Thursday, August 28, 2014

Love Jihad - How Much Truth in it?

Love the greatest gift from god to the mankind. From Romeo and Juliet to Heer and Ranjha there are many eternal love stories which make you emotional. Stories where the boy is from one religion and the girl from another and how they fight the world to be together. Whether you are a daily wager trying hard to earn the daily bread and make the two ends meet or a business tycoon earning crores and crores, whatever you do in our life, the sole intention is to keep our loved ones happy. And one day you realize that all this love was fake, the only reason it was show was because they wanted you to convert into the religion of the person you married.


Love Jihad also popularly known as Romeo Jihad, is a suspected activity under which young Muslim boys and men target young girls belonging to non-Muslim communities for conversion to Islam by feigning love. However the official investigations that took place in 2010 and 2012 in Kerala and Karnataka found no truth behind these allegations. They were supposedly shaped by political parties to create communal differences and increase their vote bank.Love Jihad 1Love Jihad has been in news since quite a long time now. Yogi Adityanath is the latest who is under fire for his recent remarks on this sensitive issue. In a provocative video the BJP Member of Parliament is seen urging Hindu men to marry 100 Muslim women if one Hindu woman is forcibly converted to Islam. "If they take one Hindu girl, we will take 100 Muslims girls," the MP from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh is seen as saying to a crowd of about a thousand people in the video posted on YouTube.


He further says "The way Hindu girls are insulted; I don't think a civilized society would accept it. One community is allowed to spread anarchy. If the government is not doing anything, then the Hindus will have to take matters into their own hands,” It is not clear from the video the place where it was taken in UP.Yogi


This is nothing new to Adityanath as he has been named in such controversial news before also. It was last month only when he was in a controversy for his speech in Parliament where he called all the Hindus to come front and take matters in their hands and accused opposition Congress for working on Pakistan's agenda. He is also currently facing charges of inciting communal tension in Gorakhpur in 2007.


Initially the BJP party who wanted to take advantage of using this issue to increase its Hindu vote bank for the upcoming by polls in Uttar Pradesh. But from last week’s party meeting in Vrindavan it was evident that it has been removed. However the issue is being scraped up by few groups in the state. The opposition parties in UP have got a chance to react against the senior BJP leadership and are hitting at the party for not making a clear stand on the issue.BJPThe love jihad issue is seen something like smoke without fire and the two worried governments though admitted to the conversions but only with an intention to prevent a communal rift and denied it was done under pressure. However they assured that they would not allow such forcible conversions at make sure there is no hate campaign against Muslims.


Though the controversy has lost its intensity over the months but the residues continue to smolder intimidating to revolve into a major blaze at the first spark and with controversies created by people will Yogi it is obvious to add fuel to the fire. Though the investigations carried out against this have not proved anything yet but if something like this has really being planned then it will hurt the sentiments of the entire nation and the consequences can be un imaginable.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Joko Widodo - Long Walk From Slums To Being President Of Indonesia

Joko Widodo the current Governor of Jakarta is the man who has won the elections to become the next Indonesian president. His increasing popularity as a clean politician made him a potential PDI-P candidate for the Indonesian presidential election in 2014 and ultimately his nomination was announced on 14 March 2014. He won the presidential election by more than 53% of the votes over his opponent Prabowo Subianto. He will officially be sworn-in and take charge of the Republic of Indonesia as the president on 20 October 2014.


Widodo n Megawati Sukarnoputri

After the PDI –P chief Megawati Sukarnoputri chose Joko Widodo to be the presidential candidate of her party there was a lot of campaigning that was done to make sure they emerge victorious. Widodo along with others travelled to many parts of Indonesia. Already his work while he was the mayor in Surakarta and the governor in Jakarta, had paved a way for his victory. His interest in loud music also benefitted him as many musicians from around Indonesia like Jalanan made a song titled Salam 2 Jari to promote his campaign. Also many international artists like Jason Mraz, Sting, Bumblefoot and Arkarna even posted for him on Twitter and Facebook supporting him.


Widodo 6

Recently when he was in Jakarta he was provided with countless security officers. He rejected to be accompanied by so many officers and agreed to take four of them along with him. He is one man who believes that he does not need protocol to manage things. He is people's man and does not want anyone to come in their way to meet him. He also persuades his fellow political leaders to follow the same so that they can do their work efficiently. He says that the horizontal leadership era is the new democracy in Indonesia and everyone should put an end to the inefficient vertical relationship model. Widodo has risen from the slums to become the most powerful man of Indonesia. Let us see his journey from the ground to where he is now and how he made it all possible.


Widodo 3

Widodo was the oldest of four children and the only son of Noto Mihardjo and Sudjiatmi Notomihardjo born in Surakarta in Central Java in 1961. As his family was very poor they struggled to assist him through school. He had to work to earn enough money for his school materials. The evictions he experienced three times in his childhood affected his way of thinking and his leadership later on as the mayor of Surakarta. He eventually graduated with a degree in forestry from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in 1986. He was married to Iriana after his graduation.


