"A COUNTRY IS POOR BECAUSE IT IS POOR"

It is the vicious cycle of poverty that has stemmed from the meagre investment that our insanely irresponsible ruling ministers have made into the rural system. Inspite of the fact that 64.5% of our total population depend solely on Agriculture (acc.to 2001census),UPA II`s report pitifully registers a decline in total expenditure on rural economy from 3.34% of the GDP `08-`09 to 2.59% of the GDP in 2010-11.

Praveen Jha (The Honorary Economic Advisor to the Centre for Budget & Governance Accountability) rightly states on the emphasize that UPA II has put on the augmentation of urban infrastructure…"seems to be based on the premise that even though the bulk of the country lives & works in villages, India is rapidly urbanizing."!!

An investment of Rs.1 crore in roads lifts as many as 1,650 poor people above the poverty line. With such reports (from International Food Policy Research Institute) before eyes and with all those manifestoes bearing pro-poor commitments in mind, one wonders, how such dismal state of countryside urges the Government to inject 23% increased allocation into the construction of National Highways while it`s only 6% for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana !

With the heart of India residing in the quagmire of villages, with blood flow being restrained at every instances, it is fanciful to expect the emergence of a healthy India, besides, it leaves an enormous space to be apocryphal about the worthiness of UPA`s effort in ``Bharat Nirman``.

FROWNING MEDIA!

With liberalisation oozing then, and now gushing into our life at every now and then with its fruits bearing the every chance of human prosperity has been the paramount reason behind the thumping of today’s media and it’s personnel basking in the light of collective and utmost freedom. As in England, here also, things have been quite jovial for this industry and environment has been quite conducive for its multiplicative growth. Mr. Narayan Murthy has rightly observed this to be one of the beneficial effect of liberalization whose exponential growth marked the gross progress and socio-economic development, at large for the mass.

Media plays the role of statesmanship. Especially news broadcasted on the electronic media is tended to be lapped up,promptly, by the common man without dredging into much with the objective of finding out or verify it’s status. The scintillating presentation, brilliant oratory and radiant graphics leaves no scope of being cynical for them and hence an entire mist of trust engulfs them. Therefore as we see media with its abysmal potency generated by having direct link with public mind and health… creates opinion, shapes the judicial ability of the billions, govern their actions, motivate {and modulate} their conscience and that in turn,is what, makes up a nation! This unguided and unrestrained imposed authority has recently become the matter of worry and threat to our national security and the heat of which is being felt every now and then by our dignitaries who often are seen to be pleading to these media men for penning down the unbiased truth, which otherwise may have pernicious and widespread adversity (on a local to international scale).
This is nothing but all the blessings of liberalization, that the boom in the news wing has lead to the mushrooming of a number of news channels, local and national, hundreds , thousands and still counting…nudation has been succeeded by competition and as a consequence an urge of getting news at the first hand is what always goading them, failing which they land up with often exaggerated, distorted, to even false news serving as pure public entertainment. This practice has let the malice creep into the system with the fullest exploitation of human mind.the grunt of the public has been misdirected several times. In the endeavour of reaching to the public efficiently (but not effectively), often they have been seen building up stories and adhering unnecessary hype to such single events. Falling prey to the ephemeral power of any government is evident in their overt campaigning for them mostly during the election time.(as I, myself, has found star ananda and chabbis ghanta , the two Bengali news channel clamoring for the two rival parties in Bengal. This is awfully painful and baffling to see how differently they portray a single event with completely contrasting conclusions each time, parting their devout audiences already, much before the party itself send out its manifesto or set out for their own propaganda. ) I wonder how and where from do the hindi news channels excavate those extraordinary, sensitized news from home and gali corners on earth and sometimes beyond earth, as well! Splendid diversity, energy with which they drag 10 lines with all possible tones, tunes, fonts and colours, grimacing faces with every word delivered, enthusiasm for an hour( mannerism with which they assert some points, the ease with which they slight public mockery to their ludicrous behavior) and superhuman magnitude is what they should be credited for.
Obsessed with rating points, news of gargantuan national interest, like the dantewada massive killing of jawans by the Maoist goes subsided or pushed back into the pages by the glamour and charisma of the reigning IPL.
Television has simply run amok. It is unaccountable as there is no audit of the media in the media. Bringing in specialist of their choice and setting the priority of issues and the pertinent events by themselves clearly displays the propensity of the media towards any particular and thus their favorite.
Here is a speech delivered by National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar menon and china’s ambassador Zhang yan at a seminar in new delhi on“India and China: Public Diplomacy, Building Understanding” that states how fearful they both had been as such sensitive issues regarding India and China are often manhandled by our thriving media cooking and always ready to add up a bit more salt to it.After a survey of relations between India and China in the past 60 years, he said: “You might ask what this has to do with public diplomacy by India and China, the topic of your seminar. Everything is my answer, for two principal reasons. One is the shrill and over-excitable commentary on the relationship that has appeared in both countries in the last year or so. The emergence of ‘nativist’ voices, and the loud expression of opinion as fact in the news media which purports to express public opinion could introduce volatility in perceptions. We have all witnessed this phenomenon in India-China relations in the last year or so. When the world is changing so rapidly, and when uncertainty in the international system is at unprecedented levels, neither India nor China can afford misperceptions or distortions of policy caused by a lack of understanding of each other’s compulsions and policy processes.”Zhang Yan pleaded politely for an end to the “war of words”.
It has always been there…the war of words… but recently has been aggravated by the television media. It is of utmost importance to feel the exigency and act in the right direction with proper know-how to burst the bubble of can do anything attitude of the news media and as for the people they need to be more rational and simply should not be guided by any specific news channel or news paper, though I believe, it is quite difficult without government intervening into it (as one can never shuffle through all the papers and survey through all the channels ,before going to work, before taking up his/her decision!).

