Careless Whispers ...

On The Edge: A Self-Drive Adventure Through Spiti

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:40:00 +0000

Introduction

Spiti Valley, known for its breathtaking beauty and profound tranquility, is often regarded as the land of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, where the divine energy of these deities resonates through its rugged landscapes. Legend has it that Goddess Parvati, the embodiment of Shakti and divine feminine energy, resides in these valleys alongside Lord Shiva. Together, they represent the cosmic balance of creation and destruction, peace and power, symbolizing the spiritual harmony that the Spiti Valley offers.

In this mystical landscape, where the physical and spiritual realms intertwine, one feels a deep connection to the divine energy of Shiva & Parvati. The stillness of the valley invites visitors to embrace the path of contemplation and surrender, while its majestic mountains remind them of the infinite power of the cosmos.

Spiti, as the land of Shiva & Parvati, is more than a destination—it’s a spiritual pilgrimage, a journey into the heart of the divine.

Coinciding with thirty years of our blissful togetherness, we both decided to take this road trip in September' 2024. I must confess that while it was me who always wanted to make this self-driven road trip, she is the one who actually brought all the strength and courage to finally go for it, and how!

Preparation

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

― Benjamin Franklin

Spiti Valley needs no introduction and instead of talking about the Valley itself, I would like to share our self-drive road trip experiences, learnings and more importantly, the detailed preparation prior to the trip.

So we started with the basic thumb-rule of preparing for such a trip: Plan for the worst, while hoping for the best!

I would like to break this process into three parts - Research & Planning, Personal Preparation and Vehicle Preparation.

In an earlier travelogue published on this blog, I had shared some of my learnings on the basic ‘Do’s & Don’ts’ for hiking & trekking. While readers may like to read through it, couple of those tips such as ‘Know your route’ and ‘HumInt (Human-Intelligence)’ remain on top of the self-driving off-road trip to the Spiti as well.

Spiti Valley - When God Paints ...

Know your Destination

It is important to start the process with extensive reading and research on the travel route and destination. Getting to know the travel route, topography, terrain, elevation, seasons, tourist points of interest (Nature, Adventure, Historial, Religious, Spiritual etc); much before closing in on the dates and confirming bookings. Data collated from this research helps plan the trip forward, personalise it to fit into individual preferences and prepare accordingly.

Our Route Map for Spiti

Personal Preparation

The climate in Spiti Valley is extreme, with long, harsh winters, during which the region is cut off from the rest of the world due to heavy snowfall. Summer, though short, is the best time to visit, as the valley opens up to travellers, offering stunning views and thrilling adventures like trekking, mountain biking, and camping. After the monsoons in July & August, Spiti Valley turns out even better with a lot more colours added to it. This however is an even smaller window of about 2-3 weeks, fraught with unpredictable landslides across Himachal Pradesh, lower temperatures in the valley and onset of winters (snowfall) by the end of September. But then: “Risk Hai Toh Ishq Hai (रिस्क है तो इश्क है)” – हर्षद मेहता SCAM 1992

Rakchham, Spiti Valley: Colours during September

The best way to start preparing & packing for the trip to Spiti Valley would be to underestimate our physical potential, endurance & threshold; always respect & overestimate nature’s fury, especially while in the Greater Himalayas.

High-altitude cold-deserts of the Greater Himalayas in Spiti Valley with dramatic landscapes and rugged mountains can be very unpredictable in terms of weather & roads at the same time.

Spiti Valley: Snow Capped Greater Himalayas

Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS)

First and foremost is the often talked about factor of thin-air with reduced oxygen levels, as we move up through the elevation and reach a point of 8-9000 Ft above sea level, with an average Spiti Valley altitude of 12,500 feet (Kaza). This symptom is commonly known as Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). Some common symptoms of AMS may include but are not limited to: Dizziness, Fatigue, Headache, Shortness of breath, Loss of Appetite, Sleep disturbances to name a few.

For us being normal healthy couple, without any pre-existing medical condition, this could be well managed by maintaining healthy eating habits and avoiding sudden increase in altitude levels. With sleeping stopovers at every 400-500 metres of elevation, acclimatising with the reduced levels of Oxygen, enjoying leisure walks together and never pushing physical endurance to test our lungs.

Needless to mention, it is important to absolutely avoid consumption of nicotine and alcohol or any such substances.

In case one develops any AMS symptoms, the best non-medical advice is to return back to the last sleep stopover, thereby reducing elevation at least by 400-500 metres. There are medicines and detailed procedures to follow to treat AMS - readers are advised to consult their personal physician as well to prepare for the same.

Nako, Spiti Valley

Personal Health & Care

The terrain of Spiti Valley is very different in that it can be very hot during the day due to strong sun with very high UV, at a high altitude of 12000 feet; and cold by the night. So we planned and packed our clothing accordingly. Hat, Sunglasses & Sunscreen at easy reach during the day and Lip Guard, Cold Cream by the evenings greatly helps in preparedness towards quick change in temperatures.

We carried our basic first-aid set of medicines as per our personal preferences and requirements. Medication for Fever, Cold, Vomiting and Headache however must be included.

We also carried packaged drinking water with us to avoid change in water from place to place, even though potable drinking water is available almost everywhere through the valley, may be even better quality than the packaged one!

We took this self-drive road trip at the age of 59 & 55 respectively; so we also carried a BP Monitor, Oximeter and a small consumable oxygen cylinder. However, God had been so kind that none of it was ever used during the trip.

Kunzum Devi, Kunzum Pass, Lahaul-Spiti (elev. 4,551 m or 14,931 ft)

Vehicle Preparation

Spiti’s remoteness, unspoiled beauty, and rich cultural heritage make it a captivating destination for those seeking solitude & adventure in the lap of the Himalayas, through a self-drive road trip. Exploring Spiti Valley assumes an entirely different dimension and an incredible experience in a self-driven vehicle. Frequent detours and stopovers, either to explore hidden gems of remote places that go beyond the typical tourist circuit or just to take stunning pictures during the Golden Hour.

“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Ground Clearance or FWD?

Before we proceed further on this subject, one very basic question that flashes through most travellers would be whether we necessarily need a 4x4 (FWD) vehicle for Spiti. The answer is an emphatic NO, if planning the trip during tourist season, that is May to September. The only thing that is utmost important is the Ground Clearance.

Trivia: ‘Maruti Alto’ is popularly known as ‘Lord Alto’ in Spiti Valley by the locals and is a popular choice of their daily commute.

Another point to note while on the subject is the fact that it is the driving techniques & skills that are put to test in Spiti Valley and not the 4x4 (FWD) monsters. What is avoidable however is the Sedan with a low GC. As a thumb rule, one can safely assume a Ground Clearance of 180 mm as good enough to explore Spiti Valley during the season. However if planning for a Winter Spiti road trip, one definitely needs a full on FWD due to snow.

So that should put away all doubts of a 4x4 (FWD) to rest.

Chhitkul: The last village of India, with the Cleanest Air, (elev. 3,450 m or 11,320 ft)

Vehicle Service

Our vehicle had clocked about 5000 odd KMs after the last service, so we decided to get the complete service done. In case it is just about 2000 KMs since the last service, it would still be advisable to go through a detailed check up.

The vehicle also behaves differently at high altitude due to reduced Oxygen levels in Spiti Valley. A poorly serviced vehicle may go completely dead and not start the next morning, pushing the schedule for the day by a good 3-4 hours, before it finally cranks. Or while traversing through the extreme off road patches, the worn out brakes or clutch plate may not survive the trip.

Briefly, following are quick check-points that I had prepared in detail for the workshop and ensured they are thoroughly checked while getting the vehicle serviced & prepared for the trip:

Any rattling or strange noises, Battery & Electricals, Brakes & Brake Fluid, Bearings, Oils & Coolant, Filters, Clutch Plates, Tyres, Suspensions, Wheel balancing & alignment, Belts, Wipers, any Leakages, Underbelly.

Tools and Vehicle Maintenance Kit

Getting our vehicle stuck in the middle of nowhere in Spiti Valley and not having the required tools & maintenance kit can be a real dampener of the trip. A checklist of some DIY tools & items that we ensured were always available in our car is shared below:

Tire Puncture Repair Kit, Jumper Cable, Tow Strap or Rope, Jack & Lug Wrench, Spare Tyre, Basic Tool Kit with Wrenches, Screwdrivers, Pliers, Adjustable spanners; Duct & Scotch Tapes, Engine Oil, Battery Water, Coolant & Windshield Washer Fluid, Portable Air Compressor, Fuel Jerry Can with Funnel, Flash Light, Spare Key

The Highest Bridge in Asia - Chicham Bridge: (elev. 13,596 ft)

Self Driving through Spiti Valley

Driving around the city is different from driving on highways and driving on highways is different from driving through the Himalayas in Spiti Valley. Each one is a very different skill set by itself that needs proper training & practice. In case one has never driven around the mountains, it would be advisable to venture into Spiti Valley with your own vehicle only after you have practised driving through some mountain ranges in the nearby locations.

To start with, driving through Spiti Valley needs a lot more patience than normal. Covering 900 KMs of Spiti circuit, with an average speed of 20-25 kmph can be extremely challenging for the urban drivers. But this is the best way to truly enjoy and soak in the beauty of magnificent Greater Himalayas.

Malling Nalla: One of the most dangerous points, due to Shooting Stones & Landslides (elev. 3,875 m or 12,713 ft)

Driving Tips & Trivia

Chandra Taal (Moon Lake), Spiti Valley (elev. 4,300 m or 14,100 ft)

Sharing below some of the precautions & learnings that we followed to ensure a safe and enjoyable journey through the valley.

Tyre Pressure:

Optimum air pressure range for tyres is recommended for normal terrains and conditions. Spiti dirt tracks are covered with sharp stones through major parts of the route and there is a possibility these may damage or cut through the tyres with optimum air pressure. We reduced the tyre pressure by 10% from the optimum levels to counter this and it worked perfectly fine, without having a flat or damaged tyre even once. Likewise, it is usual practice to reduce the tyre pressure by as much as 50% while driving through the desert terrain, to avoid getting stuck in the soft sand.

Laden Weight:

Load carrying capacity of the vehicle is important not only from mileage point of view but also the engine performance; especially on a tough & challenging route of Spiti Valley. We were mindful of this while planning & packing our luggage, even though our vehicle has excellent laden weight carrying capacity. This is yet another strange experience we had after reaching the altitude of 10,000 Ft and while crossing a steep elevation with sharp U-turns; the engine starts to sound a little different and there is this distinct feel of the vehicle making that extra effort to pull itself.

Fuel Management:

This is a call we must take depending upon the fuel-tank capacity of our vehicle and the mileage (KMs / Full Tank). Fuel stations these days are available through the Spiti route and if planned well, with little bit of local intel and advance info, we need not carry extra fuel in the jerry-can at all. We did precisely that and partially fueled up at three stations through the Valley - Theog, ReckongPeo & Kaza. But we were told at Kaza station that they were running out of fuel and the supply tanker was expected only next morning due to the landslide. Which means if we were completely out of fuel, we would need to stay back the extra night in Kaza and face long queues the next morning, that is only if the tanker arrives. There is no filling station between Kaza & Manali and that happens to be the longest, most dangerous & challenging part of the Spiti route.

In nutshell, carrying extra fuel in a 20L jerry-can is the safest bet but then it adds that much extra weight - however, it can be avoided with a little bit of fuel management and planning.

The Morning Drill:

I used to check the coolant and oil levels, yes every single morning, start the vehicle and leave the engine idling for about ten minutes before we moved, since it is a Diesel vehicle. With all the above precautions and care, we never had to crank our vehicle even twice, except at Chandrataal, where it took two long cranks before the engine started. The Scorpio parked next to us had gone completely dead and wont crank.

Tani Jubbar Lake: A Hidden Unexplored Gem

Local Support

This is very personal but if you are a first-timer to Spiti and driving either solo or couple, that is not in a group, strongly recommend having a local driver-cum-guide accompany you all through the trip. Our reasoning having one was on following points:

The explorer in you would need someone to help you with those hidden trails of the valley, not covered by the usual tourist circuit. Quite often these are unspoiled and ‘too good to be missed’ spots. Just to share as an example, nobody takes the off-road track beyond Mudh Village in PIN Valley - after driving ten KMs on that track we reached the most beautiful spot, deep inside PIN Valley - a dead end so beautiful, we would never like to take a U-turn.
The photographer in you will always need someone to capture those precious moments and memories, with yourself included.
The foodie in you will need someone to guide you to the best places for local food & delicacies. We will never forget the taste of that ‘Kadhi-Chawal’ we picked up from a completely non-descript small little dhaba on the way to Sangla, that would never get noticed otherwise.

We were very fortunate to get Anuj Tejwan, young & energetic, 23-something, full of life and a true Himachali in soul & spirits, excellent driver and above all an avid photographer. We would never have heard such beautiful folk music of Himachal, if not for his playlist.

Hum-Int (Human Intelligence)

The mountains can be extremely unpredictable in terms of weather and roads, more so if it is Spiti Valley. The most authentic source of updates on these counts is Human Intelligence. So I always reached out to have a friendly chat with the locals, fellow cabs and tourists to exchange & share info with them. Before hitting the road next morning, it's good practice to have some real time updates and be better prepared. Locals in the Himalayas, by their very nature, are humble and sincere people, always willing to help.

The Iconic Chacha Chachi Dhaba

Himalayan Wisdom: Life in Spiti Valley is very different compared to the plains. They have their own ecosystem, survival modes & instincts, societal norms and values etc. There is so much to learn from them and get a sense of what I call ‘Himalayan Wisdom’. As visiting tourists, we just need to ensure that we do not disturb the locals in any way, and never leave behind any toxic waste & garbage, in terms of materials and / or ideas.

The Final Analysis

To be honest, I was mentally prepared to spend one full day at the workshop at Manali, fixing up several issues in the car after completing the Spiti Circuit. It is considered normal practice to take a day off at Manali, recovering from such an adventurous & tiring nine-day road trip, for us and for the vehicle too.

With the help of all our planning towards personal care & vehicle preparation, driving-skills, Anuj Tejwan; and above everything else, God’s blessings, we just spent an hour at the car-wash at Manali. Next morning we hit the highway again for three more days, before we reached home.

All pictures shared in this travelogue are from my personal archives. Feel free to click them to see in full resolution. In case you like these and curious to see more pictures from my collection, please visit the gallery here.

The Drift of Headlines & Hashtags

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Thu, 09 May 2024 10:15:00 +0000

'Salma' gets quoted by Sabrina, who gets quoted by Afrina,

who gets quoted by... and then LIES evolute to TRUTH

~ Mediacrooks

India, the world’s largest democracy, witnesses massive electoral exercises that shape the nation’s political landscape. Amidst this democratic fervour, journalism plays a pivotal role in informing and engaging citizens. The symbiotic relationship between Indian elections, journalism and revenue, while presenting huge opportunities for media organisations, leaves the citizen in utter chaos & confused state.

Obviously the journalism industry is enjoying the peak season and every player is busy making the most out of it. If we thought newspapers & news magazines survive on our subscription and commercial revenues, think again! News Journalism industry in particular, Print & Electronic both, are able to cover their entire revenue budget for a few years from one single election. In fact, small time web-mags and regional newspapers survive on revenues only from Elections.

#Election2024: Modi’s Contempt For Environment …

In such an emotive and charged-up political scenario across the nation, it is quite normal that we find such headlines all over the place every single day across Print & Media News platforms. The reason why I would bring this particular one to discuss on a blog-post here is interesting. Readers are advised that this will be a long-form post so do stay on till the very end to get the full context.

Social or NGO industry even today is the fastest growing sector as India still remains under the category of a ‘developing’ nation. The ‘developed’ world through these NGOs desperatly want to ‘help’ India achieve its status as a ‘Developed’ nation, as per their lens (point of view). And they will continue to do so until such time the objective is achieved. This subject deserves to be discussed over yet another long-form post so stay tuned for one.

The NGO industry started growing at an exponential growth during the nineties, much earlier than the Decade of Decay (2004-2014). To get a historical post-independence perspective on how the NGO sector evolved in India, readers may like to read an earlier post of June’ 2014 from this blog titled: India NGOnized. The author tracks the development & growth of the NGO sector from 25,000 odd NGOs in 1990 to 2 Million by 2004, by which time India was officially NGOnized with the introduction of NAC (National Advisory Council). This body of NAC was formed immediately upon taking over the charge of PMO by Sonia Gandhi - WFH (Work from home), officially by Dr. Manmohan Singh as PM.

In recent times a new breed of Web-magazines have cropped up in the NGO space. They are basically the mouthpiece of this ever growing Social (NGO) Sector. These web-mags help spread the word, tom-tom (read popularise) and talk about each other’s achievements in the Social Sector. Along the way, time-to-time, they also peddle an agenda and help the Activism industry by plugging certain articles. After all they also need to survive and sustain. Activism industry rides on the Social Sector industry - sometimes even as the primary product. All this is fine and must be allowed the space to co-exist in a vibrant democracy like India.

But there is a problem when they start taking the innocent, unsuspecting and well-intentioned reader for a jolly good ride. Almost to the point of insulting & questioning the basic common sense and awareness of the reader. Let us see how?

First, the Headlines:

100% guaranteed clickbait for headlines for such articles is the use of the word ‘MODI’. In this age of ‘2-minute’ news updates, Headline makes all the difference. And #Modi makes it workable across the globe today. Reason & the reality is very simple: you love him, you hate him, you can't ignore him.

Content comes much later, and that is what we shall talk about next. Let us start with the opening para where the author clearly exposed himself.

The public at large and the media in particular have mostly glossed over issues that have a direct connection to their lives, but global concern has been far more realistic.
Climate change and life-threatening atmospheric pollution are not subjects that can be brushed under the carpet.

(Bold accent mine)

Would like to highlight global concern as the first key-word to be noted. Furthermore, the author comments that India as a nation glossed over life-threatening subjects such as Climate change and atmospheric pollution.

Climate change and atmospheric pollution are typical highly productive key-words that can be found in almost all such articles as it provides global visibility & platforms. It would not be an over-statement if we call it a sort of ‘Tool-Kit’ for such journalism.

Next up is the most obvious - serve your masters & get paid!

Colonial Sepoy

Environmental Performance Index (EPI)

Wikipedia states and I quote: The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state's policies.

EPI, as it is widely known, is developed jointly by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Columbia University Earth Institute.

Below is the extract of article where author shares gems of data with unquestioned loyalty and blind faith in the western sources such as EPI-2022 from the Yale and Columbia university:

This drastic fall in India’s ecological standing is best encapsulated in the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), an international ranking system that measures the environmental health and sustainability of countries. According to EPI 2022, India ranked the lowest among 180 countries, after Vietnam (178), Bangladesh (177), and Pakistan (176). With an overall score of 18.9, India is at the bottom of all countries with low scores across a range of critical landmarks.

India ranks 155/180 in 2014, falls to 177/180 in 2019 and right at the Bottom in 2022, below Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam & Myanmar - Brilliant!

Someone throws India on the mat in front of you and you are not only happy acknowledging it at face-value, but also pedal along, with zero self-pride. This kind of unquestionable slavery and the typical colonial sepoy mindset of the Social Sector in India must be called out even if it costs them their survival.

So, firstly you are a slave of western research data as you take international ranking system of EPI at face value; Secondly, you are dishonest to the core as a journalist since your article has completely, in your very own words, ‘glossed over’ the fact that India had immediately issued a rebuttal on Environmental Performance Index 2022: Calling out ‘Biased metrics, biased weights’ as follows:

The MoEF&CC issued a statement saying that many of the indicators used by EPI 2022 are “based on unfounded assumptions”.

The ministry has said it does not accept the analysis and conclusions, and that “some of these indicators used for assessing performance are extrapolated and based on surmises and unscientific methods”.

“There is no specific rationale that has been adopted for selection of weights. It seems it is based on publishing agency’s choice, which is not suitable for a global index,” the statement added.

“No indicator talks about renewable energy, energy efficiency and process optimisation.

The selection of indicators is biased and incomplete,”

But your master was still honest enough with an update - quoting from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In 2022, India was ranked last in the list and rejected the low ranking. As per a statement issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), it claimed that several indicators used in the calculation were based on unfounded assumptions and unscientific methods.

'Salma' gets quoted by ‘Sabrina’

When the research falls short of hard data and / or one has to follow a predetermined narrative, the usual practice is to quote one-another (Salma-Sabrina) from your own network, and peddle them as ‘sources’.

Below are two such extracts from this article where - ‘Sabrina’, resorts to quoting unauthenticated and opinionated texts as ‘sources’ - ‘Salma’.

Researchers Manju Menon and Kanchi Kohli say that the EIA, since its adoption in 1994, has been “a thorn in the flesh” of both corporates and environmentalists.

AND

Rajeev Suri wrote in Down to Earth magazine: “Since the BJP came into power in 2014, it has put ‘operation dismantle’ into motion. The BJP scarcely conceals its contempt for the environment, working assiduously to dismantle environment protection, which is considered an impediment to development and a stumbling block in the path of ease of doing business.”

Data first, Narrative Later

A well researched article with unbiased journalism is clearly visible when the author starts with facts & data, interprets them into a well drafted easy to understand content, followed by a balanced unbiased conclusion. Gold standard for brilliant journalism is ‘Data first, Narrative later’.

Let us look at some of the extracts where the author has failed (read ‘glossed over’) to be honest with factual and complete data.

In March 2021, the MoEFCC issued a revised draft policy on evaluating the environmental impact of large projects. The draft EIA notification, which is meant to replace the 2006 regulations currently in use, will legally grant industrial, mining and infrastructure projects access to land, water, forests and other environmental resources or bar them based on environmental viability.

Without resorting to any opinions and counter arguments, let us just read the actual text reproduced below from the corresponding EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) Notification of March 2021:

―(x) Notwithstanding anything contained above, the projects where construction and commissioning of proposed activities have not been completed within the validity period of the Environmental Clearance (EC) and a fresh application for EC has been submitted due to expiry of the said period of the EC, the concerned Expert Appraisal Committee or State Level Expert Committee, as the case may be, may exempt the requirement of public hearing subject to the condition that the project has been implemented not less than fifty percentage in its physical form or construction.‖. [F.No. 22-37/2020-IA.III] GEETA MENON, Jt. Secy. Note : The principal notification was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) vide number S.O. 1533 (E), dated the 14th September, 2006 and was last amended vide the notification number S.O. 980(E), dated 2nd March, 2021.

(Bold accent mine)

The author has conveniently ‘glossed over’ the most important fact under the notification that the said amendment applies only to those “incomplete projects where not less than fifty percent work has been completed”.

Let us look at one more similar example in the extract below:

In 2023, the MoEFCC notified an amendment to the EIA Rules, exempting highway projects of strategic and defence importance, which are 100 km from the Line of Control, among other locations, from an environmental clearance before construction.

