Salam Dr Kalam

Cremation of former president APJ Abdul Kalam saw sea of humanity descending at Rameshwaram, a small town in Tamil Nadu. He passed away on a 'toli ekadasi' day which is very sacred day for Hindus. Popularly know as 'missile man', Dr Kalam had a rare distinction of being scientist who contributed to space development, defense and atomic energy programs. His simple but very powerful speeches have ignited young minds. 

After Nehru, Dr Kalam was the only non controversial Indian leader who was loved by all, especially the kids. He was the most down to earth person, despite having achieved immense success. Even his last moments were spent with the students. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Mr Kalam was the people's president.  Even after assuming the highest office in the country he was the firm believer of simplicity and always tried to reach out to the common man.  With profound grief the teaching community salutes this great son of India on his demise.  His remarkable efforts in combating rumours and dispelling doubts about the significance of Kundakulam nuclear power project and Nutrino observatory near Theni are unforgettable.  I feel his inspiring life history and writings and speeches must be made part of the curriculum for the students textbooks. 

I'm of the firm opinion, that the India is more secure today because of Mr Kalam's unprecedented work on missiles. We salute him and pray he gets a space in heaven and I'm sure Modi Govt would name one of its missiles after him as homage.  Like a missile he now went into the sky never to return. May his soul rest in peace.

Is MP's salary hike justified?

Parliament is currently in session and each session costs the government exchequers crores of ruppes which are wasted through disruptions. This tit for tat politics of disruption of parliament for short term political gains ultimately serves none and opposition must keep up pressure on Govt for a thorough probe on scams but without putting brakes on the functioning of legislature or passage of bills and on its part the NDA should do well to enlist support and must genuinely make efforts on anti corruption front. It should even offer proposals to clean up cricket to protect whistleblowers and witnesses and to make CBI an independent. In essence both sides must find a middle ground rather than adopt intractable positions that deters the process of law making. This initiative has to come from Modi to put an end to this impasse. 

I am of the opinion that the MPs should be penalised if even a day goes unproductive. But to my utter surprise I had come across a news item few days ago,that the committee appointed for the purpose of review of MPs salaries and their perks had recommended enhancement both perks and salaries which is certainly a paradox as I fail to understand the rationale behind such recommendation.You will be flaberghasted to know that the recommendation includes two fold rise in the salary of sitting MP while 75 percent increase in the pension of those who retired earlier. Throwing the principle of austerity to the wind they even demanded a hike in DA which now stands at Rs 2000. Adding insult to the injury it was brazenly suggested to dole out even in health and transport for them. To list a few additional free AC first class train pass for companion of MP's choice like his PA and mind you this is besides the entitlement already available to the spouse. Further the pocket money provided to the MP during travel must be equivalent to the first class rail fare and whole the health benefits under CGHS should also be made available to the MP's children and grand children. These are some of the recommendations which I had come across .
When common man is unable to make both ends meet owing to frequent price rise and when millions of poor and under privileged go to bed every night on empty stomach is it not baffling that the parliamentary panel recommended doubling of MPs salaries and a substantial increase in allowances? Already we have been seeing our MPs are enjoying luxurious life in utter disregard to crores of people living below the poverty line with no proper shelter, food, education or medical facilities and therefore these recommendation I feel, should be rejected outright by our own MPs in order to show solidarity to the Aam Aadmi. Since full or partial acceptance of the said recommendation would put heavy burden on the exchequer which is totally unacceptable given the present critical scenario the country is passing through due to recession, growing unemployment and frequent uncontrollable  price rise.

All the political parties are alike!

We have been witnessing that the present session of parliament is getting disrupted continuously. Since Modi came to power 14 months ago none of the other parliament sessions have been this disruptive. Thsi is happening due to two very important reasons.---one, the top BJP leaders are in web of damaging controversies which really hurt its image a cross the nation and the second being the congress, the main opposition putting far more focussed resistance against the ruling dispensation as Rahul must be seeking to appear in a new avatar which was different from his earlier image as a reluctant leader.
As every one would agree that disruption of parliament would cost the nation dearly but the congress seems to have  taken a leaf out of BJP's experience as an opposition party at national level. They set different rules on how not to allow the houses to function. We have even seen Mrs Sushma Swaraj as leader of the opposition saying, "not allowing parliament to function is also a form of democracy" while her counter part in Rajyasabha Arun Jaitley said, " by disrupting the house we have sent a message to the country". It seems the needle of the clock has now taken a full circle and now it is turn of the congress to turn the tables against the ruling dispensation.