Women: It Is About Being Human

You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.
- Jawaharlal Nehru

…and so can we rate our country by ourselves…(unaided by any statistical tools nor being accompanied by any commissions report ). The one we refer as our mother, our goddess, the one who empowers the whole of the future generation of the country (in terms of health and merit) are the most marginalized, disempowered and subjugated lot. And thus the condition of our nation : being self-sufficient in agriculture, leading milk producer in the world, with much bragged about its cocky industrialization we are still a developing country-one among hundreds. For them who trusts more upon survey,analysis and written statements punched with data more than the visuals that they often witness with their own eyes, India, as honoured by World Economic Forum, stands at fifty-ninth position interms of a country’s competitiveness. And per capita GDP analysis has tagged the country with no.57.


But still we cannot afford to be cynical as that would definitely undermine the “little” progressively happening here. See for e.g., how women of potentiality, celebrities are taking up the causes and moving their feet, which previously used to rest only on petals and red carpet, into the quagmire of dirty politics. Some joining the NGOs. How hard are they trying for the betterment of this lot, but synchronously to make a fortune out of it is what they are trying harder for. For some it is the ultimate stance to grab media attention, while for some it is just a pickle that stimulates their taste buds and a saviour from the boredom of regular schedule. But the pompous women’s day celebration with contrasting stories of their miseries and achievements (though the hunger , malnutrition, maternal mortality, ill-treatment, insecurity outnumber the privileges that a women is served with in this country) all on a single page is really too little to be boastful of. The news of our government’s skimpy attempt to restrain the “sarpanch patis” (husbands of the women panchayat head) from exercising their unlawful absolute supremacy, dominating their wives and exploiting the 55% reservation in village panchayat (for women) at their own purpose has really portrayed that nothing more than this “little”, our administration can be of help to them, after 60 years of independence.
As is visible, most if not all, the women centric policies has proved futile and that is due to many fold reasons.corruption,bribery, chicane, lack of urge and sincerity etc.and all this can be rectified at large by changing our age old conventions, perceptions towards women and by feeling what is the pure & urgent need to have them in the main stream, why are some of us actually clamoring for women reservation in legislature.

We, each of us, surely need to change our outlook coz that would be beneficiary to none other than our development, our intellectual upliftment. This is a very common psychology that people like us (who have been under the oppression of a imperial rule for so long and suffer constantly from the fear of losing out, being annexed again at a point of time or other) look down upon them who do not earn. So, giving the women, around us, a chance to earn their living by themselves will help us in transforming, broadening our mindset automatically and will also retrieve them from their sulking complexities.


It is very difficult, here akin impossible, to divert one’s stereotypic one way directive thinking overnight but every body of us should acknowledge by heart that a house can not run without everybody’s equal participation in it, a country can not straddle its branches uniformly in all spheres of development by subsiding the rural progress… similarly gender disparity will also never let human to flourish with its full humanity.
(human being the evolutionarily and physiologically most complex and most wonderful creation of God.)

Save Visva-Bharati

The bizarre idea of visiting shantiniketan (“the adobe of peace” at bolepur created by gurudev Rabindranath Tagore)at the onset of the year 2010 cropped into my mind when I was made to believe (by someone) about the sorcery of the first day of the year, that says whatever you do on the first day, it’s effects persists for the rest of the year. And I thought what’s better than to enjoy peace for the rest of the year especially when number of bandhs escalating exponentially in Bengal, red and green’s tussle intimidating bengalees at every hour of the day, people, all over, bent upon starving on their sweet will to procure a statehood for themselves, when Obama is all set to increase expedition more into Afghanistan without caring the least for its civilians and at the last when climate summit has failed and climate itself is haunting us with its dreadful nightmares.


