It is a sad day for Indian democracy when cracks in one pillar of our great democracy have come to the fore. Four senior most Judges of SC seem to have been compelled by the circumstances to take extreme step of going to the press. This addressing the press is an unprecedented and an extraordinary event that should make every one sit up and take notice. In my opinion it has been wrongly decried as a “sponsored revolt”. If the respected judges with historic verdicts, under their belt, felt that they didn’t want to sell their souls, they deserve a fair hearing. Though Friday’s press conference is historic as mentioned by justice Chalameswar, it is a known fact that he had some grouse against the functioning of Collegium, which he made abundantly clear and CJ should have addressed his concerns. But it was only after the judges failed to get any remedy from CJI that they came out in public. This was an extraordinary event in history of this institution. They were compelled to act in this way because the CJ couldn’t be persuaded to mend the ways of the court. “We owe responsibility to the institution and the nation. Our efforts have failed in convincing CJI to take steps to protect the institution” the judges said. During the TV debates, some have expressed that they could have knocked the doors of the President of India. It is a simple solution  which they may have thought of. But having known the Presidential position, they are right, as it doesn’t serve any purpose and now the incident shows the power of democracy. The crux of the matter as I understood is whether the CJ is “ master of roster” or a first among equals. This is an issue concerning one of country’s most respected institutions and the one in which majority of Indians still continue to repose tremendous trust. T he sorry state of affairs which were not disclosed elaborately by the four judges, against CJI tends to lend credence that there is something fishy. General Public is already opining that the judiciary is no longer a Caesar’s wife. The situation seems to have reached a point of no return when Justice Chalameswar was over ruled by present CJ I, in connection with a corruption case in Kerala involving some judges according to the press. Anyway it was not in good taste. As the four judges, integrity is high, and the allegations cannot be ignored. What happened on 12th Jan, is almost hostile atmosphere. Much damage has already been done. The Central Govt deserves to be appreciated for refusing to intervene. If Jaitley has offered his good offices, it must be in his capacity as a member of legal fraternity. As I understood, all judges of SC are juniors in age and professional career to the octogenarian Attorney General Of India K Venugopal. There are some other respectable seniors like Soli Sorabji, and FaliNariman who have been associated with the SC since its initial day’s, and have grown with it. Without insisting on prestige and ego, all the concerned, in the interest of Indian democracy must save the last bastion.

Supreme Court on Monday (8/1/18) adjudged that there was no need to reinvestigate Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination case. With this decision the issue has come an end. Two tragedies struck India in 1948 and people even after seven decades of post independence India still suffers the consequences of those tragedies. One was partition of India amidst bloodbath, and the other was the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, by a fellow Hindu, called Nathuram Godse, When Mahatma was walking to his daily prayer meeting on 30th Jan 1948. In his confession, Godse announced that he pumped three bullets into the chest of Gandhi, as his policy and actions ruined the millions of Hindus and he had no “respect for the policy which was unfairly favourable to Muslims” Godse and Narayan Apte were hanged for this murder, on 15/11/1949. But now it seems, the historians are indulging in hair-splitting over who killed Mahatma. Eminent thinkers like A G Noorani, wrote about Savarkar ,Hindu ideologue, former president Hindu Mahasabha, his alleged involvement in the said assassination. The Kanpur Commission also commented that Savarkar plotted the murder but he was acquitted owing lack of corroborative evidence. Infact, Patel then Home Minister too accepted this view and wrote PM Nehru. Now Dr Pankajphadnis ,a self confessed follower of Savarkar, filled a PIL in SC questioning the belief that three bullets were fired, stating that the “fourth bullet “”fired by a mysterious assassin killed Gandhiji. The petitioner therefore wanted thorough probe, into the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, to identify the mysterious assassin. Keeping aside all this, the Supreme Court, opined that no further probe is needed, into the assassination of Gandhiji, and as per amicus curiae, no substantive material has come to light to throw doubt on any of the above, requiring either reinvestigation or to constitute afresh fact finding Commission.  I feel, he has been killed by the said three bullets, which was proved beyond doubt, and if at all any fourth bullet was there, it was the only politicians of post Independent India, who made mockery of democracy, turned elections a farce, fragmented the society on lines of caste, creed, religion, and created a different culture as such, while stifling dissidence changed the concept of nationalism. Its sad that some people are not prepared to leave even Mahatma Gandhi.