Widodo 2

Jokowi initially joined the forestry service of a state enterprise in Aceh. He was not feeling at home and missing his wife who was seven months pregnant. Hence in the year 1989 he returned to his hometown and worked with his uncle to learn the furniture business and mastered it from design to delivery. Then he started his own branch of a small furniture business which ran successful but had to be closed due to some fraud.


Widodo 1

It was his performance as the mayor of Solo that first gained him attention with his ability to resolve issues like floods, dirty streets and slums. Initially many people doubted his ability as he was just a furniture businessman but after a year in office Jokowi had successfully led many progressive breakthroughs which became widely praised. His leadership style included an interactional relationship with the people of Solo through which he was able to induce people's strong faith in him. He adopted the development framework of European cities into his own city of Surakarta. His supporters pointed to rapid positive changes in Surakarta under his leadership. Jokowi also did not hesitate to dismiss investors who did not agree with the principles of his leadership. He was chosen as the Tempo's Leaders of Choice by Tempo news magazine (2008) and received Changemakers Award from Republika newspaper (2010) and his name also started being considered in national polls for governorship of Jakarta way before his party nomination of him to run for the post.


Widodo-and-Susilo

By 2012, he was elected the governor of Jakarta. He followed the practice of regularly arranging well-publicized visits to local communities especially in quite poor areas across Jakarta. His broad approach was widely said to reflect the successful style of administration that he adopted while he was the mayor of Surakarta between 2005 and 2007. He introduced a universal health care program in and distributed Healthy Jakarta Card and the program proved to be very popular. In 2012 he launched another card named the Smart Jakarta Card to support poor students in Jakarta. This card gave an allowance that can be withdrawn from ATMs in order to buy school needs such as books and uniforms and was constantly monitored and use for any other purposes was not allowed. Only through transparency, efficiency, e-catalog, and e-budgeting he was successful in increasing the provincial budget of Jakarta from Rp 41 trillion in 2012 to Rp 72 trillion in 2014. He also initiated dredging and reservoir normalization projects in order to reduce flood problems in the year 2013.


Joko 1

Widodo’s is the first Indonesian president who is not from among Indonesia’s elites club and his entry is as a refreshing break from the three decades of Suharto’s dictatorship. With a lean and tanned physique which is totally in contrast to the image of Jakarta's politicians who call him a villager but he appears to have the last laugh now after being announced as the next president of Indonesia who will join his office from October. There is a challenge in the country of 250 million people that he would be tested by the powerful army, the political and business elites which he does not know. The question his critics are asking is for how long he will continue to visit the slums when he will have the massive task of running the rambling country?

Monday, August 25, 2014

Who is Roxna Subramanian Swamy?

Like in October 1950 when the ruins of Somnath temple were pulled down in and the mosque present at that site was shifted few kilometres away, Subramanian Swamy has written a letter to Prime Minister Mr. Modi for the reconstruction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya by 2016 and fulfil the party's commitment to the electorate. Also the mosque should be built at public expense across the Saryu River in Ayodhya.


In his letter he suggested Mr Modi to form a Ram Temple Rebuild Committee and appoint former Chief Justice of India like SH Kapadia as the executor who may coordinate with a designated minister like Gen VK Singh. He also wants to call a meeting of Islamic clerics including people from abroad and seek an endorsement. In case this fails then Government should think about enabling a bill in the Parliament and get it passed.


Subramaniam Swamy, Janata Party leader

Subramanian who is  leading Indian politician and economist was previously the President of the Janata Party but in the year 2013 he merged his party with Bharatiya Janata Party. He has a Bachelor Honours degree in Mathematics and a Masters degree in Statistics. He also studied at Harvard University where he received a PhD in Economics in 1965 and his thesis adviser in Harvard was the famous Nobel Laureate Simon Kuznets.


He joined the faculty of economics at Harvard beginning as an assistant professor and later became an associate professor. He then came back to India and served as the professor of mathematical economics there from 1969 to 1991 in Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.


His political career started when the right wing political party Jansangh sent him to Rajya Sabha. He was elected Member of Parliament 5 times between 1974 and 1999.


subramanian

Subramanian Swamy married Roxna Swamy in 1966. He had met her when was at Harvard. She is now an advocate at the Supreme Court of India. They have two daughters, Gitanjali Swamy who is a private equity investment professional in the US married to MIT professor and Suhasini Haider who is an editor at The Hindu and married to Nadeem Haidar son of Salman Haider.


Swamy 5

Subramanian Swamy was one of the people responsible for normalising relations between China and India in 1980’s. It was in his meeting with China’s supreme Deng Xiaoping the opening of Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage route was announced in April 1981 which was widely reported in the media but had some other claimants too.


He is also among the people who made pioneering efforts at establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. In fact Swamy was the first Indian political leader to make publicised trip to Israel where he met with some important Israeli leaders such as Yitzhak Rabin and then Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the year 1982. His efforts at normalising relations with Israel have borne fruit and helped in India’s decision in 1992 to open Embassis in the respective countries.