WRONG! There is no record of any such MoEFCC amendment notification issued in 2023. Clearly the author has been in a great rush to push the predetermined narrative. It is the Author’s contempt or wilful disregard towards facts, that he plugs misleading incomplete information in his article.

However, for the records, the correct reference would be to the EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) Notification issued in July 2022 instead, actual text of which is reproduced below:

And whereas, the Highway projects related to defence and strategic importance in border States are sensitive in nature and in many cases need to be executed on priority keeping in view strategic, defence and security considerations and in this regard, the Central Government deems it necessary to exempt such projects from the requirement of Environmental Clearance in the border areas subject to specified Standard Operating Procedure along with standard environmental safeguards for such projects for self-compliance by the Agency executing such projects; (iv) against item 7(f), in column (5), under the heading Note, the existing para shall be numbered as “(i)” thereof and after the para (i) as so numbered, the following shall be inserted, namely:- “(ii) All Highway projects are exempted upto 100 km from line of control or border subject to compliance of Standard Operating Procedure notified in this regard from time to time.

Clearly the author did not bother to fact-check even the exact timeline of notification, obviously the contents shared in the article are just half-truths.

Char Dham Yatra Route: Article calls it Himalayan trouble

The construction of this Yatra route has been in the news due to the disregard for environmental rules and the indiscriminate felling of forests.

Yet again, while raising environmental concerns and may be rightly so, the author rides on polemics such as ‘disregard for rules’ etc. The author should have been honest enough to mention the National Security angle as well to the controversy, as per the Supreme Court judgement in the matter as follows:

SC allows Centre’s plea for double-lane roads on Char Dham highway project

The court noted that there is no malafide in the application filed by the Ministry of Defence to widen the roads for the operational requirement of the armed forces

The bench said this court can't second-guess the infrastructural needs of armed forces. The top court also constituted an oversight committee, led by former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Sikri, to ensure all remedial measures are taken in the interest of the environment and the recommendations of the high-power committee are implemented in the project.

For every policy, especially covering large infra projects, there are always two sides (Pros & Cons) to it, but to keep ranting & feeding activism based on one side of the Policy is clearly agenda peddling and misleading the reader.

Plagiarised Article

#Election2024: Modi’s Contempt For Environment, Dismantling Protection Policy Hallmarks Since 2014

A simple run through a plagiarism check tool on this article throws up the following results -

The author blatantly copy-paste content & data without any citation from old articles, from sources like: ThePrint, Newsclick, Scroll, TheHindu, MSN etc.

Hardcore anti-Modi Leftist electronic media ‘The Print’ & ‘Scroll’ are already exposed of their agenda based journalism and bias beyond any discussion here.

NewsClick is the same Chinese WebRag whose Founder and HR head are behind bars right now.

The Delhi Police has told a court here that NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha infused funds from China into India to stoke and sustain the 2020 Delhi riots, carry out a disinformation campaign on Covid-19, stoke the farmers' protest and indulge in outright terror funding in Kashmir.

And guess what? The main body of the article used for replugging the content dates exactly around the last LS Elections 2019. So basically just change the hashtags and keep recycling the same old content, taking innocent readers for a jolly good ride.

Why would someone replug / repost an article Environment is the most under-reported disaster of Narendra Modi government dated 19th April’ 2019 from The Print (#Election2019) with even more toxic headlines on 30th April’ 2024 (#Election2024)?

The reader would get the drift here.

The author in his zeal & excitement to recycle the contents of #Election2019 article of the fake-news peddler, Modi-hater, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee, under the new hashtag of #Election2024 did not even bother to fact-check the developments during the last five years.

This is a classic case of dirty Yellow Journalism practised by the Social Sector mouthpiece during the peak of election time. If this is not paid and agenda based media then what is?

Chauragarh, Chhota Mahadev

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 12:40:00 +0000

Introduction

“It’s always further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks.

And it’s always harder than it looks.”

~ The three rules of mountaineering

Chauragarh, Chhota Mahadev (Pachmarhi, MP)

An ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva located on top of Chauragarh, the second highest peak of Satpura ranges in Central India, Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh). The shrine is also popularly known as Chhota Mahadeo Mandir. After Mahakal and Omkareshwar shrines in Madhya Pradesh, Chauragarh Chhota Mahadev temple witnesses the largest gathering of devotees during Mahashivratri and Nag Panchami. Mostly the devotees come from the adjoining states of Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Originally built by the King of Gond Dynasty, Sangram Shah (1488-1541 CE).

The shrine of Chhota Mahadev is unique in that there are thousands of Trishuls (Tridents) placed in a cluster inside the temple courtyard. During the festivals, devotees carry these huge tridents along the steep uphill tracks to offer them at the shrine as a mark of obeisance to Lord Shiva.

Tridents (Trishul) placed at Chauragarh Shrine

Topography & Elevation

"I like the mountains because they make me feel small.

They help me sort out what's important in life."

~ Mark Obmascik

Driving further into the forests beyond Bada Mahadev for about fifteen minutes on a forest track is the foothills where one has to park the vehicle and then hike towards the Chauragarh peak.

Entrance to Chauragarh (Chhota Mahadev) Trek, Foothills

Situated inside the Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve that covers a total area of about 4900 SqKM and three wildlife conservation sanctuaries namely: Bori, Pachmarhi & Satpura National Park. Needless to mention the area is well preserved with densely populated & lush green jungles which at certain valleys is not even penetrated by the sun.

View of Satpura Forests from Chauragarh Trek

Chauragarh peak is at an altitude of about 4200 feet above sea level, with a steep but comfortable trek of about 1300 steps over a distance of 3.5 KMs, it is considered a moderately challenging hike. The round trip could take about three hours, excluding the time one would like to spend at the shrine and also enjoy the magnificent view of the Satpura Ranges. Any time of the year is a good time to take this hike between 6am to 6pm. Except for the two major festivals of Maha Shivratri and Nag Panchami, it is not a crowded trek and hence very enjoyable, with very few hikers seen around.

Steps towards Chauragarh

The Trek

“To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.”

~ Mary Davis

View of Satpura Forests from Chauragarh Trek

Apart from the spiritual significance of Chauragarh being a famous pilgrimage shrine of Chhota Mahadev, it offers a great destination for nature, birding & photography enthusiasts. Known for the breathtaking sunrise view from the top, the quiet and lonely trek to the peak of Chauragarh itself is a tranquil and meditative hike. This serene and visually delightful trek is surrounded by spectacular dense forests and valleys of Satpura Ranges, a non-use conservation area protected under Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve, designated by UNESCO in 2009.

View of Satpura Forests from Chauragarh Trek

The long winding wide & comfortable tracks are a mix of dirt-trail, natural rocky steps and well placed concrete steps, through a couple of smaller hills, natural water springs, ancient caves and plenty of scenic viewpoints, before the final steep uphill ascent to the Chauragarh peak. Hikers may like to slow down at the several viewpoints along the way, not just to rest but immerse into the never ending lush green valleys of Satpura Forests. Nature photography enthusiasts will find it hard to leave some of these spots, to get just one last shot of the majestic Satpura Forests under ever changing natural light and visuals, before they move ahead.

Although Chauragarh is less than half the elevation, it draws one’s attention more than once and reminds of the hiking trek to the famous Tiger’s Nest, Paro Taktsang Bhutan. Apart from both being spiritual destinations, the sight of the majestic mountains from the foothills and the abundant beauty of untamed nature along the trek is strikingly similar in character to both these hiking treks.

Chauragarh Trek

Tiger's Nest, Bhutan

Helpful Tips

“Mountains, according to the angle of view, the season, the time of day, the beholder’s frame of mind, or any one thing, can effectively change their appearance. Thus, it is essential to recognize that we can never know more than one side, one small aspect of a mountain.”

~ Haruki Murakami

Another majestic view of Satpura Forests from Chauragarh Trek

The hike is moderately challenging.
Anyone with average health can take this hike.
The trek takes about three hours of round trip, between 6am to 6pm.
There are beautiful spots and viewpoints along the way. Make use of them to take rest and enjoy nature.
Bring along a walking stick / hiking pole / monopod (if carrying photography gear) and water bottle, although there is naturally cooled potable clean drinking water through taps available at the shrine courtyard. In case carrying any bags, they must be lightweight and closed at all times.
Lots of monkeys on the way as we get closer to the peak, but they don’t bother if they are not bothered, therefore avoid any kind of interaction or eye contact with them.
Avoid carrying food items, packaged snacks or drinks. Never open any food packets or fancy packaged snack/drinks, as our ancestors (monkeys) are well aware of these items and will ensure they do not let you enjoy it alone. Plain water bottles instead of the fancy colourful ones are safest and will never attract their attention.
Photography enthusiasts are advised to take an early morning or late afternoon hike to catch ‘Golden Hour’ while in the mountains.
Coconuts offered at the shrine are broken outdoors, at the designated place in the temple courtyard. Be careful of monkeys around as they like to grab the broken coconut even before you know it.

Basic Do’s & Don’ts

“The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.”

~ Conrad Anker

The author is not a professionally trained hiker but shares a few helpful tips from personal experiences. Everyone is well aware and exposed to the latest trekking / hiking gear & accessories these days, but there is more to preparing for the hiking activity than just getting decked up with fancy gear.

Know your trekking route. It is always good practice to do basic research & obtain basic information about the Trek: topography, weather conditions, flora & fauna, difficulty level etc.
Humint (human-intelligence) is still considered the most dependable source of information in the mountains & wilderness. Casual interactions with returning fellow trekkers, local people, tea shops, vendors and professional guides at base camp, are the best resources.
Know your physical endurance threshold and respect it.
Prepare yourself mentally & physically before the trekking event.
Do not set targets or achievement goals in terms of timeline or milestones during trekking, forget the competing part for once and just enjoy the activity itself.
Consistency as per one's personal endurance is the key. Consistent speed with consistent intermittent rest at regular intervals, as desired by your body.
Contrary to common wisdom, trekking downhill is more tricky and dangerous than moving up the elevation. Ofcourse, our body consumes less oxygen, demands lower energy and burns much less calories compared to trekking uphill over the same distance; hence considered easier than trekking upwards. But one has to be very careful balancing the gravitational effect on body-weight and body-roll as may spoil knees, ankles or toes, if body-weight is not distributed well. Although there is no ‘one size fits all’ method for trekking downhill, some of these basic points of caution may be considered:

Never walk in a straight line down the slope,
Step ahead with heel first, toe later,
Shorten your strides / steps,
Knees must always be relaxed,
Flow with gravity.
Balanced posture: Lean forward, never backwards,

Finally, disposable packing materials & any other wastes are never meant to be left behind in pristine nature, and must always be carried back to the base camp and dumped in the designated bins.

Personal Trivia

"The best view comes after the hardest climb."

~ Anonymous

The author is deeply connected to Satpura right from his early childhood, being a boarding student at Pachmarhi, popularly known as ‘Queen of Satpura’. During that era of non-digital lifestyle four decades back, a hiking trip to Chauragarh or any other such places in the mountains & jungles of Satpura used to be a playful weekend trip.

The author, an amateur photographer, has liberally shared a collection of pictures from his personal archives in this blog, for perspective & context. Do feel free to click them to enlarge and view in full resolution.

***

In the line of duty

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sun, 21 May 2023 17:01:00 +0000

“What is a lifetime adventure for you is a daily routine for us.”

~ Sign board on Leh-Ladakh highway (Indian Army)

"जो आपके लिए जीवनभर का असाधारण रोमांच है, वो हमारी रोजमर्रा की जिंदगी है।"

- लेह-लद्दाख राजमार्ग पर साइनबोर्ड (भारतीय सेना)

In today's highly competitive world of individual goals and individual achievers, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find role models to inspire and remind us of the forgotten ideals & values of duty, loyalty, working without supervision, dedication to the assigned job & responsibilities. What we instead find tons of these new age social-media ‘influencers’ and ‘mentors’ who preach & lecture the young ones on cheap-tricks, life-hacks and crooked smartness. But as always stated in several earlier posts, and once again drawing from the legendary Bob Dylan…

“The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind”.

We don't really have to go too far seeking such inspirations as they might be just around us, within the family, neighbourhood and anywhere around - only if we slow down, make time, put phones and devices away for a while and just listen.

This post is about one such real life experience of a retired forest officer, Shri K S Saxena (IFS Retd.). A seasoned ‘forest & wildlife’ professional whose career spanned over 35 years working with the Govt of MP, he spent most of his active career in the field, that is jungles of Madhya Pradesh - popularly known as Satpura Tiger Reserve (STR), now a Unesco World Heritage site. The jungles normally become inaccessible with the onset of monsoon and therefore even the departmental staff is called back to their home location during the months of monsoon. Here he had earned this reputation over the years to be the last one to come out and first to go into the core jungles, and that had pretty much set the standard for everyone else in the department.

Among several such adventures and real life experiences narrated to us from his work life, this one came out as rather bizarre and extremely dangerous for even Bear Grylls (@beargrylls) of ‘Man Vs Wild’ fame. Hence decided to share it as a blogpost in a first person account and without any change in the actual content.

QUOTE

Sometime during the early-eighties, monsoons had just arrived and while I was returning back from the jungle, I was asked to visit a location to inspect & review a project, before I head back home. The staff was present at the location awaiting my arrival for the final inspection. The place was further deep inside the forests and only accessible by trek of about 18 KMs. Half way down the trek was a small forest village where we could stop over to rest for a while. My staff packed my bag for two days and the next morning along with a local guide-cum-porter, I started moving towards the location.

It was just the two of us, walking carefully along the difficult terrain and since it started drizzling we could not move fast and lost out on the time we had planned to reach the forest village half way. I stopped for some rest and by the time I started to get ready for next lap of the remaining trek, I found that the local guide accompanying me had disappeared and ran away, fearing the remaining trek. We had to cross a small hill that is locally known as ‘रीछ घाटी’ (Bear Hill) since this area is the abode of Bear. I was left with no other choice but to proceed all by myself, considering that the staff was awaiting my arrival. I gathered my bags and started moving towards the location. Cautiously but steadily trekking along, I somehow managed to survive ‘रीछ घाटी’ (Bear Hill) with few sightings & encounters with Bears and crossed over to the other side towards the location. By the time I finally arrived at the location, I was already exhausted. I then noticed a dilapidated check-post with absolutely no sight of any staff around. This was the least that I had expected having trekked these 18 KMs of absolutely punishing & dangerous jungles all alone.

I now have two choices - either trek 18 KMs all the way back or onwards the next 12 KMs to the Forest Rest House on the other side. And I decided on the latter as I had to meet the staff who I presume must be present there. By this time I was completely tired physically, mentally and very disappointed to have come all the way here only to find nobody. I started moving towards the Forest Rest House and by the time I arrived there it was already late evening. When I reached the Rest House, the staff were relaxing there and they were absolutely shocked and reacted as if they had seen a ghost. In the wildest of their dreams they had never expected me to take this trek and reach there in such weather. Only then did I realise that I have trekked almost 30 KMs through the most difficult terrain, dangerous forests and under inclement weather.

After the apologies and usual excuses they made me comfortable, prepared a nice dinner for me and then we sat down for a serious talk. I gave them a good dressing-down and started planning for the next day. We had to trek back 12 KMs next morning to the location for inspection, but this time I would be accompanied by the staff. We decided to leave early to be able to wrap up and return to the rest house the same evening.

We reached the location and got busy with our work. Soon we realised that it was already late afternoon and it would be dark within a couple of hours. We had to leave immediately to reach the Rest House in time but some work was yet to be completed. The staff was very keen to wrap up and head back. I insisted that having come this far, we should stay back, spend the night and finish the work next morning before heading back to the rest house. Nobody was comfortable with the idea and moreover the night stay was not even planned and hence the dinner would be a problem. But considering that the job had to be completed, it was finally decided that we will spend the night under that dilapidated check post and will figure out something to eat.

Everyone was asked to look up in their bags and bring out whatever eatables were available. Everyone had something or the other in their bags and all the items put together, they somehow managed to prepare something that we all considered as a precious meal for everyone to share a little, just enough to survive the night.

There was a small storm water flowing nearby, coming from the mountains and we managed to use that as our lifeline. We all spent the rest of the night under that broken structure and survived.

Next morning, I walk down to attend nature's call, closer to the water body. It sent shivers down my spine to see the water that we all had consumed last night. It was completely infested with all kinds of filth and bubbling with Aquatic Insects activity, arising out of the onset of monsoons and fresh flow of water that brings along all the dirt up there from the mountains. Anyhow, I was relieved that everyone was fine and nobody fell sick and we all returned to the base but only after completing the inspection.

UNQUOTE

The idea behind sharing the above story is not to glorify the people involved but just to bring about the fact that nobody was getting paid any hefty bonuses or a financial reward for what they did. They were not being supervised, monitored or controlled remotely. The whole team in the above story was self-motivated and they considered it as their basic job responsibility without any expectation.

Also to highlight here the fact that unlike today, when we have all the gadgets and performance gear at our disposal to protect us before undertaking such an assignment, this is the story from 40 years back (circa 1980) when no such gadgets or protection gear were available then and surely not with the department of Forest in Madhya Pradesh. That makes it an outstanding case study on the ideals of valour and bravery as demonstrated by these people.

Stories of such values and ideals are hidden in every other family and we just have to seek & identify them. We have unsung heroes & inspirations in our own backyard and we just have to have the sensitivity and an eye to identify and learn from them. It is time we drop the self-aggrandizing ‘influencers & mentors’ on social media and start looking inwards and around for real life heroes and ideals to get inspired.

Disclaimer: Images shared only for representation purpose and are from the personal archives of author.

Down Memory Lane: Satpura National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 14:41:00 +0000

Memory … is the diary that we all carry about with us ~ Oscar Wilde

This one is a sequel to the earlier post: Story of Satpura, where we introduced and talked about the person, Shri K. S. Saxena (Retd IFS), who was at the centre of creation of what we know today as Satpura Biosphere Reserve. We pick up where we had left with the concluding remark: “And he looks forward to visiting Satpura National Park sometime …”

Satpura National Park

After three successive COVID-19 lockdowns and all the trauma, it was only in October’21 that we could conclude the most awaited trip down memory lane to Satpura National Park, exactly forty years after it was inaugurated. Calling it mere ‘nostalgic trip’ for Shri. K.S. Saxena (ex-IFS) on his 86th Birthday would be nothing short of an insult to his passion and love for the jungles of Satpura.

Sharing here few pictures of the trip from our personal archives, please feel free to ‘click to enlarge’ pictures for better views.

The planning for the trip was very detailed and extensive, keeping the comfort and health factors of the Octogenarian Forester as our topmost priority. He had made up his mind to travel all the way to a forest village called Nimgaon (also called Neemgham) nestled deep inside the core area of Satpura Tiger Reserve. I was determined to re-live and refresh my childhood memories of staying at Bada Mahadev Forest Rest House at Pachmarhi. Nothing else was more important to us than these two factors. A personal request over phone call by Shri KS Saxena, with the Field Director of Satpura National Park, expressing his keen desire to visit the Park and an accommodation request at Forest Rest House (FRH) at Bada Mahadev Pachmarhi was granted by the department, considering his visit to Satpura as a Technical Trip. FD Satpura National Park was kind enough to happily oblige by approving a booking at the requested FRH at Bada Mahadev.

Forest Rest House (Bada Mahadev) Pachmarhi

Green Patch: FRH Bada Mahadev as seen from Chauragarh

FRH (Bada Mahadev) Pachmarhi

We finally drove down to Pachmarhi. BTW, it also happens to be the place of my Boarding School at Kendriya Vidyalaya Pachmarhi, where I spent major part of my school life.

Accompanying the young octogenarian Shri Saxena, our main concern right through the trip was to ensure a comfortable and hassle-free road travel. So we spent major part of the day leisurely driving down from Bhopal to Pachmarhi and we arrived by the evening. We made a brief stopover at forest office at Pachmarhi to make Jungle Safari bookings for next day before we proceed to the last leg, leading into the magnificent Satpura ranges. Although it was late evening and getting dark, by the time we got to the Forest Rest House at Bada Mahadev, it was a mesmerising experience driving up all the way into Satpura ranges.

We were received by the caretaker team present at the Rest House, who checked us in and ensured we settle down comfortably with a hot cup of Tea.

Shri K S Saxena, at the steps of FRH Bada Mahadev

Next morning, we are already in the majestic verandah of the rest house during the Brahmamuhurta (Sanskrit-ब्रह्म मुहूर्त, lit. 'time of Bramha' is a period that begins one hour and 36 minutes before sunrise, and ends 48 minutes before sunrise) and waiting to experience the sunrise of a lifetime. Not many sunrise locations that I know of, where one would witness the divine Shiv Temple shrine with Sunrise - that is Chauragarh. This half an hour was one of those rare moments that can only be experienced and is impossible to express in words.

Shri K S Saxena watching Lord Shiva Shrine of Chauragarh at Sunrise, from FRH

Chauragarh Peak during Sunrise

We decided to keep the next day with minimal activity, for him to recover from the day-long drive the previous day. I decided to use this opportunity and make a solo trek to Chauragarh in the forenoon and that surely is worth discussing at length in a separate post.

We retire for the day early, looking forward to 5:30am departure for the Jungle Safari next morning. After enjoying the magnificent sunrise once again, all health factors in check, we start preparing to leave for the Safari.

Shri K S Saxena, Ready for the Jungle Safari

Next six hours that we would spend inside the dense and deep jungles of Satpura can be summarised as one of the most intense Safari trips that I ever experienced. This was not the usual tourist trek of Safari, traversing through the core & protected jungles of Satpura National Park brought our childhood memories back.

Shri K S Saxena for sure was enjoying every bit of it, reminiscing and recollecting his good old days of the department of Wildlife while posted here. He greatly appreciated the fine work done by the department during the last four decades, as it reflected in the flora and fauna of the pristine jungles. Although we could not actually reach Neemgaon due to the last patch of interior tracks were still not drivable after the monsoons, he was very happy and contended to halt at the nearby forest post, chatting with the staff on duty over a cup of Tea.

On the way back, he insisted to stop over and inspect the ancient rock paintings that were discovered during his tenure. We were amazed with the sheer energy and excitement through the six-hour long, very tiring and hectic Safari trip and we believe it was Lord Shiva (Bada Mahadev) who blessed him to be able to undertake this journey.

Shri K S Saxena visiting Rock Paintings, Baba Garden

Our sincere thanks are also extended to the team under leadership of Shri Gundicha Barik at Forest Rest House Bada Mahadev, for they took very good care hosting us and ensured our comfort in such remote and isolated location.

Shri Gundicha Barik & Team at FRH (Bada Mahadev) Pachmarhi

We will always cherish and remember our visit to this place.