There are no two opinions that the practice of triple talaq is against all canons of justice. But the passage of the bill got mixed responses. After listening to many debates and discussions both in print and electronic media, after passage of the bill in Lok Sabha, the Centre’s justification was commendable, but I fail to understand one important issue here is that, how can divorce despite being a family affair, has now been pushed into criminal sphere. Will our judiciary uphold this? The bill in other words presumes the divorce and proceeds with a punishment of three years jail and fine. This tricky subject needs to be tackled cautiously and there is a need for wider consultations as the hasty moves will evoke suspicions. As per one of debate, the proposed law says, that instant Talaq in any form, spoken in writing or by electronic means, like mail, SMS, and Whatsapp etc would be illegal and void. A provision has been made to imprison, for 3 years with a fine for violators. But what will happen to the family when an earning person (husband) is imprisoned for 3 years? Even when the Congress supported the bill, Salman Khursheed, who is Bar-at-law, and a very senior member of Parliament from UP, Ex-Law Minister had opposed it saying that it is an intrusion into personal lives of an individual and bring divorce, a civil issue, into the realm of criminal law. The debates in English channels are sometimes very educative. What I understood is that the Islamic sharia law itself declares that there is a provision for women, that if she feels that injustice was done, to her, by this Triple Talq she is at liberty to knock the doors of the court. Therefore my personal opinion, is that may or may not prove to be a tool for gender equality, and it needs to be drafted with adequate thought and there is a need to be more sensible and inclusive approach, to issue and we need laws which allow for both marriages and dissolution to take place in less complicated and quick manner. In other Muslim countries like Pakistan a clear procedure has been prescribed, I believe some such thing should have been done. Though the bill has been brought at the instance of Apex Court, I don’t know whether It would be upheld when it is challenged in the court of law.

Nerella Venu Madhav, a famous mimicry artist’s special Postal cover was released by India Post. It was unveiled on Tuesday (yesterday), in commemoration of the maestro’s seven decades of association with the art form.
Long before the present day comedy shows became famous on TVs, he held the audience captivated, with his art, which catapulted him to popularity, and also created a niche for Mimicry in the country. He is one of the stalwarts in his field that brought fame to the country to this specific art. He was the first Indian artist, to perform mimicry in United Nations. He is very good singer and a ventriloquist. He hails from a middle class family from Warangal, a teacher by profession, he has been given many awards and rewards. P V Narsimha Rao as a then CM of AP made him MLC and by then he had already created a place for himself by mimicking all and sundry, noted personalities of the era, including politicians, cinema actors, and he himself acted in few films also.
Most of the present day mimicry artists both AP&TS are his disciples. His role in propagating mimicry is colossal as he inspired many to take it as a profession.
He was instrumental in introducing mimicry as subject in curriculum of Telugu University, and wrote the syllabus also. When V Rajeswar Rao Ex-MP was alive, he was frequent visitor to their house in SR Nagar, and I also used to interact with him. I used to derive lot of pleasure, when used to imitate my father, who is no more, and Sri Rajeswar Rao also used to ask him to imitate my father, which he used to do with utmost precision. I’m very happy to note that the maestro would now be seen on special covers with India Post, from yesterday onwards and now he must be turning 85 years on Dec 28th. I have great reverence for him and his art form and wish him all the best on his birthday.

Now with the results announced, cat is out of the bag as far as Gujarat election is concerned. The two phases of elections in Gujarat having been completed, which witnessed lot of mudslinging, instead of development as the core issue. Moreover Mr Aiyyar’s statement provided a golden opportunity to the ruling party, to garner public sympathy. For Congress it has turned out to be a good battle ground. I’m sure the whole campaign has given Rahul, a different identity, his popularity has definitely increased, and he has emerged as confident leader. As a matter of fact I have been following the electioneering process, that started from day one, both in print and electronic media, during the Gujarat campaign, and the ruling party didn’t miss a chance to polarise Hindu vote bank, for example Rahul’s “temple visit” right from his signing in the register,etc, were blown out of proportions,.

At the outset, the campaign had ended, amidst acrimony and vicious mudslinging, while the main issues concerning people were pushed to the backburner and accusations occupied the center stage. For Congress it heralds a new era under Rahul, in full scale with Mrs Sonia seen no nowhere around. There seems to be a fundamental change in the attitude, approach, and even the agenda of the party. I haven’t seen any appeasement of minorities, and the party, has come nearer to Hindus. Rahul’s temple visits, the TILAK on his forehead, total absence of any reference to Gujarat’s 2002 riots, shows total turn around, in approach. In a state Like Gujarat it must be understood that it can’t come to power by alienating majority community while for BJP it was Modi and Modi alone all the way. His entire cabinet, their MPs, including the PM were totally devoted and surprisingly PM did campaign like a CM of Gujarat, which no other PM right from Nehru to Rajeev, no one did campaign like this in case of a state election, they used to address one or two important public meetings, and rest will be taken care by local CM and more so PM had studiously avoided any reference to VIKAS though it is their own party in power for the last 22 years. The important outcome of Gujarat election, for AmitShah and PM, needs no reiteration. It is their home state and, they are expected to know what the people of Gujarat want, more than anybody else.   Congress has been in shambles in that state for the last more than two decades. No organisational structure, neither gross root level leader ship nor CM’s face, i was told by one of my close old friends from Mumbai, that until 3 months ago, it was just an election, that had to be gone through, to fulfill the constitutional obligation, but that perception had changed very suddenly. Congress which had been found wanting in taking on the government for over three years have suddenly turned very active, on social media, mastering art that Modi’s team was good at and even doing slightly better. Simultaneously Rahul had had a makeover. No more the butt of jokes he was asking the right questions at the right time, and  during the campaign he had repeatedly stated that he would not make any personal accusations against Modi while Modi did the other way throughout. I was surprised to note and find that in one place in Ahmedabad, he the incoming Congress President addressed a press conference for the first time, which Modi could never do it in last 46 months, wherein he said he wants to change the discourse of politics as it has become nasty and ugly, while saying that he wanted politics of love and compassion whereas Modi’s campaign was only about himself, Congress, and Rahul and his visits to temples has done some good for the Congress to pull all anti Modi forces, though what kind of damage Hardik Patel can do to BJP will only be known on Monday. As a matter of fact, the election battle in Gujarat were fought on playing fields of Pakistan to reincarnate Indian nationalism. As all of us had seen  Manishankar Aiyar on Dec 6th hosted a dinner in his house, for the visiting Ex-Foreign Minister of Pakistan Mr Kasuri a fellow Oxonian and next day he shared a common platform to discuss Indo-Pakistan relations wherein carelessly Aiyar referred to Modi as ‘Neech Aadmi’ , which made BJP to empty its barrels against Aiyar. Though he stayed on his feet, but Rahul ordered him to apologise to Modi, and took swift action to suspend him from party’s primary membership, but even then it was claimed that the dinner was conspiracy to subvert the elections of Gujarat and remember the members present were former Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, former foreign minister Natwarsingh, former diplomats Salman Haider, Raghavan, Sharat Sabharwal, ShankarBajpai, ChinmayGharekhan Former PM Manmohan Singh and former VP Ansari. Can we call these above dignitaries as conspirators?