Swamy n Modi

He was among the first five who wrote letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking permission to prosecute A. Raja in regard to the 2G spectrum scam. As Manmohan Singh did not take any action Swamy filed a case on his own in the Supreme Court of India regarding the matter, which then asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to produce a detailed report on it.


Swamy has raised allegations that Sonia Gandhi's sisters Anushka and Nadia have received sixty percent of the kickbacks in the 2G spectrum scam, amounting to INR180 billion (US$3.0 billion) each. His efforts to strike down single directive provision which barred CBI from investigating corruption charges against officers of the rank of joint secretary and above without prior permission of the Govt of India were successful and the provision was deemed to be invalid and unconstitutional.


He also founded the Action Committee Against Corruption in India (ACACI) whose goal is to take specific action against corruption at very high places of government and Indian black money stashed abroad.


Swamy with Obama

With a clean record without any controversies throughout his career Swamy is one person who never hesitated to fight against injustice. No matter who the person is if he felt what is being done is wrong he rose and stood as a wall to stop the evil.


India needs leaders like him to put the country on the path of growth and prosperity. Don’t you agree that we need people like him? In today’s world when every politician is busy filling their pockets is there any other leader who stands for a cause?

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Dr Harsha Vardhan – How Solid Is He ?

Just when Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, speaking to the reporters last week on 17th August while inaugurating the yoga research laboratory at the Swamy Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Smsthana in Banglore, said the he wants to keep healthcare free from political influence the news of AIIMS chief vigilance officer (CVO) Sanjiv Chaturvedi being dismissed by him without giving any reason on Thursday is doing rounds. There are strong speculations that politics was involved in making this decision. Otherwise why the same ministry of health and family welfare who in the year 2014 accentuated that AIIMS was an autonomous institution and vouched for Chaturvedi's absolute integrity and called him an outstanding officer is now saying that he was removed because he was not eligible for the post. Also Vishwas Mehta who has now replaced Chaturvedi was the one who gave him clean chit when BJP general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP, JP Nadda, had raised objections to Chaturvedi's appointment in the year 2012. While the Aam Aadmi Party is demanding the resignation from Harsh Vardhan and also issued a statement that failing this, PM Narendra Modi should sack the minister for shunting out the “whistleblower officer” it is for the CVC to decide the eligibility of a person for the post of CVO not the government.sanjeev chaturvediOn one hand where Chaturvedi in his two years stay in AIIMS had busted many a scam involving top AIIMS officials, Dr Harsh Vardhan says that he is not at all eligible for the post that he was holding at AIIMS as they were informed that without the approval of the central vigilance commission (CVC) nobody can be assigned the post of CVO anywhere. This was brought to their notice and hence taking cognizance to the same they removed him from the post. The question is why it took 2 years for him to realize this? Chaturvedi was to work till 2016 if he was not dismissed. Modi had recently said in a statement that he will not allow anyone to indulge in corruption and loot and when Chaturvedi was identifying such people the news of his dismissal has come. However the BJP is also washing its hands off by defending the government's decision saying that Chaturvedi was ineligible and that there was no witch-hunting. "He was an IFS (Indian Forest Service) officer. He was not eligible for the post and the CVC has not ratified it," party spokesperson Nalin Kohli said.Harsha Vardhan 2Dr Harsha Vardhan who has always publicly admitted that Politics should in no way affect the health programme and policies of the country believes that for the health of the nation the health of government departments needs to be improved. He is doing all his efforts by visiting states that are not being ruled by the BJP government and successfully developing close friendships with them. Whomever he met he told them that though the government is of any party their aim should be not to allow any kind of politics to affect and interfere the health programmes and policies. Back in the year 1994 when he was the Delhi’s Health Minister had had urged hundreds of school children to become Polio Sainiks with the task of seeking out families with small children who needed polio immunization. This was implemented on 2 October, 1994 which was the first pulse polio day in Indian history and today polio is eradicated from our country.Harsha Vardhan 1Recently in a letter he has written to several states and union territories to discuss the concern of easy availability of tobacco products in various forms though strict restrictions have been taken on their sale. He launched an anti-tobacco website which kicked off a campaign showcasing the plight of a cancer victim. He has in fact asked Defense Minister to ban cigarettes from army canteens and has also had asked the Finance Minister Mr Jaitley to hike prices of tobacco products in this year’s budget. He says tobacco consumption costs actually result in a loss of Rs 1.04 lakh crore a year due to increased healthcare costs and higher taxes will be one measure the center can take to control this.Harsha Vardhan 2Harsh Vardhan was born in Delhi to Om Prakash Goel and Sneh Lata. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and got his Master of Surgery in Otorhinolaryngology in 1983. Since childhood he has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He is married to Nutan and they have two sons and a daughter.


