Nilesh Rathod's Blog

Jaitley’s budget speech was a marquee one for numerous reasons and interestingly non-budgetary ones. While financial prudence is a challenge for every developing economy, particularly one infested with the malice of corruption and unscrupulous defaulters who are always one step ahead of the law. With demonetization, Modi put the responsibility of development back on its citizens citing tax evasions and so-called ‘Kala Dhan’ which is now a compulsive battle for the BJP even if has been a mistake of colossal proportions. However, if anything a 34% spike in advance tax did make a dent in mindsets about the mythical reach of the law and his noble intentions.
Jaitley pointed out the dismal tax to GDP ratios and even worse tax-payers to citizens ratios as the country listened in awe. The country has suffered more because of poor administrators than corrupt politicians. If administrators had done their jobs, politicians would have much more wealth to work with for development projects and loot they amassed would have been insignificant in proportion. Jaitley did address some of those issues by offering the country a meagre tax without any scrutiny to incentivize them to join the tax payers club. I doubt the country will bite the bullet nonetheless. For the compulsive tax evader’s intentions are loud and clear, and even after the innovative inventions of Indians’ to protect their Kala Dhan in the demonetization exercise Jaitley seems to have learnt little.
Like they say the devil lies in the details three decisions in this budget will have will have far-reaching implications on the future of the country.
100% Tax-break on Income from affordable housing within 25 Kms of four metros
The Modi government had laid down its agenda promising to create jobs in rural India thereby halting the exodus of its populace to urban centres. While that was an excellent measure and the additional allocation to MNREGA will help that objective, this one seems counterproductive. The cities of India are already overpopulated to the extent that the quality of life is the worse than most metros anywhere. Without adequate investment in public infrastructure for these cities, tax sops for affordable housing will only worsen the situation. It will merely extend the borders of the mess to an extended radius of 25 square kilometres. In any case, while this will incentivize developers to que up for affordable housing projects, the policy has no way to ensure these homes will actually be affordable. Instead, the government should have taken up cluster development on the lines of Smart Cities. Setting aside large parcels of land for affordable housing projects and using the foregone tax to set up basic civic infrastructure and connectivity back to cities. This policy will spring up millions of houses cramping every road into the city and not to speak of the mindless development which will happen there in the absence of a municipal body to govern it.
Transparency in Electoral Funding
The country has been up in arms against the political class in this area. While what has been done yet is merely the tip of the iceberg, yet in the context of the prevailing situation it is a historic diversion. Every receipt above Rs. 2000.00 must have an electronic trail virtually puts an end to unaccounted cash being deposited into political accounts. Let’s say a BSP does claim that it has a million people donating in cash, even that cannot amount to more than 200 crores each year. To add to it the electoral bonds is a brilliant idea which allows donors to keep their identity discreet.
Its time now the government gives the powers and budgets to the election commission to monitor, audit, investigate and penalize politicians for misuse of its provisions including those of misreporting election spending and with the same vigor as the government intends to do with its ordinary citizens. This will give much needed teeth to the election commission. A meager budget of 200 crores a year for this will change the way elections happen in India and bringing accountability. And while on it, why not an audit agency which will print a report card for every candidate and party comparing its promises to deliveries at the Municipal, State and Central level. It will teach politicians how to promise less and deliver more.
A New Metro Rail Policy
It is not the business of the government to be in business. However, it is the business of the government to provide for business. Along with laws, an able justice delivery system it is the primary objective of the government to provide for roads, transport, water, waste management and public facilities. For long these have long been ignored primarily because they are a subject of municipal corporations and state governments and also subject to a slew of litigations delaying them forever. The finance minister’s announcement merely mentions the policy for Metro Rail without giving any details. Apparently the policy refers to removing financing hurdles for such projects by innovative financing means. While this is welcome, a robust policy safeguarding public projects with a law barring most kinds of litigations in the interest of public welfare must be proposed. Simply speaking any kind of public infrastructure project be it rail, road, water, waste or the likes must be protected from scuttling by frivolous petitions and objections by the courts. Atleast 100 cities in India are already too late for having a bustling metro connecting its suburbs and decongesting the roads allowing for much needed pedestrian infrastructure like footpaths and public toilets.

In an unprecedented and shocking announcement yesterday, the government demonetized existing currencies in the denomination of 500s and 1000s with immediate effect. In layman terms, they cannot be exchanged for goods and services anymore.  Of the entire floating stock of cash in the Indian economy about 84% is held in wads of 500s and 1000s. There is a total of about 2400 crore notes in these denominations. Barring a very small amount (4000 per person) which can be exchanged in a bank or post office, each one of these notes will now require to be deposited in a bank account which can then be exchanged for new notes over the next 50 days.2/3rd of India’s GDP or about 88 lacs is transacted in cash in India each year. An estimated 20% to 30% of India’s GDP is unaccounted and the government gets no direct or indirect tax on such transactions. There are several industries which survive largely on this parallel economy, examples are gems and jewelry, real estate and several others where unaccounted transactions is more a norm than an exception. Not to mention political funding, terror and drug financing in India are solely run by this parallel money. All these engines were greased with this unaccounted cash. With this one decision, the government has attempted to wipe out this parallel economy overnight. How successful would they be in their attempt and what will be the collateral damage of the decision is the subject of this blog. Over the next 50 days each one of the 2400 crore notes or a total of Rs. 17 lac crores will have to be deposited in banks. That simply cannot happen because a part of that money is unaccounted and fuels the parallel economy. Such deposits will entail questions from the tax authorities and in addition to tax payment on such erstwhile undisclosed cash, it will also attract penalties for concealment from 100% to 300% under Section 271C of the Income Tax Act, 1961. There are three ways by which the government will wade out black money though this single announcement. Come 30th December and the RBI will know exactly how much of the 17 lac crore came back to them for replacement. The notes which did not come in was black money, and after that date, those notes will be merely worth its weight in paper. It will be as good as confiscating that amount and depending on the amount that remains, such money will simply be out of circulation for good.  The move successfully traps the fake currency in the system bringing it down to Nil which is a big win for the government, assuming terrorists and drug dealers do not find a suitable bank to deposit those wads of cash, they too are rendered useless. This is the second goal of this announcement. Over the next 50 days, a lot of this cash will be put in banks generating bogus sales or showing them as God sent savings. While the government may not get Income Tax on such deposits, it will get this money in the ambit of the banking system bringing in some direct tax to the states in the process. And of course, for the rest of its future one would have to pay Income Tax on the earnings from this money. This is a huge benefit for the economy bringing erstwhile parallel cash into the system. While this experiment is going to cost the government over 12000 crores in printing new notes to replace the existing ones, these in short, are the aims and objectives of this bold and ambitious move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What will this do the future of business and prices? A large part of unaccounted cash is locked in real estate. While the quantity of real estate will be unaffected by this decision, the cash available to buy that real estate has suddenly vanished. The obvious result would be a crash in the real estate market. The prices of real estate which had been inflated by the ques of people wanting to park their ill-gotten wealth in these land havens will begin to plummet to more realistic levels. Budgets for Jewelry, travel and tourism, marriages and a lot of other similar activities largely funded with similar cash would be hit severely. Political funding will dry up leading to reshuffle in the election campaigning means and methods. A more temporary effect would come on businesses which are partly funded by the parallel economy. Such businesses will see their working capitals dry up leading to a temporary grind in cash transactions and businesses. While this will settle down over time, it may have far-reaching impact on real production and growth for a few quarters. All said and done it will be a very small price for a malice which has plagued our nation ever since independence. A decision like this needed political will and Modi has shown more than that.  

