Priyanka’s entry has generated a lot of heat, in political circles, and we see a lot of discussions and debates in TVs and press, some supporting and some opposing. She has been made General Secretary, and made in-charge of Eastern UP, at a time when Lok Sabha elections are around the corner. I feel it’s a good decision to put her in charge of a region where it’s party is in poor state, while SP -BSP are in alliance and it’s a Herculean task to take on BJP in UP and if you see the initial responses from Sambit Patra etc, her entry must have rattled the ruling party. The inevitable has happened. Priyanka has taken the plunge into the cesspool in what could be a  defining moment in the run-up to the general elections. But if we see the reality, her entry didn’t happen overnight. The party brass had been discussing the subject of a party position for her for quite a while, even though she had been known for more than a decade, as the star campaigner for her mother and brother.

While many political analysts say that it’s a big master-stroke and give a fillip to the party’s prospects in the ensuing elections. The news had made the ruling dispensation uneasy as can be seen from a somewhat crude response from their top leader. Instead of displaying some gravitas, a familiar and worn out bogey of the dynasty has been raised. Dynasty has no meaning in democracy. We have KCRs, CBNs, Rajanath Singh, Vasundhara Raje, Menaka, and I can quote 100 names from BJP alone, but they are all contesting elections and winning as nobody can be imposed as King because he or she belongs to a royal lineage. The so-called dynasty doesn’t ensure any guaranteed success. One has to go through the election process and prove one’s worth. Otherwise, one would be mercilessly thrown out. The party will see the win ability and also the mass-appeal. The way the BJP is trying to woo cine -stars and other public figures, though they are bereft of any experience. Priyanka is a well-known face with a lot of charisma and vote-catching ability. She doesn’t deserve the derision of top leadership and people like Sabit Patra. In fact, it’s their internal matter, and Shivsena has reacted gracefully.

Priyanka has as much right as anybody else to enter politics. As a matter fact, her background of having two martyrs in the family makes her all the more eligible and nothing to sneer about.

Now with her entry, the prospects of the party returning to power in 2019 have brightened and the nation in all likelihood may witness a “New Women’s Era”

Whether Congress wins or looses and no matter how the “dynasty rule “ debate pans out, this latest political entry by Priyanka is a key event in Indian politics.Circumstances and her own performance will determine how the career of the political debutante unfolds but for the moment her arrival has shaken up national politics.

After watching lakhs of Naga sadhus and crores of people taking a dip in the holy Ganga at Kumbh Mela, made me wonder about the cleanliness of the sacred river. 

I was very happy when one of my friends wrote that the cleaning process is on and that most of the job has already been done, as our honourable PM represents Kashi. But my own research has shown me a pathetic story

Swamy Sanand who recently passed away after his 111 day fast to save the Ganga wrote to PM "In the last 4years of your government there is not even a single action that can be said to be a fruitful one in the direction of saving Ganga” The recent CAG review of Namami Gange corroborates with Swamiji, it says that only 1%of the river has been cleaned in the last 4 years and around 50,000 crores more is needed to complete the project, due to administrative delays, poor contract management. As per the report Rs20,000 crores for a period of 5 years, was allocated for this mission that was flagged off amidst much fanfare in 2014. It is Therefore really deeply shocking that nearly half of that budget has been spent only to achieve 1%progress. Earlier too dismissing the claims of respective state governments about the measures taken, the NGT had expressed its bitter disappointment.

A year ago, we all (family with few relatives) went to Varanasi on pilgrimage and noticed that there is a good development in the city but the Ganga river is still in bad condition.

Mr. AK Biswas a distinguished visiting professor at the LEE KUAN YEW school for public policy in Singapore, is a globally most respected Water Expert says, ”the entire Ganga pollution control plan is fundamentally flawed. If by a miracle the current plan could be implemented, it will still not be effective even over the medium term, let alone the long term, because it is mostly past-oriented and does not take into account the future conditions.” Biswas, who has authored and edited over 80 books, mainly on water resources and management said: “political rhetoric will never clean up Ganga —-it’s theoretically impossible to clean entire Ganga by 2020.”

The fundamental issue is “Development Vs Environment ”. The Uttarakhand government maintains that Mining is essential for their State’s Growth while the environmental activists hold that successive governments have been colluding with the mining mafia in their unlawful and unsustainable mining. This apart tannery effluents, municipal sewerage etc are also the reasons.

It’s only the people of this Punyabhoomi who have been blessed with few unique and outstanding things—Ganga, Gau, Gita, and Gayatri. Its high time we Indians rise above all divisions collectively resurrect at least this divine aquatic gift called Ganga otherwise there will be no Ganga remaining, leaving us with the only option of a mental dip in it. 