Ideological Subversion

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 09:25:00 +0000

And then, there are the communists, Blacker hearts still.

They feed on the pus of all this corruption, Like maggots in a corpse!

And like maggots have left a swell, They will eventually swarm like flies,

And spread their rotten philosophy, Across the country and across the world,

Those then, Are our enemies!

~ Inspector Chester Campbell / The Peaky Blinders

Post independence, India had the option to chose & follow a particular path to build its own destiny as a Sovereign Nation State in the new world order, after almost 1000 years of foreign rule. This opportunity was actually the result of those Freedom Fighters who laid their precious lives to liberate India from foreign rule. Unfortunately, they did not live to witness the national tricolour being hoisted on 15th August 1947. The real heroes of our freedom struggle are the ones who contributed immensely during the 90 years, starting with 1857 through 1947. They were the real sons of the soil, most of whom martyred as nameless & faceless soldiers (Freedom Fighters). For example, Chauri Chaura incident, the centenary celebration of which was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Modi on 4th Feb 2021.

However, some of the bravest leaders that emerged from this 'unsung warrior' tribe of Freedom Fighters did not get due recognition, were either sidelined or even eliminated, as a political collateral damage, during the transition and post-independence Republic of India.

The most visible faces who worked closely with the British, negotiated and planned the transition to a free & independent India were actually the ‘politicians’ and not just freedom fighters. These are the people who would be at the forefront, guiding and directing the future course of Free India.

The reason we had to discuss this differentiation and categorise the two types of ‘Freedom Fighter’ here is to clearly define and fix responsibility of what we are going to discuss next. These politicians who led Independent India through the next decade (1947-1957) were the ones responsible for who we are today as a Nation.

Free India, under the guidance and leadership of these ‘freedom-fighter-turned-politicians’ (mostly Brown Sahibs) chose to follow Soviet Union model, then prevailing system of Socialism (read Stalin/ Leninist / Marxist ideology of Socialism) as a guiding philosophy to organise our Society, Polity and Economy. THIS was the sad beginning of the end of a centuries old wonderful civilisation of Bharat with a glorious past, that we refer as ‘Sone ki Chidiya’.

Sometimes, the review of a book is as brilliant as the book itself. In a very erudite review of the book '70 years of Secularism', Aravindan Neelakandan states:

"Stalin was perhaps the most notorious mass-murderer in human history. Yet Jawaharlal Nehru, who projected himself as the paragon of democracy, went into raptures in his eulogy of this mass murderer."

With massive intellectual, economical & political support of then Soviet Union, laced with the deadly & vicious combination of Marxist ideology, India started moving ahead as a ‘free & sovereign’ nation, supposedly! As we shall soon discover.

Soviet intelligence agency, KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, translated in English as Committee for State Security), took almost complete control of India - Politics, Economy, Defence, Foreign Policy, Media & Publishing, Civil Society - pretty much everything was being controlled, influenced & monitored by them.

Very detailed account of KGB activities is documented, chronicled and shared by few members of KGB who defected from the organisation and moved to the West. Vasili Mitrokhin, the archivist of KGB and Yuro Bezmenov who operated in India during the sixties and seventies, to name a few.

Vasili Mitrokhin who defected from KGB and moved to UK, wrote two brilliant archival accounts of KGB, authored along with Christopher Andrew: Sword and the Shield (1999) and The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World (2005). Yuro Bezmenov also defected and spent years in India under disguise and anonymity, until he finally settled down in Canada.

KGB intelligence operations & practices across the globe draw heavily from the Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, The Art of War fame. Ideological Subversion was discussed in detail by Sun Tzu 2500 years back, as an alternative non-aggressive method of winning over enemies, without actually going through a conventional warfare. This became the KGB handbook for spreading their extreme leftist ideology globally.

This is where Ideological Subversion comes into the picture. To exactly understand how and what got us to this point as a nation, we need to delve deeper into this concept of ideological subversion.

Ideological subversion as practiced by KGB is a kind of psychological warfare - peaceful, overt, legitimate and clearly visible, that involves very slow and gradual control over the minds of target enemy (country, region, society, geography) by systemically brainwashing them. This process takes about 15-20 years and has very specific application areas, as follows:

Religion is the very first line of attack. People are inherently bound together by religion at their roots & identity. Once this is destroyed, ridiculed and eroded, systematically and consistently over 15-20 years, half the job is already done.
Education comes next on the target. Condemn and insult native texts, scriptures and languages; demolish civilisational past, distort historical facts & data, distract from constructive & pragmatic principles. At higher education, introduce concepts of free-liberal-thinking, arbitrary & random liberal-arts, climate-change, save-the-earth, sexuality, rebel against societal codes & decorum. Continue to do so for 15-20 years and the end-product is the young generation that is detached, rootless, stateless, clueless and ready to embrace the Marxist ideology.
Social Life & Civil Society: Replace traditions, create fault-lines, discord, disharmony and unpleasant coexistence, create fake organisations / committees (Human Rights/ women rights) / NGOs, large bureaucratic bodies to control everything.
Power Structure: Create mistrust and opinions against the elected structure. Erode intrinsic democratic systems. Create artificial, unelected & unconstitutional bodies. Prepare & cultivate mainstream media for propaganda. Plant academia across schools and universities.
Labour relations play the most important role in any economy. Create employer-employee disharmony, prepare and fund trade-unions to rise in revolt against successful industries.
Law & Order: Glorify criminals through films and media, create mistrust against police and judiciary, reduce the fine distinction between evil & good. Justify violence.

During the 50s & 60s (Nehru Period), this activity was carried out in a very covert yet planned way, in collusion & consent of top leadership and cohort of corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, historians, educationists, socialites, media, films and television programmes. And this continued as a legacy right through the transition from Nehru to Indira Gandhi (60s & 70s) and then on to 80s during Rajiv Gandhi, as Prime Minister.

By the time Russia itself disintegrated during late 80s through early 90s, India project of Ideological Subversion was also completed. KGB operations in India that started during the Cold War period of 'bipolar global super-power structure' lost its relevance, and from here on, India project was on an autopilot mode, serving the long term objectives of Marxist ideology. Almost three generations were already impacted under the colonised education system of Marxist ideological Subversion project.

Today we have a well prepared, full blown Marxist cadre base, pushing and perpetuating the agenda of complete destruction of India. Either knowingly or under the blissful ignorance, they carry forward the legacy of Ideological Subversion to the next generation.

There are much more dangerous & sinister stages of this psychological warfare that follow Ideological Subversion, which we shall discuss in the next post.

To be continued ...

Inspector Campbell's Powerful Speech ~ The Peaky Blinders (Skip to 2:20 for quotes)

Story of Satpura

noreply@blogger.com (Careless Whispers) — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 19:24:00 +0000

This blogpost is a compilation of several tweets from Careless Whispers. They are reproduced here as is, without much edits, except all hashtags have been removed.

This thread on Bori Sanctuary, Satpura National Park in Madhya Pradesh is triggered by video of tigress swimming. I showed the video to the man behind these projects. He was emotional seeing the video and then shared some interesting trivia.

Please click here for Video (Video courtesy Shri Dhiraj Singh Chauhan, SDO Bori Sanctuary)

Circa 1977-79: True story as narrated to me by my father: Shri K S Saxena, ex-IFS (Forest Services) who developed both Satpura National Park & Bori Sanctuary from scratch, in Madhya Pradesh

Bori was always a very rich & biodiverse dense forest, providing ideal setting for sanctuary. After extensive field work and follow up, it was Dr. Ranjitsinh, then Forest Secretary, Govt of MP, who decided to make a visit to Bori.

Dr. Ranjitsinh insisted that father should accompany him to the jungle. Together they drove through the most difficult tracks, some of which father had personally surveyed in the rough & dangerous terrains of jungles we now know as Satpura National Park.

After the jungle trip they assembled at Churna Guest House. Father told him ‘if we can not preserve & protect this as a sanctuary, we wouldn’t be able to do it anywhere else’. This took place where the tigress in video takes a swim through Churna River of Satpura Tiger Reserve.

Dr Ranjitsinh asked for the layout map & sitting right there at Churna Guest House, together they marked the boundary on the map, securing 1000 SqKM for both Bori & Satpura National Park in Madhya Pradesh

This was the beginning of yet another massive task for my father when he would survey the length & breath of these 1000 SqKM of dense jungles of Satpura, Pachmarhi and Bori to prepare the project proposal to be submitted for notifying it as a Sanctuary.

This initial proposal for Satpura National Park was turned down by then Govt on commercial grounds, as almost ₹3 Cr worth of yearly revenues were generated from these forests. There was no need to declare it a reserve at the cost of sacrificing such revenue.

Nothing happened until the visit of legendary Birdman of India, Dr Salim Ali to Bori jungles. Father was hosting him and during the trip briefed him about the sanctuary proposal having been shelved for commercial reasons. He then made a note in the visitor book:

Dr Salim Ali wrote to the effect: if you want to save the rich forest & wildlife of the area, creation of Satpura National Park is very much desirable even at the cost of sacrificing 3 Cr worth of yearly revenue.

This trip & feedback of Birdman of India, Dr Salim Ali helped reopen the project files and the jungles of Satpura, Bori & Pachmarhi were granted Satpura National Park status, which is now declared as Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2009.

My father, who wanted to move to Bastar, by then a well-known wildlife expert, would be asked by the Govt to proceed to Sagar, to develop yet another reserve: Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh - And so he did!

All the field visit diaries and observations that my father meticulously recorded, over 3 decades of his passionate service, have been donated by him to the library of IIFM Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

He is 86 years young now, still follows his passion - And he looks forward to visiting Satpura National Park sometime...🙏

All pics shared in this post are from our family archives.

Finding Indic-ism

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:37:00 +0000

We Indians are being raised, educated & cultivated under the western education that predominantly is based on the ‘socialist-secular’ system in India. After higher education & employment, we go on to the next level & get ourselves exposed to the ‘free-market-liberal-capitalist’ system. Along the way, some of us get romantically entangled into the ‘Marxist-communist-Naxal’ mindset with leanings towards everything as long as it is Anti-this & that. This pretty much is the distribution of our thought process & mindset.

Carefully curated, combed & cultivated, the educated Indians then join the tribe of ‘Global Citizens’. Very few, who are either exposed to or choose to study the Indic (Swadeshi) thought, are generally considered as old-fashioned & orthodox. Let us explore this further.

Panchayat, the web-series that is currently breaking records and pushing the boundaries, is being liked by one and all, across age and genres. Why? Because - somewhere deep down, the audience connects with Bharat. This serene ‘Bharatiya’ connectivity exposes the under-belly of the unfortunate ‘disconnect’ that each one of us have been shown a mirror to. It takes some serious work and admirable creative sensibilities displayed by the Panchayat Team, that has beutifully brought this Bhartiya connectivity to the forefront.

It can not be a sheer coincidence, and the more we go about finding our own path by independent readings it becomes amply clear, that it is purely by deep design that everything even distantly related to primarily ‘Indic’ is strategically kept away from us and our education system, until our young impressionable minds are ‘Fixed’. In short, Indic is considered 'out of syllabus' in our modern education system.

Let us begin with history, since it establishes our core Identity. It is amply clear that we all were raised with the Nehruvian-Marxist version of our own History. No wonder, till today, we largely remain ignorant and unmindful of the fact that there are brilliant ‘Indic’ (read Desi) Historians & scholars who have left behind a scintillating body of work, based purely on Primary sources of Epigraphic & Literary evidence; without any bias or political leanings. Some of these brilliant scholars that need honourable mention here are: Sita Ram Goel, Ram Swarup, R C Majumdar, Sir Jadu-Nath Sarkar, Nilakantha Shastri etc.

SUPPRESSIO VERI. SUGGESTIO FALSI
(Concealment of Truth. Statement of Falsehood.)

The celebrity (read ‘Darbari’) historians who made careers out of their shoddy & mediocre Marxist work are well known in the elite academia, routinely seen on TV, text-book chapters and magazine coves; are largely responsible for twisting and corrupting our History. How do we otherwise explain the phenomenal research & study done by Indic Historians that was never ever formally brought about in public domain by the concerned authorities from Education, Culture & History. On the contrary, the work of these Indic scholars was brutally pushed aside & suppressed into anonymity. And, we are not talking about party-politics here. All political parties, national & regional, BJP & INC, are equally responsible for keeping our real history away from us.

Next up, we explore the handling of the most important subject of Humanity: Economics.

Economics is a science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.

~ Lionel Robbins 1935 (English Economist)

It is time we demolish the various imported ‘ism’s that actually limit our imagination & understanding of the subject with respect to India. Tracing the sequence of major global events we have witnessed during last five years, we can safely conclude the expired shelf-life of these primarily western ‘Ism’s as follows:

Colonialism: 150 years, Capitalism: 75 Years, Communism: 50 years, Globalisation: 25 Years, Socialism is nothing but a reaction to Capitalism and co-exists with it.

So what next? Let us try to look in our own backyard, for references & directions.

During the nineteenth & twentieth century, the leading lights in Indic philosophy such as Swami Vivekanand, Lok Manya Tilak (Geeta Rahasya), Mahatma Gandhi (Hind Swaraj) brilliantly explored our fundamental conflict with the Western thought. Economics, as a subject of Science that studies Human Behaviour, is largely derived from philosophy. It was only around 1964 that Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay took this work forward & actually presented a Socio-Economic solution for Bharat, purely based on Indic thought, value-system & philosophy and named it as: Integral Humanism. This is a very detailed & extensive roadmap towards building a robust Socio-Economic model, which needs to be discussed at length in another post.

Integral Humanism, as proposed by Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay, is designed specifically for India, with two major inputs drawn from our ancient Indic Philosophy of 'completeness of life' -

i) Four Purushartha - Artha (wealth), Dharma (duty), Kama (desire) & Moksha (salvation)

ii) Individual & Society are inter-dependent and can not be separated from each other.

Western thought, on the contrary, deals only with two of the four Purushartha (Arth & Kama) and is based on 'Individual' rather than 'Family' system. Therefore, all our attempts at practicing imported 'isms' have not been really successful in India – none of them have addressed the Bhartiya concept of 'Completeness of Life'.

We therefore need to bring back our 'History' and 'Humanities' into our academics, to be able to find the Indic'ism that suits us best, as a Society & Country.

***

Why are we so obsessed with GDP?

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 05:24:00 +0000

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men

~ George Orwell

Reading habits are now limited to Pictorials & Meme shared over WhatsApp & Social Media. The daily dose of Newspaper headlines are remotely connected to the reality. Evening prime-time is spent on 'Newstainment' - the cacophony of futile & vile debates. New-age, so-called 'fact-checkers' are mostly 'Google Warriors' with hidden Agenda.

Facts & Data gets buried somewhere deep under all this rubble, crying for time & attention.

Two things happened last week to trigger a national rhetoric:

RBI released its Annual Report stating 99% of demonetised notes came back
GDP growth slows to 5.7% in April-June 2017 Quarter

Both have turned out to be highly emotive issues for India - for those who understand it and even for those who don't. Emotion, connects India.

'Designer Journalists' got busy drafting lengthy editorials, slanted, biased & twisted.
'Eminent-Economists' started practicing social-engineering once again.
Both started weaving a pre-conceived narrative as follows -

Narrative # 1: DeMo was an utter failure
Narrative # 2: GDP growth for Q1FY1718 dropped to the lowest in 3 years and hence the economy is badly hurt due to DeMo.

Let us now try to apply some simple common sense to the facts & data with respect to DeMo & GDP, as available in public domain.

And, we shall soon arrive at some clarity.

***

First, the bigger demon of the two - DeMonetisation (DeMo).

As soon as RBI came out with the Data, within minutes a section of eminent-economists concluded that since 99% of the demonetised currency came back to the Treasury, DeMo has utterly failed in its objective of brining Black Money.

We had discussed DeMo earlier in March 2017 on THEY Demonized Demonetisation - We had discussed in detail the several objectives of Demonetisation then and also the 'Creative' myths the media & opposition tried to invent around it.

The notification issued by Ministry of Finance dated 30th August titled 'Demonetization immensely beneficial to Indian Economy and People' clearly states 'Several Objectives' as follows:

The Government of India decided to cancel the Legal Tender Status of Rs.1000 and Rs.500 denomination currency notes on 8th November 2016 with several objectives: (i) flushing out black money, (ii) eliminate Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN), (iii) to strike at the root of financing of terrorism and left wing extremism, (iv) to convert non-formal economy into a formal economy to expand tax base and employment and (v) to give a big boost to digitalization of payments to make India a less cash economy.

The notification concludes with a comment:

Some people had expected a very large shock to economic growth on account of demonetization. Their expectations have been belied.

***

All the noise & chatter terming DeMo as a failure is based on the flawed presumption that DeMo was a single-Objective exercise for Black Money. The fact is there are multiple objectives to DeMo. A series of actions triggered as a follow-up to DeMo, need to be factored & assessed before quickly jumping to conclude the failure of DeMo, or otherwise.

BLACK MONEY: Those who are very emotional about Black Money may like to know these facts:

2.90 Lakh Crore worth of cash deposited during DeMo is under investigation for tax-evasion (effectively Black Money since outside the banking system)
29,000 Crores worth of Undisclosed income (again, Black Money) was brought into the banking system under IDS, prior to DeMo.
De-Legalised currency notes NOT deposited amounts to 16,000 Crores (Black Money).

So, from a common man's perspective, the government has indeed effectively flushed out Black Money to the extent of 3.35 Lakh Crores.

***

Follow-up actions post-DeMo.

The aggressively funded, SEO & HashTag energised web-mags, that invade the privacy of our digital lives every single hour via Facebook and Twitter, will never bring these facts to light.

On 31st January 2017, Income Tax Department (ITD) launches Operation Clean Money quotes PIB notification, Ministry of Finance (Emphasis mine):

Income Tax Department (ITD) has initiated Operation Clean Money, today. Initial phase of the operation involves e-verification of large cash deposits made during 9th November to 30th December 2016. Data analytics has been used for comparing the demonetisation data with information in ITD databases. In the first batch, around 18 lakh persons have been identified in whose case, cash transactions do not appear to be in line with the tax payer's profile.

Under the first phase of 'Operation Clean Money', the tax department had sent communications to 17.92 lakh people who had made suspicious deposits of Rs 5 lakh and above between November 10 and December 30.

Next up: Operation Clean Money II - Portal ( https://www.cleanmoney.gov.in ) was formally launched on 16-May-2017.

The salient features of the Operation Clean Money Portal launched are:

Providing comprehensive information at one place.
Enabling Citizen Engagement for creating a tax compliant society.
Enabling Transparent Tax Administration.

(Source- PIB Press Release Dated -17.05.2017)

***

Result:

***

Now, over to GDP.

India's GDP growth slows to 5.7% in April-June 2017 quarter

Let us go beyond these headlines, read the fine print, apply basic common sense to it and get some clarity.

The GOOD:

The economic activities which registered growth of over 7% in Q1 of 2017-18 over Q1 of 2016-17 are 'trade, hotels, transport & communication and services related to broadcasting', 'public administration, defence and other services' and 'electricity, gas, water supply & other utility services'.

The BAD:

The growth in the 'agriculture, forestry and fishing', 'mining and quarrying', 'manufacturing', 'construction' and financial, insurance, real estate and professional services is estimated to be 2.3%, (-) 0.7%, 1.2%, 2.0% and 6.4% respectively during this period.

The UGLY:

Sectors that primarily have been driven and grown over Black Money during the last 10 years have taken a big hit this Quarter:

Mining: (-) 0.7 %
Construction: 2 % , as against 11 % last 5 years.

To further support this claim, findings of Ambit Capital Research in June last year throw some important outcomes:

Research suggests that more than 30% of India's real estate sector is funded by black money
Rs 30 lakh crore (or 20 per cent of the GDP) constitutes India's 'black economy'.

(PDF File of this report can be found here)

***

Now connect the dots with this fantastic data shared in highly erudite article where Shri S Gurumurthy argues in favour of De-mon huge, successful course-correction : (emphasis mine)

A huge crisis averted: Asset prices in India rose by ten times in those six years (2004-2010) as compared to the earlier five years (1999-2004); stocks by 311 per cent against 32 per cent in the earlier five years; gold by 320 per cent against 38 per cent; and land by 200-2,000 per cent, in different places, against 21 per cent.

Asset prices in India rose by ten times in those six years (2004-2010)

It is self-evident that when a huge volume of cash is withdrawn from the economy, growth will suffer. But what was implicit in de-mon itself became the charge against it. But this bitter pill was inevitable to course-correct the economy.

What it really means about 'Asset Prices' and very easy to understand is this:

6 Years under UPA I & II (2004-2010): Stocks @ 311 % | Gold @ 320 % | Land @ 200~2000 %
5 Years under NDA I (1999-2004): Stocks @ 32 % | Gold @ 38 % | Land @ 21 %

Further, he goes on to bring yet another very important data to light is the Growth in Affordable Housing @ 28% post-DeMo: (emphasis mine)

Liases Foras also pointed out that residential sales across the top eight cities of India had increased, taking the total growth to around 28 per cent post de-mon.

The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) said: “This will help in construction of more affordable houses and achieve the Housing For All objective by 2022.”

This basically means that 'lower income group' that put their hard earned money into Residential purchase have actually grown @ 28% post-DeMo.

***

Designer Journalists are a 'limited edition' breed as far as their understanding of anything remotely connected to economics goes. No, the 'Eminent Economists' will never tell this part of the story.
This is what we call as building a 'Narrative'.

Lib-Tards and their sense of Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:32:00 +0000

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.

~ Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807

Elections are the best time to review Political Quotient of LibTards (Liberal Retards). Through this post, we shall discuss and review some 'pearls of wisdom' of these self-styled political pundits and try to assess their understanding (or lack of it) of the very complex subject of Politics.

There are two types of Lib-tards:

a) Those who read & share intellectual stuff on Politics, the Followers &

b) Those who Write, Speak and Post intellectual stuff on Politics.

***

First, the reader-class LibTards, remember this blog talked about it some time back on the role of ‘Useful Idiots’ ? I would rather replug the link here for the benefit of new readers and save time for the rest. Enjoy it here:

Understanding Indian Sickular Intellectual

These are basically rootless-wonders, lost in the World-Wide-Web, Western-education system and Virtual Existence. They consider themselves as Global Citizens. They have taken upon themselves the huge task of solving all the problems of the World. They don’t believe in National Boundaries as that is so old-fashioned Nationalist mindset. Never mind the recent global events such as BREXIT, TRUMP, SCOTLAND-Referendum, CATALUNIA, and soon to be FREXIT etc.; all of which clearly indicate the contrary. But then these events are loosely labeled as Uneducated & Illiterate mandate of the 'unwashed masses' towards Nationalism.

These are the people who would spend hours decorating their Social-Network profiles at ’LinkedIn’ as an Identity, but they feel shy of identifying themselves when it comes to finding their own roots & identity in the real world of Nation-States.