I am often confronted to identify with my birth religion, Jainism and condoned for my inability to offer respects in line with identified customs. To the extent, I am sometimes prodded to give in at least partially. And when I do, it is celebrated, like a triumph of good over evil making cessation of the spirit who vests in me refraining me from thinking straight and acting normal. All of us are atheists and have never believed in most Gods humanity has idolized till today. I have only gone one God further.
Unfortunately, to every believer, the world must be divided into two groups – the God-fearing men and the ones who condone the almighty out of ignorance and arrogance. The underlining perspective in both the cases is that God exists, dividing all of humanity, between believers and nonbelievers. This juxtaposition is not a fair starting point for this debate.
But, all creation must have a producer who now continues to direct that show, they argue. There is an urgent hoard in all mankind to outdo the other in pleasing Him for His attention as if His blessings are a case of limited stock. I do NOT believe in any of it, and theoretically, even if that were to be true, he couldn’t be so naïve to dole out privileges based on your time or position in that queue. Mahaveera & Buddha spent their life trying to get rid of their ego. How could the same almighty then ask of us to pamper His with prayers and songs in his valor? It simply doesn’t add up.
Before I prod further on the subject of my atheism, I would like to delve the history and origin of religions. All religions of the current day with the exception of Islam originated between 500 BC until the birth of Christ. To me, it is not mere coincidence that all religions came to be up within a relatively short span of time. It was around 500 BC that humans across the world mastered the art of farming and no longer required to wander as hunter-gatherers over vast lands in search of food. Also, one square kilometer of land could feed a hundred men, as against a handful when they hunted other animals in the food chain for their survival. Thus, wandering was no longer necessary and this development gave rise to settlements. Soon settlements grew larger with villages and towns giving rise to the civilizations like the Roman Empire, Mauryan Dynasty and the Egyptian civilizations.
With the growing populations now interacting with each other, the need to bind them under a common law became a greater necessity and thus were born great leaders –thought leaders. They were mortal beings just like I am, but we must by nature look upon someone for inspiration. These thought leaders provided just that. With time, the awe turned to idolization and humans found it easy to spiritualize them also casting away upon them their unknown fears under the garb of Faith. Over generations of fictionalization, their mortal deeds became miracles and thus they came to be known as God. It is fair to then say that humans created the Gods of today for its own selfish needs.
So far so good, both the purpose and the practice could only have done good for mankind. This God now played a dual role one of guiding humankind to live an ideal life by the examples He set during His lifetime and to secure the unknown future of mortal humans in exchange for the trust they placed in His faith. With time the balance of this scale tilted, the former role started to take the back seat and the latter seemed to overpower. Come the 21st century, with our overt dependency on His powers to further our well-being, the continued admonishing of his original teachings constantly being altered to suit our reading and the greed of the current day thought and political leaders broke these religions into divisive units to further their ambition leading to chaos we witness in society today.
Jainism the religion I was born into is the story of Mahaveera, who denounced his kingdom in search of eternal peace. What he discovered through meditation, renunciation, penance and humility was Nirvana – a state of eternal peace. Once he achieved that, he spread his message and path for others to benefit. 2000 years later, we witness his followers idolizing temples in his honor, outbidding each other to earn the chance to smear his modesty with money and gold and singing songs calling for his blessings for their material well-being. And in this race, the original message is long lost and banished for it does not gel with modern living and definitely not easy to stay on. Human necessity to place the trust on their God for the unknown is so urgent and overwhelming that the original teachings which could be of value have been forgotten.
The story of Hinduism is not very different. The Hindu scriptures acknowledge the Gods we ideate with divinity were mortal too, yet we ignore every thread of evidence connecting them to us. Recounting the tales of their heroic conquests over all evil, we celebrate them as sons of God, enlightened beings and in some cases God himself. Like in the earlier example of Jainism I cited, in this case too I am certain is that stories around them have been spun and edited to ensure that their heroism continues to exhale inspiration. In this case too tellers laced their stories with miracles, finally setting them apart and above rest of all mortal life into what we know as God. And whenever the faith of that power overshadowed revealing their mortal truths, we showcased them in Synagogues, Temples and Mosques among other high altars, permanently distancing them from us and along with it the simple truth that their experience could very well have been ours.
Buddha the enlightened one explored a practice which gave with the peace and universal knowledge conquering his mind for good. He preached it too with the intention of spreading his knowledge for others to benefit from and has been followed since. The irony is that what is celebrated as a way of life for 2000 years has failed to create even one more Buddha. The reason is rather than following what he practiced, we got busy with idolizing him to with complete disregard for his message. Today the name of Buddha is being milked to divide an entire society to meet political ends. Making him divine allowed us to use his brand for social purposes and continues to perpetuate the pain in and around us.
We have fooled ourselves long enough and will continue to do so in the name of faith. It simply suits us and yet we are not ready to be fooled completely. Such is our nepotism that as parents we want their kids to learn about Darwin’s theory of natural selection as much as they want them to attend the Sunday choir at church. Faith is the shoulder we use to rest our failures and our inability to guide us beyond the invisible hallucinotic horizons of life. While faith is a weakness of human ability to reason when we submit to the idols we created to shield our sins and blindness, the same faith delivers the fear that holds mankind from slaughtering one other. It keeps the equilibrium.
The urgency of this article is also driven by the recent canonization of Mother Teresa as Saint Teresa, how we launched a compassionate mortal being to be another saint to decorate our churches. Same is the case of another peasant Sai Baba who lived his life on alms only to be idolized after his death to the travesty of Godliness. Should he be living today, he would be crying tears of blood witnessing the scale at which his modesty is shred to tatters in temples built in his name thronged by ignorant people living in the fear of spirits.
But in a summation, all the Gods we know were either fictional creations of a creative mind with a message or a mortal story glorified to suit its reader. And since I claim these Gods to be mortal, that makes me an atheist. So how did the universe come to be? Who is the creator of this universe? Unfortunately, unless I have an answer to this question, I will continue to live under the burden of being anti-social or a Kafir.
Now I would launch into a rather theoretical rhetoric which really explains, at least to me, why I am an atheist. We have always grown up to believe the Sun rises and sets over earth’s horizon, while we all know the scientific truth is just the opposite. Human mind is doctored, and over thousands of years to think in a certain way. To us life seems finite. And like life space, time and energy must have dimensions too but their boundaries are a mirage to us, just like the horizon of the rising sun. And their extents are so wide, we call them infinite. The truth to me is the exact opposite.
Life itself is mirage, of perceptions and perspectives. Time is constant. It neither starts nor ends. So is space and energy. Let’s take the example of a term ‘lifetime’. For a fly it may be a day or two, for a dog it may be a few hears, for a human it is a few decades and for a turtle it is a few centuries. If the earth and sun and the universe as we know it had a heart beat (though I do not believe they must have one to qualify for being mortal) a lifetime for them would be a few billion years. And since what we can see of time is relative to our position, we are unable to see it’s simply a constant and therefore borderless. While time, space and energy are constants, their measure infinite and therefore any attempt to evaluate the value of those constants futile.
The life we adore so much and its possessions even more, yet all it of it is but a mirage. We are all made from cosmic dust. From dust we come and dust we shall go. This has been acknowledged in the Geeta. As humans I comprehend life as a few decades and the time scale of the universe long enough to remain long after we are all dead. But if I were the universe this entire time and all of history is but a blip, a constant or an instant. And that is what time is, an instant and a constant. It is the perspective which gives us our units of measurements.
The life which beats in us is dust interacting in a set of chemical reactions. It can neither be created or destroyed. From the current mind, we occupy it seems mortal to us, but no constant can be mortal. Thus life and death itself are a mirage. If a cell inside your body dies, you care less, a new one will take its place soon. But for the living cell that is all it was. Likewise, from the perspective of the universe a dead body which walked on earth once is no loss for it will quickly be preprocessed. From our perspective it is an irreparable loss but from a larger pedestal like the universe it is immaterial. And yet, both are still a mirage. While the universe is the maximum we can visualize and it is everything for us, but if space is a constant, it is but a small dot on that scale. It is a mirage once again. And like time, space too, is a constant.
The duration of time we spend between birth and death is a race to acquire knowledge and possessions. The quest for this possession leads us to love and hatred. And the seeming outcomes perpetuates our ego which become our undoing. This ignorant quest makes us so busy and creates a mirage so colossal we forget to see the oncoming death. The fact is from the moment we are born it is a race to death. We know it all too well and we fool ourselves even better, like in the case of the rising sun. We would refuse to give away a dime to a popper for free, ignoring completely that everything we seem to own is but a merely a lease with an expiry date.
With enough possessions comes the knowledge of its uselessness. We begin to sometimes acknowledge this reality, for an instant at times. If we stay on that path and thought long enough, the instances become longer and the need for possessions fewer. A small donation made with gratitude and without expectation of return is a selfless deed, it is an example of that acknowledgment. That one instance of gratitude in our mind becomes the embodiment of all knowledge though only for an instant. Enough time passes at it, the moments of gratitude and renunciation become minutes, and minutes turn hours, and hours turn into a lifetime. The love is replaced by renunciation. Hate becomes unnecessary and knowledge of the practice itself a myth. It is then that a Buddha is born. Each one of us is a universe, it is everything there is. But that the perspective where I see it from is a small part of the universe, and universe here is the constant called space, I can never perceive in full, not from the perspective I have. I am nothing but a mortal being in the universe belittles me, but knowing that I am the universe itself harnesses me. I am time, I am space and I am energy, I am the constant but all these I’s must come without a shred of the Ego or vanity.
Evolution is natural. It does not have a direction. It is simply iterations of random chemical reactions interacting with each other in various parts of the universe and beyond. A series of such random reactions led to us. There are zillions of reactions which may have led to other forms and beings, we are but just one of them. A simple random reaction. The constant of space, time and energy are also infinite giving nature room, time and energy to carry out these random experiments leading to evolutions. As Charles Darwin put it, nature also guided by the process of natural selection furthered by the necessity to survive. We say necessity is the mother of all invention. The same is true in the case of evolution too, except in this case while the invention itself was a mutation, its survival is a necessity of that mutation.
Coming back to Atheism, among these mutations is a single instance of equilibrium we experience and feel equanimity about it. A single instance of such equilibrium will perpetuate more and so much more until a time comes when that the only thing there is. This travel and experience will be out of necessity and quest of that equilibrium. It is then we realize that the race was to experience that equilibrium. It was the knowledge to know that there is nothing to know. Life is but the mirage. Love too is a mirage and therefore hatred too. Wealth and possessions are cosmic dust which are not merely mine, it is me for I am the universe. I am the purpose of all being. We are racing towards the silent constant, only the direction is random. Like Buddha we will reach there and we will love the silence. Meditation and faith are manifestations of that silence on the way to that constant.
But then what, what after I achieve that silence? We simply live with the knowledge that there is nothing to know.  Until the nature of our chemistry churns us back into the chaos. That is how it is meant to be. Random.