As we all know that it was BJP which had promised a clean Govt and now it left to the wisdom of the people to draw inference regarding the  stand takenby BJP with regards to Sushma, Raje and Chowhan. Any sane man would know the disruption works better for the opposition rather than the Govt.The louder the noise the the better it is for the opposition parties. Unfotunately commotion and confusion in parliament seem to get better media mileage as both VYAPAM Scam and Lalit Gate have put BJP on the back foot.
The matters have become worse, when BJP revealed that no Minister or party functionary of any level is going to resign while we all remember what Union Minister for Home said that it is NDA and not UPA.
The fact of the matter is that the last budget session was one of the most productive sessions in the recent years but with the economy not out of doldrums yet, the NDA needs to demonstrate that it can keep the reforms momentum going.Two critical bills GST and Land Acqisition are on the anvil. However since BJP routinely resorted to obstructive tactics during UPA -2 and now that VYAPAM and Lalit Gate scandals have broken, it is but natural for the Congress to play the same coin. More over with Bihar assembly elections fast approaching the opposition parties would certainly attempt to milk the Govt's embarrassments.
BJP must be formulating strategies but unless the opposition also play a ball it would be difficult to conduct any sort of meaningful buisuiness in both houses. The strategy that they have adopted is to counter attack the opposition. Swaraj while making the statement said that one congress MP exerted pressure on her to issusue a passport to Santosh Bagrodia and we have also seen how Harish Rawat. Virbhadra Singh and Digambar Kamat's have been brought in. With this,will BJP would be obsolved ?

On perusal of all the relavent issues one thing seems to be sure,is it not unfortunate to see the ruling BJP trying to protect its top leaders who are now in eye of the storm? And is it not disgraceful that the tainted top brass are being safeguarded instead of being made to face enquiries? Therefore it is construed that all the political parties are of the same coin and BJP is neither above the board nor any exception as has been claimed by Modiji. 

Vypam Scam

Scams have become norm of the day. It started with with Mrs, Sushma Swaraj, CM of Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh.  Fews days ago we heard the story of Air India reduced to being a personal carrier of VVIPs completely subservient to the whims and fancies of Ministers and senior bureaucrats. It was Mr Fadnavis the CM of Maharashtra who got the flight delayed while Mr Rijiju got the regular passengers to vacate the seats for him and we have also heard that MK Stalin, the DMK leader in Chennai slapped a man standing close to him, in local train for refusing to move ahead. Our leaders are earning great disrepute for demanding preferential treatment and in showing utter disregard for rules that normal citizens have to abide by.
Now it VYAPAM SCAM that has superseded all other scams because it is recorded that the scam is about Rs 2000/ crores,but internally it is being discussed and agreed that it is 20 times more than 2000/ crores,which is the biggest in independent India.
The sudden and mysterious deaths of witnesses and people associated with it is most alarming while it is fact that the prominent BJP members claim that the NDA Govt's biggest achievement is No scam on one year of its rule. Such a virtuous self praise has now been squarely eclipsed with the repots of one major disparaging story every other day. 
The VYAPAM to me it appears like a plot in a spicy novel of Agatha Christie wherein the people associated  with the probe will get eliminated one after the other and the stony silence of the PM and BJP as such will certainly erode the credibility of the party/Govt in the centre and the people who voted and wanted to have a change must be disillusioned  as this also looks to be equally corrupt. 
Having seen such big scams, I fail to understand as to where are the high decibel NGOs and and so called activists and where are the constitutional provisions for the safety of the whistle blowers against the might of such corrupt people?
 As all of us know this scandal has come to light only after some years of continuous rigging of eligibility tests and different recruitment drives and this itself speaks the absence of any vigilance machinery in MP. As we all know the NDA led BJP came to power by fanning the dreams of glorious vision of the future. However nothing seems to be happening. After Lalit Gate, this VYAPAM Scam and the way it being dealt with is greatly eroding the credibility of the Govt and the party.
But the yesterday's move of Mr Chouhan in approaching the High Court, for a CBI probe is to preempt an order by Supreme Court to that effect .The sad part of it the CM's family members, Governor and his son etc are all said to be either directly or indirectly involved. The CBI now has to do a comprehensive investigation into the coverup and the conspiracy behind the series of deaths and to find out whether these were engineered to protect some one and to stop this outrageous chapter.

An uncanny link between politics and sports!

The current topic of discussion Lalit Gate brings to the fore the overlap between politics and sports in India. Sports should be independent of vested interests and conflicts of interest. Couple of days back Time of India carried an article titled "BJP in disarray" where party leaders including R K Singh and former Union Home Secretary have questioned the party's stand to defend Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje in Lalit Modi scandal.  All this has come to public domain after the Sunday TIMES in UK came out with big story which stated British Labour MP of Indian origin has on Sushma Swaraj's  to expedite Lalit Modi's travel permit.
Swaraj had sent a written request to Vaz to issue the required documents to Lalit Modi to travel to UK to sign the papers pertaining to his ailing wife. And the problem here is that it had been discreetly done, keeping her own Ministry in dark and it is known fact that Lalith Modi is a fugitive having about 16 cases pending against him, for money laundering to the tune is 1700 crores and he fled to UK in 2010 against whom a red corner notice is pending since UPA's time. And Modi himself confessed openly that Raje had helped him to get the extended stay in UK and not only she had sent a written communication she even travelled with his wife to Portugal in her private capacity.
the MPs and Ministers who are supposed to concentrate more on legislation are only closely moving or hobnobbing with fugitives and criminals,which led to sordid state of affairs in the Indian context.
The series of charges levelled against Swaraj and Raje may or may not involve criminality but it is established beyond doubt that it is grave political impropriety by the both BJP leaders. Infact there seems to be conflict of interest arising out of links between Lalit Modi and the two BJP leaders along with their families, which only compounds the damage as both of them have engaged clandestinely with British authorities to help a fugitive from Indian law enforcing agencies.
The behaviour of senior leaders is not at all acceptable as it makes their position untenable even if there was no proven conflict of interest or any murky business deals. How can any one justify that Swaraj's lawyer daughter seeking the revocation of Modi' s passport in court when her own Ministry was opposing.  Nor can anyone justify the inflow of funds from this cricket Czar to a loss making and dormant firm of Dushyant, son of Mrs Raje.