Stepping into the red soil of bolepur, all the miseries of the city life was crowded out by the deluge of Rabindra sangeet that barged into my mind at once. Such is the mystic force of Rabindra spirit that has shrouded the entire arena of art, crafts and innovation. I had, by then, already started filling up of my cardiac bag by the plentiful of available air required for life sustenance back there in home. Well, as this is not a travelogue, I better move into the original part. I grew quite confident about the serenity of the place just to topple over the most unexpected stone of corruptions and malpractices.

“Niharika” the art gallery hosted by the profound artist Prof. Selim Munshi presented some of the most enchanting, stunning and awe-inspiring works of him. I was privileged to know a lot many things from the man himself. Swept by emotion he exuded some of the bitter facts of his life and hinted about the decadence of Visva-Bharti (shantiniketan university) with the most mournful weeping heart. I was startled to know the adobe of peace and purity had already turned into the adobe of rouge and malpractices (since 1966) and glaring instances like money laundering, forgery in assessing marks of students, nepotism in appointment procedure and unlawful extension after superannuation etc. are eating up the institution from within leading to the sullying of its heritage and golden image. He pointed to some of his spot-painting of some of the most beautiful landscapes and residence of dignitaries only to tell us that those sites are not present now, either demolished or morphed. Being an ardent devotee of Rabindranath Tagore and a respectable, responsible ‘adhyapak’ (Professor) in fine arts in visva-bharti he took the plunge into the muck several times to uproot the core of malice. In 1987 he tried to draw the attention of the then Acharya of Visva-Bharti, the union minister of human resource, and all members of the executive committee of Visva-Bharti… he went against the workings and appointments of some of the highly corrupt high-officials, incurring a heavy toll on himself in terms of health, time and money , but to no avail.

He writes, “It is an irony of fate that a few of them are still holding the position of MP and it makes me laugh when I read their speeches in newspapers that they want to free society from scams”. I could easily sense the pain climbing up my spine,my entire identity becoming too numb to react in absolute helplessness when his trembling voice spoke the last few words of his bereavement. The man of his stature, {who has earned recognition and appraisal from some eminent personalities like Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Lal Bahadur Shastry, Jawaharlal Nehru and others, who has made himself a place in many magazines, books and newspapers, whose work has been documented quite a number of times on television, radio etc, who has held 12 times solo exhibitions (even at parliament house annexe in 1996)} after serving for 39 years has been victimized by high level corruption multiple times. His promotion was detained. Even his son was not sparred. but still his zeal to work for the betterment of his serving ground is yet to die down. I realised how much the decadence of this institution must have tortured the man who has been seeing this place for about 58 years, how disastrous this must have been for the old man dreaming about a lustrous shantiniketan and waking up to the reality of its gradual decay. Like a true ‘ashramik’ he is there, facing all odds at his age of 72 but still awaiting a blatant response from the people and government, an impartial CBI probe and the resurgence of Shantiniketan in all the colours and glory, it has inherited from its hoary past.

(Don't let this 1st january to be all the same for this man and for Shantiniketan)

26/11 let continued…

Lesson learnt from this one year session of “self-assessment” is now ready for a revision across the table of high pitched futile bickering (called ‘debate’). What we experienced 1 year back, from lighting candles in commemoration to all the lives spared, to the rumination of some of the terrible and heinous (and till date unreported) incidents by some more of the witnesses, all is set to recur. With media pondering over the ‘change’, that the aftermath was supposed to bring into the system,…by bringing the people of high rank and profile forward for all these days is only helping us to freshen up our memories and to perch in darkness and despair deeper and graver (after understanding that all mesmerizing speeches of the leaders of our country has gone into vain and we are still that vulnerable as we were 1 year back). With Idea users getting an innovative call from Abhishek Bachchan for “call for India”, others are rummaging to lay their hands onto some thing more unique! The sudden briskness in the lazy-dazy security forces all around and the news of any tangible share of the assurance (compensation) failing to reach out to the hundreds of bereaved masses made me aware of the fact that The Anniversary is around the corner.

