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

Beware of mob motivators‏ like Kejriwal and Medha

One is a self proclaimed anarchist.  The other is destructionist activist.  Arvind Kejriwal and Medha Patkar combine has been changing our democracy into mob activism.  They first locate flash points where mobs can be aroused and media can be attracted.  Then they walk into these zones provocatively and conspiratorially, just with an intention to stir up commotion, challenge law and order and walk out with a mask of martyr.  From within the melee they cause, they succeed in painting the face of governing establishment with excesses, albeit provoked. 

Medha Patkar has mastered this technique for years and is now gifting it to AAP as value of her addition to the party.  And since she has no face or courage to campaign in Gujarat, she has sent her front man Arvind Kejrival to the State to create chaos and confusion on the eve of polls.

BJP needs to stay calm and remain unprovoked.  Action and reaction cannot be equal and opposite in the political strategy because the reaction will always look larger than the action and will come under 'not so generous' scrutiny of the media.  Yesterday i.e on 5th March, what happened in Gujarat, Delhi and Lucknow concerning violence abetted by AAP is an example, wherein BJP has come under higher criticism than AAP.  This serves the purpose of AAP and its anarchist strategies.

At a time like this when the largest democracy on the planet is preparing to test its own tenacity, we should not give in, to the machinations of those like Medha and Arvind, for whom - the meaning of people and mob are the same.  

In the forthcoming election, we need to preserve the nation for the people and save it from the mob.  We need to rally behind people's leaders and not behind mob motivators.

VK Saxena

President 

NCCL

Ahmedabad