It's independence day again. The euphoria of a long weekend, political speeches enough to fill us with another year of hope, the media busy counting TRPs and kids getting another dose of patriotism of the kind we have been raised with. It would be the 70th time we would be fooled to this fanfare since the first time Nehru made his famous ‘Tryst with Destiny’.
On the scale of a civilisation, 70 years is a blip and yet, it is all the time we have in a lifetime. While we can hardly appreciate what it is to be born free, the greatest achievement of these 70 years is that we have prevailed as an inclusive democracy virtually eradicating untouchability, child marriages’, leprosy and polio out of our lives. And like the virtue of freedom we cannot feel the pains of these other ailments of the past.
The British exploited India’s tolerance for over 300 years filling their coffers at the expense of starving Indians. They were quick to invent the divide-and-rule policy making sure Indians fought among themselves as Hindus and Muslims rather than the British. Thus, the Empire continued to propel its ships back with loot in exchange of famines, illiteracy and poverty for the colony. Gandhi tried to enlighten us in vain, even paid for it with his life and much of the criticism he draws even to day is for his effort to ensure an undivided India. 
They exported Indian grain perpetuating mass famines and malnutrition, when that did not extinguish their greed they enticed Indian farmers to producing valuable Opium leaving a dearth of much-needed food crop causing famines leading to deaths of millions. India financed their bloody wars with money, produce and soldiers. History will hold them responsible for these mass murders and holocausts orchestrated with full knowledge of the consequences and without a thought for the perishing human life.
We aren’t the impotent, British thought was not ready for self-rule or as Winston Churchill put it “Power will go to rascals, rogues, freebooters. . . .All leaders will be of low caliber & men of straw. . .They'll have sweet tongues & silly hearts. . .They will fight amongst themselves for power & the two countries will be lost in political squabbles. . . .A day would come when even air & water will be taxed.”
Come 1947, the British left a tolerant population seeded with religious fault lines. Politicians have used it since to further their greedy ambitions. 70 years later, when I read about inquiry commissions being set up to investigate a collapsed bridge built in the British era, I realise how incredibly right Churchill was. We never get over lauding Arnab Goswami for his Pakistan bashing while the politicians continue to rob us of any remaining wealth fooling us at a rate faster than that the British could manage. And they haven’t just robbed us, they have masterminded massacres and have on their hands, blood of more people in just 70 years than the British could manage in 300!
Rajiv Gandhi infamously said during an election rally “When we send one rupee from Delhi only 17 paise reach you.” The 83 paisa that vanishes into the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats is the money that could have been used to build a hospital to save a life which ended in her mother’s womb. It is money that could have funded new bridges so the old ones are demolished and not left to collapse on people. It is the money that could have been used to replace the drainage systems so it drains water and not unsuspecting pedestrians. It is the money to build courts tormented women can knock for justice. It is also the money to build the irrigation canals so farmers are not driven to suicides praying for rains in vain. It is the money meant for shelters and schools for children who are instead seen with begging bowls below every bridge.

