No compromise on Hindutva despite poll debacle: Rajnath
B.S. Satish Kumar
BANGALORE: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday declared that there was no question of the party compromising on “Hindutva ideology” or its “original political thinking” just because it lost the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Participating in the inaugural session of a two-day State executive meeting of the BJP’s Karnataka unit in Bangalore, Mr. Singh asserted that the party ideology was “morally and constitutionally correct,” adding that Hindutva ideology was as important to the BJP as the Constitution was for the country.
Disagreeing with the views of some political analysts who said the BJP should rethink its ideology and political thinking in the wake of the parliamentary poll debacle, Mr. Singh said these elections were not a referendum on ideology.
“Not just for votes”
“The BJP is not in politics just for the sake of getting votes. We have a nation-building responsibility. Our ideology of Hindutva and ‘cultural idealism’ is a message of universal brotherhood as well as co-existence, and hence we are opposing religion-based discrimination and reservation,” he said.
No one is asking you to give up the Hindutva slogan Mr. Singh.
But this by itself will not give you votes in elections.
Man has got a few basic need which are to be fulfilled before he can think of anything else.
ROTI - KAPRA - MAKAN.
This is understood by all politicians and they have been using this slogan since Indira Gandhi's time, but none have fulfilled them. Although they encashed the votes.
These should be provided to ALL CITIZENS OF INDIA, irrespective of caste, religion,language,features or colour.
We are already burdened with our own population and cannot afford to allow infiltrators whether from Bangla Desh, Pakistan, Myanmar or any other country.
We want a corruption free India.
When your party fields criminals as its candidates it does not speak very highly of your party.
I had once thought yours was a party with a difference.
But the thirst for power has made you take people from other parties in your fold to form governments.
The result is, now there is no difference between your party and the others.
Just Hindutva will not get you votes.
Only good governance will win elections for you.
You still have your party government in some states.
If you can show us the difference, we will be convinced.
Give us an honest, clean, transparent corruption free government without raising divisive slogans,
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Ramayana revisited
I am sure most of you will remember this chapter of the Ramayana.
When Shri Lakshman was struck by the Shaktiban of Meghnad, he became unconscious.
Such was the love of Shri Rama for Lakshman that this was the only time he cried in the whole Ramayan epic..
The Baids (Ayurvedic doctors) were called for treating Lakshman.
They advised that there were certain herbs called Sanjivini, on Dronagiri mountain, which were to be brought and administerd to Lakshman before sunrise the next day
if he were to be saved.
Shri Hanuman volunteered to go and get the herbs.
However, on reaching the mountain, he could not locate or identify the herb.
So he did the next best and easier thing.
He carried away the whole mountain and Lakshman was saved.
We have the story below of two modern days Hanumans.
However, since they had selfish motives, the story does not have the same happy ending.
Robbers carry away ATM
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Chandigarh, Aug. 1: Two robbers loaded an entire ATM containing cash of over Rs 5 lakh into their car and escaped after beating up the guard in Hoshiarpur last night before being caught a couple of hours later.
Police, who were alerted by the guard, flagged down the Maruti Zen in which Lovdeep Singh and Satinder Singh had squeezed the 400kg machine into.
“The ATM contained Rs 5,23,700. Lovdeep Singh and Satinder Singh went to the ATM on Shimla Pahari Chowk in a Maruti Zen at 1.15am. They threatened the watchman, Sandeep Singh, beat him up, then lifted the 400kg ATM and forced Sandeep to load it in the car boot,” Hoshiarpur senior superintendent of police Pramod Ban said.
The ICICI bank ATM was not fixed to the ground as some ATMs are. Those fixed to the ground can be removed only by cutting or digging through concrete.
An alert was sounded in Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar after Sandeep alerted the police.
Two constables, Paramjit Singh and Harbans Singh, on duty at a police post outside Hoshiarpur, flagged down the Zen.
“The robbers panicked and tried to run away. But the two constables caught them after a short chase,” Ban said. “The robbers were carrying a gas cutter, an LPG cylinder as well as an oxygen cylinder with them. They had come well prepared.”
The gas cutting equipment was meant to prise open the ATM later.