***

Now the interesting part as we review the Libtard Comedians of our society.

Sample these 'Expert Comments' from political observers. When I say 'Political Observers' , it is not a satire and I actually mean it - they are full-time political observers and are considered ‘experts’ in the field due to the ‘extraordinary’ body of work they have displayed in public domain.

***

27/1/2017: (emphasis mine)

As I predicted, by mid-February, the poor across India would have realised that Modi is a big fool. Elections held after that date will become very difficult for BJP. UP elections are being held on the cusp of this period - I expect BJP to do tolerably well up to Phase 3 and worse in the later phases.

These comments (and yes, I call it ‘pearls of wisdom’) evolve after deep thinking and understanding the oceanic depth of an article published in The New York Times, are inserted as source of wisdom on the upcoming elections of the most politically-arrived state of UP - a ‘very rough & complex terrain’ of the Hindi Heartland.

In Its Third Month, India’s Cash Shortage Begins to Bite

The article goes on-and-on like a rant, quoting sob-stories of the unwashed masses as to how badly they are affected by Demonetisation.

The ‘Libtards’ grab these stories, rush back to the virtual world of Social Network and start dropping these 'pearls'.

Sadly for these libtards, the same unwashed masses, for whom they bled so profusely for months, finally decided to go all out and fully support Demonetisation, as is evident from the UP Election results. Read more about the Demonetisation story here:

THEY Demonized Demonetisation

***

Now we move over from UP to Panjab.

28/1/2017: (emphasis mine)

If I am getting it right, BJP-Akali is likely to loose Punjab paving way to a fight just between Congress and AAP. Capt. Amrender remains the only hope for Congress though.....and guess what, the laughter king Siddhu has made a big joke of himself, he is likely to be shoed away by his own constituency electorate!

Key take-aways:

fight just between Congress and AAP

laughter king Siddhu has made a big joke of himself

AAP was nowhere to be seen in Panjab as per the election results.
As for 'laughter king' Siddhu, not a fan at all, but having won the seat on Congress ticket, it clearly shows as to who made a joke of himself - Siddhu or the commentator.

One more point that we must clearly understand here is that these libtards have very scant regard for the elected candidates, only contempt. So much for the rule of Democracy that they claim to be trying to save.

Remember, never take those seriously who claim to hold the placard of 'democracy' but never respect the verdict of public mandate.

***

Oh wait, there is one more on UP, and could not resist inserting this -

7/2/2017: (emphasis mine)

I had predicted that by mid-February, the ravages of demonetisation would haunt Modi. This is a first hand report from UP. While it may well be biased, my objective analysis and past experience of voter behaviour suggests this is true. Voters take some time to wake up, but then they do.
BJP will be wiped out in all state elections currently underway.

Notice the 'smart' key-words inserted to play there, and how:

ravages of demonetisation
first hand report from UP
objective analysis
past experience

All of the above failed miserably !

***

This post will not be complete without inserting priceless inputs of none other than the 'Mother of All Exit-Polls' and the 'Doyen of Psephologits' : Mr. Pronnoy Roy of NDTV (Nehru Dynasty TV) - one of the most corrupt media houses in independent India. Currently under investigation for serious money-laundering charges to the tune of US$ 150 Million. Also facing income-tax recovery of Rs. 525 Crores for concealing this illegal transaction.

AAP Has Max Chance Of Winning Punjab: Prannoy Roy's Analysis

All India | Posted by Veer Arjun Singh | Updated: February 05, 2017 10:27 IST

Punjab elections 2017: Special analysis of the key assembly polls in Punjab.

Join Dr Prannoy Roy, Dorab Sopariwala and Shekhar Gupta as they identify and analyse the issues and mood of the voters from Punjab.

I call them - “The UnHoly-Trinity”. They are found practicing Psephology just about everywhere - on the rocks, in a park, on the streets; they spend more time on research to find the most bizarre locations to add to the authenticity of the 'manufactured' ground-report.

Here goes the intellectual conversation: (emphasis mine)

Prannoy Roy: So we went on a trip across the state. Now we are in one the 'predictor constituencies' Bassi Pathana which seem to always pick the winner. So here is our forecast after speaking to hundreds of people.

Our first forecast said Congress had best chance now we say AAP has 55-60% chance of winning. Our first estimates were based on studying opinion polls but now we have gone around the state and spoken to more people and based on these inputs this is what we conclude.

Dorab Sopariwala: For the first time, I saw signs of despair in Punjab. Many people are voting for AAP are saying, "What do we have to lose?"

Shekhar Gupta: For many people, voting for AAP is a gamble. They are willing to take a risk

Prannoy Roy: People seem to trust Kejriwal. A party without a leader has come so ahead

Shekhar Gupta: AAP has gone beyond the identity. People don't care who is the party chief or who will be the chief minister they are voting for issues.

Dorab Sopariwala: It isn't just a support for AAP. It's a frenzy.

Prannoy Roy: Going by the trends, there seems to be a victory for AAP. The question is will it be a landslide.

So you see the big picture now? AAP victory was already sealed. The brief was 'loud and clear' - AAP and nothing else. It is not a joke - this is the most toxic and corrupt 'paid-media' trinity at work for AAP - the party that was built ground up, only to cleanse the corrupt system. It is another matter all together that they are not even willing to declare contributions now; moreover diverting & routing Delhi tax-payers funds towards election-funding and buying the corrupt Mainstream Media.

***

Then there is another tribe of 'Barkha Dutt' and her corrupt Team, that also fuels the wisdom and political understanding of the league of extraordinary Libtards and ‘useful-idiots’.
Will come back to discuss them in another post some other day.

THEY Demonized Demonetisation

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 08:17:00 +0000

Reflecting back on an unprecedented event that would assume 'historical' importance globally - 8th November 2016 will be remembered as the Day of Demonetisation.

One good thing 'Demonetisation-Day' of 8th November did to India was spectacular in that the whole Nation arrived on the same page - that of the POOR.

As usual, tribe of Politicians remained most concerned for the poor. High decibel noises were heard from the seats of Designer Journalists, Intellectuals, Communists, Faketivists, English-speaking-urban-middle-class, Key-Board warriors etc. Everyone suddenly got very ‘concerned’ about the ‘Poor’ and ‘Rural’ India. The protagonist of Demonetisation turns out to be the Poor & Rural India, and rightly so, as we will conclude shortly.

Irony just died a painful death when the Poor Indians themselves came out in very large numbers to support Demonetisation (DeMo), even if they had to stand in long winding queues and wait for long hours just to exchange currency notes. Nothing but absolute public support can explain & justify the fact that not one single riot or violence-related incident was reported during the 50-Days of note-ban window, even though some of the designer-journalists & politicians tried their very best to trigger one.

***

Before we go further, let us first get the misplaced perceptions sorted out as far as the basic objectives of Demonetisation is concerned. Demonetisation was introduced to:

Control excessive hoarding of HDN (High Denomination Notes) - in short, this is Black Money - people who hoard such unaccounted cash include Politicians, Unethical Traders & Businessmen, Bollywood Celebrities, Corrupt Journalists & Media Houses, Gold & Real Estate industry etc.
Bring idle-Cash into then system to fund Nation Building Infra-projects.
Control free-flow of CN (Counterfeit Notes) that were being systematically pushed into the system to fund Anti-India activities such as Terrorism and Naxalite activities.
Control anti-National illicit & Tax-Evaded Funding for Naxal, Terror & Corrupt Politicians
Finally, Funding the Unfunded.

Those who genuinely care for the decaying Infrastructure, Corruption across all levels & improving the living conditions of BoP (Bottom of Pyramid) may like to judge themselves from all above points if DeMo was indeed good for the Nation, given the short-term difficulties & inconvenience.

Anything else that the 'Eminent Economists' and 'Designer Journalists' would like us to believe is Polemics.

***

Once again, follow the simple rule of Chanakya:

“If there is unrest among intellectuals & criminals, assume that King is doing right”.

Here are some of the most creative myths and rumours planted by those badly bruised and aggrieved by Demonetisation. These gems were invented and floated within weeks after DeMo and pushed into the public domain via corrupt TV & Print media, Social-Network and even WhatsApp:

RBI Governor Urjit Patel is Brother-in-Law of Mukesh Ambani.
Stock up goods as Transporters will go on strike.
Fake currency of new notes already landed in the market.
The new note of Rs. 2000 has a Nano Chip
People looted Shopping Mall as they ran out of Cash.
Salt being sold at very high prices
Cash deposited in Banks will attract 200% Tax Penalty
BJP Politicians already had received new notes of Rs. 2000 denomination
Violence reported outside Banks & ATM due to long queues
Deaths were reported due to inconvenience and lack of cash availability
Pictures of long queues projected to be at the banks for changing currency
Fingers to be Inked even for cash withdrawal.
New notes of Rs. 2000 are bleeding
700 Points fall at Sensex
Gandhi Ji pic is deleted and not being used anymore on the new notes
RBI staff plans mass leave in protest against Demonetisation

These two below are the most creative of all, absolute Classics:

Modi wants to appear on the Cover Page of Time Magazine.
Modi wants to repay Loans to World Bank so he is collecting money from Indians.

I sincerely wish everyone would have heard these words loud and clear, coming from none other than a Youth Congress leader, that sums up a really nice response, (Via Dr. Praveen Patil)

"Yeh Modi kissi ka bhi saga nahi hai, desh ke liye kuch bhi kar sakta hai"

***

Now, over to some truth & facts:

Demonetisation leads to highest ever surrender of Maoists in a month

HIGHLIGHTS

469 Maoists and their sympathizers have surrendered since the demonetisation announcement
Maoists' ability to procure firearms, ammunition, medicines, commodities of daily use and pay cash to cadres badly hit
Developmental policies in affected areas also serving as an incentive to surrender

Demonetisation: Are the poor really suffering?

Politicians advocating the difficulties faced by the poor are being disingenuous in pushing their claims for political gains.
Both proponents and opponents are ostensibly defending the interests of the poor.

21 lakh tea, jute workers set to join banking system

Demonetisation has come as a blessing in disguise for nearly 21 lakh tea and jute mill workers in Assam, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
Their wages will now be credited to their bank instead of being paid in cash.

Demonetisation saved Goa from paid news

If paid news powered the 2012 elections, this time parties and candidates turned to social media. With cash in short supply campaigning went online,

MUDRA - Funding the Unfunded

Pradhan Mantri MUDRA

(Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Yojana

26 Crore Jan-Dhan Yojana accounts apart, the biggest ever achievement of Modi Government is the MUDRA Yojna, that has so far disbursed more than 2.5 Lakh Crores to 5.6 Crore individuals.

This is the real story that needs to be shared and talked about.

If your heart bleeds for the ‘Poor’ and you are concerned about the ’Social’ issues, you may find cheer in this DeMo story, but only when you distance yourself from the misleading noise and chatter of the Leftist & Distortionist views of Designer Journalists & Eminent Economists.

***

Now, coming to the Politics of DeMo.

NaMo has proved to be the MOST disruptive leader of 21st Century - no world leader worth the salt would dare taking this risk of losing the entire constituency and vote-bank by a decision of such magnitude as DeMo.

I would like to replug one of the old posts of Oct' 2013 from this Blog: Decoding NaMo : From a Classical Liberal perspective where I have discussed the Classical Liberal streaks of Narendra Modi, much before his arrival at PMO. Do read and it will connect the dots.

“Government should have only one religion: India First,

Government should have only one holy book: The Constitution”

~ Shri Narendra Modi

Mainstream Media indeed played a very dirty yet a big role during the DeMo window - just like #USElections, where 55 Media Houses openly supported Mrs. Hillary Clinton. Newsweek even went to the extent that it printed 125,000 copies of 'Madam President' cover page of Hillary Clinton.

***

Sharing here a very informative interview of Shri S. Gurumurthy, from DD News archives that most of the 9 PM prime-time audience of English News would have missed.

War on Black Money : An Interview with S.Gurumurthy (Economist)

***

It is not factually correct to say that PM Modi did not prepare well for DeMo.

The preparations were kicked in right from the time he occupied the PMO in May 2014.

Opening of Zero balance Jan-Dhan Yojana accounts, Aadhaar UID Registration drive and linking of the two over the next two years was basically to ensure:

a) Financial inclusion for the BoP (Bottom of Pyramid) population and

b) Implementing Direct Cash Transfer for the various Social Welfare schemes.

Moreover, during the last one year, aggressive drive towards IDS, even by extending the last date, followed by serious warnings to declare unaccounted cash & income were all very much part of the preparations for the larger game-plan that concluded with DeMo.

***

And finally, for those who always need a stamp of approval from the West:

World Bank CEO lauds PM Modi’s demonetisation move, says “What India has done will be studied by other countries”

World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday lauded PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation move.

“PM Modi’s decision to ban high-value banknotes as part of efforts to stamp out corruption will have a profound and positive impact on India’s economy,” she told Hindustan Times. “What India has done will be studied (by other countries). There hasn’t been such demonetisation in a country so big,” she further told HT.

Meanwhile, On Tuesday, the government pegged GDP growth at a higher-than-expected 7.1% for the current fiscal despite note ban with agriculture sector doing exceptionally well, helping India retain the tag of world’s fastest growing major economy.

Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, chief executive officer of the World Bank, in an interview with Hindustan Times in New Delhi, on March 1, 2017.

Demonetisation will have positive impact on Indian economy, says World Bank CEO

“While demonetisation has, in the short term, created some impact on businesses dependent on cash, in the long term the impact will be positive… The reforms India is targeting are profound.”

“India is the bright spot in today’s global economy and it is visible in the country’s performance and more so in the aspirations of the people here,” she said.

***

In the final analysis, crux of the matter is beautifully hidden in these lines below:

मोदी ने तैयारी नहीं की, ये आलोचना का विषय है ..

और

मोदी ने तैयारी करने नहीं दी, ये सारी समस्या की जड़ है ... !

'Coconut' Class of Sixty-Nine

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:06:00 +0000

Narendra Modi (NaMo) has brought upon a very strange situation and a dilemma to the vast and diverse fabric of Indian Voter. Firstly, he split the Indian Voter into two - with 31% in favour, who actually voted for him to be the PM, against the rest 69%. Secondly, just to maintain 'anti-Modi' position and keep this vote-bank intact, torch-bearers of these 69% have even started justifying 'anti-India' causes and activities.

31% are the early Bhakts (supporters / followers of NaMo) - term used with derogatory connotation by the Indian Sickular Intellectuals (ISI) . A very large part of 69% who voted against NaMo are actually innocent well-meaning voters, who simply got misled by anti-Modi narrative; an agenda aggressively pushed into the drawing-rooms and on coffee-tables, by the unholy nexus of Toxic & Corrupt Mainstream Media (paid by the Congress), Corrupt & anti-National NGOs-turned-Activists-turned-Politicians; promoted by the politically aspirational ‘Mullah-Marxist-Missionary’ advocacy-groups working on the ground. These groups & organisations are heavily funded to oil-up the anti-Modi machinery across India, by the international organisations whose main objective is only to disturb the socio-political fabric and create unrest across the globe. This is done under the garb of protecting revolutionary ideas such as Democratic Rights, Human Rights, Animal Rights, Climate Change, Environment & Pollution Control, Civil Rights, Religious Freedom etc. This is a full blown industry by itself and a hugely rewarding one at that. This story is discussed in great detail on this blog under earlier posts from 2014 titled: AAP – Theatre of the absurd: a congregation of NGOs, Activists & Bored CEOs and India NGOnized

We basically have been a very curious nation, always willing to experiment & adapt, with a ‘slave’ mindset - a perfect marketplace for the 'soft' industry of Faith, Culture, Activism & even Ideology. Therefore such imports from the West are easily consumed here, perceived to be more authentic, advanced & superior, as compared to the Desi stuff. Young aspirational Indian population, subjected to western education, remained blissfully ignorant of its own traditions, culture & history, started believing in everything Western: Ideology (Political-Economic-Business-Management), Food, Music, Education, Language, Media, Fashion, Lifestyle & even Culture.

'Coconut' Nation

Ten years under Sonia Gandhi led UPA-1 & UPA-2 regime (2004~2014), brilliantly chronicled by MRVenkatesh as ‘A Decade of Decay’, was the worst ever period of independent India. During these years, India totally turned into a ‘Coconut’ Nation. While the exterior always remained the racial Brown no matter what, the soul of India slowly converted from the rustic earthy natural shades of Brown to a Uniform White, as in Gora. We have discussed Globalisation in an earlier post in great detail but in Hindi: भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) और उसके तत्व ...

***

So during May 2014 LS elections, a large part of 69% anti-Modi Voter came from this ‘Coconut class’ - who obviously voted against NaMo.

Things started rolling from the day NaMo, the Desi Unwashed Outsider, arrived at Lutyens Delhi as Prime Minister, bowed & touched the steps of the Parliament. No Indian politician had ever shown this kind of reverence for the temple of democracy.

Pradhan Sevak (as NaMo likes to call himself) finally assumed office and started functioning.

Narendra Modi bows down, touches the steps of Parliament

Last thirty months witnessed a roller-coaster ride as far as NaMo was concerned. Media was judging NaMo & his actions by the hour, 24x7 & LIVE - calling him Names, cracking jokes on him, spreading lies, sharing distorted quotes & versions, ridiculing his speeches & mannerisms etc.; Basically entertaining the 69% of confused ‘Coconut’ constituent.

Massive work done by NaMo & his Team at NDA-II during the first two years finally started to speak for itself and has helped change the direction of narrative. The size of 69% has since started shrinking, slowly but gradually. A fairly large part of this class is unable to openly support the Prime Minister, even if they actually want to. They are cases of ‘glass-half-full’: uncertain, afraid, stumped and dazed. The reasons for their apprehensions in openly supporting NaMo and the factors affecting this restraint can be broadly assigned to some of these:

Intellectualism
Industry-Lobby network
Social Network
Political Ideology / Affiliation

These are some of the key factors & limitations for the ‘Coconut’ class not being able to openly come out in support of NaMo just yet. NaMo was aware of the fact that he can win over support of the Coconut-Class at home only after he has established himself as a World Leader globally.

Sad, but true!

Once the Ivy-League universities & Western media start appreciating the work done by Modi Govt, surely more and more of the 69% will cross over - that alone would provide them much needed legitimacy & justify their coming out with it. The way things are moving, that should happen real soon and we shall see a lot of broken coconuts around.

***

Lastly, this is how NaMo responds in one of his speeches in Rajya Sabha early this year:

"Safar mein dhoop to hogi jo chal sako to chalo,

Sabhi hain bheed mein.... tum bhi nikal sako to chalo,

Kisi ke vaasate raahein kahaan badalati hain,

Tum apne aap ko khud hi badal sako to chalo,

Yahaan kisi ko koi raasta nahin deta,

Mujhe giraake agar tum sambhal sako to chalo."

***

Review of UDTA PUNJAB

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 11:38:00 +0000

Reams of paper, Tons of ink, hundreds of megabytes were spent discussing Udta Punjab, thanks to controversy surrounding the ‘Cuts’ as desired by CBFC before granting certification.

Most of the articles were pushed around by people who actually had not even watched the film and then the usual ‘Sheep’ started sharing those stories after adding their unsolicited comments and opinions.

Then came a tsunami of reviews, almost hours after release of the movie, as if some of them were hitting their key-boards while watching. Now that is sheer ’Need for Speed’ in this digital world of ‘realtime’ news. SPEED is the new Mantra and has gained lot more importance than the CONTENT. Gone are the days when “Content is King” used to rule the digital world. 'Need for Speed’ has completely consumed the concept of quality content.

Having watched the film, I can say this with conviction that most of the reviews that I read were completely misplaced. Some reviewers could not even delve deeper into the subject and hence failed to understand & pick nuances of this brilliant film.

Let us now talk about the Film, without getting into mundane & boring issues like the storyline, the plot, the cast, credits and other trivia. For all of this, my loud and clear verdict is:

Go, Watch! You will never regret.

The very first question one would ask after watching the film: what was the problem with CBFC granting Certification? I could not think of even one, and I repeat, even one scene sequence or a dialogue that needed to be censored. Everything fits in so beautifully and perfectly into storyline and the narrative. Thirteen changes and '89 Cuts' in the film as directed by the Revising Committee of CBFC were unwarranted and uncalled for. Total respect to the Judiciary once again.

Clearly, Bombay High Court judges understood the film much better than CBFC.

Udta Punjab is brutally honest in holding mirror to the society. WYSWYG: 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' in the film. Be it the language, vices, corruption, drugs, mafia, police, music, entertainment, politician, exploitation of women, and everything else; as close to the reality as it can possibly be shown in a film.

In spite of this huge opportunity at complete discretion of the director to include 'sex & violence' to the fullest in a film dealing with Noir genre covering Drugs, there is almost NONE. Compared to every silly and stupid film that comes pre-loaded with this package, always in the name of 'creativity', this one is rather CLEAN.

Punjabi Expletives, cuss words and crass language could be the only 'embarrassment' to the newly arrived urban elite, who otherwise may have no problems with the same filth dished out in English. This is original stuff in Punjabi, without any inhibitions. And yet, this is nowhere even close to the daily dose of nasty embarrassment through item-songs, adult-content, double-meaning comedy that we face, again, all in the guise of "creativity".

The director, Abhishek Chaubey is not new to this genre and has some excellent body of work under his belt - Omkara , Ishqiya , Dedh Ishqiya to name a few.

In terms of performances, let me first say this to the people who make jokes on Alia Bhatt : The joke is on you, guys! She is absolutely scintillating in this 'no-make-up' Dehati Girl role. For a Bollywood celebrity daughter, coming from upmarket South Mumbai, dialogue delivery with the accent and diction of Desi mixed with Bihari is awesome. This is second in a row, after the last release Kapoor & Sons - with yet another brilliant performance.

Shahid Kapoor delivers a power-packed high-octane performance - lives through the character of Tommy Singh and stays hyper and energised all through the movie, frame after frame. Complete justice to the role and character of Tommy Singh.

The review will be incomplete without mention of Diljit Dosanjh, a brilliant artist from Punjab - known as an Actor / Musician / Singer. He plays Sartaj Singh, the ASI who fights the System.

The film leaves you with some serious thoughts, basically as takeaways so beautifully woven into the script and dialogues.

Fuddu, The Loser!

The protagonist, Tommy Singh while on stage indulges in some serious talk with his cheering fans, roughly translates to something like this:

"I am no rockstar, I am just a loser. But you guys are much bigger losers than me. Because when I wrote some utter nonsense and delivered it as Music, under the influence of Drugs, you guys took it as Philosophy. You guys made me a Rockstar, a Hero at the age of 22, while I was always a loser. "

This is a real tight slap on the current crop of indi-pop overnight rock-stars, who basically copy music from retro-Bollywood in the name of 'inspiration'; and their Fans, who have no clue about what exactly they are cheering about.