It boils me to know that I paid my taxes prudently leaving me barely enough to fend my family with. Such is the audacity of their wretchedness and the impotency of our masses that they did not even spare coffins of our soldiers to make money from. As a child, I read in the history books that the British ruled India by divide and rule policy, I wonder if it is time to re-write that book and add a line reading ‘the story continued long after…’

Dear Mr. Narendra Modi,
I am the coveted Aam Aadmi for whom every politician wants to dedicate his life, but sadly only during the months that lead up to an election. Once that election is over and the respective politicians have won or lost the battles raged on the chest of this Aam Aadmi, and often with his blood as well, it is business as usual until the next election. I am also the same Aam Aadmi on whose agony the political class of this country has cooked their ambitions and when the need arose you didn’t flicker an eyelid to burn me to keep your ambition ovens firing. I am also the same Aam Aadmi whose pains the media debates each evening for TRPs and selling a few ads. I am also the same Aam Aadmi who pays his taxes religiously and waits patiently for the rights guaranteed to me by the constitution. I am an apostle of tolerance whose generations have waited patiently for a life of dignity and struggled to feed my family, offer them a quality life, education and a respectable shelter.
Much like a householder like me who runs my family, Mr. Modi, you too run a family, but this family comprises a nation of 1.2 billion. You may not be responsible for how we got here, but you are responsible for where we go from here.  As a householder, I must scrupulously make most of my limited means and earning. Even as it may require curtailing a few pleasures today, I must spend those to benefit for the future of my family. Likewise, as a prime minister you are entrusted this responsibility for the whole nation. Each one of the 1.2 billion who populate this country are affected by any decision you make each day of your life in office. And like in a family, all my decisions are not pleasurable in the now. But I still do it for the future, we save today and invest for a better tomorrow. I do it for my family, you do the same with India’s resources for the whole nation.
The people of this country accepted what you had to offer and with great hope. You sold us a dream, a dream of a better tomorrow. I want to thank you Mr. Modi for lifting that spirit of hope in my countrymen at a time where everything looked so gloomy. Its almost two years since and I try to look for steps you have taken to meet the promises. You yourself admitted this country suffers from a lot of cancers. Cancers of corruption, lack of development, accountability, illiteracy and health facilities, and so on and so forth. Your understanding and compassion for my pain made you the prime minister.
India needs healing from all these diseases and you are the doctor we chose. You diagnosed them well which got you here, but once again like your predecessors you too are only giving the country painkillers which are measures of temporary relief with long term side effects. There is no healing, you too refuse to make painful operations which are necessary to eradicate these cancers from its roots. Instead what we get is painkillers, bandages and sweeteners. I know it requires resilience, understanding and more importantly balls of steel to start this healing process. It will take long time to cure but is there a way out? You and I both know there isn’t, but you will not do it yet. I must painfully ask, why?
I want to see my country where its true place is. Right up there on the world map as a land which was the cradle of world civilization. A land which nurtured leaders like Buddha and Gandhi who showed the path of faith to humanity. A country, rich in heritage and wealth and was once called the sparrow of Gold. I want that place back, you know the road to get there but the politics of appeasing is the last route one can take to get there. The road back involves hard choices and unpopular decisions. I am sorry to say but if you don’t take them with all the power vested in you, you must step aside. The earlier regimes of recent times neither had the will nor the power, you have both. So if you don’t act history will judge you as a bigger failure then all of them combined.
I beg you to stand in your skin and make those hard choices. Generations to come will remember you for your brevity and this contribution not only to India but to the whole world. There is a burden of responsibility of a 1.2 billion people on you and those decisions will even transverse the boundaries of this country and will contribute to the betterment of the human race. Remember India stands for 1/6thof humanity. Please do not let the time pass away, the country has vested the power in you, please use it responsibly and cure us of our cancers. I am listing the 5 biggest cancers of our society and its cures, I may be wrong, I may be right, but I cannot be ignorant of them.  
1.     Reservations: Abolish them in all forms65 years is two generations, and that’s the time reservations have been in force. Reservations based on caste, class & religion. Reservations for education and jobs. And yet those who should have benefitted from these remain backward and aggrieved. I don’t want to argue what will get them out of their misery, but reservations simply aren’t getting them anywhere. It acts as an incentive to continue remain distressed so the incentives aren’t taken away. Don’t reserve jobs and seats, give them to those who deserve. We don’t allow reservations for our soldiers who guard our borders, then how can we allow it for the doctors who save our lives, the teachers to educate our children or the police who protect our rights and enforce our laws. To me they are equally important to any civilized society if not more.
2.     Revamp the Justice System: Justice delayed is justice denied. Law must act as a deterrent to crime, in India it acts an incentive. The aggrieved suffers the abuse of this system for years while he waits for the offenders to be sentenced. We aren’t a lawless nation, but we are not far away from being one. Civil litigations drag for decades, criminals go scot free due to poor investigations and even worse a terribly slow legal system which cries for infrastructure. The ques of cases mount while fear of the law erodes alongside. If there is a law, society must have the confidence of being benefitted by one. Currently I don’t. The only way that can happen is if every case civil or criminal would be decided within one year and no more. Spend money to build courts, hire judges and law enforcers, and don’t stop till every offender can be sentenced within months of being booked. Even if this process takes away a significant chunk of my taxes, do not stop till we get there. The results will astound us all. Every criminal will think 100 times before he commits the next offence and I will live with my head high and with a sense of safety and pride for my society. Imagine how many politicians and civil servants would be behind bars who are twisting the legal system at will and how will scare the corrupt too.
3.     Tax all forms of Income, Agriculture includedWe all earn, a part of that earning is paid as tax to finance the safety, security and social infrastructure that we enjoy. We live in a poor country and some of the richest people in it enjoy these benefits without payment of a penny as tax. Why? Tax those agriculturists who are making millions without a penny as tax. 70% of Indian’s are farmers. You can keep your exemption limits, so it takes out each one of those low income groups who need to be aided. What about the rest? Tax them at regular rates of income tax and now. The money that comes in will be enough and more to build all the courts and schools we need to secure the future of this country. Do it and now.   4.     All Citizens must be equal under the lawWhile this is already in the preamble of the constitution I keep wondering how flawed this statement is. All citizens are equal under the law, but is the law equal for all citizens? No. Get me the uniform civil code. Each one of us are free to practice our own religion, but if religion comes in the way of the basic tenet of equality under the constitution, it must be considered above any religion or faith. ‘Sati’ was practiced traditionally and religiously. Can we allow its practice in modern society? Then how can we allow polygamous marriages? There are tons of examples of inequality in the name of religion which must end. The time has come where we will need a uniform law for the global citizen, but charity begins at home and the clock is ticking. You promised this to us. Now act on it.
5.     Hold plebiscites for all disputed territories starting from Kashmira.     Democracy is rule of the people by the people for the people. This basic tenant is demolished if the military rules the people. We have examples of it in all corners of the country. Naxalites in central India, militants in Kashmir and Bodos in the north-east. They all stem from fundamental grievances with the administration of India, they want freedom from India. You may claim this is the view of a minor part of that population and not the larger opinion. Even if I agree with you, who is to decide if this is true? Those inhabitants right? So let them decide. Hold plebiscites in these regions and let the population decide in favor of Delhi, and if that happens go hammer on tongs on those who don’t. But today, we are no different from Mohammad Gazni or the Nazi’s who enforced law at the tip of the sword. UK set a tremendous example in Scotland and the results are for all to see. Our erstwhile rulers which ironically is also the mother of democracy displayed true democratic principles in Scotland just a year back. India got its independence from UK 65 years back, today we see that as a boon, who knows what surprises hold for these regions in the future. At the end of the day all we are interested in is a healthy and prosperous society which is ruled by their own. Let them have it if they want it and like you say it is only a minority of the population who says this, lets do a plebiscite and shut this debate for the world.
Civilization as we know it is just a few thousand years in age. Today society strives for a better future. A future of prosperity and security, we need to think beyond the constricted lenses of nationalism at times to see the light of a human society which thrives on equality and equity. The time has come to show the world the light again which we have done for a large part of time this civilization has been in existence. Chanting or refraining from saying ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is not going to make any difference to Bharat Mata, her dignity is not at the mercy of those who praise her or otherwise. She is a power way beyond that, today that power is represented by the billion children she has and you my prime minister, have the privilege and responsibility to lead these billion children, please stand up for them.

