Two years of BJP in power: Un-breaking our national integrity

When the people of India overwhelmingly elected BJP to power in the summer of 2014, we were a broken nation.  Our national security had been challenged by our neighbors,  the Government in power had fractured our backbone with corruption, our strength had been weakened by policy paralysis and inaction and to top it all, the western vested interests had infiltrated in the form of NGOs that were breaking our ligaments from inside.  Forget making any progress in a fast paced world, we were incapable as a Nation in holding ourselves in an integrated oneness.  That is when and why people voted BJP to power in May 2014.

Remember the prolonged agitation of Medha Patkar in undermining development and the water security of the central and western parts of India?  Remember the Greenpeace sponsored agitations that were trying to stall power generation capacity building and development in many parts of the country?  Remember Teesta Setalvad who in connivance with large multinational donors was promoting communal disharmony under the mask of social work?

India was mushrooming with NGOs and activists, who ate from the palms of western donor agencies and were breaking the nation from within.  Not a day had passed without the Media reflecting their voice and lionizing their unjust stands.  They were being showered with international awards and recognition for breaking the nation from within, in the name of civic movement.

It is two years of BJP in power now with a singular focus of development of this great nation.  The vested interests have been plucked out of their niches and dumped into the dustbin of history.  The perpetrators of these double faced NGOs have been exposed and neutralized.  

And, two years have passed without an unjust agitation by NGOs or dubiously funded vested interests.  Even this week, an NGO of a well connected person has been exposed and is being brought to justice.  A nation that was being broken by divisive forces has begun its journey on a rapid path of development with an uncompromising and unbroken stance.  It is a pity that this has not been conveniently  recognized by the so called Political commentators, Political psychologist ,Social theorist, critics and including Media and made aware of to the people. 

It is also true that in the past two years, most projects have progressed as scheduled, without the opposition of the vested interests backed by western lobbies.  The financial over-run on the projects is a thing of the past and today; the nation is witnessing cost-effective implementation of infrastructure projects, which had become milking cows of easy money for the previous Govt. 

These very significant achievements need to be accepted and publicized by all concerned, regardless of political or professional ideologies, as they have a direct bearing on our well being as individuals and as a nation.

We need to make people of India aware of these benefits of Acche Din.  We need to feel proud that the nation is on the path to progress.  We need to feel happy that the lives of our children will be better than ours.  As a nation, we need to realize that 'hope' has come to be a meaningful word.

V.K.Saxena      

Chairman

Khadi & Village Industries Commission

New Delhi

Phone no- 011-23724690

Fax No-011-23724693

Email ID- chairmankvic2015@gmail.com

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 -

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