Dr. Vardhan as the State Minister of Health in 1994 oversaw the successful implementation of the pilot project of the Pulse Polio Programme which involved the mass immunization of 1 million children up to the age of 3 in Delhi. He was named as the Chief Minister candidate for Delhi Assembly elections that were held October 2013 however BJP did not win the majority. In 2014 lok sabha elections he contested from Chandni Chowk seat and defeated Kapil Sibal of INC and later was announced as the Minister of Health and Family Welfare in May this year.Harsha Vardhan 4Dr Vardhan is credited with steadfastly uniting various factions in Delhi BJP and leading the party's aggressive campaign for Lok Sabha polls in which it recorded a clean sweep. Apart from being an effective minister he also proved his organizational capabilities by rebuilding the BJP's operations in Delhi from scratch after the party's defeat in the 2003 Assembly Election. It was under his leadership that BJP was able to win all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. Also during his Minister ship in the Delhi government people had found him remarkably accessible and officials respected him for his hands-on style of functioning. Under his leadership in April 2007 party won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and in 2008 the Delhi Cantonment Board election. Now with the Delhi Assembly election fast approaching chances of BJP winning and forming the government are growing. With the ability of making BJP win in unpredictable situations soon this will be reality.HarshaWith an excellent track record without any controversies and working on critical issues like eradicating polio and bringing in awareness about the fatal effects of smoking Dr Harsha Vardhan has set an example for others. But whether his decision to remove Chaturvedi had come due to pressure? Was he forced by superior officials to take this step? Only time will answer these questions.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Nawaz Sharif - Can He Keep Army In His Grip?

A civil disobedience movement was declared against the Nawaz Sharif-led government started by Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan recently. He feels that the future of Pakistan is not in the able hands. This came after the cleric Tahirul Qadri gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the embattled Prime Minister to resign. Khan has urged the people not to pay taxes, electricity or gas bills. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief asserted that under the rule of these businessmen who only want to make money for themselves, Pakistan's future is bleak. Sharif's PML had won 190 out of 342 seats where as Khan's PTI got only 34 seats which is the third largest bloc in the legislature. Khan accused vote-rigging by Sharif's PML was the reason otherwise his party would have won many more seats. Khan said that anyone who tried to hold Nawaz accountable was offered bribes. Judges, the election commission last year and the generals all were in his kitty. Qadri who has given a 48-hour ultimatum to the embattled Prime Minister to resign and wants Sharif and his brother Shahbaz arrested for the killing of his 14 supporters in Lahore on June 17.   Imran KhanIndia called off the Foreign Secretary-level talks scheduled for August 25 as Pakistan was interfering in India's internal affairs by holding talks with Kashmiri separatists though they were warned not to do so. In a major ceasefire violation that lasted throughout the night, Pakistani troops resorted to heavy mortar shelling and fired with automatic weapons at 20 Border out Posts and civilian areas along the International Border in Jammu sector, leaving a villager injured. There were 11 ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along LoC and IB in Jammu region during the past 10 days which were made deliberately. Hence it is very clear that Pakistan and the powers within do not want to tie with India and continue the rivalry. Ceasefire 2Though Sharif is making all promises and trying his best to better the relations between both the countries only time can tell what will be the result. Let us look at what can be expected from Nawaz Sharif and if the Pakistan army will allow him to do what it takes to unite both the nations.


 Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif commonly known as the "Lion of the Punjab" is the president of Pakistan Muslim League is the current Prime Minister of Pakistan who is in office since June 2013. He is a veteran politician and industrialist and the third time Prime Minister. He previously served as Prime Minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 to October 1999.As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading business conglomerate he is also one of the country's wealthiest people. TalibanUpon controlling office Sharif promised good relations with all its neighbours and launched trade talks with India with promise of liberalizing trade relationship. Sharif meet Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2013 however no major agreement was reached. He took significant steps to improve relations which will liberalize trade however on Mar 26, 2014 The Times of India reported that Pakistan military has pressurized Sharif to stop any trade liberalization with India. Sharif also telephoned congratulated Modi on BJP's victory in the general elections in India and invited Modi to visit Pakistan becoming among the first leaders to do so. Nawaz SharifEven though some political parties expressed reservation about Modi's invitation to Nawaz Sharif and holding of talks with him the meeting between Modi and Nawaz Sharif was not merely a cordial exchange of pleasantries. Modi sent out an extremely tough message to the Pakistani premiere as a precursor about why it has become extremely important for Pakistan to contain cross border terrorism. Modi is very serious about the issue of terrorism and possibly this is the reason why he decided to use the occasion of Nawaz Sharif's visit for the swearing-in ceremony for holding bilateral talks.


Nawaz Sharif belongs to the industrial class of the Punjab. Both he and his Indian counterpart are openly pro-business and pro-market. Nawaz Sharif’s party takes pride in the so-called development projects in Punjab just as Modi does in Gujrat. It is in the interest of Nawaz Sharif and his industrial constituency to improve relations with India. It is not a secret that Pakistan has a lot to gain from having better economic relations with India.pakindiaThis is not the first time Sharif is attempting to improve relations with India. When he was last in power in the late 90s when BJP was also in power in India he had openly embraced India and the Indian prime minister. But to spoil the peace process, the Pakistani army, lead by General Pervez Musharraf, launched a war against India in the mountains of Kargil in Kashmir without his knowledge. Latter the army overthrew Sharif and took over the country and martial law was imposed. Modi NawazNow in his third term as a PM also Nawaz Sharif faces the same issues. Though he managed to negotiate with the army and come to Delhi for Modi’s inauguration this does not mean that the future is rosy. There is hardly a chance that the army would allow Sharif to continue improving relations with India. The army’s opposition to India is deeply ideological. For the reason of maintaining its hold on Pakistan and protecting the economic interests of the armed forces, the Pakistani army would never let Pakistan and India normalize their relations.