The root cause of all this controversy relates to the nexus between politicians, sportsmen and bureaucrats. 

I would say that this issue is threatening Narendra Modi's message of making India an incorruptuble nation. But The PM and senior leaders silence on this may lead to various wrong assumptions and therefore it is high time for Modi government to demonstrate that it will not fall for this play as far as the investigation on Lalit Modi regarding his taxes and foreign exchange issues while perusing the probes. 

Over Publicity Negates A Brave Mission

Days after June 4th killing of about 20 jawans of Indian Army by NSCN militants, a robust response has come from the Indian forces, by striking at the militant camps across the border and inside Myanmar territory. It shows that Modi is willing to bite the bullet. Confirmation of this strike has been made by the Minister of State for IB Mr Rajavardhan Singh Rathode. But the fact of the matter is, the killing of insurgents inside the Myanmar border may not be a big deal for an army of India's size. Indeed the operation is ridiculously small when compared to the liberation of Bangladesh by Mrs Indira Gandhi. After this incident we saw everyday the electronic media to continuously engage Pakistan in war of words over this operation. Is it really necessary? I feel the Indian media never seems to learn lessons. You all know it was Indian media's over drive in Nepal, following the quake that soured our relations with Kathmadu. Now can we afford to face the similar situation in Myanmar? 
When we are talking about regional peace, the sovereignty of neighbouring countries should be respected? We already have disturbed relations with Pakisthan and China. We cannot antagonise Myanmar, one may remember that India had carried out similar strikes starting with : Operation golden bird in 1995. The Indian army has smoked out militants in Myanmar and Bhutan with the consent and active participation of those Govts. Ofcorse it was all under wraps. But now what is our stand when Myanmar appears to be contradicting the Indian story? 

Infact people are of the opinion that rather than warn Pakisthan why can't India conduct a similar surprise raids on POK which has many terrorist camps? And for this we can justify saying self defence. This should be the available solution for against Pakisthan's acts of terrorism.
Right from the beginning of the present episode, India should have played out this cross border raid with more tact. Both the Indian army and the media should have avoided talking too much about the incident.

However with regards to this incident there are two schools of thought, one is that India will no longer tolerate when faced with terrorist attacks, while the other school of thought is, that the Myanmar is contradicting Indian side of story, it is a slap on us.Amidst this one has to evaluate the ground realities. While such operations can be conducted with ease on Nepal, Myanmar or Bhutan, the countries with which our relations are on different plane, but would this type move be so easy in the case of Pakistan or China? In case India wants such operations in due course why so much unnecessary publicity, which may result in many more problems.

International Day of Yoga

 It is International Day of Yoga on 21st June (also father's day this year).  The declaration of this came about only after Prime Minister Modi called for it and more than 177 countries including USA, Egypt, Canada and China supported the move at UN General Assembly. 
It is welcome move by Modi to promote this ancient tradition of Yoga and to bring forth the Indian contribution towards the welfare of international community. And the Central Govt's initiative to promote it on a mass scale is welcome, but  I personally feel, the Govt is going overboard with this initiative and its over enthusiasm is creating wrong perception among people. Governments invovlement makes it more like propaganda tool to promote Hindu culture and is diverting people from core aspect of reaping the health benefits from yoga.
It is an ancient tradition which doesnot need such demonstrative approach to promoting it. All it needs to do is to facilitate its practice and not enforce it. 
And I strongly feel the government's extra efforts are hindering it from becoming a people's movement.  This hyper active promotions have led the Govt, to withdraw Suryanamskara, which is part of Yoga, as lot of euphoria has been generated that it was against the tenets of ISLAM. However the government acted fast and cleverly withdrew it.
It is a fact the both health and education (about yoga), have been relegated to the back ground, by the successive Governments. Unlike in the west where they are accorded top priority and the benefits of it having been internationally acclaimed. Yoga is being practised by millions of people across the globe where majority of the people are either Muslims or Christians
Yoga offers a perfect and time tested solutions to societal problems faced by today's world therefore YOGA DAY would provide a fitting occasion to acknowledge the invaluable contribution made by our ancestors, rishis and munis.