Vipassana: The Science, Technique & the experience

Ignorance is bliss, or atleast it was when I stepped into the premises of the Vipassana Meditation Center at Igatpuri with a total prior meditation experience of a few minutes in my life of 39 years.

Day Zero – 08:00 PM – The male students were separated from the female and the Noble Silence began. Noble silence means no communication of any form with any being, eye contact included. The next 10 days I would walk with my head pointing the path a few feet ahead of me, careful not to meet even the eye of a fellow student.
After a quick set of instructions, we were asked to leave the hall and follow a Dhammasevak (volunteer) when my eyes fell on the time table hanging on the wall. If it hadn’t been for the Noble silence precinct I took a few moments back, I would have shrieked the hell out of my throat. A work schedule from 4:00 AM to 9.30 PM with only one item on the agenda. Mediation! And twelve hours of it everyday! But hadn’t I come there to learn just that? What else was I expecting on the agenda?


As night closed on Day Zero, I was introduced to my residential quarters. When they used that term in the initial briefing I was happy I would have a quarter all by myself. Well when I reached there it turned out to be a room of 3’ x 8’ if you excluded the stone platform for the mattress. It did have an attached bathroom but that was shared by a dozen insects of different shapes and sizes when I first walked in. To be to honest I didn’t know how potent they were if any one of them bit me, so I was careful not to deal with them unarmed atleast for the night. Another of the precincts was to abstain from killing so any battle with them was immediately ruled out. But how were we to co-exist in that environment was a big question to me. 
The rest of the room was OK as you can see. I put myself to sleep getting ready for my first experience with meditation at 4.00 AM the next morning. Three more precincts other than abstain from killing and the noble silence, namely – refrain from sexual pleasures, abstain from all intoxicants and no meals after noon. Not so hard, I convinced myself with an empty heart and moved on with the first two hours of meditation. It was then that I was introduced to Anapana. A form of meditation where one needed to observe one’s natural incoming and outgoing breath. That is all I needed to do, simple isn’t it? Breathe in, breathe out, naturally and observe it, breath after breath after breath, session after session after session, day after day after day. The only problem being my mind would not stay on it for more than a few breaths each time and disperse into long intervals of wandering away into glory. My teacher kept reassuring me it doesn’t matter. Whenever I realised the mind had wandered away, I must just get it back until it wandered again and without any anxiety or anger towards it. Do that as many times as required, I have no count but I guess my maximum span of concentration in the first hour was not more than 20 seconds at a time.
For the next three days I had observed approximately 50000 breaths and increased my span of attention from a minuscule 20 seconds to a miraculous 20 minutes. And I was proud of what I had achieved in the first two days here. I realised this was going to be tough and the reasons like no communication, no high luxuries, no dinner or average meals which I had thought would be the things that would irk me were infact the ones which actually got me glued to the only agenda there. Observation of my breath. The real problem still was putting your mind together for 12 hours a day with an erect back posture and patiently bringing the fickle mind back to observing the breathing again and again and again and without getting irritated one bit, with absolute equanimity and awareness. It indeed was hard work. I took one more prescient other than the five they gave me. I surrendered to what they asked of me without questioning them for the next 10 days! And trust me that was the only thing that got me through. 
The precincts which looked like hurdles thrown in my pathway turned out to be the real reason why I was able to dedicate my heart and mind to process consistently and continuously. It was three days now and I had hardly seen anybody in the eye, the reason why my mind was able to be more focused on the task than thinking of what someone else was doing. I hadn’t spoken, so I had less to think about and lying was out of question.
Come end of day two and the focus moved from observing our breath to observing the sensations around the nasal passage. I realised they had got our attention span to about 30 minutes a time and now wanted to sharpen our focus and therefore a small portion of the nose was given to concentrate. For the next two days, all I did was concentrate on my nasal area. Trust me it was on fire, I got all kinds of twitching, soreness, throbbing, palpations, tingling and several other sensations continuously. I didn’t know what was happening and why. My area above my top lip felt as big as a football field in my mind and all kinds of games were being played on it. In the evening before retiring I would look at my nose and lip in the small mirror I carried from home and would be happy it hadn’t burnt off yet.