A reward of Rs 5,000 has been announced for the two constables who caught Lovdeep and Satinder, both jobless. Lovdeep is from Maqsoodian village and Satinder is from Adampur village, both in Jalandhar.
They have been booked under Section 458 of the IPC which deals with house trespass and house breaking by hurting, assaulting or wrongful restraint. If convicted, they could be jailed for 14 years.
Investigations are on to find out if the robbers acted on their own or as part of a gang of bank robbers.
Talking of ATMs, I have come to know that they too cough up counterfeit notes.
Just a few days back I read that an ICICI Bank ATM delivered Rs500.00 counterfeit notes.
When the person concerned visited the bank, they refused to accept responsibility.
This I consider highly unfair.
The bank should give neessary facilities at each ATM to check and detect counterfeit notes and with provision to have them changed if the same is sealed in the presence of the security guard and presented to the bank.
The Bank disgorging these counterfeit notes should also be punished for trying to pass off these.
When Shri Lakshman was struck by the Shaktiban of Meghnad, he became unconscious.
Such was the love of Shri Rama for Lakshman that this was the only time he cried in the whole Ramayan epic..
The Baids (Ayurvedic doctors) were called for treating Lakshman.
They advised that there were certain herbs called Sanjivini, on Dronagiri mountain, which were to be brought and administerd to Lakshman before sunrise the next day
if he were to be saved.
Shri Hanuman volunteered to go and get the herbs.
However, on reaching the mountain, he could not locate or identify the herb.
So he did the next best and easier thing.
He carried away the whole mountain and Lakshman was saved.
We have the story below of two modern days Hanumans.
However, since they had selfish motives, the story does not have the same happy ending.
Robbers carry away ATM
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Chandigarh, Aug. 1: Two robbers loaded an entire ATM containing cash of over Rs 5 lakh into their car and escaped after beating up the guard in Hoshiarpur last night before being caught a couple of hours later.
Police, who were alerted by the guard, flagged down the Maruti Zen in which Lovdeep Singh and Satinder Singh had squeezed the 400kg machine into.
“The ATM contained Rs 5,23,700. Lovdeep Singh and Satinder Singh went to the ATM on Shimla Pahari Chowk in a Maruti Zen at 1.15am. They threatened the watchman, Sandeep Singh, beat him up, then lifted the 400kg ATM and forced Sandeep to load it in the car boot,” Hoshiarpur senior superintendent of police Pramod Ban said.
The ICICI bank ATM was not fixed to the ground as some ATMs are. Those fixed to the ground can be removed only by cutting or digging through concrete.
An alert was sounded in Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar after Sandeep alerted the police.
Two constables, Paramjit Singh and Harbans Singh, on duty at a police post outside Hoshiarpur, flagged down the Zen.
“The robbers panicked and tried to run away. But the two constables caught them after a short chase,” Ban said. “The robbers were carrying a gas cutter, an LPG cylinder as well as an oxygen cylinder with them. They had come well prepared.”
The gas cutting equipment was meant to prise open the ATM later.
A reward of Rs 5,000 has been announced for the two constables who caught Lovdeep and Satinder, both jobless. Lovdeep is from Maqsoodian village and Satinder is from Adampur village, both in Jalandhar.
They have been booked under Section 458 of the IPC which deals with house trespass and house breaking by hurting, assaulting or wrongful restraint. If convicted, they could be jailed for 14 years.
Investigations are on to find out if the robbers acted on their own or as part of a gang of bank robbers.
Talking of ATMs, I have come to know that they too cough up counterfeit notes.
Just a few days back I read that an ICICI Bank ATM delivered Rs500.00 counterfeit notes.
When the person concerned visited the bank, they refused to accept responsibility.
This I consider highly unfair.
The bank should give neessary facilities at each ATM to check and detect counterfeit notes and with provision to have them changed if the same is sealed in the presence of the security guard and presented to the bank.
The Bank disgorging these counterfeit notes should also be punished for trying to pass off these.
