My India

MY INDIA SERIES – Indiansawaal.com is coming up with series called my India series. Under this series , we invite you to come up with your perceptive of India. It can be article , it can be your story, it can be history , it can be future you envision, it can be picture from your locality , it can be food , it can be festival you love, it many be politics you adhere to . It is your perceptive and your input about ‘MY INDIA‘ .

My INDIA SERIES is your space and we request you to come up with your perceptive. India is not just land , it an idea. India is not just country , it is much more than that for patriot Indians. We want your perceptive to reach out to people. Why?. Because your voice and perceptive matter.

Email us at indiansawaal@gmail.com with your perceptive. Please write your name , surname , your city along with your story.  All stories would be admin approved and we would let you know withing two weeks whether your story is published or not. In case your story doesnot get published , Indiansawaal.com wont be using it for any future article .

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Dowry

I had written an article on social evils in India. In that article I had mentioned dowry as one of social evils which India needs to fight and eradicate totally. I had many comments on that article. The comments which amazed me most where from blind patriots. Now I am proud Indian. Very proud one. I love my motherland very much. It is my love for my country that makes me maintain this blog itself.

Now being in love with someone for me means being concerned about them at same time. Being proud of something for me doesnot mean turning blind eye towards betterment of same thing. For me India is one of best nations that humans have ever seen. The rich heritage , the continuous civilization , the people ….India has been home to all religions and some of best thoughts have come from India is philosophy. India is not just land , it is ground where human thoughts evolved and prospered.

Unfortunately in same land which is only place where god is also feminine and female power is worshipped twice a year in form of navratris , the same land has pathetic track record in treatment of women in many parts of India.

Let us look at some of shocking documented facts

-> 2 million daughters where killed in last 20 years in form of gender based abortion or killing at time of birth. ‘Missing Daughters of India’ is one of the tragic reality which we conveniently try to forget. Unfortunately in some places of India the social evil still prevails and no matter how much economically we have prospered this evil refuses to die.

Now let us look at national crime report published by Indian Home Ministry. In year 2010 total reported dowry deaths was 8391!!!!!!!!!!!!. Now this is approximately 30% more than deaths dowry caused in 2009…So as we are evolving every year in becoming better economy , gadgets,cars , a section of society wants all goodies at cost of their in laws and are trying to use short cuts by getting money from their in laws to elevate their financial status!!!!!!!!

Dowry for me is worst crime in relationship. If man doesnot have guts to take care of his responsibility of his family , wife , future kids and wants his inlaws to do what he is supposed to do , how does that man have right to get married?. When dowry gets involved in marriage , it is no more union of two souls but it is business. Plain business , when man marries a woman , gets money from in laws for her stay , her food and giving her , his name. Woman on other hand is supposed to bear kids , take care of her husband and also pay money for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…Pathetic….

Ironically laws against dowry are in placed since 1960s now but still we see dowry deaths…Why?. Why law has failed ?. Some issues are too deep rooted and needs proactive measures from society at large. Role of parents of bride too is very important out here. When one gives money in exchange of marriage , it is likely that more demand for money can come in future. Instead of bowing down to so called social practice what we need is empowerment of woman . I hope this 8391 lives dont go in vain and serve as wake up call for all those who have daughters….

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Lata Mangeshkar

Today rumours of death of lata mangeshkar made rounds on internet. The news which was far from truth. The news which was false , news which was fabricated and news which was rumor.

Lata mangeshkar had to login to her twitter account to quash the rumor. She tweeted,” Namaskar. Pls don’t believe any rumors which are doing the rounds about my health & well-being. All is well, by the Grace of God.”

But this is not first time that a celebrity death rumor has surfaced. Time and again death rumor of many celebrity have emerged in various parts of the world. Just two days back I was shocked to see on youtube video posted which claimed that jackie chan dies of heart attack!!!!!!!!!!!

Even aishwarya ria bachchan had become victim of such rumors. Years back news of her death in car accident did shock the internet world. Obviously such news was false.Even britney spears too was victim of such rumors when she was going through bad phase emotionally and career wise.