Then came on the timetable of day 4. It read that we were ready to learn Vipassana Meditation today! What was I doing for 4 days then? I started wondering. Actually these exercises were a pre-requisite for the Vipassana Meditation technique they would teach us on day 4. Increasing the span of attention and developing the sharpness of the mind of focus on small regions was the pre-requisite for learning Vipassana, and the training did well. I didn’t know how that would help me, but I was thoroughly impressed with their teaching methods. They had certainly mastered that. Everything went like clock work and with the highest discipline.   
So what was the deal here? We always believe that the world around us causes us the pain or pleasure we experience and therefore is the reason for all our feelings. The reality is actually the inverse. It is we who feel that way about a certain person or experience. If we feel one person is bad, the fact is he is bad for us and not universally bad. Isn’t it true? And yet we feel the person is bad. What is the reason for our feelings?
We find faults in situations when they are not to our liking and also blame them for what we feel about them. Also, we always look outside of us and constantly try to mend situations so they can comfort us. We look at people and places around us to seek peace and comfort. And it ofcourse never works and thus we are in peril and pain all the time. According to the Buddha, peace is within us and nobody can give it for us, we have to seek it for ourselves. Every person has a Buddha inside him. Vipassana is an art to experience and bring out that Buddha in us. But we have to work very hard to look for it inside us and then to bring it up. Buddha by definition is a state of the mind and that state of the mind is inside the mind, all life I had been looking outside myself for that peace which rested in me all along. This is a universal truth. I was about to experience a flicker of it, and trust me even a flicker is enough for a start.    The mind is constantly bombarded with information received through the five senses – smell, taste, touch, hearing & sight. The sixth sense which is the conscious mind also contributes to this information system with its memories and interpretations based on our past experiences. The perception system of the mind tries to make inferences based on its mental habits in the form of signals. All life we have been receiving information and reacting to it based on our interpretation. The deep sub-conscious mind which we cannot interact with stores these in the form of sensations and it only understands sensations. This part of the mind does not behave at our will. We all have heart beats which are controlled by a part of the subconscious mind, even when we are sleeping the heart still beats, the lungs still functions and so does the kidney and several other organs of the body.
We do not have to give it instructions, they are coded in the sub-conscious mind. This sub-conscious mind is still a mind and this part of the mind only reacts to sensations. Sensations which are formed based on the interpretations made by the mind and influenced by the senses. If the perception is pleasant the sensations are pleasant and the mind wants more of them, likewise what it senses is unpleasant the mind repulses it and forms an aversion to such sensations. Over time the sub-conscious mind becomes a databank of sensations trying to revolt to anything unpleasant and wanting more of the pleasant ones.
Here are a few examples. A smoker gets pleasant sensations when he smokes, the deep mind therefore wants more of it irrespective of whether it is good or bad. Likewise, if it senses any pain it wants to dispel it and would want no more of it. It is these interpretations which makes our sub-conscious mind to react. The reactions we call anger, love, hate, aversion, pleasure and so on and so forth are all nothing but sensations and more importantly temporary. If we do not feed them with reactions, they will cease to exist. The habit pattern of the mind starts to break. Vipassana is a technique to identify these sensations inside us and also if we see them emerge with the awareness that these sensations are only temporary and have no lasting power we are able to overpower them and act with awareness and equanimity instead of reacting like we normally do.
Take the example of an angry mind. Buddha would never act with aversion to somebody who hurled anger at him. The reason is that for anger to generate in one’s mind and show itself in the form of physical reactions, the angered the person has to be in deep pain. A Buddha knows that before demonstrating that pain on the physical self, that person must pass through a lot of pain himself. How can someone who knows this process get angry on someone who is acting because of his misery? The only feeling that can come for such a person is that of compassion. A compassion generated out of the knowledge that the person who is actually abusing you is really in misery and pain himself. He ofcourse has no power to give that pain to you because your senses will not generate aversion in your mind and he has no capacity to influence your actions. 
Sounds complicated still? Well it is atleast to explain. But one has to experience how the mind works from the process of physical senses sending information to the mind, the physical mind then making interpretations based on his memory of such instances. The sub-conscious mind sending out sensations back to the physical mind and the physical mind then reacting to these sensations on the habit patterns of the mind. Buddha understood the link that must be broken is the reaction to these sensations. If the mind does not react to these sensations of pleasure and pain it will simply stop to influence your reaction. The reaction will then become an action and one that is taken with full awareness. And anger has no place in a mind which is aware, and without awareness you are not in control of your mind. Vipassana teaches you just that and well.
Over the next five days, I practiced Vipassana and every moment I could feel sensations emerge on every part of my body inside and outside, the more I practiced it the more aware I became of these sensations, which appeared and disappeared continually. Keeping the equanimity of the mind, I realized if I did not react to these sensations they simply disappeared. How much time I wasted reacting and feeding sensations which really were temporary in nature and meant to be cease in time. That is their nature. We are slaves of situations when we can control the motions of the mind simply by being aware that the mind is so jittery and a bundle of senseless reactions which serve no purpose.