Result of Female Foeticide
Can't find brides, Haryana barters away little girls
A curious case recently came to light in Jandli Kalan village of Haryana's Fatehabad district. One Nathu Ram was to marry Geeta. His sister was to marry Geeta's maternal uncle on the same day. But Geeta's father complained to the deputy commissioner of police that his daughter was just 15 years old. He said his wife and her family had conspired to marry her off in order that his brother-in-law get a bride under the 'barter system'. The authorities swooped down on Jandli Kalan village and stopped the wedding, but the family had a contingency plan. They produced Geeta's cousin Savitri as a replacement bride. But she turned out to be a minor as well. Under pressure, Geeta's relatives frantically searched for a bride within the extended family and finally found a 20-year-old.
Fatehabad deputy Commissioner CG Rajnikanthan said that when his team went to stop Savitri's marriage, her family tried to convince him that the girl was adult even though the girl herself admitted she was born in 1993. "It was only after I categorically told them that criminal cases would be registered against them in case they went ahead with their plan without producing evidence that the girl was a major, that they stopped and gave me an undertaking they would not marry off the girl till she's of marriageable age."
The Jandli Kalan case may be extraordinary but it is hardly unusual. The same thing happened almost 100 km away, in the Keharwala village of adjoining Sirsa district, except that the prospective brides were even younger 12 and 14.
Haryana is reduced to this because of its deeply skewed sex ratio. A state government report admits there are just 822 females for every 1000 men in the 0 to 6 years category. The ratio falls even further in the literate population: 618 females to 1000 males. In some villages in the state, notably Malerna and Duleypur, the sex ratio at birth is 370 and 400 females per 1,000 males respectively.
So rural Haryana operates a barter system so that its sons can find brides. But every family does not have a girl of marriageable age to exchange; some marry off minors to keep their end of the bargain.
"Families with large land holdings don't face much of a problem finding brides for their sons," says Chandigarh social scientist Manjit Singh. "But small and marginal farmers have no choice but to marry their own daughter or a female relative into the family from where they expect a bride for their son."
No one is keeping count but the numbers might be huge in a state where more than 14 lakh people don't have a house and live in slums, according to a 2006 state government report.
Singh says that the barter system was earlier limited to the Bishnois and a few other communities, but it is now being adopted even by Jats.
Asha Setia, officer of the state's Integrated Child Development Scheme, says that few cases come to light but "we fear it goes on". She says the state government has recently deployed one child marriage protection officer to each district. His job: to convince village heads such practices are wrong.
Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, takes an uncompromising view. "Only in Haryana are women treated as commodities they are bought, sold, killed, discarded and even exchanged. Honour killings, child marriage and female infanticide all are taking place in the name of custom. It shows a totally desensitized political class," she says. Is this the state that was once home to the Arya Samaj movement, Kumari says scathingly.
Unicefs 'State of the Worlds Children-2009' report says that 40% of all child marriages in the world occur in India. Girl's may be married off early in many parts of Africa too, some even before puberty. But there is a difference. The African brides parents are paid in cash, cattle or other valuables and her bride price falls steadily as the girl gets older. In Pakistan, the tribal custom of 'watta satta' has families betroth a son and a daughter together to another family.
Some believe Haryana's practice could make daughters more relevant within the family but others believe it means the exploitation of minors. Kumari says, "The police may have been able to stop a couple of such cases but the ground reality could be scary. Many teenage girls must have been passed off as brides to middle-aged men only because their brothers or uncles needed a wife. Such a practice makes them victims of easy exploitation."
I have been pointing out of the illegal and immoral practise of female foeticide being prevalent in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and to a lesser extent in other states in India.
We see the result in our lifetimes itself.
The eschewed male/female population ratio(favouring male) is making it difficult to find brides for young boys.
In parts of Bihar called Mithila, boys are kidnapped and forcibly married off to girls as the girls parents couldn't afford the dowry demanded by boys parents.
We are soon going to reach that stage in H,P & R states.
Girls parents will soon start demanding dowries for girls and we shall have girls being forcibly kidnapped and married.
Well Done India
A curious case recently came to light in Jandli Kalan village of Haryana's Fatehabad district. One Nathu Ram was to marry Geeta. His sister was to marry Geeta's maternal uncle on the same day. But Geeta's father complained to the deputy commissioner of police that his daughter was just 15 years old. He said his wife and her family had conspired to marry her off in order that his brother-in-law get a bride under the 'barter system'. The authorities swooped down on Jandli Kalan village and stopped the wedding, but the family had a contingency plan. They produced Geeta's cousin Savitri as a replacement bride. But she turned out to be a minor as well. Under pressure, Geeta's relatives frantically searched for a bride within the extended family and finally found a 20-year-old.