Paul McCartney (beatles) has some thing wierd and interesting to deal with. Rumor had spread that Paul died in 1966 and was replaced by look alike!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Rumours started to decline when, on 7 November 1969, Life magazine published a contemporary interview with McCartney in which he said,“ Perhaps the rumour started because I haven’t been much in the press lately. I have done enough press for a lifetime, and I don’t have anything to say these days. I am happy to be with my family and I will work when I work. I was switched on for ten years and I never switched off. Now I am switching off whenever I can. I would rather be a little less famous these days.

Dont know what makes such rumors happen. Is it in quest of being sabse tej such things happen or is it someone trying to have fun at cost of emotions of fans and celebrities?

Lata mangeshkar is fine and i wish her more healthier years ahead .

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Today is historic day in modern India . Supreme court the apex court of India has cancelled 122 licences which where alloted by A RAJA as telecom minister which he used as private firm!!!!!.

Out of 122 license which got cancelled . Here is list of 122 cancelled licence :

•  Videocon was granted 21 licences all over India except Punjab.
•  Loop telecom was granted 21 licences all over India except Mumbai.
•  Siestema Shyam was granted 21 licences all over India except Rajasthan.
•  Tata telecom was granted three licences in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast.
•  Etilsalat DB was granted 15 licences in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh East and Uttar Pradesh West.
•  Idea was granted nine licences in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kolkata, Northeast, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
•  STel was granted six licences in Assam, Northeast, Bihar, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir.
•  Unitech Wireless Ltd (Uninor) was granted 22 licences all over India.
•  Spice (Idea) was granted four licences in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi,Haryana and Maharashtra.

Also tata, uninor ,swan would have to pay Rs 5 crore as fine.

Now uninor was among first to react and expectly they played being victim of verdict part. They cried foul that they are being punished for following existing government procedure of that time.”We expect the authorities to ensure that our 36 million customers, 17500 workforce and 22,000 partners are not unjustly affected. ” is what uninor said.

Coming to safeguarding interest of 36 million customers, 17500 workforce and 22,000 partners , well uninor do have a point. Why should these people suffer because we have one company wanting licence by any means and corrupted upa wanting to give license at cost of exchequers.

But Licence scrapping is welcome step. Also Supreme court has given time of 4 months for cancellation and TRAI can issue new licence to them by abiding to new procedure which should be auction so that government doesnot go on to make loss of 1,70,000 which it did in 2g Scam.

This cancellation of license verdict is slap on face of UPA and especially Kapil Sibal who had made bold statement of Zero LOSS in 2G Spectrum sale.

Now what does this mean for corporate world?. Well it is understandable that corporate world dont make policy but abide by policies made by Government but in this case money had flowed to kanimozhi’s ngo account , money was flowed to a raja’s aide and that money came from corporate which is not part of any official policy. Corporates must change the way they do business or else be ready to face the music.

Coming to congress led upa , governing people is job not proprietorship. UPA has been most corrupted government ever and it is insult to people who voted them , people who founded congress and it is high time they pull their socks and do what they where voted to do rather than filling their bank accounts .

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India became independent from Britishers in 1947. So what did brits leave behind?. They left behind Pakistan and 500 plus kingdoms which sardar patel united into country which we know India today. Before Britishers took over India , current India as country existed during mughal regime and during Chandragupta regime. So we had India thrice in history and for most parts of history India was divided into many small kingdoms.

Even during mahabharata times , we had many kings and kingdoms in country which was then called Bharat . So when India got independent from Britishers , it took some one like sardar patel to unite India and vision of panel headed by baba saheb ambedkar to make our consitution which defines what India today is.

Consitution is not piece of paper or exist for sake of it . It is vision of our founding fathers about what kind of country they dreamt of . Hugely diversed country like India needed constitution to have any chance of becoming what it has become.

I have found many opinions of constitution , while some are sensible , some are bizzare. Many are angry and slam consitution for special status given to jammu and kashmir . Many protest on inclusion of word secular by Indira in constitution of India .

When nation as diversed as India becomes free from foreign rule , we need a strong constitution which guarantees co existence of all and right to life of dignity. According to me consitution of India is one of best creation of human mind ever. I salute the panel which came up with constitution. India is not just a land ,it is one of most complex country in the world. The home to all beliefs , India has many caste , different languages , different ethnic identity.

It is duty of any nation to make sure that all of its citizen’s right are protected and constitution safe guards that right. Starting from freedom of speech to live life of dignity constitution provides all those rights.