Given that Mumbai police commissioner has admitted to the procedural lapses and the laxity in the security forces at the eve of the anniversary we can expect the security to be beefed up for the next couple of days. And then just when the common man will look content with the arrangements, all the security (in real terms) is going to be vanished! Few days later the inane, jerky luggage checking procedure at malls and metros will be ridiculed by that common man… the show of security personnel, busy ensuring the safety of their passengers at stations, checking with no metal detectors but with their hyper-touch sensitive hands (that too from the outside of bags) will be amusing enough for the common man to earn derision over it… the youth will find it very challenging to defy the safety rules, dodge the security at the airport and carry matchsticks, cigarettes on board… the unclaimed luggage will go unreported. a few more days later our mental censor will cease to act altogether. And then one fine morning (or evening or night) a handful of young boys will barge into another city, terrorize and hold the lives of millions to ransom… Because it was them who remained awake while our nation slept. Swept by deluge of criticism and strong fervor to do some thing for the country the common man will start a new era by lighting up few more candles and then not knowing what to do next, will simply let the zeal die down, thinking its upon the revival of the good sense of home minister that their future rests.

The new era of course is then created but with the same anatomical and architectural plan & no one lived happily ‘ever’ after.

exasperation at traffic!

This is to bring into the notice of the authority regarding the crassness of our traffic system and the utmost degradation of morality of some of the traffic cops of the department in kolkata. Few days back while driving on the EM Bypass I was caught on the ground of exceeding my speed limit and was charged a fine of Rs.300. though I was quite confident that my speedometer never escalated 60 kmph. ,it was a wild goose chase to convince them. They claimed that their SPEC aided speed camera installed at the last crossing, has caught my vehicle committing the offence.
Several cars and bikes were queued at the side of the road. Just by then, a motor bike sped away under the nose of the sergeants with three people on it,two on the rear seat without any helmet. When I countered him about their inaction in this case,to my dismay, he answered with perfect nonchalance that sometimes they fail to grab the collar of the actual lawbreakers, if the later are really fast (as the one happened then).he even cleared that he will never go in pursuit of those speeding vehicles as that would either cost his life or mean a loss in the chase for him. ”amader ki janer maya nei”(Don’t we care for our lives) was the unabashed and audacious reply! I cried in vein, “but it was actually them who were supposed to be detained, not us” this was what they are assigned for. I was aghast by seeing that one after the other highly speeding cars were let gone…though anyone,without the help of any sophisticated instrument, could easily and accurately have pointed out the real fast ones! The point man Jay prakash saha said that they need not catch all the speedy ones as it is not America! I never knew, a developing country needs to be a developed one to eradicate the disparities in their law enforcing procedures! Being infuriated at the remark & despaired I kept mum. To top it all, the prosecutor of public nuisance and crime, Mr.Saha justified their apathy and lopsidedness by stating that its their ‘target’ that needs to be fulfilled any how at the end of the day and it’s the quantity that matters to them not the amelioration of the quality of the city.

excerpt of the above post can be seen at http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091116/jsp/opinion/story_11675496.jsp

story of a syncretic shrine being turned into temple!

Flouting laws, inciting communalism, vitiating public taste is what the people of western Karnataka (to be more precise, at chikmagalur) witnessing from their district officials and the leaders of BJP, a national party. Violating Supreme court’s stay order, they begun the reconstruction work at the contested shrine of Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah to restore a part of the cave that collapsed in June 2008 with the holy spirit depicted in the act of “bhumi puja” that they performed, at the onset of the project, on September 2008 with alacrity. Members of the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (KKSV; Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum), a State-wide forum of activists has raised their voice in protest against the sangh paarivaar’s endeavor to raise the shrine to a hindutva status and convert it into an exclusive place for hindus.
The shrine is believed to date back to the 11th century. Given the obliviousness and uncertainty of its creator, both hindus and muslims regularly visit the place. This picturesque hilly area has been holding up the true spirit of togetherness and the ideology of the real India for years, in its true sense. But the integrity might be lost if being tinkered. As seen after the babri masjid demolition, when abruptly a small hindu festival “datta jayanti” was turned into a massive,grandeur “datta mala” to gain public legitimacy and to establish it as an exclusive hindu temple.

BJP claims the actual muslim created place to be few kilometers away from that shrine and has denied to call the shrine as “a disputed one” any longer. Therein, I would like to place a question for the leaders and their hangers-on, what bugs them if the two deadliest rivals in the world, can find a place, for themselves, where they can offer their prayers to their (and ofcourse,’our’) “Father” in common? why can’t they restrict the use of their perverted brains in the realm of mainstream of politics? Instead of morally supporting and radiating and publicizing the mighty effort of the local inhabitants to befriend others ( that could have been a little help in fostering harmonious feeling ), the putrid minds of those vicious netas are up for harvesting yet another seed of communalism by hurting the religious ethos of the people.

the excerpt of the above post can be viewed at the following link ('frontline' magazine):
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20091106262212100.htm