However one thing we can be sure of is that the Pakistani intelligence services will not take the same road as before and mount another attack inside India as the present situation does not allow for such tactics. Pakistan is already facing a threat from within its borders as the Taliban insurgency increases and the theatre of war moves from the tribal areas into the country’s major cities. Hence it is extremely unlikely that the army would try to thwart the peace process by sending its jihadi proxies into India. The army will not venture beyond Pakistan’s borders in order to send Nawaz Sharif the message. The conflict will stay within Pakistan. The recent rallies in Islamabad of Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri point to the tactics the army would use. These two politicians were called by the army to compel Nawaz Sharif to behave.ParwezHowever, there is still a danger that the tensions between the civilian government and the military could spill over into India. Pakistan, over the years, has created so many fifth columns that many of its proxies are no longer under state control. If Nawaz Sharif continues with his India-friendly policy, any one of the dozens of Jihadi elements could carry out an attack inside India on their own. If something like that happens, the consequences are too great for anyone to even imagine. As the real power still lies with the Pakistan Army the position of the Pakistan Government remains vulnerable. The Pakistan Army continues to wage war against the Taliban elements in the North West Frontier Province and FATA region. A major section of the Pakistan Army is extremely sympathetic towards the radical Islamic terror groups like Tehreek e Taliban or the Lashkar e Taiba BSF JawanThe way Pakistan treated the BSF Jawan who mistakenly fell into their waters recently was really a welcome sign from Pakistan. But on one hand where India feels that talks with Nawaz Sharif is a positive step we should not set high expectations from it as the real power in Pakistan is with the Pakistani Army and not the Pakistani Government and ultimately if situation arises India will have to directly talk to the Pakistani Generals instead of the Political leaders if it wants results. A strong message has to sent to the Pakistan Army that this Government of India means business and will not tolerate nonsense anymore.


Few questions that arise in everyone’s mind when we talk about India and Pakistan are Whether Nawaz Sharif will be able to go against the Pakistan Army to mend the relations with India? Will India and Pakistan ever become friends? Will terrorist groups be eradicated from Pakistan and terrorism vanish one day?

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Decoding Amit Shah - The Newly Elected BJP President

Amid the speculations that were going round the table to appoint Shah who is a close and controversial aide of Modi as the BJP President last month the BJP finally announced him as the BJP President. This move came in after Rajnath Singh resigned after a one and half year’s tenure. Shah who was the former Minister of State for Home in Gujarat was solely responsible for BJP's excellent performance in UP where it got 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. He is currently facing charges in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case.



Amit Shah 2

Amit Shah is an Indian politician from Gujarat. Shah was elected as an MLA from Sarkhej in four consecutive elections 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2007. He is a close associate of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and held a number of portfolios in Government of Gujarat, when Modi was the Chief Minister. In 2010, Shah was accused of orchestrating a fake police encounter, which happened during his tenure as the Gujarat Home Minister. He was forced to resign, and arrested. Shah maintains that all the accusations against him are false, and are the result of allegations by his political opponents belonging to the Indian National Congress. Shah was later granted bail, on the condition that he will not stay in Gujarat. He was allowed to return to Gujarat in 2012, and won Assembly elections from Naranpura.



AmitShah n wife

Shah was born in Mumbai, in a well-to-do family. His father Anilchandra Shah, a businessman from Mansa, owned a successful PVC pipe business. Amit Shah is married to Sonal Shah they have a son named Jay. His wife is a homemaker and son an engineer. Shah was very close to his mother, who died from an illness in 2010. People close to Amit Shah say he does not like to socialize much.



Amit Shah 4

Shah was involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood. He first met Narendra Modi in 1982, in the Ahmedabad RSS circles when Modi was a minor RSS pracharak working as in charge of youth activities in the city. Amit Shah started his political career as a leader of RSS's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in 1983. He joined BJP in 1986, one year before Modi joined the party. He then gradually rose in the BJYM hierarchy, holding various posts including that of ward secretary, taluka secretary, state secretary, vice-president, and general secretary.



amit shah 3

In 1995 when BJP formed its first government in Gujarat its main rival Indian National Congress was highly influential in rural Gujarat. Modi and Shah worked together to decimate Congress in the rural areas. Their strategy was to find the second most influential leader in every village, and get him or her to join BJP. Shah and Modi used the same strategy to reduce Congress' influence over the state's powerful co-operatives, which play an important role in the state's economy.