As we celebrate 26/1 , let us salute the makers of constitution because of which India is what it is .

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swami Vivekananda

India is known for its creation of amazing thinkers , amazing philosophers since thousands of years. Since India is one of oldest civilizations and India has had continuous civilization , India’s ability to keep producing great thinkers continues.

One of greatest thinker , philosopher was man called Swami Vivekanand.  Though he lived for only 39 years , his words, his thoughts , his life , his passion for knowing god , his love of country makes him one of most influenced thinkers , a hero and inspiration.

I have had good influence of vivekanand on me . His works in form of books like vedanta , Four yogas and letter of vivekanand are which I am fond of.

Letters of vivekanand gives quiet a bit of information on how and what vivekanand thought. His quest , his zeal. Through this book one can get glimpse of this great man .

Vedanta is one of greatest book of vivekanand. In this book he explains the evolution of religion too.  In simple words he covers the idea of evolution of religion and that is what makes vivekanand revolutionary. Rather then taking words of ancient books as absolute truth , vivekanand tries to understand them logically and interpretate logically.

Vivekanand thoughts on religion are inherently secular . He explains that co existence of religion is requirement of human growth. He understands that disagreement among humans provides platform for growth. He understands that god willed to have so many religions , otherwise it wont have existed at first place.

His ideas where mentioned by Barack Obama in his speech to Indian Parliament and vivekanand’s words mentioned in Obama’s speech applies to every organized religion which considers other religions as false hood.

His one of my favorite quotes is as below :

“All who have actually attained any real religious experience never wrangle over the form in which the different religions are expressed. They know that the soul of all religions is the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does not speak in the same tongue.”

Personally for me swami vivekanand was spiritual being in real sense. His life has been mediation on eternal question. Swami Vivekananda is awesome story of journey of man committed to his quest.

He dared to say that 18th century was dark century of Hinduism. According to vivekananda during this century Hinduism turned from being school of reason to being school of mugging ancient books!!!!!!!!!. Knowledge equalled who knows how many sloks that meaning behind the sloks…

Another Very important thing which makes swami Vivekananda different is his passion and love for his country. Born in era where Britishers ruled India , his quotes and his belief on youth shows his thoughts.

Here are few of quotes of vivekanand :

1) Work and worship are necessary to take away the veil, to lift off the bondage and illusion.

2) Women will work out their destinies—much better, too, than men can ever do for them. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny of women.

3) The moment you fear, you are nobody. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is the fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings heaven in a moment.

4) Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life–think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines.

As we celebrate Vivekananda’s birth day tomorrow , let us work for betterment of our selves , our family , our society , our country and our world…

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Challenge For Congress - Sycophancy

During days when kings , nawabs , sultans used to rule India , they use to have state kavis. Many of so called kavis use to invest their talent in writing poems on their kings , nawabs , sultans. By doing so they use to get inaams .

The trend can be seen all across the globe and chamchagiri or sycophancy seems to be trait which has helped careers of many and it seems to be timeless trait!!!!!!!!!!!

World has changed a lot in last few hundred years. Today governance too has changed. We have democracy in most parts of world. The communist still hold ground in countries like china , north korea . Kinghood still holds ground in muslim countries like saudi arabia. But lately saudi too has seen more people centric governance system. Voices of change , democracy were heard in various parts in 2011. People are getting more aware about their right as human being and in all possibility governance would see more people centric systems where rule of law would have people’s view incorporated in it in future.

In such times one thing seems not to change and it is art of chamchagiri or sycophancy. Indian National Congress is oldest party of India and is chief party which contributed most in India’s struggle of Independence.

The party was unique in a sense. It had people from all walks of life , all caste , all community , all faiths. Be it be parsi or hindu or muslim or sikh , you name it and congress had people from that faith. Congress had people from dalits , people from brahmin , people from south , people from north. In era where woman was considered to be responsible only for household activities , congress had women too in it. Congress truly represented India .

After Independence Nehru began prime minister and unfortunately for Nehru ,Congress and India , most of top most leaders like mahatma , sardar patel , didnt live much and with death of maulana azad , nehru lost close guide,friend .

