talking to the YPO (Young President’s Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.
But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. I don’t know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs!
There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him!
Suhel Seth
The writer is Managing Partner, Counselage
Link
The Times of IndiaAug:19:2009
Tarun Vijay
"I am not prepared to discuss ethics. We have a pistol and are in a position to use it." So said Mohammad Ali Jinnah while delivering his presidential speech at the Muslim League convention on July 19, 1946.
What followed was an unimaginable massacre of Hindus in Kolkata on August 16, 1946. Six thousand killed, twenty thousand raped and maimed.
Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the then leader of Hindu Mahasabha had said, "Jinnah is out to destroy the very soul of India."If one single instance should be cited to understand what Jinnah really was, it would not be his speech in the Constituent Assembly, Karachi, often quoted by Indian Hindus, but his call for "Direct Action".
That was August 16, 1946, known as the day of "great Calcutta killings". After the "Direct Action" resolution was passed by the Muslim League on July 19, 1946, its president, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, said in his valedictory speech: "What we have done today is the most historic act in our history. Never have we in the whole history of the League done anything except by the constitutional methods and by constitutionalism. But now we are obliged and forced into this position. This day we bid goodbye to constitutional methods…. Now the time has come for the Muslim Nation to resort to direct action. I am not prepared to discuss ethics. We have a pistol and are in a position to use it."
Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the then leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, who had said, "Jinnah is out to destroy the very soul of India", organized Hindus fearlessly and foiled Jinnah’s plan to oust Hindus from Kolkata. He formed a volunteer group of the Hindus named the Hindusthan National Guards, resisted horrendous goondaism of the League and moved in the riot-affected areas giving courage to the victims of a planned slaughter and orgy of violence by the League’s marauders.Syama Prasad Mookerjee was traveling all over India awakening the masses to rise against the partition plot. On October 8, 1944, at a United Provinces Hindu Conference, he said, "The sooner Mr Jinnah understands that Pakistan in any form or shape will be resisted by Hindus and many others with the last drop of blood, the better for him, for he will then quietly descend on realities and himself plead for a just and equitable settlement.
None but an agent of imperialism will so block the path of Indian unity and freedom as Mr Jinnah is doing."Dr Mookerjee, who is respected as the ideological icon and source of inspiration by the Bharatiya Janata Party, was a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother.
In fact, he had been in close contact with Sri Aurobindo, who had said, "The idea of two nationalities in India is only a new-fangled notion invented by Jinnah for his purposes and contrary to the facts.
More than 90% of the Indian Mussalmans are descendants of converted Hindus and belong as much to the Indian nation as the Hindus themselves. This process of conversion has continued all along; Jinnah is himself a descendant of a Hindu,converted in fairly recent times,named Jinabhai and many of the most famous Mahommedan leaders have a similar origin."(SABCL, vol.26, page 46).
It was Dr Mookerjee who stood firm and tried to organize a people's movement against partition. He said: “Hindus regard this country as their sacred and holy land. Irrespective of provincial barriers or the diversity in faiths and languages there exists a remarkable economic and cultural unity and inter-dependence which cannot be destroyed at the will of persons and parties who think it beneath their dignity to regard India as their motherland. We must live and die for India and her liberty.” (24th December 1944).
He disagreed with Gandhi placating the Muslim demands and said,"As soon as the other communities realize that the Hindus of India are united and have pledged themselves to stand together for the attainment of their ideal and have adopted a policy of understanding and tolerance to all classes of people residing in India, other communities whose support we are seeking in vain today will then join us voluntarily and on terms honourable to all.”(“Awake Hindusthan”, Page 12).
He further said: “Our experiences in recent years have proved that much as we would be willing to surrender the rights and interests of the Hindus for the purpose of placating other communities, much as we would like to pursue the policy of delivering “blank cheques” the response from the other side is slow and halting, if not sometimes hostile in character.("Awake Hindusthan", Page 13)
In this context, I would like to add that however different Jinnah might have been , we just can't belittle Nehru before Jinnah. Nehru belonged to us; he fought for India’s freedom, spent years in jail and had an Indian dream. We may have a thousand differences with him on policies and programmes, but so what? That would be our "domestic matter".
Jinnah led our motherland’s vivisection and he never fought for the freedom struggle.MJ Akbar has written these lines describing his persona,"Muhammad Ali Jinnah, aristocrat by temperament, catholic in taste, sectarian in politics, and the father of Pakistan, was the unlikeliest parent that an Islamic republic could possibly have.