Amit Shah 5

In 1999, Shah was elected as the President of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), the biggest cooperative bank in India. In Gujarat where such elections had traditionally been won on the caste considerations Shah was the first to win despite not belonging to any of these castes. When he took over the bank was on the verge of collapsing with accumulated losses of 36 crore. Shah turned around the bank's fortune within a year's time and the next year, the bank registered a profit of 27 crore. By 2014, the bank's profit had increased to around 250 crore.



Amit Shah 1

Modi, who had become a general secretary in the party's state unit by the early 1990s, used his influence to get bigger roles for Shah. Amit Shah contested the 2002 Assembly election from the Sarkhej constituency in Ahmedabad. He won by the highest margin among all candidates with 158,036 votes. In the 2007 Assembly election he again won from Sarkhej. During Narendra Modi's twelve-year tenure as the Gujarat CM, Shah emerged as one of the most powerful leaders in Gujarat. After winning the 2002 elections, he became the youngest minister in the Modi government, and was given multiple portfolios.



In 2010, Amit Shah was accused of having orchestrated the extrajudicial killings of a criminal Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi and his criminal associate Tulsiram Prajapati. Shah and Modi have been accused of sidelining the police officers who testified against the Gujarat government in cases related to the fake encounters and the 2002 riots. Later, in 2013, Shah was accused of having ordered illegal surveillance on a woman in 2009, during his tenure as a home minister. The investigative websites Cobrapost and Gulail released a set of taped audio conversations between Amit Shah and police officer GL Singhal. Shah denied all the accusations against him, calling them political propaganda by his opponents and none have been proved till now. Amit Shah was arrested on 25 July 2010 in connection with the Sohrabuddin case. He was charged with the murder, extortion and kidnapping among other charges. At one time, Shah was considered as one of the main contenders for the Gujarat Chief Minister's post. However, his political career was hurt by the arrest. The Gujarat High Court granted him bail three months after his arrest, on Friday, 29 October 2010.



Shah and Modi

Shah is known for his sharp poll-related strategic skills. Very few people know that if terror attacks in India are under check today, Shah's role in solving the 2008 Ahmadabad bomb blasts by Indian Mujahideen terrorists as Gujarat Minister of State for Home is one of the main factors responsible for it. Gujarat Police officials openly admit even today that it was Shah's intelligence and diligence and Modi's unstinted guidance that enabled them in solving that case in record 21 days flat. Narendra Modi was impressed by his intelligence and vision which is not easily found in others. Shah's skill in political strategy and vision are almost legendary. The way he evaluates Modi's 12-year rule in Gujarat in economic terms is better than a good economist. How he brought the entire cooperative sector of Gujarat from Congress to BJP's fold is a tribute to his result-oriented strategy-making skills. Shah has one big flaw that has hindered his rise. He has a habit of remaining incommunicable for long periods which keeps him disconnected at crucial times.



Varun Gandhi

He has started his work as the BJP chief and following the lines of Modi on Saturday announced his new team of 11 vice presidents, eight general secretaries and 14 secretaries. He has kept his team members young and inducted those who are having experience too. However What has shocked many after the announcement of the list is that the two-time MP Varun Gandhi was dropped as general secretary. This has also led to raising of eyebrows as the party has at many occasions claimed that they believe young people can lead the nation in a better way. As per reports, the reason behind dropping a known face of the party in UP is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi follows a policy of not giving any important assignment to a son or daughter of a chief minister or a union minister and Varun Gandhi's mother, Maneka Gandhi is the Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development in his government. The sources within BJP have said that it is largely because of Narendra Modi's policy against nepotism that is why Varun Gandhi has not been included in the team by Amit Shah and are confident as there are many opportunities in the party the party will look into his caliber and adjust him accordingly.



The journey for him as the BJP president has just started and there is a long way to go. Being a close aide to Modi and learning a lot from him one question to be asked is Will he be able to successfully do justice as the BJP Chief? What is your take on this? Is he capable enough to take this responsibility or he was supported by all the members of the party for the fact that he is close to Modi since the starting of their political career?

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Little Known Heroes Of Freedom Struggle

The independence struggle saw many freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives to see their mother land free. When the brave stories of most of the freedom fighters are known to everyone there are few of them who went un noticed in spite of their relentless efforts towards the movement. Let us take a look at few of the martyrs


Allurisitaramaraju

Alluri Sitarama Raju
Also known as Aluri Rampa Rama Raju he led the "Rampa Rebellion" of 1922–24. During this period he along with a band of tribal leaders and other sympathizers fought against the British Raj. The locals referred to him as the "Manyam Veerudu" which means "Hero of the Jungles". He was one of the fiercest opponents of British rule in Andhra Pradesh. Though he was born into a prosperous Kshatriya family he renounced everything for the freedom struggle. He took up the cause of the tribal’s who were being harassed by British officials under the Forest Act, and led an armed rebellion. Uniting the various tribes in the region, he boarded on an armed revolt against the British, raiding police stations, capturing weapons, indulging in guerrilla attacks.


khudiram bose

Khudiram Bose
He was a Bengali revolutionary who was one of the youngest revolutionaries early in the Indian independence movement. At the time of his hanging, he was 18 years, 7 months 11 days old. It was this hero who threw the first bomb on the Bristish who were crushing India. At the age of sixteen he defied the police. Khudiram was among the teenage student community of the town which was fired up with a burning inspiration of revolution. It was from then that Khudiram took his first steps towards choosing the path that would make him a boy-martyr. Khudiram as a student, dared to request a teacher, Hemchandra Kanungo for a revolver. Though an appeal was made to the Governor General to overrule a death sentence for Khudiram it was dismissed as the British was not going to let an Indian like that get way. On the contrary, the order came to carry out the death sentence latest by 11 August 1908. Kolkata erupted in intense protest from the entire student community. The streets of Kolkata started to be choked up with processions all at the same time, for several days and finally he was handed to death.

