Religious terror on the world stage

It is unbelievable that any religious ideology, stretched to any extent of extremism, could motivate the kind of massacre of children carried out by Taliban within the precinct of education.  While Islamic religious leaders from around the world have expressed dismay at this, there remains an unanswered question as to why it is only the extremists of one religious direction that resort to this kind of absolutely obnoxious  behavior.   Nowhere in the history of mankind such brutal and inhuman behavior was exhibited by the extremists of one particular community, so widely around the world.

The world was just waking up this week to the criminal hostage taking of one lone extremist in Sydney, when the massacre in Peshawar took away everyone's sleep.  Each incident of this nature in the world is outdoing the earlier in magnitude and effect.  Over 90 girls in northern Nigeria, abducted by Boko Haram are yet to be traced and may possibly have been sold into slavery.  The young girls, women and children abducted and raped by ISIS are being sold like livestock in the Middle East every day. Taliban from the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan has undermined the meanest crimes by donning this crown of blood dipped in the blood river of innocent children they killed for no reason.  In Kashmir, Laskar e Taiba has continued its cowardice of terrorizing those who want peace in the valley and hills. 

 In all, extremists have all exhibited incomprehensible enthusiasm to kidnap, rape, torture, maim and kill women, children and men indiscriminately.  The right minded Muslim communities around the world have been greatly constrained to do more towards establishing confidence and trust in them among the cautious civilizations.

India teeters precariously on the risk of extremism and terrorism.  All religions live in harmony in India but those who pursue the small lane politics of communalism use ingenious methods of tipping the balance of secularism.  And events such as the ones we have witnessed this week are exploited by those who thrive on the opportunities of baying for blood.

It is time that Islamic leadership from around the world come together to cleanse the bad image being created by the extremists of their community.  

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties,
Ahmedabad

Web: www.ncclindia.org,

Twiter:@VKSaxena26

NCCL to mordenise tribal village VANAJ in North Gujarat

NCCL has on 21.11.2014 launched its new Project “Rainbow Hills” from village VANAJ, in Taluka Vijayanagar, District: Sabarkantha in North Gujarat.

In a simple Ceremony, Taluka Mamlatdar,  Mr Prajapati, in the presence of villagers & NCCL Volunteers started the work of re-constructions and modernization of houses in the picturesque Vanaj village which is situated on a small hillock facing a huge lake.

After necessary survey, NCCL has selected 10 houses in village: Vanaj, for reconstruction and repair.  The selected houses are constructed by the Adivasis using mud for walls and local wood for ceiling.  Adivasis in  Vijaynagar Taluka are living in dilapidated  dusty houses  in an unhealthy conditions and uncontrolled element of their routine misery.

Under the scheme  the NCCL will do  Repair of walls, floor, roof, Varendas , Plastering of mud walls & floor with Cement , Laying Cement Sheet on the roof for protection from rains, heat etc and putting tiles (Nadiya) on it for long lasting roof protection ,Colouring of roof top and Construction of toilets.   

NCCL will arrange Cleaning of surrounding area with the help of local Adivasis of the selected houses and will guide them to maintain clean & hygienic surroundings and also to stop using plastic products, causing maximum damage to the Environment. The entire cost of repair/reconstruction etc will be borne by the NCCL.

The aim of this scheme is to provide basic amenities to the poor Adivasis, without disturbing their lifestyle, traditions and surroundings. Further, these Adivasis will also be guided to rent out one room in these neatly Re-constructed houses to the tourists interested in eco-tourism, which will generate income for them.

NCCL in the past successfully implemented Mission ENDURE, in Ahmedabad City to reduce dust pollution by constructing footpaths from pre-cast Cement Concrete blocks, which was a unique practical, positive and participatory project  implemented in association with Ahmedabad Muncipal Corporation (AMC).

Newslink, the Pioneer, New Delhi dated 24.11.2014 below:

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/nccl-to-modernise-north-gujarat-tribal-village.html

V K Saxena

President

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Palace loyalties do public dis-service

We often want to believe that India is changing.  We take great pride in diving deep into the images of our society and sift through them to find those hints of change - that we don't hang from the trees our forefathers grew. We pride in our sense of maturity and impartial judgment to say that we form our opinions on the basis of context.  We want the world to believe that India is neither personality centric nor is a society of irrational old loyalties.  And when we try to paint the picture of change, we present proudly the agents of change like the media.