Can't do without ID ?

the man imagining india to prosper as the youngest country in the aging world with its demographic dividend,concentrated mostly in the northern part of india,is now all set to shape his imaginations with his own hand.the technocrat,Nandan Nilekani, has made his way into the governance as the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority Of India (UIDAI) with the applause resonating in the IT sector.
his task of providing, compulsarily,the multipurpose ID cards to all indians (citizens & non-citizens) aimed at combating insurgency,illegal migrations and better targeting of the government's development schemes sounds good to ear.but when we get to hear reports of inexecution or abandonment of similar ID card system in U.K,U.S,Austrlia...the reticence of the heart urges our brain to make the grey cells work over it.
this system of maintaining an electronic database was borrowed just after the kargil war for the people residing on and around the border.it was planned & triggerd by the NDA in 2003 and again in 2009 it was carried forward by the UPA under a new name of MNIC project .
what is more intriguing about this is the causes for which other countries have shelved this project till date. the most important reason has been the alleged violation of public safety and civi liberty.the information stored in such cards can be put to misuses for various purposes.according to london school of economics, card system might even be a cause for a greater incidence of identity theft...technologically precarious & could itself become a target for attacks by terrorists.

The claimed better functioning of governmental developing programmes by the use of ID cards is a mere gibberish to me.poverty alleviation progarammes in India is very much inefficient and that,we all know,is not due to lack of locating the actual needy persons in india , but because of the lack of personal efforts,willingness,sincerity, initiative and above all the crassness of all of our ministers and profit making bureaucrats in the country.in a country where if we take the streets we can find beggars squatting at the road side,where faulty public distribution system (PDS) pass the lion's share of the tangible benefits (procured from the welfare schemes) on to the hands of the non-BPL HOSEHOLDS....implementation of such a sophisticated system is a bit too early.

such execution of high cost (1.5 lakh crore),low benefit project in haste,without scrutinizing more thoroughly & giving a second thought to the unforeseen disaster it may invite,to the causes that lead to the annulment of ID projects in the modern countries,may lead to the failure of "the ideas in progress" (as stated by Mr.Nilekani at california TED conference).at this sensitive point,where India is standing now, we can not afford to lose more resources of our country both,in terms of money and men.

COMICAL AUGUST ENDING IN A JIFFY

After having passed my idle 30days in sloth,looming my eyes allover the pages in newspaper,all throughout the month,these are all what I had in my list to write about:-

1.The presage of the much touted transfer of power in the BJP’s leadership and the inevitable skirmishes that is ought to follow in aftermath.then the jaswant singh's book on jinnah and his expulsion from the party...followed by his saintly attitude in several interviews akin to "Father,forgive them for they do not know, what they have done." raised such hue and cry all over the india, drawing deluge of expertise from across the world to the debate table, that ultimately doused my interest in reading the book.by then i almost got the idea of its content!


2.The frisking of SRK at US airport that gave the news channels its second big issue to telecast all throughout the day and night….for no less than 3days was more bugging and painful than even the 26/11’s 3 days horrendous show.To my surprise I found how these media persons sought their satellite’s help to reinstate the stature of VIP’s and justify the unreasonable privileges meted out to them here in India and claimed the same from the rest of the world.I thought to use this platform to raise consciousness about the fact that,whether ‘Khan’ or not,if you are a celebrity you except yourself to be treated as a direct descendant of God as if these people never commit crimes.(take Monica Bedi,Sanjay Dutt and hundreds of other accused in big and small cases as siblings of God for example).Many argued that such superhuman gestures should be arranged only for politicians not for the other ‘stars’.I simply gave up the idea of raising consciousness among my countrymen as by now,I have already came to know that its only us who make them stars,who make them feel stars,give birth to debates,dirty bickering only to bestow their leaders with more and more powers, clout with each other to raise the VIP status for their leader and even perish in the process sometimes.

3.With Swine flu taking its regular toll on life,came the vedic village massacre which left the worms of dirty Bengal politics crawl out in open.The involvement of both ruling and opposing party’s men revealed in the melee and the much rarely seen silence of Mamata Banerjee signified the first lesson of ‘Unity in Diversity’ of the Secular,Democratic India…."Sobe mile kari kaj/ Hari jeeti nahi laaj”.

All failed miserably to make me emote, until today when I spotted CPI(M) in another ridiculous as well as annoying act trying hard to snatch the limelight over from Mamata onto itself.