Ashfaqullah

Ashfaqulla Khan
He was a freedom fighter who had given away his life along with Ram Prasad Bismil. Bismil and Ashfaq, both were good friends and Urdu poets. Ashfaqulla Khan was the first Muslim who was hanged in a Conspiracy against British Raj from India. In 1922, when Non-cooperation movement started and Bismil organised meetings in Shahjahanpur to tell the public about the movement, Ashfaq ullah met him in a public meeting and introduced himself as a younger brother of his class mate. The revolutionaries felt that soft words of non violence could not win India its Independence and therefore they wanted to make use of bombs, revolvers and other weapons to instill fear in the hearts of the Britishers living in India. decided to loot the government money and utilise it against the same government who had been continuously looting India for more than 300 years. Ashfaqulla Khan and eight other revolutionaries looted the train under the leadership of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil. The actions of Ashfaq Ullah Khan and his compatriots have recently been depicted in an Amir Khan starrer hit Bollywood movie Rang De Basanti, where his character role was played by the film actor Kunal Kapoor.


Madam Bhikaiji Cama

Madame Cama
She was born in a well to do Parsi family. She was a fiery patriot who first unfurled India's flag at an international assembly. She turned away from a life of luxury and lived an exile to serve her country and at one time the mighty British Government grew afraid of her. Cama wrote, published (in the Netherlands and Switzerland) and distributed revolutionary literature for the movement, including Bande Mataram in response to the Crown ban on the poem Vande Mataram and later Madan's Talwar in response to the execution of Madan Lal Dhingra


rajkumari

Raj Kumari Gupta
Born about a century ago in the little-known Banda zilla of Kanpur, she and her husband worked closely with Mahatma Gandhi and Chandrashekhar Azad. Her crucial contribution to the Kakori dacoity case barely figures in the narratives of freedom. Raj Kumari was given the charge of supplying revolvers to those involved in the Kakori operation apparently hid the firearms in her undergarment and set out in khadi clothes to deliver them, with her three-year-old son in tow. On being arrested, she was disowned by her husband’s family and thrown out of her marital home.


 

Taji Mideren
He was resident of Elopain village in the Ithun Valley, Lohit District, North-East Frontier Agency in Arunachal Pradesh. He was a farmer and trader. He took part in the activities against British rule and killed three British officers near the Dikran river in 1905. He organized his Mishmi fellow tribals and got them to come together to resist the expansion of British authority. He established a Mishmi Confederacy under Pangon and other Mishmi leaders. A British expedition was sent to his village in 1913 to arrest him for the murder of the three British officers. The British burnt down the houses in the village but failed to arrest him and others. He was finally captured by the British police at Sadiya in December 1917, and was deported to Tezpur in Assam. There he was tried and sentenced to death. He died on the gallows in the Tezpur Jail on January 29, 1918.


 

Padmavathibai Burli
She was the wife of the renowned freedom fighter Bindacharya Burli. Though she was a silent she was a very pious woman. Circumstances so conspired against the family that they had to struggle for two square meals a day. Bindacharya breathed patriotism and lived patriotism. The cause and call of Mother India was always above his domestic obligations. Padmavatibai not only stood by her husband but led a silent agitation herself by feeding the tired and hungry freedom fighters. She used to tell her own children to eat a little less so that the sons of the nation, committed to free Mother India, could be fed. She used to take food to the freedom fighters who were in hiding. Once she was found serving food to Shakuntala Dabade and Shantabai Karamarkar, who were on satyagraha. Padmavatibai was arrested along with Shakuntala Dabade and Shantabai Karamarkar and all the three of them were sentenced to three months imprisonment. All these women and many others, who lived in huts and hamlets, rose above their ordinary selves and fought for the freedom of our country. It is the duty of every Indian to make India worthy of their noble sacrifice.


last para

The Indian freedom was a long struggle which claimed thousands of lives and countless sacrifices. Each and everyone who was involved in the freedom struggle was equally responsible and credit has to be given to everyone for making India a free country cutting it from the clutches of British Rule who ruled India for more than 300 years, If it was not them then may for how much more time India would have been a slave to the British powers. Many of these sacrifices went unnoticed as there were numerous people who happily staked their lives but there was no one to tell their tale of bravery to the rest of the world.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

UPSC Row - Political Parties Script For Their Own Aspirations

With this year’s Union Public Service Commission examination just a fortnight away and the government deciding to go ahead with its current proposal for CSAT to take out the marks of the English Aptitude Test from the gradation process of this year with a promise that it is willing to review the decision for next year's examination. This not gone down well the any of the political parties and they want to use this golden opportunity to publicise themselves. They do not want to lose this chance of using UPSC examination to fight their language wars.