Fatehabad deputy Commissioner CG Rajnikanthan said that when his team went to stop Savitri's marriage, her family tried to convince him that the girl was adult even though the girl herself admitted she was born in 1993. "It was only after I categorically told them that criminal cases would be registered against them in case they went ahead with their plan without producing evidence that the girl was a major, that they stopped and gave me an undertaking they would not marry off the girl till she's of marriageable age."
The Jandli Kalan case may be extraordinary but it is hardly unusual. The same thing happened almost 100 km away, in the Keharwala village of adjoining Sirsa district, except that the prospective brides were even younger 12 and 14.
Haryana is reduced to this because of its deeply skewed sex ratio. A state government report admits there are just 822 females for every 1000 men in the 0 to 6 years category. The ratio falls even further in the literate population: 618 females to 1000 males. In some villages in the state, notably Malerna and Duleypur, the sex ratio at birth is 370 and 400 females per 1,000 males respectively.
So rural Haryana operates a barter system so that its sons can find brides. But every family does not have a girl of marriageable age to exchange; some marry off minors to keep their end of the bargain.
"Families with large land holdings don't face much of a problem finding brides for their sons," says Chandigarh social scientist Manjit Singh. "But small and marginal farmers have no choice but to marry their own daughter or a female relative into the family from where they expect a bride for their son."
No one is keeping count but the numbers might be huge in a state where more than 14 lakh people don't have a house and live in slums, according to a 2006 state government report.
Singh says that the barter system was earlier limited to the Bishnois and a few other communities, but it is now being adopted even by Jats.
Asha Setia, officer of the state's Integrated Child Development Scheme, says that few cases come to light but "we fear it goes on". She says the state government has recently deployed one child marriage protection officer to each district. His job: to convince village heads such practices are wrong.
Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, takes an uncompromising view. "Only in Haryana are women treated as commodities they are bought, sold, killed, discarded and even exchanged. Honour killings, child marriage and female infanticide all are taking place in the name of custom. It shows a totally desensitized political class," she says. Is this the state that was once home to the Arya Samaj movement, Kumari says scathingly.
Unicefs 'State of the Worlds Children-2009' report says that 40% of all child marriages in the world occur in India. Girl's may be married off early in many parts of Africa too, some even before puberty. But there is a difference. The African brides parents are paid in cash, cattle or other valuables and her bride price falls steadily as the girl gets older. In Pakistan, the tribal custom of 'watta satta' has families betroth a son and a daughter together to another family.
Some believe Haryana's practice could make daughters more relevant within the family but others believe it means the exploitation of minors. Kumari says, "The police may have been able to stop a couple of such cases but the ground reality could be scary. Many teenage girls must have been passed off as brides to middle-aged men only because their brothers or uncles needed a wife. Such a practice makes them victims of easy exploitation."
I have been pointing out of the illegal and immoral practise of female foeticide being prevalent in Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and to a lesser extent in other states in India.
We see the result in our lifetimes itself.
The eschewed male/female population ratio(favouring male) is making it difficult to find brides for young boys.
In parts of Bihar called Mithila, boys are kidnapped and forcibly married off to girls as the girls parents couldn't afford the dowry demanded by boys parents.
We are soon going to reach that stage in H,P & R states.
Girls parents will soon start demanding dowries for girls and we shall have girls being forcibly kidnapped and married.
Well Done India
EVMs - Are they defective?
Show how EVMs can be tampered with, EC tells parties
NEW DELHI,1 AUG: In the wake of objections by some political parties to the use of Electronic Voting Machines, the Election Commission today asked anti-EVM lobbyists to demonstrate before it how the machines could be tampered with.
“While the Commission completely rejects the contention regarding fallibility of the EVMs, it has now decided to go the extra distance by inviting all those who have expressed reservations about the machine to come and demonstrate the points made in their allegations,” the EC said.