Why this Kolaveri?

The film would not go down very well with Politicians and Police, as it exposes the nexus and shows their brazen complicity in crime. Without the tacit support and involvement of state actors, drug menace in Punjab would not go to the extent that it is today. That, combined with the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab, could possibly be the main reason for all the noise created and politics played prior to the release of Udta Punjab.

Drugs Di Maa Di

Zindagi Toh Sirf Apney Kandho Par Jee Jati Hai Dusron Ke Kandhe Par Toh Sirf Janazey Uthaye Jaatey Hain....

Read more at: http://inspirationalquotespics.com/shaheed-bhagat-singh-quotes-in-hindi-suvichars-thoughts/

The film does not reflect poorly or insult Sikh community or Punjab in any way. Contrary to some of the initial reports had suggested, including objections raised by CBFC. In fact, far from it.

Sartaj Singh, once a corrupt police officer who tries to fight the system after losing his brother to drugs, when questioned by his superior, replies -

"it's not about you or me, it's about Punjab".

In my opinion, that is a hugely patriotic statement and any Sikh or Punjabi or Indian would be proud to hear that a hundred times and will still get goosebumps each time.

Zindagi Toh Sirf Apney Kandho Par Jee Jati Hai,

Dusron Ke Kandhe Par Toh Sirf Janazey Uthaye Jaatey Hain. ...

~ Shaheed Bhagat Singh

Read more at: http://inspirationalquotespics.com/shaheed-bhagat-singh-quotes-in-punjabi-bhagat-singh-famous-quotes/

100,000 KMs on Tata Aria ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:23:00 +0000

100,000 KMs, stopped by to capture this while on a highway!

Before I talk about the Tata Aria and my experience of 100,000 KM journey with it, it would be necessary to go back in time and rewind to discuss how I arrived at this mean machine.

Earlier, I drove Tata Safari, about 120,000 KMs. Let us not try to look for any reasons into my fascination with Tata. To put it simple and straight - even today, I am a big fan of Tata Safari.

Moreover, with a large family of Five to drive along, it turned out to be more of a necessity than anything else. Two very significant members of our family needed fairly large space. Zara & Marshal - the wonderful lovely couple of German Shepherd. They both loved being driven around and would jump onto the boot as soon as the rear door is opened; and Zara, would refuse to come out as she wouldn't like to be left behind.

Furthermore, being a family of ‘Nature and Wildlife’ enthusiasts, any opportunity of a small get-away and we prefer to look for an off-road destination.

Zara & Marshall in Safari - both loved driving around!

Lastly, this perennial problem of bad roads that really need a vehicle with a very high ground clearance.

It was a difficult choice to find replacement to Tata Safari from the available options at that time, within a reasonable budget. Having given up on my search, I had decided to go for Tata Safari again and called the showroom to enquire about it. The sales manager got curious to know more about a customer who wants to replace Safari with another Safari; and after a brief conversation he requested me to drop by at the showroom.

I walked into the showroom one evening and this monster was parked right there. I didn’t have to spend too much time at the showroom looking around the vehicle - so decided on the test drive and that is it. I found exactly what I was looking for in this cross-over as if, almost tailor made - Tata Aria Prestige 4x2.

I have since put this machine through 100,000 Kms, across all kinds of terrains and difficult road conditions, including the foods in Chennai last November, when there were hardly any vehicles found navigating the flooded streets.

November 2015 - Floods in Chennai

Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

***

Four-wheel drive, 4×4 ("four by four"), 4WD, and AWD :

Four-wheel gears

Willys Jeep

Very briefly, I will talk about this growing rage of ‘four-wheel’ among the consumers. I had my initial driving lessons rather early in life, and that too on the hills and in jungles. Those days we used to get four-wheel system only in Willys and then Mahindra Jeep. From my past experience, having driven around all kinds of terrains & conditions, let me put it very bluntly that ‘four-wheel’ is actually not required in most of the terrains and roads open to public transport - NEVER. Unless one is actually living on coffee plantations, in the mountains or frequently visiting places like these, a normal city driver may never even use the 4-wheel feature in his lifetime.

So, these colourful, screaming and loud body-stickers of 4x4, 4WD or AWD are just plain show-offs from functionality PoV - moreover, they consume lot more fuel than a normal 4x2 transmission.

Of course, these are path-breaking developments in automobile technology that allow one to go effortlessly ‘4x4 on-the-fly’ or use ’hill-assist’ - driving around today is that much safer, easier and effortless.

***

Talking about specs of Tata Aria Prestige 4x2:

Same engine as Safari - 2.2 L VTT DiCOR, generating max 138 bhp Power and 320 NM Torque - truly a mean machine. Ground clearance of 200 mm is ideal for any road condition. Massive 4.8 Meters of length is still easy to drive around and manoeuvre, given the sharp turning radius of 5.6 meters.

The driver seat with lumber, recline and height adjustments; plus the huge windscreen provides a complete view, just like a 70mm cinemascope. I haven’t seen bigger ORVMs for a panoramic view on both sides.

View from ORVMs

If you are looking for cosmetics and luxuries, probably this is not the car you would like.

Let me however clarify that Aria is miles ahead and lot more improved from Safari, with respect to the interior cabin, design aesthetics & build quality. If driving is your real passion and you are willing to compromise on the little fringes, you would love to be at the wheel on Tata Aria. On the highways, at 140 kmph, it is a fine Sedan that moves effortlessly just like an Aria, with tyres well planted and in complete control.

Turbo-boost at 100+ kmph or 1800+ rpm onwards is just amazing and feels like an aircraft taking off.

Sathyamangalam Forest on Western Ghats

Road Behaviour & Balance: Once, driving at 120 km/h, I had to use brakes to actually stop within 20-25 meters; and my little princess sleeping on the second-row seats didn’t even realise. That is the kind of balance and road-grip expected of a real Cross-Over.

On otherwise bad roads and off-road conditions, it quietly converts into SUV - rough and rocky terrain or steep ghats is where you actually get to know the Tourqe of this cross-over beast that still screams like a Safari - ’make your own road’ !

Bandipur National Park

The longest I have been at the wheel on Tata Aria was for about 620 KMs, and it did not feel like we actually drove that much - effortless and comfortable.

Driver and passenger seat is very comfortable, including the second row. Last row seats, for which I have heard negative comments for leg space - whenever I have had people sitting on the last row seats and driven them around for 2-3 hours, it was never a problem. Honestly, I never drove long distances with last row also occupied.

Space provided inside is the first thing that hits everyone in this Car. Unfortunately, Zara & Marshal both are not around anymore - they live in our hearts and we cherish those days and fond memories of the years we spent with them as a Family and driving around.

Mileage: City driving conditions are so pathetic that they are not even worth discussing mileage on any car; but just to share the information on Tata Aria, average 8-9 km/l. On the highways, I normally get upto 13-14 km/l. The pic below was taken exactly at 100,000 km on Chennai-Bangalore highway, and when I checked the average fuel consumption, I was very pleasantly surprised - 16.7 km/l.

Fuel consumption of 16.7 km/l at 100,000 KMs

***

Not everything is positive about Tata Aria. There are several issues that should be resolved and improved - some as follows:

Firstly, the projector headlamps assembly should come fitted with HID instead of normal bulbs. Even though with excellent ‘double-barrel’ head lights, overall visibility is not all that great on highways.

Handbrake is too hard to use and hence needs to be pulled all the way up, to be actually effective.

Overall high maintenance cost. Even after timely routine checks & service, the maintenance cost continues to be a dampener. The wear and tear of Diesel engine starts to show up after about 40,000 kms.

TATAs really need to pull-up and improve upon their extremely poor ‘after-sale’ service record. I had very bad time at Tata Concorde getting my Tata Safari serviced each time. After such a terrible experience and poor service, I had already decided not to take my Aria for paid services at TATA Concorde. But, they really make it difficult for outside service centres to obtain spares promptly and in time.

Remembering these lines in a song from the film Chalo Dilli :

ये जीवन है Suffering , ये जीवन कभी सफ़र है
कभी सफ़र में Suffering , कभी Suffering में सफ़र है ...

Indian Liberals - Comrades in new Avatar ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 27 May 2016 14:49:00 +0000

There are many Liberal think-tanks, Liberal Organizations and Liberal Voices across India, who consider public policy as their core line of activity. While some of these are Libertarian voices, who simply end with the coffee-table conversations, others from Classical-Liberal and Neo-Liberal ideology groups are able to actually showcase and present their work in the public domain.

Liberals are supposed to be highly Rational and Research Oriented in their approach. They are open to new Ideas and Viewpoints. Liberals are supposed to be Rooted & Inclusive. They keep an open mind to listen and respect different Point-of-View (PoV). Putting on top of everything else is the idea of 'Freedom of Expression' (FoE) is the true virtue of a Liberal mind. Above all, they are supposed to be honest to what they actually believe in - the Liberal Ideology.

Having been mighty impressed with the rich and traditional 'Liberal' values of India’s past and political history (for example: Swami Vivekanand, Swatantra Party of Raja Ji & Minoo Masani, B. R. Shenoy etc.), I have been a member of some of these Liberal groups & forums myself.

Therefore I say this with full responsibility that as a general rule, the current breed of 'Indian Liberals' carry NONE of the above virtues, of course there are always exceptions and I respect them.

Indian Liberals are in fact everything that is exactly opposite - they are highly Toxic, abusive to the core, tend to be more Exclusive than Inclusive in their approach (they block anyone with slightest of disagreement), they carry huge load of Ego, show least respect to FoE & PoV, have an Elitist mindset with no understanding of the real India, that is Bharat.

In short, they are nothing but ’Comrades’ in a new avatar - hence I call them Liberals with a ‘Gated Mindset’.

“The liberal idea of tolerance is more and more a kind of intolerance. What it means is 'Leave me alone; don't harass me; I'm intolerant towards your over-proximity.”

~ Slavoj Žižek

I have personally witnessed the kind of Poison and Negativity some of these aggressive Liberals dish out every single day, which is mostly based on here-say, some random posts on SM or at best some questionable source from a corrupt Media. I never see their arguments, data and research-notes based on hard facts & data, sourced from 'authentic' & 'credible' sources. Even the very definition of their sources being 'authentic' is sometimes completely misguided and misplaced.

During last two years of the current NDA2 government, which is commonly known as “Modi Government”, I do not recall one single productive or constructive argument or debate coming from these so-called “Civil-Society” or “Liberal-Intelligentsia” or “Neo-Liberal” representation. The voices from these quarters have always been rather shrill and stupid - always ‘liberal’ with loose comments on Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi - for his Suit, Shawl, Mannerisms, RSS affiliation, Hand-shakes, Election Rally speeches, and if they find nothing else then they go back to ranting over 2002 Gujarat.

But none of these 'Indian Liberals' , who otherwise claim to be the masters at public policy, have ever discussed, argued or commented on the Policies adopted and implemented by NDA2 - Modi Government.

The reason for this can only be one and that is - if one has to be really honest with the analysis, will have to acknowledge the fact that things are moving on the right track. The speed and the modality of policy implementation with some polemics could always be debated, but more or less, it is established beyond doubt that NDA2 means business. With reports like Narendra Modi government’s one-year report card scores itself high, it is very difficult to drive the debate in opposite direction, substantiated with Logic and Numbers.

Now there is a catch to this - the moment any of these Liberal johneys comment in a positive way, they will immediately earn the Label of a Sanghi or Bhakt, which they cannot imagine to carry even for a moment. These labels are coined & used by the anti-Modi establishment of MSM, Left-Liberal intelligentsia, civil-society clan of mostly Commies, serving the Gandhi dynasty. Sanghi or Bhakt is considered 'negative and derogatory' - these terms are used exclusively for people who follow and support Narendra Modi.

Yes, you guessed it right - I have been called a Bhakt several times already and I have no quarrel with that.

So, coming back to the Indian Liberals, while we take a step back and critically analyze and study the performance at second anniversary milestone of NDA2 (Modi Government), the time has also come when we called their bluff and question the very existence of these Indian Liberal Think-Tanks (Oh, they so love to call themselves as one). If at all, they are totally dishonest to the Liberal ideology. Sheer contempt and utter lack of contribution of this “Gang of Liberals” to the 'Idea of India' renders them completely irrelevant and redundant in the current scenario.

Pic Credit: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/The-underage-optimist

Chetan Bhagat has a nice & easy way of putting across a difficult viewpoint and Anatomy of a ‘liberal’: Indian liberals do not offer solutions, they use the term as a class marker is surely one of those classics. I don't quite agree with all the contents of this article but can't resist sharing few lines that are actually spot on: (Emphases mine)

There is a reason why liberals are derogatorily referred to as pseudo-secular, pseudo-intellectual and pseudo-liberal. For their agenda is not to be liberal. Their agenda is to look down on the classes that don’t have the global culture advantage.

If, for instance, Modi and Amit Shah had gone to Doon School, or studied in college abroad, or at least spoke English with a refined world accent, the liberals would have been kinder to them.

We need people who have new ideas and solutions as well as a desire to be truly inclusive for all Indians. Hating Modi is not going to solve anything. Neither will looking down on the less privileged and their desires and aspirations. Instead, come up with ways in which Indian society can truly change.

If liberals and intellectuals in civil society can build consensus for reform, politicians will also act on it. If you are planning to become a liberal, be solution-oriented, truly open-minded and anti-elitist.

I must admit that I stopped taking Indian Liberals seriously after I saw their continued attack and pointless criticism of Narendra Modi, devoid of any substance and policy discussion. After two years of witnessing this comedy, I now consider them nothing more than cheap entertainment value in the chit-chat rooms of public-policy space.

Pic Credit: https://twitter.com/adarshliberal

भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) और उसके तत्व ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Mon, 09 May 2016 13:37:00 +0000

The best way to permanently enslave a people is

to replace their memories, their mythologies, their idioms

~ Sanjeev Sanyal

पिछले दो लेखों में हमने धर्मनिरपेक्षता के इतिहास और उसके भारतीय प्रसंग में सामाजिक उपयोगिता पर चर्चा की थी ।
इस लेख में हम कुछ पाश्चात्य शब्दावली के भारतीय परिवेश में राजनैतिक एवं सामाजिक उपयोग और प्रासंगिकता पर बात करेंगे । ये एक बहुत तीखी लेकिन सरल टिपण्णी होगी, जिससे शायद सबका सहमत हो पाना नामुमकिन होगा - लेकिन "असहमति पर सहमति" का पालन करते हुए हम आगे बढ़ते हैं ।

हम बात कर रहे हैं कुछ ऐसे शब्दों की जो हमारे देश में पश्चिम सभ्यता से आयात किये गए हैं और अमूमन रोज़ाना अख़बार और टीवी के माध्यम से हमें इनकी काफी बड़ी मात्र में ख़ुराक़ मिलती रही है । बहुलवाद (Plularism), सहनशीलता (Tolerance), बहुसंस्कृतिवाद (Multiculturalism) , भूमंडलीकरण (Globalization) जैसे शब्द इसी शब्दावली के अंतर्गत आते हैं , मूलतः जिनका भारतीय सभ्यता से क़रीब ५००० साल पुराना रिश्ता है ।

इन शब्दावली को समझने के लिए हमें भूमंडलीकरण (Globalization) नाम के हाथी को समझना अति-आवश्यक है ।

Globalisation ~ Elephant in the room!

भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) को हमें 'व्यापार' के दृष्टिकोण से अलग करके समझने की कोशिश करना होगा क्यूंकि व्यापार का पहलू आते ही सभी मापदंड बदल जाते हैं और 'सामाजिक और सांस्कृतिक' मतभेद छुपे रह जाते हैं । हमें उन छुपे हुए सामाजिक और सांस्कृतिक मतभेदों को अलग से समझना होगा । कुछ कुंजी-शब्द (Key Words) हैं, जिनके माध्यम से हम इन मतभेदों तक पहुँच सकते हैं, जैसे:

अद्वैतवाद (Monotheism), एक-संस्कृति (Monoculture), मानकीकरण (Standardisation), सार्वभौमिकता (Universalism), अलगाववादी (Exclusivist), भौतिकवाद (Materialism), व्यक्तिवाद (Individualism)

ये कुछ ऐसे शब्द हैं जो हमें भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) नाम के हाथी को एक अलग परिवेश में समझने में मदद करते हैं ।

भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) की ये परिभाषा हमारी नहीं है । हम तो 'विविधता में एकता' (Unity in Diversity) वाली 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' की संकल्पना में विश्वास रखते हैं ।

Diversity, not Uniformity, is the Idea of India.

भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) एक तरह से पाश्चात्य सार्वभौमिकता (Universalism) का वाहन है - एक दो छोटे मासूम उदाहरणों से इसे स्पष्ट रूप में समझने में मदद मिलेगी :

अब हमारे पप्पू, बब्लू और मुन्नी विदेश जाकर या फिर यहीं अंग्रेज़ी के दो चार बड़े-बड़े नाम की किताब पढ़ कर अपने अन्यथा बुद्धिमान माता-पिता को ये बताते हुए बेहद गर्व महसूस करते हैं कि चम्मच और छुरी किस हाथ से पकड़ते हैं और उन्हें खाने की टेबल पर कैसे सज़ा कर रखा जाता है ।

आज ये हाल है कि एक बच्चा अपनी माँ के हाथ के ताजे बने हुए गरम-गरम आलू के पकोड़े की जगह 'अंकल चिप्स' की तरफ़ ज़्यादा ध्यान देता है ।

सवाल गलत और सही का नहीं है । इस बहस में सबसे पहले हम सही और गलत ढूंढने निकल पड़ते हैं । सवाल है हमारी मूल पहचान, हमारे देश और उसके भूगोल और जलवायु के हिसाब से खान-पान और रहन-सहन का । जब हमारा खान-पान, रहन-सहन, पहनावा सब कुछ इनसे इतना भिन्न और अलग है, तो फिर हम क्यों सार्वभौमिकता (Universalism) के पीछे भेड़ के तरह चलते रहते हैं ?

Computer chips, YES! Potato chips, No!!

पाश्चात्य भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) का दूसरा उद्देश्य है पूरे विश्व और ख़ास-तौर पर 'एक सौ बीस करोड़' की जनसँख्या वाले भारत देश को 'सभ्य' (civilized) बनाना । अब सभ्यता की क्या परिभाषा होती है ये भी हमें इनसे ही सीखना पड़ेगा ? थोड़ा ४०० साल पीछे का इतिहास देखें तो असलियत ये है कि इनको चड्डी पहनना हमने सिखाया था जब सत्रहवीं शताब्दी में भारत से बहुत उच्च क्वालिटी का मलमल ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी द्वारा निर्यात हुआ करता था । उसके भी पहले का इतिहास देखें तो ये ख़ानाबदोश यूरोप-वासी अनपढ़ गँवार लोग थे जो एक दूसरे को लूट-मार कर अपना जीवन चलाते थे।

An artist's impression of Chanakya

आज से ढाई हज़ार साल पहले चाणक्य ने प्राचीन भारतीय राजनीतिक ग्रंथ के माध्यम से हमें जो ज्ञान दिया था , उसे तोड़-मरोड़ कर दो सौ साल पहले एक नए परिवेश और नए packaging में हमें पश्चिम दर्शनिकों और विचारकों ने अंग्रेजी भाषा में वापस दे दिया । और हम उसे बड़े गर्व और ग़ुरूर के साथ लेकर चलते-चलते बुद्धिजीवी कहलाने लगे । लेकिन हमने कभी अपने वेद-पुराण और चाणक्य को पढ़ने की ज़रूरत नहीं समझी और इसी कारणवश हम अपनी पारम्परिक सभ्यता और उसके अपार ज्ञान-सागर से इतने दूर चले गए की नक़ली को ही असली समझ बैठे।

चाणक्य के बाद 'मनुस्मृति' (मानव-धर्मशास्त्र) एक ऐसा ग्रंथ था जो सामाजिक-नियम-क़ानून का पूरा ढांचा दो हज़ार साल पहले तैयार कर चुका था । कर्तव्यों, अधिकारों, कानून, आचरण, गुण जैसी क्लिष्ट और विकसित अवधारणाओं पर 100,000 छंद और 1,080 अध्यायों के माध्यम से प्रवचन करने की परिकल्पना भी नहीं कर सकते थे ३०० साल पहले के यूरोप-वासी जो एक ख़ानाबदोश का जीवन जीते थे । वर्तमान कल-युग के परिवेश में मनुस्मृति जैसे ग्रन्थ पर सही या गलत की टिप्पणी करना एक बहुत बड़ी मूर्खता होगी । उसे सही और ग़लत के तराज़ू में तोलने का काम करने वाले हम लोग ही हैं , और आज के सामाजिक परिवेश में उस प्राचीन ढांचे के परिवर्तन का कार्य करना भी हमारे हाथों में है ।

भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) का तीसरा आधार कहें या श्राप - गैर-जिम्मेदार उपभोक्तावाद (Irresponsible Consumersim) या भौतिकवाद (Materialism) | इसका सीधा उदहारण हमें यूरोप की १९ वीं शताब्दी की सभ्यता, शास्त्रीय संस्कृति और परम्परा के अंतर्गत कला, संगीत और साहित्य की घटती लोकप्रियता की वर्तमान स्थिति को देख कर मिलता है । अत्यधिक व्यवसायीकरण और भौतिकवाद के कारण आज इनकी दो सौ साल पुरानी सभ्यता यूरोप में अपनी अंतिम सांसें गिन रही है ।

***

इसका ये अर्थ नहीं है कि भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) से हम अपने आपको दूर रखें या बाहर की दुनिया से बिलकुल बंद कर लें - कभी नहीं । आज के युग में इसकी कल्पना भी करना मूर्खता होगी । लेकिन इस भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) नाम के हाथी को ठीक तरह से समझ कर और उसके सभी अदृशय तत्वों का अपने सामाजिक और सांस्कृतिक पहचान पर असर न होने देने का प्रयास करते हुए हमें बहुत ही सावधानी और कुशलता के साथ आगे बढ़ना होगा ।

हमने तो वैश्विक स्तर पर व्यापार (Global Trade) करना अपने पूर्वजों से सीखा है । एक ज़माना था जब दो हज़ार साल पहले भारतवर्ष का वैश्विक वयवसाय (Global Trade) में २० % योगदान था । वैश्विक स्तर पर व्यापार करना हमारी दो हज़ार साल पुरानी पारम्परिक धरोहर है जिसे हमने खो दिया है ।