"Modi’s decision to buy 36 Rafales shot the price of each jet up by 41%” screamed the headline of an article carried out by The Hindu.  And had a detailed investigative report by N Ram. 
This exclusive report of N Ram on the Rafale fighter aircraft deal has nailed several lies.
This report establishes and validates the argument of the opposition that there is something fishy about the whole deal, and therefore it’s a fit case to go before JPC, as it is interspersed with facts and figures. This article proved beyond doubt that distorted facts must have been presented before the courts.
The government is in direct confrontation with opposition on this issue while its strange that our honorable PM who has been closely involved in the deal, maintains stoic silence while the Ministers of his cabinet some of whom have had no role in the deal have been left to defend it. In its defense of the Rafale deal the government can not make the excuse of saying that previous governments too indulged in such activities. The point of national security cannot be used when convenient if asked about transparency in government dealings.
The government has to accept the fact that the configuration and capabilities of the JETs negotiated by earlier UPA and those renegotiated and procured by NDA were practically same, while the terms such as “ design and development of India specific enhancements" were needed to make the aircraft battle ready is still open to contestation. Dassault Aviation would not have been allowed to make a windfall out of the deal without some quid-pro-quo. There is nothing called free lunch in the business world. Further, the report has made it amply clear that the confidentiality clause was applied to technical details. Instead Of clinging on to Supreme Court’s inexplicable clean chit, the government should agree to have JPC probe as transparency and accountability are vitally important for a democracy. And also there is a strong feeling that the required procedures were avoided, while the silence by the government will be seen as cowardly in absence of proper answers.

At the fag end of the Winter Session of Parliament, the Govt has introduced a bill to reserve 10 percent seats in Educational Institutions and in government employment for the poorer sections of the unreserved category. This is clearly an undisguised election move to woo the communities, high-caste Hindus, like Patels, Marathas and Kapus in AP etc., who have missed the bus of reservations as the upper castes have recently punished BJP in the Assembly Elections. Originally, if you look back it was Mr. PV Narasimha Rao who had brought an identical 10 percent reservation for the upper castes in the wake of the backlash of Mandal Commission. But it was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Now if you see, this move,  at the last lap of its tenure to give reservations to upper castes on the basis of economic condition goes against the very purpose for which reservation was introduced and constitutionally validated, in order to correct the historical wrongs and injustices.The fear of losing votes drives the government to try every trick in the book.

If one recalls, Indian Railways called applications for 63,000 vacancies and drew a response of 1.9 crore people for jobs like helpers, porters, cleaners, gatemen etc. In India, the paradox is that though it’s one of the fast-growing economies, it’s unable to generate a sufficient number of jobs for the youth. On the other hands, we have seen Demonetisation had played havoc, created endless problems and it’s important that these problems are addressed. Especially when more educated young people enter the workforce. Therefore, I fail to understand how will quotas for the backward or forward classes will help? Growth has proved elusive with unemployment, inflation etc, however much we may wish to sanitise the facts. Quotas may not be the answer, but it’s clear that NDA is desperate to retain power at any cost, as it has failed to fulfill poll promises of 2014, which is why it’s resorting to such gimmicks and it's trying to manage the perceptions. The criterion is that only people with 8 lakhs income will be excluded, thus 96 percent will now become eligible for reservations, but the moot question here is where are the jobs? 

During my visit to a book fair last month I bought 3-4 books and one of them is titled 'The Indomitable Sardar by KL Panjabi. Honestly speaking, I don’t know much about Sardar Patel, except for the little I read in class textbooks as a school kid.  My understanding about him is that he was Deputy PM with Nehru, participated in the freedom struggle, under the leadership of Mahatma, before Independence, and it’s also known to me that he As Home Minister, was responsible for the accession of princely states into Indian Union.

This 294-page book of Rs50/ published By Bharatiya Vidyabhavan, is very interesting and it gives a lot of information about Patel. Mr. Panjabi, the author, was an ICS officer, retired as CS, of Bombay State, who came into contact with Patel, from 1928, and used to meet him frequently, in later years, I believe.  This book is a political biography, of Sardar Patel, as the author felt, that in Patel’s case, it has received scant attention from biographers, while the author also says that in certain circles, Patel was described as “persona-non-grata “ and was even painted as reactionary and communalist as a part of conspiracy.

As per the author, in Moulana  Azad’s autobiography, "India Wins Freedom” Mr. Patel was shown in poor light, which needs to be cleared by presenting hard facts which had slipped from the Azad’s selective memory.

The chapters 21 “Minister for states” and chapter 22nd, “closing years” are very interesting to read, which deal with Integration of 554 Indian States into the Union Of India, will forever be monument to Sardar’s statesmanship, administrative skill, and ardent zeal to unify the country as it never had been unified in the history. I was very much delighted to read Accession of Hyderabad, the police Action, Razakar movement, and the movement of Communists atrocities, in and around Hyderabad. 

Prior to reading this book, I was under the impression that Sardar and Nehru were never on the same page, and that Sardar was sidelined ( formed due to some newspaper articles). But it’s not so, Sardar had wholeheartedly accepted Nehru’s leadership as he was aware of his own shortcomings. There were differences between them on matters like referring Pakistan’s aggression in Kashmir valley to UNO etc. But both respected each other’s views and used to make adjustments, in the larger interest of the Nation

If one reads the book, one will understand, that Sardar was true, hard-core Congressman throughout, a staunch follower of Mahatma, and completely against the RSS ideology of hard-core Hindutva.

 Read it to know Sardar Patel's passionate devotion to the country, his robust sense of realism, Iron will, which none could bend are the factors which thinking men mourn saying that had Sardar been alive our country wouldn’t have seen the type of hard days.