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