In commemoration to food movement,Biman Bose(the state secretary) has arranged a ‘massive rally ’at the heart of Kolkata.His act of kindness is marked by his prior warnings where he has encouraged all office goers,school goers to confine themselves at homes(& embrace CPI(M)’s today's act and cherish the life of 80 massacred in police firing on this day 50years ago).He even asked schools to rung their final bells before time.Oh!what a salute to those 80 protesters!!Well its in Bengal that all the dramas are taking place regularly and providing me with all the raw materials to continue with my blogging.Avoid Kolkata from 9a.m. to 5p.m. is the statutory warning as the city is expected to witness a massive turn up.

Sitting in my car stationed at the roadside just before 2nd Hooghly bridge,I can see Tata Sumos,lories,trucks,buses loaded with supporters,decked with festoons and placards of various sprouting organizations speeding towards the city with all enthusiasm to smother another working day and bring all markets before Puja at stake.A bus halted near to us.People celebrating in and 'above' the bus got off.I went up to them.Chat with few of them and when I asked what this fuss is all about…one replied "khabar dabar nie akta kyachal hoechilona?amader jete boleche….Sobha ache…jachi”(well,I don’t really want to put the English translation of it here, as that would prevent from disseminating the impoverishment of the state to some extent though).

This movement,according to Biman Bose,is also a protest against the steady rise in prices of food commodities and for the sake of which trucks employed in the rally duty will only help to aggravate the crisis,hit the supply chain for the day and will end up with affecting food prices further.


among all these utter nuisance,our gasping C.M,falling short of catching his rival (though didi) every time,has called the naming of new metro stations by the name of eminent personalities a 'tamasha' & that we can say with certainty is purely out of despairingness which in turn has helped them only to gather a whole lot of 'tamasha' for the party itself,in the aftermath of his speech.

Therefore,it is to the ruling red party to whom goes all the credit for being so considerate,taking care of our recreation,entertainment and securing us with topic to prattle over, while sitting inside our homes to celebrate another no work day!

exploited indians

i believe the restoration of the composite dialogue process between india and pakistan has brought complete ignominy to the martyrs of 26/11,to the indian defence force and to the houses of the thousands of victims.whatever may the diplomatic thesis of "trust but verify" is deployed to justify mr.manmohan singh's act.i,personally,feel his attempt,at this point of time,[when he himself is not satisfied by the half-hearted dossier handed over to him by mr. gilani nor by any 'credible' action undertaken by the pakistan government against the day's perpetrators] to reinstate an amicable ambience with pakistan by (even) lending them undue grounds for their balochistan issue to thrive,is really something to be scoffed at.this drive us to belive that the stunt of UPA ,in the pre election period, to stall all negotiations with pakistan was entirely from a strategic point of view rather than any sympathetic point...that ultimately helped them amass thousand of votes from the bereaved masses.


the excerpt of the above post can be viewed at the following link ('frontline' magazine):
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20090911261812200.htm

A gloomy budget and a gnawing society

UPA’s re-election,largely on the ground of whimsical expectations of the poor ,has not given a promising hint to them on this account of social reforms in this year’s budget.Though UPA leaders have claimed that budget is flexible and will be raised and reformed if necessary,but niether the pro-poor policies have earned any consolidation nor any big ticket social sectors programmes have been spotted until now.

The Child Rights And You(CRY)director Dipankar Majumdar was left amazed to find that 40%of the populaton [that is the children] gets only 5.6%allocation while they had campaigned for 10%allocation for education and health.While the Center For Budget And Governance Accountability(CBGA) noted a boost in technical educations with the ministers letting the allocations for setting up of community polytechnics a new IIT and some new IITs and IIMs,it found to its dismay a decline in the allocations for the Sarbya Shiksha Aviyan(SSA)and the mid day meal on the other hand.For a country which is on the fast track of development,striving to emancipate from third world economic growth track,it is very much abashing that it still ignores the cause of basic health and the education of the poor.

All India Democratic Womens’ Association(AIDWA)recognised the budget as the betrayal of their trust and a drift in the promises made in the President’s speech.The much touted National Mission for Empowerment of Women got a meager of Rs1Crore and for Rashtriya Mahila Kosh(that supports women's self help group)has also being reduced by11Crores.The allocation for government supported hostels for working women even decreased from Rs20Crore to Rs10Crore!the allocation for the Six Bharat Nirman Schemes have been raised by 45% and to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna by 59%.

Allocation for NREGS has risen only by 30% over the revised estimate for the last financial year.If the target now is to give 100 days work at a daily wage raised from Rs80 to Rs100,then the NREGS budget must be raised by 125% and not 30%.