But a careful observation defies this bold projection of ourselves as an impartial, impersonal and ingenuous society that implicitly falls in line with the imperative change.

This phenomenon is more evident in the way the old guard of Press and some stalwarts of the media have behaved in the post May 16 Parliamentary Elections and Oct 19, Maharastra & Haryana Assembly  electoral results.  The whole world has noticed and accepted that the royalty of India, exemplified by the heir to the throne and his mother regent have been thrown into the dust bin of history and their palatial political party has been disregarded as irrelevant by the people of India.  But yet, there are senior journalists in the country, mainly based in Delhi and few in Mumbai, who have not shaken off their palace loyalties.  They refuse to recognize the change.  They fall deaf to the voice of people.  They continue to eulogize and empathize with the Congress Party which brought the Nation to its lowest low, its sublime masters and the glory of that old era. During result day debate, they were looking totally shattered, not ready to believe that People of India have voted for the change. These journalists use all powers in their disposal, the television channels they own, the newspapers they print and the platforms they coordinate to keep alive the glory or Congress that only exists now in their distant memory.

By all means, this is betrayal of the public desire for change.  This mindset of old faithfulness is an insult to the voices of democracy and in defiance to the popular will.  At a time when the vehicle of nation is trying to roll smooth on the boulevard of time, these irrational old loyalties are an irritant spoke in the wheel of progress.

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties,
 Ahmedabad.

Twiter:@VKSaxena26

Project Rainbow Hills under clean India initiative

One of the prime concerns of NCCL is to provide an expression to the potential strength of environment to rejuvenate itself and present it to the people at large as a new dimension of civil liberty to realize harmonious and sustainable development of nature with respect to man. 

We have followed this principle in many of our earlier Missions, a visible example of which has come to be known in Ahmedabad as Mission ENDURE (ENsuring DUst REduction).  Through Mission ENDURE, we established a culture of presenting to people a clean city endowed with good air quality.  It also epitomized our resolve to bring into play the simple principles that are otherwise shrouded in ignorance and callousness. More importantly, we strived to restore popular civil liberty to expect betterment of contemporary life. 

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, another simple principle has been emerging in our minds to develop  dilapidated houses on small hillocks in the vicinity of Shamlaji (Gujarat). These hills 

comes  both the sides on National Highway No-8 while driving from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. We recognize that the potential of this plan may hold the key to a series of eco-development drives in India . 

To Support Prime Minister Mr Modi’s initiative of Clean India, I along with NCCL team, visited beautiful Shamlaji Hill’s area on 2^nd October-2014 and selected 6 dilapidated houses of village Odhapadia. NCCL will reconstruct these houses and will handover it to the poor residents with toilets and other amenities in few months time as a part of its small contribution to the Nation. We are hopeful that the place will turn into a beautiful landscape worthy of emulation and appreciation.

V K Saxena

President

NCCL

Ahmedabad.

Pictures of Odhapadia:

An affable PM and his affectionate subjects‏

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  is on a high pedestal of people's love.  From Maharani Bagh to Madison Square Gardens, people are lining up the street to see this face of India's future.  In spite of riding the high tide of approval ratings, Mr.Modi remains the man he is - humble and affable, easily hand-shakable. In New York City, In a rare gesture, Mr Modi came out of his huge convoy to greet a large number of Indians who had gathered outside his hotel,  shook hands with  them and walked almost one entire block distance before going back to the hotel.

Let me recall that on 17 September, I attended the MOU signing ceremony at Hotel Hyatt, Ahemdabad, which was witnessed by only selected gathering of Gujarat. Fortunately, I was one of them.  MOUs were signed in the presence of PM Narendra Modi and Chinese Presedent Ji Zingping. Mr Modi arrived 15 minutes before the arrival of Chinese President. He interacted with the people and went upto the last row. People were wishing him Happy Birthday. I was sitting behind the Chinese Dignitaries.  

 On return from the last row, lots of Chinese and Indian guests almost gheraod him and started taking pictures from all sides from their cell phones. The most surprising thing was that Mr Modi called few Chinese Delegates by name and spoke to them in Gujarati and these Chinese officials also responded in Gujarati. There was much warmth and excitement in the Chinese Delegation.