But most unfortunate thing for India was death of lal bhadur shashtri. The event gave India a very powerful prime minister called Indira gandhi but at same time the event laid foundation to new dynasty of India that is nehru clan.

Insecure Indira had group of selected few whom she did trust . Nick named as kitchen cabinet , they had strong say in governance too.  Indira’s rule saw corruption rise . When we seen today people coming on streets to say corruption down down , many dont know that similar banners made their way to streets during 70s too when Indira ruled.

Congress from being party of all voices soon became party with main trait as being loyal to one person and family. Culture of sycophancy entered the great party called congress and today in 2012 the above ad given by some congress man shows how deep rooted the culture of chamchagiri had become.

Challenge for congress if at all it wants to go back to glorious congress ,then challenge would be how it can bring people on merit who can stand upright and whose survival in party in not based on loyalty to one family but on what he/she brings on board.

Challenge for congress would be how they bring in actual representation of people of India . Rahul Gandhi claims to be working for it with youth congress but as long as top seats are reserved for one family , I am not sure how this would work?.

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I hate to post this. It is second day of brand new year and posting something like this is depressing in its own way. But I have to post this because this too happened in rising ,shining ,marching India.

2011 was forgetful year in itself. Barring Anna’s movement which showed that people rise to occasion to make their anger felt to insensitive politicians , there was little to be excited about other than MSD and Indian team’s world cup victory.

Come 2012 , news which grabbed my attention was shocking news of 7 year old kid (girl) killed by two men and her liver offered as sacrificial gesture to god for better harvest. How stupid, horrifying , ignorant things can be…

The incident is from Chhattisgarh’s tribal belt which has strong presence of Maoist too. The incident ironically happened on sunday that is 1st Jan 2012!!!!!!!!!!

Both men have been arrested but this kinds of incident do question about have we really  moved forward?. In country with 120 crore plus people , I completely understand that there is huge challenge for government to educate , to give jobs , to have proper medical care , to have proper awareness among each and every citizen but if 64 years where not enough , then how many would be enough?

This is not just one off incident. I was watching crime patrol on sony television which had similar kind of incident in which step mother sacrifices her step son . Some foolish so called tantrik had advised her that if she does get her step son killed , god would bless her with son from her own womb.

It is true that India has thriving middle class. It is true that Indian companies are now acquiring foreign firms and are having multinational presence. it is true that economy inspite of slow down if growing. It is true that Indian human force is well respected in the world but at same time the news of kind which I posted today is also truth. The truth that we still have long long way to go. The truth that building sky scrapers or metros or even going to the moon doesnot mean that we have progressed until it thoughts of sections of society evolve to level of humaness…

I feel sorry for the girl. Real sorry…

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Lalu's Man Hijacking Rajya Sabha

Read in news that Ram Gopal Varma is making movie on 26/11 . Well Ramu has another good story to make movie. What happened yesterday in Rajya Sabha could make most of script writers of bollywood envy government’s think tank. Sine Die…Rajya sabha adjourned sine die. Adjournment sine die  means “without assigning a day for a further meeting or hearing”. To adjourn an assembly sine die is to adjourn it for an indefinite period. A legislative body adjourns sine die when it adjourns without appointing a day on which to appear or assemble again.

For those who ridiculed , criticized Anna Hazare , his team and anna hazare movement might be clear by now that if anna movement was not there , if people of country wont have backed the movement we wont have got bill in parliament to start with. Yesterday’s great drama in rajya sabha shows intent of our politicians and after 11 versions of bill right from 1968 , it doesnot need some one to be Rocket Scientist to understand that this bill is something which is not wanted by parliament .

Congress led upa showed yesterday why they keep winning inspite of having huge corruption charges since days of Nehru. Just look at list of few of scams

1) Jeep scam came out in 1948

2) LIC scam during nehru regime

4) Indira gandhi earns distinguish status by becoming first prime minister which court finds guilty of using state machinery for polls.

5) Rajiv gandhi’s regime alleged in bofors scam

6) Narshima Rao government involved in cash for vote scam (JMM scam)

7) UPA-1 accused of cash for vote scam

The mother of all scams , 2G scam unearthed during upa-2 regime

9) Common wealth games scam unearthed

Ironically in spite of all the scam allegation upa might go on winning elections 2014 and form upa-3!!!!!!!!!. How and why was displayed in Rajya Sabha yesterday.