The Commission said the demonstration would be done from next week in the presence of a group of technical experts as well as engineers representing the EVM manufacturers.The development comes against the backdrop of Supreme Court last week asking parties to approach the EC with their complaints. The apex court had made the observation while declining to entertain a PIL questioning the functioning of EVMs.
The EC noted that similar petitions have been filed before the Madras High Court, the Bombay High Court and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh pertaining to the possibility of tampering of EVMs.
“The EC remains entirely satisfied that EVMs cannot be tampered with. These are fully tamper-proof,” the EC said in its press note. pti
We have a saying in Hindi -
"Nach na jane angan ter" meaning
You don't know how to dance so you blame the floors unevenness.
It is all those political parties who lost in the last elections that are blaming the EVMs.
The general public were satisfied with the performance.
Since the losers could not rig the elections by casting false votes, they are blaming the machines.
I fully agree with our election Commission.
Let them prove that the machines can be tampered before withdrawing them.
NEW DELHI,1 AUG: In the wake of objections by some political parties to the use of Electronic Voting Machines, the Election Commission today asked anti-EVM lobbyists to demonstrate before it how the machines could be tampered with.
“While the Commission completely rejects the contention regarding fallibility of the EVMs, it has now decided to go the extra distance by inviting all those who have expressed reservations about the machine to come and demonstrate the points made in their allegations,” the EC said.
The Commission said the demonstration would be done from next week in the presence of a group of technical experts as well as engineers representing the EVM manufacturers.The development comes against the backdrop of Supreme Court last week asking parties to approach the EC with their complaints. The apex court had made the observation while declining to entertain a PIL questioning the functioning of EVMs.
The EC noted that similar petitions have been filed before the Madras High Court, the Bombay High Court and the High Court of Madhya Pradesh pertaining to the possibility of tampering of EVMs.
“The EC remains entirely satisfied that EVMs cannot be tampered with. These are fully tamper-proof,” the EC said in its press note. pti
We have a saying in Hindi -
"Nach na jane angan ter" meaning
You don't know how to dance so you blame the floors unevenness.
It is all those political parties who lost in the last elections that are blaming the EVMs.
The general public were satisfied with the performance.
Since the losers could not rig the elections by casting false votes, they are blaming the machines.
I fully agree with our election Commission.
Let them prove that the machines can be tampered before withdrawing them.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A phone call from the opposite side of the Globe
This afternoon I got a phone call from Nihar Sircar, from Toronto. We haven't seen each other for 45 years. Of course we have been contacting through the net, and that also from a year or so ago. The phone call from the opposite side of the globe from a person I haven't met for 45 years, simply thrilled me. I remember Nihar as a stout young man, with determination. A wonderful goalkeeper he was. I remember once we went to St. Paul's to play a friendly football match. Nihar was our goalkeeper. In one of the skirmishes at our end of the box, one of the forwards of St. Paul's punched Nihar in the stomach. Nihar was not a person to take it lightly. At the first opportunity, he punched the opponent's forward in the face when he was going to head the ball. It was a hard punch which made him bleed from the mouth. So that was Nihar. I wonder if Nihar remembers he and Lawrence Keelen punching Br. Mark when he attempted to stop a fight between the boys. That was a hilarious scene. During one of the Puja holidays, a few of us who did not go home, went for a picnic to Kettle Valley. We were to do the cooking. Nihar and Subhomay Bhattacharya had taken charge of the food department. But, unfortunately, the fire couldn't be lighted, no matter how they tried. One of the women tea pickers was watching their vain attempts with curiosity. Finally, she came down from the hillside and lighted the fire. Ultimately, food was ready, but what it tasted like, don't ask me. We were hungry young men, anything would be gulped down. Subhomay Bhattacharya met an untimely death the following year during the last rites of his grandfather. A young life snuffed out.
Nihar and I talked for about ten minutes. We were trying to recall the names of the students in our classes. He was one year senior to me in school, with Safiul Huda, S.Bhattacharya, Jeffrey Knight, P.K. Dev Barman and others. He has invited me to visit his house in Toronto. God knows whether that will ever materialise. But the sincerity and the warmth were touching, and these are the qualities that bind us Goethalites. Thank you, Nihar.