One lady Chinese official who was standing near me asked me "I want to Shake hands with Mr Modi". I asked her to request him directly and as a result, Mr Modi obliged her with shaking hands with her. The woman after shaking hands was totally zapped and could not believe that she shook hands with the Indian Prime Minister and for a few moments, she remained ecstatic. After that she started speaking some thing in Chinese with her fellow delegates in great excitement . After a few minutes, she asked me if I could take her picture with Mr Modi from her Cell Phone. I said why not and asked her to stand near Mr Modi and took the picture from her Cell Phone. 

 What I have written above is just one episode of the ease of approach with the New Prime Minister and how much he loves to make people around him comfortable. We witnessed this euphoria in Japan and are seeing it again in New York and Washington  

Here is a Prime Minister who loves his people.  And at last, people have found a Prime Minister whom they love.  In shaking hands with him, people find the sati.sfaction of shaking hands with their future. The handshake means being in safe hands.  

Nothing stops people from falling in love with an affable Prime Minister - at home and abroad.

 VK Saxena

President ,

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Flood in J&K - an opportunity to drown the differences‏

On one side, the debate on J&K was taking on a new dimension. Sociologists were discussing on the possibility of return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley. Defence analysts were talking of the need to check mate Hurriyat.  Political commentators were wondering how National Conference has become irrelevant to the J&K context and how Abdullahs have overstayed their presence in the history of the land. ISI was ranting how Kashmir should be liberated from the so called Indian occupation. Nawaz Sharif had gone huddled in a closet with his coterie to think if he can bring up the issue of Kashmir this 'n'th time to safeguard his own shaking seat in the Govt. As always - the communal, political, social and regional difference were rife.

Then came the sudden, incessant and unending downpour of rains into the State.  The torrents submerged nearly half of Srinagar, killed over 160 people, displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed homes and farmlands, tore down the flanks of the hills in landslides, broke up roads and bridges and within the blink of an eye - caused an unprecedented national disaster of sorts.  In one sweeping moment of nature, all the clamour of civilization, militarization, communalism and extremism was drowned till the nostrils to the shock and dismay of people, parties and Govts. J&K on both sides of the border and across the several man-made borders, came to remain under the fury of nature, the almighty.

There is a lesson in this disaster, which is loud and clear.

Divided community, divided ideology, divided nation, divided region, divided polity and a manipulated state of existence do not provide you the strength of cooperation, mutual tolerance and mutual help that are needed to prosper and keep the nostrils in the air of existence.  If we are already half drowned under the divisive forces, it only takes very little for us to fully drown under the reality of our planetary survival.

This flood is a lesson.  This flood is an opportunity to drown our differences and stick our heads above the rising water. The Indian Prime Minister has already reached out to his Pakistani counterpart, offering assistance in flood relief operations in the areas "across the Line of Control", which is certainly a good initiative.

V K Saxena

NCCL 

Ahmedabad

Triangular world of three Muslim Spheres‏

On 11^th July, I was at Ahmedabad international airport, waiting for a flight to Istanbul ( Turkey ).  Twitter was abuzz with arguments on whether we need a uniform civil code in the country.  The sharp divide in opinions was evident and I wondered if we can ever have a meaningful consensus on the subject.  An image of Indian Muslims being enamored by political parties for them being a minority but vocal, was quite evident.  Generally impoverished and requiring to be emancipated through education and economic terms, Indian muslims appeared to be a community struggling to hold on to a viable identity and mainstream harmony.  It appeared to be a community, not free from its own internal social forcings as well as the boundaries it had built around itself.  To an average Indian, it appeared to be in a state of uncertain stress trying to free itself from its self bindings in a free State.

I landed in Istanbul some hours later, with an apprehension that I may not have made the right choice of a country to travel in Ramadan.  Being a Muslim State, I thought Turkey would flummox me with an extreme exhibition of faith and alienate me in spirit and reality.  I was also apprehensive of a possible disadvantage being a non-Muslim in a Muslim neighbourhood, that too in their holiest of seasons.  But I was in for a great surprise.  There were smiling faces all around.  In spite of being Ramadan, every eatery in town was open to non-muslim  like me and everyone made it a point to see that I felt comfortable.  The country was clean, posh and highly sophisticated in comparison to mine, in spite of some neighborhoods being poorer than the rest.  There was no sense of discrimination or separated identity between muslims and non-muslims and every one enjoyed the company of the other like the religion did not matter in this world at all.  It was an extremely tolerant world of mutual respect and mutual restraint.