In recent television debate , an expert commented that in long run , politicians can out smart any one and it seems that was the case. Seeing public pressure , government formed joint committee and called anna hazare and team to be part of it.

Anna fumed again and this time movement was bigger , government did sent its minister to give sense of house and promised to get bill passed in winter session. They lived their promise but with bill which is much different than promised. Government gets bill passed in lok sabha but has scripted drama in rajya sabha and Rajya sabhi is sine die!!!!!!!!!!!

By getting bill passed in lok sabha , government is blaming opposition for Lok Pal bill status. Entire blame has been put on opposition while government is projecting themselves as champion of the bill!!!!!!!

Opposition on other hand too don’t seem to be too keen on the bill. BJP promising constitutional status in all party meet , goes back on promise and votes against it. Their argument is that since lok pal bill is already weak but by disallowing it to have constitutional status , they are weakening it further!!!!!!!!. Bill can be amended but once a body has constitutional status , it become different ball game , altogether.

Agreed government should have been more considerate in considering amendments suggested by opposition . One cant bull doze bill and expect opposition to co operate when one doesnot have numbers for getting constitutional status or getting bill passed in Rajyasabha.

But would this effect congress anyways?..No it wont…They gave loli pop to anna and people of India and now they would go out to people saying we talked with team anna , we passed bill in lok sabha but it is opposition which were not interested in passing the bill.

Corruption is not issue in elections , if it would have been we would not have had current state of corruption. We wont have had great congress party getting turned into family own enterprise with heritage of being accused of corruption . We wont have had Yeddy or shibu soren or lalus in active politics.

It is sad that we are back to place where we started. Though government promises to have bill again in budget session , I am not confident about the bill getting passed. The low turn out in anna’s latest dharna shows something. It shows that politicians prevailed and they would prevail unfortunately.

As 2011 ends I hope that Rajyasabha Natak Must Not See Lok Pal Being Sine Die…

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Anna Hazare

Before I write any thing else first lest us look at brief history of lok pal bill.

The Lokpal bill was first introduced by Shanti Bhushan in 1968 and passed the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969. But before it could be passed by Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha was dissolved and the bill lapsed. The Subsequent versions were re-introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008, but none of them passed.

If Lok Pal would have been name of some movie we would have had the name of latest version as Lok Pal -11 or Lok Reloaded or The Grand Saga Of Lok Pal!!!!!!!!…governments and governments kept changing but fate of this bill didnt seem to be changed till ANNA HAZARE entered the scene…

Under pressure from people of India , government finally brought a bill which is called as lok pal bill . Government also got parliament session extended and today , this is 27th december 2011 parliament of India is being debating on the bill.

In principal like every Indian , every parliament across the party lines says that they want strong lok pal bill. Only exception here is Shiv Sena who opposes formation of any such body . All political parties involved in the debate claim that they have been fighting against corruption and are in support of strongest possible lok pal bill.

Now what does it mean to be strong?…Every party has different views on it which is their right like every citizen has right to have his/her view. As I was listening to debate , BJP talked about how this bill is against constitution since it interferes in state’s right , JDU objected on perception of all government employees being corrupt , Left too wants amendment while Congress believes this is best bill possible.

Prime Minister did speak on number of aspects including CBI . He believes that independent CBI is needed but it needs to be accountable and not under lok pal.

Lalu wanted and got Minority reservation in lok pal panel which BJP objected. Mulayam singh yadav too opposed government version .

Listening to the debate it seems that LOK PAL DEBATE has become more of party politics than about the bill. The inherent theme behind lok pal is fighting corruption which seems to be more or less missing. Agreeing on principal is one thing while practically?

From debate of parliament it seems clear that parliamentarians are more interested in scoring political points than bringing lok pal . Experts believe that government would make sure the bill passes any how and Rajya sabha where they dont have majority , the bill will fall. This would make government blame opposition and achieve its goal of ‘LOOKING SERIOUS’ about corruption and bringing strongest lok pal bill.

So what did anna hazare movement achieved so far?. Since march it did make country sit and hope. It did make government atleast show it is serious though symbolic and most importantly it made parliament discuss about corruption at least 3 times in current year!!!!!!!

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