जब भी हम 'बाजार-आधारित अर्थव्यवस्था' (Market-Based Economy) की बात करते हैं , तब हम और हमारे होनहार पढ़े-लिखे अर्थशास्त्रियों को बहुत स्पष्ट रूप से इस भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) नामक हाथी के तत्वों को समझना होगा - अर्थव्यवस्था का आधार 'Market-Based' होना चाइये - समाज और सामाजिक तौर-तरीके बाजार (market-based) नहीं , धरोहर और परंपरा (Heritage & Traditions based) पर आधारित होते हैं । कुछ बुद्धि-जीवी इस सोच को दकियानूसी और पुराने विचारों का मानते होंगे परन्तु आधुनिक और उदारवादी होने का मतलब अपनी मूल जड़ों को भुला देना नहीं , बल्कि उनका एहसास और उनके पूरे ज्ञान के साथ आगे बढ़ना होता है ।

संक्षिप्त में कहें तो हम 'बाजार-आधारित' अर्थव्यवस्था (Market-Based Economy) चाहते हैं लेकिन 'बाजार-आधारित' समाज व्यवस्था (Market-Based Society) कभी नहीं ।

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हमें अपने पारम्परिक ज्ञान-सागर में उतरना होगा, उसको पढ़ना और समझना होगा। तभी हम अपने आपको इस 'नक़ली प्रकाश' रूपी अंधकार से उबार सकते हैं । तभी हम अपनी सभ्यता और संस्कृति में भरोसा रख उसपर गर्व कर सकते हैं । नहीं तो हम पढ़े लिखे लोग पश्चिन्मी सभ्यता के दास (Slave) बन कर अपनी बाक़ी बची हुई पहचान भी मिटा देंगे । इस पूरी प्रक्रिया में हम उपयोगी बेवकूफ (Useful Idiot) बन कर उनकी पहचान इस महान भारतवर्ष में स्थापित कर देंगे और यही आज की अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय रणनीति का सबसे बड़ा उद्देश्य है । ये वो लड़ाई नहीं है जो रणस्थल में रची जाती है, लेकिन उससे कहीं ज़्यादा ख़तरनाक - एक सौ बीस करोड़ की आबादी पर एक यूनिवर्सल पहचान और वर्चस्व स्थापित करने की लड़ाई है , जिसे हम और हमारे बुद्धू-जीवी समझ ही नहीं पा रहे हैं ।

शिक्षा, गरीबी, जातिवाद, आर्थिक-असमानता जैसी हमारे देश की जटिल समस्याओं को जड़ से ख़त्म करने का हल भी भारतीय सभ्यता और पारम्परिक नींव से ही निकलेगा ।

हमें सबसे पहले अपने घर (देश) और अपने लोगों को 'अपना' समझना होगा। वही हमारी अपनी असली पहचान है। जैसे भी हैं, अपने है - "एड़ा है, पर मेरा है " में भरोसा करना होगा । मेरा देश मेरी पहचान है - जैसा भी है मेरा है और इसके ज़िम्मेवार भी हम ही हैं । कोई दूसरा आकर इसे नहीं सम्हालेगा । इससे दूर भाग कर और दूसरा बसेरा बसा लेने से किसी समस्या का समाधान नहीं होगा , बल्कि हम अपनी पहचान खो चुके होंगे और फिर ना यहाँ के रहेंगे ना वहां के ।

मकान दीवारों से बनता है, घर उसमे रहने वालों से ;

देश सरहदों से बनता है, राष्ट्र उसमे रहने वालों से ;

अपने घर और राष्ट्र को दीमक से बचाएँ ।

***

सिर्फ चार मिनट का समय निकालें और ये वीडियो ध्यान से देखें और सुने । हिंदी थोड़ी क्लिष्ट है लेकिन अंग्रेजी में भी उपशीर्षक (subtitles) हैं , इसलिए समझने में आसान होगा ।

धर्मनिरपेक्ष समाज और नागरिक संहिता

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sat, 07 May 2016 09:53:00 +0000

"मज़हबी बहस मैं ने की ही नहीं

फ़ालतू अक़्ल मुझ में थी ही नहीं

~ Sujoy Biswas (Joy) on Twitter

पिछले लेख के माध्यम से हमने धर्मनिरपेक्षता और राष्ट्रवाद ... को बहुत संक्षिप्त में समझने की कोशिश की थी ।

इस लेख के जरिये हम धर्मनिरपेक्षता का सामजिक अर्थ समझने की कोशिश करेंगे ।

जैसा कि हमने पिछले लेख में जिक्र किया था , धर्मनिरपेक्षता एक बहुत ही नयी सोच है जो पिछले करीब तीन सौ साल पुरानी संकल्पना है । हम उस देश के वासी हैं जिस देश में 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' की सोच करीब ढाई हज़ार साल पुरानी है । आज पूरा देश इस समय धर्मनिरपेक्षता की बहस करता है, बिना ये जाने समझे कि इसका उपयोग कहाँ से और क्यों शुरू हुआ; और आज इस शब्द ने हमारी सामाजिक ज़िंदगी को एक नया मोड़ दे दिया है । उस मोड़ पर हम कैसे पहुंचे और वहां पहुँच कर हम धर्मनिरपेक्षता को किस रूप में समझते हैं, इसका विश्लेषण हम इस लेख में करेंगे।

पिछले साठ साल के भारतीय प्रसंग में धर्मनिरपेक्ष का मतलब रहा है: अल्पसंख्यक धर्म और संप्रदाय के लोगों को खुश रखना और इसके अंतर्गत हिन्दू धर्म और समाज पर लगातार अत्याचार और गैर-ज़िम्मेदाराना आरोपण करते रहना । धर्मनिरपेक्ष समाज के लिए लड़ते-लड़ते हमने हिन्दू धर्म पर एक ऐसी जिम्मेदारी ढोल दी, जिसके चलते हमने अपने मूल रूप से भारत-वासी होने की पहचान और उसकी जड़ो को ही काटना शुरू कर दिया । और इस नेक कार्य को पूरा करने के लिए अल्पसंख्यक धर्म के लोग नहीं, बल्कि हिन्दू धर्म के लोग कहीं ज़्यादा जोश और उत्साह के साथ जुट गए । धर्मनिरपेक्ष एक ऐसा एकतरफ़ा मार्ग हो गया , जिस पर चलते-चलते अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता (Freedom o Expression) के अंतर्गत :

१) सभी अल्पसंख्यक धर्म 'सामाजिक और कानूनन' तौर पर अपनी मन-मर्ज़ी कर सकते हैं,

२) हिन्दू धर्म के साथ गाली-गलोच करना पूर्ण रूप से जायज़ है ,

३) हिन्दू धर्म की आलोचना और अनादर करना धर्मनिरपेक्ष कहलाने का बेहतरीन उदहारण है ; और

४) कभी कोई आवाज़ उठे तो उसे साम्प्रदायिक, असहिष्णुता और 'भगवा-आतंकवाद' का नाम दे सकते हैं ।

यदि हमें धर्मनिरपेक्षता की इतनी चिंता है और अगर इसे सही परिपेक्ष में लागू करने की चाहत है, तो सबसे पहले हमें इस धर्मनिरपेक्ष समाज और कानून को धर्म के दायरे से अलग करना होगा - फिर चाहे वो अल्पसंख्यक धर्म भी क्यों न हो । इस कार्य को अंजाम देने के लिए सबसे पहले हमें आम नागरिक संहिता (Common Civil Code) लागू करना होगा - तब ही सही मायने में आप एक धर्मनिरपेक्ष राष्ट्र और समाज की परिकल्पना कर सकते हैं ।

लेकिन नहीं , जब कभी इस तरह की विकसित सोच वाले सुझाव या बहस जो हमें एक ख़ास आस्था, विचारधारा और धार्मिक प्रणाली के खिलाफ लगने लगती है, तभी हमारे धार्मिक-गुरु और धर्म के ठेकेदार उस पर विराम लगा देते हैं । तो फिर ये फर्जी-धर्मनिरपेक्षता का इतना हल्ला क्यों? इस दोहरी विचारधारा का सीधा अर्थ ये हुआ कि जो लोग धर्मनिरपेक्षता का गाना गाते हैं वो असल रूप में धर्मनिरपेक्ष समाज चाहते ही नहीं हैं, और वही लोग सबसे अधिक सांप्रदायिक भी होते हैं । ये एक तरह का बहुत बड़ा धोका और घिनौना राजनीतिक मज़ाक है इस पूरे राष्ट्र पर, जहाँ घोर साम्प्रदायिकता को धर्मनिरपेक्षता के नाम से बेचा जाता है ।

पाश्चात्य सभ्यता के परिपेक्ष से देखें तो हम उनका तीन सौ साल नया धर्मनिरपेक्ष सोच, हमारे भारतवर्ष के ढाई हज़ार साल पुराने 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' की परिकल्पना को केवल साठ साल में भूल कर, पूर्ण रूप से अवशोषित कर चुके हैं ।

हम इसको यूँ भी समझ सकते हैं कि धर्मनिरपेक्षता, तत्कालीन भारतीय परिवेश में बेहद ही साम्प्रदायिक सोच है जबकि 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' ऐतिहासिक रूप से कहीं ज़्यादा सम्मिलित , विकसित और धर्मनिरपेक्ष साबित होता है ।

इस विडम्बना को हम एक जीता-जगता उदहारण भी कह सकते हैं जो पाश्चात्य भूमंडलीकरण (Globalization) की देन है। और पाश्चात्य दृष्टिकोण का भूमंडलीकरण (Globalization) असल रूप में क्या बला है - हम अगले लेख में विस्तार से समझने की कोशिश करेंगे ।

***

फीकी है हर चुनरी, फीका हर बन्धेज..

जो रंगता हैं रूह को, वो असली रंगरेज़

The Arrogant Faketivists ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 12:08:00 +0000

An innocent tweet from Sanctuary Asia caught my attention:

Sanctuary Asia on Twitter: "If PM Modi is serious about saving #India's #tigers, he must read this by Prerna Bindra https://t.co/Ve48NBTmHR"

I went ahead and clicked the link, the headline of which I thought was in very poor taste, highly arrogant & toxic. Turned out exactly as expected. The headline was just to grab attention, get clicks & shares - it had nothing to do with contents of the article, moreover even contradictory.

If Modi is serious about saving India's tigers, he must read this

The article, supposedly written by an 'award winning' journalist and a passionate 'Wildlife Conservationist', was poor in content, completely devoid of key policy suggestions or path-breaking ideas, to help the cause of Tiger Conservation. Except quoting random cases and statistics of Tiger Casualties. There is no dearth of such data out there and a teenage intern would put out a better researched article.

Hence, the objective of a toxic and arrogant headline was clearly to get some attention & cheap publicity, just a day ahead of the event - a whopping 461 'Shares' by the time this post goes live. I am sure those 461 Shares, including Sanctuary-Asia would not have even bothered to read through the article before sharing it. They clearly suffer the common presumption: Something on Tiger Conservation is a great Cause by itself and with screaming headlines must absolutely be Shared.

About the author:

PRERNA BINDRA @prernabindraThe author is an award winning journalist, wildlife conservationist and a former member of the National Board for Wildlife. She also edits TigerLink. She lives in Gurgaon, but her heart, she says, resides in the forest.

***

Let us now analyse the Article, and try to understand the intentions of the Author.

#1 -> Quoting from article: (emphases mine)

The prime minister has asked "wildlife lovers" for their thoughts, ideas, inputs.

The author completely contradicts headlines of her article by stating that the PM himself has asked for thoughts & ideas from "wildlife lovers".

Below is the note PM actually had put out seeking thoughts and ideas on Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation.

On 12th April 2016 Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will address the Third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. This conference is a forum where India’s successful journey in tiger conservation can be showcased. Wildlife lovers from various nations will join the deliberations and think of the road ahead in tiger conservation.

You are urged to share your thoughts, ideas and inputs on the issues pertaining to tiger conservation. The Prime Minister may refer to the inputs received in his speech.

-> One is supposed to Login or Register to add comment

I am absolutely certain that the Author never bothered to Login and add her valued comments on the related thread / forum. On the contrary, such attention seeking fake activists would rather use social media platforms for personal publicity.

When the PM himself agrees to inaugurate and address the conference, seeks comments in advance from wildlife lovers, why put out a toxic headline - "If Modi is Serious"?

Exposes author's duplicity and lack on genuine interest in contributing to the cause.

#2 -> Quoting from article: (Emphases mine)

It is pertinent to note that in February and March 2007, eight lions were poached in and around the Gir National Park in Gujarat. In an unprecedented effort, the then chief minister, Narendra Modi moved the state's machinery - CID, forensics, outside experts, forest officials worked collaboratively to ensure all the guilty were arrested and convicted. Surely, the tigers - and other endangered wildlife - deserve a similar effort? Import this Gujarat model!

The author completely stands exposed here. She is trying to preach the converted.

The PM has 'been there done that' while as CM of Gujarat.

So why question his seriousness to the cause now?

#3 -> Quoting from article: (Emphases mine)

The minister for environment, forests and climate change, Prakash Javdekar was quoted as saying, "We are a poor country and must be practical."

This tribe of "journos-cum-fake-activists" also have a great quality of picking up some random bites from somewhere and use them as 'quotes' in support of their twisted arguments.

Here is the official statement of Shri Prakash Javdekar on PIB notice dated 11th April, as follows: (emphases mine)

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar, said, “We have allotted Rs.380.00 crore to the Project Tiger in the current fiscal year, which is an all-time high and indicates that the Government of India is committed to the conservation of our national animal, ‘Tiger’. Shri Javadekar said that due to the concerted efforts of the Government and other stakeholders, more than 70% of the global wild tiger population is in India. He also said that saving the Tiger means much more than ecological balance. “It is helping in combating adverse effects of climate change as well”, the Minister added.

So, there goes yet another futile attempt by Author at maligning the Minister.

Moreover, I noticed that the PIB note also says and I quote:

This conference is being co-organized by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, National Tiger Conservation Authority, Global Tiger Forum, Global Tiger Initiative Council, Wildlife Institute of India, WWF and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

***

Now why would PM even bother to read the author:

a) When she never bothered to contribute to the cause by providing comments and suggestion at the respective forum,

b) Decides to published elsewhere on a social media Opinion site; and

c) The 'who's-who' from wildlife conservation sector is already on board as co-organisers, who needs your empty noise from a random source?

Find something better and more interesting next time! Till then, Adios!!

धर्मनिरपेक्षता और राष्ट्रवाद ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 11:50:00 +0000

इस ब्लॉगपोस्ट को हिंदी में लिखने का एक मुख्य कारण ये है कि इसका सीधा सम्बन्ध हम और हमारे अपने लोगों से है । इसे आगे पढ़ने से पहले आप से एक विनती है कि इसे आप किसी धर्म, जाति, संप्रदाय या विचारधारा के संकीर्ण लेंस से ना देखें । इसे केवल एक भारतीय नागरिक की नज़र से पढ़ें , जिसका केवल हिंदुस्तान और उसके संवैधानिक नागरिक होने के अलावा और कोई परिचय नहीं है । क्यूंकि यह एक गहरा विषय है और इस पर कोई भी टिप्पणी संक्षिप्त में करना मूर्खता होगी , इसीलिए हम इसे दो भागों में समझने की कोशशि करेंगे ।

तो पहले शुरू करते हैं , ये दो चार बड़े-बड़े शब्दों को लेकर आजकल जो ज़बरदस्त बहस चल रही है : धर्मनिरपेक्षता, असहिष्णुता और राष्ट्रवाद इत्यादि ... इस बहस के मुद्दे पर कुछ विचार यहाँ साझा करने का प्रयत्न है।

***

धर्मनिरपेक्षता एक ऐसा शब्द है जिसकी संकल्पना आज शायद ही दुनिया के किसी और देश में संवैधानिक या सामाजिक रूप में देखने और सुनने को मिलेगी । ऐसा लगता है जैसे इस शब्द को अपने आप में पूर्ण रूप से लागू करने का सारा ठेका सिर्फ और सिर्फ भारतवर्ष ने ले लिया है ।

धर्मनिरपेक्षता एक बहुत बड़ा मज़ाक बन कर रह गया है, जिसके चलते विश्व के अत्यधिक रूढ़िवादी और कट्टरपंथी राज्य और समाज भी अब भारतवर्ष पर 'धर्मनिरपेक्षता' की फिरकी लेने लगे हैं । ऐसा प्रतीत होता जा रहा है जैसे आज पूरे विश्व को भारत के धर्मनिरपेक्ष बने रहने की बहुत चिंता सता रही है । कुछ उसी प्रकार से जैसे अमरीका को पूरे विश्व में जनतंत्र की क्रांति लाने का निर्विवाद ठेका मिला हुआ है ।

पिछले साठ वर्षों से धर्मनिरपेक्षता को लेकर भारत में बहुत ही घृणित राजनीती खेली गयी है और इसमें सभी राजनीतिक दल बराबरी के हिस्सेदार रहे हैं । पिछले साठ साल का इतिहास गवाह है कि धर्मनिरपेक्षता को संवैधानिक स्वीकृति देने के बावजूद किसी जाति या सम्प्रदाय का कोई भला नहीं हुआ है । धर्मनिरपेक्षता को लेकर हमारे राजनेताओं ने सिर्फ वोट बटोरे हैं और देश में एक बहुत ही चिंताजनक अलगाववादी समस्या पैदा की है । और इस परियोजना में हमारे देश का एक बहुत ही पढ़ा-लिखा और संभ्रांतवादी (elitist) लेकिन छोटा वर्ग, अत्यधिक उत्सुकता के साथ सबसे आगे खड़े होकर 'धर्मनिरपेक्षता' का आव्हान करता चला आ रहा है । ये बुद्धू-जीवी वर्ग अब अंतर्राष्ट्रीय कूटनीति में भी भारतवर्ष के खिलाफ 'उपयोगी बेवकूफ' (Useful Idiot) का किरदार बखूबी निभा रहा है ।

धर्मनिरपेक्षता - इस शब्द का जन्म पश्चिमी राजनीती और प्रजातन्त्रवादी विचारधारा के आंदोलन के अंतर्गत हुआ था । जब ईसाई धर्म यूरोप में अपनी चरम सीमा पर था और चर्च के निरंकुश शासन में अपने ही राज्य के लोगों का हनन करते हुए उन्हें एक अँधेरे भविष्य की तरफ धकेला जा रहा था , तब 18 वीं सदी में एक क्रन्तिकारी आंदोलन शुरू हुआ जिसका नाम था - "ज्ञान का दौर" (Age of Enlightenment) । इस आंदोलन के अंतर्गत चर्च (गिरिजाघर) के हनन और संपूर्ण एकाधिपत्य शासन से परेशान तत्कालीन यूरोप की जनता चर्च के खिलाफ सवाल उठाने लगी थी । इस आंदोलन ने पूरे तत्कालीन यूरोप की जनता को चर्च के परंपरागत सिद्धांतों और हठधर्मिता से अलग एक नया मार्ग दिखाया , जिसके अंतर्गत अनेक उदारवादी दार्शनिक और सामाजिक सोच पैदा हुए । इस नए दौर के क्रन्तिकारी दृष्टिकोण और आंदोलन के परिणाम स्वरुप चर्च को राज्य से अलग करने की ज़बरदस्त पुकार पूरे यूरोप में गूँज उठी । इस नई सोच और क्रांति के फलस्वरूप पैदा हुई नए दौर की शासन प्रणाली को हम आगे चल कर धर्मनिरपेक्षता के नाम से जानने लगे । तो ये था धर्मनिरपेक्षता का बहुत ही संक्षिप्त में ऐतिहासिक विवरण , जिसका सीधा-साधा मतलब होता है - चर्च का शासन से पृथक्करण ।

इस ऐतिहासिक विवरण को जानने के बाद ये समझना बहुत आसान हो जाता है कि आज के वर्तमान 'भारतीय' परिपेक्ष में धर्मनिरपेक्षता एक बहुत ही निराधार और असंगत संकल्पना है । ना तो कभी भारतवर्ष में किसी मंदिर, मस्जिद या गिरिजाघर का शासन था, ना है और ना ही आगे रहने की दूर-दूर तक कोई सम्भावना है । तो फिर सवाल ये उठता है कि धर्मनिरपेक्षता को लेकर इतना विचार-विमर्श और वार्तालाप क्यों?