Para 1

The Civil Services Examination (CSE) is a nationwide competitive examination in India conducted by the Union Public Service Commission for recruitment to the various Civil Services of the Government of India, including Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and Indian Police Service (IPS) among others. Civil Services Aptitude Test is a compulsory part of Civil Services Examination which act as a screening test to Civil Services Main examination Conducted annually by Union Public Service Commission of India and is also known as Civil Services Preliminary Examination. The examination is one of the toughest examinations in the world with success rate of 0.1%-0.3% with more than 500,000 applicants. It is conducted in two phases - the Preliminary examination, consisting of two objective-type papers General Studies and Aptitude Test, and the Main examination, consisting of nine papers of conventional essay type followed by the Personality Test Interview. The entire process from the notification of the Preliminary examination to declaration of the final results takes roughly one year.

Para 2

From 2011 onwards the pattern for the Preliminary examination which is now popularly known as the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) which intends to focus on analytical abilities and understanding rather than the ability to memorize was changed. The new pattern included two papers of two hours duration and 200 marks each with multiple choice objective type questions only. While the Paper I tests the candidate's knowledge on current events, history of India and Indian national movement, Indian and World Geography, Indian Polity and governance, Economic and social development, environmental ecology, biodiversity, climate change and general science. The Paper II tested the candidate’s skills in comprehension, interpersonal skills, communication, logical reasoning, analytical ability, decision making, problem solving, basic numeracy, data interpretation, English language comprehension skills and mental ability.

Para 3

Recently the government has called an all-party meet on the UPS CSAT issue as they are seeing a stiff opposition to the Centre's stand on it. On Wednesday members of some of the political parties even walked out of the Rajya Sabha opposing the government's stand on UPSC. With the opposition wanting clarity on the government's stand after it announced that the English Aptitude test marks will not count some parties want the aptitude test be scrapped completely while others wanting the exam be conducted in all regional languages. BJP is accusing the previous UPA government for the issue. After a lot of discussions the BJP had come to a decision but other parties are not happy with what they are planning to do.

Para 4

The UPSC aspirants are expressing their displeasure as they are apprehensive that the exam pattern if it will be easy for students from commerce and science students but humanities background people will find it difficult after the government announced that a 20-mark English section in the CSAT paper will not be included for grades or merit. While the UPSC aspirants were planning to widen their protest the government has deployed heavy security in Mukherjee Nagar and nearby areas like Nehru Vihar, Gandhi Vihar, Indra Vihar and Outram Lines which is restricting around 20,000 UPSC aspirants from joining the protest

The UPSC aspirants who are protesting against the government’s decision have found political support from regional parties like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal (U) and DMK. All these parties are voicing their opinion and are against the differences shown by the Union Public Service Commission towards Hindi and regional languages.

Para 5

While SP and BSP demanded that an all-party meeting should be called to discuss and resolve the matter as it the question of fate of lakhs of aspirants who will be appearing the exam this year. On the other hand AIADMK leader M Thambidurai made a strong request in Lok Sabha that the UPSC exam should be conducted in all regional languages in advantage of students from all over the country. Also AIADMK’s V Maitreyan complained that people from South are always given second class treatment for their language problem.

JDU’s Sharad Yadav also questioned to the government’s clarification that it was a UPSC decision. He feels that the numbers of the students who are successful in the exams are falling for Hindi language students. Same is the case with students from Tamil, Telugu and other languages. However the success rate of students with English has gone up drastically compared to previous years

Para 6

BSP chief Mayawati has to say that the government is not at all worried about the students future. Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party's also supports the aspirants and says that his party was always in favour of Hindi language supremacy over languages like English.

The Rajya Sabha proceedings were stopped twice as the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav raised the issue in the Lok Sabha.

"The solution is to give equal weightage for paper 1 and paper 2 that will take care of the problem. Secondly, taking away English will be disadvantageous to all non-Hindi speaking languages," Congress leader Jesudasu Seelam said.

Even though as BJP had promised before election that they will scrap CSAT and now decided English language comprehension skills not be included in the merit list but students say their demands still remain "unfulfilled as they wanted the entire CSAT section to be removed completely.

Para 7

One question that each aspirant has to ask himself is can we have a civil servant without a basic understanding of maths, logical reasoning, data interpretation and English. The whole idea why CSAT was introduced was to the extent of such basic understanding. It assesses the candidate's ability to respond quickly on the basis of strong fundamentals as multiple choice aptitude questions are often about crossing off the wrong answer choices. With each political party supporting their own regional language they want to utilize this opportunity for their advantage. The students should realize that the political parties are just seeing this as another oppurtunity to stand against the government and fight their own war using the CSAT as their means.