Our budget earmarks an additonal Rs1200Crores to elementary and secondary education,which is uncountable and almost negligible in comparison to the required Rs10000Crore +,if the right to education act is to be supported and a compulsory education is to be ensured for age group of 6-14years.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal’s propensity for privatisation of schooling system is absolutely not justified and the other radical reforms it introduced all went vain until and unless the whole curriculum on all India basis is revamped and a child centric-warm environment is ensued throughout the length and breadth of the country in each and every schools.In his 100 days agenda somewhere,he forgot to take into account that the problem is manifold.Changing the examination system or having a single board is not going to help.In a country where nearly 30%of the children drop out at the upper primary stage,while 50% drop out by the time they reach class 8,the ministry should aim at ameliorating primary education more than it do for higher education.

While in corporate sector,the conscience of the Finance Minister is much more visible.Though the sensex went into a tail-spin by 870 points on the budget declaring day,we must remember the market sentiments do not reflect in the full the judgement of the industry.Moreover it was due to the mis-speculation of the economic survey (presented prior to budget),wrong promotion by media and analysts etc. that lead to the fall.

Excluding the increase in MAT,the corporate sector has received a bonanza:

1.Extension for one more year in deduction from taxable income of the export profits of the software technology parks of india [STPI],special economic zone[ SEZ],export processing zone [EPZ],free trade zones [FTZ] units.

2.Abolition of the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT).

3.Continuation with temporary excise duty exemption.

4.Tax concessions on investments made by national pension scheme trust in equity.

5.Abolition of commodity transaction tax.

6.Support to stock and commodity trading and several others.

Initially a dip in corporate exaggerated expectation (of more privatisation & more liberalisation) turned out, ultimately,a much happier section at the end of the day.

In this colossally hierarchical society,where the government should empathize with the weaker section of the society…..the UPA’s budget has cut taxes for the elites---those with an annual income exceeding Rs10lakhs will be exempted from paying 10% surcharge on personal income tax.

With the gargantuan fiscal deficit,the erroneous budget has successfully passed the pressure on to the “aam admi” while the “khas aadmi” is still at the blessings of the UPA.

iraqi democracy...yet to be commenced?

well, its good to find the u.s troops ultimately retreating from iraq after six years and three months search for weapons of mass destruction(WMD) .with the first priority of obama's administration now being afghanistan,the 'military surge' planned by george bush, to combat the challenges posed by the iraqi resistance force, has undergone a set back.as a consequence to which prime minister Nouri al-maliki declared a national holiday on june 30,decked the walls with festoons proclaiming "national sovereignty day" & "independence day".


though maliki portraying the troops withdrawl as the "end of the american occupation" entirely belying the fact that still thousands of soldiers,military contractors,trainers will remain embedded with the iraqi soldiers,though the radical shia cleric claims the scene as a"mere media event",though the u.s army commander showing up article 27 of the status of forces agreement (SOFA) {which states that the u.s forces can undertake any military action against any sort of internal upheavals or external aggression} as a plausible reason for the elongation of the stay period of u.s forces for another 10 to 15 years...the current trend of outward movement of u.s occupation in iraq must have brought succor to the millions of people displaced [under the banner of "iraq's refugees" during the america's invasion in 2003,which according to united nation estimation is around 4.7 million iraqis--the 2nd biggest in the region after 1998],& also to those iraqis middle class who until now have been preferring to work abroad/ reside in the refugee camps as the country still lacks electricity,water and sanitation service [after being ruled by the vigilant u.s and u.s backed government for over a conspicuous period of time].

according to 73% of all iraqis oppose the presence of foreign troops on their soil.now washington is diplomatically making maliki to buckle under pressure,so that no referendum is held (as was proposed)...which may eventually annul SOFA and compel the u.s troops to accelerate its process of evacuating iraq much before the scheduled 2011.

aftershock.....and shock after shock

i was aghast by the scenes of indiscriminate use of violence,all over in the streets of westbengal, by the party tormentors--- whether in remote areas like mongolkot or in the heartland of kolkata.people were perturbed by the site of partymen beating up the state police infront of them...depicting a picture of strangled city huffing and puffing under the continuous mayhem,extreme lawlessness and absolute crassness of a completely paralysed government.kolkata - the city of joy has now earned itself the title of city of shocks and aftershocks,the city of unpredictability...slowly drifting into the arenas of chaos and degeneration of standards.