रही बात बाकी भारी-भरकम शब्दावली की: उदारवाद, बहुलवाद, असहिष्णुता और राष्ट्रवाद ... तो इन सब अवधारणाओं (concepts) का जन्म भी 18 वीं शताब्दी के तत्कालीन यूरोप में "ज्ञान का दौर" (Age of Enlightenment) नामक आंदोलन के फलस्वरूप ही हुआ था । वो सामाजिक परिस्थिति जिसके अंतरगत ये क्रन्तिकारी आंदोलन शुरू हुआ, उसे समझने के लिए उस समय का इतिहास और ईसाई धर्म के अंतर्गत चर्च द्वारा हनन और 'धार्मिक कट्टरपंथी' से प्रेरित शासन प्रणाली को समझना बहुत जरूरी है । तभी हम इस निष्कर्ष पर पहुँच सकते हैं कि इन शब्दों और अवधारणाओं का पहले से ही 'अत्यधिक विकसित और उदारवादी' ढाई हज़ार साल पुरानी भारतीय सभ्यता की शासन प्रणाली के लिए कोई उपयोग नहीं है । यह कोई अतिशयोक्ति नहीं होगी यदि अंग्रेजी में कहा जाये कि ये शब्दावली एक "Old wine in new bottle" से बढ़कर हमारे लिए और कुछ नहीं है । इसको पूर्ण रूप से और सही परिपेक्ष में समझने के लिए हमें भारत का सही इतिहास भी पढ़ना पड़ेगा , जो दुर्भाग्य से हमारी शिक्षा प्रणाली में शामिल नहीं किया गया है । हमारे राजनेताओं और उनके बुद्धू-जीवी नौकरों ने इतिहास को भी एक 'धर्मनिरपेक्ष' रंग में रंग दिया - ये हमारे देश को धर्मनिरपेक्षता की एक और देन है, जो अपने आप में एक बहुत बड़ा और पेचीदा विषय है ।

'धर्मनिरपेक्षता' या 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्'

वैदिक सभ्यता का इतिहास देखें, तो भारतवर्ष (जो तत्कालीन अखण्ड-भारत के नाम से जाना जाता था) में 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' की संकल्पना की गयी है । ये संकल्पना आज के परिपेक्ष में धर्मनिरपेक्षता से कहीं ज़्यादा उपयोगी और प्रासंगिक है । आज तीन सौ साल पुरानी पश्चिमी सभ्यता हमें बहुसंस्कृतिवाद (Multiculturalism) और भूमंडलीकरण (Globalization) का ज्ञान देती है । जबकि देखा जाए तो 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' जो हमारी ढाई-हज़ार साल पुरानी संकल्पना है , वो 'धर्मनिरपेक्षता' के तीन सौ साल पुराने नकली सोच से कहीं ज़्यादा सम्मिलित और विकसित है । और यही हमारे भारतवर्ष के वर्तमान परिपेक्ष में भी शत-प्रतिशत लागू होती है, क्यूंकि इससे ज़्यादा बहुलवादी (Plularist) और उदारवादी (Liberal) संकल्पना का विश्व भर में कहीं भी उल्लेख नहीं है ।

हमारे कुछ राजनेताओं ने धर्मनिरपेक्षता को राजनीतिक छल-कपट से संवैधानिक मंज़ूरी देकर इस देश को हमेशा के लिए एक विवादात्मक चक्र में गिरफ्तार कर लिया है । लेकिन यदि व्यवहारिक और सामाजिक तौर पर हम 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' के विचार का पालन करें तो धर्मनिरपेक्षता की संवैधानिक सीमा से कहीं ज़्यादा उपलब्धि की सम्भावना है ।

हो सकता है कि राजनीती करने वाले नेतागण, जिनका राजनीतिक व्यवसाय पूर्ण रूप से धर्मनिरपेक्षता की नकली बुनियाद पर आधारित है , और हमारे 'उपयोगी बेवकूफ' बुद्धू-जीवी ; 'धर्मनिरपेक्षता' को ' सेक्युलर ' और 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' को 'सांप्रदायिक ' सोच के दायरे में भी परिभाषित करने की कोशशि करें ।

हमेशा की तरह , धर्म के ठेकेदार 'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' के विवरण को एक हिंदुत्ववादी वैदिक-दर्शन के संकीर्ण लेंस से दिखाने की कोशशि भी करेंगे लेकिन यदि हम इसे धर्म और संप्रदाय से ऊपर उठ कर समझनें की कोशशि करें तो शायद हम सब अपने आपको 'विविधता-में-एकता' के एक खूबसूरत मंच पर पाएंगे । इस देश का नागरिक अपने साथ हिन्दू-सिख, हिन्दू-सनातनी, हिन्दू-जैन, हिन्दू-बौद्ध , हिन्दू-मुस्लमान या हिन्दू-ईसाई की पहचान लेकर चलता है । हम इसे इतना खुले रूप से अपने सामाजिक जीवन में स्वीकार ना करें लेकिन आज भी जब हमारे देश के मुस्लमान या ईसाई नागरिक देश से बाहर जाते हैं तो उन्हें Indian-Muslim या Indian-Christian के दायरे में रखा जाता है । इसका अर्थ ये हुआ कि हम किसी भी धर्म या संप्रदाय का पालन करें , लेकिन उसके ऊपर भी हमारी एक पहचान है , और वो है मूल रूप से हमारा हिंदुस्तानी (Indian) या भारतीय होना । यूरोप में अक्सर इसे INDU के नाम से भी जाना जाता है ।

'वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्' : यही हमारी और भारतीय राष्ट्रवाद की असली परिभाषा है - बहुलवाद (Plularism), सहनशीलता (Tolerance), बहुसंस्कृतिवाद (Multiculturalism) , भूमंडलीकरण (Globalization) और 'विविधता में एकता' (Unity in Diversity) का एक खूबसूरत गुलदस्ता ।

The world is a family

One is a relative, the other stranger,
say the small minded.
The entire world is a family,
live the magnanimous.

Be detached,
be magnanimous,
lift up your mind, enjoy
the fruit of Brahmanic freedom.

—Maha Upanishad 6.71–75^[7]^[3]

Sugata Bose, The Rockstar of SLOB ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:06:00 +0000

Dr. Sugata Bose speech at Lok Sabha on 24-Feb-2016 was shared & liked by the SLOB (Secular Liberal Outrage Brigade) Intelligentsia, last month. Here is the link to that speech:

Sugata Bose speaks in LS on a discussion about the current situation in universities

I am quoting from FB & few other comments just to get the idea across as to how well it was received & admired by the SLOB crowd. (I am keeping these comments anonymous as I don’t want to drag names and people into this post making it personal)

FB Comment:

Everyone should be watching this speech rather than the chest thumping misleading rhetoric of Smriti Irani. Watch the grace with which mr Bose makes pertinent points. U need not shout to put across a point. Remember empty vessels always make more noise.

Another comment elsewhere:

This is how an educated person speaks.. can see the difference..

Yet another comment:

no theatrics but pure content which makes perfect sense ....but not to all.

One more, and this is The Best:

He still carries the legacy of Subhash Bose ..People like these are real hope for India.

So the Key-Words that actually blew the SLOBs away are are:

Grace, Composure, Educated Person, Subhash Bose lineage,

No Theatrics, Oxbridge style reading.

I was amazed at the complete bankruptcy of rationale and reasoning among the SLOB Bhadralok, who claim to be coming from ‘liberal’ ideas & ‘rational’ thought.

Bogus! Totally Bogus claim, I must say.

Neither are the SLOBs ‘Liberal’ nor ‘Rational’ from any stretch of imagination.

Read on to know why ...

***

From time immemorial, SLOB Intelligentsia in India has been a salve of ‘Oxbridge’ style oratory and presentation skills, irrespective of validity & authenticity of the Content and least important is the Intent.

Extempore oratory, with documentary evidence & data = “chest thumping misleading rhetoric”

Reading out well-crafted speech with Grace, decorated with Oxbridge English = Pertinent points, Pure Content.

This begs the Question: Where is the Reason & Rationale?
Someone with very basic education and an average common-sense would throw the above logic out of the window.

But then, for the SLOBs, the Slaves, key-words mean a lot more than anything else!

***

Let us take a quick look at Dr. Sugata Bose - his illustrious pedigree, lineage & background.

Great Nephew of Subhas Chandra Bose.

Grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose.

Son of 3-Time TMC MP from Jadavpur, Krishna Bose.

Member of Nalanda Mentor Group.

Chairman of the Presidency Mentor Group.

'Partner' of Ayesha Jalal (Pakistani / American):

Currently, AITC MP from Jadavpur constituency in 16th Lok Sabha.

PHEW! The man is indeed a Pedigree straight from a Legendary & illustrious Lineage one could only dream about.

Remember always, the Key-Words matter a lot to the SLOBs:

Lineage of Bose, Cambridge Degree, Oxford Author, Harvard Professor, Pakistani 'Partner', Mentor Group Member of Nalanda & Presidency, MP 16th Lok Sabha

All of this put together is one hell of a Rockstar Pedigree, perfectly fit case for a celestial position in the galaxy of LIBTARDS and LEFT-LIBERAL intellectuals that we now know as SLOBs.

***

'Partner' of Ayesha Jalal (Pakistani / American).

Disclosure: Below details are obtained from Wikipedia Pages and hence they are as valid as Wikipedia itself.

The wikipedia page of Mr. Sugata Bose says:

Bose's partner, Ayesha Jalal, teaches history at Tufts University.[4]

The wikipedia page of Ayesha Jalal says:

Ayesha Jalal (Punjabi, Urdu: عائشہ جلال‎) is a Pakistani-American historian. She is the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University and a 1998 MacArthur Fellow.

The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim identities in modern South Asia.

A leading historian of Pakistan as well as South Asia, Prof. Jalal has received numerous awards and acknowledgements including the Prize Fellowship from Trinity College (1980–84), the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1998-2003) and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, one of Pakistan's highest civilian awards, in 2009.

The Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Urdu: ستارۂ امتياز‎), also spelled as Sitara-e-Imtiaz (English: Star of Excellence), is the third highest honour and civilian award in the State of Pakistan. It recognizes individuals who have made an "especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of Pakistan, world peace, cultural or other significant public endeavors".[1]

Remember, some kind of Pakistan connection is very important to be in the league of extra-ordinary elite intelligentsia in India. This adds to the glamour, aura and the charm of Lineage, the gharana.

Some SLOBs are so ignorant that they might even object to this mention of the 'Partner' detail, arguing that personal life of Dr. Sugata Bose is none of our business. The ignorant SLOBs may like to know that when an elected Member of Parliament of India lives with a Pakistani 'Partner', I do have serious problems with it.

***

Let us now move over to the extended members of the Bose Family and look at what they have got to say and comment about the SLOB Rockstar, Dr. Sugata Bose.

Bose family opposed Sugata Bose

Prithvijit Mitra | TNN | Apr 7, 2014, 02.50 PM IST

“Around 50 members of the illustrious Bose family have closed ranks against the Harvard University professor, opposing him on the ground that his stance on declassification of the secret Netaji files is 'unprincipled'. The family members also believe that Bose has failed miserably as the secretary of the Netaji Research Bureau (NRB) in Kolkata that had been set up to conduct research on the great revolutionary and archive material on him. “

"It is unfortunate that a member of the family has joined politics after being nominated as a candidate, rather than to serve society. Sugata has been living and working abroad for the last 30 years and he hardly knows the Jadavpur area. He should have, at least, resigned from the post of the Presidency University mentor committee chairperson which he hasn't. Perhaps even more shockingly, he has termed the demand for declassification of Netaji files a "non-issue". As a family, we find that unpardonable. We will oppose Sugata politically," said Chandra Bose.

Members of the family have also taken exception to the frequent references to Netaji being made by Sugata Bose in the course of his election campaign. "He has been mentioning the names of Sarat Chandra Bose, Amiya Kumar Bose and other respected members of the family, apart from Netaji, when actually none of their descendants are supporting his candidature. What is even more disgusting is that he has been using the "Delhi chalo" slogan, which was coined by Netaji as a final call to overthrow the British. In this case, of course, he is echoing his party's call to capture political power in Delhi. It is sad that he is devaluing a historic slogan for political gain," said Bose.

***

In the 'landmark' transcript that he read out in Lok Sabha, he started off by saying that he has spent three & half decades teaching students. He also strongly advocates 'Freedom of Expression' by young students etc etc.

Well, let us now look at what the students of Presidency University have got to say about the Chair of Presidency Mentor Group.

Presidency students say ‘no’ to Sugata as head of mentor group

Kolkata | Updated: March 29, 2014 12:13 am

Around 1,208 students voted in favour of Bose’s resignation, while only 316 students said he could continue holding the post.

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha candidate professor Sugata Bose Friday lost a referendum held by students of the Presidency University on whether he should continue as chairperson of the elite institute’s mentor group after joining politics.

“He should resign now as the mandate of the students is clear. We do not want to bring politics into the management of the university and since he is now a political person he should resign,” Presidency’s Students’ Council vice-president Amardeep Singh said.

The mentor group was set up by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide recommendations and a roadmap to turn Presidency University into a pre-eminent institution of learning of international repute.

Nobel laureate professor Amartya Sen is acting as an advisor to the group.

Someone who sermonises on "Right to FoE" by 'Young Students' and condemns "onslaught of State forces on academic freedom" in typically Harvard style, it would be a shame if he still continues to sit there on the Board of Mentor Group, hiding behind legalities framed by his own Party.

By the way, did you notice he is in the august company of another luminary - Dr. Amartya Sen. At Nalanda as well as at Presidency - both are together in the Mentorship Roles.

***

He further reads out from the 'transcript' in Lok Sabha that in his Home State, West Bengal administration led by Mamata Banerjee "knew how to diffuse tension and to not unnecessarily escalate the crisis. It knew how not to over-react". And some more lofty statements, "We must give our students & youth freedom to think, the freedom to speak, the freedom to be idealistic, and Yes, the freedom to make mistakes, and learn from them." So Perfect, word by word!

Now the reality, the below news appeared just two days after the great speech and mesmerising words, shows how TMC the political party that he represents, treat their University students in their home state.

West Bengal: Clashes at Burdwan University after TMC workers hit demonstrating students including females

Fri, 26 Feb 2016-10:55pm

Students of Burdwan University were staging a demonstration, when Trinamool Congress workers’ union members allegedly barged into the university campus and started beating up students to disperse them. Members, sporting wooden sticks did not spare female students and they suffered serious injuries. Workers’ union members allegedly went on a rampage and ransacked the university campus.

So, while Dr. Sugata Bose comes to Delhi to read out a well-crafted transcript of his 'academic' speech, laced with long & lofty sermons at Lok Sabha, his AITC Party workers are busy demolishing the the very same ideals.

***

This is how an elite academician, after 35 years of teaching at Harvard & elsewhere, ‘Partner’ of a Pakistani National, acquires membership of a corrupt political party, gets elected from mother’s constituency quoting Bose pedigree (of which 50 family members are already dead against), Member of elite Mentor Group at Presidency & Nalanda University, stays put shamelessly inspite of losing the Student Referendum, reads out a well-prepared, well-rehearsed speech with Oxbridge Grace and Composure, and... totally blows away the SLOB Intelligentsia.

This couplet is for Dr. Sugata Bose, I am sure he would understand Urdu better than Hindi or Bangla:

कुछ अमल भी ज़रूरी है, इबादत के लिए,

सिर्फ सजदा करने से, किसी को जन्नत नहीं मिलती..

Anti-NaMo Elevator, straight to the TOP!

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 12:23:00 +0000

“Journalism should be practiced like a honey bee & not a housefly,

as houseflies sit on filth and spread it around.

And, journalists should be like bees, productive, but capable of retorting with a sting, when needed."

"Journalism should not spare people, who don’t think in the nation’s interest."

~ Narendra Modi

India's Government Is Becoming Increasingly Antiscience

Scientists join writers, artists and historians in protesting the Modi government’s growing interference in academic affairs

By Apoorva Mandavilli on February 3, 2016

First up, and as always, little bit about the author, only to get a 360 degree perspective. The bio on the website of Ms. APOORVA MANDAVILLI says, and I quote:

“I’m a science journalist. I write and edit articles on a wide range of topics, but I’m particularly drawn to infectious diseases, the brain, public health and policy.”

Going by her earlier writings across various on-line platforms and her own blog, I did not find ONE single “Political Commentary”. Yes, I actually scanned all the way until 2007, and NONE!

Therefore, going by the credentials of the author, drawn from her own Bio and Interests that revolve around infectious diseases, the brain, public health and policy, the author actually has nothing to do with Indian Politics.

In short, a Science Journalist makes a highly toxic Political Comment that ironically appears on a totally unrelated & irrelevant platform : SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, A DIVISION OF NATURE AMERICA, INC.

So, a ‘debut’ attempt at ‘political commentary’ and the easiest way of getting eyeballs and hits is to write some really nasty stuff on THE most popular world leader - Mr. Narendra Modi.

For the emigrant & highly aspirational Indian-origin Americans & Green Card holder, who are constantly knocking at the gates of elite American Academia, Mr. Narendra Modi as a 'Hindu' Prime Minister of India is easy fodder. Hence, with a scintillating performance in this piece under her belt, the author would now surely ‘arrive'. Bravo!

***

Coming to the article, the very first thing one would notice is the picture. Clearly the author must have done phenomenal research over the selection of 'most suitable' picture that must go into this article, as can be seen from the picture credits:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Photo by Al Jazeera English under Creative Commons

It is not that easy to select the most ‘toxic’ picture of India’s Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi from a huge huge archive of western press/media. Al Jazeera was obviously one of the best source.

Great job there indeed!

***

Now about the contents of the article, they are just ‘here-say’, or at best some loose inputs from ‘prime time’ English News - they have nothing to do with facts & data. However, the author in one of her responses, tweets as follows:

apoorva_nyc: actually the reporting for this was done in Hyderabad, India,

"ground reality" as it were. not in a posh office

04/02/16, 2:00 AM

Few quotes from the wonderfully researched article with 'ground reality' will be self-explanatory (emphasis mine):

The BJP and Modi, in particular, are aligned with the extremist right-wing group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS. (This unholy alliance is comparable to the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party, but the RSS is a paramilitary group with more violent overtones than the Tea Party has shown so far.) Together, the BJP and RSS promote the agenda of Hindutva, the notion that India is the homeland of Hindus and all others — the hundreds of millions of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others in this sprawling, secular democracy — are interlopers.

Despite his blatantly anti-secular stance, Modi’s stated goals for economic development are wildly popular, particularly among the country’s majority Hindus.

Vemula was a Dalit, a member of an oppressed caste in India.

I would not even attempt a rebuttal to these highly toxic "Hindu-phobic" remarks, which anyways are tossed around every single day as unguided missiles. It is just to bring out the fact that we have spotted yet another Indian-American as a 'rising star' in the crowded galaxy of ‘eminent intellectuals’.

***

Here is an account of ‘personal experience’ by an Indian Scientist, Kaneenika Sinha; an assistant professor in Mathematics at IISER Pune, who happened to personally meet the PM, Mr. Narendra Modi at one of the interactions, as part of a delegation comprising of 30 scientists across India.

I am only quoting some of the highlights here from this candid blog-post “A meeting with the Prime Minister”: (emphasis mine)

The PM wanted a discussion on the current state of Indian science and from what I understood in a smaller preparation meeting before we headed out to RCR, he had conveyed his eagerness to hear diverse viewpoints. The secretaries of the science ministries (mostly scientists themselves), therefore, were to play a moderating role and let the other invitees from the science community do most of the talking.

He also made some remarks about a disconnect between writing research papers and translating the research into technology. One of the examples he mentioned was why agricultural research has not addressed the problem of poor yield of pulses in India.

It was heartening to note his awareness of science challenges in the country and that his thoughts on science are not restricted to Ganesha and plastic surgery, as many journalists would have us believe.

Speaking personally, I came back with a strong feeling that this government perceives the science community as underperforming and wants it to produce more.

***

And then we get this junk of an article being pushed around in the name of 'ground reality':

India's Government Is Becoming Increasingly Antiscience - How ‘Unscientific’ research was that, Ms. Apoorva Mandavilli?

Conclusion: For an Indian-American, to get an entry into the ‘gated community’ of highly evangelic & anti-Indian ecosystem of American Academia, Mr. Narendra Modi has become the fastest and safest Elevator to the TOP!

Half-Colonel-Turned-Journo surmonises on Pathankot

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:35:00 +0000

Screenshot credit: Dr. Gaurav Pradhan

AWOL = Absent Without Official Leave.

The Wikipedia page has since been updated to "delete" AWOL and insert the adjective “Prominent” before Journalist, by none other than the "Half-Colonel-Turned-Journo" himself, as per the latest screenshot below:

This little introduction was needed just to establish & understand the true profile of Half-Colonel-Turned-Journo : Ajai Shukla.

***

We will be discussing the “expert opinions” of Ajai Shukla, published on two different media platforms as follows:

Why the Pathankot op has gone on for so long

Rediff.com Dated 5th Jan.

Inept handling by the National Security Advisor transformed what should have been a short counter-terrorist operation in Pathankot into an apparent debacle, argues Ajai Shukla.

AND

Ajai Shukla: Between Mr Doval and the deep blue sea

Business Standard Dated 4th Jan.

Inept handling has transformed what should have been a short counter-terrorist operation in Pathankot into an apparent debacle

Let us now look at the lies & distorted facts, passing as “expert opinion”.

I am not a "half-cooked" journo promoting myself as "prominent" to be able to offer "expert" rebuttals. Hence, my rebuttal with FACTS are simple quotes, borrowed from a TOI report dated 6th Jan, Planes left Pathankot air base after intelligence alert :

LIE # 1: "The army was placed on the side-lines."

FACT: "Responding to the criticism that the Army was not deployed, sources said Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag and IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha were involved in crafting the response as soon as the intelligence agencies cautioned that terrorists could be heading towards Pathankot air base."

"We flew the planes out while army personnel threw a cordon around ammunition and fuel dumps as well as radars and Air Traffic Control installations," said a source.

***

LIE # 2: "When the NSA met the army chief on Friday, he asked for only two columns of soldiers (some 50 troops)."

FACT: "Official sources said that 9 columns of Army were called in along with Gaurda commandos of IAF"

***

LIE # 3: "Intent on directly controlling what he anticipated would be a walk in the park, and without anticipating that there might be more than one group of terrorists, Doval led with his trump card -- he ordered 150-160 National Security Guard troopers to be flown down immediately from New Delhi."

FACT: "Two columns of NSG and Punjab Police were mobilized."

***

LIE # 4: The DSC, composed of retired military veterans well past their prime, can hardly repulse a well-equipped and motivated terrorist suicide squad.

My Comment: Colonel proves that he is indeed AWOL, as only such a shameless character can use defamatory description of the Brave DSC, as evident from the below tweet: (Emphsis mine)

@gauravcsawant: "Brave DSC Jawan used terrorists's rifle to kill him - snatching it during unarmed combat while cooking morning meal: Air Cmde Dhamoon"

03/01/16, 7:19 PM

***

Now that we have settled these LIES, here is the HIT-JOB: Both above columns conclude with the same parting shot and I am reproducing as it appeared, so that readers can judge for themselves:

If Mr Doval wishes to provide real options to his boss, he must stop dabbling in day-to-day intelligence operations

Get the picture now? the bottom line is loud & clear with these concluding remarks on both columns - A classic case of a “hit-job” journalism on National Security Advisor, Mr. Ajit Doval. Somehow, keep repeating the same across different columns - Get NSA out of the “Day-to-Day Intelligence Operations” - Why? Your guess is as good as mine!

***

Meanwhile, another article appeared, also on 5th January and on Rediff itself:

Doval's actions saved critical air assets in Pathankot

'Ajit Doval has done a splendid job in handling the Pathankot attack and certainly helped save heavy destruction of critical air force assets,' says Abhay Jere.

Ajai Shukla's column is another example of the pathological hatred within a section of armchair columnists towards Narendra Modi's establishment.

***

Ajai Shukla was not done yet with his dirty assignment, and went ahead with an interview published once again at REDIFF.Com on 6th Jan:

'The information we had was pure gold'

LIE # 5: 'You seldom get information of this kind several hours in advance, exactly where they are going to strike. But we still couldn't act on this intelligence.'

FACT: Quoting again from the same TOI report dated 6th Jan, Planes left Pathankot air base after intelligence alert:

Alerted by intelligence about the presence of the jihadis and their designs on Pathankot air base, the Centre got the IAF to remove its birds from the forward operating base at least 6 hours before the terrorists managed to breach the outer perimeter, disclosed sources.

Ajai Shukla conveniently forgot to mention this critical development, in his excitement to show Mr. Ajit Doval in poor light.

***

LIE # 6: 'What should have been done immediately upon receiving information about an impending terrorist attack is to secure the airbase, which means putting a large number of people at various pickets all around the airbase.'

FACT: "We flew the planes out while army personnel threw a cordon around ammunition and fuel dumps as well as radars and Air Traffic Control installations," said a source.

My Comment: The expert did not know the facts it seems. Neither he bothered to check with his crony journalists on the actual ground situation and turn of events.

***

LIE # 7: Here comes the worst LIE, in the form of brazen Insult and Defamation of National Security Advisor: (Emphasis mine)

"It is quite obvious because he (NSA) wanted the credit for himself. And this is how Ajit Doval functions. He is a credit-seeker."