Over the next five days, my mind calmed and cooled down and hardly reacted to anything around me. Standing in a queue patiently, eating whatever food was served to me, sleeping without a fan, sitting still for an hour at a time, being satisfied with only one meal a day and so many other so called inconveniences in daily life seemed so much more acceptable and without any aversion and mindless agitation towards them. I began to understand the real meaning of being at peace with oneself.
Then came day 10. The morning we ended the noble silence. For the first time I spoke to the fellow students. The day left me spell bound. I was overwhelmed simply talking to people around me and also spoke to my friends and family back home. The sky was over me for the past 10 days so I knew hell didn’t break loose. But I wasn’t sure if there was an earthquake in some part of the world and even if my near and dear ones were fine. Fortunately, all was OK. But it ended a lot of anxiety in me. I met one French man whom I had observed for the past so many days. I happened to ask him about his experience and his profession. He told me he was a beggar. I was spell bound. I did not know there was a profession like that and someone could say that with so much equanimity and yet I felt no sorrow or aversion towards him.  Similarly, I met another fellow who had done some 40 sessions of 10 days each and I was shocked to know he was a disk jockey. I didn’t know how a person with a profession full of noise and vices around it could practice this art and stay calm and aware all the time. He spoke to me for about an hour telling me about his experience through this journey. I was convinced one’s profession had nothing to do with behaving rationally in life.
I used to see one aged man trudging everyday back and forth from the hall to his room every day and relentlessly. He used to meditate in a chair arranged for him and I paid my respect to him with folded hands for his energy and determination inspite of his failing health. To my shock I learnt he was the father of our teacher and was practicing Vipassana influenced by his son for the past few years. His son Anand who was my teacher was a successful engineer in Germany came across the Dhamma of Vipassana during his time in Germany. He met his better half, an American from California where the couple gave up their professional life and now taught the practice of Vipassana to students like us at Igatpuri.
There is so much pain around the world. Pain caused by our thoughts and its senseless reactions. Each one of us are born and simply racing to our death from that very moment. Little do we realise that all we do during our entire life is feed our cravings and senseless ambitions when the fact is we are all born to die. We cannot change any of it. All we can do is live in the now with the awareness that life is only a journey. However difficult it may be to come to realisation of this fact, it still is a fact. Funny, we have seen it for eons now, and yet it is so difficult to accept it. Today humans are looking for intelligence in Mars when we fail to see even a drop of intelligence inside it. The fact is we embody an ocean of wisdom within us and finding a drop becomes so difficult. And even if we find that drop recognising it becomes so impossible. We all know the truth, but we all will fight it relentlessly and needlessly. Man kills man and without a thought, he gives pain only to get more pain in return. With anger we disturb our conscience, senselessly distribute this anxiety around us and mutate the peace of the friends, family and the world around us. What do we gain from it other than generating pain for ourselves and our near and dear ones? All life we are craving for the ‘I’ or the ‘my’. This ‘I’ only generates ego and the ‘my’ which is the so called physical possessions fires that ego all our life. At the end of the day mortality will part this ‘I’ from the ‘my’ and they will both remain here and serve no purpose. It is a universal ‘cause’ and ‘effect’. Birth causes death and that death causes a new birth. This is the only cyclical religion of the world which too is universal, and this is the only truth. Religion cannot be different for different living forms. Like humans are a universal species, so is its religion. The religion of awareness, truth and the cycle of birth and death.
I am not sure Vipassana can make a Buddha, but I know even if I am able to tame the ego of the ‘I’ in me or the craving for what ever I call ‘my’ by an ounce, it will be a life well lived with satisfaction and peace. The more I move towards that path, the more it will allow me to come to terms with the universal law of impermanence. Nothing is permanent – You, me and everyone is on a journey here, and we have two choices, either live that journey with awareness and compassion or race to our death seeking something that does not exist, and certainly not in the material possessions outside our mind. I read a book years ago ‘If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him’. I understood the meaning of that book after I spent 10 days at Igatpuri.

Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich had one goal: Destroy Judaism. Stamp out the Jews with his 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question.' The wholesale slaughter of European Jews is remembered in the 20th century history as The Holocaust and an ethnic cleansing of a religious people.

However, others also got caught up in the Third Reich's reign of terror were the disabled, mentally challenged, gypsies, Slavs, Eastern Europeans, homosexuals, non-Aryan races, non-European emigrants, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, social deviants & political opponents.

One question that dogs historians and civilians to this date is why the Allied forces fighting Hitler could not see this happening and worse still do nothing to stop Hitler. Why couldn't  they bomb the concentration camps that dotted Europe. There is enough evidence to suggest they obviously knew about their existence and also what was happening within them. 

We all believe never again! And that history will never be allowed to repeat itself. But happened again and several times between then and now. The Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge eliminating about atleast 1.5 million Cambodians, the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the massacre of the Hutus' by the Tutsi's in Burundi killing about a hundred thousand,  the Bangladeshi cleansing in 1971 killing about three lac Hindus & the Kurdish massacres by Saddam killing about a lac.

While I am still uncertain about what drives this human madness, but I am certain that even today, enough reason exists which will drive human lunacy to those paradigms of darkness, again and again and again, And after each such genocide the powers of the world that be will come together to pledge again. Never again. 


Today I look at ISIS in the middle east, Boko Haram in Nigeria & Taliban in Af-Pak constrict basic human freedom and award brutal deaths to those who raise their voice against their will and without trial. Political powers do what they do the best, play politics on human blood and turn a blind eye. What is power if it can't save a human life?  

While the numbers eliminated by today's war zones are yet to match the other genocides, but it wont take too long. And yet again we will meet only to pledge, never again. Alyan Kurdi, a three year old washed up at the Turkish coast trying to flee the Syrian crisis, will only remain a statistic and humanity will slumber till yet another crisis looms in with similar consequences. 

I got a call last evening from a friend Sumeet who knew about my respect for Gandhi. He said to me "Nilesh, you are Gandhian right?"  I didn't know how to respond to that question. I wasn't sure respecting the man qualified me a to be a Gandhian, may be not.  He reminded me about how as a lawyer Gandhi was thrown off the first class compartment of a train in South Africa.

Well, he and a few friends of his were planning to mark the birth anniversary by inviting citizens to spend a night on the railway platforms in Hyderabad in memory of the man. You may look up the link at the end of the blog it has the details of the event. He even told me we hardly did anything to mark his birth anniversary. I humbly apologised and refused his invitation to Hyderabad since I was already travelling but it got me thinking about Gandhi.

Among other things I was thinking about why do I respect Gandhi?