From there, I landed in Dubai some days later.  The usually bubbling megapolis of modernity was shrouded with the enormity of Ramadan silence, frequently torn by the high voice of calls for prayer from the mosques.  Eateries were closed, people had fear in their eyes even to sip a drop of water in the battering heat and humidity of the land.  There was no ambiguity of identity in the air that thickly descended as an islamic shroud on everyone, regardless of what religion you belonged to.  There was this air of intolerance to what you believed in and a commanding demand that you better follow the religious dictat of the land if you cared not to end up in a jail.  People clandestinely ate and drank inside the closed public toilets and threw the wrappers and food waste in the sink.  

When I returned to India, I wondered about the diversity of Muslim spheres in this world that we live in.  From not so affluent populace striving to preserve its identity in India to the one that shares free joy with everyone in Turkey to an authoritative society that imposes its will on others in UAE, I had seen three different worlds in one small world.

Islamic 'loko bhinna ruchi'.

V K Saxena

President

National Council for Civil Liberties

Ahmedabad

India

e-Text books for easy and timely access for students‏

National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), in a letter to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has suggested  releasing of digital copies of the text books on the websites of education departments and even schools, so that the e-books can easily be accessed by parents and students on time.

 This is the season of reopening of schools all over the country and the parents, often line up before the designated bookshops to buy text books for their children.  And the most common problem they face is that the books are often out of print and/or not available and the children have to wait for weeks and months before they can lay their hands on the text books. Sometimes due to short supply of text books they are sold on premium forcing parents to bear extra cost.  This affects their ability to cope up with the syllabus and has an overall effect of slowing down the system and bringing enormous parental anxiety

Nowadays, computer access is very wide and if the textbooks are uploaded on websites and allowed downloading of digital copies of text books, parents can arrange for printed copies to their children on time and nobody suffers by this.  It is an archaic idea that the text books are still to be printed centrally by a Government department and should be responsible for the distribution in the country".   

 Decentralizing this operation will not only speed up the distribution, but will also bring about timely access to the study material, cost saving, time and energy saving of the concerned departments responsible for finalization of tenders for printing and distribution of text books and no room for corruption in printing and distribution system."  

Releasing digital copies of the text books on the websites of education departments and even schools could trigger local business opportunities for printing the books in colour in any required format by the local entrepreneurs to keep up with the requirements. Apart from this it would save millions of rupees of the education department which can be utilized for up gradation of schools etc.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Cancer from within: the NGO betrayal

An innocent and poor nation has been attacked from within.  The NGOs have misused their opportunities, played conduit to mala fide foreign intentions and betrayed a free nation that has aspired sincerely to grow and serve its people.

An IB report that was submitted in January 2013 to the UPA Govt, detailing the anti development activities of many NGOs in India that have carefully created a positive image for themselves using foreign experts.  They have in all, collected over Rs. 85,000 crores and successfully opposed infrastructure projects, such as hydro electric dams, nuclear power plants, extractive industry, vital food imports and agriculture.  Only if these opposed projects had been allowed to complete in a timely manner and if the previous Govt had acted with any patriotism, India would not have been in the economic and social quandary it now is in.  

The anti national activities by majority of NGOs  is the biggest story of national betrayal in our history after Mir Jafar in 1757 betrayed our motherland to Robert Clive, making way to a foreign force to occupy the country for two centuries.  These NGOs picked up on the very projects that would change the fate of India and pulverized them with the help of foreign agents and foreign funds.  They operated a parallel economy and a parallel economic policy.   

The foreign benefactors of the dubious NGOs of India brought money for these traitors, in spite of their countries reeling under economic recession.  The foreign nations from where these collaborators came, did nothing to prevent them from trying to stall the growth of India.  They converged on one purpose - the degradation of our national development, which in other terms would suit them in their long run.  Their policy was - if you cannot grow yourself under difficult times, stall the growth of those resilient nations that have a potential to grow even under trying circumstances.  And the wagging tails within India fell prey to these machinations and wrote the story of great betrayal from within.

The growth of anti national NGOs in India is akin to malignant cancer, which would destroy us from within, if not diagnosed at the right time and removed with a sharp surgical knife.  Because of the irresponsible silence of UPA, the cancer has already begun spreading across the nation and has affected us tremendously.  Now that it has been recognized and understood, it is time to act decisively and bring discipline and order within the country.