Q: Seeking credit at the cost of national security?"

Exactly. At the cost of national security, people seek credit all the time. It is the prime area where people seek credit."

FACT: Quoting again from the same TOI report dated 6th Jan, Planes left Pathankot air base after intelligence alert:

Mr. Ajit Doval says: “In that respect, as a counter-terrorism response, it is a highly successful operation for which our Army, Air Force, NSG and Police, which played a vital role, need to be complimented."

***

This LIE # 7 is the most befitting remark representing the current period we call as Kalyug. Here is a random guy, neither a Colonel nor a Journalist, with questionable past, promotes himself as a “Prominent” Journalist, Lives off 'recommendations' and 'Political' appointments; has the audacity to pass a derogatory comment on the true “Son-of-the-Soil", who has spent his entire working-life serving the country, leading from the front, mostly incognito. Kalyug! घोर कलयुग !!

What a shame indeed !

I would urge all the Twitter & Facebook followers of Ajai Shukla to step back, think beyond politics and reflect on this dirty episode.

***

Finally, someone loaded with guilt & filth takes an otherwise innocent tweet very personally and jumps in to react:

@abhijitmajumder: Journalists working for powerful arms lobbies were denied access by Doval. So, they want to fix him. Even Anthony had kept them at bay

06/01/16, 11:34 PM

@ajaishukla: Modibhakt tactics: Don't answer arguments that show you in poor light. Just fabricate lies to smear the journalist!! https://t.co/OqA0GlOiBM

07/01/16, 12:59 PM

@abhijitmajumder: Interesting that you are responding to this https://t.co/mXiAyesmaC

07/01/16, 1:03 PM

Q.E.D.

***

One last thing: This is the typical characteristic of cowards like Ajai Shukla, that of hiding behind the “victim” card after their hit-job is exposed:

@ajaishukla: A measure of insecure the NSA is. After my article on his Pathankot bungling https://t.co/hCnefVeZci Doval's bhakts r smearing me on Twitter

07/01/16, 1:07 PM

***

Defending Mr. Ajit Doval & his patriotic intentions would be an insult to the very idea of India. It would suffice to quote Shri S. Gurumurthy, who describes Mr. Ajit Doval as follows:

He is in the category of Shivaji and Bhagat Singh in living form..I know him and so I say this

People like Mr. Ajit Doval do not need your certificates or awards or credits, Ajai Shukla.

You will need to take 100 re-births before you could even qualify to polish his shoes.

That, is where people like you belong !!

***

Bajirao Mastani

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 10:01:00 +0000

I don’t really review movies on this blog but I decide to give a chance to this one for a reason. Read on …

***

Not considering Bahubali as a Bollywood product, this one comes out as a fine Epic / Period film from Bollywood after a long time.

Story-line, its a love story, aggressively nuanced, laced with emotions & high drama, beautifully wrapped around the complexities of family relationships, society and above all, religion. Not an easy subject to deal with, respecting the sensibilities of family, social norms, religious beliefs and values.

Well, what I particularly liked about the story-line is a very strong sense of morality & commitment shown in the character of Bajirao (played by Ranveer Singh) - Yes, even if it is a triangular love story where happily married Bajirao falls in love with another girl - Mastani (played by Dipika Padukone). There is absolutely no sense of “cheating” in the character of Bajirao.

When Bollywood dishes out substandard stories showcasing “messed-up” relationships, film after film, built on lowest levels of trust & morals, devoid of content and only Masala, this one comes out to be a breeze of fresh air.

One single dialogue captures the essence:

मैंने मस्तानी से मोहब्बत की है , अय्याशी नहीं

Just to clear the point here, I am not justifying the extra-marital relationship of Bajirao - not even remotely. I am only dealing with the subject of how he handles and treats the issue, with simply being honest & truthful about it. That, is a big take away from the strong character of Bajirao.

Men who cheat with complete disregard to the womanhood, running around like rabbits and messing up relationships, Bajirao shows them the character of a Man:

One, he never initiated this extra-marital relationship, even though as a warrior, he might have been impressed with Mastani's extra-ordinary courage, patriotism and fighting skills.

Two, he makes abundantly clear to Mastani the future of their relationship and that he can never provide her the place of his Wife, well before he commits himself into it.

Three, he is totally open and honest about it, that includes his wife Kashibai (played by Priyanka Chopra), Mother, Society, Religious heads of his estate etc.

***

Next up, when the lines between Utsav and Mehfil have blurred in the society, it was nice to see Bajirao stand up and not let Mastani dance for the entertainment of men-folk at the Mehfil, while everyone had enjoyed her dance performance the other day on another occasion. Upon being questioned, he clarifies: "वो उत्सव था , ये महफ़िल है"; meaning that was a festive joyous celebration (Utsav) while this an entertainment of the gathered men-folk (Mehfil).

Clearly defining the difference between the two - Utsav & Mehfil, was another strong yet symbolic message.

***

I am not a qualified & experienced film critic so it would not be fair on my part to comment on the technical aspects of film-making of Bajirao Mastani, but I guess a good director is recognized when he gets the actor into the role & character. Just about all the actors have done very well in this department.
One person who needs special mention here, who has actually evolved as an actor and "Arrived" is Ranveer Singh - his Maratha style dialogue delivery - very nuanced, not over done at all, perfect diction, eye movements, facial expressions - he lives like a real Bajirao all through the movie.

Ranveer, the Boy turns into a Man in Bajirao Mastani.

***

Apart from the basic plot, story-line and a line up of celebrity star-cast, Music literally defines the Bollywood movie. Music of Bajirao Mastani does an excellent justice to it. Maratha folk and real Indian instruments such as Dholak, Shehnai, Ghungroo, Tabla, Dhols, Harmonium, Santoor etc. build the foundation of almost all the numbers. It was nice to hear real instruments and not just artificial sounds from synthesizers and mixers.
First thing that hits you is a very strong orchestral Indian music, without playing around with the synthetic digital mixing, quite unlike the norm these days.
Secondly, it's not typical Bollywood "dhin-chak". Maratha folk based semi-classical compositions with Qawwali interludes at times, help build the aura around the grandeur and spirit of the period and geography of the story-line. Job very well done indeed!

My favorites are: Malhari (for the sheer raw energy and pace of this high-octane victory number - Ranveer does a fabulous job) & Mohe Rang Do Lal.

I leave you with this Malhari song - Enjoy!

"The Hindu" does it again ...

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 12:41:00 +0000

National | New Delhi,
Updated: September 26, 2015 00:41 IST

This is a national English newspaper that is considered one of the 'most respected' English Daily. It enjoys a very loyal and a sincere subscription, that follows it every single day, along with a cup of hot coffee. Loyal readers of The Hindu swear by it, follow it verbatim, some even consider it a part of their preparation towards writing the Civil Services exam - IAS.

The fact is, this newspaper routinely publishes 'trash' and has misguided, belittled and fooled its readers, over all these years.

Today, it does it again, and with brazenness!

The headlines goes like this:

Modi accused of flouting flag code

National Bureau

Mr. Modi signed on the tricolour for chef Vikas Khanna who said he would gift it to the U.S. President. File photo

The caption under the pic clearly states "Mr. Modi signed on the tricolour".

The story opens with a bang, accusing the Prime Minister signing the Indian Flag:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked up a controversy after he autographed the Indian flag in New York

The whole story, spread over two columns, goes on and on, woven around legalities & acts, according to which one shall be:

"punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both".

Further, living up to its commitment to have always served the interests of the 'Dynasty' & 'Congress', almost as a part of solemn duty, inserts the statement issued by Congress spokesperson.

At the very end of the story, just as a casual rejoinder, it briefly mentions:

Late in the evening, the Director General of the Press Information Bureau, Frank Noronha, tweeted that the Prime Minister did not sign on the national flag.

Those who followed the story elsewhere on other newspapers must have read a more balanced version, with due clarification on what actually transpired.

FACT: Prime Minister Mr. Modi never actually signed the Tricolour. This newspaper knew exactly what had happened and yet they run the story with an intent to convey to its readers the contrary.

This post is not to clarify or counter the story, but once again, only to bring to the knowledge of all those sincere readers & followers of this newspaper, the sinister designs and the hidden slant that runs across its contents.

Sanjiv Bhatt – Sepoy or Decoy?

noreply@blogger.com (Soul Sixty6) — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 09:33:00 +0000

Mr. Sanjiv Bhatt, Picture: The Hindu

Last week, National Newspapers covered the news report about sacking of an IPS officer from Gujarat, Mr. Sanjiv Bhatt. I noticed that a very important part of Sanjiv Bhatt's 'life-event' was completely avoided from being mentioned in these news reports, A very relevant detail to the overall scheme of things – but that would change the whole perception of the 'news' then. Obviously this was done with a very clear & firm intent by the Mainstream Media – it is impossible for this to be a simple casual co-incident.

***

Before we go on to talk about the missing detail & much more, a brief look at these news reports from some of the leading national newspapers:

Economic Times: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt sacked on the ground of "unauthorised absence" from service

A 1988-batch IPS officer, Bhatt had filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court, claiming that he had attended a meeting at Modi's residence in Gandhinagar on February 27, 2002, during which the Chief Minister had instructed the top police officers to allow the Hindus "to vent out their anger" after the train-burning incident at Godhra earlier that month.”

The Hindu: Gujarat IPS officer who took on Modi after 2002 riots dismissed

In April 2011, Mr. Bhatt filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court accusing Mr. Modi of “complicity in the 2002 riots” in which over 1,200 people, mostly from the minority community, were massacred.

The 1988 batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, Mr. Bhatt was suspended by the Gujarat government after he filed an explosive affidavit in the Supreme Court contending that he “had attended the meeting held by the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr. Modi who had asked the top police officials to let Hindus vent out their anger against the minority community following the attack on the Sabarmati Express in which 59 Hindus were torched to death near the Godhra railway station.”

Times Of India: Suspended Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt sacked

He had alleged in an affidavit in the Supreme Court that Narendra Modi, then the chief minister, instructed the top police officers to allow the Hindus "to vent out their anger" after the train-burning incident at Godhra in February 2002.

We can clearly see a pattern emerging here. While all reports categorically explain the background in great detail and drive home an obvious 'motive' behind the sacking, they have intentionally concealed the very important fact that Mrs. Shweta Bhatt, wife of Mr. Sanjiv Bhatt, had contested Gujarat assembly elections on Congress ticket, directly against Mr. Narendra Modi in 2012.

This is a classic case of what I call: “Spin-Craft” or “Supari-Journalism” - discussed in detail in another post titled Of Distortians, Intellectuals and Spin-Doctors

***

Within a very short span of just four years (2011-2015), Mainstream media made a National Hero out of Sanjiv Bhatt, showcasing him as whistle-blower gone down fighting the Fascist Communal Hindu Nationalist leader of a Hindu majority national party of India (well, this is how the 'sickular' Indian media and the 'communist-evangelical' western media likes to define the democratically elected current Prime Minister of India).

Riding on top of this media frenzy, coupled with a very smart handling of Social Media platform, powered by the 'NGO-Media' nexus; earned him 50,000 plus followers on Facebook and 16,000 plus Followers on Twitter as of today – not bad at all, eh?

For someone to show up from nowhere in 2011 and gain 'national martyrdom' in 2015.

This can happen only in India!

So, who is Sanjiv Bhatt? Let me not get too personal talking about the individual, but I share these links here for the benefit of readers, in case they wish to know more about the Man.

8 Things You Need To Know About The Sacked IPS Officer Who Locked Horns With Modi

TRUTH: Finding it amongst the Lies: Sanjiv Bhatt PPT

***

Now that we know the person and his full background, let us get back to analyze the fine work Sanjiv Bhatt has put together, for which he has been awarded this 'larger than life' National Hero status.

Mr Sanjiv Bhatt suddenly woke one fine morning in 2011 to do something worthwhile for his country and decided to file an affidavit before the Supreme Court. This sudden awakening of “Desh Seva”, almost nine years after the Gujarat communal riots, does not go down very well, to begin with.

IPS Bhatt lobbied with anti-Modi groups | Picture: Jagran.com

While still in the Services as a senior IPS officer, he spent some 'quality time' to connect with the state-level leaders of the opposition - Congress party, (exchanging some 'packages', accepting high-end Blackberry mobile phones); networked with top gun NGOs (such as Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi of ‘Anhad’ and Father Sedrick Prakash of ‘Prashant) and the Media (Such as Manoj Mitta of Times of India). These people were still enjoying the 'fruits of communal riots of 2002' and milking the ever flourishing 'anti-Modi industry' at that time. They all joined together for the 'common cause' and helped him draft a legal affidavit which he files at Supreme Court of India on 15th April, 2011.

Two years later, On 30^th April 2013, SIT appointed by none other than Supreme Court, gave its verdict stating that Sanjiv Bhatt did not attend Modi's Feb 2002 meeting.

SIT also uncovered the Trail of e-mails that exposed Bhatt’s complicity with Congress, Teesta and anti-Modi groups .

SIT report went a step further stated that Congress, Teesta Setalvad, Sanjiv Bhatt & Times of India colluded against Narendra Modi

For any law-abiding self-respecting person, legally demolished claims and such indictment should be the end of road, no? Wrong. The new age 'krantikari' & 'secular' activists of independent India find better ways to fight for their rights.

***


Shweta Bhatt and suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhat

One year after filing the 'explosive' affidavit at Supreme Court, enters Mrs. Shweta Bhatt. Sanjiv Bhatt fields his wife Mrs. Shweta Bhatt into electoral politics of 2012 Gujarat assembly elections. The battle ground is also set by the Congress – Ground Zero is Maninagar constituency of Ahmedabad, against NaMo.

***

A confession: Sanjiv Bhatt would have been my Hero as well, provided his wife had contested as an INDEPENDENT candidate from Maninagar against NaMo, surely not on behalf of Congress.

***

NDTV, The Congress mouth piece, was ecstatic:

Gujarat polls: Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt's wife to contest against Narendra Modi, files nomination papers

Maninagar (Gujarat): In a red cotton sari, her husband and suspended cop Sanjiv Bhatt by her side, newcomer Shweta Bhatt filed nomination papers today as the Congress' candidate from Maninagar in Ahmedabad and instantly found the spotlight on her. She is contesting elections against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

While some other media reports observed Congress puts up meek fight against Modi with Shweta Bhatt's candidature:

"This shows the Congress failed to find a single leader who can contest the election against Modi. The Congress is taking Gujaratis for granted," a senior editor of a Gujarati daily newspaper told Rediff.com

***

Madhu Kishwar in MODINAMA 6 says and I quote:

“Instead of succeeding in getting Modi implicated, Sanjiv Bhatt ended up being seriously indicted by the SIT for his mischief.”
...
“But since the media either ignored the SIT report or joined Teesta Setalvad in attacking SIT and continued repeating the same old hackneyed charges against Modi even after he was cleared by the SIT report, Bhatt continued being treated as a hero who had taken on the “Hitlerian tyrant” Modi.
...
Congress rewarded Sanjiv Bhatt’s wife Shweta Bhatt with a Congress ticket to fight the 2012 election against Narendra Modi. Shweta Bhatt’s campaign was run by a colourful coalition that included Shabnam Hashmi’s Anhad, Teesta Setalvad’s CJP, Togadia’s VHP, Vinay Katyar’s Bajrang Dal and elements of the RSS!

***

As expected, Sanjiv Bhatt abuses the Services “code of conduct” triggering yet another controversy as "Sanjiv Bhatt canvassing for wife against law”

In a letter written to the Election Commission of India, Government of India, and Chief Secretary, Gujarat, Dr. Thakur said, "the acts of the Bhatts prima facie seem to be clear cut violation of Section 123 (7) (a) and 123 (7) (d) of the Representation of People Act, 1951."

" Under these laws, a gazetted officer or a police officer making any assistance (other than giving vote) for the furtherance of the prospects of the candidate's election are defined under "corrupt practices"."

"Sanjeev accompanied his wife all through the nomination and has been seen openly canvassing for her. A distinction must be maintained between the conduct of officers and politicians," Dr Thakur told The Hindu, adding that Section 129 (2) of the same Act declared assistance by a police officer punishable upto six months imprisonment.

***

But the Fans of Sanjiv Bhatt, or may I use their own term – Bhatt Bhakts - don’t have a problem with all this and they refuse to accept the Facts. Quoting from a Blog that routinely celebrates Sanjiv Bhatt:

I don't know about Congress's methods in giving tickets, but if they choose to give a ticket to Sanjiv's wife, so be it. His wife – by supporting the gang of thugs known as Congress – has lost my support, but does that mean Sanjiv's testimony as a professional is contaminated? NO.

Oh yes, by all means YES. Sanjiv Bhatt's testimony, credibility & reputation as a professional; is not just 'contaminated' but becomes suspect of malice, and goes for a huge toss with this Congress ticket. It is a pity that YOU fail to recognize and see it that way. On the contrary, you even go to the extent of re-writing the Services “Code of Conduct” rules just so to accommodate and validate your Hero.

***

Then comes the historic 2012 Gujarat assembly poll results declaring:

Modi Roars Back to Victory

After losing to Modi, Shweta Bhatt said, "Gujarat deserves Modi and that that's why they have voted for him...It doesn't shock me. It hurts that the people of Gujarat cannot see the hidden truth,"

Let us read it once again: “It hurts that the people of Gujarat cannot see the hidden truth”! Wow, you are 'legally demolished' & 'democratically defeated', still you put the blame on people for not being able to see the 'hidden truth'. This is the level of arrogance and utter contempt you have towards the highest offices of judiciary and the democratic processes.

Anyway, NaMo records a landslide victory for the third time in a row from Maninagar constituency with a record margin of 86373 Votes.

In this interesting observation, Shweta`s plan shows Sanjiv Bhatt`s fight was political: BJP,

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said: "Congress is exposed thoroughly today. In the last 10 years, they carried out a hate campaign...They defamed Gujarat to the hilt. And Sanjiv Bhatt became a major pawn in the hands of Congress.”

Also, as Paresh Rawal had rightly commented : Modi too would lose election if he contests on Congress’ ticket

So, this was nothing more than political game-plan, full of cheap & dirty tricks all the way, that eventually backfired. Sanjiv Bhatt just played out his role assigned to him by his masters - Indian National Congress.

***

So, here is the summary on an IPS officer who:

has a chequered track record,
hobnobs with Congress leaders, sham NGOs and corrupt Media,
files a bogus affidavit in Supreme Court, nine years after the incident,
SIT investigation rejects the affidavit,
indicted by SIT for the mischief,
fields his wife on a Congress ticket against NaMo,
wife loses assembly polls,
Continues to stay in public-eye through smart SN and corrupt MSM.

Whistle-blowers and Honest officers while on-duty DO NOT collude with political parties.

Just before publishing this post, read another story: The lesson from Sanjiv Bhatt’s dismissal: there’s nobody to protect whistle-blowing civil servants by Harsh Mander.

It is curious that we find the same old names in circulation, members from the 'gang of extraordinary Fake-tivists', drumming up support for each other.

Careless Whispers ...

On The Edge: A Self-Drive Adventure Through Spiti

Personal Preparation

Vehicle Preparation

Ground Clearance or FWD?

Vehicle Service

Tools and Vehicle Maintenance Kit

Self Driving through Spiti Valley

Chandra Taal (Moon Lake), Spiti Valley (elev. 4,300 m or 14,100 ft)

Tyre Pressure:

Laden Weight:

Fuel Management:

The Morning Drill:

Hum-Int (Human Intelligence)

The Final Analysis

The Drift of Headlines & Hashtags

#Election2024: Modi’s Contempt For Environment …

First, the Headlines:

Colonial Sepoy

'Salma' gets quoted by ‘Sabrina’

Data first, Narrative Later

Char Dham Yatra Route: Article calls it Himalayan trouble

Plagiarised Article

Chauragarh, Chhota Mahadev

Introduction

Topography & Elevation

Steps towards Chauragarh

The Trek

Helpful Tips

Basic Do’s & Don’ts

Personal Trivia

In the line of duty

QUOTE

UNQUOTE

Down Memory Lane: Satpura National Park

Ideological Subversion

Story of Satpura

Finding Indic-ism

Why are we so obsessed with GDP?

First, the bigger demon of the two - DeMonetisation (DeMo).

Follow-up actions post-DeMo.

Next up: Operation Clean Money II - Portal ( https://www.cleanmoney.gov.in ) was formally launched on 16-May-2017.

Result:

Now, over to GDP.

Lib-Tards and their sense of Politics

THEY Demonized Demonetisation

Pradhan Mantri MUDRA

(Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Yojana

War on Black Money : An Interview with S.Gurumurthy (Economist)

Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova, chief executive officer of the World Bank, in an interview with Hindustan Times in New Delhi, on March 1, 2017.

मोदी ने तैयारी नहीं की, ये आलोचना का विषय है .. और मोदी ने तैयारी करने नहीं दी, ये सारी समस्या की जड़ है ... !

'Coconut' Class of Sixty-Nine

Review of UDTA PUNJAB

Drugs Di Maa Di

100,000 KMs on Tata Aria ...

Indian Liberals - Comrades in new Avatar ...

भूमंडलीकरण (Globalisation) और उसके तत्व ...

The best way to permanently enslave a people is to replace their memories, their mythologies, their idioms

Globalisation ~ Elephant in the room!

Diversity, not Uniformity, is the Idea of India.

Computer chips, YES! Potato chips, No!!

धर्मनिरपेक्ष समाज और नागरिक संहिता

"मज़हबी बहस मैं ने की ही नहीं फ़ालतू अक़्ल मुझ में थी ही नहीं

फीकी है हर चुनरी, फीका हर बन्धेज.. जो रंगता हैं रूह को, वो असली रंगरेज़

The Arrogant Faketivists ...

Find something better and more interesting next time! Till then, Adios!!

धर्मनिरपेक्षता और राष्ट्रवाद ...

Sugata Bose, The Rockstar of SLOB ...

'Partner' of Ayesha Jalal (Pakistani / American).

Anti-NaMo Elevator, straight to the TOP!

Half-Colonel-Turned-Journo surmonises on Pathankot

Q.E.D.

He is in the category of Shivaji and Bhagat Singh in living form..I know him and so I say this

Bajirao Mastani

"The Hindu" does it again ...

National Bureau

Sanjiv Bhatt – Sepoy or Decoy?

मोदी ने तैयारी नहीं की, ये आलोचना का विषय है ..

और

मोदी ने तैयारी करने नहीं दी, ये सारी समस्या की जड़ है ... !

The best way to permanently enslave a people is

to replace their memories, their mythologies, their idioms

"मज़हबी बहस मैं ने की ही नहीं

फ़ालतू अक़्ल मुझ में थी ही नहीं

फीकी है हर चुनरी, फीका हर बन्धेज..

जो रंगता हैं रूह को, वो असली रंगरेज़