there, a handful of armed cpm activists poured out their grievances on few of the congress MLAs (perfectly like hoodlums) in the slushy paddy field of mongolkot and here, in kolkata (-THE CAPITAL) in retaliation to which the loyal supporters of congress( who apparently practice fetishism to their leaders,and being directly/indirectly flared up by them) blocked roads,disrupted communication system,railway system,set public buses on fire (- a practice that they often do at the fall of their leader's hat ),brought the city life to a stand still at once...all that with no prior warning...common people (- the regular common prey to such incidents...or should i say 'accidents') were coerced to get off the buses and walk on foot,facilitating them to do "tandab" over it.thousands were left awaiting in the halted trains,in the vain hope of their goodsense to evoke,their humane sobriety to get out of slumber...hundreds oblivious of the main cause for the sudden rout and chaos were baffled and prayed for the govt. to take some legal steps to bring back normalcy or at least to draw some ceasefire so that they could return to their homes safely as of then...trying to forget forcibly the inanity of our state government.


after these what followed is the leaders of the congress announcing bandh at will,the next day.to all's surprise buddha's government took no effort to restrict/mitigate the massacre nor it was seen extending any of its generous help to its people by making the statebuses and the trums to get on the road!!cpm leader and a maverick minister subhash chakroborty was heard saying that they don't want more state properties to fall prey to the hoodlums of the opposition...indirectly signifying the ruling party's submission to them and invited derision over the stand of their party.and so these equipments (which to my knowledge,at least, are the state government's prerogative) failed to provide any assistance to those common man who had to go to their work places...police remained as mere spectators when private cars were slammed,windows were shattered...not even tried to dissuade the vandals from committing assault on the common people...
therefore once again our govt. and its machineries reiterated their inefficiency in bare terms...


"police failed to assess the situation before hand..."was all what our honorable C.M had to answer to the mongolkot question...
but the question that comes next to it in our mind is "why" ..."why do our police and intelligence fail terribly each time to foretell the situation?" "why do they fail to ensure the safety of the general public during such atrocities that actually owe its birth entirely to the miserable failure of their duties?" but as usual these were left unanswered. because,we know, its the dirty game of politics that has actually made the state police the most ineffective,callous department of westbengal.


the next shock meted out by the people of bengal was to find the buddaha's govt. proclaiming the abrogation of Salim's highway project (connecting raichak to barasat{actually linking haldia port --to-- dumdum airport}, which could have been a breakthrough in the projects of industrilisation undertaken as the principle motto of buddha's regime,as we all know how a well-knit communication network serve the cause of rapid multiplication of the country's economy) as the only bold step taken by Him in these couple of days.


the ransacked kolkata's wrecked view at the end of the day was implying more carnage to be followed...

when government buses were being set ablaze one after the other ... The one time municipal chairman, Subrata mukherjee,congress working president, seemed pretty glad and content to discover his biceps getting toned subsequently and perhaps must have raised his collar too.his remark clearly displayed his pleasure in seeing the resurgence of congress (& its muscle power) in the state.until now, all the strikes,road blockage and all anti-cpm indecent activities in the state were carried out by trinomool with mamata taking the center stage.congress with its 'hand' used to provide moral support to them.but today the victorious congress rejoicing for its taking on the state administration [though not legally] and so Mr.Mukherjee triumphantly remarked, "Today's show indicates that all is not lost for our party"!!!

india's blunder in nepal

I recently came across praful bidwai`s column and is fully convinced that India is going to face some grave consequences for the blunder it has commited in Nepal,which has made it to lose fund of goodwill it has earned in the long process by encouraging reconciliation b/w communist party of Nepal Maoist(CPN-M) and other parties ,by the comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Interference in Nepal`s purely "Internal Affairs" and encouraging the reactionary forces and other Nepal parties to neglect the Prachanda Cabinet `s decision to dismiss Katuwal [which was solely civilian govt.`s democratic prerogative] is regrettable.
What has India gained by alienating a party(and it`s support) that holds 40% of the constituent assembly?
what intelligence has she displayed in backing political forces that are untrustworthy,concervative & largely discredited in the eyes of the people?
If we turn the pages of history we find,that the army chief general Rukmangad Katuwal was a strong supporter of monarchism who believed in "enlightened despotism is preferable to chaotic democracy".Being the son of king mahendra,for years he wrote articles viciously attacking political parties.
During april uprising of Jana Andolan 2006,which was supported by millions of people,Katuwal advocated confrontation &the use of force.
Unfortunately,India`s policy makers are backing against civilian authority and restoring the triumph of force and army over civilian,portraying itself completely unaware of the consequences of assigning excessive powers to the military in pakistan or bangladesh.
On top of it all,the prime minister of a democratic state has the full right to dismiss any army chief & when it comes to nepal,Prachanda has got allegations to charge at Katuwal based on the 3 acts of defiance of civilian authority:-
1> the recruitment of 2000 soldiers in feb,against the govt. approval.
2>extension granted to 8 brigadiers without prior consent.
3>pulling the army out of the national games because the maiost too would participate in them.