Nihar and I talked for about ten minutes. We were trying to recall the names of the students in our classes. He was one year senior to me in school, with Safiul Huda, S.Bhattacharya, Jeffrey Knight, P.K. Dev Barman and others. He has invited me to visit his house in Toronto. God knows whether that will ever materialise. But the sincerity and the warmth were touching, and these are the qualities that bind us Goethalites. Thank you, Nihar.
Msgs from friends 29
Msg from Ralph Reeves
Hari Ohm my friend.
Just heard from Jeff Dessa. he might make it for our Goethalite reunion Sept. 19th. in Toronto. If he does make it I would see him after 41 years!!
Yes! Radesh, Indeed, nothing has changed in India with the trains being late not too informative about the cancellations and of course the political bull that would piss off anyone. That was good reason to leave (besides others ofcourse) and come to Canada. I never afetr 18 years here ever regretted having come here. I'm so happy and swore never to go back to India. but I felt guilty and thought I owed it to my boys to go back and have them decide for themselves. They loved it and even came back the next year for a holiday. If ever, I would only come back for a vacation. Hope I would not be confronted by political bull then too!!
Was in Calgary to reunite with my boys for 10 days. We had a blast. I am attaching a shot of the family while we in BC. We drove through the mountains and even saw a grizzly bear walk by the road from the woods. We took a dip at the Radium Hot Springs and it was very theraputic. My boys are very happy there and do not want to come back to Ontario. This is fine by me as they need to make their own life for themselves now.
Take care and be safe
Cheers
Ralph
Hari Om Ralph,
It is always good receiving your letters.
We get news from the other end of the globe where the weather and the culture is so much different from ours.
Yes, you are right. Things are so much wrong in India that one feels like throwing in the towel and moving out. But if we educated people move out then who will improve things.
No, no matter, how much difficult everything is, I will stay here and try to improve things using my pen and helping other like minded people like Swami Ramdeo to improve things.
If people like us move out, India will be left to wolves like Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh, Mayawati etc.
A day will come when we shall combine the best of the East and the West to make India a world leader.
You have a beautiful family. I am putting the photo on our blog.
You too have a difficult life on the ship. Take care and keep us informed of your whereabouts.
Cheers,
Radheshyam
Msg from Charles Tresham
Hi Rad
I note your experience on the Indian Railways prior to your vacation
It just seemed incredibly unjust that the trains taking us up to school from Sealdah were always on time especially when we would have appreciated a few extra days at home. Murphy’s law I think!
Dents on the car….well that’s pretty much universal. It happens everywhere. What’s worse is birds crapping on your car. Plenty of that in the UK and it really damages the paint work. Choosing the right car helps a lot so, for those similarly affected I have enclosed a short video clip with an ideal solution.
Regards
Charles H Tresham
Hari Om Charles,
Yes, Life was so much more difficult during our times.
We used to come in March and go back in December.
Nine months locked up in school except for the Siliguri boys who went home during the Puja Vacation.
Nowadays, with the broadgauge trains going from Sealdah to New Jalpaiguri, the boys come home thrice a year.
but, no toy trains for them.
They come from School by Tata Sumos to New Jalpaiguri within 2 Hours, hop on the Darjeeling mail and are in Kolkata by next morning.Just 14 hours.
We used to take 30 hours using Broad gauge, Steamer, Metre gauge, Toy train.
But then, how much more fun we had?
Cheers
Radheshyam
Making a Football
Footballs have changed a lot since the time we used to play in Goethals.
Gone are the laced leather ones.
Now you get synthetic footballs with a single hole through which air is pushed in.
No seperate outer and bladder. So much easier to head when you know the lace is not going to strike you. Of course in those days, we never thought the lace would hurt.
These pictures may be useful for anyone going into the football manufacturing industry.
This has been sent by Krishna V. Joshi
Gone are the laced leather ones.
Now you get synthetic footballs with a single hole through which air is pushed in.
No seperate outer and bladder. So much easier to head when you know the lace is not going to strike you. Of course in those days, we never thought the lace would hurt.
These pictures may be useful for anyone going into the football manufacturing industry.
This has been sent by Krishna V. Joshi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