We cannot afford another betrayal of the type of Mir Jafar, that would sell off the nation to the vested interests in the foreign lands.  We cannot stop growing and stoop painfully to the cancer within.  We need a countrywide effort to clean up the body of the nation.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Dance of sycophants: Mani Shankar Iyer's megalomania‏

The quintessential poster boy of Congress - Shashi Tharoor expressed a heartfelt appreciation of Mr. Modi for being inclusive in his approach and graceful as Prime Minister.  His own colleague from the Party with an acerbic tongue -Mani Shankar Iyer derided him in public space and said that MrTharoor has virtually joined BJP. Mr. Iyer's outburst is an expression of commonplace sycophancy of a rare intellectual in the Congress party. It will now be interesting to see how Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi will react to these right and wrong assertions of two elitist MPs of an obsolete political outfit.

What Tharoor said is an important diversion from the usual political opposition maintained by Indian political parties for the sake of opposition.  And what he said is true as truth can be.If Mr. Modi is doing well in the best interest of the country, why should the opposition oppose?  Particularly, Mr. Modi's efforts to establish an inclusive governance are a political virtue that need to be endorsed and not opposed. Iyer just wants Congressmen to oppose the Government, not realizing that such an opposition amounts to opposing the voice and mandate of the people of India.

Whoever thought that Congress may have learnt a lesson in politics from the inglorious drubbing at the polls is sublimely mistaken. As much as the people of India want a clean governance, they want a clean and responsible opposition. They want an opposition to bad performance, exclusive governance, lack of development and non-fulfillment of poll promises. Iyer's thesis of opposition is archaic and can only suit the foundation of sycophancy to his party.

It is interesting that Iyer did not oppose his party's coalition with Regional outfits that were built upon scandals and criminal records.  He did not oppose the massacre at Muzaffarnagar or the 'boys will be boys' statement of his ally, supporting rapists in the heartland of India.  He did not oppose a spineless defense policy and a doomed economic policy of the UPA.  But he chose to oppose a decent acknowledgement of an encouraging gesture of the New Prime Minister, who has only expressed in his public action the will of the people of India.

If Congress wishes to rise from its own ashes, it should learn to silence its sycophants in evolving as a responsible, mature and modern opposition.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Mischievous messengers of the media machine: peddlers of irrelevance

Sagarika Ghosh tweeted that Mr. Modi performed Ganga Aarti and prayed at Kashi Vishwanath Temple, but failed to visit  Mosque.  With this absurd and mischievous observation, she attempted to suggest that Mr. Modi is not secular.  How irrelevant and deliberately inciting this observation is!  If one belongs to a particular religion, he cannot be branded communal.  Being religious is not being communal.  Any person having faith in his religion would visit the shrine of his faith to pay respects to the almighty for the success he received.  Thanking divinity is a personal practice of faith and is not an act of communalism.  Being religious is not being religion-neutral.

The peddlers of irrelevance could have also taken objection to Mr. Modi's visit to his mother, immediately after the success at polls.  It is surprising they did not question his not visiting a motherly person of Muslim faith or another faith.  Submission to a mother and practicing a faith, are matters of personal choice and culture and have nothing to do with secularism or communalism. Highlighting one of these in an irrelevant  manner is a mischievous exercise of creating an un-necessary opinion and rift in the country.

Two English news channels ,  time and again proven its alignment with Congress and its elitist attitude, covered in mischief.  When reporting on Kashmir, they give undue importance to Mr. Lone and his divisive view points.  When debating the Naxal issue, they lionize Binayak Sen and his seditious dogma.  When analyzing the developmental needs, they groom Medha Patkar and her western supported agenda of anti-development.   

 The recent vote has marginalized the media created debate on secularism and communalism as irrelevant.  The majority of under-35 voters of India and the surge of 100 million new voters in the country do not care for the Congress peddled obsolete thoughts of casteism, secularism, communalism and the upper caste Vs dalit debate.  They know that Mr. Modi signifies the aspiration of the country and its developmental needs, beyond  such  mischievous incitements .  They know that you are free to practice your religion and pursue your faith in this new order of governance and society.  They know that it is shameful to try and derive two meanings from every word uttered or every action made. 