Gandhi was the torchbearer of India's struggle for independence. This struggle got him millions of followers and India got independence. But do we owe our independence to Gandhi? Everybody is entitled to an opinion. Mine says no. Infact I would say we probably would have got it years before by other means, the means of the Bhagat Singhs' and Savarkars'.

Simply put India got independence when the Britishers chose to give it to us. In a hurry and without a care for the consequences. Once they had orders from the monarchy and the administration in London, they bothered about nothing and left and as soon as they could leaving behind a bloody partition. The effects we continue to suffer to this day.

So then why is Gandhi credited with a feat he never achieved. Well my opinion says he was the torchbearer, his means and ways very powerful, yet none of those really got us there. But the event happened with him at the helm so he was a case of being at the right place at the right time.

India would have got independence in and around 1945 with or without Gandhi. The reasons were the Second World War, changing global political scenarios, acceptance of democracy as the only means of administration, growing awareness for human rights, so on and so forth.

Then why do I respect Gandhi?

My respect for Gandhi is not for achieving any ends but purely the means and not restricted to his struggle for independence. Gandhi to me is not a politician. He is an institution. And there are not many human beings in history who can be termed as that. The Nobel committee was right when they did not give Gandhi a Nobel prize because he was simply beyond one. Giving him that accolade would be an insult to the man rather than an honour.

Can you believe in your values and hold stead fast in the face of any crisis for a life time? Gandhi was one who did it and without an instant of dilemma. His actions were never determined by outcomes, instead they were determined by the very values he lived for - Truth and Peace. Two morals the man stood all his life for. He always believed the means were more important that the ends and yet got a country full of hopefuls to follow him, without a promise or any surety of result. He did not measure his actions by the success of its outcomes.

If I were to talk to today's generation its crude way to put it, but he was a robot with a value system programmed in him. That was the only thing that drove him. Can any of us do that for a few minutes let alone a life time!

I haven't seen God but Gandhi is next best. He never needed to follow the values he believed in, he was the value himself. Therefore I call him an institute. He never had to attempt, it was embedded in him and merely reflected in everything he ever did and said. He influenced nobody, he was beyond praise, his actions were his lessons like he said and I quote, "Be the chance you wish to see in the world."

And once I answer that to my self, I smile, with gratitude and respect for the great man. He will never cease to amaze me. It wasn't for nothing that Einstein said about Gandhi and i quote "for generations to come it would be hard to believe a man of flesh and blood like him walked on the face of this Earth"

Links: https://www.facebook.com/1night4change?pnref=lhc

In not very distant memory, one heard the clarion calls for a change heralded by the euphoria and hope, generated from the promising and inspirational speeches by the now prime minister Narendra Modi. He played the piped piper and the country followed him aspiring and dreaming all over again.
They did not disappoint him, for the first time in 25 years, we had a government who did not have to look left or center to garner support for law making. Personally I was never a fan of Modi’s instant noodle solutions. Though I did believe if he could deliver even a tenth of what he promised the change would be worth all the hooplah!
Changing the course of a juggernaut like India was never going to be a year’s task, but setting off on a course in that direction and without any rhetoric was all I expected. Solutions to our biggest problems lie in taking a host of anti-popular decisions including phased removal of subsidies, addressing abolition of reservations, rationalisation of the tax policy, judicial reforms for a quicker justice system,  streamlining laws that hinder businesses and accountability in the executive in that order.
I can go on with my wish list but these in a nutshell can take address the key problems of our country and give results faster than you can imagine. A government with complete majority is well placed to implement these policies and no person in his right mind will undermine their importance. Public outcry is still a factor the government of the day would have to deal with as most of these decisions would be un-popular.
Well, the Modi government is dealing with a lot of outcry anyways, but for all the wrong reasons. Fortunately still, an majority of people who did canvass for him among friends and family are yet to denounce him but the inaction has sown the  seeds of despair and doubt. The government did make some right noises with a lot of wrong ones.
Among the right ones include “Make in India”. Personally, I run a business and pay about Rs. 70.00 lacs in taxes to the local body alone, which incidentaly is run by the BJP. Apparently I pay this tax for Water, Power and Roads they must provide.
Fact is I don’t have a tarred road to my factory, which by the way can be built for an investment for seven lacs. I don’t have a fresh water connection to my factory and is fed by tankers from the water mafia and ofcourse I do have a generator for obvious reasons. All of this in a place within 60 kilometers of the metropolis of Mumbai. I dread to think of what is happening elsewhere. What do I make in India Mr. Modi and how do I make it competitive for a global market?
Several regimes including the current one has crippled the competitiveness of the Indian industry by the protective policy of anti-dumping duty allowing the local manufacturing to a charge higher price for their produce. In essence these policies have crippled the local industry making them incompetent and sent costs spiralling for consumers. Governments have made the industry addicts to this policy leaving less need for competitiveness while depriving the population with cheaper produce. Much like what reservation did to the protected few.
Here is a case in point. China imports iron ore from India, processes it to Steel and sells it back to India. India still needs to charge an anti-dumping duty to protect the local industry from this imported steel so they can fight the Chinese pricing and stay afloat. You can only imagine what is happening to the cost of manufacturing in India thanks to the incompetent business environment.
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar introduced a ten year policy for reservation for certain communities to empower them. Well the policy was good, till one forgot it was meant for ten years and no more. For the past sixty-five years governments have given ten year extentions to the policy to protect their vote banks at the cost of the very voters themselves. After three generations of reservations, not much has changed for them. Is it not high time we rethink the policy on the whole? Once again the protected have become parasites to a systematic infusion of addiction by the political class.
The government of the day is busy feeding meat or banning beef in some or the other part of the country. And by the way, I am a Jain myself, atleast by birth, please tell me which Jain forum asked the government to extend the meat ban? This was a decision taken purely to generate political brownie points by a BJP desperate to protect its electorate who in turn ended up being embarrassed for something they never had anything to do with in the first place.
Other than all the goodwill trips abroad the prime minister has been busy managing and in some cases even engineering controversies. Starting with the educational qualifications of Smriti Irani, appointment of Hindu fanatic Giriraj Singh as a minister, the land acquisition ordinance, judicial standards and accountibility bill, film censorships, changing text books, granting visas to Lalit Modi and ofcourse putting and lifting bans meat and beef. Incidentaly a lot of these controversies do have a religious color, something which was never the strong point of the man in any case.
Mr. Prime minister if you have the proverbial “56 Inch Chest” you claimed, do what you must. Thanks to a defeated opposition mere lip service was enough to get here, but no more. We want action, and the country is waiting in hope.