He was the most British of the generation of Indians that won freedom in August 1947. As a child in the elite Christian Mission High School in Karachi, he changed his birthday from 20 October to Christmas Day. As a student at Lincoln's Inn, he anglicised his name from Jinnahbhai to Jinnah. For three years, between 1930 and 1933, he went into voluntary exile in Hampstead, acquired a British passport, set up residence with his sister Fatimah and daughter Dina, hired a British chauffeur (Bradley) for his Bentley, kept two dogs (a black Dobermann and a white West Highland terrier), indulged himself at the theatre (he had once wanted to be a professional actor so that he could play Hamlet) and appeared before the Privy Council to maintain himself in the style to which he was accustomed.
He wore Savile Row suits, heavily starched shirts and two-tone leather or suede shoes……Despite being the Quaid-e-Azam, or the Great Leader of Muslims, he drank a moderate amount of alcohol and was embarrassingly unfamiliar with Islamic methods of prayer.
He was uncomfortable in any language but English, and made his demand for Pakistan — in 1940 at Lahore — in English, despite catcalls from an audience that wanted to hear Urdu.”
That was a bit of Syama Prasad and the related reflections that may prove worthwhile in the present political debate enveloping the nationalist school of politics.
At the end of it, what the Gita has said and the RSS teaches us must make the final lines to this blogpost:
It’s better to die unwavering even in tatters than to change track midway and die stinking rich.That’s Dharma.Krishna said: "Swadharme nidhano shreyo (to live and die in ones’ own path alone is the life worthwhile and adopting the ‘other’ dharma is horrible)".
For small desires we lose a lifetime’s achievements and glory.History was never made essentially by those who became state heads, but often by those who didn’t.Or by those who gave up everything for others’ good, honestly.
Syama Prasad and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya are two major icons of faith for the Hindu nationalist parivar. Both created history and died in their early fifties. Both were mysteriously ‘murdered’. Their lives must light the path of those who care to follow swadharma.That’s BJP’s legacy too.
As it is of other ideologically committed organisations of the saffron hue.Lincoln didn’t shy away from the civil war and stood like a rock on the question of American spirit and unity. So was Syama Prasad. He died but didn’t bend.
Most of the times Bihar is in the news for the wrong reasons. Its an irony that a state with such a glorious past is now one of the poorest state of India!Bad governance has played its part very much leading to scams, poverty, corruption, illiteracy, crime and what not.
But something has changed in past 3-4 years. What is it? In past year Bihar was the 2nd best state in terms of development with 11% growth rate ! Gujarat leads the race but just by a margin.
Highlights-
- Despite three years of floods followed by a year of drought, backward and benighted Bihar reports a miraculous figure: 11% GDP growth.
- More than 6,800 km of roads have been relaid and 1,600 bridges and culverts constructed in the last four years.
- Automobile sales in the state grew 45% in 2009, at a time when sales had dipped 20-25 % in several other states during the economic slowdown.
- The kidnapping industry has clearly fallen on hard times. One indication of this is that doctors no longer refuse to go to patients homes on emergency calls. Today you can see boards at clinics saying we go on calls, says Dr Amulya Kumar Singh.
- Most of Bihars infamous dons are behind bars. That includes Mohd Shahabuddin, the former RJD MP who had once gone live on TV, daring the state police chief to arrest him.
- Speedy trials have ensured a total of 38,824 convictions between 2006 and September 2009.The convicts included dons and their henchmen. Gun-toting strongmen are no longer a common sight on the streets of Bihar. Policemen patrol them now.
- Malls, shops and private educational institutions are coming up. So are mobile service providers and banking firms. Its boom time for real estate with apartment buildings coming up all around.
- The flip side is that much of this growth does not get reflected in social indicators which remain abysmal. But, as Gupta says, it would be unrealistic for anyone to expect the moon at this stage.
- Right now the fundamentals are getting corrected and therefore you can find mostly infrastructural indicators of growth; one will have to wait for social indicators to become visible, he says. While contractors and realtors stand to gain, more than half the states 8.2 crore people 1.25 crore families still live below the poverty line. For these families to prosper, Bihar desperately needs huge investments and more growth.
Full page article HERE
Less than 5 year of rule and the change is enormous emphasizing the fact that good governance can do wonders even in less time.
There are many kinds of war- Civil war, Biological war, Nuclear war but the worst kind is PROPAGANDA WAR.The reason is that it is the propaganda spread against things leads to the actual war.
In today's world most people have very strong opinions which generally dont change. Now whats the source on which the opinions are based? Newspapers, News channels, Radio etc i.e. THE MEDIA.
Now pause for a moment and think- Is the media controlling you? Is it making you believe what they want you to believe?
Its important and correct to have an opinion but is it flexible enough to change once you know the other side of story? Or have people been "brainwashed" that they dont want to even look at the other side!!
Its dangerous if you are controlled by someone else and its even more dangerous if the masses are controlled by someone else!