Peddlers of irrelevant thoughts should know that the old baggage of Congress ideas does not mean a thing to the new generation of India, whose only demand is development.  And Development is culture neutral, which brings in social equality and an equal opportunity for life.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Nitish ka 'Bhi haar'‏

It is often said - 'in the game of the fool, it is tragedy for the poor'.  Bihar has come to be that.  Governance in Bihar has become a game of the fool, alternating between Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, with its people remaining poor and denied of any reasonably good livelihood. This resource rich state has been run as if an underworld enterprise is run by mafia lords.  Even in the election propaganda, their main issue was each other.   In fact, the JDU and RJD have held Bihar like their own inherited fiefdom.  The State that once was the seat of our ancient civilization has been reduced to an under-developed backyard of the nation, lorded by an insensitive and arrogant Chief Minister.

Nitish Kumar's arrogance did not end at lording his State to misery.  He often day dreamt of becoming India's Prime Minister.  Without a shred of ideology, he hobnobbed with Mulayam Singh , Mamta Banerjee and the likes, exhibiting an opportunistic political behavior and calculating his chances of occupying South Block.  He befriended Pakistan in order to appease the Muslims of the State.  He failed to address the Naxal threat or understand the needs for holistic development.  Carrying forward the legacy of RJD, he kept Bihar as one of our most backward States and denied it the benefits of 21st century India.

In spite of all the foolishness he exhibited, he might have been among the first people in India to recognize that Mr. Modi could surely become the Prime Minister.  I think that was the reason why he so violently protested when Mr. Modi's name was announced by the BJP as its Prime Ministerial candidate.  Then he made his worst political mistake of severing ties of JDU with BJP, mainly because his own ambition of becoming the PM would not be supported by the NDA as BJP had already announced their choice for the PM.  He over-estimated himself and grossly under-estimated Mr. Modi.

And now that Mr. Modi has swept the nation with his wave of patriotism and developmental vision, Nitish Kumar slid down the hill of despondency and resigned.  His resignation does not come in the background of any ideology or in acknowledgment of his inability to change the fate of Bihar.  It comes from his personal disappointment that Mr. Modi would now be the PM and from his personal embarrassment of not being able to face Mr. Modi in Delhi.

Good riddance.  Bihar is liberated now from the likes of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav.  Bihar too can now share the delight of joining Indian resurgence and hope to elect a development oriented Party and Chief Minister in the next election for the State Assembly.  A beginning has already been made by wading into the Modi wave and kicking out an opportunistic Chief Minister.

VK Saxena
NCCL
Ahmedabad

Faith and Filth - Varanasi's double extraordinary parade‏

I returned from Varanasi on 13^th, which rallied behind our future Prime Minister.  While people of Varanasi have given   a smooth road to success for the 15th Prime Minister of India, it is truly a bumpy road for those who trudge everyday in those lanes and by-lanes of this holy city.

A gynecologist relative of mine in Varanasi spoke about the hazards of reaching a pregnant woman to the hospital without risking an untimely abortion.  The potholed roads, unfinished bridges, bamboo poles for power lines, broken water pipes, dilapidated buildings, smell of roadside feces.... well, the city where the dead are cremated is a direct hell for those who live there.  In all the years of our independence, it does not appear that anyone truly governed and developed this city.

 If anyone wants to describe Varanasi in just two words - it is our capital of faith and filth.  Millions of Indians descend on the city to bathe in the holiest of our rivers and pray in one of the holiest of our temples.  They spend a lifetime planning for this pilgrimage and parade the streets in the intoxication of immense faith.  That is one aspect of Varanasi.  On the other hand, filth too parades the streets, the river and every open space of this holy city and the sights and smell appall you all the while.  By far, it is one of the most  filthy cities of India that I have known.

The cities of faith the world over - Vatican, Mecca, Karbala, Mashaad, Jerusalem, Bodh Gaya are all incomparably cleaner to Varanasi.  Our own Somnath, Mathura, Amritsar, Ajmer are far more cleaner and receptive to pilgrims than this high symbol of Hinduism.  With its metaphysical image of faith and physical image of filth, Varanasi is an injustice to the nation delivered by the successive Governments of  UP.

It appears that this city of faith waited to repose faith in the future Prime Minister of this country, to deliver it from filth to modernity.

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties, Ahmedabad -

Physics of Law: Kapil Sibal's end game scholarship‏

Kapil Sibal  has invented a new stream of scholarship called the 'physics of law', wherein he uses words from physics to give a devious meanings to law, but finds himself vanquished by the 'momentum' of democracy.