 Exit polls conducted by various polling agencies have predicted that BJP would retain Gujarat with a reduced margin in 182 member Assembly, and one of them even predicted a sweep, and if the projections are correct, that means the campaign of BJP led by Modi triumphed over the Congress yet again and the result will surely have an effect on the future of our economy, and 2019 general elections. Though all exit polls favour the ruling party, Congress and Rahul gave Shah and his team a run for their money. But to me it appears, even though BJP wins, all the reforms may stop now, and Modi may take few leaves from Indira’s socialism to repackage them as the campaign has fully exposed the so-called Gujarat model and I’m sure this campaign game of invoking Pakistan will not work elsewhere. To me it appears, raising Pakistani, bogey PM pictured in poor light. Some of friends may not agree with my view, his speeches were like an astute aspirant of CM post, rather than PM of a nation. Infact, with having NIA, IB, CBI, at his disposal, he could have taken action, but try to woo the voters with such canards, will stand him in very low esteem. Labeling opponents as anti nationals, and stifling the voice of dissent, one may try to score political brownie points. But the fact of the matter is, BJP’s much touted Gujarati model has taken back seat, while the political slugfest only came to the fore. One should remember that success is not permanent and failure is not final in the game of politics. Airing out such baseless allegations against the former PM who is known for his impeccable integrity, is stooping too low to win just a state election.

 November 26th was Varghese Kurien's birthday and I read some really inspiring articles on him so wanted to share them with you all too.  Kurien moved to Anand in Gujarat, at the age 28, in the year 1949 and India could produce only 27 million tons of milk, while 74 percent of  demand was met through, imports around that time. In 2012  when he was passed away, India was producing, 127 million tons of milk. In the past 100 years, a handful of men and women, individually catalysed the transformation, of India diary industry. Indisputably Kurien was one of the pioneers of the milk revolution in India. Yet successive governments have shied away from bestowing the nation’s highest honour, The Bharat Ratna on that true nationalist .
Kurien stayed back at Anand, stuck by the passion of Tribhovandas Patel, who was chosen by Vallabhai Patel to unite the farmers against exploitation, by unscrupulous players, and lead the Kaira cooperative. He found the cause worthy of his rebellious nature and decided to stay back to help people who are helpless.
The problem of milk scarcity was identified in 1928, in a report by Lord Linlithgow who recommend series of steps from upgrading livestock to improving quality of feed, to funding, and organising under a collective. Another surprising fact I found was that New Zealand was the first one to organise farmers, into cooperatives, then building dairy under these cooperatives, to emerge as world’s largest players in the year 1871 .
In 1950s it seems India was facing severe milk scarcity and we were dependent on global charity for milk, baby feed, and other dairy products. Kurien saw it as a national crisis and decided to  address the issue to enable better income for farmers. He had invented a different model, wherein instead of cattle being ferried to outskirts of cities, to be housed and milked in unhygienic sheds, milk was collected and processed to be delivered wherever it was needed.
 This model had been seen by all and had the full support from, Vallabhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru. Lal Bahadur, Morarji Desai, and even Indira Gandhi too. By early 1960s Kurien had created brand Amul, which even challenged multinationals and made waves.
But he had to struggle a lot for funds and in 1968 it seems the European Economic Commission offered its 'excess production' as aid. Using the proceeds from sales of milk products as funding, Kurien could setup a national grid, and triggered Operation Flood in 1970s. In 2015-16 India produced,155 million tons of milk.Today the Amul model, has enabled India, emerge as largest milk producer, enabling a better future, for members of 1.44 lakh cooperatives, and farmers, empowering millions of women.
Keeping all this in view there is every reason to confer Bharat Ratna, on Varghese Kurien, as he played very important role in the transformation of millions of lives.