He recently called Mr Modi a 'potential' accused in the so called snoop gate matter.  With the word 'potential' he nearly rewrote the fundamentals of jurisprudence.  For a senior lawyer and a law Minister to use the word 'potential', it is a disgrace in respect of the sense of justice.  He basically held Mr Modi accused by that word and also expressed subtly that he had the intention to hold  Mr Modi accused.  This is putting judgment before the judicial process.  If he were to have a longer tenure as the Minister of law than just 10 days that are before him, he would also find the 'kinetics' of his persecution on the 'potential' accused.

 Sibal came up with another word from physics, the 'spin'.  Just being unable to bat the spin that is being bowled at his party by the people of India, he has called Modi the spin master.  That confirms he accepts Modi wave and he now acknowledges that Mr Modi has conveyed through the people of India the spin of falling fate of Congress.

Kapil Sibal has also been caught in the 'dynamics' of his faux paus.  He advocated the so called snoopgate with such an enthusiasm that he even declared that he will appoint a judge to investigate Modi on the 'penultimate' day of his Party's rule.  The 'spin' of his 'potential' inappropriate 'action' caused many unfavorable 'reactions' for him.  His coalition partners isolated him and his party is in the 'orbit' of licking the wounds.  Before the Supreme Court, the woman who was supposed to have been snooped at, made a startling declaration  yesterday that she had sought for the protection of surveillance.  

Kapil Sibal fell to earth like a stone by his own 'gravity'.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Land'ing an untenable argument: Priyanka's crash landing

What a pity! And what a comparison Priyanka is making between the land grabbing of her husband with the land development by Adanis in Gujarat.  What Robert Vadra did was something that the Sicilian Mafiosi does in the homeland of his mother- in-law.  He bought the land without making payments and passed on to someone else for a profit, coercing the administration to oil the deal.

 He did not develop the land nor employ people nor show any social orientation, but in turn increased his earning and increased the land cost. And in trying to defend this sleazy deal, Priyanka is comparing it to a case of land allotment, development, employment generation, overall growth and social upliftment.  She has nose dived and crash landed her plane of political argument.

Mr Adani has already clarified that most of the land to his company was allotted by the Congress Govt in 1993.  Modi Govt has allotted only 5000 acres of land in 2006 for SEZ project, which was sanctioned by the current UPA Government after due diligence and observance of necessary procedures.

What Priyanka and Congress should note is that more than Rs 40,000 corers of investment came to Mundra during the last 10 yeas.  The project has generated more than15000 direct and indirect employment , over Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 corers of annual revenue generation to the Govt of India through excise and custom duties and above all, with  the development of a barren and marshy area,  the land cost benefit has directly accrued to local villagers. 

 Further, as recent as on 24th April 2014, the Gujarat High court refused  to interfere with the industrial policy of the Gujarat Government and rejected a PIL challenging the 'soft loan' and “land  allocation” to Tatas for the Nano plant  project in Sanand near Ahmedabad. The bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya in its order stated that "State's industrial policy has not been found inappropriate in connection with the land allocation for the establishment of Tata's Nano car plant, in which this court shall not intervene,"

Priyanka's love to keep her family peace is understandable. But her comparison of her husband's land deals with a national development plan is deplorable. In fact, she is drawing more attention to her husband's shady deal and is making him further infamous by taking the line of argument that she has.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

Shameless Mulayam: Rape of civility

When you thought that civility is returning to public space at last after the nationwide protests against the fatal Delhi rape and the brutal Mumbai rape, here comes the most 'Shameless' statement of all.  A visibly senile, politically beguile and intellectually infertile Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajvadi Party, now says - boys can make mistakes, suggesting that bestial rapists are just boys and the destruction of women's honour can easily be understated as mistake.  So, he nursed this obnoxious judgment all along in his mind and came out with it at a time when India is looking for change, a higher order of livelihood and an ascent on the ladder of civilization.  How could he say that?  And how could he nurse such thoughts?  And how could he be still a leader in our public lives?  Is this the so called 'Samajvad' that he professes?  

My mind goes back to 'Ramnagar Tiraha' incident of 1994 in Muzaffarnagar district, when Uttrakhand movement was at its zenith and the same Mulayam Singh was UP's Chief Minister.  The Uttrakhand activists were going to Delhi peacefully and in the middle of the night, Mulayam ordered the police to beat up young men, fire and kill the activists and rape women that were young or old.  From what he is saying today, all that happened in 1994 was just a small mistake.

In October 2013, Mulayam's boy Azam Khan unleashed his wrath in Muaffarnagar that resulted in a spate of mindless killing and rape.  Mulayam Singh did not even go the place till day before yesterday as he found it all just a mistake by his boys.  And at the help of affairs in UP is his own little boy, and some small mistakes of taking a few lives or raping a few women are not even noticeable by Mulayam.

Mulayam has exposed his grossly misogynistic male chauvinist mentality.  All those Heads of Khap Panchayats in Western UP and Haryana will now yell, 'didn't we always tell you that rape is just a mischief?  Didn't we tell you that it is always a woman's fault that she provokes men?  Didn't we also tell you that all women are liers and complain of rape just to teach men a lesson?'.  In one shot, Mulayam has brought back to life an era of jungle justice, turning all those beasts of men against women, with the large canopy of shameful protection he has given to the 'boys' of the world.

This speech is provocative, racist, sexist and a potential disruptor of public peace and social justice.  However high he stands on the political pyramid, Mulayam must be made to pay for this.  

This is a test of strength of Indian society.  Voting him out into an obscure political corner is the need in this election.

V K SAXENA
PRESIDENT
National Council for Civil Liberties

Ahmedabad

Rahul Gandhi's frustration eczema

Prince  Rahul  has an eczema of frustration that is making him scratch his skin and tear his hair.  His Lieutenants in South Block compromised national economy, national security and national civility, raking up billions for themselves and soaking up the nation in distress.  When the election time came, many of his lieutenants went on 'sick leave' and excused themselves from contesting.  His manifesto makers found no basis on which the future promises could stand.  His campaign managers and speech writers lost all imagination and lacked any talent to give the Prince some worthy ideas to speak on.  At a time like this, he bumped on a very personal but insignificant truth of Mr Modi's marital status and has jumped to the roof with excitement.

Who had ever denied that Mr Modi was married?  His marriage as a teenager forced a togetherness only for a week or more and was never consummated.  It was an arrangement his parents made and he left it in pursuit of his mind's call, never to return to its fold.  He neither lied to anyone nor did he betray anyone.  He just pursued a larger social purpose, unlike hopping into boats of opportunity like the Prince.  Whereas the Prince lived a lurid life of Italian innamorato, hopping from girlfriend to girlfriend, hidden from the public eye.

But is this an election issue of larger national interest that he should latch on to?  What does the Prince promise the people of India with his newfound excitement?  By his pervert argument that his opponent is married, is he addressing the problems facing the nation and its people?  Along with corruption, has he now also adopted perversion? 

Well, the Prince is covered in frustration eczema and is scratching all his political rashes.

VK Saxena

NCCL

Ahmedabad

In the forthcoming elections, people's vote should be for NATION FIRST.

Yesterday morning near Hiranandani towers in Powai, Mumbai, even elite people stood in a long line to enroll themselves as voters for the next election.

When the Election officials refused to accept unattested documents to enroll people as voters, one person volunteered to attest all the documents and quickly brought his rubber stamp and stamp pad to start the process for enrollment of new voters. This elite class which has never voted in the past, did not mind the unpleasant March sun and the sweat involved in the process of securing their right to vote.

Similarly in Bangalore, Lucknow, Delhi, Ahmedabad and wide across the nation in small and big settlements alike - people stood in queue to be recognized as voters.  People of India have come to recognize the power of the ballot.  A mature society has evolved and forged ahead on the path of democracy.  Nation building has found its rightful architects and interior designers.  Indian Republic is in a highly charged state of political consciousness and democratic power.

Come April and May 2014!  India has to cleanse itself of dynasties and misrule of Nehruvian mammoth.  India has to shun the politics of mob mobilization and irresponsible opposition to civility and decorum.  India has to choose development over anarchy.  

The voters who have stood in long lines across the country to secure their right to vote should also rightly vote.  The largest democracy in the world should find its path, make its path, cleanse its path and show a new path to the world. That will be the real face of people's revolution. 

In the forthcoming elections, people's vote should be for NATION FIRST.

V K Saxena
President
NCCL
Ahmedabad